251. Would the World Be Safer Without Religion?

Comment #43365 by tieInterceptor on May 21, 2007 at 7:25 am

"But this does not mean we should give up those beliefs. Rather, we must work to make belief sincere. Only then is there a chance the violence will stop"

Oh-key, this is how I see it.

In Spain at Christmas we tell the kids that the three magic kings come on the 6 of January to bring presents, on other countries they tell kids that Santa is comingthe 25th of September to bring presents,

It's just a bit of trivia, at the end children get presents and that is it. No adult takes that as "the" truth about present giving in the holidays.

Religion should be just that, folklore that is part of a nations history, like the type of food your country is famous for, or what historical figures you have in your books.

nothing more.

... instead for him, the solution is:

- you got to sincerely believe in Santa or (depending on you where born) the Three kings are truly real.

-Then also realise that your present bringer of choice is good spirited and nice, so you should be a nice good spirited person too.

-Ergo, do not upset the neighbour telling him his choice of present bringer is wrong. You Know yours is the right one, but you're too good spirited to displease anyone...

-you know you are right, just keep it to yourself.

-pretend the neighbour sincerely wrong believe does not offend you, smile a lot.



LIKE THAT'S GONNA WORK!

252. Bible drawn into Hong Kong sex publication row

Comment #41868 by tieInterceptor on May 17, 2007 at 8:21 am

Hehehehe,

http://www.encyclopediaofstupid.com/stupid/images/8/8e/BibleWarningLabel.jpg

253. Sam Harris in conversation with Oliver McTernan

Comment #38751 by tieInterceptor on May 9, 2007 at 5:37 am

I found it funny when McTerman admitted that the church was nervous when they translated the Bible to English, because people would read it.

seriously, it is either the unchangeable word of god or it is not.

sitting in the fence and saying that is inspired by god, but written by humans, but you should not read it and take conclusions without having the rest of the book in context plus a priest to guide you...

sounds like someone is trying REAL hard to make excuses for the fact that those books are risible compared to anything we have today in science philosophy or morals.

and he ends it by saying that he dismisses Sam because he does not see all the gradings and nuances in his personal brand of delusion...
and that most christians got it wrong (hinting that he holds the real interpretation, like that's new)

bleah...

254. Interview with Christopher Hitchens

Comment #38488 by tieInterceptor on May 8, 2007 at 10:21 am

> "I find that an odd thing to say"

same here, I like Hitchens but that line is an odd one, I wish he exlained the details behind that reasoning...

255. Richard Dawkins: Author of the Year!

Comment #28475 by tieInterceptor on March 29, 2007 at 10:21 am

Congratulations!

256. Richard Dawkins at The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival

Comment #28215 by tieInterceptor on March 28, 2007 at 11:47 am

McGrath ability to dance around questions and to be foggy in his answers is A+mazing.

When Dawkins talks you can understand what he says with normal intellectual effort, then McGrath talks and its like listening to a politician... a simple answer made to last one thousand words to shield the meaning just to be sure that they can't be pinned down,
soooooo boring... I always suspect people that choose the most complicated way to express an idea,

Communication should be as clear as possible.

basically, when you're entire argument can be reduced to...
"I believe in vergin birth because I feeeel it to be true! in the GUT!"
Then thick rhetoric must be the best weapon at hand, put people to sleep and win the argument by last man standing!

257. Peanut Butter, The Atheist's Nightmare!

Comment #27830 by tieInterceptor on March 27, 2007 at 2:08 am

I get it now ...


GOD DID IT! GOD DID IT!


.

258. Debate between Alister McGrath and Peter Atkins

Comment #27181 by tieInterceptor on March 23, 2007 at 11:52 am

I think that to a the general public McGrath would appear as having his act together and Atkins was mumbling, and that irritated me,

I usually prefer a clear cut answer as possible to get through to thick people, Dawkins and Harris do a great job at that.

Someone mentioned that McGrath had a rehearsed group of answeres and delivered the ones that where closer to the topic, and I think is totally true, his delivery was very rehearsed and sermon like, as Atkins pointed out, non the less it worked better as a speech.

I would had preferred that Atkins had at least a few simple comebacks on his sleeve, somehow I found myself wishing he was more to the point and sharp, there is plenty of answers for some of McGrath lines, and Atkins felt somehow unsatisfying, and I'm talking of the delivery only,

if you analized whats beeing said, Atkins wins hands down... but it did not feel totally that way, and that is due to the way he aswered.

259. Debate between Alister McGrath and Peter Atkins

Comment #27162 by tieInterceptor on March 23, 2007 at 10:12 am

I hate the public on this lecture, they clap to everything, even the questions before beeing ganswered,

260. Debate between Alister McGrath and Peter Atkins

Comment #27141 by tieInterceptor on March 23, 2007 at 9:14 am

OMG , when McGrath gets to talk suddenly he has a microphone in front of him and the audio goes 100% clear,

theistic saboteur conspiracy!





;)

261. Debate between Alister McGrath and Peter Atkins

Comment #27129 by tieInterceptor on March 23, 2007 at 8:38 am

I agree with alovrin, the Audio is way too painful


its impossible to understand what the hell are they saying... you can hear the cameraman unpacking some chewing gum at the beginning and breathing heavy... if you don't have the knowledge to use the speakers feed, and you got to use the camera microphone, then at least do not put the camera at the back of the auditorium...



anyone's got an mp3 of the main microphone feed?

262. Religion

Comment #27089 by tieInterceptor on March 23, 2007 at 5:42 am

"These two vid's definitely belong on GodTube.Com"


! that webpage is scary

263. Britain Proposes Allowing Schools to Forbid Full-Face Muslim Veils

Comment #26769 by tieInterceptor on March 21, 2007 at 3:01 pm

I think is the right thing to do, the niqab really stops you from communicating.

..girls covered in black cloth in the playground says many things that I don't agree about woman kind.

The niqab is meant to stop man from getting aroused, and there is something inherently wrong about that idea. Shifting the responsibility of male self control to the women... it's just stupid,
Lets use cloth to cover houses and cars as boringly and plainly as possible, so people will not covet the neighbours stuff... not the way to go.

264. Saving believers: Former Christian finds calling to preach the good news of atheism

Comment #26680 by tieInterceptor on March 21, 2007 at 5:08 am

the tech bubble bit was quite funny I've got to say,... gives me the impression that religion uses the anything and everything to link events to god, if it shits on you is because you needed a slap on the wrist to come back to his bossom...
Hurricane catrina must be a lesson for some lazy church goer in new Orlans.

265. 'God Is Not a Moderate'

Comment #26679 by tieInterceptor on March 21, 2007 at 5:04 am

Sam is amazing, I'm glad I'm on his side of the argument, I would have a hard time coming with any reasonable answere to those points.

266. Interview with Steven Pinker

Comment #26012 by tieInterceptor on March 16, 2007 at 5:10 am

I really wanted to hear more from Pinker and less interruption, I think I expect too much from this type of program.
Colbert use to be funnier I think.

267. Free Speech

Comment #25595 by tieInterceptor on March 14, 2007 at 8:20 am

AMAZING! Bravo!

This speech reflects my thoughts so closely that is scary, and he puts them into words much better than I ever could.

Kudos to him for talking about this most important taboos in a way that completely dispels the fog of rhetoric and is direct and crystal clear.


btw, cliking on the link

http://digg.com/videos/people/Hitchens_on_Free_Speech
and using the DIG button could be a good idea, it has only 5 digs so far :)
.

268. Ayaan Hirsi Ali Feature

Comment #24397 by tieInterceptor on March 6, 2007 at 12:03 pm

I found this woman to be totally fair and balanced on her opinions, everyone who calls her a hate monger on the comments of interviews I read around, does not listen to what she says.

I agree totally with her, most Muslims that emigrate do it to improve their lives, bringing sharia law with them defies the purpose.

What really bothers me is that women groups who are against domestic violence and the difference of salary between man and woman should be up in arms against a religion that specifically tells you that beating is OK, and female have 1/2 the value of a man.

its amazing how much free pass religions ideology gets on the news,

and as Ayaan says, why Muslims need to kill everyone that disagrees with them?

the answer is simple, it says so in the book, and they take that book dead serious.

(I'm refereing to radical muslims, I know that modereate ones do not go around killing, althought they are very sensitive about religion most of the time.)

269. God: The Failed Hypothesis

Comment #24170 by tieInterceptor on March 5, 2007 at 6:12 am

Isn't it in Sweden or somewhere around there that the standard of life is world class and levels of crime are the lowest, and 80% does not believe in god.

That should be the perfect statistical answer to the theist argument that without believe in a judgemental god people would just behave badly...

I was looking for a link to that info but could not find it.

270. Debate between Sam Harris and Reza Aslan

Comment #22207 by tieInterceptor on February 13, 2007 at 1:08 pm

Maybe I don't get it, but Reza seems to define religions (after lots of rambling to get to the point) as "stories that explain the feelings that one gets when one meditates..." or that is what I understood.

If I understood right, then he was getting so out of touch with what Religion actually means to 99% of the population that hearing him talk lost all meaning to me.

he seems to forget that in the REAL world, people do follow what is written on those bronze age manuscripts as unchangeable word of the creator of the universe... and they get really really intolerant of those who don't belive that.

If instead 99% or religious people used Rezas interpretation of what religion texts are, then we probably would not need this web page...

then again, I don't think he actually believes that either... he was forced to stand so high on the fence that the thin air got to his head...



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