Comments by alexmzk

51. These dim-wits believe in anything but God

Comment #181548 by alexmzk on May 17, 2008 at 12:20 pm

he's disagreeing for entirely the wrong reasons. religious studies is an important subject that allows young students to view each major religion in comparison to each other, learn the key traits, belief systems and so on. it is a very healthy way to look at such a major topic.

it is by no means being instructed "in the spiritual" like some sort of Harry-Potter-esque non-subject.

i think that it should remain compulsory until a certain age (i found it deathly boring in my own school time, but nonetheless a useful frame of reference in a Christianity-biased, prayers-and-visiting-ministers school). but not for fear of destroying children's sappy credulity, as seems Mr Pitcher's reasoning.

52. Group finds Starbucks logo too hot to handle

Comment #180858 by alexmzk on May 16, 2008 at 1:21 am

someone get a burka on that mermaid quick! she'll catch a death of cold.

53. 'Spiritual' dentist fined $10,000

Comment #180298 by alexmzk on May 14, 2008 at 2:11 pm

He said his Highton practice was booming because "we successfully deal with the spirit of fear that oppresses so many patients".

just goes to show - everyone loves a good gimmick.

54. Vatican: It's OK to believe in aliens

Comment #180087 by alexmzk on May 14, 2008 at 7:52 am

i can't wait til the Catholic Church proves the existence of aliens and everyone converts to Scientology.

55. The Neural Buddhists

Comment #179661 by alexmzk on May 13, 2008 at 1:38 pm

Over the past several years, the momentum has shifted away from hard-core materialism. The brain seems less like a cold machine. It does not operate like a computer. Instead, meaning, belief and consciousness seem to emerge mysteriously from idiosyncratic networks of neural firings. Those squishy things called emotions play a gigantic role in all forms of thinking. Love is vital to brain development.

Researchers now spend a lot of time trying to understand universal moral intuitions. Genes are not merely selfish, it appears. Instead, people seem to have deep instincts for fairness, empathy and attachment.

Scientists have more respect for elevated spiritual states. Andrew Newberg of the University of Pennsylvania has shown that transcendent experiences can actually be identified and measured in the brain (people experience a decrease in activity in the parietal lobe, which orients us in space). The mind seems to have the ability to transcend itself and merge with a larger presence that feels more real.

this is such a bad section, it really makes it sound like he doesn't understand what he's talking about. mostly he just contradicts himself, but also he completely misconstrues several of the main issues he's trying to address. sloppy.

56. 'My daughter deserved to die for falling in love'

Comment #178426 by alexmzk on May 11, 2008 at 11:54 am

i feel sick.

"Our girls should respect their religion, their family and their bodies."

"because they won't get any respect from me". barbarian.

57. British Airways takes beef off the menu to avoid offending Hindus

Comment #178076 by alexmzk on May 10, 2008 at 12:42 pm

English Beef and Lamb Executive

i like the idea that such an organisation exists.
to be fair though, there's no point in them selling a dish that a large number of their customers are simply not ever going to buy or eat under any circumstances.

58. The detail in the Devil

Comment #175845 by alexmzk on May 6, 2008 at 6:38 am

Bradshaw was studying for his PhD at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland in 1961

this is worrying. st andrews is a pretty hefty institution - it's like hearing that someone took a course in crystal-reading at Harvard, back in the '60s. crazy stuff.

59. Truly Bizarre : Indians Throw Babies 50ft From Roof To Thank God.

Comment #175007 by alexmzk on May 4, 2008 at 5:28 am

is this really that bizarre as far as "Thanking God" goes nowadays?

60. Orangutan attempts to hunt fish with spear

Comment #171048 by alexmzk on April 28, 2008 at 9:14 am

hm, daily mail, hmmmm.

61. Gunk in T. Rex Fossil Confirms Dino-Bird Lineage

Comment #169406 by alexmzk on April 26, 2008 at 2:16 am

that's the worst headline ever.

62. Is religion a threat to rationality and science?

Comment #166706 by alexmzk on April 23, 2008 at 11:45 am

oh dear, i thought Lord Winston was better than that

Or is he arguing against dangerous violence, which is condemned by every responsible religious Jew?

....

Israel.

63. Judge orders La. school district to stop Bible giveaways

Comment #166696 by alexmzk on April 23, 2008 at 11:39 am

i dunno about this. as an educational institute, it's generally a positive thing to be distributing free literature to kids. the Bible is certainly an interesting read and the Gideon society was definitely a strong influence in my deconversion at high-school.
of course i was at school in the UK, so the Gideons were free to tell us all of the bad-ass stuff that Jesus would do for us, so we were well within our capability to see their bizarre claims fall flat before our very eyes. truly enlightening.

64. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #164809 by alexmzk on April 20, 2008 at 6:02 pm

I have heard many different aguments from homology...similar body stuctures...DNA based, etc...and they all seem to provide different "family trees". If the science is truely as sound as it appears to be, shouldn't there be more convergence in the research?

don't know where you got that from because actually, they all provide the exact same "tree", the same "tree" (would you believe it) you'd expect had evolution occurred.

65. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #164806 by alexmzk on April 20, 2008 at 5:57 pm

Bill:
One wonders upon what basis do you delineate between the proper and improper applications of Darwin's theory? If all is "nature" (i. e. there is no "super-nature" or "supernatural") would that not also include our behaviour? Why then, would a theory of the development of biological organisms, including their (presumabely) biologically determined behaviours, not apply as well to that behaviour?

the theory does, apparently apply to behaviour too. Diacanu has raised some good points about morality above that you should read. if you also read Prof. Dawkins' letter again, your question should be answered.
the idea that because genes often are propagated at the expense of other genes, we must be selfish and unGodly to each other is a non sequituur. humans are a social animal, and altruism benefits us all. it is easy to see how a concept of "being good to each other" would evolve in a population of herd animals - indeed you won't tend to see animals that behave as immorally you imply in large groups in nature.

66. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #164766 by alexmzk on April 20, 2008 at 5:01 pm

ah yes, the real point of the film becomes clear: demonise atheists yet further. *sigh*

67. Lizards Undergo Rapid Evolution After Introduction To A New Home

Comment #164569 by alexmzk on April 20, 2008 at 12:19 pm

that's actually amazing.

68. Religion is 'the new social evil'

Comment #164554 by alexmzk on April 20, 2008 at 12:06 pm

Tom Butler, the Bishop of Southwark, rejected the indictment of faith.

predictable. Rev Butler is hardly the paramount of good behaviour himself.

certainly a very interesting poll. the actual results are linked to in the times comments, as a pdf file, but for some reason i can t paste the url into here. look em up.

69. School bars same-sex partners at formals

Comment #161508 by alexmzk on April 15, 2008 at 10:59 am

"The school formal is meant to be a formal dance between a young man and a young woman, not a young man and a young man," he said.

"If you believe what the Bible says, that's how you should behave or act. It boils down to what you believe.

"The Bible is very strong that marriage is between a man and a woman and homosexual relationships are not permissible in a sense, not encouraged, they are spoken very strongly against."

i believe what the Bible says is that gay couples should not sleep together. there is apparently no Biblical condemnation of dancing.

70. Did pre-big bang universe leave its mark on the sky?

Comment #158757 by alexmzk on April 11, 2008 at 2:35 am

The theory predicts that when this fabric is scrunched up, it becomes bouncy.

i really like this.

71. 'Darwin chip' brings evolution into the classroom

Comment #157756 by alexmzk on April 9, 2008 at 1:59 pm

if it involves chips, it's sure to do well with british schoolkids.

72. Anti-evolution bill clears another hurdle

Comment #157097 by alexmzk on April 8, 2008 at 2:51 pm

well, the teachers don't have a say in what theories to teach. that's a debate for the scientists and people who are actually involved in finding out about this stuff.
sadly, academic freedom doesn't allow taking lying when teaching young, impressionable children and teenagers.

73. Richard Dawkins on The Big Questions

Comment #157089 by alexmzk on April 8, 2008 at 2:46 pm

also:
anyone remember in the news a while ago about the Rt Rev Dr Tom Butler Bishop of Southwark getting horribly drunk one night and chucking kid's toys out of the back of someone's car? when the person asked him why he was doing it he replied

"I'm the Bishop of Southwark, it's what i do".

possibly he was practicing a bit of exorcism. casting out stuffed toys as a sit-in for actual demons.

74. Richard Dawkins on The Big Questions

Comment #157081 by alexmzk on April 8, 2008 at 2:40 pm

i actually saw this on telly the other morning. it seems they choose an audience who represent as many of the big Monotheisms as they can get (i noticed Sikhs, Pagans, Buddhists, Hindus and others were apparently absent, although i may have missed them). obviously most of these folk are pretty wacked-out.

what i find bad is that Prof. Dawkins seems to be becoming a symbol of almost universal mistrust among most theists and even a lot of atheists. there seems to have been a big trend in people imagining him to be a horrible person-eating atheist and as a consequence feeling they can disregard anything he says. every time he said something on that show, the studio went cold.

75. Dawkins warns of human extinction

Comment #155229 by alexmzk on April 4, 2008 at 8:51 am

GOD does not exist, people who believe the earth is 6000 years old are "loonies and idiots" and teaching children to fear the fires of hell is plain evil.

i don't see how these are particularly contentious, in Scotland at least. even the christians are fairly liberal here (a few loonies aside).

nice how Ms. Ross actually included a brief soundbite from a plainly mad bystander ("Kenny the Christian") as if it added some genuine perspective to the rest of the article...

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

Comment #154935 by alexmzk on April 4, 2008 at 2:23 am

"The people in the cave consider themselves Orthodox Christians and not cult members."

let's face it - which Christians don't consider themselves True Believers?

77. Pastor attacks scientist's talk

Comment #154934 by alexmzk on April 4, 2008 at 2:18 am

there seems to be an increasing amount of this sort of thing in scotland - look at cardinal o'brien and the embryos for example.

the strange thing that links both these cases is that the religious participants in these "controversies" inevitably just shout and shout about the people they see as their opponents, while offering nothing but vastly patronising rhetoric. when O'Brien offered to meet with scientists in regards to the stem cell research, he did so on the grounds that he could, in return, teach the scientists about "basic morality".

i'm surprised these people have any credibility.

78. Faith healing church parents charged over toddler's death

Comment #153398 by alexmzk on April 1, 2008 at 12:50 pm

It led to the passage of legislation in Oregon that repealed the right to a religious beliefs defence in cases of manslaughter, homicide and child abuse.

now if only they could pass this legislation in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

79. My quest to get de-baptised

Comment #152538 by alexmzk on March 31, 2008 at 7:53 am

presumably you have to blaspheme the holy spirit in church in front of a priest and they have no choice but to let you go.

80. Happy Birthday, Richard Dawkins!

Comment #150504 by alexmzk on March 27, 2008 at 3:11 am

many happy returns!

81. The science of religion: Where angels no longer fear to tread

Comment #148583 by alexmzk on March 23, 2008 at 10:47 am

i'd guess that religion arose in primitive societies as a way to explain stuff (eg. Greek Polytheism), combined with a way to create a tribal identity (eg. El vs. Yahweh).
it has since survived due to the positive associations it has accrued, plus the ideas of apostasy (possibly arising from the tribal in-group mentality), hell, tradition etc. sort of memetic evolution, i guess.

82. John Templeton: God's sugar daddy

Comment #148578 by alexmzk on March 23, 2008 at 10:39 am

seems to me like an awful case of obscence wealth(tm)

!!?!?!?!?!!!

83. 'Anonymous' takes anti-Scientology to the streets

Comment #145944 by alexmzk on March 18, 2008 at 11:13 am

i've seen some of their stickers up in Edinburgh actually. kind of piqued my interest.

84. Ban anti-Catholic books in schools, says bishop

Comment #144172 by alexmzk on March 15, 2008 at 8:43 am

A Roman Catholic bishop has likened books which criticise the teachings of the Church to works that deny the Holocaust took place.

ban anti-socialist books in schools, says Mao.

85. Berlin gallery in Islam art row

Comment #136740 by alexmzk on March 1, 2008 at 4:17 pm

art must not be censored.

86. 'Irrational Atheist' trounces God-deniers

Comment #117761 by alexmzk on January 29, 2008 at 2:41 pm

This is totally different than

pretty hilarious in a paragraph calling Dawkins anti-intellectual.

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

Comment #116092 by alexmzk on January 25, 2008 at 1:27 pm

In reality, those writings express the prevalent racism of the 19th century and endorse an extreme laissez-faire political ideology that legitimizes the neglect of the suffering poor by the ruling elite.

absolutely 100% wrong.

and what's this shit about "reading Darwin" as part of a curriculum? we never read Origin of Species in school. we were taught natural selection and speciation and the basic processes of evolution, and these things exist independently of Darwin's writings.
we weren't required to read Watson and Crick on DNA or Krebs on respiration. these individual subjects have been highly developed since their initial discoveries, and a full knowledge of the original writings on each is interesting, but by no means essential for school-level learning. nor is hero-worship, nor indeed any agreement with the personal views of the scientists who made the discoveries.

88. Three Little Pigs 'too offensive'

Comment #116086 by alexmzk on January 25, 2008 at 1:19 pm

"the use of pigs raises cultural issues".

good.

The judges criticised the stereotyping in the story of the unfortunate pigs: "Is it true that all builders are cowboys, builders get their work blown down, and builders are like pigs?"

quick answer: no, it's a work of fiction, for children.

89. Ken Ham in Leicester April 2008

Comment #114752 by alexmzk on January 22, 2008 at 5:50 pm

o good grief, what's that stupid fuck doing in the uk?

90. Vatican slams California firm's cloning experiments

Comment #114236 by alexmzk on January 21, 2008 at 3:46 pm

harsh as it may seem: they're only whinging cos the embryos don't ever get old enough to be indoctrinated.

91. The devilish church practice of exorcism

Comment #114235 by alexmzk on January 21, 2008 at 3:43 pm

awful.

92. Ethical storm as scientist becomes first man to clone HIMSELF

Comment #113610 by alexmzk on January 20, 2008 at 7:03 am

And the Vatican condemned the cloning of human embryos, calling it the "worst type of exploitation of the human being".

the Vatican, as ever, a superlative source of quotes.

93. It was a bad year for God.

Comment #109191 by alexmzk on January 8, 2008 at 2:44 pm

let's face it, God has a pretty shit time all year, every year.

94. Huckabee: Guns, God and rock'n'roll

Comment #106818 by alexmzk on January 3, 2008 at 2:08 pm

God and rock'n'roll were invoked by the Republican Mike Huckabee in his final campaign rally in Iowa, with quotes from the Book of Isaiah and calls for tonight's caucus-goers to get on their knees to ask for God's wisdom.

The former governor of Arkansas and Baptist preacher then strapped on a bass guitar to join bad actor with bigoted viewthe Boogie-Woogers in Sweet Home Alabama, Twist and Shout and Blue Suede Shoes.

shit, that sounds awful.

95. Pope's exorcist squads will wage war on Satan

Comment #104607 by alexmzk on December 29, 2007 at 1:59 am

actually, a quick google for "pope + exorcisms" turned up this unnerving article: http://www.catholicherald.com/cns/exorcism.htm
i take it there's going to be yet more abuse of mentally ill people by the Vatican from now on?

96. Priest who committed suicide for rebirth cremated

Comment #103115 by alexmzk on December 24, 2007 at 10:16 am

Now if we could just get this attitude to take root among the Al Qaeda types and others who wish to blow themselves up, THAT would be real progress. Actually, maybe it could be sold as a package tour. "Three days with 72 virgins, then you re-incarnate, fully rested. Or not". Book now and avoid the rush.

it does rather beg the question of if they so intently want to blow themselves up, why don't they do it somewhere safely out of the way of others?

97. Priest who committed suicide for rebirth cremated

Comment #103075 by alexmzk on December 24, 2007 at 9:33 am

that's genuinely awful. what a strange thing to do.

98. Was Muhammad Epileptic?

Comment #102599 by alexmzk on December 23, 2007 at 9:27 am

Because i simply have a lack of belief that everything just went poof from nothing.

having read the Koran, that seems a pretty apt description of how God made the Universe?

look at it this way: we know the basic properties of the universe. we understand the effects they have on matter, energy etc. we have a decent hypothesis derived from our observations of the universe as to how these natural laws could have brought about the universe.

to just chuck out our understanding of the universe and claim it's the equivalent of "poof" is ignorant in the extreme. sorry.

99. Blair converts to Catholicism

Comment #102528 by alexmzk on December 23, 2007 at 5:56 am

Nutter.

beat me to it.

100. Survey finds most Americans believe Jesus born of virgin

Comment #102341 by alexmzk on December 22, 2007 at 12:13 pm

The Ventura, Calif.-based polling firm asked 1,005 adults whether they viewed six Bible stories as literal truth or "merely as stories told to communicate life's principles."

out of the entire population of America, 1005's not enough for a valid poll.

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