51. Happy Birthday, Richard Dawkins!

Comment #149919 by Shaden on March 26, 2008 at 10:31 am

A very Happy Birthday Richard!

Even though I live in the United States, I think this should be a national holiday nonetheless. I'd vote for it.

Is there anything a Yank can do to nominate someone to be knighted? I'll pay back-taxes on some tea if I must.

52. The Atheist Apocalypse

Comment #146772 by Shaden on March 19, 2008 at 11:47 am

It appears that the two people have quests available once they see the four horsemen approaching.

...I wonder how much experience the party got

Heh, looking at the differences in the before and after scenes reminds me of the child magazine Highlights.

53. God's cure for gays lost in sin

Comment #146510 by Shaden on March 19, 2008 at 6:46 am

You don't need enemies when you have friends like these.

54. First 'Rule' Of Evolution Suggests That Life Is Destined To Become More Complex

Comment #146486 by Shaden on March 19, 2008 at 6:12 am

by Mitchell Gilks

It's become obvious to me now, in order to fend off extinction, we need to eliminate any species that is equal or greater complexity to ourselves.

Isn't that the plot of X-Men?

55. Fleabytes

Comment #143043 by Shaden on March 13, 2008 at 11:42 am

5064. Comment #142990 by al-rawandi,

I will stop here. God created man after the other creatures were created. This part suggests they were created in their current form. Thus no evolution.

See, this is where I get confused with the "inerrant" bible. Were the animals created before God made man (Genesis 1:25-27) or did he make them after He made man (Genesis 2:18-19)?

56. Full house captivated by atheist Dawkins' take on religion

Comment #142456 by Shaden on March 12, 2008 at 2:14 pm

I agree with you about the title Matt7895, I was thinking I would read about Bob Saget and the crew when I clicked on it.

57. Beauty ad banned after Christian outcry

Comment #142421 by Shaden on March 12, 2008 at 1:01 pm

Well, they got the music right at least; can't go wrong with Yann Tiersen.

58. Contribute to science directly by volunteering some of your computer's processing power!

Comment #139706 by Shaden on March 6, 2008 at 12:16 pm

Remind's me of Stanford's Folding@Home http://folding.stanford.edu/

Of which I've contributed quite a few work units with my PS3 and computer. The only thing I don't like about these is how much power my devices draw. I worked it out to be several hundred dollars a year in electricity.

Now, with the new Intel processors coming out consuming under 10watts (some under 1watt) I would be much more interested in doing more of these type of things.

59. Fleabytes

Comment #139271 by Shaden on March 5, 2008 at 12:58 pm

Frankus1122,

I just converted this article along with the comments up to #3584 to pdf. It took my computer 22 minutes to complile the 1437 pages into a 6MB file. This thing is a book.

If anyone wants me to send it to them just let me know. I can do it again in the future as well.

60. US Treaty with Tripoli

Comment #138541 by Shaden on March 4, 2008 at 1:49 pm

hungarianelephant,

If I suggested that I could bring certain intangible benefits to the economy and people's lives, but I would have to kill 20,000 people a year in order to do so, you would probably think I was deranged.

What no one has yet managed to explain to me is how this is morally distinguishable from allowing people to have cars.

By you stating you have to kill 20,000 people in order to do so, you sound like you're picking who you want and murdering them. This just isn't the case for driving. There is an inherent risk that every driver takes by getting behind the wheel, but it's a very low risk. Do a lot of people die every year from driving? Yes, but that doesn't stop people from choosing to do so. It's their choice.

Do people die every year from food borne illnesses? Yes, but that doesn't stop people from eating. There is risk in everything we do.

Therefore, your statement is morally distinguishable from allowing people to have cars.

61. Bulldozers tear down giant religious teapot

Comment #138524 by Shaden on March 4, 2008 at 1:25 pm

Now how am I going to make the Captain his Earl Grey?

62. Richard Dawkins' US Tour begins this week

Comment #138427 by Shaden on March 4, 2008 at 9:45 am

First, I have to say that I completely agree with Dr. Benway on comment #64.

Second, I would really enjoy attending one of these, but no Michigan universities are listed :(

Probably for the best, this way I won't have to come up with an excuse to tell my ultra-Christian co-workers for going. Especially since I probably wouldn't come up with an excuse and just tell them how it is, which would get me fired I'm sure.

63. God, power and money

Comment #137707 by Shaden on March 3, 2008 at 11:22 am

What a perfect business plan.

1. Convince people that giving you money is somehow giving an all-powerful god money.

2. Take money.

I wonder how many Pat Robertson/James Dobson/Benny Hinn's there would be if there was no financial incentive to "spread the word."

64. US Treaty with Tripoli

Comment #135911 by Shaden on February 29, 2008 at 10:48 am

Cartomancer,
"Without guns violent criminals would use whatever weapons they had to hand, and knives, fists, coshes, chair legs..."

I think you're assuming that making guns illegal would take guns away from said criminals. What kind of criminal would you be if you couldn't break the law and possess a firearm?

65. Earth's Final Sunset Predicted

Comment #135039 by Shaden on February 28, 2008 at 1:20 pm

Don't worry, Jesus already predicted that the world was coming to an end. Though, he said it would happen within the lifetimes of his disciples. Mathhew 23:36, 24:34

*shrug*

66. Evidence can't shake your faith if your faith excludes it as evidence

Comment #132738 by Shaden on February 25, 2008 at 7:10 am

Bah, how do you guys get the time to post so much! All of your comments are in the middle of the night to me, so that doesn't help. Then I have to read the article, then all of the comments, by the time that's done there's 34 more comments...

About the article:
What I found amazing is throughout most of the article I thought Campos was making a case against faith, for his comments are better suited to the religious. It was probably the title: "Evidence can't shake your faith if your faith excludes it as evidence" that lead me to believe he was talking about closed-minded people like himself.

zendal_darkman,

Yes! Donnie Darko (I think)

67. Moral thinking

Comment #131334 by Shaden on February 22, 2008 at 9:08 am

al-rawandi,

Yes, TNG was Johnathan Frakes' best acting gig, but as MPhil pointed out, he's a great director. Also, a great voice actor (e.g. Xanatos from Gargoyles).

MPhil,

That's horrible about your ex taking half of your collection, hopefully most of the episodes she got were Wesley heavy.

(sorry for hi-jacking this thread with geek-ery)

68. Moral thinking

Comment #131319 by Shaden on February 22, 2008 at 8:45 am

MPhil, al-rawandi,

Admiral Riker (from the future) with a look like he's not going to take anymore $%#@. Much like how I feel :)

69. Moral thinking

Comment #131286 by Shaden on February 22, 2008 at 7:24 am

actual moral sense an individual acquires is not arbitrary, as a language is, but is functionally adapted to circumstances

I never really thought about it, but that does make sense. I love research into the areas that shed light on how we become the way we are. I think they're on to something...