151. In Defense of Witchcraft

Comment #52587 by BicycleRepairMan on June 27, 2007 at 11:17 am

I know [brackets] are common courtesy when changing quoted text, but somehow they make it impossible for me to read this fluently, I think this one time, they could be excluded to better make the point, as the brackets sort of imply that "here I replaced something reasonable with something whacky"

Heres my version, I also re-replaced some of it, to attempt to make it better:

"What's really bothersome is the suggestion that witch-burners rarely question themselves while deniers of witchcraft ask all the hard questions.... The great warlock Michael Novak's book "Belief and Unbelief" is a classic in self-interrogation. "How does one know that one's belief is truly in witchcraft," he asks at one point, "not merely in some habitual emotion or pattern of response?" The problem with the neo-witchdeniers is that they seem as dogmatic as the dogmatists they condemn... But as Novak argued--in one of the best critiques of neo-witchdenying--in the March 19 issue of National Review, "Questions have been the heart and soul of conjuring and divination for millennia."

152. UK Gov boots intelligent design back into 'religious' margins

Comment #52174 by BicycleRepairMan on June 26, 2007 at 12:18 pm

Thank you for defending the planet, UK.

153. God Hates the World

Comment #52147 by BicycleRepairMan on June 26, 2007 at 10:52 am

No - it is not faith.

And it is not an example of what religion does to the brain

154. God Hates the World

Comment #51899 by BicycleRepairMan on June 25, 2007 at 2:07 pm

I am really angry and disgusted with you for doing this. It is the worst thing you have done on this website yet and deserves an immediate apology and retraction.

155. In the name of the Father

Comment #51461 by BicycleRepairMan on June 23, 2007 at 2:22 am

"The evils perpetrated in the name of religion are real enough [...] But...

156. His word

Comment #51445 by BicycleRepairMan on June 23, 2007 at 1:24 am

"(so religion, or rather the need for it, must serve some basic "positive" survival-enhancing purpose) "

This is exactly what Dawkins argues AGAINST. This writer completely evades the point, that religion is a survival machine in its own right, it doesnt survive by benefiting us, it survives by benefiting itself, (the selfish meme)

Well, to be fair , now that I re-read the sentence, Dawkins does imply that religion is a by-product of something that is helpful to our survival. (like listening to your parents) But the way he says it, it does sound like he doesnt get the meme concept

157. An Inquisition in science's name

Comment #51090 by BicycleRepairMan on June 21, 2007 at 12:32 pm

What a moron, whats really sad is that this probably sounds convincing to faith-heads.

158. In the know

Comment #50246 by BicycleRepairMan on June 16, 2007 at 2:26 am

"Albert Einstein, another agnostic, is forcibly recruited to Dawkins' cause"

Moron. Einstein was not an agnostic, nor was he an atheist, nor a personal god believer. He was rather a pretty firm believer in what _he_ called "God" and "The God Delusion" explores this concept excellently, at no point that I can remember is Einstein "accused" of supporting RD's views, he is rather treated as a believer, albeit a different kind of believer than the lot Dawkins attacks.

159. In the know

Comment #50240 by BicycleRepairMan on June 16, 2007 at 1:28 am

"One of the new militants, Sam Harris, in his book The End of Faith, is so triumphant that he contemplates the possibility of nuking Muslims: although it would kill millions of innocent people, he argues it might be the only option "we" have, in the face of the threat "they" and their faith represent. If this sounds like the rhetoric of Jerry Falwall in perverse reverse it's because that is exactly what it is."

This is a complete out-of-context distortion of what Harris actually writes, I'd say it borderlines a crime to throw a false accusation like this at him.

160. The Myth of Secular Moral Chaos

Comment #47420 by BicycleRepairMan on June 4, 2007 at 1:12 pm

Nothing new here

Well, atleast not for those who have read "The End Of Faith", anyways.. But it cant hurt to put these things into a shorter, more accessible context, if nothing else as a teaser for this Must-read book. TEOF is a shockingly brilliant book, it really nails it in just about every sentence

161. My Road to Atheism, What Took Me So Long and The Aftermath

Comment #47346 by BicycleRepairMan on June 4, 2007 at 6:44 am

Yup, thats what you get from all this preaching-to-the-choir-nonsense, Richard :)

All these de-conversion stories are a delight to read, such a satisfying little poke in the eye/groin-kick combo to all The God Delusion critics

162. The Atheism FAQ with Richard Dawkins

Comment #47011 by BicycleRepairMan on June 2, 2007 at 5:21 pm

Mostly good, but I do object to the "T" in Truth, truth is important alright, but its still written truth, if its written with a capital t, it implies some sort of scriptural truth, which has got to be the opposite of Dawkins views.

163. Diary of a Deserter

Comment #46404 by BicycleRepairMan on May 31, 2007 at 6:13 am

"What about the dinosaurs?" LOL!
Perhaps it wasnt meant to be funny, and I realize that the escape from indoctrination is a very serious subject and all(As this blog is living proof) But that story really cracked me up, shemp333, grown people outsmarted by a 6-year old, and they happily just ignore it. Such a desperately ironic moment.

164. Dawkins at the Hay Festival

Comment #46129 by BicycleRepairMan on May 30, 2007 at 9:50 am

"Why does RD shy away from calling the Archbishop deluded?"

Its obvious, people in the media are looking for controversial statements, they want headlines like "Dawkins says all Bishops are deluded" They try to corner him to present the bishops as deluded in the crazy sense, while the meaning of the word in the book is the scientific usage of the word, which is more "You are wrong" than "You are crazy"

165. Dawkins' Christmas card list

Comment #45834 by BicycleRepairMan on May 29, 2007 at 11:13 am

"Perhaps we should develop cows that can talk and want to be eaten! Perhaps I should patent that idea."

Too late, you need to see this video:
http://richarddawkins.net/video/growingUpClip2all.mov

166. Dawkins' Christmas card list

Comment #45831 by BicycleRepairMan on May 29, 2007 at 11:10 am

"In short, religions aren't the source of ALL evil, but broadening the concept to "doctrines" gets much nearer to covering most."

I completely agree, the problem is, say that to a theist and he goes, "See, I told you religion isnt bad!" and he then thinks he has won the argument. The only way I know is to say, "forget stalin for 2 seconds, this is how YOUR religion fucks shit up, and thats a problem"

167. Debate between Richard Dawkins and Robert Winston

Comment #45599 by BicycleRepairMan on May 28, 2007 at 12:20 pm

I refuse to infect my computer with any software from RealNetworks.

I couldnt agree more, however, there are alternatives, or, atleast one: Real Alternative, also known as Media Player Classic, it works fine on this one:

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm

168. Christian sports workers degree ridiculed

Comment #44707 by BicycleRepairMan on May 25, 2007 at 7:43 am

he doesn't understand the history between sport and churches in this country.

Whats that got to do with anything? Isnt this 2007 and christianity should be allowed to rot in church where its bigotry and ignorance belongs?

169. Jerry Falwell Deconverted on Deathbed!

Comment #44634 by BicycleRepairMan on May 25, 2007 at 5:59 am

Well I wrote that exact thing on this website! I had the same thought as Dawkins! WHO WANTS TO TOUCH ME??!
http://richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=223060#223060

170. Creationist Periodic Table of the Elements

Comment #44556 by BicycleRepairMan on May 25, 2007 at 4:27 am

"This is great satire"

After reading the previous article about the "Strong opinion" on atheists, I dont think I'm able to separate satire from religion anymore. Religion isnt just stranger than fiction, its stranger than the most non-subtle satire out there.

171. The Conversion of the Casual Evolutionist - You can't spell love without evolve

Comment #44039 by BicycleRepairMan on May 23, 2007 at 8:08 am

Yup. After reading it once more,an taking a look at his other articles, this is definitely meant as sarcasm/parody

172. The Conversion of the Casual Evolutionist - You can't spell love without evolve

Comment #44036 by BicycleRepairMan on May 23, 2007 at 8:01 am

As I said in my previous post, I think he might be sarcastic, by pretending to be overly materialistic in his darwinian thinking, that everything is just plain survival, and he is poking fun at the evolutionists for "waking up" to see this.. but I'¨m not sure, maybe he is somewhat genuinely excited about evolution. At any rate, he fails to note in this article atleast, that an understanding of evolution doesnt mean you need to scrap the non-survival related activities in your own life.

173. Busted Halo

Comment #43929 by BicycleRepairMan on May 23, 2007 at 4:17 am

http://www.bustedhalo.com/features/RichardDawkinsTheGodDelusionandTheCasualEvolutionist.htm

This article was quite good, It sort of sums up my own feelings when reading Dawkins, but I cant help but thinking that the whole thing almost sounds like sarcasm at times, atleast I'm sure some religous people will think so..

I still believe in applying a meaning to my own life, loving music, arts, science etc, (Things that I consider goes beyond simply surviving) even tho I'm strictly speaking "a survival machine for my genes". It seems the author of this article almost goes overboard on the Darwinism, but, I can sympathize, because as I said, I felt much the same way after reading Dawkins.. and Darwinism really is sort-of all-engrossing when you think about it.

174. Despite what the scholars say, God isn't dead yet

Comment #43878 by BicycleRepairMan on May 23, 2007 at 3:16 am

"did this man not do his research?"

Apparantly she did almost as bad as you ;)

175. Despite what the scholars say, God isn't dead yet

Comment #43874 by BicycleRepairMan on May 23, 2007 at 3:13 am

Except ofcourse that the jews where hated and stigmatized as a direct result of centuries of superstitions and religious dogma and indoctrination which resulted in a europe with a subconsciousness that believed they were baby-eating blood-sucking little devils that threatened the Christian life. Praise Jesus my ass.

176. For the God Question, a Biological Perspective

Comment #43751 by BicycleRepairMan on May 22, 2007 at 12:40 pm

konquererz: If you like the evolution bits in TGD, you'll love Dawkins other books, Selfish Gene, Blind Watchmaker and so on.

177. Cult leader sparks Sikh riots with 'guru' stunt

Comment #43432 by BicycleRepairMan on May 21, 2007 at 11:39 am

[quote]Time for us atheists and agnostics to demand our own homeland methinks.

No bible punchers allowed.[/quote]
http://www.sealandgov.org/
Buy Sealand? Although we'd have to allow an exception for religions that require pirate costumes ARRRRGH!

178. Atheists with Attitude: Why do they hate Him?

Comment #41782 by BicycleRepairMan on May 17, 2007 at 1:44 am

Dawkins used the term "militant atheism" at TEDTalks, if not exactly tongue-in-cheek it was used to get a laugh from the crowd, and to express the point of his talk, which was not to be "so damn tolerant" of religion, referring to 9/11.

179. State Darwin museum

Comment #40995 by BicycleRepairMan on May 15, 2007 at 9:56 am

Thats what you get for rejecting communism, you silly capitalists.

180. Hitchens vs. Hannity on Religion and God

Comment #40940 by BicycleRepairMan on May 15, 2007 at 8:26 am

It seems Hithcens wont even bother rebutting the usual arguments for Gods existence..

Just strikes me how the religious mind copes with criticism, Its like when Dawkins is on its "Ok, so I read your book, there is no god, where does our morals come from? explain in a soundbite please"

And when its against Hitchens, its: "Ok, I sort-of agree its morally appalling to believe in god, but I still think God exists, now prove me wrong in a soundbite"

*sigh*

181. Bill Maher interviews Christopher Hitchens

Comment #40867 by BicycleRepairMan on May 15, 2007 at 6:05 am

"I've about reached the limit on what I can take or what I can read on atheism. How many times can you state the same old ideas over and over again and not get any result."

Well, I sometimes feel the same way, having read several books on it lately, seen videos like this etc. But I, and I expect you too, actually seek out this stuff, we visit RD.net, discuss it, see it on YT and so on. someone not into it like I am will not get exposed to just about every interview dawkins or hitchens is in. When they do see stuff like this, the chances are that its completely new information to them.. They might never have seen someone speak so openly out against Gods publicly.

Theres just too many channels, papers, books etc out there for everyone to continually stumble over atheism.

With the recent crop of anti-faith books, atleast the collective coverage of all of it might qualify it as "mainstream".

The tragic truth is that britneys haircuts gets hundred times the coverage of all the recent atheism books combined.

Go out on the street and ask anyone. Everyone will have heard of britneys shaved head, only a select few will have heard of any books by Harris,Dawkins,Dennet or Hitchens

182. One side can be wrong

Comment #40815 by BicycleRepairMan on May 15, 2007 at 3:21 am

"Let's start with how life got started."

Why dont we? The answer is simple: Simple.

However complex the first self-replicating organism was, a Creator would be MORE COMPLEX. in other words you complicate the problem.

Life started with something very, very simple. That simple thing may still have been rather complex for it to "just happen", but it has an eternity of time to allow it to happen. You might bet the lottery every week your entire life, and the chances of winning are still small, but had your life had a geological timespan, say 30 million years, you'd probably win several times, perhaps even 5 weeks in a row on some occasions. This allows for the first replicator to be a very, very improbable thing indeed, but its still plausible, because it has such a long time to happen.

If scientist would follow your standard they could say Where did this first bacteria come from? A higher-order bacteria evolved into one. Obviously as you can see that would explain nothing. Life evolves from simple to complex, not vice-versa, that is why "God did it" is NO EXPLANATION AT ALL.

183. Why Christopher Hitchens is not Great

Comment #40615 by BicycleRepairMan on May 14, 2007 at 3:32 pm

"No where in Christianity does the doctrine, text, or deity call for the cutting off the heads of those who simply disagree."

Deuteronomy 13:7-11:
"If your brother ... or your daughter, or the spouse whom you embrace, or your most intimate friend, tries to ... seduce you, saying, 'Let us go and serve other gods,' unknow to you or your ancestors before you, gods of the people surrounding you, whether near to you or far away, anywhere throughout the world ... you must not listen to him; you must show no pity, you must not spare him ... No, you must kill him, your hand must stike the first blow in putting him to death and the hands of the rest of the people following. You must stone him to death, since he tried to divert you from Yahweh your God." -

You are quite right, no head-chopping mentioned, that would be outright barbaric. No, STONING, thats the true Christian way.

184. How dare you call me a fundamentalist

Comment #40593 by BicycleRepairMan on May 14, 2007 at 2:55 pm

"Dawkins starts with the fundamental belief that there is no God and therefore that makes all those theologians who write from the premise that there is, as useless in his eyes as a chocolate teapot."

No, he does not. He starts by looking at the evidence, The first half of the God Delusion, for instance, is dealing with the question "Is there a God?" And when you shove that question into the grinder of critical thinking, and its quickly shredded to pieces, just like the tooth fairy, and completely unlike things like evolution and other scientific theories that exists solely because they withstand criticism and investigation.

Once you have established that, Dawkins sees no reason to delve into deeply theological discussion about why and how god works, simply because there is no premise for those discussions once god is gone.. Why, for instance do you reject Lord Xenu without paying the required 100,000$ worth of self-improvement classes to the church of scientology, which is required to get to level 3 and learn the full story of how aliens were flown to earth millions of years ago in DC9's, dumped into volcanos and blown up with nuclear bombs.

Because you have established that its all bullshit.

And unlike Dawkins, who spent half a book debunking an equally silly myth, you probably havent even thought twice about it.

185. Lou Dobbs w/ Hitchens on Al Sharpton's Bigoted Remark

Comment #39562 by BicycleRepairMan on May 11, 2007 at 6:15 am

I dont see how the remark was "bigoted" really, it was more an opinion on someone else's opinion. If I say If he said the same thing about Romneys republican stance, such as "those with proper policies, (as opposed to a republican one) will vote him out anyways" the statement might have been seen as slightly arrogant, but not "Bigoted". Bigoted would be : "Throw this rich, stupid, cracker-ass out of politics."

186. Lou Dobbs w/ Hitchens on Al Sharpton's Bigoted Remark

Comment #39380 by BicycleRepairMan on May 10, 2007 at 12:57 pm

<>

LOL ,Arafat Said that??!!

If true, then irony truly has no limits.

187. Massive explosion is brightest-ever supernova

Comment #38516 by BicycleRepairMan on May 8, 2007 at 12:57 pm

best guess is that it will pop within 100K years.

Is there any chance it could happen in our lifetime, ie: its already happened?, or is the closest estimate only close in the cosmological sense of time?

188. Interview with Christopher Hitchens

Comment #38506 by BicycleRepairMan on May 8, 2007 at 12:03 pm

I dont see why hitchens cant see that the war in Iraq obviously makes things even worse when it comes to terror, islam, religion etc. I support in princible a "war" on terror, a "war" on religion and Islam, but not first and foremost a military war, although I support limited military interventions in extreme cases, the main focus on the war, will have to be with education, science,development and general promotion of understanding as the main tools.

189. Richard Dawkins on Canada AM

Comment #38316 by BicycleRepairMan on May 7, 2007 at 1:31 pm

Only works in MS Internet Exploder for me as well, via the link on the CTV website, also hang around for the interview with the kid with the book, and cancer. A moving story indeed

190. Atheists go on the political offensive in God-fearing US

Comment #37987 by BicycleRepairMan on May 6, 2007 at 3:19 pm

Atheism is climbing mount improbable :)

191. Jordan opens children's museum

Comment #37050 by BicycleRepairMan on May 3, 2007 at 9:24 am

Why cant our queen be smokin' hot like that?

because she is 124 years old and interbred.

192. New Noah's Ark ready to sail

Comment #35813 by BicycleRepairMan on April 29, 2007 at 12:23 am

Lets all pollute more, so we can witness the sinking of this ship and laugh.

193. Gay hate church to picket VT gun rampage funerals

Comment #33671 by BicycleRepairMan on April 21, 2007 at 3:19 am

People like this "using their free speech" always reminds me of a scene in Austin Powers of Austin taking pictures of models with one hand and snapping his fingers in the air with the other hand, while going "Ignore this! , Ignore This!, Ignore me doing this!, yeah baby!"

194. 'God Is Not a Moderate'

Comment #33670 by BicycleRepairMan on April 21, 2007 at 2:45 am

That last response from Sam Harris was perhaps the most brilliant thing I have ever read. That is all.

195. Sam's Flea!

Comment #32831 by BicycleRepairMan on April 18, 2007 at 11:46 am

[quote]I'm just curious how you can make statements like "Yeah, he's not responding to the "arguments presented" in LtaCN." without having read the book. This just makes you sound like a fundamentalist of another stripe. You may not be religious, but you're sounding equally irrational.[/quote]

I guess thats judging from the excerpts posted on the books website.. and they show utter ignorance and are clearly avoiding the central theme, instead of attacking it.

"I think it is the coolest thing in the world that our God created that many different kinds of beetles."*

Quotes like that makes me question whether this book addresses the central issues if LtACN: Why are religious people more intent on being religious than actually looking for truth? Why are Christian "morals" more concerned with preventing sex rather than preventing suffering?

*Personally I think the Half-life 2 gravity gun is the coolest thing in the world, unfortunately , just like Wilson's friend in the sky, its not real..

196. Atheism isn't the final word

Comment #32594 by BicycleRepairMan on April 17, 2007 at 2:29 pm

I am in awe of how someone can put together complete sentences, reasonably well written, into a complete article, and yet come across so mind-boggingly close-minded and outright insulting in the face of intelligence.

There is just too much stupid in there.

197. Growing Up in the Universe: 2-Disc DVD Set

Comment #31706 by BicycleRepairMan on April 14, 2007 at 12:07 am

"I had an e mail last night to say may copy is on it's way.Oh goody!"

Great..for you..

Seriously, they have started sending them out? I ordered as soon as it was available, yet no email here :( oh, well, it would be a nice suprise if it came early :)

198. Even non-believers must recognise the moral necessity of Christianity

Comment #30589 by BicycleRepairMan on April 9, 2007 at 1:22 am

But in our dealings with Islam, it would help us if we had more confidence in our own values and traditions. In order for that to occur, as many people as possible ought to believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So in order to counter islam, I ought to indoctrinate my children (if I get any) with something I dont personally believe in more than I believe in santa? I see..

This article gives the word "coward" new meaning, if this guy is serious, he is a seriously daft person. The only good way to fight superstitious nonsense and dogma, is by turning to reason, not to another stupid superstition.

199. Prophets of the new atheism

Comment #30403 by BicycleRepairMan on April 8, 2007 at 2:19 am

"That's what we see happening now in formerly communist Russia, with its Christian and Jewish revivals. The evaporation of atheist communism is a lesson worth pondering, and a sobering one, for the new atheists."

No.

200. How to defend your faith with an electric wheelchair

Comment #30386 by BicycleRepairMan on April 8, 2007 at 1:18 am

George Carlins 3 commandments:

1.Thou shall always be truthfull and honest.

2.Thy shall try real hard not to kill anyone, unless ofcourse they pray to a different invisible man from the one you pray to.

3.Thou shall keep thy religion to thyself.