Comments by Apathy personified

Comment #200406 by Apathy personified on June 27, 2008 at 1:59 pm

I've said it before philip, 'Unleash the fury' - but control it, no rash letters to the telegraph, too many people died last time :).

602. Non-voters: It's all in God's hands

Comment #200404 by Apathy personified on June 27, 2008 at 1:56 pm

Sciros,

Apathy: If I were to make a wager, I'd say most Muslims (and Muslim nations) would want Obama in power rather than McCain. (I'd be happy to be convinced otherwise...)

Maybe, i haven't heard any of the reaction about the US election from the middle east - Whoever does win will still be an american infidel though :).

TeraBrat, thanks for clarifying

603. Non-voters: It's all in God's hands

Comment #200390 by Apathy personified on June 27, 2008 at 1:00 pm

Out of curiosity, Al and TeraBrat, who are you worried muslims are going to vote for?
Is this a general point or is there a specific candidate/party you have in mind? (I'm assuming you are refering to US elections - No muslims voting in say, Iraq, would bring quite a low turnout i imagine).

604. Stop distorting young minds!

Comment #200268 by Apathy personified on June 27, 2008 at 8:09 am

BillySands - After he posted that he didn't return to that particular thread, i just thought i'd remind him of his past statements.

Gregg, no worries :).
I'm slightly intrigued as to where the nickname podaar came from though.

605. Stop distorting young minds!

Comment #200262 by Apathy personified on June 27, 2008 at 7:46 am

Gregg Townsend (the artist formerly known as podaar),
As far as I understand it;
No, if it is a government funded school (non-academy) it would have to rigidly follow the national curriculum - So no ID allowed. Also, if it isn't on the exam, the teachers probably wouldn't bother teaching it.

The problem is that in the academies the article mentions they would be allowed to add it in - Again though, the teachers don't have the lesson time to teach students something that will not come up in the exams (all the exams are set by a number of independent exam boards - out of the schools control).

606. Spanish parliament to extend rights to apes

Comment #200258 by Apathy personified on June 27, 2008 at 7:39 am

Unfortunately, bullfighting moves a lot of money around and there are powerful interest groups in it

That's always the way though - No doubt the defenders of bull-fighting use the defense of 'it's a tradition'.
Britain had similar problems banning fox-hunting - Not as much money flowing but fox-hunting had powerful supporters.

Lots of sex in it too

Can't wait!

Edit: Yes, i know the last part was immature.

607. Stop distorting young minds!

Comment #200255 by Apathy personified on June 27, 2008 at 7:20 am

'clearthinker' - On the 'Oystein Elgaroy - the Christian defender who became an Atheist' thread, you responded to me with this:

Apathy - as I have already explained many times on this site I have no problem with evolution. I don't know enough about it but I do not see why it would make one difference to my faith. In my own church we have people who are old earth creationists, theistic evolutionists and even some young earth creationists - and we all get along fine. The bottom line is that we all believe that God is the Creator - we just differ about how he created. In fact I have just come back from a fellowship group where one man was shocked when I told him that I did not believe in a young earth.

I then said,

'clearthinker' - So would i be right in saying that you agree with the scientists who say that through the process of natural selection humans evolved from the simplest of life to the creatures we are now, and this took hundreds of millions of years.
Ok, making the (baseless) assumption that we have souls, at what point did we gain a soul? - As there must have been a time when a parent had no soul but the children did. Does this mean that your god had love and gave dominion to the child, but the parent was a 'simple animal' and a lesser creature?
Do you see how this SHOULD make a difference to your faith? (Doesn't fit in with 10 commandments either - Honour thy parent?)
Also, does this mean you don't believe in the adam and eve and noah's ark stories?

Could you answer the questions i posed?

On the matter of this thread - Education should be about teaching the students how to critically and objectively evaluate the world around them - So they can make their own mind up when presented with the facts.
I wonder what religites fear about that?

608. Spanish parliament to extend rights to apes

Comment #200188 by Apathy personified on June 27, 2008 at 3:37 am

It's a good start, but let's hope Spain ends bull-fighting and starts to give other animals proper welfare. (Like EVERY country should - no country is a real role model in this)

On the point about IQ: Is IQ actually a good measure of intelligence? It may give trends and a ballpark figure but can it be used (on it's own) to determine someones intelligence?

609. Spanish parliament to extend rights to apes

Comment #199810 by Apathy personified on June 26, 2008 at 11:30 am

Vaal - Do you mean 10 BILLION? As i'm pretty sure there's more than 10 million people atm. :)

610. The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete

Comment #199800 by Apathy personified on June 26, 2008 at 11:18 am

What can science learn from Google?

IMO, sweet FA.

611. Saudi Marriage Officiant : 'It Is Allowed To Marry A Girl At The Age Of One'.

Comment #199171 by Apathy personified on June 25, 2008 at 9:07 am

Although i don't want to get involved in the crossfire (and i'm not a parent myself) but....

Surely it's the quality of parenting, not the quantity, that makes the real difference for the kids involved?

612. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #199136 by Apathy personified on June 25, 2008 at 8:20 am

the women and children, they would get caught in the crossfire...

Always the way when people rashly send strongly worded letters to the editor..... :-)

Indeed we must say 'Praise be to Quetz', colourful cape wearer (i'm guessing) and tea bringer.

613. Science is not philosophy

Comment #199127 by Apathy personified on June 25, 2008 at 8:05 am

TeraBrat,

My Amazon wish list just got bigger.

I know what you mean, damn internet shopping, it makes it to easy.

And the way the guru's are fawned on by some people is somewhat sickening too.

I assure you, there's no royalty here - If anybody makes an unsubstantiated claim or says something deemed to be stupid, they'll get taken to task without mercy - no matter who they are.

614. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #199115 by Apathy personified on June 25, 2008 at 7:40 am

Philip,

What? A strongly worded letter to The Daily Telegraph newspaper?

Hey, i know i said unleash the fury, but please, let's not over react here...... people could get hurt!

615. Saudi Marriage Officiant : 'It Is Allowed To Marry A Girl At The Age Of One'.

Comment #199102 by Apathy personified on June 25, 2008 at 7:25 am

TeraBrat

I don't know the origins of those tax. they sound like something religious people in power came up with to use as a carrot to convince people to get married when marriage started to become less popular in the 60's.

It's possible, but i'd say unlikely - there are other reasons (as Mordacious1 rightly points out, legal protection, etc.) why governments would want to encourage marriage - I can't honestly say though, i have no idea how people go about researching tax law history, its never been an area of interest for me :).

616. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #199093 by Apathy personified on June 25, 2008 at 7:18 am

(*Note to self* Calm down Philip, drink some Tea...)

No Philip, unleash the fury!

Really though, who's gonna take advice on marriage from mormons,
'I had an argument with my wife, it's ok though, i have 6 others - all under 16'

617. Science is not philosophy

Comment #199024 by Apathy personified on June 25, 2008 at 4:53 am

The next book on my reading list is 'The Scientist as Philosopher' by Friedel Weinert.
According to the bit on the back -
'quantum theory and special relativity questioned traditional assumptions about causation and the passage of time. The book eludicates how these two theories affected these traditional notions. The auther concludes that the entanglement between science and philosophy is an evolutionary process, which will keep them forever entwined'

Has anybody actually read the book?

618. Saving Us from Darwin

Comment #199014 by Apathy personified on June 25, 2008 at 3:40 am

Frankus1122,
Haha - Good food, good company - what could be better?

619. Saudi Marriage Officiant : 'It Is Allowed To Marry A Girl At The Age Of One'.

Comment #199013 by Apathy personified on June 25, 2008 at 3:27 am

Shouldn't the whole institution of marriage be abolished?

Yes.
I'm quite cynical about the concept of marriage - The only benefits i can see are tax related.

Note: If anyone wants to bring 'love' to the table, consider; 'If you love them, why do you need a legal contract binding you together - is the love not enough?'

620. Saving Us from Darwin

Comment #198883 by Apathy personified on June 24, 2008 at 3:48 pm

Frankus1122,

I think Diacanu, Goldy and I ate someone a while ago. It may have been on Fleabytes. Tastey.

Side dishes?

621. Saving Us from Darwin

Comment #198858 by Apathy personified on June 24, 2008 at 3:13 pm

Wow, in my few months of posting here, i've been waiting for cannibalism to come up.....

622. Saving Us from Darwin

Comment #198838 by Apathy personified on June 24, 2008 at 2:53 pm

You people really aren't any different from fundamentalists. You are as mysoginistic as the most devout Muslim.

Anyone who does not totally follow your narrow minded way of thinking is a douchbag/idiot/fucktard/moron

There's an inherent sense of irony in a sweeping statement like that.

623. Saving Us from Darwin

Comment #198802 by Apathy personified on June 24, 2008 at 1:56 pm

Comment #198779 by Tezcatlipoca

Gozer the Gozerian

That's the one, thanks Tez.

624. Saving Us from Darwin

Comment #198769 by Apathy personified on June 24, 2008 at 1:07 pm

Go's

Wasn't that the demi god from the end of the first ghostbuster's film?

625. Saudi Marriage Officiant : 'It Is Allowed To Marry A Girl At The Age Of One'.

Comment #198662 by Apathy personified on June 24, 2008 at 10:54 am

Why would anyone WANT to marry a 1 year old?

Truly disgusting.

626. How Darwin won the evolution race

Comment #198314 by Apathy personified on June 23, 2008 at 2:47 pm

Thanks Barry.

I heard that the whole body of darwins work was being put online anyway - but it would be great if all the material for the events was permanantly online.

627. Sarcasm Seen as Evolutionary Survival Skill

Comment #198154 by Apathy personified on June 23, 2008 at 9:35 am

\sarcasm off

Because evolution has a crush on pessimists

I agree with irate, there could be something there.
Consider - Pessimists tend to be on the defensive most of the time (in attitude, body language, etc) and are always looking for the worst case scenario. (I'm the most cynical, coffee addled pessimist - i'm speaking from personal experience).
So they have a slight advantage in the initial stages of any dangerous situation.
I'm not an expert, or a biologist - this is just an ill informed guess - be gentle when telling me how wrong i am.

\sarcasm back on

628. Richard Dawkins Public Lecture - Liverpool 08

Comment #198136 by Apathy personified on June 23, 2008 at 9:13 am

A major drawback with string theory is the 10^500 solutions - It also needs many dimensions (10 or 11 at last count) that we don't see and it doesn't always come up with satisfactory explanations as to why we don't see these dimensions normally (curled at up every point in space is one attempt).
It also needs over 100 experimental constants (whose values have to be measured - can't be derived), which can be problematic.

For those interested, 'The Trouble with Physics' by Lee Smolin is a reasonably objective overview and critique of string theory. Peter Woit's 'Not Even Wrong' is a firmer critique and a bit less objective - his blog is good though.

629. How Darwin won the evolution race

Comment #198118 by Apathy personified on June 23, 2008 at 8:40 am

I hope that the organisers (organizers for my American friends :)) of the Darwin events focus on teaching people about evolution, not on the implications evolution has for religious belief.
I'm not sure if there has ever been a more misunderstood (sometimes deliberate) scientific theory - This is the perfect opportunity to change this.

Philadelphia is even getting in on the act.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/us/23darwin.html?ref=science

630. Sarcasm Seen as Evolutionary Survival Skill

Comment #198094 by Apathy personified on June 23, 2008 at 7:44 am

Wow, what a really useful way to spend your research grant.

631. As the world becomes smaller, the need to understand each other's faith grows

Comment #197136 by Apathy personified on June 21, 2008 at 7:55 am

TeraBrat,

There is nothing "immoral" about the ten commandments

So you are perfectly happy with the idea of a thought crime?

632. PZ Myers - Science and Atheism in the Blogosphere

Comment #197097 by Apathy personified on June 21, 2008 at 4:44 am

Steve,

On your list of reasons why you post, surely you forgot, 'because it's fun'.

A lot of my friends aren't interested in the issues we discuss here, so it's great to have the chance to at least see the debates, even if i choose not to post.

633. Should Strident British Atheist Richard Dawkins Dictate Education Policy to US States? Barbara Forrest Apparently Thinks So

Comment #197091 by Apathy personified on June 21, 2008 at 4:24 am

we're not a British colony anymore

*evil laugh* That's what we wanted you to think! *more evil laughter*

Is this a new tactic for the DI? Distract people by saying that 'science' is unamerican?

The fact is there is no VALID scientific reason to doubt evolutionary ideas, though lets hope that 'teaching the contraversy' comes back to bite them badly.

Note: What the hell is Darwinism? Stop falling into the trap of letting them call evolution and science 'just another belief'.

634. Lawsuit filed over 'I Believe' plates in S.C.

Comment #196684 by Apathy personified on June 20, 2008 at 10:31 am

'I believe', what happened to 'WWJD'?

jimbob,
Ha, touche.

635. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #196037 by Apathy personified on June 19, 2008 at 8:32 am

irate,
I will second your nomination for the position of god, as long as you also abolish U2 (sanctamonious puke on a stage, see Bill Bailey for a full discussion of their musical talent).

Podaar,
Of course ;). It also brings up the point that a book, even when full of nonsense, can still have uses.

Philip1978,
Ha, that was truly awful

636. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #196028 by Apathy personified on June 19, 2008 at 8:18 am

Ha, when i was 13 Gideons gave a free bible (new testament and psalms) to everyone in our year, two of my friends took it upon themselves to eat, yes eat, every page in those books. It took them a few weeks (eating the pages at lunch time and on the bus home), but they got through one of them.

Philip1978,
I'm sensing a new variation of Godwin's Law, i'll call it the Blunt conjecture for now but,
'Any discussion on the internet, if left for a sufficient amount of time will take the piss out of James Blunt'.

637. The Mother, The Child, The School Board And The Psychic

Comment #195986 by Apathy personified on June 19, 2008 at 6:41 am

Oh for the love of dog,
The children are being taught by these people....
Doesn't bode well for the future i'm afraid

638. Is the Universe Actually Made of Math?

Comment #195973 by Apathy personified on June 19, 2008 at 6:28 am

Epinephrine,
You are absolutely right, once again i look stupid because of my lazy use of language.

By underpins i meant that it's what we use as the rigourous proof to what we scientifically assert (generally).

the fact that there exists a mathematical description of something doesn't imply that that is the reason that something exists, any more than the fact that we have a name for something causes its appearance.

I never meant to imply that - I'm personally of the opinion that maths is a useful and logical way to build a consistant model of reality but is in no way a 'generator' of reality.

639. Is the Universe Actually Made of Math?

Comment #195929 by Apathy personified on June 19, 2008 at 3:59 am

I'm not a fan of the multiverse theories (or string theory for that matter), but it's always worth considering new ideas.
This kinda leads to the question, 'Do we invent maths, or discover it?'
As if we invent maths - Of course it's easy to create mathematical structures describing anything - maths is very versatile.
Though if we discover maths... well i'll let the philosophers debate this. (Note, i'm well aware that this may not be a binary situation - just trying to provoke debate)

Count Von Count,
I guess it's because physicists like hilbert spaces - we do use them as the 'backdrop' for pretty much all QM.

dsainty- WTF???

The Schrodinger equation breaks down because mathematics no longer works

The S.E. is not a ford focus.

You are betraying your ignorance there, if you don't think mathmematics works - don't use your computer or any technology (even the mighty abacus) - maths underpins everything.

If you are not a Schrodinger fan, use the Heisenberg interpretation, it's just as valid.

Newton Mechanics is just an incredibably accurate low speed approximation - Then relativistic ideas join in.

It occurs to me from the tone of your post that you may be taking the piss - You're not that dumb are you?

640. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #195743 by Apathy personified on June 18, 2008 at 6:22 pm

If you choose to argue your point making untrue scientific statements

Could someone please point out any scientific mistakes i made?

I personally haven't spotted any and the accusation that i lied is starting to make me, well, fucking livid.

RtG, don't pray for my salvation - an eternity in hell is soooo much better than even a minute with the likes of you.

641. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #195737 by Apathy personified on June 18, 2008 at 6:11 pm

Thanks Podaar, that's exactly where my mentioning of the fine tuning argument came from.

642. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #195733 by Apathy personified on June 18, 2008 at 6:08 pm

RtG,
There is a difference between something that WE KNOW is designed for a specific purpose - a watch, say - and a living thing, which has no specific use and is just there.
As for making untrue scientific statements, what qualifies you to be an arbiter of this? Please, i'm dying to know.
This is not my 'debunking fine tuning' argument, i took it from the professor of astrophysics who posted on another thread - And yes, the universe is not currently set up in the way that gives life the best chance of survival.

You can destruct living things and their components on Evolutionary terms bacause they were constructed by inferences on Evolutionary terms

I'm talking about in a lab, you can do experiments or run computer simulations that show how an eye can form - for example. There is no belief in the lab - what happens is what happens whether i believe in it or not.

643. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #195717 by Apathy personified on June 18, 2008 at 5:48 pm

RtG,
First, bad examples chosen - Solar system (universe as a whole) is not really fined tuned for life, there are many cosmological constants, things like neutrino masses, etc. that would provide better conditions for life if they were different.
Life is complex - but not irreducibly so - you can deconstruct (on evolutionary terms) livings things and their 'components'.

The argument by design was torn apart by I.Kant, see wikipedia for the details.

As for 'looks designed therefore is', looks can be deceiving.

644. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #195698 by Apathy personified on June 18, 2008 at 5:22 pm

Btw, so it's me, styrer (*high five*), frankus (*high five*) and goldy (*high five*) in the psychologist waiting room for correcting grammatical and spelling mistakes?

645. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #195678 by Apathy personified on June 18, 2008 at 4:59 pm

RtG, i'm an open minded sorta guy, i'm also a theoretical physicist, so i can normally get my head around most sensible ideas.

This is a genuine request:

Could I please hear the logical reasoning that led you to conclude life had a designer?

I want to understand what leads you to believe there is evidence/logical pathway for a designer, please could you state, explicitly, what you think the evidence/logical pathway is.

646. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #195672 by Apathy personified on June 18, 2008 at 4:53 pm

I think you meant "grammar".

Welcome to the pyschologist's waiting room, Frankus, the doctor will see you shortly :-).

647. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #195669 by Apathy personified on June 18, 2008 at 4:51 pm

People in glass house's shouldn't throw stones, pal.

What would a psychologist answer if i posed THIS question,
'What does it imply, when someone repeatedly refuses to answer the same question, then resorts to changing the subject?'

Could I please hear the logical reasoning that led you to conclude life had a designer?

648. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #195663 by Apathy personified on June 18, 2008 at 4:45 pm

refuse to use logical reasoning that a designer exists.

Could I please hear the logical reasoning that led you to conclude life had a designer?

649. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #195644 by Apathy personified on June 18, 2008 at 4:24 pm

they are dumbfounded of the idiotic banter

This should read 'they are dumbfounded BY the idiotic banter'

You're welcome.

Back to the question from Brian, who's this designer you've been telling us about?

650. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #195640 by Apathy personified on June 18, 2008 at 4:20 pm