1. Unlike Others, U.S. Defends Freedom to Offend in Speech

Comment #192079 by Big T on June 12, 2008 at 12:28 pm

Right on, Fighting Falcon! The First Amendment rocks!

2. Anti-Evolution Film Misappropriates the Holocaust

Comment #172501 by Big T on April 29, 2008 at 4:17 pm

Right on, Anti-Defamation League! Tell it like it is!

3. Religion is 'the new social evil'

Comment #164617 by Big T on April 20, 2008 at 1:10 pm

This is good news. Organized religion is a source of great evil in the world, a fact that needs to be recognized in America like it is in England.

4. Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed

Comment #163740 by Big T on April 19, 2008 at 12:20 am

I have wondered for a long time where babies do come from. I have never been comfortable with the 'Stork Theory'. But if babies are not brought by the stork, where DO they come from? We need some expert advice around here. I'll bet if we asked Dr. Benway, she could tell us where babies come from? Surely you can't get through medical school without know that?

5. Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed

Comment #162910 by Big T on April 17, 2008 at 4:48 pm

Another good laugh from this website! I needed that. Thanks, Sarah 95 for the YouTube.

6. German Church admits aiding Nazis

Comment #157941 by Big T on April 9, 2008 at 7:45 pm

Fighting Falcon has a point. It is easy for people living in a democratic society to say 'I would have stood up to Hitler'. It is true that the Catholic Church was complicit in more than just providing forced laborers as Hitchens and others have pointed out. And I am no fan of the Catholic Church. But for people living under the Nazi dictatorship to actively oppose it would require more courage than about 99 percent of the human race possesses. Which is one reason (among many) why I feel strongly about Europeans opposing fundamentalist Muslim immigrants. The time to oppose evil is BEFORE it comes to power.

7. Cult leader Pyotr Kuznetsov tries suicide after realising he was wrong about doomsday

Comment #154833 by Big T on April 3, 2008 at 7:24 pm

Dr Benway, give yourself a break. Mental illness runs in my family and I've been treated for depression. But sometimes it's hard not to laugh, and you are not a horrible person.

8. Beware the Believers

Comment #151533 by Big T on March 29, 2008 at 12:16 am

I got a good laugh out of it.

9. Iowa county board gives initial OK for ghost hunters to investigate asylum

Comment #151531 by Big T on March 29, 2008 at 12:11 am

Exactly how does ghost detecting equipment work? Thermal imaging? If a ghost is supernatural, outside the laws of physics, not made up of mass/energy, how can thermal imaging equipment detect one? Sound recording? If a ghost has no mass/energy, how can he/she make sounds? How can you see a ghost? How can light be deflected by his/her body? How can ghost detecting equipment be tested to see if it works? I was going to ask more skeptical questions, but I've just been slimed by a ghost! Bill Murray, where are you when I need you?

10. EXPELLED!

Comment #147522 by Big T on March 20, 2008 at 8:55 pm

Sounds good to me. Hope Richard enjoyed the movie.

11. Report: 32% Of Prayers Deflected Off Passing Satellites

Comment #147479 by Big T on March 20, 2008 at 3:05 pm

Frankus 1122: That YouTube bit about messaging Mr. Deity is hilarious. Thanks for recommending it. And, shucks, I should have checked the article again before I posted. My odds are not one in 170 million but one in 170 billion! Now that's discouraging!

12. Report: 32% Of Prayers Deflected Off Passing Satellites

Comment #147011 by Big T on March 19, 2008 at 4:58 pm

So there's almost no chance (well, maybe one in 170 million) that any prayer I utter will reach the ear of God. Dear me, how very discouraging. No wonder I quit praying years ago.

13. The Atheist Apocalypse

Comment #146128 by Big T on March 18, 2008 at 4:33 pm

The person doing the comic strip apparently picked Dawkins, Dennett, Harris and Hitchens to caricature because they are such visible spokesmen for atheism, I should think. Anyone who can see racism or sexism in that is either too culturally enlightened or too just plain sensitive for me.

14. The Great Tantra Challenge

Comment #145495 by Big T on March 17, 2008 at 4:47 pm

Well, darn, there goes my faith in tantric power. Logicel, your pun about ghee was most excellent! Be proud, be very proud!

15. Immune system differences found

Comment #145489 by Big T on March 17, 2008 at 4:41 pm

DamnDirtyApe: It may be Monday, and early in the day, but let's not forget this particular Monday is St Patrick's Day.

16. Lords Approve Abolition Of Blasphemy

Comment #139716 by Big T on March 6, 2008 at 12:29 pm

People on this website have bemoaned the rise of Christian fundamentalism in the USA, predicted that someone like Huckabee might win the presidency in November, threatened to leave the USA if that happens, and generally criticized American ignorance. Well, Huckabee is out of the race, all the remaining candidates seem to believe in evolution, and we have the First Amendment, not anti-blasphemy statutes. Maybe America is less backward and Europe a tad less enlightened than some claim?

17. Church exhumes Padre Pio

Comment #138855 by Big T on March 4, 2008 at 10:30 pm

According to one of my college history professors, Martin Luther "threw a turd at the devil." In Mark Twain's 'The Mysterious Stranger', a priest was said to have thrown a bottle of wine at the Devil, and you could see the splotch on the wall where the bottle broke. But these are just myths. The truth is, I fought Satan last night, in the parking lot of a bar in Independence, Missouri, and I kicked his demonic ass!

18. Bulldozers tear down giant religious teapot

Comment #138849 by Big T on March 4, 2008 at 10:07 pm

Quetzalcoatl, they have blasphemed against ye! Smite ye them! Quetzalcoatl is Great! Death to blasphemers! Death to infidels! Go get 'em Quetz! Let them feel the wrath of the Plumed Serpent!

19. Ayaan Hirsi Ali to get EU protection

Comment #136340 by Big T on February 29, 2008 at 11:01 pm

Right on, E U! I argued earlier on this website that she needed and deserved our help, and I sent in several contributions out of my own pocket to pay for her protection. This is the best news I have heard in ages! Obviously, it won't be necessary to pay for protection for all who leave Islam, but this woman is world famous for her apostasy, her books and that famous film. As far as I'm concerned, taxpayers in every country in the Western world should be willing to pay for her protection. She is a heroine! A symbol of free speech, secularism and the Enlightenment.

20. Cutting Edge: Baby Bible Bashers

Comment #129201 by Big T on February 18, 2008 at 9:16 pm

Remind anyone of Marjoe Gortner? Who knows, perhaps someday these child evangelists will grow up to take revenge like he did. Let's hope so.

21. The New Atheist Movement

Comment #123884 by Big T on February 7, 2008 at 8:41 pm

Teach 'Christian apologetics' to the young, hey? Shit, I was immersed in Christian brainwashing from the time I drew my first breath until I was eighteen years old. Never heard from any agnostics or atheists in all that time. And although 'Christian apologetics' means a defense of Christianity, somehow I can't help but think of that word 'apologetics' as meaning they are 'apologizing' for something. Belief without evidence, anyone? Brainwashing? Refusal to leave others alone?

22. US 'doomed' if creationist president elected: scientists

Comment #108828 by Big T on January 7, 2008 at 5:18 pm

Annabanana: So many men want you to come and live near them because you are a lovely, intelligent young woman with a beautiful smile. Well, I'm an ugly old man and I want to say this: The Bible, The Qur'an, The Baghavad Gita, The Book of Mormon, etc. - they're all collections of fairy tales. On the other hand, consider this. I live in Independence, Missouri, where the Garden of Eden used to be (according to Mormon teaching). Hitchens likes to ridicule Mormons by saying that when Jesus returns, he won't have "a summer home in Jackson County, Missour." But suppose the Mormons are correct. If you move here and Jesus comes back, you could wind up living next door to the Creator of the Universe. Let's see Lancashire, Berkshire, Yorkshire, Sweden, etc. top that!

23. It is possible to be moral without God

Comment #105159 by Big T on December 30, 2007 at 7:32 pm

Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Aayan Hirsi Ali, the late Carl Sagan, the late Isaac Asimov, the late Robert Green Ingersoll, the late H.L. Mencken - I've never heard of any of these people raping anyone, murdering anyone, burning down any orphanages or anything of the sort. Nevertheless, the five living atheists MUST, sooner or later, do all those things and worse, just as the four deceased people I mentioned must have done them while they were alive, because, you see, it is IMPOSSIBLE to be moral without God!

24. Sudan demo over jailed UK teacher

Comment #92592 by Big T on November 30, 2007 at 9:02 pm

To all the naive people on this site: I was accused of anti-Muslim bigotry almost as soon as I first posted on this site. Very well. So I'm a bigot. But the Koran (or Qur'an or whatever) is a totalitarian, mind-control document. In passage after passage it threatens anyone who even questions it's assertions with eternal punishment. The Bible does some of the same, but to a much lesser extent. It will be lovely if we avoid an all-out clash of civilizations, but that seems increasingly less likely. Okay, I'm a racist, anti-Muslim, evil bigot. But please try not to be too shocked when majority-Muslim societies do things like this. To repeat an earlier warning of mine, the only reason they are not doing it in the West is because they do not (yet) have the power to do so. Freedom is more fragile than you think it is.

25. Frequently Asked Questions about the Ayaan Hirsi Ali Security Trust

Comment #89470 by Big T on November 20, 2007 at 9:59 pm

If some people do not wish to give, that's fine. I have not tried to "shame" or "guilt" anyone else into donating, honest. But I regard what has been called "Islamofascism" as a very real threat to freedom of expression everywhere on Earth. Remember, many many newspapers and magazines refused to publish the cartoons of Muhammad in places like America. Why? Because they were afraid, of course. I have a middle-class job and lifestyle and I have contributed because I consider it a worthwhile cause. And I intend to continue to contribute. Thanks for giving me the chance, Sam.

26. URGENT APPEAL: Please Help Protect Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Comment #88747 by Big T on November 18, 2007 at 9:13 pm

I have just put the first of many donations in the mailbox. This woman needs and deserves our help. According to an Internet site I looked at, there are about 45 million Dutch citizens. If Ms. Ali's protection costs 4 million dollars a year, that's less than ten cents a year for every Dutch citizen, but if the Dutch government doesn't want to do it, I intend to continue making a contribution every month.

27. Dr Bari: Government stoking Muslim tension

Comment #88142 by Big T on November 14, 2007 at 11:23 pm

So, he's afraid England is becoming too much like Germany in the 1930's? On the other hand, like the Nazi book burners, he would ban Salman Rushdie's writings (they should be "pulped")? How is advocating censorship going to move a society AWAY from 1930s style Germany? And shortly thereafter he says that Muslim places that sell extremist, anti-Semitic, hate-filled literature CANNOT be censored or controlled - only Salman Rushdie can? What an asshole!

28. Jesus Rides the Number 7 Train

Comment #84851 by Big T on November 4, 2007 at 12:47 am

Jesus vs Gojira? (Gojira is the orignal Japanese name of the monster - a combination of 2 Japanese words that comes out to mean roughly "Gorilla Whale" - The Hulk could beat both of them at the same time!

29. You big, fat pile of bacteria

Comment #84850 by Big T on November 4, 2007 at 12:37 am

We are all part of an immense ecosystem. It is probably better to let bacteria into one's body than to endlessly scrub one's surroundings, take antibiotics needlessly, etc. I would personally rather have a healthy immune system and plenty of rest and good nutrition than a medicine cabinet full of antibiotics. Live in harmony with nature and don't worry about germs!

30. Jury Awards Father $11M in Funeral Case

Comment #84596 by Big T on November 2, 2007 at 5:07 pm

News flash: Someone has defaced the Westboro Baptist Church with spray-painted graffiti including, among other things: "God Hates The Phelps". People are evidently getting fed up with pastor Fred. I hope it doesn't happen, I despise violence, but I'm beginning to think someone is going to get hurt at one of these demonstrations.

31. Prejudicial concerns

Comment #80902 by Big T on October 23, 2007 at 12:13 pm

Hear, hear!

32. God's honest truth?

Comment #79749 by Big T on October 18, 2007 at 12:23 pm

It sounds like a good idea to me.

33. Ayaan Hirsi Ali: abandoned to fanatics

Comment #77455 by Big T on October 9, 2007 at 11:04 am

For the government of The Netherlands to fail to uphold it's promise to provide security for Ms. Ali is contemptible. Something has to be done about this outrage. I would personally be willing to donate some money from my paycheck every two weeks to help hire security for her. People need to complain to the Dutch ambassador to their countries. She must not be intimidated into silence or murdered.

34. 'Flying Spaghetti Monster' Religious Group Turning Heads at MSU

Comment #76725 by Big T on October 6, 2007 at 11:23 pm

The Flying Spaghetti Monster and The Celestial Teapot are false gods! Only Quetzalcoatl is the one true "Big G up in the sky." And, goodformonkeys, I second Veronique, you are smart and funny! Well done!

35. Dawkins - what can't he be blamed for?

Comment #75507 by Big T on October 2, 2007 at 9:47 pm

Alas, Dr. Benway has discovered my shameful secret. It was I who pulled the trigger, wearing a Richard Dawkins mask, at the behest of my KGB handler, a young woman from Australia who called herself "Veronique." The KGB, NKVD, Stasi, and Tontons Macoutes got together to plan it. But the mastermind behind the plot was Dawkins himself. I am one of the few who knows that he is the head of a centuries old, powerful group called The Illuminati. His plot to achieve world domination continues apace. Having fled the evil group, I am no longer an Illuminatus myself, but I well know that Dawkins is plotting my destruction.

36. Dawkins - what can't he be blamed for?

Comment #75374 by Big T on October 2, 2007 at 12:23 pm

You people have got it all wrong. I happen to know for a fact that before the Zapruder film was edited by the CIA, it clearly showed a young Richard Dawkins on the grassy knoll with a rifle in his hand on November 22, 1963. I know this for a fact because the CIA and the National Security Agency (NSA) both beamed thoughts about it into my brain with their thought transmitters.

37. A problem for Israel's farmers: The seven-year hitch

Comment #73707 by Big T on September 25, 2007 at 11:34 pm

In the words of George Bernard Shaw: "What I learned from Mark Twain is that just telling the truth is the funniest joke of all."

38. Polygamist Leader Convicted in Utah

Comment #73702 by Big T on September 25, 2007 at 11:16 pm

Ordering a frightened fourteen year old girl to have sex against her wishes should be a crime everywhere on earth, whether the person doing the ordering claims a divine sanction or not. I'm glad the jury returned a guilty verdict. A blow has been struck for rationality, civilization and humanity against blind obedience to superstition, fear and ignorance.

39. The Mix Tape of the Gods

Comment #68339 by Big T on September 6, 2007 at 10:30 pm

Yorker, you are a good and decent human being. I wish you great happiness in this life and, if there is one, in the next.

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

Comment #67096 by Big T on September 1, 2007 at 11:27 pm

Salley Vickers' book review is the stupidest piece of bullshit I've seen in ages.

41. Christopher Hitchens and Bill Donohue on Mother Teresa

Comment #66407 by Big T on August 30, 2007 at 12:10 am

So Mother Teresa endured both great doubt and great pain in her life? Doesn't everyone? The Bible and the Qur'an both threaten doubters with the ultimate punishment. Both of them, in my opinion, advocate a sort of totalitarian mind control. And adherents of both Christianity and Islam have caused, and continue to cause, great suffering in the world. We should all continue to think for ourselves, to ask questions, to examine the evidence, to doubt. "The one thing of value, in the world, is the active human soul." (Emerson) I believe Emerson also wrote "Nothing in the universe is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind." Let's hear it for doubt, doubters, and original thinkers.

42. Hitchens, Dawkins, Harris: The Unholy Trinity ... Thank God.

Comment #63522 by Big T on August 14, 2007 at 4:47 pm

Good article. I especially like his referring to Paine, Jefferson and Madison as the original "unholy Trinity." If I hear one more commentator claim that America was founded on 'Judaeo-Christian values', I'm going to vomit. How many people today know that when Thomas Jefferson was elected president, some (very very foolish) people buried their family Bibles in their back yards, intending to dig them up after Jefferson left office, for fear that he was an evil atheist who would persecute Christian Americans? In my opinion, America was founded on Enlightenment principles at least as much as Judaeo-Christian ones. Whether Jefferson was a Deist, agnostic, or atheist is debatable, but certainly all the founding fathers wanted Americans to have both freedom OF religion and, if they chose, freedom FROM religion - i.e., the right to be atheist. Having chaplains pray before sessions of Congress, displaying the Ten Commandments in courthouses, putting 'In God We Trust' on coins, are all (again, in my opinion) violations of at least the principle of the separation of church and state.

43. The Bible's literary sins

Comment #63239 by Big T on August 13, 2007 at 3:56 pm

Speaking strictly for myself, the Bible is boring. Some parts of the gospels I can read, but the Old Testament is so dull you couldn't pay me enough to read any significant amount of it.

44. Dissing Deism

Comment #62693 by Big T on August 10, 2007 at 10:09 pm

'Infinite regress'? Bullshit! God created the Universe and Quetzocoatl created God! "Quetzocoatl said it, I believe it, that settles it!" (Bumper sticker I'm going to put on my car).

45. Science and the Islamic World

Comment #62689 by Big T on August 10, 2007 at 9:52 pm

#62685 by njwong: 'Unconsciously' my ass! True fundamentalist Rapture believing Christians like Jenkins and LaHaye WANT the rapture to happen soon! They want it CONSCIOUSLY! As for the Muslim lapse in science, I don't know what caused it, but I have a feeling that allowing everything EXCEPT the Qur'an (or the Bible) to be questioned is not conducive to scientific advancement.

46. OUT Campaign Launched, 'Scarlet Letter' Shirts Now Available!

Comment #59601 by Big T on July 29, 2007 at 10:17 pm

For goodness sakes, people, it's just a T shrt. Buy one and wear it proudly! Who cares what theists think? Who cares what anyone else thinks?

47. Fears Grow Over 'Mega Mosque'

Comment #56651 by Big T on July 16, 2007 at 6:49 pm

Being an American, I should probably keep my nose out of this one. And, since I've been accused of anti-Muslim bigotry on this site, I should probably keep out of this one. But, what the heck, here's an idea: why not approach the Saudi rulers and propose the following: Muslims can build all the mosques they please in Western countries, all we ask in return is thatatheists be allowed to set up centers for teaching atheism in Mecca and Medina and all over Saudi Arabia. Wonder what their reply would be?

48. Before the New Atheists: Confessions of a Lonely Atheist

Comment #56630 by Big T on July 16, 2007 at 4:31 pm

Wish we had a columnist like Natalie Angier writing for The Kansas City Star. We have a couple of religion columnists who write sympathetically about religious belief, but no professed atheists representing the other side.
CJ22, love your avatar.

49. An Atheist Responds

Comment #56271 by Big T on July 14, 2007 at 5:11 pm

Friend Giskard, Bravo. That was cool, man.

50. Butterfly shows evolution at work

Comment #56087 by Big T on July 13, 2007 at 4:32 pm

Rather than see a species of butterfly become extinct, Allah hath decided to (miraculously) alter the genetic makeup of the species. Praise Allah!