201. Anti-Evolution Film Misappropriates the Holocaust

Comment #172690 by Raiko on April 29, 2008 at 11:14 pm

Dear Mr. Stein,

I don't know why everyone is bashing you. I honestly don't understand it - your effort is awesome. I can't wait for the upcoming documentary "Behind Expelled" in which you'll certainly show us the material of your promotion efforts and the behind-the-scenes footage of the shootings for Expelled to show people how claiming support through a religious cause blinds people to the reality of things.

I can't believe they don't value your efforts to expose yourself to the religious right like that and openly lie, and willingly endure all the ridicule against you from the rational, scientific side. I mean - this must be a hard time for you until you can finally turn around and show people that propaganda is actually what leads to war and discrimination. Just know that you have ALL my support as you go through this very hard time for this higher purpose!

Or could it be these people actually believe you'd be so stupid to support the things you're saying? Do they have that little faith in your intelligence? I am puzzled as to how anyone who knows what an intelligent person you are, could not see right through your strategy (the blinded religious right excepted).

I pull my hat before you, Mr. Stein. All of us just constantly try to tackle fundamentalists and their politics from the outside, but you're the only one who dares to get right in the middle to deliver a blow from within.

Please know, you have ALL my support, Mr. Stein. Your strategy is simply brilliant.

Sincerely,
Raiko


((Please note the heavy sarcasm))
(And I know it is only mildly related, but I had to write it somewhere :D)

202. Science leads to killing people

Comment #171571 by Raiko on April 28, 2008 at 3:18 pm

Finally got to watch it. I wouldn't even know where to begin giving Ben Stein a proper scientific education.

203. Science leads to killing people

Comment #170953 by Raiko on April 28, 2008 at 7:14 am

The naive part of me wants to believe that this expelled project is all a charade and that at one point they will go 'gotcha! Hey you suckers, did you buy that shit about Darwin and the Holocaust? Boy, you're a bunch of brainwashed retards.'

Exactly my desperate hope thought.



EDIT: Honestly, can someone just take Ben Stein and have him sit through a proper biology class? People used to think he's a smart man - is there any hope that he'd realize he's been abused by IDers and would do something to undo the damage?

204. Science leads to killing people

Comment #170769 by Raiko on April 28, 2008 at 1:38 am

Cheers for Thunderf00t getting proper recognition!

I will watch this when I get home from work. Reading the comment, I am not sure I would be able to endure Stein without Thunderf00t's replies directly after.

205. Does science make belief in God obsolete?

Comment #170764 by Raiko on April 28, 2008 at 1:20 am

No, I didn't intend to insinuate that your argument was flawed.

Sorry for the continouing coherence problems. I meant to say that *I* thought my argument was flawed. ;)

206. Does science make belief in God obsolete?

Comment #170274 by Raiko on April 27, 2008 at 2:38 pm

Comment #170247 by Stuart Paul Wood


I apologize for editing my first comment even after you replied; I didn't see your reply (I'm tired and didn't feel I was being coherent, hence all the editing). I'll give up on being coherent in that comment now. However, without realizing, I accidentally answered part of your reply during the edits:

"If religion was necessary for history, then this would imply history necessarily had to be as it was (why, unless you set conditions like 'for the world to be as it is today'?)"

But I understand the flaw in my own argument: I could technically say "Why was the origin of life necessary, anyway? It would only be necessary for us to be here, but who said it was necessary for us to be here?" That really doesn't help anyone. :P


Still... even with your line of argument - if religion was necessary for us to learn this or that, science is does not even have the potential to make it obsolete - just like it's not science that makes slavery obsolete these days, but the moving Zeitgeist and everything that comes with it.


But yes, I agree... none of this actually stops religion itself from being obsolete, anyway.

207. Does science make belief in God obsolete?

Comment #170234 by Raiko on April 27, 2008 at 1:52 pm

I have to agree with some other comments here: What on earth is up with the question "Does science make belief in God obsolete"?


When was belief in God ever not obsolete?
Does something having been there throughout history automatically make it necessary? Honestly, why would it?! There's an unwarranted assumption in this question: That belief in God ever was necessary to begin with (or, as I think the question implies: a belief in religion).


---

Whenever would it have been necessary to say "God did it" instead of "I don't know" or "my hypothesis is..."?

Or do they mean religion was necessary for (cruel) history to be as it was? That seems to go with the "If things had been different, then things would be different. That would be bad."-argument. If religion was necessary for history, then this would imply history necessarily had to be as it was (why, unless you set conditions like 'for the world to be as it is today'?)... and it's questionable what science would have to do with that, anyway.

Or does it mean it was necessary to believe in God to have some hope during bad times? Then not science, but the current Zeitgeist has made religion obsolete, at least in some countries (those who value human rights, have decent laws, have social security systems, etc.).

In any case: Why science?! Genuine philosophy (as opposed to myth-creating), rationality and logic should have made religious myths obsolete ages ago, even without science coming along and explaining how things actually work. Excuse me if I am nitpicking, but last I checked logic and reason could be found outside of science as well (like - in your daily life).


I guess I should read the interviews and see whether I can find an answer as to why someone would pose such an odd question.

208. Tyrannosaurus rex protein proves dinosaurs evolved into birds

Comment #168648 by Raiko on April 25, 2008 at 8:57 am

Tyrannosaurus rex was just an overgrown chicken

When I first read that, I couldn't help thinking that no creationist should ever see such a statement. I can vividly imagine what they'd do with it out of context.

209. Responses to 'Gods and Earthlings' by Richard Dawkins

Comment #167336 by Raiko on April 23, 2008 at 11:01 pm

On the ongoing conversation:

Everyone is allowed to discuss any subject, including science. But you cannot expect that your opinion is given much thought or value, you cannot expect that you will not be corrected and educated, if the opinion you bring forth is based on nonsense that show you don't know the subject you're talking about.

I could also say "You're all idiots, we should just fuel our cars with mud, obviously! Duh!" but I can't be expected that people who seriously engineer cars will sit down with me and discuss this possibility while they're trying to find solutions for making more environment-friendly cars.

The problem with many scientific subjects, however, is that they have an impact on all of us. Take climate change and medicine, for example. So naturally, people do want to take part in the discussion, and that is quite alright. However, if they do want to take part, it is their job to get educated beforehand so they can take part in the discussion. It might be frustrating that you have to get into the subject first and do some work, before you can raise your voice, but any other way slows down the advance and progress on the subject.

And it is incredibly frustrating to anyone who wants to intelligently discuss a subject or make progress to constantly have to drag people along who don't know what they're talking about.

The bottom line is: Anyone can discuss any subject, but they'll be ignored or even ridiculed (I agree with Mitchell here), if they prove themselves incapable of holding a discussion at a certain level. And in some cases, especially when it comes to new progress, it might be important to educate these people - but there is a responsibility to have a certain level of knowledge that one should already have when barging into a conversation.

210. Judge orders La. school district to stop Bible giveaways

Comment #166781 by Raiko on April 23, 2008 at 12:27 pm

I am baffled at the confidence with which they wish to appeal. ... The First Amendment is breathtakingly clear. Faith really blinds people.

211. Responses to 'Gods and Earthlings' by Richard Dawkins

Comment #166738 by Raiko on April 23, 2008 at 12:02 pm

There is no advantage to non-living material becoming a living cell, so the process had to be pure chance, a result of random atoms forming thousands of extremely complex molecules within a few micrometers of each other at the same time.

This is exactly how certain creationists deliberately confuse their following sheep. To religiously confuzzled sheep, such an argument seems intelligent because the answer makes sense. They wouldn't realize that the question itself is wrong. You don't need to wonder about the advantage of a living cell coming into existence, you need to wonder what sort of advantage there is for a replicating molecule to have a cell around itself.

This is the finest demonstration of this deliberately confusing tactic.



Well, I'll spare us any quotes of Mrs. Fleeman's successive vitriol.


----

If people feel excluded, the answer is to get educated and to ask questions. Someone untrained would not seriously try and tell a pilot how to fly, or a surgeon how to operate. They feel no injustice about being excluded from those areas, yet somehow everyone is entitled to push their opinions on cosmology and biology.

The reality of things is, however, that you can't know everything and you can't be an expert in every field. The reality of things is that you have to set priorities - it's practically inevitable. Some people set these priorities onto learning about general biology and cosmology, others would rather be experts on their particular belief's interpretation of their belief's particular holy book.

So, it's not just the problem of you "just have to get educated" to not be excluded - it's the problem of accepting that if you set other priorities, you're excluding yourself from things that you haven't put so much priority upon - which happens to every single one of us, just with different fields and interests. They can change their priorities if they wish, though. In the end, I am just making the 'upstream' argument to "get educated".

Basically, these people are complaining about their own choice of priorities, or rather, about the fact that if you're preoccupied with things that have a greater priority for you, you can't get so deeply into other things. In the end, they're excluding themselves for their personal reasons, which is quite a ludicrous thing to complain to others about.

I can't complain about not getting a chocolate bar, when I decided to rather spend my last money on a cone of ice cream. My friend who bought the chocolate bar hasn't excluded me, even though I would really like a chocolate bar, too!

(And it's really not my friends' fault either if he didn't feel the same about my ice-cream. ;))

212. Responses to 'Gods and Earthlings' by Richard Dawkins

Comment #166545 by Raiko on April 23, 2008 at 9:50 am

Okay, I WAS going to put down my favorite argument here - that you can just tell these people a chapter or quote from TGD or name a Dawkins-book to answer their claims - but the majority of these fail at reading comprehension, scientific knowledge, and commit fundamental logic errors (like employing a false dichotomy).

It's after they learned to handle these that I can recommend Dawkins-books.

213. Mecca should become core to measure time zones: scholars

Comment #165346 by Raiko on April 21, 2008 at 11:29 am

Why don't we put it right through Rome? As a Pastafarian, I'd appreciate that one!

214. Religion is 'the new social evil'

Comment #165078 by Raiko on April 21, 2008 at 3:30 am

Goldy,

I agree. I wonder whether he thinks that making a 'careful decision based on independent observations' isn't more likely to lead to the rejection of religious dogma, after being spoon-fed with it; not the other way round.

---

Mitchell: I would love to see the full picture. :D

215. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #165009 by Raiko on April 20, 2008 at 11:28 pm

I almost want to hug Richard for the effort because I fear it is not going to help much.

---

On a different note... I am starting to think this movie and what it does is really insulting. I am a German scientist-to-be and my grandmother had to leave everything behind, fleeing from WW2, while my grandfather got crippled, but luckily survived the war - with the thought that "If there was a God, he would not let this happen, so there is none!". Before that, he was Christian.

The suggestion that I would willingly and passionately contribute to German science or share the views of the people who did all thoughts of cruel things to my grandparents and my mother, is kind of really insulting when you think about it. Well, and if you think about the reasons for my grandfather's atheism, this idea just gets ridiculous.

So, to the Jew I'd say: My grandfather unfortunately DID contribute like a sheep to the abhorrence of the Holocaust, under the banner and belief of Christianity - but came out of the war as a shocked, disgusted, traumatized and crippled man who had woken up to atheism because of that. It really doesn't seem to fit with the atheists-caused-the-Holocaust theory at all.

216. Sex for diploma offer caught on tape

Comment #164719 by Raiko on April 20, 2008 at 3:30 pm

The 'buying' of a high school diploma, with whatever kind of payment, is the most troubling part of this story.

While I agree, this kind of payment only adds to how appalling this is. I am a bit shocked by how directly he poses the question - and how quickly.

217. Lizards Undergo Rapid Evolution After Introduction To A New Home

Comment #164716 by Raiko on April 20, 2008 at 3:26 pm

Does anyone know a mechanism that prevents speciation?

No, so you may call it 'God'.

----

The 36 days really impressed me. I would just be worrying a little about conducting this experiment in regards of disrupting ecosystem on Pod Mrcaru - or that particular place there.

218. Religion is 'the new social evil'

Comment #164715 by Raiko on April 20, 2008 at 3:23 pm

There are some good news for a change! That and the lizards today made me quite happy. I agree with D'Arcy. However, the statistics might only be representative for a certain group of people, but that still makes them positive news.

On a random note: Nice change of icon, Mitchell!

219. Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed

Comment #164057 by Raiko on April 19, 2008 at 1:17 pm

I mean, even if there WASN'T any evidence for Stork theory (but you all know there's plenty!), who would be so foolish and postulate that sex theory is true?

Think of the moral implications! If women are in pain for birth anyway, you might as well hit and abuse them. I mean, that's where the whole sexism comes from, anyway! It's all because of sex theory. And scientists undermine the knowledge about Stork theory because they want to keep their power over their women and daughters! They want to keep anti-feminism alive by spreading all their lies about Stork and sex!

It's sex theory, after all, that brought us witch burnings, suppression of women and burqas!

As a woman, I am scared. Scared that these cruel scientists will find a way to make sex theory the ONLY thing that is taught to our children, boys and girls!

Let's hope, in the name of the Stork, that this may never happen.

220. Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed

Comment #163082 by Raiko on April 18, 2008 at 1:05 am

I think I just about died reading this. Can't wait to get home to view the video!

221. Yoko Ono, Filmmakers Caught in 'Expelled' Flap

Comment #162429 by Raiko on April 17, 2008 at 12:27 am

"After seeking the opinion of legal counsel it was seen as a First Amendment issue and protected under the fair use doctrine of free speech"

The fact that they're exploiting the 'freedom of speech' argument once again for their propaganda is just slightly sickening.

222. Evolution fray attracts top scientist

Comment #162202 by Raiko on April 16, 2008 at 10:31 am

Like Richard, he is very blunt.

Sometimes I think such bluntness is needed, on other days I think "for now, this is not going to work on religious people".

But then, what will ever work on irrational minds?

"You may not like that but it's not my fault," Kroto, 68, said in front of the state Capitol on Monday.

"It's the way it actually is."

Maybe that is something we should make clearer because it's such a simple, important thing to understand. Once people have gotten down the utter logic of "reality is not about what I want and like, but about how things are", maybe we can continue from there.

223. Victims: Pope Benedict Protects Accused Pedophile Bishops

Comment #161494 by Raiko on April 15, 2008 at 10:50 am

Imagine ANY other organization, group or cult had done this. You'd have posters up all over the place with their leader or representatives on them and "SUPPORTER OF PEDOPHILES" in red ink all over them, as a conscience raiser - like others in the past have displayed slaughtered animals next to fur coats to raise people's consciousness (though the proper equivalent of that would be an image of--- well, I am not sure I'd support that).

224. School bars same-sex partners at formals

Comment #161487 by Raiko on April 15, 2008 at 10:42 am

I think they should ban boys without beards, too. After all, the bible is against cutting your beard.

Really, the old "argument from Levithicus" applies, as abused as this is. If you ban one, ban them all.

225. A New Flea

Comment #160766 by Raiko on April 14, 2008 at 11:26 am

Richard Dawkins recently claimed that 'no theologian has ever produced a satisfactory response to his arguments'.

And I bet he will or would still say this after reading this flea.

226. British schools are falling for the pseudoscience of Brain Gym. Why fill kids' heads with nonsense?

Comment #160756 by Raiko on April 14, 2008 at 11:20 am

Honestly, I think we did that somewhere in highschool, or something similar to it. Our religion teacher made us do it. But at least it was done in the name of relaxation and massage; nothing about energy flow and 'unexplained' scientific phenomena.

227. Richard Dawkins' secular army must be stopped. God is behind some of our greatest art

Comment #160749 by Raiko on April 14, 2008 at 11:07 am

I love how there are so many creationist claims (and so many rebuttals of The God Delusion) that you could simply answer by giving out page numbers from The God Delusion itself.

228. Richard Dawkins on The Big Questions

Comment #159794 by Raiko on April 13, 2008 at 7:01 am

Oh, it's good I only have dial up. I'd want to see this, for the sake of Richard's skills and that smile that people mentioned in the comments, but I do have a similar blockade against debates as Vadjong, too. Dial up takes the decision from me, but kudos to Richard for not only watching such cringe-worthy, insane talk, but exposing himself to it, too.

229. Anti-evolution bill clears another hurdle

Comment #159788 by Raiko on April 13, 2008 at 6:43 am

I don't trust all parents' abilities as parents, either.

...which is why we have a crappy social system here that is supposed to make sure that children at least aren't mistreated. It fails often enough, though.

As my cousin said: When you have a child, you're suddenly expected to be able to parent.
(Her daughter really was quite something to deal with)

230. 'Expelled' ripped off Harvard's 'Inner Life of the Cell' animation

Comment #159781 by Raiko on April 13, 2008 at 6:16 am

Not likely. First, it is likely to be another group of laywers (i.e. trial lawyers). Second, if they...

Oh, of course. I obviously didn't think that one through... thanks for setting me straight.

231. Ancient serpent shows its leg

Comment #159780 by Raiko on April 13, 2008 at 6:13 am

Mitchell Gilks,

that's so strange! The kanji look alright in "my comments", but now I went here and I can see they're all scrambled.

All I said was (probably not completely correct): "The snake's legs are cute, but probably useless." Nothing essential, I just wanted to properly reply to someone with a like-minded icon. Seems that failed. *laugh*

And where are the FOUR-legged snakes ? Bah humbug. We are still missing transitional fossils.

That really had me laughing. :D

232. Ancient serpent shows its leg

Comment #159606 by Raiko on April 12, 2008 at 3:51 pm

Kawaii! Hebi ashi ga kawaii desu.

蛇の足がかわいいですが、無益な足も思える。

233. 'Expelled' ripped off Harvard's 'Inner Life of the Cell' animation

Comment #159529 by Raiko on April 12, 2008 at 12:11 pm

Let me get this straight... they are such good lawyers that the intentionally recommended that their clients try to make something look like someone elses in order to get sued for the publicity?

I think he means the producers did it without the lawyers. If not, it either doesn't speak for their lawyers knowledge because they should know it is too similar to the original, or it really speaks for the lawyers being cunning because if there's a trial, the lawyers will get money... if that's what counts for them.

234. Anti-evolution bill clears another hurdle

Comment #159201 by Raiko on April 11, 2008 at 3:54 pm

Geoff: Thank you for the link. I'm not at all familiar with homeschooling, so this helps a lot.

---

RationalistHomeTchr:

I guess in that case, the tests must be updated or the expectations changed. I still think there should be some standard, though I admit I am at a lost as to what it should look like.

And I think something I find important is that children are not only exposed to the people we chose for them. School is a good ground for that, or at least some schools are.

In short, I see the benefit in homeschooling, but I don't trust all parents' abilities as teachers and socializers.

235. The List: The World's Worst Religious Leaders

Comment #159165 by Raiko on April 11, 2008 at 2:20 pm

Out of curiosity, who's the worst atheist leader we know?

236. Inadequate, private and late apology with grotesquely inadequate excuse

Comment #159133 by Raiko on April 11, 2008 at 1:28 pm

She should actually apologize to the American people for openly violating the Constitution.

237. 'Expelled' ripped off Harvard's 'Inner Life of the Cell' animation

Comment #159127 by Raiko on April 11, 2008 at 1:19 pm

The sublimely ridiculous claim that EXPELLED uses completely original animation, in light of copying our work so closely that a budget was reserved to pay for an infringement suit by Harvard, is delicious!

I went to the link. I read that:

(Headline: "Harvard University Seeks Injunction Against Ben Stein and EXPELLED" �" you think that might generate interest in the movie?)

... this is- wow. I can't even wrap my mind around it. Dembski is apparently lacking enough conscience to only think "yay publicity!" instead of considering any moral implications such an act would have. He's obviously fully aware that they're engageing in illegal activity for this - and happy with it.

Before you think the producers of EXPELLED are idiots, you might think that they are chess players who have seen several moves ahead.

He somehow forgets to mention that some of their moves involve letting the knight run straight!

238. The simple falsehood at the heart of Expelled

Comment #158383 by Raiko on April 10, 2008 at 12:12 pm

The 'highest' Xian worshippers - priests, monks, nuns, - are supposed to practice absolute abstinence. They're trying to keep homosexuals from raising children together, but not from making any the heterosexual way (thus allowing the spreading of any genes that might have to do with homosexuality).

Facing that, it's comes as almost no surprise that they seem to have little to no grasp of the concept of heritage... at least not beyond plants and pets.

No. I am not entirely serious.

239. Anti-evolution bill clears another hurdle

Comment #158123 by Raiko on April 10, 2008 at 5:15 am

Comment #157852 by mundusvultdecipi :

Ah, thank you for letting me know. I'd have an interesting story to return - in some smaller town here in Germany some parents also withheld their children from any official school, sending them to a 'school' that they had made up instead (only elementary, I believe). It existed for years.

Because the education at that school was good and many good students had come out of that school (and none had any unusual problems within their successive schools), they got a really minor punishment. That immediately sprang to my mind at your comment.

Back on topic, it seems to me that it's mostly the case in the USA that homeschooling = religion-based schooling with an extra class in indoctrination... even though I know a perfect example from Texas (!) where homeschooling lead to the smartest person I have ever met.

In general, I have nothing against homeschooling, neither here or there - even if it's not for medical reasons. But I would expect and demand that homeschooled children are tested regularly whether they're up to their normally schooled peers' standards. Though I do find it's a bad idea to keep children from the social interactions they can only get in a real school.

240. Expelled producers accused of copyright infringement

Comment #157974 by Raiko on April 9, 2008 at 11:16 pm

I was waiting for that to happen. And now it even happened with perfect timing.

241. Get out of here, atheists!

Comment #157761 by Raiko on April 9, 2008 at 2:03 pm

My other comment got eaten when my dial up logged me out, so here I go again in short form:

Why are Atheists so angry?!!

... that's like walking into a group of metal fans who are discussing James Blunt and Celine Dion - and then point at them and call them "angry".

If you want non-angry atheists, I suggest not going to a place that discusses religious bigotry.

242. The Atheist Next Door

Comment #157647 by Raiko on April 9, 2008 at 11:27 am

#39:

the tone of that piece is a bit odd, its almost like atheists are some curiosity, normal on the outside but behind the curtains have something they hide suitable for a circus side show. Once again, redundant questions on trust and goodness, thats all they have left, straws to clutch.

What I find more odd is that they somehow make believe that this secretivity is the atheists' fault. What should follow such a presentation is why, within their society, these people seem like they need to hide something that should need absolutely no hiding. It's not like there's something wrong with someone not believing in God. Rather, a society that can't deal with that needs to reflect upon itself.

243. Anti-evolution bill clears another hurdle

Comment #157642 by Raiko on April 9, 2008 at 11:21 am

Oh my Dog! Someone talking about something that isn't American! How did that happen?

It was surely a more pertinent point being made about education that which side had the prettier uniforms in the American civil War, wouldn't you say?

Uh... hi there, random bad mood outburst?

I was wondering why the commenter thought of Germany in particular (as opposed to any other country), being that s/he's apparently not from Germany, but Ireland, and it hadn't come up before. I thought there was something to it, and being that I am German, I was interested in that.

If you'd rather be in a bad mood than have a conversation, go for it. Whatever makes you feel good. :)

244. Anti-evolution bill clears another hurdle

Comment #157390 by Raiko on April 9, 2008 at 3:21 am

mundusvultdecipi:

My understanding is that homeschooling is not permitted in Germany, for example, as the authorities have taken the position that traditional out-of-the-home education is not solely about academic instruction but is also necessary for the proper socialisation of children and to ensure they are exposed to a widely diverse range of other people and views.

We have a requirement here for kids to attend a real school. Private schools are possible (and more and more kids go there), but it must be a school nevertheless, as far as I know.

... but why are we suddenly talking about Germany, anyway? I'm just curious how that came up.

245. The Atheist Next Door

Comment #157333 by Raiko on April 8, 2008 at 11:51 pm

What do you place your trust in during time of need?

... some people have trustworthy friends and family. Really.

It almost seems like that's a novel concept to the people who made this program.

246. Anti-evolution bill clears another hurdle

Comment #157326 by Raiko on April 8, 2008 at 11:32 pm

I am not familiar with American laws on schooling, so could someone tell me whether there's some sort of test that homeschooled children have to undergo to evaluate their education?

Because of parents prove incapable of properly schooling their kids, the children SHOULD be forced into a real school - not to punish the parents, but to grant the children a right for proper education.


---


And this might be incredibly old news, but it's shockingly fascinating that there is political quarrel, lawmaking and bill-passing going on, purely based on the thoughts of people who just don't understand what they're talking about.

I mean... that's amazing, isn't it?

247. Get out of here, atheists!

Comment #156568 by Raiko on April 7, 2008 at 10:13 pm

- Teachers, go to your schools, play this file and and explain to your student what an 'ad hominem' attack is and why it doesn't work.

""This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God," [...]

- How can someone like this get elected, when she has no grasp of history or the foundations her country was built upon?

[sarcasm] Right. I forgot that this was in the Official Atheist Handbook: [...]

- Where can I get this handbook? [/sarcasm] My conscience is so annoyingly strong, I can't go a day without apologizing for potential wrong-doings, feeling guilty for something or wondering 'How can anyone with a working conscience do that?' about people (often religious people). [sarcasm] It would be very convenient to not have so much moral!

[/sarcasm]

248. Anti-gay Okla. lawmaker attracts 1,000 backers

Comment #155944 by Raiko on April 6, 2008 at 11:37 am

Does it not bother you even slightly that Sally Kern is onto us? Does this point to infiltration within the Enclave?

I think Cartomancer has a good grip on the backgrounds of this. I have to cheer for Sally Kern (I think I figured her name within the organization is Kelly Sarn) for her marvelous job at playing the homophobic, ignorant, religious idiot without any worries for her eternally ruined reputation outside of the organisation. That's true sacrifice! *teardrop*

Don't tell a soul, but I'm working on something spectacular for Yellowstone...

Oh, awesome! Don't forget to take pictures; you know how important that is.

(We plan on asking a creationist museum employee to photograph us while we kiss. I am sure they'll be delighted to help us.)

249. Anti-gay Okla. lawmaker attracts 1,000 backers

Comment #155814 by Raiko on April 6, 2008 at 12:47 am

Cartomancer, I am so glad to hear you've got connections. I would be really scared if I ended up at a hearing before The Sodomic Congress (I hear the Grand Stratego of All the Lesbians usually takes the lead), despite the fact that my girlfriend is, coincidentally, just buying Doc Martens right now and would look particularly stunning. We only have connections with The Male Make Up League, but we're hoping we'll move up in rank soon, due to our selfless acts.

250. Anti-gay Okla. lawmaker attracts 1,000 backers

Comment #155736 by Raiko on April 5, 2008 at 12:57 pm

I thought we decided that Liberty "University" wasn't important enough to attack at the last meeting of the Secret Conclave of Sodom? Did I miss the reversal of that decision while the hot dancing boys were on?

No, you're right. That was decided, but we just can't resist the temptation. We plan on wearing angel wings for that one, and stand right by the mislabeled fossils.

But now I am really worried! What if the conclave expelled us for this? It would ruin my life!