1501. Former state science director sues over intelligent design e-mail

Comment #203863 by Goldy on July 3, 2008 at 9:18 pm

:-) Now there's a good question!

1502. Science is thrilling - except in our schools

Comment #203857 by Goldy on July 3, 2008 at 8:51 pm

Personally, I loved science. It's why I continued along that avenue rather than history and English. I did chemistry for A level because of the benzene ring :-)
What was the alternative? Ummm...maybe something like this http://www.creationism.org/articles/index.htm (Friday jokes ;-))

1503. Former state science director sues over intelligent design e-mail

Comment #203855 by Goldy on July 3, 2008 at 8:45 pm

Mord, I am in awe at people's militant ignorance sometimes.
Been googling...well, it is Friday, LCMS is chugging away nicely and I'm just waiting to go home. Found this
http://www.creationism.org/csshs/v06n2p04.htm
Brilliant!

1504. Former state science director sues over intelligent design e-mail

Comment #203848 by Goldy on July 3, 2008 at 8:24 pm

Talking of ID...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/northamerica/usa/2240349/Creation-Museum-Among-the-believers.html
The comments are to die for! Here's one

17. Posted by Geoffrey on July 04, 2008 12:52 AM
I am shocked by the rudeness and intolerance displayed by evolutionists against christians in these posts. Evolution is definitely not a harmless theory. The Nazi's used it to justify the extermination of the Jews. Abortion and euthanasia are all practical outcomes from its 'survival of the fittest' law and, as you can see from the posts, it produces an intolerance in those who hold to it today. Whereas the christian message is that we should protect the weak and the vulnerable. The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.

Oh, OK, here's another ;-)

1. Posted by John on July 04, 2008 03:48 AM
Yikes! It seems this article has hit a raw nerve with some! Evolutionists really seem to hate anyone who questions their religion. Sorry, their worldview. Evolution has been taught as fact for decades in our schools with an astonishingly religious zeal, well supported by the mainstream media, and yet still more than half the population ask why there is not a shred of evidence to support it? Perhaps it is because those who are really prepared to look beyond "what everyone knows, stoopid!" realise that evolutionary theory just doesn't work. It is impossible mathematically, physically and biologically. From philosophical viewpoint it is self-contradictory. Sadly, those who refuse to look past the end of their noses will continue to deny it until just after their dying day.

1505. Former state science director sues over intelligent design e-mail

Comment #203844 by Goldy on July 3, 2008 at 8:07 pm

Faithhead, I believe ID was described as cretinism in a cheap suit. They are the same thing. Calling God the "designer" doesn't make it any less cretinist.
And no, those are not typos...

1506. Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat

Comment #203824 by Goldy on July 3, 2008 at 6:02 pm

And...
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/muslims-feel-like-jews-of-europe-859978.html

Muslims feel like 'Jews of Europe'

The related links are
The enemy within? Fear of Islam: Britain's new disease and
Sharia law 'coming to Britain' but you'll have to get them from the main article as I am computerly challenged....

Seems like you can smile a tad, Fanusi ;-)

Edit - here are the comments regarding the above article
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/openhouse/2008/07/have-your-say-m.html#comments

1507. Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat

Comment #203822 by Goldy on July 3, 2008 at 5:53 pm

Tine to stoke them embers...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2242340/Muslims-in-Britain-should-be-able-to-live-under-Sharia-law,-says-top-judge.html

Muslims in Britain should be able to live under Sharia law, says top judge

Fancy putting this one on, Josh?

1508. New Zealand man sells his soul to 'Hell'

Comment #203804 by Goldy on July 3, 2008 at 4:21 pm

Aaaah, TradeMe :-) Because of this site and that, I get no work done. I particularly liked the stick that was on sale once - similar to the one used by Moses to part the Red Sea (sea parting properties not guaranteed).
Got a roman blind on sale in TradeMe, if anyone is interested.
And I was particularly underwhelmed by Hell pizzas. I make better...

1509. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #203802 by Goldy on July 3, 2008 at 4:18 pm

Apathy, my wife loves it and I'll admit a pint is a bit yummy after mowing the lawn. It is a tad pricey, mind...

1510. Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat

Comment #203797 by Goldy on July 3, 2008 at 3:49 pm

However that does not justify the reason that this article was posted here - to a) stigmatise all muslims (most Muslims in Dundee have been horrified at Asifs stupidity) and b) stigmatise all religoius people (and thus justify atheism).

I think you'll find, if you read the comments, a very large proportion of contributers actually didn't stigmatise the Muslims (not something the Wee Frees are entirely innocent of, I'll wager) but actually condemend the article for biased and inflammatory reporting. I know, I was one.
We don't need to stigmatise all religious people - that's, as I believe, a Catholic thing ;-)

1511. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #203796 by Goldy on July 3, 2008 at 3:46 pm

My local pub sells a lovely german beer which is my favorite at the moment, it's called Paulaner - anyone else had it?

Beer of choice n Shanghai - had it in a bar in Pudong. Oddly, despite living but a mere hours drive from Musnich when in Austria (the family home) I have never had it there. We drink Zipfer which I see has made the shelves in NZ. Or Goesser (spelt with an umlaut), again, available in NZ :-)

Gr8hands

You know, Robert O'Brien, you write like a first year college student with a penchant for wikipedia and a thesaurus.

That old? I put him at between 16 to 19. He sounded very 6th form to me...

1512. Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat

Comment #203495 by Goldy on July 3, 2008 at 3:06 am

Yeah but, Hungarianelephant, which is more exotic? There's tourism to think about - and they have to try and get away from Torremolinos to get the better quality of tourist ;-)

1513. Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat

Comment #203473 by Goldy on July 3, 2008 at 2:09 am

There's a very strange cultural attitude in parts of Southern Spain. The way they tell their history, nothing of interest has happened since the reconquista in 1492

We're talking about 700 years of southern Spanish history - are you sure they want to whitewash it? Besides, it's exotic - need to pull in the tourists....make those EU funded roads worth the expense! (Been there, BTW. Great - leave the resort as soon as you land and enjoy the landscape! And the hams, ooooooh! Heaven!!)

Leosia

I was fed up with paying 40% of my salary in tax to provide for free accommodation and benefits to muslims to breed and a further 11% NIC tax to provide for their healthcare and children's education.

Knowing the UK, pretty much piss all of your tax went to them and more went to more worthy causes, like MPs wages, roads, weaponry (you did know the UK was one of the big boys in weapon sales?). Have to ask...do you read the Mail?

1514. Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat

Comment #203456 by Goldy on July 3, 2008 at 12:50 am

Mordacious1 - meant to ask - how's your kid? Things settled down yet?

Balach

Gosh, these people are more fundamentalists and extreme than the muslims in pakistan

That's the probelm when people leave their comfort zone - they over compensate! Bit like Brits here...I mean, I have never had so much gin before! Don't even like the stuff, but as an ex-Brit in NZ, I feel culturally bound...hic!

1515. Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat

Comment #203451 by Goldy on July 3, 2008 at 12:41 am

Mordacious1

Your back is still out?

Sure is. And this is a 2 year problem too. Was sitting in a beanbag, daughter crawled towards me and I picked her up. Pain!!! Generally it's fine, but small things trigger it every so often. Soul destroying!
Fanusi, Fanusi, Fanusi...

True, Goldy but the problem isn't the Wahabis - it's Islam itself. Mainstream, orthodox Islam is an abomination.

As regards Islamic art, come on. If you look at that google image search, you find a couple of mosques, some arab writing, and, surprise surprise, a bunch of guys with rocket launchers.

Islam really hasn't produced anything new or original. The Mosque design they are so proud of is just copied from Byzantine cathedrals. "Arabic numerals" and the Zero originated in India.

Islam is just a religion. A nasty one in the grand scheme of things, but just a religion. What were all Muslims before Mo popped out? We're talking of the same people here - they are no different from their ancestors and most see Islam the same way their ancestors saw their religion. At least, the ones I worked with in Syria did. Change will come - all religions wax and wane. We don't have to kill them ;-)
As for original art - apart from Lascaux etc, what is original art? So what if their art isn't original? Neither is Christian art. Or Hindu (well, amybe some of it is - it is the oldest religion, after all). The fact is that that art is recognisably Islamic - it is derived from and earlier age (and they respected the past - I read the Kingdom of Rhum named itself after Rome). Islam didn't place barbarism on it's adherents - people did that and fairly recently. As for the rocket launchers, shall I google some Northern Ireland murals for you?
The religion is barbaric - but the people are pliable. Islam will die out. So will Christianity. OK, maybe not die out fully, but it will be a tiny minority religion, like Nestorianism. Muslims, in my experience, can change. If they couldn't, apostasy would not be a problem, but it is. Blame the Quran, Islam and the religion, but don't angle your hatred at the people. They just follow the religion....in many cases very badly.

1516. Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat

Comment #203373 by Goldy on July 2, 2008 at 6:21 pm

Taj Mahal also springs to mind...
Samarkand
http://images.google.co.nz/images?um=1&hl=en&q=islamic samarkand
No shortage of Islamic art.

Not all Muslims are wahabis

In December 2004, Jordan's King Abdallah warned of a "Shia crescent" from Lebanon to Iraq to Iran that would destabilize the entire region. Iraq's Shias had demonstrated against Jordan in the past, condemning the country for its steady trickle of suicide bombers who crossed into Iraq to commit atrocities against Shia civilians. In September 2005, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al Faisal warned that a civil war in Iraq would destabilize the entire region and complained that the Americans had handed Iraq over to Iran. In response, Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr called the Saudi foreign minister a "Bedouin riding a camel" and described Saudi Arabia as a one-family dictatorship. Jabr, who had commanded the Badr corps, also condemned Saudi human-rights abuses - particularly the repression of Saudi Arabia's approximately two million Shias - and he mocked Saudi Arabia's treatment of its women.

From http://bostonreview.net/BR31.2/rosen.php

1517. Help protest against misguided report on UK faith schools

Comment #203372 by Goldy on July 2, 2008 at 6:16 pm

Letters in the Independent

Faith schools and a free society

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (30 June) is right that religion should not be allowed to make ghettos. Cristina Odone's report on faith schools, published by the Centre for Policy Studies, misses the point. The point of is not that faith schools have discriminatory admission codes and employment practices, cream-skim pupils, or turn away children in care, although they do. Rather, what makes faith schools fundamentally bad for children is that they are more concerned with the inclusion of religion â€" the religion of the child's parents â€" than the inclusion, wellbeing and educational needs of the child.

According to Ms Odone, Islamic schools are crucial to the emancipation of girls because they give parents the confidence to keep them in school for longer. But relegating girls to Islamic schools where they are indoctrinated in their parents' beliefs, segregated on the basis of sex (imagine how unacceptable this would be if it was based on race), veiled, prevented from mixing and playing with boys, prevented from doing sports, dancing and so on is anything but.

In Islamic schools students are taught to despise unbelievers, and to hold males and females as unequal.

Ibrahim Lawson, headteacher of Nottingham Islamia School, clearly states their main purpose: "The essential purpose of the Islamia school, as with all Islamic schools, is to inculcate profound religious belief in the children." Education, however, is meant to give children access to science, reason and advances of the 21st century. It is meant to level the playing field irrespective of and despite the family the child is born into. It is meant to allow children to think freely and critically â€" something that religion actually prohibits and often punishes. Contrary to Ms Odone's claims, this can only be guaranteed by a secular educational system.

Until children are given precedence over their parents' religion, the Government, with its commitment to faith schools, will continue to fail them.

Maryam Namazie

Spokesperson, Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, London WC1

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in her columns has continually and laudably called for the protection of personal freedom. Yet she reacts to the publication of the recent report into faith schools by calling on the Government to refuse to facilitate parents with a faith in passing on that faith to their children.

Where does Yasmin stand? Where do we stand as a society? Do we respect freedom to pass on a faith and also the time-honoured principle that parents have primary responsibility for their children? Or are we in fact backing the approach adopted by totalitarian regimes that the children belong first to the state?

In 1937, Hitler said, "The youth of today is ever the people of tomorrow. For this reason we have set before ourselves the task of inoculating our youth with the spirit of this community of the people at a very early age, at an age when human beings are still unperverted and therefore unspoiled. This Reich stands, and it is building itself up for the future, upon its youth. And this new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing."

Chilling words, which were never more timely.

Karen Rodgers

Cambridge

1518. Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat

Comment #203368 by Goldy on July 2, 2008 at 6:01 pm

Why does islam hate beauty - the reason is simple, their faith strips them of any knowledge of beauty outside of the Koran.

http://www.lacma.org/islamic_art/intro.htm

Where are all the mediaeval murals in English churches?
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/england/oddington-st-nicholas-church.htm

1519. Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat

Comment #203340 by Goldy on July 2, 2008 at 4:31 pm

Vinelectric

Forget about people being manipulated by trash journalism, we know what they're like. This is not supposed to be a tabloid forum. Or is it?

If I can educate just one person, if I can get just one person to think before putting finger to keyboard, I'll feel better.
I have learnt soooo much being here. I really think the way I see things has improved. It annoys me to see journo-trash manipulating so easily. I will not forget about people being manipulate - I have to show them. This is a clear-thinking oasis - it is. And it can remian so only by diligence and application of clear thinking.
Otherwise we could end up like some non-believing wooter or Robert O'Brien.

Brian, I think I'd like that drink now!

1520. Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat

Comment #203335 by Goldy on July 2, 2008 at 4:23 pm

Like I said, decius, I feel a bit down. Nothing like a damn sore back to suck the will to live out of a person! Do you know how much one contorts to wipe and arse? I need a poo but I'm too scared to go!
We worry about how a tiny minority react to something by reading an inflammatory headline - I mean, look at it. "Muslims outraged" - like all of them?? "Cute puppy" - what sort of journalism is that? Not all Muslims are that cowed - they weren't in Syria, anyway. Or Iran - mullahs accept money to fuck off and let the party carry on. Might even accept a bottle of scotch.
What is worrying is a headline like this
"Obama Wants to Expand Role of Religious Groups"
Why the fuck does religion have anything to do with the running of a country?

8teist - don't tell me there's another flu here! Wife and daughter come back after 3 weeks in China - I want to enjoy them, not lie in bed!! Aaaargh!!!!

1521. Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat

Comment #203326 by Goldy on July 2, 2008 at 4:14 pm

8teist - yeah, I know. Just that people are being manipulated by the authors of this piece of trash journalism. Playing right into the hands of those wanting a real "clash of civilisations".
At the risk of sounding like a right wingeing Pom, that's another peeve of mine! :-D
And my ears are blocked, my back hurts and I have to use some piece of equipment tomorrow that has the longest waiting list and truckies are going to block Auckland (along with other major cities) so I might miss that window.

And TP, just be a bit less belliegerent - just today. Please. I feel crappy, I want to enjoy some time here and don't need the confrontation. Cheers, mate.

1522. Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat

Comment #203324 by Goldy on July 2, 2008 at 4:10 pm

I am glad to learn that there is such thing as an Arab atheist left. Last time that I checked they were being executed for apostasy.

A bit stereotypical, mate. There are quite a few communists in the Arab world who do not believe in gods. There's actually quite a few who believe in gods like most European Christians do. There are a lot that don't believe in gods - I know, I worked with them. Your comments are akin to us Euros saying all Yanks are bible bashing cretinist YEC IDiots.
Shall we just count to 10, take a deep breath and not let the initial emotions get the better of our minds?

1523. Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat

Comment #203319 by Goldy on July 2, 2008 at 4:03 pm

Comment #203292 by GoodbyeGodNZ
Mate, that's a bit harsh and uncalled for. The doctor that delivered my kid was an Iraqi. I know Arabs here in the Uni who don't particularly give a shit about religion. In North Shore there is a Coptic Christian church - normally full of Arabs.
Most of the convered Muslims I know here are Malaysian or Indonesian. The Muslims in this case are Pakistani and it appears only one said anything. All the others are just rolling their eyes and waiting for the ill informed backlash from the great unwashed whiteys out there who just read the headlines.

8teist - you don't have the cooking channel on Sky? Keith Floyd is great - love the way he gets pissed as he cooks. All chefs should be like him :-)

1524. Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat

Comment #203283 by Goldy on July 2, 2008 at 3:01 pm

LAst Indian I saw was Canadian. Think his name was Lundberg or something (long time ago - he was an engineer that came out to Syria to put out a fire at a well head). Blue eyes, very blond hair...

1525. Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat

Comment #203280 by Goldy on July 2, 2008 at 3:00 pm

Typical Mail trash. Part of the demonisation of immigrants of predominantly different race who happen to practise the religion in question I'll bet. Shame they don't do the stories of the white outraged readers of their rag - white Christians outraged at youths or outraged Christians demand black poice officer reassigned.
Why is this article here?

1526. Can't Darwin and God get along?

Comment #202774 by Goldy on July 2, 2008 at 12:53 am

Philip, the little muffin was a bit rude and petulant to me too. And he tried to tell me Judaism has its roots in the Iron Age, bless! When pointed out that the roots of the mythology was firmly in the Bronze Age and earlier, he told me that some J character wrote the Pentateuch in the Iron Age...such schoolboy logic :-)
He's conpletely confused about his religion too - he's going through puberty. I think the Robert O'Brien referred to by others as having a blog is a different character. This one is too infantile to be that one! :-)

1527. Can't Darwin and God get along?

Comment #202763 by Goldy on July 2, 2008 at 12:21 am

Ah I see a genius who got banned from other sites has now turned up to vomit lyrically about his incredible knowledge!

Aw, c'mon, Phil et al! Give him a wee chance. I'll admit to being a bit snotty with him on the Mormon thread, but I have a serious backache (never, ever, pick up a 6 month old up while lying on a beanbag!) and my ears are plugged - left has no hearing and right is filling up :-( Bubba, sorry for that!
I don't know - he has a rather large head and an ego inversely proportional to his intelligence but I thikn he's just a kid. C'mon, admit it, you know he sounds like some spotty 6th former (d they still have a 6th form?) who has read a book or two. The use of Greek just reminded me of my mate at school who was doing classical Greek...
As it is, he is as confused as a teenager. Ask him about his religion. He calls it Christianity but he can't accept the doctrine that defines it. Give him a year or two and he'll become a Buddhist.
If he is older than 18, I worry for him - most would have grown out of that stage by now ;-) Maybe he's still spotty - I was and, like him, I over-compensated too...

1528. Can't Darwin and God get along?

Comment #202744 by Goldy on July 1, 2008 at 11:30 pm

You aren't the first and you won't be the last vapid atheist I steamroll over, I assure you.

Evidence of this?

Edit - By the way, running over Ken with your Tonka toy doesn't count...

1529. Can't Darwin and God get along?

Comment #202738 by Goldy on July 1, 2008 at 11:11 pm

Bugger me, that intellectual pygmy O'Brien jumped threads?
Waaahahahahahah!
Hey, Pygmy, what evidence have you of God?

1530. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #202684 by Goldy on July 1, 2008 at 7:58 pm

Yes, he (or they) did. The Documentary Hypothesis has been pretty well established, your delusions to the contrary notwithstanding.

No, they didn't. Copied. Took other mythology from an earlier age. Is Homer modern? My Iliad may suggest he is, going by the published date in my book.
See, you are not on good ground here. Us theomachoi know more than you.
Anyway, you are too stupid to converse with.
Answer Brian, not me - I have lost interest in you.

1531. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #202680 by Goldy on July 1, 2008 at 7:51 pm

Goldy, my good dumb ass, J wrote in the 10th century BC and he is the earliest author of the Pentateuch. The 10th century BC is in the Iron Age.

Bobby, Bobby, Bobby. J didn't write anything.
Such militant ignorance.

1532. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #202648 by Goldy on July 1, 2008 at 7:11 pm

If you are referring to the Bible, it is from the Iron Age, dumb arse.

Well, there you have it. Genesis is from the Iron Age.
Stupid man, the Bible is a compilation of many different sources, some dating back to maybe even the late Stone Age. Are you saying cuneiform Mesapotamia was Iron Age?
Let's see - pick Gilgamesh (http://who2.com/gilgamesh.html) - about 2700BC.
Wikipedia puts the Iron age in the Middle East at 12th century BC

Classically, the Iron Age is taken to begin in the 12th century BC in the ancient Near East, ancient Persia, ancient India (with the post-Rigvedic Vedic civilization), and ancient Greece (with the Greek Dark Ages).

You can't even get your facts right! Your dates are completely out - and you have the cheek to call us stupid.
Not even worthy of further dicourse.
Robert O'Brien, you are the weakest link. Goodbye.

1533. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #202646 by Goldy on July 1, 2008 at 7:04 pm

I would have to take a chisel to my head to descend to the average level of intelligence here; thus, in the future, if you think you spot an error in one of my posts, just assume it is your mediocre intellect at work.

I'll send you one.
Sooooo, God? Existance? Without Goedel - or is that too hard for you? Oh, yes, of course, "You just won't understand" :-)
Idiot.

1534. Can't Darwin and God get along?

Comment #202632 by Goldy on July 1, 2008 at 6:20 pm

Kestrel, regarding your comment #202616 - would you think the same if he presented the same argument for Father Xmas? Zeus? Odin? Probably not. You'd probably think he's a bit touched upstairs or gone all New Age or something. Well, that's how I feel even though he is talking about God. God is just a feeling one has, not a being or god that explains the gaps. Gaps are ignorance, ignorance due to lack of data, research, time - not lack of wanting to find out or education.
You think that there can be some reconciliation between religion and the rational. Maybe - depends on what religion. But this religion one cannot - look at the corrosive effect of IDiots on American and, creepingly, British, Australian and other education. Heck, look at this headline
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/us/politics/02campaigncnd.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
We have to pander to the religious? Why? Where are the headlines saying presidential candidates seek atheist votes? Or that someone can sit in the House of Lords purely for their lack of beliefs?
No, Kestrel, you join forces with the religious at your peril - they want you, totally and utterly. Your views will count for nothing - it's this soul of yours they are after, your "salvation" from sins even you have no idea about. To give them relevance means your sexuality will be what they determine, your hours of shopping (what's that? Oh, yeah, they already do that!), what you can do with your free time and, if they want, how you are disposed of when you die.
Want more examples?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7265404.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7163391.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6278568.stm
(Gosh, that wasn't hard - all in one country!)

1535. It can be right to discriminate against the religious

Comment #202534 by Goldy on July 1, 2008 at 3:27 pm

Possums are to NZ what cane toads are to Aussie.

1536. It can be right to discriminate against the religious

Comment #202529 by Goldy on July 1, 2008 at 3:19 pm

I would, Brian, I would. But if DoC don't come after me, then some iwi will certainly raise some objection...
As it is, my back garden is prime bush. Bunch of kauri and koru and stuff which I can't cut down. Perfect for possum...

1537. It can be right to discriminate against the religious

Comment #202515 by Goldy on July 1, 2008 at 2:56 pm

Al, PM sent.
Macs Gold? It's OK, I s'pose...
I'm rather partial to Emmerson's brews. And of course, there's Galbraiths near the medschool....but beer has gone up - it's already almost $9 a pint in Galbraiths :-(
The world as I know it is coming to an end...

1538. It can be right to discriminate against the religious

Comment #202507 by Goldy on July 1, 2008 at 2:41 pm

I'll look it up and PM you, Al :-)
Not sure about the kangas, unless it's just the meat. Aussie critter, you know... Now a monotreme like the platypus...

1539. It can be right to discriminate against the religious

Comment #202500 by Goldy on July 1, 2008 at 2:36 pm

My party? the Rational Social-Darwinists, or the 'Razis'

If that's pronounced like I think it is, you'll have problems. Hordes of Catholics will flock to you thinking you're something to do with the current Pope...

1540. It can be right to discriminate against the religious

Comment #202496 by Goldy on July 1, 2008 at 2:32 pm

OK, Al, you got my vote. Ohh....can't vote in the US. Come to NZ.
:-)

1541. It can be right to discriminate against the religious

Comment #202483 by Goldy on July 1, 2008 at 2:26 pm

I see nothing wrong with social Darwinism, however, or eugenics, and think we need to re-evaluate it.

I don't really like the use of Darwinism here - it's not breeding he published (along with Wallace) but evolution.
Otherwise, I have to say when reading the papers in the morning, sometimes I have the same thought. Worked in Sweden...
Aaaah, opening myself to a volley from Clearthinker, aka Wee Flea, aka the idiot Robertson.

1542. Can't Darwin and God get along?

Comment #202477 by Goldy on July 1, 2008 at 2:22 pm

People debate about what that means and how great the separation is, but in articulations that I find most congenial, that entails God giving some freedom to the world. We have a free will to choose good or choose evil.

So Hell is what? An alternative heaven?
I like the way they always seem to make God sound all benevolent with his free choice and free will. Yep, we can be evil, but we will be eternally punished for it, punished in the most unimaginably horrible way. Nice choice.

1543. Can't Darwin and God get along?

Comment #202471 by Goldy on July 1, 2008 at 2:19 pm

Can't Darwin and God get along?

Of course they can, argues physicist and theologian Karl Giberson, if only many believers were more sophisticated and atheists less dogmatic.

Not quite how I'd phrase it. More like....
"Sure they can. There's no God - what's the problem?"

1544. Help protest against misguided report on UK faith schools

Comment #202125 by Goldy on June 30, 2008 at 11:36 pm

I replied to his comment with my own wee rantette. I'm not totally sure how they can play the vistim card. My comment on that thread just summed up my feelings...

1545. Help protest against misguided report on UK faith schools

Comment #202110 by Goldy on June 30, 2008 at 9:49 pm

Want to know what the religious think?

This is a really odd argument especially coming from Westerners. Judging that several evangelical atheist books have made it to the top of the best sellers list, that the authors have received much media attention, interview time even on conservative media outlets, such as FOX news, not to mention outlets such as Youtube, forums that are available to the public, I have to wonder who has denied you the right to criticize religion? If anything, you've been provided an open door.

I've attended several universities where students and Professors lambasted religion with free reign. If there's even been a moment in history where the atheist gets his time on the pulpit it's now.

http://richarddawkins.net/articleComments,1350,I-believe-that-there-is-no-God,Penn-Jillette-thisibelieveorg,page6#201452

This was my reply
http://richarddawkins.net/articleComments,1350,I-believe-that-there-is-no-God,Penn-Jillette-thisibelieveorg,page6#201622

1546. Help protest against misguided report on UK faith schools

Comment #202100 by Goldy on June 30, 2008 at 9:09 pm

So institutionalised that we allow fuckwits like these to roam the streets
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7482616.stm

Edit - and yet they don't question the titular head of their sect being a woman...

Fuckwits.

1547. Help protest against misguided report on UK faith schools

Comment #202095 by Goldy on June 30, 2008 at 9:04 pm

In the UK, I believe it's partly because religion is institutionalized, but probably due to the fact that religious people vote and have a loud voice.

So institutionalised that we even let people sit (unelected, as far as I know) in the House of Lords purely because they are, errrr, religious.

1548. Help protest against misguided report on UK faith schools

Comment #202092 by Goldy on June 30, 2008 at 9:01 pm

Why do you Brits put up with this "faith schools" garbage, anyway?

Keep everyone happy? Guilt of empire? Equality for all? Who knows...
Question to all - who pays for these things? Taxpayer (as usual) or do they get their funding privately?

1549. Jesus and Mo on Militant Atheists

Comment #202071 by Goldy on June 30, 2008 at 7:32 pm

http://www.jesusandmo.net/2006/03/01/lent/
Oh dear, this one does have me in stitches!

1550. A secular world is a sane world

Comment #202068 by Goldy on June 30, 2008 at 7:23 pm

Secondsoprano
I hang my head in shame...sort of... ;-) I'll do something about it tomorrow..