1. Research Volunteers Needed

Comment #175683 by Sittingduck on May 5, 2008 at 9:27 pm

Love the one

You always tell the truth

Strongly disagree...

2. Get out of here, atheists!

Comment #157947 by Sittingduck on April 9, 2008 at 8:17 pm

I've enjoyed many of the well thought and articulated responses to Rep Davis. They have been excellent. However, as a long time observer of Illinois politics (which is the dirtest and most corrupt variety you will find), I have to say your all missing the point.

The comments were made during a committe hearing investigating the funneling of a million bucks in an illegal manner by the democratic Govenor to a Babtist church. Rep Davis is a Democrat and a Babtist. I submit that she has effectively changed the subject!

As Deep Throat is reputed to have said "Follow the Money!"

PS: not picking on Democrats - the last Govenor of Illinois was a Republican and is currently serving his term in prison.

3. Get out of here, atheists!

Comment #156549 by Sittingduck on April 7, 2008 at 7:57 pm

Prof D:

Rob Sherman's website:
www.robsherman.com

He is running for the Illinois State Legislature as a representative - the same postiton Monique Davis currently holds. I am sure she dosen't want him digging into financial mischief

He is running for office in the affluent western suburbs of Chicago. This guy has been a lightning rod for atheists for years.
He is an unusual character and is fairly well known from all the abuse he has taken.

4. Sean Carroll on the Today Program

Comment #154149 by Sittingduck on April 2, 2008 at 6:57 pm

I would like to hear more from Prof. Carroll. I live an hour from the U of W, Madison, and I have never heard him interviewed before in the Midwest.

I can't say enough about all the excellent characters I have learned about since I began lurking around RichardDawkins.net. (My pile of books to read keeps growing!!).

Just loved when he politely corrected the interviewer "Leap of reason rather than leap of faith"...

5. BBC 'too scared to allow jokes about Islam'

Comment #154140 by Sittingduck on April 2, 2008 at 6:37 pm

Yikes - I hope this isn't accurate.

If we find ourselves censoring thought and speech simply out of fear of antagonizing literal believers, we are doomed. The war of ideas and reason is already lost.

I think Sam Harris got it exactly right in "The End of Faith" when he talks about religious moderates enabling fundamentalists by protecting the belief as beyond question.

6. Study: Religion colors Americans' views of nanotechnology

Comment #128352 by Sittingduck on February 16, 2008 at 7:49 pm

still think annihilation is the way to go. But then, how could that be achieved without releasing even more greenhouse gases?

7. The real danger in Darwin is not evolution, but racism

Comment #115200 by Sittingduck on January 23, 2008 at 6:32 pm

"Had they actually read Origin, they likely would be shocked to learn that among Darwin's scientifically based proposals was the elimination of "the negro and Australian peoples," which he considered savage races whose continued survival was hindering the progress of civilization."

It's obvious Campolo never read "Orgin" either.
This guy is such a hoser...

Recently I started re-reading "Origin" - it's been over 30 years since the last read. I can't seem to find anything racist in regards to humans - except that the species kept and raised by "savages" differed from those in "civilized" societies.

Anybody interested - the following link from the American Mueseum of Natural History is a great resource:
http://darwinlibrary.amnh.org/index.php?globalnav=manuscripts&sectionnav=list

8. I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist

Comment #81512 by Sittingduck on October 24, 2007 at 9:17 pm

I prefer the Atheist route to being an Antitheist. It just seems to take a lot less energy...

9. There Go The Dinosaurs

Comment #73681 by Sittingduck on September 25, 2007 at 8:19 pm

"plants, animals, and people were drowned and sandwiched with the dinosaurs into layers of mud and rock..."

The poor Fintstones! If only Fred & Barny could have fashioned their own ark and saved themselves as well as Dino.

I wonder why we never find fossils of their cool foot-propelled cars?

10. Talking Action Figure Jesus

Comment #73357 by Sittingduck on September 24, 2007 at 9:05 pm

Oh man - I hope they don't come with all the accessories. On Christmas morning, I can see all the youngsters sitting amoung their opened presents, and nailing their little saviors to their crosses with minature hammers. Oh the memories...

11. Do you have to read up on leprechology before disbelieving in them?

Comment #71484 by Sittingduck on September 18, 2007 at 9:30 pm

Whoa.... Just read this entire thread. It was like giving birth. However, I thoroughly enjoyed revcourt. His assertions and all the great arguments back and forth are a great "tune up" for my ongoing debate with some of my faithhead friends. (I recently came out of the atheist closet).

Can we keep him around like a pet? He seems like a good hearted chap (compared to some of my other fellow American fundies).

12. Good News: Both our Foundations are now Officially Recognized as Charities

Comment #70734 by Sittingduck on September 16, 2007 at 7:36 pm

Excellent! Brilliant! And in celebration, time for a cool adult beverage...

13. Censoring Sir David

Comment #69789 by Sittingduck on September 12, 2007 at 7:41 pm

Damien White:

There are 300 Dutch biologists now?

14. Censoring Sir David

Comment #69788 by Sittingduck on September 12, 2007 at 7:34 pm

Yikes.... These people are scary.

I watched the clips and it's very sad how hard they are trying to make reality fit their world view.

What are they going to do next - take away globes and maps from their followers? How do they explain away all those comfortable fitting geographies like South America and Africa? I think I was 5 years old when I "independently" figured out continental drift when I saw my first globe.

15. The Rise of Atheist America

Comment #69568 by Sittingduck on September 11, 2007 at 6:25 pm

The nation's school system was created for the express purpose of propagating the Christian faith

16. The smallest signs of retreat

Comment #68599 by Sittingduck on September 7, 2007 at 6:35 pm

Will one of you Brits fill us Yanks in on who this silly Miss Bunting woman is?

It appears she is writing for lazy fundamentalist types who will never bother to read anything contrary, but need to be continually warned about those nasty non-believers. She can be intellectually dishonest because her target audience will never know.

Who is she, and why hasn't someone managed to take away her box of crayons?

17. India to charge writer Nasreen with 'hurting Muslim feelings'

Comment #67575 by Sittingduck on September 3, 2007 at 9:10 pm

blockquote>To conclude that the millions of good people who inhabit these countries are as worthless as the irrresponsible mob who threw the flowers (!!) at the Bangladeshi writer probably says more about those who write such drivel than their victims.


I agree that it makes little sense to make sweeping generalizations about Islam, but at some point it would be helpful to hear peace loving muslims condem these outrageous actions.
You just never hear people of authority within Islam condem the violent wingnuts. Why is that?
Event after event and nothing...

18. Review of Darwin's Angel: An Angelic Response to the God Delusion

Comment #66872 by Sittingduck on August 31, 2007 at 10:15 pm

"For a start, only religious nutcases take the Creation story literally"

Obviously the reviewer hasn't been to the US where a huge majority of the population takes the story literally - including a lot of our presidential candidates. They may all be nutcases, but there sure are a lot of 'em

19. Review of Darwin's Angel: An Angelic Response to the God Delusion

Comment #66869 by Sittingduck on August 31, 2007 at 10:07 pm

Yikes!

It kicks Richard Dawkins's self-aggrandising polemic, The God Delusion,...

I read the God Delusion, but I must of missed the self-aggrandising part. Could someone clue me in?

20. A hole lot of nothing found by astronomers

Comment #66006 by Sittingduck on August 27, 2007 at 7:26 pm

I have really enjoyed this thread. People arguing about nothing....:)

21. A hole lot of nothing found by astronomers

Comment #65699 by Sittingduck on August 25, 2007 at 6:55 pm

There has to be some kind of matter there --- doesn't there? Im thinking maybe my car keys...I've looked everywhere else.

22. God Bless Me, It's a Best-Seller!

Comment #64118 by Sittingduck on August 17, 2007 at 7:44 pm

Hitchens is a master of oneupsmanship. You just have to love his quick wit.

..."when I am asked if I know the anti-Christian works of Friedrich Nietzsche. I say that I have my differences with Nietzsche, but that I know his stuff. Am I aware, inquires the questioner, "that when he was writing that very stuff he was suffering from terminal syphilitic decay? Slightly baffled, I reply that I have heard as much but don't know it to be true. Do I think, comes the next question, that there is a similar explanation for my own work? Should have seen that coming. My response is that I obviously can't be the best judge but that it's very compassionate of him to ask."

Thanks for the link. It was interesting to read about his book tour from his perspective.

23. Can the rest of us have our planet back?

Comment #60394 by Sittingduck on August 1, 2007 at 6:44 pm

Enjoyed that. No way would that be allowed in any broacast media in the states. Total shame.
Land of the Free and the home of the muzzled.

24. Teaching assistant quit in protest at Harry Potter

Comment #48706 by Sittingduck on June 8, 2007 at 6:49 pm

One wonders if she fears that her head would explode should she hear something contrary to her faith...

25. Lou Dobbs Interviews Christopher Hitchens

Comment #37546 by Sittingduck on May 4, 2007 at 9:39 pm

RE: filthyatheist

"No European, who has not witnessed it for themselves, could possibly believe how racist Dobbs show is. Everynight, for years, he has been promoting explicitly facsist propaganda against Mexicans and other Hispanics.

The sight of this racist xenophope pinning a US flag lapel onto the inebriate warmongerer Hitchens, should turn the stomach of any decent person."

Hey Filth - if you really belive this you have my sympathy. I have been watching Dobb for years. Everybody tries to put a label on him - right and left. He is independant, and is a play-by-the-rules kind of guy. He isn't a racist & he isn't against immigration. He is against the mass migration of people fleeing a failed economy and swamping another country. There are a lot of people in the US who do feel we have a right to control our boarders in a systematic way and resent the charge of racism. Perhaps that is a too nuanced argument for you.

As a result of his independence he conducted what I thought was a pretty fair interview on a major network in a country where you have to pay homage to some kind of religion to even run for elected office.

I give him a tip of my hat.

26. The Age of Darwin

Comment #32125 by Sittingduck on April 15, 2007 at 9:07 pm

I think this is a pretty amazing piece from David Brooks. He often pleads the position of a moderate conservative but actually follows pretty far right convention - at least when employed as a pundit on the many talk shows on which he appears.

There may be a glimmer of hope for the US if someone who leans pretty far to the right can accept such an evolutionary worldview.

I wonder what the reaction will be to Mr. Brooks article.

27. The Moral Necessity of Atheism

Comment #31069 by Sittingduck on April 10, 2007 at 9:36 pm

Wouldn't Hitchens be just a riot at a cocktail party? As an observer by nature I would love to watch him teak the brittle people.

28. The Most Hated Family in America

Comment #29654 by Sittingduck on April 3, 2007 at 8:39 pm

These people come thru Chicago occaisionally when they get enough lead time about a military funeral. I am totaly against this cluster F*** of a war, but I applaud the Patriot Guard Riders who show up and screen the funerals from these wingnuts.

That would be a cool thing to do, but I am not a biker. I am not gay either, but I would be willing to kiss a guy in front of them just to really give them something to get wound up about...

29. Mr. Deity

Comment #28784 by Sittingduck on March 30, 2007 at 7:49 pm

Never understood the holy trinity thing until the pre-Superbowel press conference huddle in episode 6:

"The Deity, the Boy & Larry!"

Guess the Holy Ghost is the "gofer" which now makes a kind of sense.

30. Chimpanzees 'hunt using spears'

Comment #26466 by Sittingduck on March 19, 2007 at 1:23 pm

It appears isolated populations of chimps are exhibiting different behaviors.... Ever see a Trunk Monkey? They drive cars!

Hope my Labrador Retriever never ever evolves opposable thumbs - I wouldn't be able to keep her out of the fridge.

31. UK Christians 'suffer for faith'

Comment #26349 by Sittingduck on March 18, 2007 at 8:10 pm

Christians in the US also feel discriminated against - even though they are in the huge majority.

The last several years the right wing media kept banging away with their "War on Christmas" theme so every one could feel comfortably threatened. They act like it's the begining of the end if someone wishes another "Happy Holidays".