51. Christopher Hitchens Is a Treasure

Comment #43319 by alfonso on May 21, 2007 at 5:46 am

This was all well until...

But suppose God is not like the Hitchens model. Suppose that God is not a Rationalist, a Logician, a straight-line Geometer-of-the-skies. Suppose that the Creator God deliberately made a world of probabilities and failures, of waste and profusion, of suffering and hardships and frustrations. Suppose that He loved the idea of an unformed history, slowly developing (almost like an organism), nearly everything good won the hard way. Suppose that He loved chance, crossing chains of probabilities, freakish accidents, wild and unnecessary profusion, contingencies of every sort — to keep even angels guessing. Suppose He desired a world of indetermination, with all its blooming, buzzing confusion, so that within it freedom could spread out its wings, experiment, and find its own way.

52. Thought vs. feeling in religion

Comment #41473 by alfonso on May 16, 2007 at 7:00 am

Must agree with previous comments. First line and it lost me. Religion does not explain anything, in fact, tries as hard as possible to avoid what any reasonable person would call explaining anything.

Past that, all the rest is the usual and common attempt to unlink religion from its consequences (bad, bigoted politics) by blaming a few bad apples.

53. The God disunion: there is a place for faith in science, insists Winston

Comment #34725 by alfonso on April 25, 2007 at 2:12 am

"I find the title of 'The God Delusion' rather insulting," said Lord Winston

Enough said, disqualified yourself from being read as an intelligent person.

54. Doctors Opposing Circumcision: An Appeal for Misha

Comment #32394 by alfonso on April 17, 2007 at 2:01 am

Spinoza:

Your logic is flawed (I felt a bit Vulcan).

The only reason why this mutilation is even considered to be a matter of parent's choice is because it is religiously induced. Otherwise this whole argument would indicate the father as unable to act as a guardian.

Ludicrous. Poor kid. And I say poor kid not because I believe that circumcision is *that terrible*, but because he himself does, his own wishes ignored by one who claims to love him, and apparently in the name of some imaginary friend that claims loves everyone.

I hope that this kid becomes at a later age a raging atheist, and sues his father.

55. Irish poll shows parents no longer want to force religion on to children

Comment #32366 by alfonso on April 17, 2007 at 12:39 am

Rampant atheism? With 97% schools being catholic schools? My arse.

Census is showing same data.

56. Atheism isn't the final word

Comment #32365 by alfonso on April 17, 2007 at 12:32 am

"humility is itself a religious concept"

First: no

Second: we are the chosen ones by the creator... Is that humility?

For crying out loud!!!!!

57. Study Finds Shark Overfishing May Lower Scallop Population

Comment #28601 by alfonso on March 30, 2007 at 4:21 am

Why wouldn't it be? It is an interesting biology study...

58. Peanut Butter, The Atheist's Nightmare!

Comment #27836 by alfonso on March 27, 2007 at 2:29 am

Is this for real?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Missler

59. A Brief History of Disbelief

Comment #26539 by alfonso on March 20, 2007 at 7:04 am

Just excellent, totally worth watching. Enlightening to the extreme!

60. UK Christians 'suffer for faith'

Comment #26400 by alfonso on March 19, 2007 at 5:52 am

Discrimination?

Normally we do a lot more to crazy people, so they should be glad they are still keeping a lot of privileges.

61. Interview with Alister McGrath, author of 'The Dawkins Delusion?'

Comment #20980 by alfonso on February 7, 2007 at 7:34 am

Dawkins himself says in his book The Devil's Chaplain that in 150 years' time we may not believe Darwin's view of evolution any more.

62. Give us back our bones, pagans tell museums

Comment #20762 by alfonso on February 6, 2007 at 10:21 am

8. Comment #20752 by Luthien:
Hey Luthien, very good point. Should have said:

Trial witches by submersion (?)

9. Comment #20757 by John Phillips
What is perfectly reasonable? They base their reason in lack of reason. When does lack of reason become reasonable? Only when insanity is pleaded, I believe.

63. Give us back our bones, pagans tell museums

Comment #20728 by alfonso on February 6, 2007 at 6:57 am

Let's just cave in to every religion-based request! Just because religion MUST BE RIGHT.

Have unprotected sex regardless of STDs or need for population growth control.
Ban any science or research which is deemed questionable, blasphemous or might create doubts on faith.
Blow ourselves up for martyrdom.
Burn heretics to the stake.
Drown witches.
...
[insert here any ridiculous conduct guideline based on untestable claims you might want to come up with, nothing will be questioned]

And to make sure this madness shall never end:
Grant parents the absolute right to corrupt their children minds with all of this and more!

If it wasn't so sad, I'd puke.

64. Root of All Evil? Discussion

Comment #20553 by alfonso on February 4, 2007 at 4:41 am

I am so tired of religious (all religions) hijacking of the good values of humanity. We must emphasize this, if atheists are considered evil is because many many people believe that good values come from religion. Bigots like the religious fundamentalists in that show (all were fundamentalists, there were no true moderates there) are claiming to the world that good values come only from that freaking god of theirs. That idiotic woman claiming that god is love, and lots of people will listen to her and say, oh, she is so right. For crying out loud.

65. Sextuplet parents take B.C. to court over baby seizures

Comment #20416 by alfonso on February 2, 2007 at 9:40 am

What makes religious beliefs acceptable grounds for decision-making, apparently regardless of consequence? Seems like we've set ourselves here for a justification for anything that our sick minds can produce!

So, jehova witnesses can basically deny their own children the right to live. We are as right to call that murder as if they had left those babies starve.

Great. Definitely a slippery slope here. But the direction of fall is obviously the same of increased respect to irrationality, not otherwise.

66. Root of All Evil? Discussion

Comment #20390 by alfonso on February 2, 2007 at 6:25 am

@Comment #20369 by Pob

I think it was correct from Avi Lewis to do back off at that point. As his role should be to flatten out the blatantly obvious assaults to the audience intelligence, without taking sides.

What I found amazing is that Charles McVety was using a possessive pronoun with the word 'fact' to disqualify its validity. So, by claiming that Evolution is Richard Dawkins' fact, this somehow makes it less valid. His fact vs bible's fact.

Amazing, how on earth can this people have any credibility?

67. Morals do not conquer all in decision making

Comment #20220 by alfonso on February 1, 2007 at 5:52 am

*leader says*

This is not a testable statement. One million killed by atomic bomb is.

Or in other words, war could have ended way before reaching that million of deaths through conventional means.

Furthermore, automated launch systems at country B perform a nuclear counter-strike against country A. 10 million die.

What is 'biased' in my reasoning? That I do not really know if B can or will do such counter strike. But it is the exact same kind of biased reasoning when agreeing with the country A's leader.

68. CNN Sylvia Browne Fraud

Comment #19541 by alfonso on January 28, 2007 at 6:20 am

Interesting statistic on the percentage of people who believe in psychics in the US. 19% on the East coast?

I wonder if those statistics were well prepared, proper population samples and adequate questions.

69. In defense of atheism

Comment #19323 by alfonso on January 26, 2007 at 8:15 am

then there is no need to oppose Richard Dawkins at all; any minute now, the professor is bound to see through the miserable shallowness of being a bestselling author, holding a chair at the world's greatest university, and enjoying marital bliss with a beautiful television actress.

70. 'God Is Not a Moderate'

Comment #19000 by alfonso on January 24, 2007 at 8:41 am

AdHominem, even though I agree with you when it comes to moderation from the insanity point of view, you have to admit that most people do not read it that way. Moderation is supposed to be represented by showing respect to other beliefs, no matter how irrational. And it is within this society of respect towards irrationality where fundamentalism grows rampant.

Agreed, whether you are moderately religious or fundamentalist, you are irrational. The important difference between those is not rationality.

71. 'God Is Not a Moderate'

Comment #18982 by alfonso on January 24, 2007 at 7:11 am

The UPDATE 1-23-07: Reply from Sam is simply impressive. It undermines pretty much everything that Andrew Sullivan has said till now.

I haven't started reading The End of Faith yet (too much work lately), but can't really wait anymore!

72. Former exec in Irvine says he was fired over religion

Comment #18961 by alfonso on January 24, 2007 at 3:10 am

I love religious moderation, it just brings tears of joy to my eyes.

Particularly emotional the comparison between corporate culture and religious belief. In my company we are trying to get rid of some of the aspects of corporate culture, precisely because they are no longer justified, that is, they have become dogmatic, irrational.

I'd say that aspects of the corporate culture which are still valid, which are rational and help our company make money, those aspects are kept, at least we try.

The good old 'we do it like this because we always did'. In this case to support discrimination.

73. Dispatches: Undercover Mosque

Comment #18230 by alfonso on January 19, 2007 at 4:39 am

john_eg, although I hope you are right, I find the second coming of 'jesucristo superstar' as vacuous yet it seems to dominate the US.

74. Discussion of The God Delusion

Comment #18050 by alfonso on January 18, 2007 at 4:31 am

Without being as vain as to pretend that I can figure out what Dawkins would do should, let's say, the god from the bible actually exist, I am kinda sure he would not deny it, but rather dedicate himself to study its 'divine' origin from a scientific point of view (everything else no longer being subject to be studied under science, since it would be up to god), at the same time as trying to bring god to court for the infamous crimes against humanity that it is obviously guilty of.

75. Discussion of The God Delusion

Comment #18029 by alfonso on January 18, 2007 at 2:38 am

To those who say that those 4 (5) have not read the book. Don't be fooled. They have read the book, they have identified the dangers of the powerful arguments that Dawkins is exposing. The dangers to faith, that is, and then they have subverted every point in order to remove the validity of the original arguments.

And what the heck is all that stuff about the wedding? What does it have to do with anything?

76. Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory

Comment #18014 by alfonso on January 18, 2007 at 12:30 am

If I hear again that evolution is just a theory as a means to claim that it is, as such, unproven, I'll go mad :P

I think this onion article has such an excellent point. Gravitational theory... theory? Must be unproven, right? Excellent! :)

77. BeliefWatch: Ivy League

Comment #18012 by alfonso on January 18, 2007 at 12:27 am

By placing reason and faith together in the name of the course, they were grading them as equal. "Reason or faith" would have been more representative of reality, but still would have made them equally worthy.

78. Can Jews and Evangelicals Get Along?

Comment #18011 by alfonso on January 18, 2007 at 12:24 am

All a big load of irrational BS. How can this people elect themselves to represent anything except specific wards of psychiatric hospitals?

Yes, they are perfectly sane, right? Wartime, Armageddon, chosen people...

These are all madmen with an agenda. Scary stuff.

79. Creationism Song

Comment #17586 by alfonso on January 15, 2007 at 2:20 am

I don't believe in evolution either!

I don't need to! For I know it is scientifically proven to be as valid as something needs to be in order to be considered true! Truer than any religion!

80. Homophobia, not injustice, is what really fires the faiths

Comment #17148 by alfonso on January 11, 2007 at 9:04 am

Joadist:

Thoughtcrime? Interesting. Same would apply to discrimination against religious beliefs. Since nothing can prove that you are or are not affiliated to a particular belief. Or political ideology either.

Where is the thoughtcrime now?

Although I am not sure why I bother to reply to someone who claims that an AIDS test might serve as a test for homosexuality. This person is surely one of those who is glad AIDS exists and who would put gay people to death.

81. Richard Dawkins' Report Card

Comment #17028 by alfonso on January 10, 2007 at 7:27 am

I always thought that those reports not truly indicated if students were good at anything in particular but at fitting in the system.

I'd expect truly great thinkers like Richard Dawkins to have difficulties at that :)

82. Questionable Mission

Comment #16688 by alfonso on January 8, 2007 at 4:24 am

To Mroberts3 [comment #16668]

How about the Netherlands? France also has a rather advanced society, I'd say. But no country is perfect, best about Europe is that you get quite a lot of variety within drivable distance :)

83. Questionable Mission

Comment #16687 by alfonso on January 8, 2007 at 4:21 am

And now I wonder,

Every other post where the perils of christianity and other dangerous beliefs are exposed, there is always some christian nuttie rushing to defend the view. Is this particular article far too controversial? Have we touched a sensitive spot?

I for one, were I American, would declare anyone who places god before the country, guilty of high treason. But I would not execute them, I'd just send them to hell.

But I am not particularly patriotic person, either way, so I don't place country (any country) very high in my list. But I'd expect DoD people to.

84. Pat Robertson: God told me of 'mass killing' in 2007

Comment #15999 by alfonso on January 4, 2007 at 6:00 am

But now that I think about it... what if he is behind planning or financing those attacks? How could he possibly know otherwise?

85. Pat Robertson: God told me of 'mass killing' in 2007

Comment #15998 by alfonso on January 4, 2007 at 5:59 am

Barking mad!