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Comments by Deepthought


51. 'Telepathic' Genes Recognize Similarities In Each Other

Comment #116741 by Deepthought on January 27, 2008 at 10:15 am

Putting a god in that gap probably wouldn't be wise. It will shortly be filled by science and that god will be squeezed out again. Every time a gap that somebody put a god in is filled by science, people begin to doubt that god more. This is how I lost faith. I couldn't see a place for a god to fit in because so many things didn't need a god.

52. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #116489 by Deepthought on January 26, 2008 at 3:43 pm

Sally,

Of Pandas and People was a book on intelligent design that was given as a supplement to (American) textbooks when creationists were trying to stop the teaching of evolution after the teaching of creationism was banned. For more on it read "Scientists Confront Intelligent Design and Creationism"(edited by Andrew J. Petto and Laurie R. Godfrey) which is a wonderful book on the subject because it outlines the history of the ID movement as well as rebuttals to the arguments given by creationists and ID theorists.

53. Launch of 'Atheists in Foxholes' Book Anthology

Comment #116464 by Deepthought on January 26, 2008 at 2:55 pm

Richard Morgan,

I've already been convinced by some of the other people who have already posted. Still, it doesn't help me understand violent sports any better.
Hmmm... If some one were to slowly wean the world of war and violence in gradual stages what would happen? We could start with American Football as a replacement for war and then progress to chess or something similar to remove violence.

54. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #116430 by Deepthought on January 26, 2008 at 1:17 pm

Unfortunately I expect to hear a group of creationists berating Richard for his refusal to change the subject to what the host wanted immediately. And he will probably come under fire for saying "God what a naive question".

I think that he should publish an evolutionary version of Of Pandas and People in order to supplement the small amount of evolutionary biology taught in school.

55. The Science behind the Large Hadron Collider

Comment #116413 by Deepthought on January 26, 2008 at 12:27 pm

You should point them at some of the trickier theological questions, and use the same argument back at them :)


I just point out phrases in the bible that say his mother's head should be shaved and those that say I should be put to death. He just says "those were taken out of context" I see no context that can counteract "Rebellious sons should be put to death".

I will sleep easier tonight because I know the universe won't be destroyed. But what would happen if we were to create antimatter in the collider? Would it just be in such small amounts that we wouldn't blow up too much of the surrounding countryside?

56. A Letter From Hell

Comment #116411 by Deepthought on January 26, 2008 at 12:19 pm

Paula,
It is always nice to see someone clarify an entire discussion in a single post. I think most of it was not disagreement but more "This is something we should be aware of." I know that Steve's stated way is the only one that could work and it is the only one I actually use. He makes good points but I haven't had any experience debating with an audience.

57. The Science behind the Large Hadron Collider

Comment #116408 by Deepthought on January 26, 2008 at 12:14 pm

I took one look at this and immediately sent it to a creationist friend of mine who criticizes my inability to explain the Big Bang. And then states that since a fourteen year old can't explain it then the whole theory is "bunk" and no one can explain it.

Does it say when the experiments wil start? And when will someone come on here and say that this will destroy the universe?

58. A Letter From Hell

Comment #116401 by Deepthought on January 26, 2008 at 12:06 pm

Steve,
I don't play by their rules but it is something we should be aware of.
Oh, and they probably think "respectful atheist" is an oxymoron because if you comment on something negatively then it is "disrespectful". If there is a way that an atheist could be positive about everthing on the site then they would be allowed on. Then they wouldn't be atheists.
From what I heard some of the usernames used seemed to be slightly offensive. I believe one of them was "GodisSatan".

59. A Letter From Hell

Comment #116384 by Deepthought on January 26, 2008 at 11:24 am

Steve,
The religious don't support the idea that religion should be treated like "any other kind of opinion" so that approach is comprimised. I do it anyway but they still get very offensive.
I think that for ultimate proof of this concept reasearch what creationists call "Origins Science". It is basically stating that anything having to do with the origins of the universe or life needs a seperate type of science to explain it. In other words the scientific method shouldn't be used because it might contradict Genesis. I may be oversimplifying or misinterpreting it, but that's what it sounds like to me.

60. Loneliness Breeds Belief in Supernatural

Comment #116335 by Deepthought on January 26, 2008 at 9:04 am

I have always been a heavy reader so maybe we can find a relationship between # of books read in x amount of time and religious beliefs. The genre of books may also be important. As someone who has read fantasy books for most of their life, I can speak from experience that it gives you two tools to keep you from turning to religion:
1. An ability to seperate fact from fiction
2. A hard time falling for the "argument from personal incredulity". I haven't fallen for it yet :).

[edit: My slow fingers made it so that I couldn't put this after the post that inspired the comment. It was Alkal's post 47.]

61. A Letter From Hell

Comment #116328 by Deepthought on January 26, 2008 at 8:53 am

Steve,
Point taken. It's just I don't usually debate apart from in front of a few friends, and most of the friends join the debate as so there are not really "onlookers". I have two creationists a few moderates and some atheists as friends so the debates can become fairly interesting. The only time there was an audience for one of the debates was on a school discussion board and I don't think that anyone's mind was changed. I was, however, debating with two creationists and hadn't yet read Richard Dawkins. I still think I won :-).

62. A Letter From Hell

Comment #116306 by Deepthought on January 26, 2008 at 8:21 am

Saying "what you have been told is ridiculous" is quite different from saying "you are ridiculous".


I don't think most theists realize the difference. With some of the ones I've talked to, a single comment on the bible being rediculous or the interpretation of the bible that they have been told being rediculous immeadiately puts them on the offensive.

63. A Letter From Hell

Comment #116161 by Deepthought on January 25, 2008 at 4:38 pm

Beth,
What is your definition of child? I'm cabable of abstract thinking; I use it to think up the evolutionary logic behind certain adaptations like lactose tolerance and then try to trace possible paths that could lead to them.

64. A Letter From Hell

Comment #116157 by Deepthought on January 25, 2008 at 4:32 pm

I just watched it and now I'm very worried. I just watched the Marcus Brigstocke "Can we have our Planet Back" in the comedy section and I have to quote him. "A four-year old is no more a Christian than a member of the Postal Worker's union"
I think all of those lines were pounded into the children's heads by their parents. Still seeing hundreds of childeren shouting "WAR" makes me quiver in my hypothetical boots.
I wonder who is learning from who though? Are dictators learning how to manage a propaganda campaign from the religious or is it the other way around. The methods are almost the exact same.

65. Loneliness Breeds Belief in Supernatural

Comment #116150 by Deepthought on January 25, 2008 at 4:11 pm

Owning pets and religious beliefs and practices are both known to increase a person's sense of well-being, but why exactly that is isn't well known


But wait a minute, the answer is given in the article. Lonliness is unhealthy, pets and religion remove lonliness, Pets and religion are thus healthy. So this explains why youth groups and prayer groups attract people: It stops them from being lonely! They get both human contact and contact with a dyslexic canine. (I've also heard him described as a gaseous invertebrate)

66. A Letter From Hell

Comment #116148 by Deepthought on January 25, 2008 at 4:04 pm

MeIM,
Would I regret seeing it?

67. A Letter From Hell

Comment #116138 by Deepthought on January 25, 2008 at 3:35 pm

I've heard a few mentions of this "Jesus Camp". Should I be glad I haven't seen it?

68. Launch of 'Atheists in Foxholes' Book Anthology

Comment #116137 by Deepthought on January 25, 2008 at 3:34 pm

I have decided that fourteen year-olds have no place on this thread(esp. after reading Steve Crawley's post). I shall stop posting and just read with interest what everyone has to say.

69. Launch of 'Atheists in Foxholes' Book Anthology

Comment #116119 by Deepthought on January 25, 2008 at 2:37 pm

mdowe,
I get so annoyed when everyone is right all the time. If I were to have someone try to kill me I would, of course, try to get them first. Unfortunately I wouldn't be much good it a fight because my pacifist nature would stop me. What would be better, though, would be to get a policeman in there to arrest them and then subject them to legal processes. I think that reading too much Terry Pratchett has messed up my world view. (read Jingo)

70. US scientists close to creating artificial life: study

Comment #116105 by Deepthought on January 25, 2008 at 1:48 pm

Now that I think of it chauvinj is right. Maybe that's what I will try to do after college:).

I read an article in Discover magazine about a theory that life really started in ice. If this theory is old news or if it is under serious fire then I would be happy if someone were to correct me, but I think it seems plausible.

71. Launch of 'Atheists in Foxholes' Book Anthology

Comment #116102 by Deepthought on January 25, 2008 at 1:44 pm

Ian was right about being slammed. I think I've just but my foot in my mouth. Stop making me look foolish! Wahhh. Just kidding :)

AshtonBlack,
I think the US military has realized this. I haven't seen a single army commercial that says "Go fight for your country" but they usually say something about college oppertunities and how strong you will be after joining. Oh, and they also cite that the army helps people in need. So they prefer humanitarian reasons to patriotic ones. I think I prefer those as well.

72. A Letter From Hell

Comment #116097 by Deepthought on January 25, 2008 at 1:33 pm

Noodly,
All points taken. The church my parents go to actually tells you how to contact the "Youth Leaders" on their Facbook and Myspace sites
I was fairly certain Didn'tThinkAsDeeplyAsWeExpected was a gentle jibe. Now I'm trying to remember where I found the article stating that scientists had created emoticons just to express their wry sense of humor. :)

73. Launch of 'Atheists in Foxholes' Book Anthology

Comment #116090 by Deepthought on January 25, 2008 at 1:27 pm

Perfect! Good reasons I'm convinced. Maybe not enough to join because I would prefer to find a peaceful solution to this stuff, but still you have done better then the kid who cited "wouldn't you want to fight for our wonderful country". I believe that he would also be the first to sign up for a religious crusade as well.

74. A Letter From Hell

Comment #116080 by Deepthought on January 25, 2008 at 1:06 pm

HarryHuck,
Remember that we Americans aren't quite as sophisticated as Europeans. Is there a British name for what we call "football" in America apart from "American Football"?

75. A Letter From Hell

Comment #116079 by Deepthought on January 25, 2008 at 1:04 pm

Clarification for Didn'tThinkAsDeeplyAsWeExpected:

Religionists, in this case Christians, are keen to censor knowledge and are struggling against the Internet. Hence the desperate measures to create alternatives to popular Internet sites such as GodTube, MyChurch (MySpace) and Conservapedia (Not Wikipedia


So you mean they are fighting internet websites not the entire thing. Sorry I got a bit confused. I thought it was similar to a person talking about the evils of technology using a radio station.
I chuckled when I saw the "Didn'tThinkAsDeeplyAsWeExpected" bit. I am fairly certain it was not intended as an insult.

76. Launch of 'Atheists in Foxholes' Book Anthology

Comment #116076 by Deepthought on January 25, 2008 at 12:59 pm

Aaron,
I think that is a far better reason than any form of nationalistic pride or religious reason. If the whole world were to have this outlook there would be almost no war. Well, maybe not because we would start fighting about which constitution the world should support. (Heavy sigh) It's a nice idea though.

77. A Letter From Hell

Comment #116073 by Deepthought on January 25, 2008 at 12:54 pm

No vote was taken, and no one spoke of behalf of Nider.


I wouldn't be surprised if a group of Christians were to take this line as proof that they are being discriminated against.

78. A Letter From Hell

Comment #116068 by Deepthought on January 25, 2008 at 12:47 pm

Religionists, in this case Christians, are keen to censor knowledge and are struggling against the Internet. Hence the desperate measures to create alternatives such as GodTube, MyChurch (MySpace) and Conservapedia (Not Wikipedia).


So they are fighting the internet with internet webpages?

79. Launch of 'Atheists in Foxholes' Book Anthology

Comment #116067 by Deepthought on January 25, 2008 at 12:45 pm

I can't understand the military mind either. I find the desire to hurt people so strange I can't even understand people who play football (American). I usually come to the conclusion that the football players have to be somewhat sadistic.

80. Heath Ledger Death: Baptist Group To Protest At Memorial

Comment #116065 by Deepthought on January 25, 2008 at 12:41 pm

From too much exposure to old books I tend to ask people who call me a "faggot", "Why are you calling me a bundle of wood?"

81. US scientists close to creating artificial life: study

Comment #116043 by Deepthought on January 25, 2008 at 11:34 am

Does anyone else sort of hope they're *not* successful in creating life? I mean, don't get me wrong- it would be incredibly cool and the medical repercussions would be astounding, but how long would it take the apologists to switch from "you're playing God!" to "See? If a person can create life, than God clearly can! That life didn't occur spontaneously, it was *created*!"

Them be tricksy fundamentalists.


I think that the benefits would outweigh the cost of changing a debate point. Now that I think of it, it would take a while for the fundamentalists to accept and approve of artificial life enough to use it in debate. If we were to use acceptance of evolution as a base line it might take over two hundred years.

82. A Letter From Hell

Comment #116000 by Deepthought on January 25, 2008 at 8:41 am

@JasonG and Diacanu

Maybe someone should post that video on Godtube.

"You must be feeling a right bunch of nitwits"

"I'm afraid the Jews were right"

83. A Letter From Hell

Comment #115987 by Deepthought on January 25, 2008 at 7:54 am

Ahhhhh! Stop using foreign words! It hurts my head!
Just kiddding. I'm sorry, but I don't know much German or whichever language that was. Out of curiosity, since I don't know Latin either, what is reducto ad absurdum? (I'm fairly certain I misspelled it)

(edit: I realized my original post made little sense so I kind of re-wrote it.)

84. A Letter From Hell

Comment #115978 by Deepthought on January 25, 2008 at 7:24 am

To all people asking how he could write a letter in Hell.
Maybe Hell has gone under new management. I think that anyone who has read Faust(there should also be a line through that but I don't know how to do it) Eric by Terry Pratchett, knows what I'm talking about. For those who haven't the new king of Hell turns Hell into a bad type of Hotel and instead of flames has office plants. The only torture used was boredom!

85. Secrets of bird flight revealed

Comment #115756 by Deepthought on January 24, 2008 at 3:55 pm

As a kind of non-sequiteur: Why would my profile claim that I have never posted anything?

86. Secrets of bird flight revealed

Comment #115752 by Deepthought on January 24, 2008 at 3:47 pm

I consider civil arguments between two people as "debates" I do, however, see your point.

87. Heath Ledger Death: Baptist Group To Protest At Memorial

Comment #115748 by Deepthought on January 24, 2008 at 3:40 pm

I think the Mythbusters busted the myth that keeping a toothbruch too close to the toilet is unhygenic.

88. Secrets of bird flight revealed

Comment #115725 by Deepthought on January 24, 2008 at 3:01 pm

The creationists I debate with seem to immediately ratchet someone's IQ down if they start swearing. Due to this I avoid it and just baffle them with big words. (three or more syllables) :)

89. Heath Ledger Death: Baptist Group To Protest At Memorial

Comment #115716 by Deepthought on January 24, 2008 at 2:54 pm

@mesomodel

I was more thinking of comparing them to HAL 9000
They seem to go psycho after getting to many contradictions in their heads. Unfortunately it doesn't take having only one contradiction to do it to humans like it did to HAL.

90. Secrets of bird flight revealed

Comment #115700 by Deepthought on January 24, 2008 at 2:35 pm

@babrock
I would avoid swearing because it usually makes you look bad. I would instead confront them with verses from the bible in which God says "Kill this"

91. Heath Ledger Death: Baptist Group To Protest At Memorial

Comment #115695 by Deepthought on January 24, 2008 at 2:29 pm

al-rawandi,

According to the Bible the Hebrews continued running around killing people after the Ten Commandments. According to history, so did the Christians.

92. Heath Ledger Death: Baptist Group To Protest At Memorial

Comment #115686 by Deepthought on January 24, 2008 at 2:22 pm

Woah there, al-rawandi, them's big words!


Yeah, they are over three syllables. I was trying to figure out the definiton of a "long" word and decided that it is "any word with three or more syllables".

93. Secrets of bird flight revealed

Comment #115677 by Deepthought on January 24, 2008 at 2:15 pm

Right, and what's the proportion of the US public for whom that is the case?


Maybe we should highjack Intelligent Design theorists' methods and publish a book for school children with a disclaimer in the text books saying "If you feel restricted by the small amount of evolution taught in this text book read (insert book title here) which will be offered to students in order to teach them more of evolutionary theory"
RD could write it or he could just give them The Blind Watchmaker.

94. Secrets of bird flight revealed

Comment #115645 by Deepthought on January 24, 2008 at 1:15 pm

I've seen some of the conversations with ADH. Are there any other Creationists that visit this site?

What would they say in reply to the question of "Could a human have written the Bible and then said that it was the word of God just to benefit himself?"

95. Secrets of bird flight revealed

Comment #115641 by Deepthought on January 24, 2008 at 1:05 pm

I do love making cretinists look stupid ;-)


I don't enjoy it very much due to the ease of it. Convincing creationists is much harder and far more fun. I think that you can't convince a creationist with a step by step critique of his logic. Logic only works on the less fanatical Christians. I intend to try this conversation on one:

Me: What is your faith based on?
Cristian: The Bible
Me: Why do you base your faith on the Bible?
Christian: Because it is the Word of God!
Me: How do you know this?
Christian: (I expect that there may be high quantities of Ummmm... here) Because it says so
Me: Could a human have written the Bible and then said that it was the word of God just to benefit himself?
Christian: (At this point intuition fails me because I have no idea what rationalization method they could use. If someone on this site could fill in this blank I would be grateful)

96. Secrets of bird flight revealed

Comment #115634 by Deepthought on January 24, 2008 at 12:49 pm

It seems to imply that dinosaurs evolved wings on purpose.


I think you're right. This sentence is just waiting to be misinterpreted.

97. Secrets of bird flight revealed

Comment #115631 by Deepthought on January 24, 2008 at 12:40 pm

I thought that was obvious. We could all live on in blissful ignorance, just like Creationists.


Or the creationists would win the debates against us because science would suddenly be useless. Still, point taken.

98. Secrets of bird flight revealed

Comment #115623 by Deepthought on January 24, 2008 at 12:18 pm

Aw shucks! More answers. When will it ever end?


But imagine what would happen if we didn't get these answers.

Assuming humanity evolves to the point where we can create new life from scratch - will we then have evolved into creationists?


I think the term is "creators"

99. Jay Spears: Smak Dem Christians Down

Comment #115171 by Deepthought on January 23, 2008 at 5:34 pm

Jay Spears,

Thank you for clarifying this for me. This will be great fuel against some of my friends who believe that the US is (or should be) a Christian nation. I think I'm going to include the Thomas Paine quote in my list of favorite quotes.

100. Banned From Church

Comment #115118 by Deepthought on January 23, 2008 at 3:34 pm

Corylus

The question was directed to anyone who could answer.
What term should I use instead of converted?

Out of curiosity how would you approach an atheist who has converted to christianity?


Bewilderment.


I think I lean towards bewildered curiosity.

I ask this because I'm being told to listen to the head of the Human Genome Project at my local church. Apparently he went from atheism to Christianity. I was kind of wondering about what reasons he would give for this change.

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