Comments by briancoughlanworldcitizen

Yes, of course and I am sure the four would have been well aware of it. Do they see themselves as bringing in these disasters?

Erm ... it's ... metaphorical? Richard Dawkins I hope so!

106. The Four Horsemen: on Christmas

Comment #108180 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on January 6, 2008 at 7:33 am

Why do they call themselves the Four Horsemen? There isn't a horse in sight.

They represent the apocalypse for religion. If you'll recall your Revelations, the apocalypse is ushered in by the Four Horsemen. Famine, Pestilence, War and Death.

It's a classic reference. I think:-)

Personally, I consider this talk of four horsemen heretical. There is of course the Trinity of Atheism, represented by Dennett, Dawkins and Harris. Hitchens is a false teacher as clearly evidenced by his stance on Iraq.

I shall gouge out the eyes, for their own good, of anyone that disagrees with me.

107. Moderates Storm The Religious Battlefield

Comment #107941 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on January 5, 2008 at 3:40 pm

Hi all! I just started this topic on "raiding parties" in the forum. Please have a look and contribute. Thx:-)

http://richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=33112&p=602964#p602964

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

Comment #107940 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on January 5, 2008 at 3:39 pm

Hi all! I just started this topic on "raiding parties" in the forum. Please have a look and contribute. Thx:-)

http://richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=33112&p=602964#p602964

109. Stop House Resolution 888

Comment #107939 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on January 5, 2008 at 3:38 pm

Hi all! I just started this topic on "raiding parties" in the forum. Please have a look and contribute. Thx:-)

http://richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=33112&p=602964#p602964

110. Researchers use neuroimaging to study ESP

Comment #107937 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on January 5, 2008 at 3:38 pm

Hi all! I just started this topic on "raiding parties" in the forum. Please have a look and contribute. Thx:-)

http://richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=33112&p=602964#p602964

111. The OUT Campaign has its own Flea!

Comment #107936 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on January 5, 2008 at 3:37 pm

Hi all! I just started this topic on "raiding parties" in the forum. Please have a look and contribute. Thx:-)

http://richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=33112&p=602964#p602964

112. Can Atheists Be Parents?

Comment #107935 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on January 5, 2008 at 3:37 pm

Hi all! I just started this topic on "raiding parties" in the forum. Please have a look and contribute. Thx:-)

http://richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=33112&p=602964#p602964

113. Sam Harris debate with Rabbi David Wolpe

Comment #107934 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on January 5, 2008 at 3:37 pm

Hi all! I just started this topic on "raiding parties" in the forum. Please have a look and contribute. Thx:-)

http://richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=33112&p=602964#p602964

114. Mother Nature is Not Our Friend

Comment #107176 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on January 4, 2008 at 8:41 am

Me too. A bit puzzled about the whole "atheist must be nihilist" thing, as I am not sure how adding a dictator God and souls helps out. Still, as they are so insistent, perhaps they can explain!

Pretty interesting blog all the same. Novel approach.

Atheists must explain why they don't believe, as opposed to theists justifying their absurdities. Rather a clever tack.

Atheism must result in us all wanting to slit our wrists. Bit of projection going on there I think.

A postive candy floss mountain of theological fluff to fight through, but interesting nonetheless. Thoughts?

115. What have you changed your mind about? Why?

Comment #107028 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on January 3, 2008 at 11:37 pm

Could use some help here.

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14398630&postID=8076859066371691438

There is moderation, but its been pretty even handed so far.

116. Mother Nature is Not Our Friend

Comment #107027 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on January 3, 2008 at 11:37 pm

Could use some help here.

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14398630&postID=8076859066371691438

There is moderation, but its been pretty even handed so far.

117. Changing my Mind

Comment #107026 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on January 3, 2008 at 11:37 pm

Could use some help here.

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14398630&postID=8076859066371691438

There is moderation, but its been pretty even handed so far.

118. A War On Science

Comment #107025 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on January 3, 2008 at 11:37 pm

Could use some help here.

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14398630&postID=8076859066371691438

There is moderation, but its been pretty even handed so far.

119. The OUT Campaign has its own Flea!

Comment #107024 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on January 3, 2008 at 11:36 pm

Could use some help here.

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14398630&postID=8076859066371691438

There is moderation, but its been pretty even handed so far.

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

Comment #107023 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on January 3, 2008 at 11:36 pm

Could use some help here.

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14398630&postID=8076859066371691438

There is moderation, but its been pretty even handed so far.

121. Monkey, Business

Comment #105400 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 31, 2007 at 12:56 pm

Sorry to go on about this, but I am from a generation who were not sure that they would survive to adulthood because of the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction. It turns out it was never that; it was simply Mutually Assured Terror.

Likewise, I just always assumed it was true. I'll take your word for it Steve ... oh wait, am I being credulous again!?

122. Monkey, Business

Comment #105360 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 31, 2007 at 10:36 am

Yes you do. You get a defense force bigger than the rest of the world's combined, to protect you from all the evildoers. And you get more flags than you can salute in a lifetime.

A defense force? Does the capacity to incinerate all life on earth qualify as defence?

123. Monkey, Business

Comment #105346 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 31, 2007 at 9:51 am

We clearly don't have much time to sit around and think in this fast-paced high-action world of militant atheism!

Excellent work on that blog.

Thanks Steve, it's fun isn't it?

124. Monkey, Business

Comment #105344 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 31, 2007 at 9:49 am

33. Comment #105331 by al-rawandi on December 31, 2007 at 9:33 am

Yeah I saw that, the religious mind at work. Stupidity is a virtue
Humility is claiming a relationship with the creator of the universe.
You must disprove my lunatic assertions.

It was quite something. It's useful work though, there are always a higher ratio of lurkers to posters, and to people mostly grounded in the real world (80%+ of Christians in my estimation) Fr. Renzo comes off as the spittle flecked lunatic he actually is. It's important to shed light on the genuine seething insanity beneath the mask.

125. Monkey, Business

Comment #105304 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 31, 2007 at 8:07 am

Thanks guys, comments are closed. I hope we gave some people food for thought:-)

126. Monkey, Business

Comment #105296 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 31, 2007 at 7:01 am

"In Christ, Brian C" as one of the posters; but was suitably relived when I saw you weighing in further down on the side of sanity.

LOL ... yeah I saw that guy too! Thanks:-)

127. Richard Dawkins on 'Have Your Say'

Comment #105281 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 31, 2007 at 4:26 am

I would appreciate some help here : http://wdtprs.com/blog/2007/12/bp-morlino-still-stepping-up-to-the-plate/

A fairly interesting discussion going that "dysolution" pointed me too. Weigh in one and all!!!

Styrer etal you could put your bile and annoyance to good use while standing shoulder to shoulder:-)

128. Monkey, Business

Comment #105280 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 31, 2007 at 4:25 am

129. Submission, 'Part 1'

Comment #105279 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 31, 2007 at 4:25 am

130. Could there be a Darwinian Account of Human Creativity?

Comment #105278 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 31, 2007 at 4:24 am

131. It is possible to be moral without God

Comment #105277 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 31, 2007 at 4:24 am

I would appreciate some reinforcements here : http://wdtprs.com/blog/2007/12/bp-morlino-still-stepping-up-to-the-plate/

A fairly interesting discussion going that "dysolution" pointed me too. Weigh in one and all!!!

132. Richard Dawkins on 'Have Your Say'

Comment #105242 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 31, 2007 at 1:35 am

Oh, and if anyone is going to hassle Dr Benway, they are going to have to go through me first. Women, being the weaker sex, need defending. And in spite of our weak wrists and tendency to shriek, we gay men are perfectly capable of doing that.

Wait. Are you saying Doctor Benway is a girl?

133. It is possible to be moral without God

Comment #105211 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 30, 2007 at 10:40 pm

Hi Jordan, went in to bat for you here with this :

I have just been through this thread, and although most of it is a fairly turgid read, Jordan stands out as patient, polite and relentlessly rational, but Renzo di Lorenzo is simply oblivious to the banquet of logic and eloquence placed before him. Preferring instead to gnaw on the stale crusts, and brackish water of his ludicrous mythology.

Until the Catholic Church can demonstrate unequivocally, and in a repeatable fashion, that a soul (or some equivalent, lets be reasonable) exists at the point of conception, we need to stick with what we know.

Speculation about invisible mystery realms, creatures and entities, absent any meaningful test to verify them may be fun, but it's a piss poor basis for law or social policy.

I declare Jordan the "winner" of this thread:-)

134. It is possible to be moral without God

Comment #105208 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 30, 2007 at 10:27 pm

62. Comment #105056 by dysolution on December 30, 2007 at 1:22 pm

If any of you would care to take a look and tell me where my argument could use some improvement, I'd be very grateful. My comments are signed "Jordan."

You are doing a bang up job Jordan. I'm not sure much improvement is required, or for that matter will help.

When you are up against :

Finally, let me put it to you this way. If you or I or anyone else, Jordan, were given the circumstances of someone else, say, of a soldier on Calvary, and if we were without the grace of God, well, because no one is better than anyone else without the grace of God, then anyone could do any horrific act that has ever been done in this world, including crucifying the Son of God. Don't fool yourself into thinking that you wouldn't do that. Why are you better than anyone else. Oh, I forgot, because you and your murder-all-the-babies relativism said so. I see.

Rational discussion will only get you so far:-)

135. It is possible to be moral without God

Comment #105050 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 30, 2007 at 1:06 pm

56. Comment #105047 by Radesq on December 30, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Yes I too wish he would go petal that stuff elsewhere.

Yeoouch!

136. It is possible to be moral without God

Comment #104984 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 30, 2007 at 9:21 am

26. Comment #104981 by rafael184 on December 30, 2007 at 9:14 am

OK, that was spam. I read about two paragraphs and flagged it. Intolerant?

137. It is possible to be moral without God

Comment #104948 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 30, 2007 at 6:03 am

13. Comment #104941 by phil rimmer on December 30, 2007 at 5:06 am
Great video, Brian. Makes you proud to be a mammal.

Well ... almost. Those lions were mammals too. The mammals against the reptiles, now that would have been a coherent storyline worthy of the great Disney himself:-)

It is an amazing video though, talk about co-operation, empathy and courage!! Astounding.

Since we are on the subject of morality, I had coincidentally posted on the subject (making liberal use of our handy resources on the Dawkins site) here.

http://www.thechristianalert.org/index.php/2007/12/28/guilty-christians-companion-guilty-guilt?blog=5#comments

Feel free to pop in and contribute a polite 10 cents worth, I've taken to harrying these little pockets of godthink, and I suspect both I and my victims have learned a lot:-) Give it a try, but do be nice.

138. It is possible to be moral without God

Comment #104935 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 30, 2007 at 4:44 am

This just keeps coming up doesn't it?

Several peer reviewed studies have now demonstrated that chimps show visible signs of distress when confronted with the mistreatment of other chimps. Dolphins have been seen helping injured companions to the surface to breath.

This clearly demonstrates that even lower order primates, and other mammals, are endowed with an innate capacity to empathise. They don't need the Bible, "God" or a transcendent chimp lawgiver to tell them that torture is wrong, and neither do you.

Besides, there is the old classic :

"Is what is moral commanded by God because it is moral, or is it moral because it is commanded by God? The first horn of the dilemma (i.e. that which is moral is commanded by God because it is moral) implies that morality is independent of God and, indeed, that God is bound by morality just as his creatures are. God then becomes little more than a passer-on of moral knowledge.

If you disagree that this is the case ... well then you get into all kinds of serious trouble.

Not convinced by the philosophical problems? Try this. Damage to the prefrontal cortex has been shown to alter moral decision making, suggesting a physical source of core morality.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/health/21cnd-brain.html?hp

The article is fairly recent, and joins a growing body of anthropology, neurology and phsycology that have begun to illuminate a completely naturalistic explanation for morality and altruisim, in a variety of mammals, not just humans. By banging on about the "irreducible complexity" of morality, theists are merely setting themselves up for an even harder fall when the process has been mapped and understood.

Finally, if anecdote is your thing, watch the clip below. For courage, heroism, leadership, cognition and empathy in bucketfuls.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM

The capacity for empathy and compassion is hard wired into our brains and cultivated in a range of diverse directions through culture, while none the less, orbiting a common core. Thus as I never tire of saying (for it's shock value), it is quite acceptable to eat your grandmother in cultures where this a burial ritual, but rape and murder are always wrong.

There is a baseline, and it has primarily to do with consent, ingroup and impact on others. In brief the Golden Rule applied selectively to our ingroup and we simply make it up from there. However, the baseline is in our heads not in the transcendent ether.

139. 'Gospel of wealth' facing scrutiny

Comment #104615 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 29, 2007 at 2:27 am

114. Comment #104594 by scottishgeologist on December 29, 2007 at 1:20 am

It would be easy to say "Pah! emotional crap" but there must be a lot more to it than just a cozy feeling. For many people this is it, proof of God, proof of the Holy Spirit working in the unbeliever's heart.

This is exactly it. I'm having a discussion here : http://godswaymyway.blogspot.com/, with a perfectly reasonable (within the self contained world view he inhabits) Christian Fundamentalist who is saying exactly that.

Even my claiming to be a Christian is denied on the tautalogical and circular grounds, that if I had been a "real" christian with a "real" conversion, I'd still be one.

[EDIT: Thx:-) Q, comma removed.

140. 'Gospel of wealth' facing scrutiny

Comment #104591 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 29, 2007 at 1:08 am

50. Comment #104208 by liddlefeesh on December 28, 2007 at 5:42 am
Calling her "stupid" is not appropriate.

Totally agree. I behaved similarly, perhaps not to the extent of getting myself in financial trouble, but I did tithe for years.

Consider that this woman was told, by people she trusted implicitly, that this would work. The rational action in that context was to follow the advice.

Simply labelling people like myself, liddlefeesh or the woman in the article as stupid, is not only misguided and objectionable, but it adds nothing to our efforts to understand how religion gets it hooks into fairly intelligent and rational people.

141. Archbishop of Canterbury Praises Richard Dawkins

Comment #104511 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 28, 2007 at 5:06 pm

Theist or atheist, we don't seem to be able to transcend these.

Well yes. These are problematic, always have been and religion has done little to ameloriate, and much to exacerbate those problems.

So how do we resolve these issues we have identified? By trying to adhere to the 4000 year old, sexual and dietary injunctions of desert nomads?

Or even the marginally improved 2000 year old moral teachings of a guy who cursed fig trees?

No. We need to ditch that stuff and have a 21st century conversation about ethics and morality employing everything we know, but only that. We need to leave the superstition, the deities and the rest of the claptrap at the door.

142. Wisdom From The Founding Rationalists

Comment #104505 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 28, 2007 at 4:55 pm

26. Comment #104229 by annabanana on December 28, 2007 at 7:06 am
I am disgusted to hear people simply dismiss the voices of reason of our Founding Fathers.

Have to agree. I love the federalist papers, especially Alexander Hamiltons contributions. These were clever, witty men but of their time.

The slavery thing was a given, everywhere in the world including the UK. In 200 years people may well look back with disgust and horror to the opening years of the 21st century, and wonder how billions could so blithely live lives of comfort and ease, while millions starved, were killed in wars or sold into sexual slavery.

Don't be so quick to judge. Some genuinely good biblical advice.

143. Archbishop of Canterbury Praises Richard Dawkins

Comment #104499 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 28, 2007 at 4:44 pm

but I wonder how or why their lifestyle (which you appear to admire beyond the details of their doctrinal understanding) thereby pushed you away from remaining a Christian.

This was merely the trigger event which highlighted the primary problem; how can a given theist be certain their specific body of dogma is correct?

As I noted in the post, they can't. Neither pure reason, personal experience or track record give us any clear direction. If they did, the truth would surely have triumphed after 6,000 years of recorded religious history.

The standard responses (common to all religions) to this are:
a) There are many false prophets, and they lead people astray.
b) God doesn't want to overwhelm our free will, so He drops subtle hints, rather than giving clear direction.
c) It's a mystery.

This is somewhat simplified, but it covers the basics. Given the world we see, and the millenia of injustice, much of it visited by the religious authorities, this is a piss poor defence.

The bottom line? The empirical world view has delivered the goods, the religious has not. In terms of quality of life, comfort and knowledge about the universe we find ourselves in, science as practised in the last 300 years has no religious competitor.

Alas, the human frailties that made such a mess of the best intentions of religions through the ages, may yet turn the incredible devices and technology our species has devised against us. So whats new? This has nothing to do with the technology per se, and everything to do with the cognitive disconnects that compel us to embrace harmful, stupid ideologies, including the religious.

144. 'Gospel of wealth' facing scrutiny

Comment #104490 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 28, 2007 at 4:14 pm

It's basically a pyramid scheme, with the unique feature that only the guy at the top of the pyramid gets the payoff. Nice:-)

145. Carl Sagan's COSMOS begins airing on Jan 8th

Comment #104471 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 28, 2007 at 3:01 pm

Hey all. Off topic, but I hope sufficiently interesting to earn your retrospective forgiveness.

I have been telling my life story to some fundamentalist christians here :

http://godswaymyway.blogspot.com/

and drifted into a fairly civil dialouge. Feel free to pop over and contribute, but please consider that Mark, the owner of the Blog has very graciously posted my ramblings, so please respect that:-)

146. What We Believe: Atheism

Comment #104470 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 28, 2007 at 3:00 pm

147. Archbishop of Canterbury Praises Richard Dawkins

Comment #104469 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 28, 2007 at 3:00 pm

148. The Evangelical Rebellion

Comment #103293 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 25, 2007 at 2:08 am

14. Comment #103289 by fatcitymax on December 25, 2007 at 1:35 am
Huckabee has no chance of being nominated as the Republican candidate for president. Romney and his brethren on Wall Street have a near-infinite amount of money to spend on his campaign. Money is the only true God.

Given Huckabees current momentum, I'm not convinced, and Romney after all is a mormon, harbouring a few fairly wierd beliefs of his own. There are some 30 million non-beleivers in the US, now more energised and conscious of each other as a demographic than ever before, most of whom will vote for anyone but Huckabee. If Chris Hedges is anything to go by, many of the 40% of republicans categorised as "evangelicals" won't vote for him either.

Huckabee Getting the nomination practically guarantess a democratic president, and may actually result in a total republican melt down. Sounds good to me.

149. Huckabee Stands by Christmas Campaign Ad

Comment #102705 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 23, 2007 at 12:31 pm

Oh Mr T. without a doubt .... fool!

150. 'Christian God is not to blame'

Comment #102702 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 23, 2007 at 12:27 pm

"...God has been attacked angrily here and there in the English-speaking world

Assuming HE does exist, who else gets the blame for the six millenia of cock up since creation?

Oh right, I forgot. We do, that whole entrapment thing with the apple .....

It's a fair cop guv.