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

Comment #212966 by Roland_F on July 17, 2008 at 11:37 pm

4. Comment #212965 by ghost of numf-el : You couldn't make this shit up, could you?

This is not 'newly made up' this a the very old Catholic doctrine : all Contraceptives are murder instruments, that's why the Vatican is not allowing condoms.
And of cause the Pauline dogma is : best no intercourse at all, and if then without lust only inside marriage in missionary position for the solely purpose of reproduction.

The result of this Hypocrisies is leading to real abortions, often illegally performed in backyard clinics. In the Philippines the family planning is a taboo issue for all politicians not to draw the wrath of the powerful catholic church. Result: from 1.4 Million unwanted pregnancies 473,000 are aborted - using contraceptives would be the easier method.

102. 'Condoms won't change HIV rates'

Comment #212246 by Roland_F on July 16, 2008 at 10:31 pm

The situation is not helped in SA by politicians lauding the curative powers of beetroot.

I thought populations of most African countries believe that sex with a very young virgin is curing HIV ?

103. PLEASE WRITE IN SUPPORT OF PZ MYERS

Comment #209209 by Roland_F on July 11, 2008 at 9:39 pm

459. Comment #209207 by MelM : We'll keep the Vatican but turn it into a museum of religious era horrors

I had a similar idea, however with a couple of church buildings in Germany (mainly in the Ruhr valley industry area). There are many smaller dioceses who have to merge together and give up their church buildings which are de-scarified and sold.
Would be a good idea to buy a couple of them and turn them into museums for dark ages of book burnings, witch-hunt, Inquisition, crusade, suppression of science etc. ..

Unfortunately this would not get any tax payers subsidies from politicians who usually happily throwing Billions of tax money to the religious institutions.

104. Weak US dollar hits papal profits

Comment #209194 by Roland_F on July 11, 2008 at 8:00 pm

6. Comment #208815 by black wolf : the German Catholic Church received an income of 4.16 BILLION Euros in 2004 from church tax (of which 20% or less were actually spent on charity and education, and additionally subsidized by federal and state governments).

Do you have any source of this number e.g. a www link ?
When I remember right some Spiegel story several years back the Catholic or Evangelical charity actions are mainly funded from donations of church attendants, the amount used from the church tax income for charity is between 2-4 % only -- so where is the 20% coming from ? Also the preservation and renovation of churches is subsidized from Government money. And all kindergartens, hospitals etc. are anyway payable services.
I had a discussion with a colleague long ago, who never quit his church tax payments in the wrong understanding that church tax money is going into charity to reduce suffering in the 'third world' not knowing the true figure. And even the tiny 2-4% is used for missionary Mother Theresa like work and money spend for Bibles not for medicine.

105. PLEASE WRITE IN SUPPORT OF PZ MYERS

Comment #208691 by Roland_F on July 11, 2008 at 6:42 am

286. Comment #208651 by adriano : Perhaps the student's action wouldn't rank as a 'hate crime' for most people, but to accuse Donohue of witch-hunting and shrieking hysteria smacks of just that

Accusing the pedophile league president of witch hunting for his hate preaching and encouraging death threads and ruin someone carrier is a hate crime ????
In what world are you living ?
Go to Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia if you have problems with freedom of speech an humanism !

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

Comment #208546 by Roland_F on July 11, 2008 at 3:05 am

1064. Comment #208503 by GordonYKWong

Your semantic generator leaves still room for improvement.
Whoever (AI programmer?) is running a long term Turing test here under the pseudonym 'Wooter, Deludedmind' etc. is a little ahead !

107. PLEASE WRITE IN SUPPORT OF PZ MYERS

Comment #208538 by Roland_F on July 11, 2008 at 2:53 am

235. Comment #208531 by sysboy : Is there not someone we can complain to on the catholic side? Can we not get this Donahue guy excommunicated for spreading violence?

There must be some channel within the catholic church for bringing the church into disrepute.

I am not familiar with the US law, but hate preaching and calling for violence and death threads might be eligible for a libel suit against the catholic legion. and Mr. Donahue as defendant.?

But good that the mailbox of the University president had to shut down based on overload. That shows that also atheist can be noisy and don't stay frightened in the closet and let the fundamentalist religious minority bully the 'silent majority' for another 2 millennia.

108. PLEASE WRITE IN SUPPORT OF PZ MYERS

Comment #208302 by Roland_F on July 10, 2008 at 8:17 pm

34. Comment #208118 by Ian Bamlett wonder how long it will be before a You tube video appears showing someone doing something unspeakable to a christ cracker?

Most likely this video clip would have to be removed after a few days, similar like other offending clips based on pressure from the biggest transnational pedophile organization. Maybe the replacement would be a true Catholic image for example the gang rape of an altar boy by a horde of priests.

94. Comment #208192 by macros_man : which identifies Bruininks as a defendant against the Freedom From Religion Foundation, in a lawsuit against the use of public funds for religious purposes:

http://www.ffrf.org/fttoday/2005/may/minnesota.php

From the link:

The Minnesota Faith Health Consortium functions as a seed bed for faith and health initiatives that promote the integration of faith and health.
The Consortium is managed and controlled jointly by all its partners, including the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center.

So Robert H. Bruininks, president of the University of Minnesota, has to stand in court for breaking the separation of church and state by channeling tax payers money to faith healing initiatives.
I am not sure if any mailing from atheists has an effect then on his decisions, anyway it would result in another lawsuit when he and the board fires PZM for using his right of free speech in an internet blog.
At least mass mailing have the effect to get heard and not being ruled as 'silent masses' by a noise fundamentalist minority.

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

Comment #207672 by Roland_F on July 10, 2008 at 5:18 am

Joe Morreale : All that a person needs is sincerety and objectivity when in search for the truth otherwise it is in reality fake and one is just simply following his own whims and desires.

Exactly, so why are you not living up to your own statement here ?

Reality is that your prophet was an illiterate camel herder, the Qur'an is mainly based on plagiarized Bible phrases made form primitive gout herders, added with self contradicting nonsense of primitive desert nomads full of grammatical errors, plus stories shown as historical and scientific nonsense.
Flat earth, sun goes around the earth, creation in 8 days and in 6 days, hundreds of verses are overruled by other verses (almighty Allah can't make up his mind directly - can't he ?) and rubbish like that.

So who is weak and can't manage his life alone without sky daddy and " following his own whims and desires." of wishful thinking. ?? Seems that's yourself dear Italian-British-"cowboy".

And what's with answering Epeeist question ????

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

Comment #207640 by Roland_F on July 10, 2008 at 4:31 am

766. Comment #207613 by Joe Morreale on July 10, 2008 at 3:55 am

When will people realize that evolution is a deception kept "alive" by propaganda and that anything that is pointed to as so-called evidence never goes beyond the speculation and hypothesies stage?

This judgment is exactly true for all the holy scriptures like Torah, Bible Qur'an and the like.

And beside the 'non evolved' fishing lure, a snake is not an eel, a starfish not a brittlestar, and a salamander fossil is no a frog, even a little kid can see the tail of the fossil can't be the same like a (tailless) frog.

So what is YOUR alternative to Evolution ? : a question asked several time from Epeeist ?

Not a fairy tale scribbled from semi-literate goat herders on sheep skin or uttered from an illiterate camel herder and written down decades after his death ?

No alternative at hand and the only basis to refute a permanently again confirmed scientific theory, is just blind faith in some bronze age religious myth of flat-earth believers, which are long proofed as baseless fairy tales, all disproved by mounting archeological or historical evidence as nonexistent pure Biblical inventions.

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

Comment #207604 by Roland_F on July 10, 2008 at 3:48 am

755. Comment #207585 by Vaal : I have noticed that the religites are constantly referring to scientist's being wrong as an argument

There are the following approaches of cretinists:

1) quote mining out of context and truncate like Darwin thinks the eye could not evolve (examples are here from ERTU en mass).

2) distorting even this quotes to give them another meaning

3) Highlight some scientific different opinions about small details as "everything in Evolution is disputed"

4) hit on rare wrong paleontological interpretation or hoaxes, which were of course found out from other scientists never from cretinists.

5) still quote by decades outdated and renegade scientific papers which are refuted long ago.

6) copy standard scientific textbook passages which sound very complex, and state you see it's too complex for your religites to understand ergo Goddidit.

There is real evolution book with many charts and pictures not this crap book from Harun Yahya which is mentioned here on the right columns when I type this: "evolution - what the fossils say and why it matters" from D.R. Prothero. Unfortunately the author feels obliged to refute cretinist on 150 out of 350 pages highlighting the 6 topics mentioned above. But the 200 pages of fossil description is worth reading, would be good to focus on this and offer this book as paperback for a fraction of the cost to reach a much wider audience.

All known transitional fossils for example on the entire Archaeopteryx line are explained. So there are gradual evolving fossils available for this line not only a single Archaeopteryx species, which seems the only species the cretinist know from the branching bush.

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

Comment #207426 by Roland_F on July 9, 2008 at 7:04 pm

715. Comment #207392 by BillySands Human chromosome 2 is the result of two ancestral proteins fusing

Actually it's the fusion of the original chromosome (2A and 2B) not of proteins.

And as mentioned modern DNA analysis have even found out if the difference (chimp - human) resulted from splitting the original chromosome-2 or if this happened from fusion, and the result is fusion. The exact place of this fusion in the DNA could even be located and now it is known where the original 2A and 2B chromosomes bound together (teleomere in the middle of chromosome-2).

There is a nice book (D.J. Fairbanks : Relicts of Eden) describing this chromosome-2 history, the ERV, Pseudogenes, translocation and other proofs of Evolution based on genetic evidence. The sequence of evolution can even be traced down exactly by comparing genomes of humans, other primates and monkeys.

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

Comment #207421 by Roland_F on July 9, 2008 at 6:43 pm

640. Comment #207196 by deludedmind
My dear Roland call your primary school teacher and do the math, Oh man it is really so funny.

But let's do it for you;

570 25= 595 and His wife Haiduthe passed away in 620.

Wow after several reply hints on your calculation error and 3 hours of desperate calculation and searching, you could ask finally your primary school teacher to calculate for you 570 plus 25 = 595 (and not 695) as you have stated twice.

Or where you able to talk to the Mona Lisa paining (from Birmingham palace painted from Picasso as you stated some time back), which is your frequent conversation partner for stories posted here from you.

What an insight to the ability of our self declared master of IQ and logic = Wooter.

114. IT'S A GODDAMNED CRACKER!

Comment #207098 by Roland_F on July 9, 2008 at 7:31 am

137. Comment #207093 by bawruss : PZ (and others): I think you are overreacting.

so what is an appropriate reaction to death threats - or different formulated what does it take then to enrage you ?
The article states : he 'smuggled' the wafer out, e.g. quiet and calm, not disturbing all the faith heads. If he would run loud yelling out of the church "I have the body of Christ as hostage" or would misbehave by throwing things around etc... this would be nasty and disturbing the liturgy, but just silent smuggling a wafer out, what on earth does this deserve for weird reactions ?

115. IT'S A GODDAMNED CRACKER!

Comment #207089 by Roland_F on July 9, 2008 at 7:06 am

123. Comment #207072 by mixmastergaz "Jovial ridiculer" doesn't do justice to the genuine hurt and offence this act has caused. I agree that some of the reactions to it are appallingly disproportionate.

So what is the offense ? where is the right to feel offended starting and stopping ?
Caricatures of a Muslim with a bomb in his turban, a small dog puppy sitting in a police hat ?

And what should be the punishment ? Is death for this apostasy (1) correct or (2) "disproportionate" or (3) outright insane and inhuman from the alleged religion of peace and love ?
What is the reaction of tearing out a page of the holy scripture : the Bible in this public funded university chapel ? Stoning to death ?
Sitting by mistake on the Qur'an is a sacrileg carrying the death penalty and some Pilipino House-maids are sitting in Arabian jail cells for mistakenly sitting on a holy book hidden under a blanket of the sofa. And in Florida not swallowing a wafer is also eligable for the death penalty ? Hey wake up !

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

Comment #207069 by Roland_F on July 9, 2008 at 6:26 am

Wooterism Mathematics : by 574. Comment #206953 by Deludedmind

The prophet Mohammed got married with His first wife at the age of 25, in 695. And his wife passed away in 620.

Interesting : passing away 75 years before marriage. So Mohammed married an undead Zombie ?

More Wooter Math: 580. Comment #207004 by Deludedmind

Oh Lovely IQ
570 birth date of prophet 25= 695

= ???? 570 whether plus nor minus 25 is coming anywhere near 695.
Even a 6 year old kid can do better ! So even this is not fitting though the reason sieve of the self declared 'master' of logic !

117. A trip to the Creation Museum

Comment #206852 by Roland_F on July 8, 2008 at 10:25 pm

4. Comment #206566 by SmartLX Man, that's Hell-House, Psychiatry-An-Industry-Of-Death style scaremongering right there, if not to the same degree.

No the Hell houses are separate places for the teenager from 12 year onwards : fire and brimstone to scare the hell out of the kids to keep their faith.
These Hell Museums were mentioned from some priests to be an urgent necessity to avoid kids loosing their faith (here some month ago on another tread), not sure if already some places have opened or possible they are not public announced to avoid child abuse claims.

These Hell-houses might be like the Scientology brainwash center, visited from a BBC TV crew some time back : walls with giant posters of starved concentration camp victims, slogans like "'it the Jews own fault" or "suffering frees the soul" etc. accompanied by psycodelic music and stroboscope light to overflow the senses in preparation for the following brainwash. Even the 'battle hardened' BBC reporter got a breakdown start yelling at the Scientology manager and had to flee with his TV crew into the toilet to clear his mind.

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

Comment #206792 by Roland_F on July 8, 2008 at 8:16 pm

564. Comment #206764 by Fouad Boussetta : A FISHING LURE !?!! I can't believe it

You should beliefe in Allah the almighty not in the fishing lure !

And the almighty creator is so wise to create insects including steel hook to make it easier for humans to fish : this is really intelligent design ! And it hasn't changed or evolved over millions of years and all fossils are with steelhook !

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

Comment #206758 by Roland_F on July 8, 2008 at 6:42 pm

What can I say to the copy & paste spamming of kilobytes of Cretinist website crap here from deluded religious persons ?
Maybe a quote from Ignatius von Loyla the founder of the Jesuit cult : "I have faith that the white what I see is black when the hierarchy of the church is defining it as such."

["Ich glaube, dass das Weisse, das ich sehe, schwarz ist, wenn die hierarchische Kirche es so bestimmt."]

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

Comment #205916 by Roland_F on July 7, 2008 at 10:19 pm

ERTU copy and paste from Cretinist websites all the nonsense he don't understand himself like a converted Wooter/Clearmind.

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

Comment #205903 by Roland_F on July 7, 2008 at 9:05 pm

192. Comment #205881 by Goldy : Allah says in Quran that the Earth is flat :-)

In 1975 the mufti of Saudi Arabia Bin Baz in a fatwa rules as follows:
"those who claim that the earth is round and moving around the sun are apostates and their blood can be shed and their property taken in the name of God."

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

Comment #205859 by Roland_F on July 7, 2008 at 8:26 pm

The cost of production of such a book must have been extremely high, and one is bound to wonder where the money came from to produce it and then distribute it gratis in so many copies and so many languages.

The Wahabi Oil rich fanatics have enough money to print tons of this nonsense book.

And they find some people who even don't understand what they are copy and pasting here to spam their nonsense on this website.

123. Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection

Comment #205300 by Roland_F on July 7, 2008 at 3:22 am

247. Comment #205292 by Steve Zara : It sounds like saying that the Earth is very hostile to human life because we can't live at the molten core.

The human friendly biosphere (not for some exotic bacteria !) of planet earth is limited to around 3km above sea level and a few hundred meters below sea level in the oceans. All other areas needs to be supported from lower lying areas on land and the deep sea is scavenging on sinking down carcasses.

I am not talking about a hostile to life universe or other have talked about hostile earth -- the universe and even planet earth with the sun are just extremely uneconomical and a massive waste of resources to be "designed just right and only" for the purpose of humans.

So this whole setting is a very strong argument against a designer .

124. Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection

Comment #205291 by Roland_F on July 7, 2008 at 2:51 am

245. Comment #205285 by Steve Zara I think the universe as a whole looks very favourable

Favourable to life in some very small areas of space and 99.9999999999999% of the universe are very hostile to (human) life.

244. Comment #205284 by Quetzalcoatl See comments 229 and 231

I have this already downloaded and will read it some time later today.

125. Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection

Comment #205281 by Roland_F on July 7, 2008 at 2:30 am

239. Comment #205273 by Steve Zara
Supernovae are hostile, but are necessary to produce heavy elements. Space is big and empty, but necessary to keep us distant from supernovae etc

But a perfect designer could play with the basic constants so that the big bang is creating heavy elements straight without dangeous supernovae.
And the earth could be much nearer to a much smaller sun, even as a hollow sphere to optimize the collection of photons emitted.
Optimized to retrieve the majority of photons and no need for any other star & galaxies => this would point to an efficient designer.

126. Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection

Comment #205257 by Roland_F on July 7, 2008 at 1:11 am

221. Comment #205213 by nacjho117

Davies also estimated that if the strength of gravity were changed by only one part in 10^100, life never could have developed (for comparison, there are only 10^80 atoms in the entire known universe

Well Paul Davies is nurturing the 'goldilocks enigma' fine tuning myth, when you read his book properly you will find out that the God hypothesis is the most unlikely cause of the universe (despite this Goldilocks Enigma book is funded from Templeton).
This fine tuning myth is really far spread even in the scientist community, the main falsehood of it is the 'ceteris paribus' assumption : only when ALL other basic constants are kept unchanged and 1 single constant is changed alone only then a very small change is blowing up the entire system. There are several other combinations of the basic constants possible, which are stable and even more life friendly. And some combinations are working even without the weak nuclear force (one of these 'sensitive fine tuning' forces for nuclear fusion to reach elements above 5 Protons) and the outcome is even longer lasting stars to provide energy for surrounding planets.
But I have to admit it also took me by surprise after reading Victor Stenger (and comments from Prof. Oystein Elgaroy here on another tread) : that this whole 'fine tuning' seems to be a myth fostered by religious people misusing the ceteris paribus assumption..

There are also around 50 constants and quantities-for example

Actually these are only 4 basic constants - read a little more about this topic it's quite interesting.

The entire universe is so unimaginable huge Hundreds of billions of stars per galaxy and hundred of billions of galaxies and this all just for one tiny planet earth ? And the sun is wasting huge amounts of energy : only 2 out of 1 billion photons hit the earth to enable life.

And even if there would be a fine tuning of basic constants especially for humans on this tiny dust spec in the universe, this would just be an argument for deism and has no value at all for the God YHWH who visit planet earth 2300BC to make an covenant with Abraham, who by the way has never exited. Abraham, Moses and Co is also a myth invented in the 7th century BC to propagate the claim of Judah to the 'Northern Tribes of Israel' - read 'The Bible unearthed" to learn historical & archeological facts and not apologetic myths.

127. Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection

Comment #204826 by Roland_F on July 5, 2008 at 9:35 pm

26. Comment #204821 by gyokusai

Bar-Kochba's name was Simon, though, which is quite fitting---and again I wonder why this isn't mentioned too, it just glares at you!

Bar Kochba was nearly 2 centuries later than the stone plates are possibly dated, maybe that's why a connection is not made.

Some of the dead sea scrolls (dated to be 1st century BC) contain also several times a messiah which resembles remarkably the Christian Jesus story. (see Herbert Braun: "Qumran und das neue Testament")

And there was Jeshu ha Notzri a messiah and preacher running around in Judah with some disciples and he was killed on the day before Passover 88BC and hanged with outstretched arms from a tree.

And of course Horus was crucified in-between 2 thugs and resurrected after 3 days as were several other ancient demi-gods and gods of course usually born from a virgin.

128. Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection

Comment #204822 by Roland_F on July 5, 2008 at 8:45 pm

The story of crucification and resurrection after 3 days is 4000 years old and known since Horus and Osiris in Egypt, the tablets are found a decade ago, so what's new ?

All non-Christians will get another piece of evidence that the Jesus resurrection myth is just plagiarized from several other ancient religious myth, the Apologetic Theists will see it just as another proof of the prophecy fulfilled by Jesus to strengthen their delusion.

129. Does the Pope wear Prada?

Comment #204411 by Roland_F on July 5, 2008 at 12:02 am

Reminds me at David Bowie's song "Papa Ratzi put on his red shoes and dance the blues" and he is singing (in German) :
Ich trag gern Frauenfummel, Strapse und BH
ich waer so gern ein Madel genau so wie Papa
English:
I like to wear women dresses, straps and a bra (Victoria's secret ?),
I'd like to be a girly exactly like my papa.

Can we also know which condom brand Papa Ratzi is using when he ensured personally no boys behind left (unattended) ?
Or is the clergy nowadays using as a kind of nostalgia sheep intestine instead latex especially as condoms are prohibited anyway ?

130. Sharia law 'could have UK role'

Comment #204407 by Roland_F on July 4, 2008 at 11:40 pm

several comment by Rachel Holmes

Well theory and practice. Of course there should be arbitrary out of court settlements possible when both parties consent.
The problem here is with the very crucial term 'consent' which is a delusion in a woman suppressing and hating religion like Islam.
For financial disputed maybe to settle conflicts via Sharia for the interest workaround constructions the Mullahs invent it is ok.

But for Marital disputes ?
What do you understand under a Sharia settlement for agreeing family clans deciding on the fate of 'consenting victims' ?
Let's make an example : If the honor of the family can be restored by the gang rape of the daughter of the offender family by all males of the offended family clan. Of course the 18 year old daughter is 'consenting' to the Sharia arbitrary verdict to have 'voluntary and consenting' intercourse with offended family father and uncle and brother_1 and brother_2. Of course this intercourse between consenting adults is fully conform to UK law.
What if the 'consenting' daughter is only 15 years old, but the parents allow her to have intercourse with some other man ?

What if the Muslim parents agree to let their 10 year old daughter live in the house of some ex-warlord now working as hate preacher in a UK mosque. Of course not official marriage (illegal under UK law), just consenting parents allow their kid to life at the house of the Muslim man and his 3 other wives ? And only Allah knows what really happens in that bedroom.

What if the Muslim women 'consent' to the beatings of her husband, of course it's written the Koran so it must be Allah's will. When the 'consenting' victim is not filing a case this will not be prosecuted under UK law.

So marital law under Sharia might become martial law
I am not attorney but this example constructs might be fully legal and without consequences under British law. And where there is only a respected Muslim solicitor there is no UK prosecutor and if there is no prosecutor there is no judge.

Don't open the floodgates even an inch wide, it will not stay as closed as the Lord Chief Justice and the Archbishop of Canterbury like to believe.
Remember: First was the BBC ordering all their journalist to follow every mentioning of the prophet Mohammed with the quote "be peace upon him" , then Cartoons are suppressed from a self censoring press, now a small dog puppy in a police hat is considered as insulting Islam. You start small and end up retreating more an more.

131. Obama Wants to Expand Role of Religious Groups

Comment #203403 by Roland_F on July 2, 2008 at 8:23 pm

52. Comment #203286 by RationalFreeThinker

When only 50% of the eligible adult population is registered to vote - and only 50% of those who are registered actually do vote (best case), then our 'leadership' is effectively chosen by no more than 25% of the eligible adult population.

So it's even worse than I thought it's twice cut in half, I was aware of less than 50% voter turnout.
And the only choices are 2 established party organizations and who can get the biggest campaign funding wins with 12.5% over 12.4% of the total electorate. And the politics are determined from campaign funder who buy their decisions for a few million $ campaign donation to receive billions of tax payers money allocation for their industry.
Result is that John Kerry assumed some years back that healthcare improvement "has no majority" despite 80% of US citizens want's it, but the "majority" of campaign funding pharmaceutical companies and healthcare providers of cause don't want cut's to their profitable business.

With only 25% voter turnout this will never change and the religious flock as reliable voters are especially valuable and receiving much higher attention than the general non voting public. Et voila you have the religious election statements of candidates.

As Jared Diamond has noted in Collapse, societies choose to fail or succeed

Yes no empire last forever as Jared Diamond points out, and this is especially valid for a 'failed State' like Noam Chomsky like to call his home country.
Asian powerhouses are waiting for the conversion of the superpower to a theocracy to take the place.

132. Fossil of most primitive 4-legged creature found

Comment #199509 by Roland_F on June 25, 2008 at 9:38 pm

Scientists unearthed a skull of the most primitive four-legged creature in Earth's history

My first thought was : and it was wearing a black frock and was holding a bible.

But seriously: now after closing this 'gap' we have 2 missing links now and this after finding the Tiktaalik fossil already open another 2 gaps. The more paleontologist dig out the more gaps they produce for cretinist.

133. 12 Year Old Girl Prodigy Paints Pictures of God

Comment #197911 by Roland_F on June 22, 2008 at 10:03 pm

"Deeply insightful" poems and paintings ... well there were some high priced modern art paintings which were done from a 4ton Elephant or some paint smearing of a 3 year old kid mentioned from critics as very insightful impressions of an artist concerned about the state of planet earth.

There are many talented kids, some very intelligent finish their high school with 11 years, some genius musicians 6 years old and the like, so it's not necessary a miracle from God if some teenager is able to produce (technical) sophisticated paintings.

Investigating the webpage of the art dealer will not necessary reveal the truth about the painter, of course God inspired paintings of a kid sell for a higher price than the product of a professional copyist in Thailand who is mass producing paintings for tourists.

At least this kind of motive makes the cardinal archbishop of Cologne in Germany Joachim Meisner happy, he was stating some month back that all art which is not focusing on God is "Entartete Kunst" (the Nazi term for all art they considered degenerated).

The paintings seems more inspired more from the puberty dreams of a 12 year old girl mixed with religious motives.

134. Oystein Elgaroy - the Christian defender who became an Atheist

Comment #195298 by Roland_F on June 18, 2008 at 3:13 am

98. Comment #195293 by pobalob : In fact, to me it's suddenly quite interesting if someone recognises religion is superstitious yet still feels the comfort of holding onto it. I wonder why so.

You wonder not alone ....
Possible explanations:

Hiding behind mama and searching protection of papa feels just so consoling at a small kid, and theists just need this virtual protection from mother Mary or from an old wise man with white beard in the sky because humans are premature born apes with slow or permanently delayed adulthood.

Consciousness of human mortality. Most religions or quasi religious teachings (Buddhism) are addressing the human fear with some rebirth as holy cow, rebirth as another human, wondering spirits of the dead warriors, eternal heaven for the faithful and the like.

Reinforcing the consolation with a combination of fear: fear of sinful thoughts, fear of leaving/loosing the faith, fear of eternal hellfire. And the most effective indoctrination is the random combination of fear and love.

The human brain has evolved to recognize patterns and is searching for easy explanations. So when the explanation is not easy visible or scientifically complex, no problem: GODDIDIT.
So this pattern seeking leads to all kind of superstition, I win in the lottery because I pray for it, I win the game because of my rabbit paw and when I forgot it last time I lost, the hurricane hit this city because of a lesbian artist residing there etc.

Humans are evolved to love someone, and this can be the love of God more than anything else.

So combine this all : love & fear & protection & consolation and voila you have the easy inroads and reinforces for the religious mind virus and meme complex.

135. Oystein Elgaroy - the Christian defender who became an Atheist

Comment #195234 by Roland_F on June 18, 2008 at 12:53 am

Dear professor Oystein first welcome to the bright side !

50. Comment #195211 by Loke Having been raised as a Christian, I felt like I was betraying my family by giving up my faith. I think I might not be the only one to have this experience.

The position of childish theist with their tooth fairy and Santa Claus like faith into adulthood must be outed as so ridiculous that it's more shameful betraying logic and reason as betraying the Bronze Age myth.

about my looks. I am painfully aware of it

The sign of a testosterone laden male, the bald head is the solar panel of a sex machine.

136. Saving Us from Darwin

Comment #195207 by Roland_F on June 17, 2008 at 10:32 pm

147. Comment #194704 by ketch22

It is a common known fact that the majority of skeptics and theologians alike maintain that the Gospels are an accurate historical account of the man, Jesus

Only hard core fundamentalists still think of the Gospels as accurate history. Read them in parallel and you will find the many differences and contradictions about anything. Investigate Luke's Christmas story : there was never a (Roman) empire wide census, Herod the great died long before (4 BC) of a local Syrian census (6AD). The accounts of the last day before crucification are all different, written from unknown persons who never met Jesus, who even don't reside in Judea/Israel during their writings. So someone must be very ignorant or apologetic to belief this as historical fact.

I believe the resurrection occurred, one of the greatest miracles

As is the resurrection of Horus, Osiris, and many others deities or half Gods during these times. And in the Gospel of Mark the story is ending with the empty tomb, no resurrection which was added only centuries later.

the supposed influence of Greco-Roman mythology on the gospels, but scholars today realize that this influence is virtually non-existent

Mon Dieu what a nonsense ! Check the Horus myth : crucified in-between 2 criminals, Horus the way, the light the truth, walking over water and performing miracles, born from a virgin (like most deities this time around) lying in a manger and 3 wise men coming, a star is showing the way etc… Petra (= Petrus, Peter) the foundation and gate keeper . To this Egyptian myth mix some Persian and Greek myth all centuries or millennia before Jesus time and voila you have the Gospels. And this should be "virtually non existence influence" ?! Hahahaha

And you claim "I have studied theological history" ? just reading 2 books written from apologist authors for gullible apologist readers doesn't make you a historian at least no on this forum here.
Read some proper history books !

137. Saving Us from Darwin

Comment #194625 by Roland_F on June 17, 2008 at 5:07 am

126. Comment #194352 by ketch22 : If you can show me how Jesus/Truth has changed, I will submit

Then read something about history of the early church !
There you find all kinds of changes in the interpretation of Jesus from a mortal human (Ebonite), to some purely metaphysical ghost not to be taken as literal existing (Gnostics) the holy ghost entering a body of Jesus and leaving the mortal body "why have you forsaken me" during crucification. Marcionites were considering 2 God's where Yahweh took unauthorized power and created the imperfect world and ruled it very immoral jealous and genocidal. The true God send his son Jesus to wrestle the world for the humans back from Yahweh by faking Jesus dead to get Yahweh reliving all human sins.

Read about the many controversies about the substance of God, the son and the Holy Ghost, formerly mainstream Bishops like Origen are suddenly heretics. Read about the Arian "heretic" controversies and infights of the early church about the divinity of Jesus. Learn about the controversies about divine priority: if the son is of lower status or substance then God etc.

After the Nicaea Bishops could not agree on this, the divinity of Jesus was finally decided from the emperor Constantine : a worldly emperor decides the divinity status ( !! ) to solve the deadlock and to create a common uniting religion in a disintegrating empire.

There is tons of interesting literature out there, just read it before claiming you know the "theological history".

138. Vatican bans Dan Brown film Angels & Demons from Rome churches

Comment #194516 by Roland_F on June 16, 2008 at 10:39 pm

Another movie which will be censored in the catholic country I am residing. The powerful RC church already prevented any screening in cinemas of The da Vinci Code.
And nice to know that the Vatican is considering a wrong street name in a fiction novel as falsity whereas stealing antimatter from CERN, flying in Hypersonic Mach-8 Jets unnoticed from the public is not ?!

Misc. Comments by FightingFalcon :
Somehow you are contradicting yourself: The historical Jesus really existed there is no doubt, and then you rowing back from that statement more and more. Indeed the Jesus mentioned from Josephus was added most likely after/during Constantine's reign. Others 'historians' are not eyewitness coming much later and practical copy the myth from the Gospels, and even the earliest source Saul/Paul 50 AD has never met Jesus and never quote his saying. And the saying of Jesus in Mathew or Luke (sermon of the mount, sermon of the plains) is Gospel writer's copies of OT writings.

MPHIL: some good overview of the history with all the infight, struggles for power influence and alleged 'heresies' of Bishops you can find in "The early church" from Henry Chadwick. About the completely different streams of the church int the first centuries Bart Ehrman's "Lost Christianities" gives a good overview.

139. Holiday in Hellmouth

Comment #193833 by Roland_F on June 16, 2008 at 5:50 am

230. Comment #193831 by phil rimmer

What if he is actively hiding?

There is a nice answer from Victor Stenger to this: a God who is hiding can't interact or listen to prayer and is not interested in his 'creation' and is therefore irrelevant.

140. Holiday in Hellmouth

Comment #193829 by Roland_F on June 16, 2008 at 5:24 am

That God is outside time and space was already discussed from St. Anselm of C. a millennia ago, therefore the question what God did before creating the universe is obsolete, or as some stories go St Anselm answered God created hell for people who asked this question.

So as God is outside space and time he even can't be inside this universe and can't influence miracles or listen to prayer. I am anyway surprised why most Christians are attending church on Sundays when God has his day off and is not listening anyway, maybe that's why theist even post here on Sundays.

About the God is working in the forth space dimension or some apologetic arguments frequently stated from theists: there can only be 3 macro space dimensions, otherwise planetary movements would not be stable. The maximum 'medium' space dimension would be the size of an electron 1/10**15 meter beside string theory Planck length curled-up dimensions. So how should we interpret the Bible stories then: Abraham was walking along with God who is the size of an electron, through the Judean desert and negotiated with him the fate of Lot in Sodom.

141. George W Bush meets Pope amid claims he might convert to Catholicism

Comment #193670 by Roland_F on June 15, 2008 at 10:11 pm

GWB as a possible convert: would really fit a war criminal 'Darth Vader' is joining the dark site of the force, headed from 'the emperor' Papa Ratzi.

About the ongoing discussion if a forced member of HJ is a Nazi: In totalitarian societies all families are pressured into enrolling their kids for indoctrination into the youth organizations. This could be the communist former East German FDJ, or equivalent organizations of the former Soviet Union or it can be the Christian fundamentalist requiring getting the child for the first 5 or 7 years for permanent indoctrination. So don't blame the victim.

Papa Ratzi could be properly called the Great Inquisitor as he was ruling the 'congregation of the true faith' as hardliner with iron fist before becoming pope. And this 'congregation of the true faith' is the descendant of the papal inquisition office.

142. Intelligent people 'less likely to believe in God'

Comment #192367 by Roland_F on June 12, 2008 at 10:08 pm

58. Comment #192300 by Jack Rawlinson

http://hypnosis.home.netcom.com/iq_vs_religiosity.htm

Thanks fort he link, so this is he kind of statistic IQ versus importance of religion for persons several posters here were looking for.

The example of Indonesia shows that in the very secular/moderate Islamic state, the IQ can still be high despite high emphasis on religion from the majority of residents. However until 10 years ago it was a secular dictatorship, so the trend towards more faith might reduce future IQ test results over the time.
Other countries like Nigeria fallen behind, likely wise because of the poor education and not necessary because of religious devotion.

So as many other posters have mentioned here, the IQ is not the only factor but also based on the ability to receive an unbiased education.

And when the Christian doctrine is starting in Genesis with the worst eternal sin of eating from the tree of knowledge, or Mathew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"; we can see where this downward trend of education is coming from.

After orthodox Christianity become mainstream under Constantine the peaceful and meek religion turned into a tool for suppressing believers from the emperor. After Christianity became state religion end of the 4th century AD the first actions were the book burnings to erase the over millennia accumulated knowledge all over Greece and Egypt. The classic Greece philosophy was only preserved and reintroduced from the Islamic invaders of Spain.
Now we see this trend of fighting education from fundamental Islamists: the once mighty Islamic empire leading in astronomy and other sciences, got more and more religious and missed the technical advance of Europe. And now instead of catching up with 'the West' fundamentalist preach the fall of the Islamic empire can be reversed by more religious devotion and less education. So for the Taliban's Allah can be pleased with the length of the beard as sign for devotion to gain back Allah's support and to world hegemony.

143. Surviving an unholy school war

Comment #181992 by Roland_F on May 19, 2008 at 4:10 am

The beating of children seems to be quite a fundamentalist Christian, not only Catholic pattern.
I come along several post of parents describing the belting of their children during the last month following links here to other fora and here at RD.Net testimonies of victims, describing of being locked into the cabinet by their Bible belt parents and have to recite Bible psalms in the dark.

When it would not be priest acting in the name of God, these sadistic teachers and pedophile priest would be in jail, but often enough the victims and their parents are shy or mobbed from the neighbors if speaking out against the 'holy men'.

What these sadistic persons (priest and brutal parents alike) fail to understand is that the most submissive and intensive/ long lasting love and fear of God is achieved by randomize beating and hugging, so the victim is never sure what comes next and is especially devote. Only beating or only love is not achieving the maximal long lasting indoctrination. So maybe the Vatican should stronger announce these guidelines to achieve maximal indoctrination.

144. Richard Dawkins Responds to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Comment #181976 by Roland_F on May 19, 2008 at 1:54 am

86. Comment #181903 by Muetze

But I also think that the simple underlying factoid is true: Adolf Hitler was an atheist

Who will ever know what was going on in the sick mind of Hitler ?
I would be not so sure at all that he was really atheists. His book 'Mein Kampf' was full of religious topics or 'fulfilling God's will' as were his official speeches. The only quote mentioned from theist to support the atheism claim here, comes from the questionable source of table talks document and it's 1 against hundreds of religious quotes.
Also the time factor might have an influence: possible after the Stalingrad disaster Hitler changed his mind about fulfilling God's will and 'Gottliche Vorsehung' (divine protective support).

Anyway, the main topic is not what Hitler really thought, which seems unknowable , but that he found fertile ground on the religious soil for his anti Semitism nurtured from the New Testament and Christian dogma for 2 millennia.

Hitler gained the full support of Germany's main churches and of the Vatican (as did Mussolini and Franco).
And even after the capitulation the church heavily supported the holocaust perpetrators including Adolf Eichmann and aided their escape with false Vatican travel documents (see Michael Onfray's book and the resources mentioned there).

So these are the main topics (fertile ground, church support) which are drowning in the wrong discussion about Hitler's thoughts, which should be discussed.

145. Group finds Starbucks logo too hot to handle

Comment #180867 by Roland_F on May 16, 2008 at 1:51 am

Oh no, these faithheads have really too much fantasy in their misery cult with suppresses sexuality.

Just because Saul/Paul of Tarsus had a problem, attributed to a suppressed homosexuality or impotence and he hated himself, all women and all sexuality, lust, fun and enjoyment -- he preached his misery so that all should become self hating like him.
And now 2 billion Christians (and much more billions over the last 2 millennia) follow his self hating, woman despising misery cult and feel offended from any hint of sexuality.

146. The Neural Buddhists

Comment #179855 by Roland_F on May 13, 2008 at 10:04 pm

David Brooks, a science expert of NY Times ??

Maybe he better comments on Golf tournaments or some other staff instead this crap he writes together misinterpreting Selfish Genes, mixing neuro-science with Buddhism etc.
Yes when you meditate like a deep self-hypnosis the frontal lobes have less activity in the MRI -- but is this proof the soul is reaching the Buddhist nothingness of total interconnectedness ?

And why can counter religious arguments can only come from Buddhist scientists and not atheist scientists ?

What a crap !

147. Americans pray at the pump for cheaper petrol

Comment #179217 by Roland_F on May 12, 2008 at 10:31 pm

40. Comment #179214 by BW022

etc. might have something to do with the fact that gas is expensive?

In October last year an analyst commenting on the subprime crisis was predicting that the hedge funds will now jump on oil price speculations and push it up (from 80$ then) to far above 100$.
In the end this guy was right, speculation push it up and reasons about Nigeria unrest, Huga Chavez farting etc.. is just some excuse.

148. Americans pray at the pump for cheaper petrol

Comment #179215 by Roland_F on May 12, 2008 at 10:26 pm

39. Comment #179213 by GordonYKWong

eh? there seems to be a resiliance to tetra's message about Peak Oil.

yes when they come under a topic of religious violence, 'Expelled' trash movie etc... where the discussion has nothing to do with Oil at all.

149. Americans pray at the pump for cheaper petrol

Comment #179207 by Roland_F on May 12, 2008 at 9:52 pm

I have seen this article already 2 weeks ago and wonder why it was not posted earlier here and where is the long sermon about peak oil from Tetramonis and the 200$ per barrel crude prediction for next year ?
.
In Germany gas (extra, super, premium, gold whatever you call it) is 1.50 Euro per liter = 8.80$ per gal , so the 4$ per gallon far too cheap in the US for the gas guzzlers.

Yes prayer is solving all the problems, like in Philippines where last year after some later than expected monsoon rain season, the Catholic church ordered everyone to pray for rain. After 3 weeks delay based on changed climate (El Nino) the usual rain was setting in and fulfilled the monthly quota within a week resulting in heavy flooding. Currently the Philippinos have to pray for cheaper rice, the president who used the fertilizer funds not to fertilize rice fields as allocated, but funneled the fund into her election campaign and vote buying is now leading the prayer campaign for cheaper rice.
But it's all God's will of course,at least a good excuse for the ruling elite.

150. Research Volunteers Needed

Comment #175263 by Roland_F on May 5, 2008 at 3:44 am

This questionnaire seems to be done with the hot needle; at least the 'D' has 2 times the same question with
#23 : I like to look at my body.
#24 : I like to look at my body.
And another one is quite similar (control question ?)
#45 : I like to look at myself in the mirror.

Possibly the 4 sets are to find out the most consistent 'black and white' answers for each group

17. Comment #175251 by DLed
it is comparatively not that interesting to observe, where the "belief centers" are, but rather, how they form, and what the mechanism is

A test like this was announced in another tread here in January, it's about finding out lies and self-deceptions via MRI. During answering the questions, the MRI should reveal if the answer is first intuitive given as nonbeliever (like virgin birth or resurrection myth) and then overwritten from another brain region 'religious center' in self-deception before giving the answer 'yes the virgin birth is true' .