51. The battle of the butterflies and the ants

Comment #108174 by JFHalsey on January 6, 2008 at 7:07 am

It's like an episode of star trek with an encounter with the borg, where they both need a rapidly fluctuating shield frequency and phaserbeam frequency so as to stay on top of the adaptation rate of the borg. amazing!

52. Stop House Resolution 888

Comment #108107 by JFHalsey on January 6, 2008 at 3:34 am

Thanks for the link, Clouds. I read that Resolution, and it scares the hell out of me. Seriously, I don't get how this could be a document in my government; it sounds like a church wrote it. I'll write my congressman... but I don't have any hope it'll do any good.

53. Stop House Resolution 888

Comment #107828 by JFHalsey on January 5, 2008 at 12:52 pm

Are we sure this is for real? I don't know much about the Daily Kos, but this reads to me like an email forward. Does anybody know where we can find this resolution on the gov's actual website? And if those pronouncements are complete lies, what are they based on?

54. 'Gospel of wealth' facing scrutiny

Comment #104243 by JFHalsey on December 28, 2007 at 7:46 am

I'm with liddlefeesh on this one. My wife and I also bought into the 'Gospel of Prosperity" at a time when our finances were very precarious, and it ended up putting us in even worse sorts. We heard the same things, 'just keep persevering,' 'keep praying,' 'look for unconfessed sins in your life,' etc.
At no time during my religious life was I ever "stupid," though. I have always been described by other people as intelligent, and consider my rationality one of my greatest assets. When things didn't add up with my religion, I would become convinced that I just hadn't read enough scripture for all the pieces of the puzzle to fit together yet. Or that things weren't working out because I looked at that supermodel on the billboard as I drove by and it tainted me in the eyes of God. Yes, these are stupid thoughts! But I wasn't stupid for thinking them, I was trapped. What choice did I have but to think that way, when I was consistently, painfully brainwashed my entire life? I'm talking in church at least 4 times a week, homeschooled, very little TV or "secular" media, etc.

Of course, I did eventually come out of it. It was an extremely painful process as the cognitive dissonance between what I had been taught and what I was experiencing just became too great. I guess you could say that that only proves that I'm not in the "fool" category, and that the woman is, since I came out of it and she didn't. But nothing in my intelligence has changed--I'm still as smart and as inquisitive as I've ever been (just nowm things actually make sense! ^_^). But I think that perfectly intelligent people can believe perfectly stupid ideas if nothing in their circumstances ever pushes them to confront their own cognitive dissonance.

55. How to refute Creationist with only a bucket of feces

Comment #103883 by JFHalsey on December 27, 2007 at 7:35 am

Those comics are all pure gold and made my morning. Thanks for sharing! ^_^

56. Synthetic DNA on the Brink of Yielding New Life Forms

Comment #101861 by JFHalsey on December 21, 2007 at 3:24 am

...I'm not sure what you find disturbing? You seem to be under the impression that life started once, ever, in a single lightning bolt-like flash, and that it's never happened again?

If life started on earth (as opposed to the panspermia theory), then early earth probably had ideal conditions for life to start. If so, it might have started more than once, but natural selection ended up weeding out all but one. Not so disturbing; it happens.

57. Synthetic DNA on the Brink of Yielding New Life Forms

Comment #101697 by JFHalsey on December 20, 2007 at 7:10 pm

Perhaps not Darwinian natural selection as it's defined in textbooks, but in essence it's the same thing; like I said before-- that which persists, persists, that which doesn't, doesn't. (I give Steve Grand full props for that little piece of obviousness)
Stars exist because they're stable, helium and hydrogen and the other lighter elements are stable and so are prolific in the universe where they from into stars and planets, whereas things like Bismuth or Plutonium are not very stable (in terms of atoms joining together into those molecules and then staying that way), so you don't find them very often in nature.

Likewise, when natural forces work to combine all sorts of stable elements in all sorts of configurations, those configurations that can naturally duplicate themselves (like crystals, for instance) will be more stable in terms of longevity--not because of their endurance, like planets, but because it is constantly making copies of itself.

58. Synthetic DNA on the Brink of Yielding New Life Forms

Comment #101230 by JFHalsey on December 20, 2007 at 6:05 am

The problem I have is that it requires a great deal of Faith to believe that the first replicator could've arisen by pure chance.

That is also not a great fill-in answer.

59. U.S. Congress Recognizing the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith

Comment #98191 by JFHalsey on December 13, 2007 at 8:28 am

Wow great. Can I use this in my letter to my congress person?

60. U.S. Congress Recognizing the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith

Comment #98165 by JFHalsey on December 13, 2007 at 7:05 am

Here's the message I just sent my congressman:


To my elected representative, Mr. Miller,

I am a conscientious member of your constituency who voted for you in the last election. I receive monthly emails of every vote taken in the House and Senate notifying me of your voting record. Normally, I am greatly pleased to see your votes; in this age when the general populace is so disappointed in our leadership and feeling very neglected, it is so satisfying to see that my representative still upholds the principles I hold dear.

However, your recent vote on H. Res. 847 has left me nothing short of shocked and appalled. While issues such as Global Warming, continued unrest in the Middle East, Stem Cell research and more are ignored, threatening the future my children will inherit, the fact that the Congress we elected to represent the Constitution would take valuable time to pass such a vacuous, self-congratulatory bill outrages me. Not only is this bill offensive to the millions of American citizens who do not consider themselves Christian, it is a clear slap in the face to the Establishment Clause, which states clear as ink on paper that, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." It is hard to see how H. Res. 847 is anything other than an announcement of partiality on behalf of a religion.

Although many of the statements made in HR 847 are historical facts, many of the assertations and resolutions are pure matters of opinion that belong in churches or around the watercooler and not in our nation's seat of government. Furthermore, in light of the pressing issues mentioned above, what business does the House of Representatives have wasting time announcing their acknowledgement of historical fact?

Sometimes the things done in Congress confuses me, sometimes Bills anger me. But when elected officials begin treading on First Amendment rights... it scares me.

Your constituent,
John F. Halsey

61. U.S. Congress Recognizing the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith

Comment #98148 by JFHalsey on December 13, 2007 at 6:25 am

I truly, honestly thought this was a prank. Until I saw the url it came from.

I really can't believe this.

It reminds me of how we always laugh about the evangelical image of a God who will help you through traffic to get to work on time or help you get the mustard out of your shirt, but won't lift a finger to help starving children in Africa. Well, here we have our elected representatives too busy patting their intrest groups on the back to take care of global warming or increasing turmoil in the Middle East. What a FUCKING JOKE!

62. World History

Comment #98142 by JFHalsey on December 13, 2007 at 6:18 am

Gods, I know that cartoon is depicting some of the most heinous atrocities our world has ever seen... so am I a horrible person that I can't stop laughing at it? The image of the crusader with a "Darwin fish," especially, makes me want to giggle.

63. The empty myths peddled by evangelists of unbelief

Comment #97051 by JFHalsey on December 11, 2007 at 10:44 am

I can't even read articles like this any more.

It's like when I try to tell my 2-yr old daughter, "No, you can't wear a skirt outside, it's too cold," and she just shakes her head vigorously and says, "No it isn't!" over and over again. I give up!

64. Agnes on Faith

Comment #95026 by JFHalsey on December 7, 2007 at 7:30 am

Brilliant! This was actually in a newspaper? Perhaps there is hope after all...

65. Poll finds more Americans believe in devil than Darwin

Comment #92388 by JFHalsey on November 30, 2007 at 12:06 pm

I like this line:

It is the latest survey to highlight America's deep level of religiosity, a cultural trait that sets it apart from much of the developed world.

66. Papal encyclical attacks atheism, lauds hope

Comment #92386 by JFHalsey on November 30, 2007 at 11:57 am

I'd listen to Michael Jackson give advice on child care* or OJ give marriage counseling before I'd listen to anyone in the RC church talk about "the greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice."

BTW, hungarian, your new avatar made me laugh out loud!


(* I almost said "child rearing". Whoops!)

67. Sunday School for Atheists

Comment #90754 by JFHalsey on November 26, 2007 at 9:14 am

As a parent of two little ones living in the Bible Belt, I think this sounds like a wonderful idea. I wish there was one in our area (yeah right, it'd probably get burned down).

Both my children currently attend a daycare run by a church, because that's the only place we can take them. I worry constantly about the indoctrination they will face growing up, from their grandparents and daycare as well as the majority of their peers; it'd be great if there was a place they could get together and see that they're parents aren't the only athiests in town.

Also, as a parent, I can definately empathize with the quoted Willey when she said that we need more social groups for support and fellowship. I've been strongly tempted lately to start attending a church just for that reason, indoctrination be damned.

68. Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial

Comment #89269 by JFHalsey on November 20, 2007 at 6:11 am

olegus-- Thanks for that link. I look forward to watching it!

69. Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial

Comment #88561 by JFHalsey on November 17, 2007 at 7:22 pm

BTW, in Chapter 6 (I think), they talk about how gorilla's, chimps, and orangutans all have 24 chromosomes, whereas we have 23. Ken Miller said that if we didn't find evidence where two chromosomes had merged to form one, explaining where that missing chromosome went, then the evolutionary theory of the common descent of man would be wrong.

I don't understand how that works. Can a species not just lose a chromosome? Or might our common ancestor not have only had 23, and only the other three primates developed the 24th one? I don't know enough about chromosomes to understand the issue. Can someone help me out?

70. Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial

Comment #88527 by JFHalsey on November 17, 2007 at 11:45 am

Finally watched it; great program. The "missing link" fossil between creationists and design proponents was so funny I actually laughed out loud.

There's not much I can add that hasn't already been said about this topic, but I would like to offer some bit of hope: I was raised as a YEC; indeed, I volunteered with our local creationist chapter to put on a creationist TV show on our local cable. But when I finally got so fed up with evolution and wondered "just how can these people still believe this in the face of all the evidence?!", I actually went to read what the real scientists were saying about evolution and realized that I'd been lied to my entire life (I was homeschooled and so missed even a high school-level biology education).

Logical evidence and reasoning can triumph over indoctrination and bias.

71. Georgia gets rain, but it may not help

Comment #88487 by JFHalsey on November 17, 2007 at 3:37 am

Excuse me for a moment while I pray for a new Porsche...

72. For the glory of God

Comment #88486 by JFHalsey on November 17, 2007 at 3:33 am

An excellent article, and very true. Only three years ago I was one of those religious nutcases who believed the world was less than 10,000 years old and that every word in the bible came from ol'Yahweh's mouth. It's an oppressive, stifling worldview in which no dissent or logical reasoning or shadow of a doubt is allowed. And though my beliefs would not have led me to murder or to strap bombs to my chest, christianity taken 100% literally is still mortally dangerous. I shudder to think what might have happened to my children had they contracted a serious illness when I was still taking the New Testament's word on Faith Healing seriously.

73. Religious scholars mull Flying Spaghetti Monster

Comment #88394 by JFHalsey on November 16, 2007 at 1:00 pm

A pretty good article until those last two paragraphs.

So, a tongue-in-cheek "prayer" to the FSM by a militant* athiest serves as proof that we all have a "deep human need to feel like there's something bigger than oneself out there"? Stunning journalism, that.

*Don't underestimate those pro-Darwin bumper stickers! Next time they might have a pro-Newton or pro-Einstein sticker, then what are you going to do?

74. Response to Theodore Dalrymple

Comment #85810 by JFHalsey on November 7, 2007 at 8:48 am

steve99, could you explain this to me:

Discussions of the origin of the universe that involve a beginning of time or an eternal universe that has always existed as the only alternatives are out of date. There is no 'first cause' problem if causality as we understand it was not involved in the origin of the universe.

75. Washoe, the sign-language chimp dies

Comment #85594 by JFHalsey on November 6, 2007 at 10:34 am

I admit that I don't know anything about Washoe, but I've watched documentaries on Koko, the gorilla who learned sign language, and I assure you she understood what she was signing. She even learned to make up new words to describe things she was unfamiliar with ("Finger-bracelet" for a ring, for instance).

76. I didn't know the FLEA CIRCUS was back in town!

Comment #85030 by JFHalsey on November 4, 2007 at 3:16 pm

"The illustrator misheard 'Dawkins has a chip on his shoulder.' "

LOL! Absolutely classic.

77. The God Delusion and Alister E McGrath

Comment #84695 by JFHalsey on November 3, 2007 at 8:08 am

ADH, I don't know how long you've been around on these boards, but they didn't spring into existence a week ago. Most of us have heard the same arguments by people like McGrath at least a hundred times. We've heard them from McGrath himself dozens of times. We point out his mistakes and demolish his arguments over and over. Every now and then, someone comes along and makes outrageous religious claims, and we patiently and clearly demolish their arguments, as well. And then, time after time, that person will ignore everyone's rebuttals and just spout the same nonsense again, "louder," as it were, until they finally disappear.

So, forgive us if we're getting a little tired of repeating ourselves for our own enjoyment. If you would like to engage in honest intellectual debate, instead of descending into ad hominem attacks, yourself, then pick a point of McGrath's you feel is intellectually sound, and we'll discuss it.

78. The truth in religion

Comment #84173 by JFHalsey on November 1, 2007 at 11:13 am

I see a delightful drinking game opportunity in these apologist articles. You have to take a shot every time they bring up one of the dead horses they so love to beat...

"What about Hitler, Stalin...?"
*shot*
"That's not /my/ God you're talking about..."
*shot*
"The Courtier's Response"
*shot*

...my, that's just the first few paragraphs. I believe I will be quite stone drunk b\very s0on... ^_^*

79. Huge Black Holes May Hold Keys to Galaxy Formation

Comment #84146 by JFHalsey on November 1, 2007 at 9:37 am

I, too, find this stuff infinitely fascinating. To know that we are made of molecules born in the heart of black holes... it produces a feeling of connection to the universe that can almost be described as "transcendent".

prettygoodformonkeys--love your new avatar.

coretemprising--that was a beautiful quote ^_^. I, too, miss Carl Sagan.

80. Tests of faith over 'The Golden Compass'

Comment #83511 by JFHalsey on October 30, 2007 at 9:28 am

Heh, my mother sent out a forward with that "warning" about the evil atheist film! I, now, must run to the bookstore and read these books before it releases in theater...

81. Arguments From Design, First Cause, Something Rather Than Nothing, Fundamental Constants

Comment #81814 by JFHalsey on October 25, 2007 at 8:26 am

I'm not very good at making debate points, but I know that in the whole infinite regress thing, when you point out to a fundamentalist that 'God' faces the same problem of a First Cause as a universe without 'God', they will often say silly things over and over like, "Well, He's just God. He doesn't have to have a First Cause!" or "He created Himself" or "His beginning just goes beyond our human understanding."

I think it is helpful at this point to stop talking about First Causes and shift the conversation then to their claim that this God they're describing is the God that just happens to be described in their Holy Texts, and no one else's.

82. How Baboons Think (Yes, Think)

Comment #77451 by JFHalsey on October 9, 2007 at 10:49 am

Great article. I was just about to submit it to this site, myself. It's always so fascinating to find behaviors believed to be the sole province of humans in our simian cousins.

83. Logical Path from Religious Beliefs to Evil Deeds

Comment #75299 by JFHalsey on October 2, 2007 at 9:10 am

I agree with everyone that athiesm, in itself, does not lead one to good or bad deeds. However, having been a fundamental theist for so long, I know what their reactions would be to that statement (that there is no logical path from atheism to evil deeds), and that is that if there is no God, if there is no Judgment and afterlife, then there is no point to anything, so why not just do whatever you want--rape, steal, murder--and then go die, because you're just going to turn back to dust and cease existing, anyway.

I'm sure you've all heard variations of the same theme; I know I said it myself, back then. I was so brainwashed to believe that meaning could only be found in God, that I literally could not imagine meaning outside of that context. What, then, would "good" and "evil" be? A theist can't even imagine that an atheist knows the difference without them being there to set out their 10 golden rules for all the poor heathens to see. The statement that atheism doesn't lead to evil is meaningless to them; nonsense.


(BTW Dan I love your avatar... is that a 4 dimensional cube?)

84. CNN Request for 'I-Reports' on religion

Comment #65234 by JFHalsey on August 23, 2007 at 9:15 am

Robotaholic: "Fantastic Four," lol! Indeed, I'll take Reed Richards over the racist sky-daddy any day ^_^

For what it's worth, here's my post, it came off a little more vehement, I think, than I ment:

Friedrich Nietzsche said, "A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything."

I live my life by facts, not faith. That billions of people believe that Jesus existed and was the son of God lends no more credit to Christianity than the fact the billions of people believe Muhammed was God's prophet lends credence to Islam, or the billions of children who believe whole-heartedly in Santa Claus lends credence to that jolly old elf.
It distresses me to my core to see just how much of our earth is covered by people who make decisions that effect their lives and the lives of others based off of texts written by Bronze Age nomads and warlords.
I need no cosmic judge to tell me that I should treat others the way I want to be treated, or that life is precious (all life, not just the deity of the week's favorite race).

To those who are worried that modern soceity is attacking religion, I have this advice: Just keep clapping your hands louder and repeating, "I do believe in fairies, I do I do I do!" Tinkerbell is counting on you!

85. The new preface to The God Delusion paperback and Q&A

Comment #62732 by JFHalsey on August 11, 2007 at 3:50 am

"Islam accepts human beings as they actually are, and gives us laws that lead to peace and brotherhood."

Must...resist...feeding...troll.... >.<

86. The new preface to The God Delusion paperback and Q&A

Comment #62605 by JFHalsey on August 10, 2007 at 10:10 am

Hello; first time poster, long time lurker, as they say. After catching up on this debate, I find it to be quite cordial compared to must online flame wars, and so I thought I might jump in.

First of all, Ash (short for Asher, by any chance?), Lee has already written out a volume of good questions, so I know you already have a lot to respond to. I'll try not to burden you with too much more to answer.

Unlike Lee, I was not raised atheist. For the first 20 years of my life, I was, in fact, one of the most "on fire" evangelical christians you could have met. (Everyone was sure I was going to become a pastor--some still are!)
Anyway, one of the things that got me thinking was the apparent utter sincerity that other people had in their beliefs. In fact, not only were they completely sincere, but many of them led wonderful lives, full of no more or less happiness or heartache then even the best christians I knew. From atheist to buddhist to muslim and on.

Now, this wasn't even really the start of my questioning that eventually led me out of christianity; it was just something that made me vaguely uncomfortable. But I bring it up because I want to ask about your conversion experience you shared with us.
You talk about how you studied the extremely precarious balance our universe exists in, the sheer number of variables that, had they been off the slightest fraction, none of us would be here right now. I agree, it is quite a doozy to contemplate.

But your conclusion--that the god of the christian bible must be true--seems rather suspect, if I may say so. I forget if you said where you live, but I know you said that you hung out with a number of christian friends with whom you enjoyed debating.

Now, bringing us back to my uncomfortable little problem above, don't you think it is possible that, had your friends all been muslim, that your examination of the intracacies (sp?) of the universe would have led you to the conclusion that islam is the true religion? Even more so, if you had been raised in a predominately islamic country? (Forgive me for my presumption, but I'm going to assume you grew up in a predominately christian country, given that most of us on here were).

The same could be asked of you about almost any religion. Why not assume that hinduism is, indeed, the only explanation for how we managed to exist here against all the odds, or paganism, or scientology?

You feel, deep in your heart, that christianity is true. Yet you know that there are billions of people who feel in their heart of hearts that islam is true. There are some people who believe deep down that we're all being manipulated by lizard people in disguise! You can dismiss all of those people's beliefs so casually, but why can't you examine your own with the same critical eye? If God is real, surely he wouldn't mind a little critical comparison, a little insistance on verifiable truth from his followers? What did he give us brains and logic for, if he didn't want us to use them, right?


In short, I just want to know why you think christianity is the obvious solution to the universal questions that your studies put before you, and whether you can admit, even a smidgen, that there's a chance it's more than just a coincidence that you chose to follow the religion of your friends and the mainstream around you?