301. Taking evidence seriously

Comment #135426 by Roland_F on February 29, 2008 at 12:10 am

Here are the reasons for the invasion of Iraq from the first hand source the NeoCons who are ruling since GWB took office.
In short, the war is not about the bad boy Saddam, not about Iraqi Oil it's all about pax Americana: Global World dominance.

http://www.newamericancentury.org/

being nice to Iraqis by troops staying longer

The death toll based on higher mortality rate was already last year estimated by the hundred thousand, plus 2 Million refuges. The higher mortality rate is a statistical method of increased death rate, so it also includes death because simple infections causes death because missing medicine, increased stress in a war torn country, no access to clean drinking water, spread of diseases etc… no only direct war casualties and suicide attacks.

Bush & Blair = Al Qaida

At least the war in Iraq is the best recruitment advertising Al Qaida has hoped for.

302. Fleabytes

Comment #135388 by Roland_F on February 28, 2008 at 10:37 pm

1736. Comment #135373 by Dr Nev : Robertson's comments . . . Nothing but loose stool comes out his mouth

That's what I would also comment. And ask the dump-talking theist if they therefore use a toilet brush for their teeth.

303. Fleabytes

Comment #134721 by Roland_F on February 28, 2008 at 6:20 am

1416. Comment #134698 by Clearthinker: Your atheism is not just simply an absence of belief in God. It is a an absence of belief in God based upon a materialist/naturalist philosophy. In other words you start from the presupposition that there is only the ‘natural’, there is only ‘matter’ and that any claims to the ‘supernatural’ are de facto false. That is a faith position and a self contradictory one because ironically the statement that only that which can be proven materially can be objective fact is itself a statement which cannot be proven materially and therefore cannot be objective fact.

Even when we can not proof or disprove God and are therefore ourselves 'faith' based,we can evaluate falsifying evidence.
For example if historical, archaeological, geological, etc.. evidence is falsifying a great flood, is falsifying that Jericho had walls in 1200 BC, and all the other fairy tails of the OT are invented then we question your God Yahweh based on falsification not based on 'non-faith'. Beside the extremely weird idea God is coming to earth ; a small dust spec in the unimaginable huge universe in the year 4004 BC e.g. 13,7 billion years after universe's beginning into the Judean desert to choose his people for convenant ?

Or look into the NT:
Would be also interesting to know what religious status Judah the son of Jesus had; grandson of God ??
Or does he still inherit the original sin of his mother Mary Magdalene because she was not born under 'immaculate conception'. Unfortunately the entire Jesus family clan seems to be purposely suppressed in the Pauline distorted NT history.

Really bad for the Catholic doctrine that the Talpiot tomb was found in 1980 during construction work. After every new evidence found to point to the family tomb of Jesus, the scared to death faith-heads were throwing truckloads of red herring around.
Examples: cave and ossuaries (bone boxes) are not worthy of the king of Jews as 'proof' it can't be him, where other say a poor family could not afford this average burial as 'proof' it can't be, other want to read other engraved names as 'proof' it can't be, other take a single name combination of father Joseph to son Jesus as too common as 'proof' it can't be, James ossuary engraving 'brother of Jesus' is fake, …etc. …

After in 2007 also the ossuary inscribed 'James son of Joseph and brother of Jesus' could be identified by chemical analysis of mineralogy and patina's chemical signature, to be the missing 10th ossuary of Talpiot (and the entire name is 2000 years old nothing added later) it really looks bad now for resurrection.
Now even the tiny bone fragments underwent DNA analysis and showed that Mary Magdalene was not genetically related to Jesus so must be most likely Jesus wife (or with lower probability his brothers) wife.
To wrap it up: the chances that there was another family with this name combination (parents Mary & Joseph) siblings Jesus, James, Matia, Jose, Salome, and wife Mary Magdalene) are 1: 42 Million, with just a few thousand families around in Jerusalem very high likelihood it's Jesus Nazarene family .

So this bones found of Jesus (and family) is crumbling the resurrection myth of Jesus = Horus son of virgin Isis. It is comparable to the blow of finding the "rabbit fossil in the Precambrian" ; nevertheless Talpiot Tomb story seems not to shake the faith but exponentially increases the need for red herrings instead.

And this is the difference between religious faith and scientific evidence which would change our minds about current evolution because it is NOT faith based.

304. Fleabytes

Comment #134675 by Roland_F on February 28, 2008 at 5:02 am

1398. Comment #134659 by hungarianelephant: Oh, ok. Sex is sinful except when you do it with God, and Mary was a virgin even after a few shags. Albeit, presumably, a somewhat flushed and sticky virgin.

Yes when you once start to make up untrue dogmas you have to continue it more and more. Or to borrow Winston Churchill's phrase this "needs to to be protected by a bodyguard of lies" -- never mind how clumsy, crude, and colossally illogical the lies are becoming.

305. Fleabytes

Comment #134654 by Roland_F on February 28, 2008 at 4:33 am

1378. Comment #134606 by hungarianelephant : Jesus was conceived without sex, So was Mary. So were Jesus' brothers and sisters

I think you mixed up something:
1) Jesus the Nazorene (= branch of the royal Davidic line) was born from a 'virgin' mother who was fertilized from the holy spirit.

2) Jesus mother Mary was born via 'immaculate conception', this is not a virgin birth from Granny Anna but a birth without "original sin" e.g. without God's punishment for Eve's desire of fruits, this was the precondition for the holy spirit to allow the fathering of God's son.

3) Then Mary was getting her following children James, Mary, Salome, Simon 'the zealot', Matia (Mathew) and Jose as semper virgine (forever virgin) but not fathered from the holy spirit but from Joseph (possibly father of James) and all others siblings after Josephs death from Mary's new husband Clophas (brother of Joseph).

306. Fleabytes

Comment #130609 by Roland_F on February 21, 2008 at 1:41 am

212. Comment #130602 by Donald Why is the Wee Flea not allowed to respond?

Everybody can come back under a different name, for example even under his real name to comment here.
And this Forum is much more open than the moderated and every single posting censoring religious Forums.

307. Fleabytes

Comment #130601 by Roland_F on February 21, 2008 at 1:31 am

202. Comment #130582 by Artful_Dodger Likewise you dismiss in a sentence or two the idea that the Big Bang implies a pre-existent cause outside of itself. I am sure that you realize that given the substantive nature of the arguments in question such dismissal is facile and unworthy of a scientist.

As the big bang is the theory of a giant quantum fluctuation there is no need to have some cause outside of itself. When the time started with the big bang there is no time before it.
This reasoning is even followed by religious interpretation as the answer to the question : what has God done all the time before the big bang, and why he has created our universe 13.7 Billion years ago and not 5B or 100B years ago ? Simple religious answer is that there is no cause, no time and no space before the big bang, so therefore no specific timing of the timeless event. And this is valid with or without God .

308. Why do we believe in God? 2m study prays for answer

Comment #130583 by Roland_F on February 21, 2008 at 12:45 am

Promine = Peter Pan hormone, keeps adults behaving like children, so it is no surprise that higher Promine levels coincidence with higher religiosity. It would be interesting to check the Promine levels of very religious people during this study.

309. Why do we believe in God? 2m study prays for answer

Comment #130576 by Roland_F on February 21, 2008 at 12:09 am

38. Comment #129523 by Geoff I wonder if there might be a "switching gene" that turns (or fails to turn) off credulity in adulthood?

There is a hormone called Promine, which is usually produced in children only and switched off later when growing up. Persons who still have a higher production of it in adulthood tend to be much more religious as they still feel the need for their Santa Claus or Yahweh.

I just read the book "the story of God" from Robert Winston, most parts are quite balanced between his religious (Jewish) beliefs and science, as long it's not questioning the Pentateuch (Torah). The book tries to investigate why humans go to such length since early stone age to waste offerings to Deities over millennia all the way to self sacrifice of new age cults. Reasons like
- Find patterns even there are none
- try to explain everything and if nothing found use God as gap filler
- ensure group cohesion by following a common belief system

Sorry for interrupting the philosophical arguments going on around my post.

310. Why Darwin matters

Comment #130196 by Roland_F on February 20, 2008 at 7:02 am

609. Comment #130186 by The Bishop Well, it was scientists who invented nuclear weapons. I guess you atheists are working on saving the world from them.

Yes Nukes were made so that priests could bless both for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

311. Why Darwin matters

Comment #130188 by Roland_F on February 20, 2008 at 6:58 am

604. Comment #130176 by The Bishop : Some of the teachings of the Bible do not suit the lifestyles that you wish to pursue, so it is inconvenient

So all teaching of the Bible is convenient and unerring for you ? So have fun living according to Leviticus : already done your bird and lamb sacrifice today ?

312. Why Darwin matters

Comment #130170 by Roland_F on February 20, 2008 at 6:45 am

578. Comment #130138 by The Bishop : 2 Corinthians 4:4

Which was written from Saul/Paul a notorious fiction writer who had never met Jesus and just suffered a heatstroke and claimed to have heard voices in the desert of the death sea area on his way to arrest the apostles.

Saul/Paul was called in the Dead Sea scrolls (Habakkuk commentaries) from the apostles only the liar, because he totally invented all the crap which makes now 60% of the NT and has nothing at all to do with the real Jesus the secular claimer of the Davidic throne.

Saul/Paul regurgitated the 2000 BC Egyptian myth of Horus son of virgin Isis now as Jesus.
When I would find 4000 years old inscriptions and stone carvings showing Horus : the way, the light, the truth, born from a virgin mother, crucified with 2 thugs, resurrected after 3 days etc, I would recognize to be a very stupid, gullible fool.

Spaghetti-Gospel 2:4
The Spaghettimonster has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the truth and glory of the only one and real Spaghettimonster as creator of the universe.
Does this convince you now, that you are blind and do not see the truth and light of the Spaghettimonster ! Convert now, before it is too late !

313. Feb 12th: Happy Darwin Day!

Comment #130015 by Roland_F on February 19, 2008 at 10:49 pm

190. Comment #129783 by Shmeezers : how Bees came to be able to construct such marvelous structures. Explain that, using the only tools at your disposal: chance, chance, and more chance

This single sentence is full of fallacies:
(1) Evolution is about the living (here bees) not randomize chance (trial and error) to find the optimal hexagonal structure of a honeycomb.
(2) The single cells of the honeycomb are constructed circular just start in the middle and add small pieces of wax until the round cell is finished. Circular shape is the natural simple most energy efficient construction. Only the pressure from the entire honeycomb is later closing the gaps and again the first naturally achieved shape for gap free is the hexagon.
(3) As mentioned from others before so many times it is getting really boring : Evolution is by chance PLUS (very important this plus) selection.

How about you prove a simple evolutionary procedure of proteins into life? You can't do it. It's hilarious!

And again mentioned so many times Evolution (natural selection) is not Abiogenesis (the first occurrence of a replicator molecule). The first laboratory which created this self replicator was the entire earth and the time available was a billion years, so replicating this in a few Petri dishes or a flask in a laboratory within a few weeks is rather unlikely.

Arrogance. That is what I see here. A huge lack of respect. I don't see any desire to engage in conversation, to entertain other people's views. You just reject them all, poke fun at them. This is very childish !

Wooterisms like
God is spinning planets every morning,
A hyper creative God is creating every single snowflake differently,
people and animals can not walk by themselves and God has to pull them on invisible strings,
God is growing, supervising and bringing every single fruit to her refrigerator
And so on and on and on
This is childish, and not our ridicule of this unbelievable infantile worldviews.

314. Feb 12th: Happy Darwin Day!

Comment #129470 by Roland_F on February 19, 2008 at 7:14 am

182. Comment #129421 by The Reverend Dark
I think the issue with the honeycomb was about the hexagonal shape. Actually I mentioned honeycombs in some explanation of natural occurring hexagonal shape in January.
So Wooter is even picking up from an explanation to post it 6 weeks later as something unexplained! Just to bring further annoyance.
Of course Gods daily intervention inside the beehive (you know via the 4th or 5th dimension invisible hand or puppet strings ) is needed guiding bees (workers !) to create the shape by purpose for every single cell.

Of course as pointed out in January and also linked back to this old explanation Yesterday the hexagonal shape of honeycombs or of moving fluids is all natural. Both the hexagonal heat convection streams in heated up liquids or the honeycomb is first circular and under pressure just naturally forming to the hexagonal shape as first gap free possibility of a flat area. Circles leave gaps, octagons leave small square gaps, and hexagons are the first shape to fill a flat area without gaps. That's the whole trick no godly magic of course even this simple explanation is far beyond a Wooterism world view and reason sieve.

315. Why Darwin matters

Comment #129395 by Roland_F on February 19, 2008 at 3:58 am

490. Comment #129388 by TonyA Wow! You (Wooter) might be the weakest thinker I've encountered in my entire life. I suppose you think a creator god was required to make sure all the rocks are different from one another.

Remember the Wooterism from January God created the different races so police have a rough preselection and God made fingerprints all different for final identification of criminals by the police.
Also the hyper creative God who is designing every snowflake differently , very busy God every time a cloud is ripe for snowfall God has to hurry and create all different snowflakes. Hilarious !

316. Archbishop's 8 March centennial message: Let Sharia Law govern women's lives, Amen!

Comment #129381 by Roland_F on February 19, 2008 at 3:30 am

When Sharia law is unavoidable for the UK maybe the Catholic Church currently increasing their effort of exorcism can join forces with the Sharia courts that are also fighting the spread of witchcraft.

[Human Rights Watch has appealed to Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of a woman convicted of witchcraft.
The illiterate woman was detained by religious police in 2005 and allegedly beaten and forced to fingerprint a confession that she could not read.
Among her accusers was a man who alleged she made him impotent.
Human Rights Watch said that Ms Falih had exhausted all her chances of appealing against her death sentence.]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7244579.stm

317. Why Darwin matters

Comment #129248 by Roland_F on February 18, 2008 at 10:52 pm

would translate 'Geist' to 'mind'

So what is then understood philosophical exactly as MIND ? More as spirit, intelligence, information processing, ability for reasoning etc.. or more the mythical SOUL as transcendental medium used for rebirth ?

Thanks for hinting the typo, too long away from Germany and writing German.

318. Why Darwin matters

Comment #129241 by Roland_F on February 18, 2008 at 10:30 pm

434. Comment #129210 by qster To assume that a mind requires a brain is to simplify the issue a bit isn't it? Why do we think that the mind exists in the brain only.

This remind me about a book I read in the 1970s from Hoimar v. Ditfurth " Der Geist fiel nicht vom Himmel " (the spirit / intelligence do not fall from heaven). Conclusion is that there exists something like intelligence in the universe and the brain is just the organ to process it. Like the fins of the fish are adapted to the viscosity of water, the wings of the bird are the medium to fly, so is the brain the medium for information processing and intelligence.

So what you mean with the mind of a person then ? I guess you mean much more than the ability to process information, e.g. the personality or soul of the individual, the dualist approach followed from Abrahamic religions, Hinduism and Buddhism.
The personality of the individual will be altered when the brain as organ is soaked in drugs or alcohol, if the brain is injured, part are removed, corpus calossum cut to separate right and left half etc. the people are behaving completely different like another person. So it seems that the mind as personality or soul is limited to the physical working of the brain. If this brain is destroyed, there is no more personal soul left = game over.
This idea seems to be very disturbing for Homo sapiens, see the death cults and myth about the spirit of dead persons roaming around exists since earliest stone ages. Even chimps were found weeping over dead family members for a few days before moving on with regular life.
As dead of a relative is an uncomfortable experience and our brains are wired to search explanations and pattern for everything, so we are easily tending to assume the soul of the dead is living on, or will be recycled in the rebirth of another person or sentient being which appears more comfortable rather than a simple game over.

319. Ayaan Hirsi Ali asks for protection

Comment #128881 by Roland_F on February 18, 2008 at 6:49 am

101. Comment #128852 by Nighttripper Haha watch yourself mate, I almost got crucified by the other members and even condemned by our Admin for bringing that into the discussion

When you personal know some person (AHA) like the RD admin than you have more empathy and concern , compared to the millions of starving children around the world who do not have a lobby.

When I first find the report about the Afghan journalism student imprisoned for blasphemy after downloading a critical article, I also feel enraged. However currently I am living with my family in a country (ruled from kleptocrats behind a democratic facade) where the government not even bother to make a court case, the critical journalist is just executed from death squads. Which happened 56 times since the current president (by the way she was classmate from Bill Clinton at university) took over power in 2001.

320. Feb 12th: Happy Darwin Day!

Comment #128853 by Roland_F on February 18, 2008 at 5:18 am

133. Comment #128846 by Steve Zara "As has been pointed out to you 5 times before in the following messages...".

Snowflakes shapes explained by Chaos theory:
Comment #107109 by Roland_F on January 4, 2008 at 4:59 am

www.richarddawkins.net/articleComments,2089,Could-there-be-a-Darwinian-Account-of-Human-Creativity,Daniel-Dennett,page5#107109

Possibly by explanation about the snowflakes even give Wooter new food with the hexagonal honeycombs :
Snowflakes and hexagonal shapes of honeycomb:
Comment #107504 by Roland_F on January 4, 2008 at 4:28 pm

http://www.richarddawkins.net/articleComments,2089,Could-there-be-a-Darwinian-Account-of-Human-Creativity,Daniel-Dennett,page5#107504

321. Feb 12th: Happy Darwin Day!

Comment #128847 by Roland_F on February 18, 2008 at 5:01 am

Yes the problem is that other visitors to this site might fall into the Wooter-trap not knowing that this Super TROLL is not interested at all in discussions, just posting the whole crap again which he posted weeks ago. Going to other blogs and inquire as puberty girl for vibrators to see the reactions.
Claims to be teacher of 6-11 old boys and girls and have such fantasies about young girls.

Wooter just want to stir up trouble, aggressions and annoying people, possible he/she would go to other sites like alcoholics self-help and post ads for beer or things like this.

As he is coming back all the time the RD blogs seems to be the only one free enough to troll around for month without getting kicked out and anyway a new user-Id is fast created. All promises to go away from this site are broken from this mentally disturbed person.

About the snowflakes: this was already explained in January from me, Chaos theory fully explains the always different detailed shapes , no need to have a hyper creative God designing each snowflake differently.
Also no need for God growing and deciding which Banana (field 2, row 8, plant 5, banana 37) is ending up in the refrigerator for Wooter, God is spinning the planets every morning, God spinning the water every time the toilet is flushed, God moving wooter on invisible strings via 4th dimension around because muscles can not work alone ….

322. Ayaan Hirsi Ali asks for protection

Comment #128841 by Roland_F on February 18, 2008 at 4:33 am

As a reply to Hughcaldwell who is attacking everybody who has other ideas how to proceed, other than donating money to AHA.
Additionally to my earlier posting that there are many other persons who are (or feel) threatened from Muslim fundamentalists , it will be quit costly to finance 7*24h security for possible thousands of persons.
(2) I am not the expert in security strategy, but around the clock protection might need 4 shifts of 2 persons each, e.g. a full time job for 8 bodyguards, which needs to be paid, whether they are beefcakes with sunglasses, smart professional experts or Blackwater mercenaries.

(3) The main aim of the fundamentalists treats is often not meant for the intended victims, it’s mainly to scare the own flock from leaving the faith group. The death penalty for apostasy is the maximum exit hurdle in this sense. So far the treats against AHA are anonymous and no official fatwa is released ?

(4) As mentioned from other bloggers here, keeping a low profile and the usage of video-conferencing techniques is much more cost efficient than traveling around the world like a pop diva, and asking for donations which might end up in first class air travel including tickets for security guards, renting half hotel executive floors for security reason etc. When I saw the news a few days ago the short visit in France was done under a security effort like for a president, costing the French taxpayers huge amounts. The news mentioned not even the purpose of the visit, maybe a forum discussion or signing of her book?

So to wrap it up: there are millions of people including small children dying from hunger every day, others are denied medicine, educations etc. People who feel threatened can opt for a low profile life in a nice village somewhere in the US making TV interviews, videoconferences to deliver her message. Maybe providing legal support, a sanctuary for all abused Muslim women who want to leave and have no prominent status like AHA would be more helpful.
Sorry but for all this reasons I am still reluctant to donate for payment of bodyguards.

323. Ayaan Hirsi Ali asks for protection

Comment #128112 by Roland_F on February 16, 2008 at 8:03 am

How many people should be protected from Islamic fundamentalists ?
Salman Rushdie, AHA, this Dutch right wing politicians who is making a new film against Islamic militants, Danish cartoonist, Danish newspaper publisher, Afghan converts to Christendom, or even the British teacher who named her teddy Mohammed and had an agitated mop wanting to kill her.

There are too many fatwa’s out there, too many fanatical Muslims who feel offended about everything. Can we pay several bodyguards for any of their intended victims ?

324. Dumb and Dumber: Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge?

Comment #127391 by Roland_F on February 15, 2008 at 8:22 am

In my office there are from time to time this mails circulated when another manifestation of unbelievable knowledge gaps of US citizens were recorded.
The reporter shows a map of Australia and Tasmania titled North and South Korea and most US citizens does not recognize this.
And the angry reply from a Texas cowboy to some commenter from Sydney is then that the persons from the UK (so Sydney is in the UK !) are themselves stupid.
And the president G.W.B. was surprised that there are also many black people living in Brazil and he does not remember which country he was visiting in Europe before (Slovakia)

Yes according to the holy Bible eating from the tree of knowledge is a very bad sin and blessed are the poor in spirit as theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

325. Why Darwin matters

Comment #126406 by Roland_F on February 13, 2008 at 7:05 am

Feeding the Wooter TROLL again.

Wooter with different user names like Selfishmind, then Wipeout asking about his/her own previous rubbish postings testing the situation, then coming back as Wooter and continue pasting Kilobytes of ID website crap.
As Wipeout using the same phrases like before as Wooter

all the bad words belong to the owner of the mouth it pops out

Now as Wooter continue the self-satisfaction of his/her mentally disturbed actions to stir up opposition, maybe on other ID forums it’s just the other way round , just to get attention.

247. Comment #113154 by tribalypredisposed on January 18, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Guys, this was an interesting thread before you all helped wooter hijack it. Let me just mention that I have had the unfortunate experience of playing online cards with wooter. Wooter is only looking for attention everywhere wooter goes online. Wooter cares nothing about evolution or vibrators or card games, wooter is just out to get attention and annoy others. It must be a sad life and I suggested back then that professional help would be appropriate.

326. Richard Dawkins on The Big Questions

Comment #126367 by Roland_F on February 13, 2008 at 4:36 am

http://friendlyatheist.com/2008/02/11/gods-we-dont-believe-in/

A comparison of gods that Christians and atheists don't believe in

nice list (beside Buddha - who is no God)

123. Comment #126336 by Damjan I will pray to God for you...

To which one ??
1) the Old Testament as basis for the 3 Abrahamic religions talks in plural ! Humans are created to be like US (plural) in Genesis 1.24-26 . And you should not have any God BEFORE Yahweh, so he is number 1 and Baal and others have to fall in line behind number 1.
2) The holy trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) are accompanied by Mary as recipient for prayer plus a hierarchy of angels and arch-angels plus more then 5000 saints for areas of specific expertise for prayers. So to whom to pray anyway ?
3) And if you are Christian do you pray to the real Jesus, the secular heir of the Davidic throne at the side of John the Baptist as heir of the Aaron legacy as priesterly messiah. So striving for heavily rule on EARTH. Or pray to the version of Pauline phantasy doctrine with main focus on heavenly e.g. purely spiritual kingdom of God and Jesus myth copied from Horus son of virgin Isis from 2000BC ??
4) And which interpretation of the God Yahweh ? There are different religious main cults (Jews, Muslims, Christians) with sub cults like in Christendom Coptic, Catholic, Protestant, Baptists and they again with sub-sub cults (Opus Dei, Jehovah witness, etc. )
And everyone is claiming to have the ultimate truth.

Damjan: One day everyone should grow up finally and become an adult without the need for some heavenly father /mother replacement and learn to stand on his own feet, manage his own life !

327. Exorcism undergoes a revival across Europe

Comment #125805 by Roland_F on February 12, 2008 at 4:51 am

Here is a clip from a woman who is a God-Warrior.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaKP4WfG3F4

Is this not daily regular behavior in every good Christian home especially in the Bible belt ??

Actually the " fight the Satan head on crusade " was started from Jesus in the last year(s) before crucfication e.g. the last year of the " end of age " before the kingdom of God is coming to destroy the Roman occupation forces of Judea. Not taking up arms against occupation forces but the apostles going to every village and push back the Satan and perform faith healings this were the actions of the apocalypse preachers believing in the coming end of age.
So possible the Vatican started this new Exorcism in 1999 because they expected the end of age in 2000, and now any year soon ….

328. Sharia law in UK is 'unavoidable'

Comment #124295 by Roland_F on February 9, 2008 at 3:49 am

227. Comment #124198 by tieInterceptor http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=A07C626899D1E6D4

Very interesting video clip. For everyone who is discussing here the moderate line in favor of partial Sharia just a short wrap-up of this 1hour clip:

Sharia means Road to the almighty Allah, Islam means total submission to the almighty Allah.
Sharia and Islam can not be separated, Sharia rules are given from God and can’t be discussed - they must me taken in totality as they are, whether you think parts are good or bad or if you like it or not.
So this cherry picking of some aspects proposed from moderates here seems just to be an illusion.

Similar statements I read from Islam experts in the German press about this topic: Sharia is the complete foundation of the entire value system of every aspect in daily lifes of Muslims.

The result of introduction of Sharia law in northern Nigeria was first a bloody civil war between Christians and Muslims leaving 300 dead and thousands displaced. Now Christian women are wearing the hijab and enjoy the strict Sharia rules.

About Sharia rules itself:
- the witness of a woman is counting only half
- for adultery cases women are NOT allowed as witness at all
- for rape cases a women can only avoid punishment if she brings 4 reliable witnesses

Anyone still in favor of applying this part of Sharia rules in the UK ??

329. The New Atheist Movement

Comment #123428 by Roland_F on February 7, 2008 at 6:22 am

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7232661.stm . The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams argues that adopting some aspects of Sharia law would help maintain social cohesion.
For example, Muslims could choose to have marital disputes or financial matters dealt with in a Sharia court.

So what is the problem ??
Don not pay interest any more , claim you are Muslim and the banks credit claim is rejected.
Enjoy public entertainment in Hyde Park : today cutting of the hand of some petty thieve, tomorrow s main attraction is the stoning to death for some alleged adulterer - yes the AidsBishop of Canterbury is really supporting multicultural values !!

330. The New Atheist Movement

Comment #123410 by Roland_F on February 7, 2008 at 5:38 am

92. Comment #123357 by Sleep of Reason : …especially the 3 monotheistic religions …

Sorry the proper term would be the 3 Abrahamic religions.
Actually the God of the desert Yahweh and other God’s like Baal and Co created Humans to be like us (plural !!) according to Genesis 1.24-26. Also the most important rule of the (10 commandments) is you should not have any God before Yahweh, so he is number 1 and others please fall in line behind number-1. And since the New Testament there is already the holy Trinity plus of course the worshipped Virgin Mary plus in-between more than 5000 saint’s for areas of special expertise to receive prayer.

75% of students lose their faith in college

Yes one day even the eternal child has to grow up and stand on his own feet to manage his own life without tooth fairy, Santa Claus and all the other imagined sky fairies around.

331. Blasphemy

Comment #123298 by Roland_F on February 6, 2008 at 10:48 pm

Shrommer : Muslims who turn to Christ become selfless, passionate people who aim to love and do good...

Of course and all bad people must be atheists and all the good people must be faithful Catholics.
This kind of staff is called bias - not an argument !

The persons are moral, passionate, emphatic etc.. independent which sky fairy she prefers : just exchanging one aggressive cult with a misery cult, or diversify from a mainstream Christian cult to a Christian sub-cult because of personal preferences is not changing the true inner value system of a person.

And the Golden Rule was not invented from God’s kingdom in 33-36 AD, it’s exiting in the animal kingdom for millions of years. Altruism and compassion for all sentient beings is a Buddhist teaching predating Jesus by at least 500 years, so it’s not invented from Jesus but possible Jesus himself is invented !

Really sad if someone is so much entangled into his own religious dogmas and delusions that everything positive is attributed to the own group (tribe, nation, religious cult) and everything negative attributed to the outsiders.

332. Christopher Hitchens on Books & Ideas

Comment #123295 by Roland_F on February 6, 2008 at 10:06 pm

"believe what you want just don't try and make me believe it too" --- Is this not the attitude of any normal person?

Unfortunately this is not the attitude of most religious persons who are still building the majority on this planet.

333. Math Religion Trouble

Comment #122829 by Roland_F on February 6, 2008 at 7:18 am

I figured it was probably hingeing on the word "precisely"

With growing computation power the precision is getting better and results are achieved faster, so it’s really more the mathematical supremacy attidude above other scientific disciplines.

Maybe a good (joking) quote from my former math professor (operations research) at university: physics with all their tests and appromixations: how they prove a logic for prime numbers ?
Hypothesis: every odd number is a prime number. Let’s test : 1,3,5,7… 9 = ok test error, 11, 13.. enough test data , hypothesis is confirmed all odd numbers are prime numbers.
I think that shows how mathematicals purists prefer elegant deterministic results.

334. Math Religion Trouble

Comment #122803 by Roland_F on February 6, 2008 at 5:40 am

BTW, the three body problem has been solved.

My understanding is that there is still no practical way to calculate things.

Solving the three body problem with massive computation power is not the elegant deterministic solution the purist mathematicians usually striving for.

335. Exploding black holes could expose hidden dimensions

Comment #122729 by Roland_F on February 5, 2008 at 10:01 pm

In the 1980s there were already the promise of this great unifying theory and even the theory of everything to be available within a few years (also according to Hawking). Now so many years later indeed nothing of great unifying has come out, just 5 different 9D theories which had to be unified into a common 10D theory M/superstring theory.
Until now even the GUT havn’t been confirmed by expirements (proton decay in 10**35 years average), possible the Vacum field, Higgs ocean or however you like to call it can be confirmed or falsified from CERN next year(s). For string theory tests energy levels must be magnitues higher … testable not in this century if at all.

About books for different universe models : I just finished reading Paul Davies >Goldilock Enigma< explanation of cosmology without much formulas. The first 2/3 of the book is scientific explanations the last 1/3 some strange subjective ideas about different universe models. Ok the book research was sponsored from Templeton, but for this Davies lash out quite a lot at the ID explanation variant (not the best investment for Templeton).
The other all explaining alternative to String theory would e Multiverse theory , both are somehow >everything is possible< and something which explains everything explains in the end nothing…

336. Are Darwin's Theories Fact or Faith Issues?

Comment #122294 by Roland_F on February 5, 2008 at 6:36 am

I think this misunderstanding of < theory > is coming (especially in Germany) from the term < Theory and praxis > means some setting of challenging plans and targets which are failing miserable in praxis.
So in common language the word Theory has a very bad reputation.

Only later at university I learnt the meaning of a scientific theory, and when the Prof was first telling there is nothing more practical than a theory everyone laughed. It took some time to digest the meaning of the word to a tested, falsifiable, peer reviewed explanation of real life test data.

337. Hitchens V. Boteach

Comment #121677 by Roland_F on February 4, 2008 at 1:02 am

And again this blog is ending up on Iraq issue.
Instead of guessing and interpreting the spin-doctored Bush propaganda read the documents form the Neocons in power and initiator of the Iraq war: "Project for a new American Century"

http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqmiddleeast2000-1997.htm

The invasion was planned already in the 1990s, WMD, non UN inspection compliance, breach of the Oil for food program, evil Saddam etc. all just excuses.

It's all only about global Hegemony, US dominance, Pax Americana...

338. Documents detail church coverup

Comment #121660 by Roland_F on February 3, 2008 at 10:43 pm

This story seems to follow the same pattern around the world: In Germany (Bavaria) there was also a case of cover up: the Bishop moved his pedophile priest just to the next village and his acts continued.
When parents complaint the whole clergy and the other Catholics in the diocese pressurized them to shut up .. You don’t sue priests this is taboo.

As the Catholic clergy consists of around 50% gays in central Europe, US statistics show 20-50% (average population 3%) this might be only the tip of the iceberg. Some insider e.g. catholic theology teacher at university called the Catholic Church “the biggest transnational gay organization�.
Somehow I have these 11.000 cases of pedophilia in the US priesthood in mind, not sure if these are really all lawsuits or just the estimate of the entire iceberg.

Maybe the gay priesthood prefers the altar boys because gay sex between adult men is a sin punishable by death but with young boys it’s all fine and allowed ?!?
Leviticus 20:13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

339. Pope says some science shatters human dignity

Comment #120550 by Roland_F on February 2, 2008 at 12:20 am

I am still waiting for the Vatican to condemn evil science activities like development of WMD. Why hit on medical research to reduce suffering and never say a single word about the real Frankenstein laboratories developing and improving VX nerve agents, Anthrax, Ebola etc. based biological warfare? I have never heard anything from the clergy against this kind of science research.

It seems more that this true faithful conception (intercourse without lust in missionary position and think deeply about God during orgasm !!) Is the last gap of divine miracle, which the ‘bad scientist’ wants to take away with stem-cell research.

….. Artificial insemination outside the body had "shattered the barriers meant to protect human dignity

So when infertile couple’s can’t reproduce naturally they are not allowed to use artificial insemination and have to wait for the Holy Spirit to come along to do the job. Where does this supposed to be celibate clergy get’s all their intercourse wisdom and guidance from anyhow ?

340. 'Irrational Atheist' trounces God-deniers

Comment #118923 by Roland_F on January 31, 2008 at 7:04 am

Wooter => Selfishmind => Becomethearrow ??

341. Sentenced to death: Afghan who dared to read about women's rights

Comment #118881 by Roland_F on January 31, 2008 at 5:38 am

25. Comment #118859 by Fanusi Khiyal N.B.: I am waiting for the usual crowd to tell us how this is all due to American foreign policy, and the unjust world economic order.

Ok as you wish here it comes:
When my information is correct the 1970s were quite secular and free in Afghanistan at least Kabul, people sitting in street cafes, international hotels etc…. until the CIA intervened and created and supported the Islamic fundamentalists to start violence and to draw in the Soviet forces as support and bog them down into 'their Vietnam'.
Can't get rid of the devil I created myself.

There were even backroom negotiations between US and Taliban for the construction of a pipeline trough Afghanistan, which had to be stopped for 9/11 and the following attack. Then the 2001 removal of Taliban was not properly followed up with reconstruction and support as the Neocon's agenda was focused completely on Iraq.

However even throwing more money into the country building more schools, hospitals, streets, houses etc. as requested from the Afghan government will not changing the religious domination of Islam. And under Islam you can't convert to Christianity, you can't print and discuss critical articles about the prophet, you can't call your Teddy Mohammed as all these worst imaginable Islamic sins are punishable by death.

So the computers to print out the article were paid from the EU, the university from Britain, the judges are pay rolled from the USA, the court building was reconstructed from Germany (or whatever share each country provided) and this is all used for these kangaroo court trials.

Just get the hell out of this country - it's hopeless !

342. Sentenced to death: Afghan who dared to read about women's rights

Comment #118867 by Roland_F on January 31, 2008 at 5:16 am

22. Comment #118853 by pwuk : Ridiculous, may as well have left the Taliban in place

Slowly I also could sign up to this idea. At least with the Taliban the opium production was stopped to please the Western world. Now the European ISAF forces (especially Germany) are sitting and hiding in their barracks and bunkers right in the middle of the world biggest opium production area and can't do anything. They can not stop the poppy growing; they can't help the ordinary people much, they are just there showing presence.

The first woman in parliament shown off as 'the success of democracy' was kicked out as soon as the propaganda photos were printed. Girls are still mainly prevented from going to school, and the UNICEF photo of the year was the Afghan warlord with the 11 year old girl bride.
Apostasy and blasphemy is still punishable by death -- Not much changed under ex Unicoal director installed as president H. Karzai !!

343. Richard Dawkins on The Big Debate

Comment #118791 by Roland_F on January 31, 2008 at 1:45 am

84. Comment #118789 by MPhil
unfortunately the subject in this school is called 'Love of God' - this is very serious.
This is already the 3rd school and they are all similar and try to outcompete each other to be very catholic even the 'international' (US inspired) school.

344. Richard Dawkins on The Big Debate

Comment #118783 by Roland_F on January 31, 2008 at 1:30 am

80. Comment #118753 by MPhil -- das war in Franken, nicht in Niederbayern

I am not from Catholic Bavaria - this happend in NRW !!

Now I am living in Asia and my (step)daughter attend a private school where beside English, Math, Science etc... one subject is not religion but 'Love of God' - no idea how they can evaluate the grades A,B,C... (in German Noten 1,2,3...) for 'Love of God'.

345. Richard Dawkins on The Big Debate

Comment #118751 by Roland_F on January 30, 2008 at 11:19 pm

78. Comment #118657 by therealclimber How would a Christian parent feel if the Christian faith school they wanted to enroll their child in was full but the Muslim faith school down the street had space? Would they be ok with having their child educated in a faith school that didn't follow their faith?

I was undergoing this trouble. After moving out of the city into a suburb town, my parents (Protestants church tax payers, no church attendants) had to enroll me into a Catholic elementary school very near by , because the general secular school was too far away.
Before every class starts first praying and squeezing a high amount of Catholic bias into their teaching even beside the Catholic religion lesson. The Catholic lesson I was allowed to participate was biblical history, when it got too much into Catholic specific faith I have to stand outside the class for the hour. The only thing from the religion class 35 years ago I remember is the answer the Catholic Priest (Mr. Schmidt) gave to the question about confessing and forgiveness of sins of murder to us 9 – 10 year old kids : 10 DM (German Mark) donation for the church is sufficient maybe for killing a cat but the amount to be donated for the church for forgiving the killing a human must be higher ( the priest haven't specified the exact amount for human killings then).

For my little sister luckily there was finally a rare place in the Protestant kindergarten found (the Catholic had enough places). When my father was sick he had to go to the next city as the Catholic hospital (open for patients of all faith but employees must be Catholic) had not found a specialized medical doctor who was Catholic, so we had to travel 15km to the next city to a secular hospital.

Needless to say that all institutions like kindergarten, school and hospitals are fully financed from taxpayers money, but the churches managed to keep it kosher separated. My father was heretically questioning if we also have to use separate water pipes for Catholic and Protestants in this town.

Faith based apartheid sucks !!

346. 'Irrational Atheist' trounces God-deniers

Comment #117977 by Roland_F on January 30, 2008 at 5:38 am

Several people are upset at Day's claim that Dawkins said raising a child religiously is worse than child sexual abuse. Several have said that Dawkins never said that.

Quoting fractions out of context or only the first part of an argument and suppressing the following explanation is quite bad style for an 'intelligent agnostic'.
When I remember right this was not the story about a brutal rape compared to attending Catholic schools but it was about the statement of the victim itself that the idea of her friend going to hell (because she is Protestant) causing a long and deep trauma whereas being touched by a priest was just some small annoyance (maybe not fully consciously perceived what was happening).

347. Atheism and Violence

Comment #117912 by Roland_F on January 30, 2008 at 1:23 am

Ah, so many stupidities, so many fallacies, so much biased interpretation of facts, so little time!

Actually it's not so little time it's a far too long sermon. Still astonishing how to write so many crap and distortions of facts.
So the religion is not responsible for 2000 years of bloody history, it's all the atheists fault ?? Does this guys ever read their holy Bible - the most blood dripping, rude, genocide hailing book ever assembled ?!
And the old argument of Hitler and Stalin as 'proof' all atheists are insane mass murders. Beside Hitler did the Holocausts (1) in the name of God, (2) to fulfill God's will, (3) with support of the Catholic church in Germany and (4) with the blessing of the pope, and he didn't start the Holocaust for the reason that there is no God (= atheism).
Also it's a stupid habit of linking Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao & Co to the camp of the opponent, which proofs nothing only the hopelessness of the author. Hitler and Stalin had brown hair …ergo all people with brown hair are insane mass murders, Hitler was vegetarian .. ergo all vegetarian are insane mass murders …etc… what a nonsense.

There are billions of atheists on the planet and for this E.T. Oakes they are all the same and following the simple assignment rules:
Evolution = Eugenics. Survival of the fittest is NOT survival of the strongest but the survival of the best adapted, and if a small body used less calories it might be much better fitted for survival than a much bigger more resource consuming body.

atheists = Marxists : Marx was propagating equality of all people and to free themselves from suppression of feudal masters which uses the church as conspirator for the suppression, uses religion as 'opium for the masses' and the promise of the afterlife in Paradise to bear the current poor living condition. What on earth has this ideals to do with the extermination of 'unworthy' life forms ?!

And these far fetched purposely distorted polemics continue instead of any valid argument.

Given these hopelessly confused and superficial arguments, it's hard to take the new atheism seriously

The joke of the week ! 400 years of science and technology advances are superficial and confused ?!
Possibly these theists are the ones which can't be taken seriously as they are relying solely on 2500 year old fictitious fairy tales, scribbled on sheep skin from primitive middle east desert tribe often self contradicting plus the later added stories of the recycled Egyptian 4000 years old myth of a resurrected Horus son of virgin Isis - now called Jesus son of virgin Mary. This basis sounds more superficial and confused.

348. Islam in Europe

Comment #114873 by Roland_F on January 23, 2008 at 5:01 am

Just found this about Afghanistan where most European (and the US) governments spend billions of Euro for aid, infrastructure support to 'build up a democracy' and 'fight extremism at it's source':

[ KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - An Afghan court on sentenced a 23-year-old journalism student to death for distributing a paper he printed off the Internet that three judges said violated the tenets of Islam, an official said…..Kambaksh discussed the paper with his teacher and classmates at Balkh University, and several students complained to the government, Wahab said.]

So printing out an article in the internet and discuss with his professor and students during class is eligible for a death penalty in this heavily supported 'democratized' country.

Here the article: http://www.pr-inside.com/afghan-journalist-sentenced-to-death-for-r398795.htm

349. Gay Jesus play blasted by bishop

Comment #114353 by Roland_F on January 22, 2008 at 3:42 am

44. Comment #114333 by Tyler Durden

They can't tell the exact date when their messiah was crucified?

Actually Christians can date this relative exactly : end of March 36AD, but this is really the ONLY thing they can within a week accuracy agree on about Horus son of virgin Isis, son of man, son of God, resurrected, the truth, the light, etc... from Egypt 2000BC …. … ooops I meant Jesus son of virgin Mary, …….

There are 4 different Gospel accounts of the trial of Jesus starting with the last supper the evening before Passover (4th Gospel according to Paul) following the solar calendar of the apostles = zealots of the book -- or the totally improbable other 3 versions of events starting on Passover (Gospel of Mark and their adjusted copies of Mathew and Luke) contradicting strict Jewish non working days for their high court. Then Horus/Jesus was crucified the Fridays 30th March 36AD, the day before Sabbath after Passover.

According to John 8:57 about Jesus at Passover the year before (35 AD) 'Thou are not yet 50 years old, and hast thou seen Abraham" , so using this Jesus birth year is 14 or 13 BC.
The birth is not mentioned in 2 Gospels (Mark, John) at all, Mathews Gospel is mentioning the flight to Egypt after birth because of king Herod-1 'the great' massacre of the innocent . Herod-1 died 4BC, so Jesus must have been born before. The famous Christmas story from Luke is a completely invented fairy tale as Augustus never ordered an empire wide census, beside the fact that Roman census is based on residence not remote birthplace. There was a local census of Quirinius 6AD in Judea, but Joseph and his virgin wife Isis (Mary) lived in Galilee which was not part of the Judean census.
The birthplace Bethlehem was used to link the new Messiah to the royal line of King David, needless to say that Gospels don't agree of the number of generations from David to Jesus (28 to 41 generations), besides who cares about the line of Joseph when he is anyway not the father but the 'holy spirit' is ?

Just some highlight for the end: even criminals like Barabbas who was released from Pilate instead of Jesus is mentioned outside the Bible. Beside some later 4th century AD faked insertion of Jesus into the History recording of Josephus, there is no account of Jesus outside the Bible at all.

350. Vatican slams California firm's cloning experiments

Comment #114314 by Roland_F on January 21, 2008 at 11:13 pm

"worst exploitation of the human being which thus becomes an object of research," said Elio Sgreccia, who heads the Pontifical Academy for Life

Yes of course homo sapiens is special as they were 'created like us (God's)' during Genesis 1.24-26.
So Stemagen Corp is playing God – really bad just another competitor for Yahweh.
This reminds me about a satiric movie about modern art, called 'the pail and the Mona Lisa' where the artists ended up with the biggest art creation ever done: he underwent sex transformation, and as transsexual he was greater than God: Creator and at the same time creation in one person !

So Stemagen Corp created Stem cells without soul, just imagine the embryo would grow up to a complete human body without soul. No need to pray and be prayed for, nothing needs to be saved from damnation and hell . When these procedure for conception would spread over time ….. a nightmare as the catholic church is out of their lucrative business then.