1. Losing Our Spines to Save Our Necks

Comment #177426 by sheepscarer on May 9, 2008 at 4:46 am

Thanks for the link Goldy - this phrase caught my eye -

Dr. Kawecki says it is worth investigating whether humans also pay hidden costs for extreme learning. "We could speculate that some diseases are a byproduct of intelligence," he said.

We all know what this disease is.

2. Losing Our Spines to Save Our Necks

Comment #176769 by sheepscarer on May 8, 2008 at 1:56 am

This is a rationalists' worst nightmare - the dead eyes and distorted minds of the believer rejoicing as sacred fires are lit to cleanse the world forever. It begins with burning books.

It's a sad irony that the evolutionary quantum leap in the development of consciousness that has made us such a successful species is probably going to get us all killed.

3. Richard Dawkins' secular army must be stopped. God is behind some of our greatest art

Comment #160530 by sheepscarer on April 14, 2008 at 7:25 am

Religion has deprived us of insights into the real lives of people living centuries ago. I'm always extremely disappointed and bored by the lurid Christian images hanging in most art galleries. In the absense of medieval photography we might expect some incredible revealing images from these times via talented painters. Unfortunately we get variations on a fantasy theme. What a waste of paint.

4. The books that inspire me

Comment #158952 by sheepscarer on April 11, 2008 at 8:22 am

Interesting j.mills - I'll give your recommendation a go. Another interesting book with Hitler as its central theme is 'Making History' by Stephen Fry - unusually for him a science fiction book about travelling back in time to prevent Hitler's rise to power and without giving too much away in case you want to read it, resulting in unexpected consequences.
Sargeist - you're right about CS Lewis and the barely hidden agenda but I reckon most children reading these fantasies don't get the religious connection.

5. The books that inspire me

Comment #158019 by sheepscarer on April 10, 2008 at 1:43 am

I agree with the comment about Waugh's flawed character but this should not detract from the body of work. As a teenager I loved HG Wells' short science fiction stories and was alarmed to read of his eugenics background, however this does not alter the fact that the stories are hugely enjoyable. It does raise an interesting point though - do we censor the art because the artist is a monster? If Hitler had written a great literary novel, would it be lauded as such?

6. Happy Birthday, Richard Dawkins!

Comment #149902 by sheepscarer on March 26, 2008 at 10:24 am

Happy Birthday Professor Dawkins

That's 67 in human years but countless millions in your unbroken link to replicant startup.

7. Discussion on PZ Myers being expelled from Expelled

Comment #148148 by sheepscarer on March 22, 2008 at 7:35 am

Sent2null's comments about the 'lack of faith' in their own faith are spot on. It's this compartmentalisation of the thinking process that I find so difficult to understand. It seems that their all-seeing and all-knowing superbeings need a little sleight of mind when confonted with uncomfortable truths.

8. The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing

Comment #145940 by sheepscarer on March 18, 2008 at 11:03 am

Well I'm just pleased that Matt Ridley is represented - thanks Sargeist.

How much more tantalising and exciting to read about real discovery rather than the theological nonsense that wastes so much paper (and lives).

9. The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing

Comment #144464 by sheepscarer on March 16, 2008 at 6:16 am

Surprised not to see Matt Ridley on the list - The Red Queen and Genome - absolute classics.

10. The Giant Tortoise's Tale

Comment #137157 by sheepscarer on March 2, 2008 at 12:42 pm

Not sure about trusting the BBC to make such a series (The Ancestor's Tale)- it's generally dumbed down its science documentaries in the last few years - witness what has happened to Horizon with its ridiculous camera geewizardry and 5 second attention span soundbites combined with tending to deal with 'human stories'. The best place for this is Radio 4 still the only thing that can justify the licence fee. BBC television, I'm disappointed to say has fallen way behind even the commercial TV stations where science education is concerned.

11. Archbishop of Canterbury Praises Richard Dawkins

Comment #104649 by sheepscarer on December 29, 2007 at 4:18 am

Rowan Williams: woolly eyebrows - woolly thinking

12. 2 fleas for the Christmas week

Comment #103542 by sheepscarer on December 26, 2007 at 7:11 am

As an old-timer on this site and in the spirit of Christmas I nearly allowed myself grant a little leeway to theists new to this site and unaware of the tired nonsense that has been dealt with soooooo many times. But the pain is too great to bear.

That's an inherent problem with this site - of course as rationalists we expect rational arguments but our very rationality tells us this is extremely unlikely given the opposing positions. It reminds me of The Three Minute Argument in Monty Python - it's unwinnable given the opposition and the definition of an argument.

I'm still waiting for the kind of miracle which will satisfy us all: fossil evidence of human footprints in coal seams, an example of irreducible complexity in the natural world, a statue in Trafalgar Square weeping blood in front of the scientific community (not some turniptop in remotest Braindonia) or maybe I'd settle for religions spreading love and peace around the world by their own example and actions....no need to hold our breath

13. Interview with Richard Dawkins: On Christmas

Comment #101157 by sheepscarer on December 20, 2007 at 2:51 am

I agree with flying goose:

I celebrate Christmas because it's an excuse for good company and good food.

I also celebrate Bonfire Night but I don't necessarily agree with barbecuing catholics.

I used to enjoy Halloween (before becoming hijacked with trick or treaters)without ever believing in ghosts and ghouls.

- I'm hoping for a good quality laminator from Santa - my effort in raising consciousness albeit small and local will be to leave small signs and messages in public places asking people to think for themselves. I believe the best weapon against belief is to show widespread disbelief. The time for respecting nonsense is over. Some of the one-liners used by posters on this site will make great headlines. Merry Christmas everyone

14. This deadly religious resistance to vaccinations

Comment #97476 by sheepscarer on December 12, 2007 at 6:52 am

This is the same Melanie Phillips who pipes up with cringe-making drivel in BBC's radio discussion Moral Maze every week. There are good panellists on this programme and I'm amazed that the BBC can't find someone else like of higher calibre like Ant and Dec or Jade Goody?

15. Atheists' sign sparks controversy

Comment #97467 by sheepscarer on December 12, 2007 at 6:27 am

Always that undercurrent of violence with the gullible having their story books torn up.

In my local paper this week there was a letter complaining about the over-commercialisation of christmas and the lack of reverence for the birthday boy. This letter finished with a warning that only the true believers would escape everlasting suffering. So here we have it, the true christian message of loving and giving - believe,worship and love me or my dad will give you pain forever - Merry Christmas everybody....

16. Bad Faith Awards: Vote for the winner now

Comment #94709 by sheepscarer on December 6, 2007 at 10:02 am

What about Rowan Williams - archbishop of Canterbury - his gentle, softly-spoken superstition is just as insidious and appeals to the gullible middle-England masses.

Woolly eyebrows - woolly mind.

17. Chimps beat humans in memory test

Comment #93770 by sheepscarer on December 4, 2007 at 7:29 am

We chimps are more advanced than you think but there are problems with certain sections determined to undermine our rationality with superstition and belief in a great ape in the sky. Extreme forms of this are calling for the death of the pope for taking the primate name in vain and 40 lashes for that schoolteacher in Sudan for blaspheming with her surname...
Monkey see monkey do

18. Christopher Hitchens and Bill Donohue on Mother Teresa

Comment #66692 by sheepscarer on August 31, 2007 at 2:11 am

Let's not forget that those that do good for religious purposes are in it for themselves - to receive salvation in the afterlife.

The definition of altruism is to benefit another at the cost to oneself. Mother Teresa et al are hoping to receive the ultimate benefit from their all-seeing god (who for some strange reason turns a blind eye to this selfish motive).

Some may argue that at least the side-effect of all this selfish do-gooding is a better world but give me the real world with untainted selflessness.

19. Researchers find fossils of 10-million-year old ape

Comment #65139 by sheepscarer on August 23, 2007 at 2:15 am

It's also great because it's another advance in a real-life detective story - it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand out when science gives me a glimpse of the ancient past like this. No fairy story can ever have the same effect.

20. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #63956 by sheepscarer on August 17, 2007 at 2:39 am

Darwin2

You believe in evolution totally!?

Why then has it not registered with you that it is a contingent theory with no ultimate concern with a progress towards Homo sapiens? It's mindless and pitiless and has 'created' a loving world in which most animals end up being eaten alive by parasites or predators. Importantly it does not need a superbeing to set it in motion. This is the whole point of Darwin's dangerous idea - it explains the whole diversity and complexity of life without recourse to a superstition that arrogantly assumes a pinnacle for humans.

If you haven't grasped that you've understood nothing. Grasping at straws is a phrase that springs to mind.

21. All the mistakes of the godly are merely metaphor

Comment #57919 by sheepscarer on July 22, 2007 at 9:57 am

Yes you are quite correct (B T Mutagh) it should have been six impossible things!

In the spirit of Lewis Carroll's fondness for a paradox how about the classic:

God is so powerful he can make a rock so heavy even he can't lift it.

Should just fit on a t-shirt.

Also somebody in an earlier thread said something about the new creation museum in America - something along the lines of being the only museum in the world where you come out more ignorant than when you went in. That's a definite for a t-shirt if you live in the States.

22. All the mistakes of the godly are merely metaphor

Comment #57779 by sheepscarer on July 21, 2007 at 1:50 am

More T-shirt slogans:

There's a LIE in beLIEf

And man created god in his own image

Religion washes all brains whiter than white

(front of T-shirt)
3 impossible things to believe before breakfast
(back of T-shirt)
Santa Claus, tooth-fairy, god

23. All the mistakes of the godly are merely metaphor

Comment #57612 by sheepscarer on July 20, 2007 at 7:39 am

Yes that reminds me of the comment by the late great Linda Smith: 'If god really wanted us to believe in him ......well, he'd exist.'

24. All the mistakes of the godly are merely metaphor

Comment #57584 by sheepscarer on July 20, 2007 at 3:04 am

I love Beachbum's doorsign. The trouble with this website is that many of the cutting phrases which would make great t-shirt slogans are being lost in the sedimentary layers of general wisdom and common sense. I reckon we need a compilation of the best single sentence or short phrase punchlines that would fit on an atheist's t-shirt.

25. Interview with Dan Dennett on Danish TV

Comment #54419 by sheepscarer on July 7, 2007 at 2:03 am

To marcdesm

Science is the alternative - when you realise that religion explains nothing in this wonderfully fascinating universe but science gets you glimpses of the truth then this fact makes me hungry to know more of what human ingenuity has discovered.

To get an idea of what's going on in cosmology, biology, quantum physics, neuropsychology etc etc we look to the latest scientific research. (incidentally can anyone recommend a good follow up to Gribbin's Schrodinger's Kittens - he left many threads dangling and I've not found a recent [written for the layperson] update to the problems posed by the experimental data)?

Religion reveals no truths here and if its only remaining purposes are to set a good example for human behaviour and consolation then I've yet to see the first and the second is based on a deluded sense of human importance.

Live your life as if every day is the last. One day you will be right.

26. Messiah

Comment #52869 by sheepscarer on June 28, 2007 at 9:58 am

One of his better tricks consisted of him giving just met individuals who were part of a small group extemely detailed written descriptions of their personalities (after much fake ritual). Depressingly, all of them were shocked at the accuracy of his scripts and believed he had some magic insight into their minds. The kick came after their rapture when DB asks them to look at each other's scripts. They were all identical. People as we know from horoscopes are apt to see what they expect to see.
Also check out the chess games against grandmasters - ingeniously simple but sharp as a knife.

27. Interview with Christopher Hitchens

Comment #50489 by sheepscarer on June 18, 2007 at 12:25 pm

Definitely agree with Rtambree about science literacy being one of the key factors in smashing the fascination with all things mystical. If you don't know how the world works anything seems possible.

The best way to undermine religious belief is to make prominent disbelief. Suspending disbelief at the theatre or cinema is quickly subverted if somebody in the audience starts loudly declaiming 'how it's done'. We need to make it common knowledge that a large number of us think belief in a god is ridiculous and childish (who was it who said something about that 'monstrous father figure'?) Unfortunately, at the moment it is only academics who are prepared to air their views . We need somebody incredibly well-respected and very well-known to make it clear that gods are manmade and offensive to our scientific view of the world. Someone like David Attenborough should produce a series where the fabulous photography is underpinned by a strong evolutionary narrative. The introduction should dispel any superstitious nonsense about creation and the special place of mankind. Remember his programmes are watched by millions in the UK.

We shouldn't respect religion. Religion disrepects human ingenuity and achievment.

Just heard on the news that Salman Rushdie has been knighted - how long before books will be burning in the streets?

28. I'm Sure God is Scared

Comment #44728 by sheepscarer on May 25, 2007 at 8:28 am

Oh the sweet irony in the use of the word 'gullible' in the last paragraph.

Move along people....nothing new to see here.

29. Dental healer finds share of faithful believers

Comment #44270 by sheepscarer on May 24, 2007 at 1:28 am

The tooth, the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth.

30. Pick of the Week: The God Delusion

Comment #44269 by sheepscarer on May 24, 2007 at 1:06 am

SharrieG the compelling arguments are to be found in The Selfish Gene and the other books on evolutionary biology. You need to look no further than these to understand that our anthropocentric view of the universe is nonsense. In The God Delusion RD frequently reminds us that he has no wish to cover this ground in huge detail again.

31. The Creation Museum: Prepare to believe

Comment #41353 by sheepscarer on May 16, 2007 at 1:36 am

I agree with thirdchimpanzee - it's ridicule that's needed. Lets be disrepectful to deeply held beliefs. After all my rationalist point of view is insulted every day with this kind of dark age thinking. The astonishing insights gained through human intellect are kicked in the teeth whenever time is given to the believers. Where are the prominent media intellects to challenge the nonsense we hear spouted every day in newspapers and TV? (Yes I know it's obvious the media is run by arty fartys who do not know or care about how the world really works - witness so-called science journalist Brian Appleyard talking about his haunted house and the dumbing down of Horizon, the prominence of Thought for the Day, Pause for Thought, astrology charts in all newspapers etc etc)

Dave Allen used to poke fun at religion but not belief in a god. Isn't it about time we had a new mainstream kid on the block to continue and extend his good work? After all, it isn't as if there isn't plenty of comic material out there.

32. God Exists. A Formula Proves it.

Comment #38196 by sheepscarer on May 7, 2007 at 7:51 am

Let's be honest here - we're wasting our time trying to reason with this kind of believer. The desire to believe transcends all reason. Just watch Derren Brown's trickery in the US where even after he informs the gullibles that he has perfomed a trick on them and is not psychic or a miracle worker they STILL refuse to believe. This is not just in the teeth of all the evidence but the whole digestive system twice around the block and across the road to the brain-donars convention.

33. Your favorite book in the last 25 years?

Comment #37307 by sheepscarer on May 4, 2007 at 4:04 am

The Red Queen - Matt Ridley
Genome - Matt Ridley
Creation - Life And How To Make It - Steve Grand
The Earth - Richard Fortey

Fiction
The Life of Pi (- sorry can't remember author)
Saturday - Ian McEwan

These off the top of my head made quite an impact and of course those mentioned by others - Dawkins, Sagan, Pinker

34. When Seeing Is Disbelieving

Comment #36697 by sheepscarer on May 2, 2007 at 3:18 am

What about athletes and sportsmen and women who cross themselves before competing - shouldn't they be banned for gaining from supernatural help? If god helped them win then their unfair advantage should lead to elimination.

Let's keep the opiate and metabolic steriod of the people out of sports.

Just say no.

35. Now Muslims Get Their Own Laws In Britian

Comment #36689 by sheepscarer on May 2, 2007 at 2:56 am

We already have superstitious nonsense infiltrating hard won secular structures. On the animal welfare front we allow halal practices to bypass normal concerns for the humane dispatching of animals.

36. Christians at Bible publishers have their throats cut

Comment #33067 by sheepscarer on April 19, 2007 at 4:56 am

I agree that religious people do have the right to practice their religion, in private. I respect that right, however, I am sure you would not want me to lie and say that I respect your actual religious beliefs, because I cannot in truth say that. Therefore in not respecting the content of your beliefs, while respecting the right for you to be able to practice your beliefs, I will criticise those beliefs but support your right to practice them.

37. The Empty Wager

Comment #33027 by sheepscarer on April 19, 2007 at 3:17 am

Much as I'd like to believe that my personality will live on after death and that there is a loving entity who keeps watch over us and that Coventry City will one day win the Premiership, I'm afraid I can't just switch on belief. Such self-delusion is hard for me to grasp - by it's nature delusion must take a conscious effort which surely reveals its own motive. I'm sure that most professed and convinced believers have more than a niggle of doubt and will cling on to life like the rest of us when oblivion draws near.

38. The Selfish Green

Comment #29671 by sheepscarer on April 4, 2007 at 2:22 am

As a species side-stepping the usual ecological constraints which keep top predators rare, I still worry that the development or invention of a clean and sustainable energy source will not stop environmental degradation merely allow us boys with big toys to continue unrestrained. I vaguely remember a very goood BBC series (think it was called 'Prisoners of the Sun')which dealt with the energy food-chain and this fossil-fuelled side-step. Think it was in the nineties. Check it out - at the very least it might remind you that the BBC used to make intelligent science programmes in the days before Horizon was handed over to the work-experience student with the media studies degree.