51. Beyond Belief: Atheism (with AC Grayling)

Comment #57038 by The Smart Patrol on July 18, 2007 at 7:43 am

"14. Comment #57003 by atheistperspective on July 18, 2007 at 5:59 am

Linda Woodhead:

"I believe that there's a richer and more wondrous dimension of existence, that contains truths and powers that aren't immediately obvious to us, but which become available through understandings and particularly through appropriate action"

Huh?"


Yes, that was quite possibly the biggest amount of absolute codswallop that I've ever had the misfortune to stumble across. Every bit as loony and unsubstantiated as traditional theistic faith.

52. Bill Moyers interviews E.O. Wilson

Comment #54981 by The Smart Patrol on July 9, 2007 at 2:42 pm

Watching the disappointing histrionics of the nut-case Creationist who stood up and spoke at a conference in the video there, one can instantly notice that the fundies aren't exactly falling over themselves to take Wilson up on his offer of uniting in a common aim to save the planet. I'd never heard Wilson speak before, but the man is quite clearly a legend and an inspiration.

53. Interview with Dan Dennett on Danish TV

Comment #54820 by The Smart Patrol on July 9, 2007 at 3:36 am

He is a philosopher and warrior and his enemy is religion!

54. Atheism shall make you free

Comment #46938 by The Smart Patrol on June 2, 2007 at 10:08 am

Fishpeddler:

"I think Descartes more or less got it right when he suggested that the only thing of which we can be absolutely certain is our own existence as a conscience entity."

Alas, Descartes had never seen the holodeck inspired episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation featuring Sherlock Holmes's nemesis Professor James Moriarty, in which the Prof. is a computer-generated hologram who slowly learns about his situation.

55. Sam Harris Strikes Back

Comment #45800 by The Smart Patrol on May 29, 2007 at 10:17 am

"and I really could not have hoped to find a more lumbering, bellicose, and sanctimonious perpetrator of this obscurantism than Chris Hedges."

Don't pull any punches, Sam! Brilliant stuff, Hedges is a simpering, cowardly loon.

56. Why Christopher Hitchens is not Great

Comment #40591 by The Smart Patrol on May 14, 2007 at 2:54 pm

"If education is the key, teaching someone that using a condom "may" protect them from a deadly disease is far less helpful than teaching them that a certain action will "always" protect them from it."

That is one of the most disgusting statements that I have read in the last few hours. In one fell swoop, McCullough shows himself to be amongst the most contemptible of the religious apologists. Yes, of course, condoms are not 100% safe, but people will continue to have sex even if the risks of AIDS are spelled out very clearly, and condoms are a necessary part of combating the disease. His pompous fawning over the Evangelicals' stance concerning the proliferation of celibacy over and above contraception, clearly marks this guy out as a total nut-case.

"Hitchens does the most disservice to his readers and listeners when he attempts to equivocate Christianity to Islam. No where in Christianity does the doctrine, text, or deity call for the cutting off the heads of those who simply disagree. No where does the biblical text instruct Christians to wage jihad for minor doctrinal differences. Jesus himself forgave the adulterer and told her accusers to only punish her if they themselves were innocent."

Christianity is every bit as nonsensical as every other religion that has ever been conceived. It doesn't get let off the hook on the grounds that it isn't as nasty as Islam. It's equivocal to Islam in the sense that they're both complete horse-shit.

I've been a lurker around here for a while now, and whilst I'm not even Hitchens's biggest fan, this brainless reprobate McCullough has spurred me into action.