51. Catholics To Pope: Lift Birth Control Ban

Comment #220798 by Roland_F on July 29, 2008 at 4:50 am

107. Comment #220786 by epeeist : There is a special name for women who use the rhythm method for contraception.

They are called "mothers".

Actually the pill 21 day cycle was 'sanctioned' initially as a tool to stabilizing the menocycle of woman and therefore make the 'natural rythm method' more reliable ! And that's why there are still 21 pills (or 21 & 7 placebo's)until now.

I don't have the link anymore, but it was a year ago on German Spiegel article about test this cycle up to 1 year from an US pharma company, and German Schering is testing for site effects of a 3 month cycle.

52. Catholics To Pope: Lift Birth Control Ban

Comment #220774 by Roland_F on July 29, 2008 at 3:29 am

Here a quote of the Vatican (the biggest transnational pedophile corporation) considering usage of contraceptives as the worst genocidal mass murder:

'Modern family planning same as genocide'

Using condoms, IUDs, and other modern family planning methods could mean committing genocide and being part of a global conspiracy to exterminate humanity, an opponent of modern family planning says.

Linda Valenzona, a consultant of the Vatican's Pontifical Council on the Family, believes that modern family planning is a form of voluntary genocide imposed by powerful groups upon the weak, and it will lead nowhere but to extinction.

the complete story : http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryID=126455

53. Catholics To Pope: Lift Birth Control Ban

Comment #220769 by Roland_F on July 29, 2008 at 3:14 am

About papal infallability:

Pius IX is also noted for his vitriolic reaction against many basic trends in modernity. Of particular note was his creation of the Syllabus of Errors which listed 80 ideas that Catholics were forbidden to accept. Among the list were such nasty things like rationalism, communism, liberalism, freedom of speech, freedom of worship/religion, national churches without papal authority, recognition of religions other than Catholicism, democracy, marriage as a civil institution, and secular schools run by the state. The Syllabus also specifically rejected the idea that the papacy and, by extension, the Roman Catholic Church, could even be reconciled with progress, liberalism, and modern civilization.

Or in short a despotic Pius IX used it to force his dark age dogma to the Catholic World.
The day after this infallability declaration Germany (Prussia) and France started their war in 1870.
http://atheism.about.com/od/popesandthepapacy/a/infallibility_3.htm

54. Write to UCF

Comment #219512 by Roland_F on July 27, 2008 at 4:04 am

Dear RD-Net posters,
please read Jared Diamond: "Collapse - how societies choose to fail or survive'"

The USA is in the middle of becoming a theocracy and a pessimistic view is that this can't be stopped by permanently sending E-mails or Snail-mail to different principals/presidents of US universities. As history shows there will be other societies who will take up it's place.


I just learned that the Catholic church globally considers me and my wife now as "committing genocide on the human race" as we are using contraceptives (3 kids are quite enough). So what is the honorable task of preventing the "body of Christ" to be humiliated by being the subject to acid, mixing up with digested leftovers and discharging into the toilet with my crime of 'genocide' ?!

Here a quote of the Vatican (the biggest transnational pedophile corporation) considering us as the worst genocidal mass murders for using the pill:

'Modern family planning same as genocide'

Using condoms, IUDs, and other modern family planning methods could mean committing genocide and being part of a global conspiracy to exterminate humanity, an opponent of modern family planning says.

Linda Valenzona, a consultant of the Vatican's Pontifical Council on the Family, believes that modern family planning is a form of voluntary genocide imposed by powerful groups upon the weak, and it will lead nowhere but to extinction.

the complete story : http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryID=126455

55. Sydney brothels say Pope's visit will give business a leg-up

Comment #218983 by Roland_F on July 25, 2008 at 11:47 pm

"Obviously we're not promoting it at your traditional Catholic community and it's unlikely we will get priests through

A Catholic priest in a brothel ? of course not !
How naive is the brothel owner ?

Representatives of the biggest Transnational pedophile Organization of course will need young boys in easy to lift robes of altar boys !

56. Texas Fiction Science

Comment #218974 by Roland_F on July 25, 2008 at 11:29 pm

17. Comment #218934 by chuckgoecke : Maybe he was not paying attention in those classes. Maybe he just got the tests and homework out of class, and he was just a good manipulator of people, able to get help from classmates

Maybe the degree is from Ken Ham's "university".

57. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #218923 by Roland_F on July 25, 2008 at 8:17 pm

1491. Comment #218911 by phasmagigas: the whole prohibition thing, well its pretty obvious that that just isn't going to work, ever.

Prohibition can only work in a theocratic dictatorship like Saudi Arabia, I guess only very few addicts smuggle some alcohol and risking harsh penalties.
or the introduction of Sharia law in the UK as proposed from the Archbishop of Canterbury : 200 lashes for every drunken guy would be quite funny (for non Brit's) .

Getting drunken and walk home is not too much risking others in accidents (pedestrian collision), not like totally stoned "carry me to my car, I drive you home".

luckily for me my non theistic moral compass works quite well,

No I think I better pray for you: to the flying Spaghetti monster and scarify some parmesan and oregano to make the prayer more effective.

58. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #218905 by Roland_F on July 25, 2008 at 7:48 pm

1481. Comment #218900 by phasmagigas : what is optional about getting mown down by a sober driver

At least in Germany the drink driving related accidents are more than 30% of (heavy) accidents, whereas less than 5% of all travel is drink driving.
Means drunken drivers have a much higher chance of ending up in heavy accidents, so this is quite an argument for prohibition and punishment.

59. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #218891 by Roland_F on July 25, 2008 at 7:21 pm

1463. Comment #218879 by christianapologetic on July 25, 2008 at 7:14 pm

Look at the trees, theres your evidence. Also flowers, new babies. People who get hit by cars and then get up. Lottery winners, Jesus coming back to show himself on toast, (or in my case in a bowl of alphabet soup: "Yo Jack, Jesus is real man!" My mother made me soup with punctuation.)

Who's funny sock puppet are you ??
I have seen more realistic attempts for taking on the role of "Christian Apologetics" on this forum already.

60. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #218877 by Roland_F on July 25, 2008 at 7:09 pm

1453. Comment #218868 by Teratornis

Indeed alcohol induced accidents and health impacts killed more people in a single year than all Islamic terrorists in the last decade.

So a good proposal: don't drink alcohol use it to fuel your cars to avoid peak-oil effects.

61. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #218085 by Roland_F on July 24, 2008 at 10:02 pm

Yes 'the life of Brian' is really a must. Was our favourite family movie on Black/Holy/God Friday before eating some bloody steak.

So where is Robert O'Brian gone ? Wanted to impress with a copy of Goedel logic he doesn't understood himself.

Maybe he can recite the old "Euler proof of God" who confronted atheist Diderot with : Sir (a & b **n)/ n = x, therefore God exists - reply !

62. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #217924 by Roland_F on July 24, 2008 at 6:57 pm

1141. Comment #217787 by secondsoprano : Edit: why does a box and the word quot keep appearing in the middle of my sentences?

Possibly you are using Word as editor and spell checker ? then ... or ' - ' will be interpreted as formating instructions and converted to strange symbols.

63. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #217220 by Roland_F on July 24, 2008 at 4:22 am

854. Comment #217207 by Richard Morgan

even if you and I now have to give different answers.

well you have to because of your new membership in FCOS .. but you don't like to ?

under-the-belt critics enjoy throwing my Mormon back-ground at me, as if it could explain something about my present experience. And they are not entirely wrong to do so.

I hadn't made a difference between FCOS and Mormon there even if you pray to Ganesh the Hindu Elephant god, Santa Claus or the Spaghetti monster : for me all religions are childish myths at least more childish than rationally questioning the existence of Bhrama/Vishnu/Shiva, Ganesh, Jesus, Horus or Santa Claus.
So now Mormon faith is ridiculous for you and Calvinist-FCOS teachings the ultimate truth ?! And next year you are atheist again and in 2010 Opus Dei ?? And all this because you are missing some humanity and warmth ?

the opinion, the world-view of the person who wrote the article about the historicity of Jesus. You call that "quote-mining"? She says, on her site (which is well worth giving a miss) that God and Jesus are stupid human inventions, and then extols the virtues of the Atlantis myth!

(1) the person who wrote the article about the missing extra biblical mentioning of Jesus is just writing about common knowledge of all scholars of this area. E.g hardly any mentioning outside the Bible and the few are mostly forgeries.
The interpretation that absence of proof on such an import topic is a strong indicator to a very high likelihood of the complete physically absence of this person is a subjective conclusion but valid and understandable.

(2) this was not quote mining but misquoting as I copied the complete quote which clearly highlights that there are so many crucified saviors around in history beside Jesus, so a resurrected hero as central point of the Christian faith isn't unique at all !
(3) She says not in her article anything about Atlantis, it was just in the very long reference list what other authors have written. And this Atlantis was just an possible explanation why the crucification-resurrection myth might have spread around into different countries and ended up into different saviour myth from a single common historical source.

64. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #217188 by Roland_F on July 24, 2008 at 2:46 am

831. Comment #217176 by Brian English

Good approach, whether (1) stepwise if the first hurdle of Jesus existed at all is taken, then the following steps of divinity have to be proofed.
Or if we make it a logical 'AND' and all these pre-conditions of proof have to be fulfilled to show the Yahweh & Son from the Bible are really divine to allow their teaching determine our daily lives.

65. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #217181 by Roland_F on July 24, 2008 at 2:35 am

827. Comment #217170 by Quetzalcoatl I thought it was that the immortality of Jesus was one of the interpretations, and it was Constantine who decided which interpretation to follow? Ie that the idea was mentioned in Scripture?

exactlly 'one of the interpreatations' - there were several versions of 'scripture' : many epistles, a dozen gospels and some in different versions and tons of different interpreatations of this different gospels and different versions of gospels and other scripture.
And the decision was made for political considerations not for 'divine input'.

And this fact we have to slap right and left around the ignorant theist, who think the current version are the unerring words of God.

66. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #217168 by Roland_F on July 24, 2008 at 2:22 am

818. Comment #217160 by Steve Zara
My approach is to question the whole idea of the supernatural.

ok this would be the second step.
First it needs to be highlighted that some of the main aproaches of early Christianity (I call 'Phyla' here) are that Jesus is just metaphorical not really existing person.
The 'Phyla' who think Jesus was existing, have then the dispute as what: just as a mortal preacher or as son of God ? And then all the discussions about the priority father and son on same level or is the son subordinated, ending up to incorporate the holy ghost to form the Trinity, and all this not even resolved with Nicaea.

Really a can of worms, and the imortality of Jesus not 'proofed' from scripture but decided from emperor Constantine in 325AD.
Unfortunately this whole topic seems totally unknown from most hard core theist who are posting here about Jesus.

67. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #217161 by Roland_F on July 24, 2008 at 2:13 am

Here some interesting link: a jewish view on the "THE MYTH OF THE HISTORICAL JESUS" when the original inhabitants of the holy land digging into their histoy books of the time:


http://mama.indstate.edu/users/nizrael/jesusrefutation.html

68. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #217153 by Roland_F on July 24, 2008 at 2:02 am

808. Comment #217137 by Steve Zara

When you follow the link form Richard Morgen (reposted from TWP) which makes several valid statements: why is no historical secular source of the time (entire libraries exists) mentioning Jesus at all when he was that influential during this time. Why is it necessary to clumsily forge Josephus to add a sentence about Jesus ?
That's why something is smelling here !

Why are practically all Jews living during this time not converted, when they are allegedly eye witness during the life and especially the resurrection ?!
Read 'The story of God' from Lord Robert Winston: Jesus has never existed or was just one of these many unimportant charlatans claiming to be messiah during this time.

813. Comment #217148 by Oystein Elgaroy :
Bart Ehrmann describes the early main approaches where several consider Jesus as a metaphor (not what he himself believes).

Anyway this whole topic is a can of worms very murky different agendas, so nearly impossible to verify what really happened. So the theist attacking even science based on their holy book are on very thin ice, possible no ice at all.

69. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #217140 by Roland_F on July 24, 2008 at 1:49 am

807. Comment #217134 by Oystein Elgaroy : am a bit surprised that so many people on this forum dispute the historicity of Jesus.

There is a complete main 'Phylum' of early Christianity the Gnostics or docetic directions of Marcionites who are considering Jesus just as an methaphor.Only in the end of the 3rd century AD the proto-orthodox stream wins the selection race and influence and destroys (nearly) all documents of the other 'Phyla'.

Books about this early Christian 'Phyla' :

"lost Christianities" (Bart Ehrmann)
"The early church" (Henry Chadwick) and so many more books about that topic.

There are even books of devout Christians like J.D. Tabor who is euphorical describing his visits to the holy land and digging on the search for Jesus, ending up with nothing until he find the 'Talpiot tomb' and despreately stick to it as the family tomb of Jesus as proof that Jesus really existed, even as a mortal jewish preacher.

Tom Harpur is searching all over similar 'Saviour' stories and ends up as a gnostic - 'the Jesus in everybody' so Jesus only as a methaphor not a real exisiting person.
And many who challenge the physically existence are devout Christians, so it's not an atheist plot !!

70. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #217124 by Roland_F on July 24, 2008 at 12:52 am

Bonjour Richard,
have you sunken so deep in-between to join the chorus of quote miners and out of context quotation spreaders ?!

The historicity of Jesus is indeed disputed and the arguments of very few non Biblical quotations quite mainstream scholarly knowledge. Very few lines of historical (non Biblical) writings are mentioning Jesus at all, some are sure forgeries, some are likely forgeries and other are a short hints written centuries after the alleged lifetime after the Gospels were well known already - so not the ["childish, pseudo-academic nonsense"] you are claiming.

Possible the Book of Mormon you were believing in for so many years is "childish nonsense" or now in 2008 temporary as Calvinist FOC apostle (on the search for community warmth) considering the investigation of the devil as the most important topic of life or thinking of the 'pope as the antichrist' could be considered as childish ?!

Here the full 'Atlantis' quote : a comparison of 16 different mythological characters of a savior who was crucified to show that this crucial element of the Jesus myth was not unique.

33a. Many on this list come from The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors by Graves. This is not to suggest that all of these god-men characters were utilized in the formation of the Christian myth , as overt contact had not occurred in such places as Mexico or Bermuda. Also, modern orthodoxy does not allow for the dates provided by Graves, i.e., that Quetzalcoatl originates in the 6th B.C.E., a date far too early in the orthodox perspective. However, we utilize this list to demonstrate that the same concepts are found worldwide with and without cultural exchange , because they are derived from the same astrotheological observations. Also, we are in concurrence with the "ancient advanced civilization" theory ("Atlantis") that would allow for one or more centralized civilizations to have spread throughout the world during a very remote period in protohistory, thus taking with it the well?quot;developed Mythos and Ritual, which would then mutate into the various forms found around the globe.

71. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #216992 by Roland_F on July 23, 2008 at 7:03 pm

727. Comment #216417 by mixmastergaz : wonder why Robert thinks Matthew (in particular) "coloured" the facts.

Well when a bunch of formerly holy man climb out of their graves and hundreds of Zombies are storming the city of Jerusalem , I would call it a quite 'colorful' description. Most likely there was no shopping mall to hide from the Zombies during this time.

The non canonical Gospel of Peter is talking about Angels coming out of the tomb and they are giants which head reaches the sky and Jesus is even taller then them after his resurrection his head even above the sky. This Gospel is also quite colorful on the resurrection account.

72. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #216989 by Roland_F on July 23, 2008 at 6:52 pm

Really? I can't think of anyone that might be addicted to excercise.

When you exercise long and hard enough that your body produces endorphines you can get addicted to your own body pain killers.

73. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #216985 by Roland_F on July 23, 2008 at 6:47 pm

728. Comment #216424 by hungarianelephant : I was told that while this is true, it's clear that the original manuscripts of Mark's gospel are incomplete, because they end at the bottom of a page with a preposition, which is ungrammatical in Greek. Is anyone in a position to confirm this?

About the Gospels of Mark : that the chapters after 16:9 are added is even mentioned in a footnote of some (modern) Bible prints.
So the drinking poison and handling snake crap is a forgery.
There were several versions of Marks Gospel floating around especially in and around Alexandria during the first centuries AD. Some versions are longer and make more sense and giving details not like the canonical version of Jesus goes into a city and comes out without doing anything. That there are too many (of cause all declared heretic versions) as complaint about from Clement.
Some seems to be genuine some forgeries, and I like to share some parts of the secret Gospel of Mark who are a inspiration for pedophiles (of course also a possible forgery):

….. raised him by seizing his hand.
The young man looked at him and loved him, and by pleading with him that he might be with him. When they came out of the tomb they went to the young men's house, for he was wealthy. After six days Jesus gave him a command. And when it was evening the young man came to him, wearing linen cloth over his naked body. He stayed with him the night, for Jesus was teaching him the mystery of the kingdom of god.. When he got up from there, he returned to the other side of the Jordan.

(Compare with Mark 14: 51-52 where the naked man strikes again during Jesus arrest)

74. Good Science Writers: Richard Dawkins

Comment #216365 by Roland_F on July 23, 2008 at 3:19 am

33. Comment #216361 by rod-the-farmer : What prevents organism A from successfully breeding with organism B

Call it species A with species B not Organism.

Foremost the number of Chromosomes, when they differ no offspring possible at all or the offspring is infertile (your Mule).
And the structure and sequence of the Chromosomes must still be similar enough like interbreeding big cat's Tiger & Lion but not cat & dogs for example.
Sometimes it would be perfectly possible to interbreed like for some similar bird species but there are simply not mating because their sexual preferences are too different evolved over time.

But more details could be provided from some specialists here.

75. Good Science Writers: Richard Dawkins

Comment #216359 by Roland_F on July 23, 2008 at 2:52 am

Steve's 'zarbi' link:

I think this is the better way of looking at things. Evolution isn't a matter of struggling to ascend mount improbable to reach some final peak.

To reach some final gully or depression not peak. And this gully might be a glacier lake a suboptimal altitude and not the deepest point.

76. Good Science Writers: Richard Dawkins

Comment #216357 by Roland_F on July 23, 2008 at 2:41 am

main article : I've chosen an excerpt from The Ancestor's Tale to illustrate Dawkins' skill at writing about science. This book is somewhat less polemical than his others, although it still has its fair share of strongly voiced personal opinions about evolution.

where are the other Biology books (not TGD) books polemical ?

To follow epeeist programming analogy : climbing Mount Improbable reminds me more at Operations Research with it's branch & bound algorithm. You get easily stuck at a suboptima (like the facett eye) and can't move forward any more.

77. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #216301 by Roland_F on July 23, 2008 at 12:45 am

708. Comment #216297 by Philip1978 : how come it HAS to be your god and your denomination of Christianity that makes you so right above the 30,000 plus denominations of Christianity and the celestial hypermarket of gods created down the ages?

Not to forget the early evolution of the first 3 centuries AD - almost an 'Cambrian explosion' of Christian main Phyla : Ebonite's, Marcionite's and Gnostics all practically extinct by now, and only the proto-orthodox evolution line continued during the hard and selective environment of the 4th century AD.
And even formerly mainstream orthodox interpretations becoming suddenly 'heretic' and only the decision of emperor Constantine in Nicea 325 AD decided that Jesus is devine and not mortal.
And this line of evolution spread into the thousands of separate religious cult 'species' on the tree of delusion until today.

78. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #216284 by Roland_F on July 22, 2008 at 10:59 pm

T. Freke and P. Gandy about : Dionysus ( hero and savior of mankind):
- born of a virgin on 25.December
- a star appear at his birth
- visited by a magi from the east
- turns water into wine
- heals the sick
- cast out demons
- performs miracles
- transfigured before his disciples
- rides a donkey into a special city
- is betrayed for 30 silver coins
- celebrates communal meal with bread and wine
- put to death on a cross
- resurrected on the 3rd day
- dies to redeem the world sins
- ascends to heaven
- seated beside God as divine judge

of course any similarities to a Christian hero are pure coincidences or I almost forgot the other apologetic approach: they copied backwards from the later myth to the earlier myth.

79. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #216282 by Roland_F on July 22, 2008 at 10:46 pm

... believes that dead man came back to life,perhaps he was not dead after all,perhaps its all a scam .

No Jesus was avoiding the crucification and Judas took his position and died for him. Or can 1,000,000,000 Muslims be all wrong ?!

80. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #216274 by Roland_F on July 22, 2008 at 9:53 pm

684. Comment #216257 by Robert O'Brien

well you are still on apologist literature only : just cherry pick everything which is supporting you faith based(biased) predisposition anyway.

Looking for books from faithful people who contradict their own faith and write openly on it, is much more reliable then faith(biased) apologist literature.

Same like the archeological evidence : then finding a piece of charcoal in Jericho dated 1320BC is proof that the Bible is true. However the Bible account is talking about 1420BC, the charcoal was found in a single hut no city existed then and the walls (actually a mound) was sliding down 1000 years earlier.
On Mount Ararat a wooden plank was found as proof of the ark stranded there, even if the plank was dated 500AD and so on and on ...
So Horus was not crucified, not a son of a virgin etc... even if a few of the 180 parallels are wrong it still leaves several parallels.

Of course when you play the ostrich and put the head in the sand you don't see all the facts. All mere coincidences, reverse of the history then 200BC Mithras myth are copied from Christian Myth finalized 325 AD and you always find some apologists who defend this position.

Anyway Robert you are a hopeless case, the difference of faith heads to people with scientific mindset is that we are convinced by reliable scientific evidence which proof a theory.

81. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #216218 by Roland_F on July 22, 2008 at 8:48 pm

Robert O'Brien
I saw that and it doesn't bother me.
I don't give a **** that he was a priest.

Well when you are not bothered about any historical facts, articles books, scholars etc.. but have only your pre-assumption and rely on them despite all contradicting facts, I am not surprised that you can't tell Egypt apart from Persia or Horus from Osiris.

82. The Pagan Christ

Comment #216215 by Roland_F on July 22, 2008 at 8:44 pm

Robert O'Brien
I saw that and it doesn't bother me.
I don't give a **** that he was a priest.

Well when you are not bothered about any historical facts, articles books, scholars etc.. but have only your pre-assumption and rely on them despite all contradicting facts, I am not surprised that you can't tell Egypt apart from Persia or Horus from Osiris.

83. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #216208 by Roland_F on July 22, 2008 at 8:32 pm

627. Comment #216190 by Robert O'Brien : Do you dispute my account of Osiris' "resurrection?"

As mentioned several times before : Horus not Osiris ! You claim to be an expert on history, but can't quote a single reliable book. Don't know the difference between Persia and Egypt.
Don't care what others like Tom Harpur who spend decades looking into Egyptian history and was professor for biblical studies so possible knows much more on the subject than you even he is an Anglican priest.
Besides this you can read other books on the subject and visit the places yourself. And you might feel very stupid (or find other apologetic excuses I guess) when seeing 4000 year old Egyptian stone cravings of a guy born from a virgin hanging on the cross in the middle of 2 other crosses.

84. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #216193 by Roland_F on July 22, 2008 at 8:20 pm

611. Comment #216171 by Mitchell Gilks : You can look up the "Dead Sea Tablet". Which appears to tell of an existing messianic myth involving a resurrection that predates Jesus's

The entire dead sea (Qumran) community was living under a believe system which is very much parallel to the New Testament (Herbert Braun: 'Qumran and the new testament') all parallel similarities evaluated on hundred of pages.
So not only Horus and Mithras but also some Essens teaching mixed into the NT.

85. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #216177 by Roland_F on July 22, 2008 at 8:05 pm

607. Comment #216166 by Robert O'Brien : Put up or shut up, Gomer

I already mentioned it before : 'The Pagan Christ' written from a faithful believing Christian, also mentioned before.
Or A.B. Kuhn 'The lost light' for example and there are others, just read some books about Horus myth, maybe some with pictures.

Or travel to Egypt yourself, or to Rome and visit the catacombs. They even have to put signs which mother and baby statue is Horus-Isis and which Mary-Jesus to keep them apart. A small hint the solar disk is usually an indicator for Horus.

86. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #216163 by Roland_F on July 22, 2008 at 7:51 pm

592. Comment #216147 by Robert O'Brien > You need epigraphical, documentary, and archaeological evidence for the details that _predates_ Christianity and you don't have that.

We have this for the Horus part and it's 2000BC definetely millennia before Christ was invented, carved into stone.
Virgin birth, lying in a manger, the way, the truth, the light, miracles, walking over water, crucified in-between 2 thugs then resurrected after 3 days.

Always the same with stubborn theists, ignoring all the facts claiming even that the golden rule was invented from Jesus even Buddhism is predating it 500 years - but of course also these dates must be wrong then.

Reminds me at some old lady posting here some month back as part of the 'Expelled' fan club, telling us she has to believe everything what is written in the Bible even if it's contradicted by all evidence in the world (greeting from Kurt Wiese ?) including the flat earth.
After pointing out the flat earth postulation in Bible and Qur'an and eternal damnation for disbelieve she never posted again.

87. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #216138 by Roland_F on July 22, 2008 at 7:22 pm

Even the OT is a complete copy of old myth plus some new state founding myth.

Genesis and Eden from Babylon, the flood also from Babylon, then Abraham and family clan invented including the Exodus, the conquest of the holy land all the way to David and Solomon.

So what's the difference between Biblical inventions of the patriarchs clan in the 7th century BC which stories are all historical falsified (no camel caravans during Abrahams and Jacobs times, no mentioned kingdoms during this time, no metal coins etc....) -- and the Mormon invention from an illiterate Joseph Smith claiming to found golden tablets, telling stories of sea travel with a compass millennia before it's invention. Both the Bible and the BoM are fiction like Santa Claus.

88. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #216121 by Roland_F on July 22, 2008 at 7:07 pm

Robert O'Brien I have thousands of dollars worth of books

Maybe you should buy some proper books for this money not only comics, and possible also some maps to distinguish Persia from Egypt.

Indo-Iranian Mitra predates Zarathustra . . . . Mithraism postdate Christianity

Maybe a calendar BC - AD would also be a good investment too.
So the oldest religion is Christianity (Jesus) - then Mithras then Zarathustra ? Oh dear.

For the copy of Horus-Isis myth to Jesus myth maybe a good start and easy read is 'The pagan Christ' from Tom Harpur, of a devout Christian author if this allows you to buy it. Just to avoid A.B. Kuhn and other more challenging writers on this topic. Virgin birth of sons fathered from God's are all over ancient mythodology, so also nothing new and amazing.

Even Petra the gate keeper is taken over to Petrus (Peter) as Christian gate keeper, the celebration of Easter with eggs as resurrection after 3 days is also from Egypt, Christmas day from Mithras, and the Greek god of the water house Oannes is taken as baptizer Johannes (John).

89. Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

Comment #215488 by Roland_F on July 22, 2008 at 2:29 am

Kristopher

In order to test the muli-universe... you would have to build a computer that really doesn't have any applications... what do we do; factor numbers all day?

There are applications for distributed computing (BOINC) and Cosmology@home is doing something similar : crunching numbers to see which theories of the universe fit best with observations.

The RSA algorithm isn't really used anymore!

I use it every day to work remotely and identify myself via RSA secure Id card.

You have to start backing your claims. One could say, that it could predict the complex folding of amino acids-one could say this.

Not sure what this gibberish should mean, but there are also some BOINC applications running , which do exactly this: calculating protein and amino acid structures.

One could imagine this, but that not make it real.

correct syntax is: "that doesn't make it real", but it is reality. Putting the head in the sand like an Ostrich and murmur Goddidit isn't a solution.

90. [UPDATED] Venomous Snakes, Slippery Eels and Harun Yahya

Comment #215479 by Roland_F on July 22, 2008 at 1:54 am

Bonzai: don't think China's taking over of Tibet had anything to do with population density

Same mix of reasons : new living space, more power and influence by expanding the territory etc...
Always the same bundle, since early tribal warfare: taking the neighbors land and woman.
Thomas Hobbes had written some thought about this in Leviathan : to increase the wealth and number of subjects a high population growth (internal growth) might prevent war for external growth.

91. [UPDATED] Venomous Snakes, Slippery Eels and Harun Yahya

Comment #215475 by Roland_F on July 22, 2008 at 1:43 am

2004. Comment #215471 by Bonzai Germany wasn't a very crowded country

At least much more densly populated than Russia. Similar the invasion of Tibet by China : a country with a hughe population takes over a huge country with few inhabitants.

But of course there are other reasons, like power, oil, suppress the 'lower race' (Untermenschen) etc... whatever was going on in the sick mind of this Austrian Madman.

92. [UPDATED] Venomous Snakes, Slippery Eels and Harun Yahya

Comment #215468 by Roland_F on July 22, 2008 at 1:27 am

2001. Comment #215452 by Bonzai Also I cannot see what economical incentive Hitler might have for invading the U.S.S.R.

The invasion of Russia (Unternehmen Barbarossa) was to create new living space in the East for the German race (neuer Lebensraum im Osten).
The first target were the oil fields and corn chambers of southern Russia. Quite some economical agenda.

93. Losing Sight of Progress

Comment #215432 by Roland_F on July 21, 2008 at 10:20 pm

4. Comment #215424 by belacaleb : I wonder here why we would consider vestigialism to be a "backwards progression"?

Of course the energy saving of not investing into useless eyes in the dark is a selection advantage, otherwise it would not be the path of evolution.
The point is here against the all-knowing perfect designer/creator, who creates a rudimentary eye instead no eye at all when there is no need for an eye.

94. Losing Sight of Progress

Comment #215413 by Roland_F on July 21, 2008 at 8:42 pm

The entire evolution tree is teeming with 'stupid design' so why is an eye 'designed' from an almighty creator backwards and then disabled for creatures living in darkness.
But of course God moves in mysterious ways.

And the end of the solar system when the sun blows up as a red giant, the accelerating expansion of the universe and the utter waste of nearly the entire universe to create extremely small pockets of environments suitable for life all doesn't make any sense for an almighty creator.
But theist will have still some excused up their sleeves and promise eternal salvation even from the heat death of the universe , you only have to following their specific cult and give power and influence to their priests and even the end of planet earth is no problem for the faithful.

95. Bush Bureaucrats at Dept. of Health and Human Services Redefine Contraception as Abortion

Comment #213038 by Roland_F on July 18, 2008 at 3:46 am

26. Comment #213030 by 8teist : any truth to the rumour that the Queen `as a shaven

This should be public knowledge even outsite the UK. Even the national antem is about 'God shave the Queen' isn't it ?

96. Ten Commandments' of race and genetics issued

Comment #213036 by Roland_F on July 18, 2008 at 3:33 am

37. Comment #213028 by hungarianelephant : When John Barnes arrived at Liverpool, some fans threw bananas at him.

Reminds me at some black player in Germany: when he was playing for the 'enemy' team from the neighboring city the same happened : jungle sounds 'Uh Uh Uh Uh' & bananas waved and the like. The next season he changed to 'our' team he was the darling of the crowds.
Reminds me at some political cabaret satire which was about this topic: " hey blacky from the jungle - banana, banana" - what next year he is playing for us ? What an excellent player and how fast and elegant he is running around our defenders like slalom posts.

97. Ten Commandments' of race and genetics issued

Comment #213016 by Roland_F on July 18, 2008 at 2:29 am

And certainly, this success has everything to do with foot-balling SKILL

and teamwork ! 11 technically brilliant solo players not working together will never win.
And instinct, like Austrian player Krankel once mentioned after kicking Germany out of the World championship : everybody would be able to score this easy goal from that near distance - but not everybody would have lurking at the correct location.

A lot can be done with training, but still genetic predisposition is mandatory independent if black or white skin.

Another topic is gender differences which are often hit by the political correctness bat and are obfuscated or remain unmentioned therefore: most males (around 85%) are left brained (good analytical and spatial skills) most females are right brained (good communication skills).
So analytical and spatial intelligence versus verbal and emotional intelligence, I do not understand why this obvious differences have to be suppressed from any discussion to be 'political correct'.

98. Ten Commandments' of race and genetics issued

Comment #213004 by Roland_F on July 18, 2008 at 1:49 am

20. Comment #212989 by weesam : George Best, Johann Cruyff, Eric Cantona, Maradonna, Franz Beckenbauer .. And the best players that ever kicked a ball.

It was about the 'elegant' bodily movements and speed, not necessarily the ability 'to read a game', to hit the ball precisely and so on, so soccer is indeed not the best example.

In fact, Germany are the most successful international football team ever, taking into consideration their World Cup and European Cup final and semi-final placings.

This success is more about discipline,tactic and stamina, not about a beautiful play and technical skills. And Brazil is not competing in the Euro soccer championship, so comparison should be limited to World championship.

I am not too familiar with American football, but it seems that most quarterbacks are white, where wide receivers who have to run very fast and 'light-footed' to escape the defense are blacks. And most blacks are able to run faster in short sprint, longer in Marathon (mostly form Ethiopia or Kenya highlands), jump higher (an advantage in basketball) and so on ... so races can have different bodily abilities which is based on the ancestry and the natural selection for heat resistance, cold resistance, faster running, adoption to high altitude, so this shouldn't be a taboo for political correctness - that's the point I wanted to make.

99. Ten Commandments' of race and genetics issued

Comment #212977 by Roland_F on July 18, 2008 at 12:21 am

14. Comment #212973 by MPhil : Pinker ... isn't scientific consensus.

Usually science should be about truth and proper discription of the facts, Pinkers area is unfortunately often littered with 'politically correctness taboos'

100. Ten Commandments' of race and genetics issued

Comment #212971 by Roland_F on July 18, 2008 at 12:03 am

3. A person's history isn't written only in his or her genes

So Lamarck is back now ? I thought the inheritance of acquired traits is long refuted.
And why is this not valid for the future but only the history ?

5. Both nature and nurture play important parts in our behaviors and abilities

Maybe someone should read Steven Pinker 'The blank slate' to see some arguments against it.

...... the ability to throw a ball is an oversimplification of much more complicated interactions between genetics and environment.

There are genetic advantages based on race: see how elegant black basketball, soccer etc. players are moving compared with whites. And anyone want to bet against that the Olympic sprint disciplines are all won from blacks ?
Tibetan Sherpas have a genetic predisposition for higher oxygen transport of the blood, beside the higher level of red blood cells based on the living in high altitude.
Innuit have smaller noses they don't freeze easily, Scandinavians have very white skin to absorb more light to produce vitamin D .... and there are many more genetic dispositions for different races best adapted for the specific environment.

Lot's of scientific progress has been hindered with the 'political correctness' issues, so what is so wrong with a high diversity of genetic predispositions ?

Why does the author not just highlight the topic 10 and promote the equal treatment ?