301. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #194557 by DamnDirtyApe on June 17, 2008 at 12:31 am

RtG you are forgetting (or rather ignoring, prefering to launch personal attacks) why he suggested spontaneous life in the first place - he is trying to suggest the purely logical alternatives to the creation of life. That as he said is one of the many purely logical possibilites.

In a position of pure logic spontaneous generation of life is not only plausible but achievable. You only need to play a video game like civilisation to see that. Sure, its only a simulation, but one of pure logic.

That's what I love about video games, its a real sandbox for pure logical concepts. You can meddle in basic physics, you can test the behavior of intelligent reasoning agents. Plus you can blow the crap out of them with those blue plasma grenades.

You should play Spore when it comes out if you're into Intelligent Design.

Of course video games are nothing like reality. They're far too simple. And we haven't figured out how to simulate everything. But the sandbox of logic is something we human beings should play in. :)

302. Gay brains structured like those of the opposite sex

Comment #194058 by DamnDirtyApe on June 16, 2008 at 10:51 am

This whole discussion reminds me, I must remember to go check out Turing's bench next time I go home to Manchester. I've never properly had a look at it.

303. Gay brains structured like those of the opposite sex

Comment #193962 by DamnDirtyApe on June 16, 2008 at 8:48 am

So wait a minute... when Eddie Izzard says he's a Male Lesbian... he's a man... with a woman's brain... wired like a man's... oh no I've gone cross eyed.

304. Breaking the Silence

Comment #193858 by DamnDirtyApe on June 16, 2008 at 6:43 am

Since we're talking about feminists I'll throw in another name too, a native UKer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shami_Chakrabarti

- I had a look on Facebook for her as well - there's one hate and one death threat group. That's what you get for opposing the erosion of civil liberties - in the UK! Sickening.

42 Days detention? We're not going to learn the secrets of life, the universe and everything from people detained without charge.

305. As the world becomes smaller, the need to understand each other's faith grows

Comment #193430 by DamnDirtyApe on June 15, 2008 at 3:23 pm

I suggest Tony go spend some time himself and try to coexist with some people of different faith. In Iraq.

306. As the world becomes smaller, the need to understand each other's faith grows

Comment #193262 by DamnDirtyApe on June 15, 2008 at 4:59 am

Can we make one of the RDF objectives to be bigger than the TBF?

307. Scientists confirm that parts of earliest genetic material may have come from the stars

Comment #193258 by DamnDirtyApe on June 15, 2008 at 4:48 am

Forged in the heart of a star.

Fecking. Epic.

308. Intelligent people 'less likely to believe in God'

Comment #192465 by DamnDirtyApe on June 13, 2008 at 5:35 am

Give a man a fish and he'll feed himself for a day.

Teach a man to fish and he'll feed his family for a lifetime.

Read a man a book and he'll believe whatever you say.

Teach a man to read and he will decide what to believe.

309. Unlike Others, U.S. Defends Freedom to Offend in Speech

Comment #192406 by DamnDirtyApe on June 13, 2008 at 2:32 am

Dammit, we need the political will in the UK to reclaim freedom of speech. We're such a corporate police these days state its sickening.

China is starting to look like it might eventually have MORE freedom than us. CHINA.

310. Analysis of SB 733: 'LA Science Education Act'

Comment #191987 by DamnDirtyApe on June 12, 2008 at 8:52 am

That's a freaking excellent graph there strengthofmind.

311. New British Petition: Stop the Nightmares

Comment #191568 by DamnDirtyApe on June 11, 2008 at 8:47 am

Signed.

312. Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind

Comment #191447 by DamnDirtyApe on June 11, 2008 at 1:45 am

This is the reality of our complex messed up minds.

You see every religion trying to offer a cause of evil and wrong in the world, but only science can truely find the cause of evil in the heart of man.

People hear voices not because they're touched by the divine, but because their brains are a jumbled up barely working mess. Heck, our whole bodies are - useless organs, painful backfiring biological processes, death, the works.

313. Loyal to Its Roots

Comment #191078 by DamnDirtyApe on June 10, 2008 at 7:29 am

People always go for the show off animals, they have no patience. But if you take time lapse photography of that, i'll bet the 'attack' of that plant over the course of days is pretty dramatic.

314. The 14-year-old Afghan suicide bomber

Comment #190989 by DamnDirtyApe on June 10, 2008 at 3:48 am

A perfect example of everything we stand against.

315. Logical Proof of the Existence of a Divine Creator, Why Atheism is Not Logically Sound

Comment #190589 by DamnDirtyApe on June 9, 2008 at 9:22 am

Why Artemisa, by the same reasoning that leads me to doubt that I am superman: Lack of evidence.

Don't try to fly folks. Ground hurts.

316. Complex Synapses Drove Brain Evolution

Comment #190491 by DamnDirtyApe on June 9, 2008 at 7:41 am

Our brains are insane, complex things. Each Neuron wired to up to 10,000 others. I kind of picture it like the old notions of computers, a mass of wires bundled up in a vast demented looking array.

There's an awful lot that goes wrong with our brains. I'll bet good money it doesn't take much misfiring for that crazy subset of mental disorders we rather feebly label 'schizophrenia' to kick in.

That's evolution for you - It works, but it'll create one a hell of a mountain of useless junk in the process. But hey, I consider that in itself evidence of evolution. Imperfection.

"We studied around 600 proteins that are found in mammalian synapses and were surprised to find that only 50 percent of these are also found in invertebrate synapses, and about 25 percent are in single-cell animals, which obviously don't have a brain."

- I'm going to go out on a limb and guess we probably don't even need all 600. There must be loads we just produce that probably sit there. I'm not a biologist - can anyone back my assumption up?

317. Holiday in Hellmouth

Comment #189967 by DamnDirtyApe on June 8, 2008 at 12:41 am

When the godless scientists unlock the regenerative powers of natural organisms at the genetic level, and figure out how to use such abilities to truely heal amputees, They'll still be saying 'Thank god i'm healed!'

If It's me, I will do anything I can to ensure it is 'thank those folk i'm healed!' Credit where credit due.


... unlock. If science was like an xbox 360...

318. Blogger spreads the gospel of science

Comment #189407 by DamnDirtyApe on June 6, 2008 at 8:00 am

I'm from Manchester.

Turing FTW.

319. Blogger spreads the gospel of science

Comment #189402 by DamnDirtyApe on June 6, 2008 at 7:44 am

Epic Kent obsession thread!

I'm actually in Canterbury at UKC.

320. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #188940 by DamnDirtyApe on June 5, 2008 at 2:42 am

There isn't any demonstrable evidence for a random sequence of DNA replication errors which transformed gills into lungs, fins into limbs, scales into skin or any of the myriad other things necessary to get from this animal to a tetrapod. All of that is perfectly imaginary. There are no fossils to show that this ever happened, and there are no experiments to show that it could have.

You're wrong. There have been experiments which show that species (a loose term, read this article) can gain entirely new abilities and functions they have never had.

http://richarddawkins.net/article,2669,A-New-Step-In-Evolution,Carl-Zimmer

That experiement was on E.Coli, and it ran for DECADES. That's a single celled bacteria. The process of development for such large complex organs inevitably takes an enormous amount of time. it would be impossible for us to run a controlled experiment on larger animals. Besides, we've performed artificial selection for milenia, we know all about the consequence of slicing and dicing with food and pets.

Your backwards logic is like saying the sun is small because you can block it with your hand. I'd like to point you to something else while i'm here that might help you understand our frustration with your kind of mindset:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lESQ0ejN79I

321. A New Step In Evolution

Comment #188204 by DamnDirtyApe on June 3, 2008 at 10:45 am

Beautiful. That's the outstanding 'shoulders of giants' kind of research that really prooves things...

322. Ben Stein 1, Yoko Ono 0 in 'Expelled' copyright spat

Comment #188122 by DamnDirtyApe on June 3, 2008 at 8:43 am

Crap.

Still, his association of a peace song with oppressive war imagery only shows how dumb he is.

323. 'Uncontacted tribe' sighted in Amazon

Comment #186668 by DamnDirtyApe on May 31, 2008 at 12:55 am

Konradius is probably right. That's the main risk, all the more reason to be extremely careful in contacting these people. They could be wiped out very easily. Contact with these people needs to be handled very carefully.

They need to be protected from the like of illegal loggers and ordinary people for that reason above all others.

324. 'Uncontacted tribe' sighted in Amazon

Comment #186663 by DamnDirtyApe on May 31, 2008 at 12:16 am

This is an outside context problem waiting to happen.

I think the best way to proceed to to send people who will be culturally sensitive at first. We need Bruce Parry!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Parry

I want to see these people come round over time, I don't want them to be culturally obliterated, I guess I kind of want us to take a bit of a Star Trek prime directive/iain m banks Contact stance on this...

325. Senate bill allows display of Lord's Prayer, 10 Commandments

Comment #186435 by DamnDirtyApe on May 30, 2008 at 9:35 am

esuther raises an excellent point - perhaps 'historical documents' should be unbiased, and show the full range of america's 'achievements'.

'Appreciate the wall in all its beauty and all its flaws.' - G'kar, Babylon 5.

326. Synthetic Copycat Of Living Cell Underway: Life, But Not As We Know It?

Comment #186308 by DamnDirtyApe on May 30, 2008 at 5:58 am

All that nonsense about not allowing intelligent design in universities. This work IS intelligent design. After all, those guys used their intelligence to design it :D

How'd you like them apples Stein!

327. Religion is a product of evolution, software suggests

Comment #185308 by DamnDirtyApe on May 27, 2008 at 11:55 am

But where do all the calculators go?

328. Huge hidden biomass lives deep beneath the oceans

Comment #185137 by DamnDirtyApe on May 27, 2008 at 4:02 am

Cthulhu or R'lyeh would be most apt titles for some of these organisms. Always with the latin in naming, its fine and all but why not a bit of contemporary Lovecraft?

329. Probe lands on Mars, NASA says

Comment #185116 by DamnDirtyApe on May 27, 2008 at 2:23 am

I love the mars probes, they are awesome - however...

I do wish they would send one of the probes to one of the major geological points of interest on the planet. It would be nice to have a picture of something else than the barren plains. It's got the largest canyon and largest volcanoes in the solar system! Admittedly olympus mons is so big it's gradient is pretty low, but a shot of the crater rim, or shots of the other volcanoes would be spectacular.

330. Five Things Humans No Longer Need

Comment #183983 by DamnDirtyApe on May 23, 2008 at 11:02 am

You can have my goosebumps when you pry them out of my cold dead hands!

Otherwise, I agree. Especially on the overcrowded party that is ruined by my wisdom teeth.

And let's not forget the old favourite, the Appendix!

331. Richard Dawkins Responds to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Comment #183909 by DamnDirtyApe on May 23, 2008 at 7:00 am

Clearmind's boring me now.

332. Kenya mob reportedly burns 11 'witches'

Comment #183863 by DamnDirtyApe on May 23, 2008 at 3:59 am

As long as there is poverty and ignorance this nonsense will prevail in the dark corners of the earth.

333. Scientists discover 'frogamander' fossil

Comment #183844 by DamnDirtyApe on May 23, 2008 at 2:32 am

How much more bloody evidence is it going to take?

Maybe we should gather up all the evidence in the world and make a mega evidence mountain.

The giant Armadillo in the Natural History museum was enough for me.

334. Teenager faces prosecution for calling Scientology 'cult'

Comment #182808 by DamnDirtyApe on May 21, 2008 at 2:04 am

Will the police be arresting John Sweeney for suggesting 'some people consider Scientology a sinister cult'?

They've gone too far now. This is the last straw. Either the police should drop it, or we need legal action. NOW.

HitbLade - that's pretty bloody worrying.

Logicel - that's a pretty good system the french have. Come to think of it i've not really heard of any french cults.

335. Geeks and Guinness: the formula for sexy science

Comment #182416 by DamnDirtyApe on May 20, 2008 at 3:50 am

Here's ours :)

http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/dfc/site/CS/

336. Mayor challenges pope during Genoa visit

Comment #182111 by DamnDirtyApe on May 19, 2008 at 8:33 am

I think we're going to agree on the media phrasing of this being rather stupid...

337. Texas Megachurch Minister Busted in Internet Sex Sting

Comment #181513 by DamnDirtyApe on May 17, 2008 at 10:35 am

How about the baddiedome?

338. These dim-wits believe in anything but God

Comment #181451 by DamnDirtyApe on May 17, 2008 at 8:44 am

Lol @ 'We can easily substitute education for God.'

Well, perhaps they have forgotten that education is also the mechanism the religious use. I mean COME ON - god isn't going to give a vision to every Joe Smith. There have to be flocks for the shepherds, otherwise who will they have to boss about and tell what to do?

339. Indian village proud after double 'honor killing'

Comment #181377 by DamnDirtyApe on May 17, 2008 at 4:25 am

Fuckers. No further comments.

340. Pelosi, Reid shunning Ten Commandments?

Comment #181376 by DamnDirtyApe on May 17, 2008 at 4:21 am

What an asshole... Makes me very glad it's a woman who's shooting him down. :D

341. Richard Dawkins Responds to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Comment #181374 by DamnDirtyApe on May 17, 2008 at 4:11 am

The science vs religion debates is the internet-wide flamewar.

I think people in the future will look back at the internet and think that's what it was for.

342. Malaysia woman scores rare legal win to quit Islam

Comment #180996 by DamnDirtyApe on May 16, 2008 at 8:54 am

Religion nearly made it impossible to marry, and Religion nearly made it impossible for them to part.

She'd probably have been better off without him, but such is life :(

343. 85% of Americans Want a Presidential Debate on Science

Comment #180499 by DamnDirtyApe on May 15, 2008 at 5:54 am

Indeed, I thought Obama's google speech was very promising. I'd even go as far as saying he's a bit of a geek.

344. Americans pray at the pump for cheaper petrol

Comment #179982 by DamnDirtyApe on May 14, 2008 at 4:11 am

If the christians of america want gas prices to lower perhaps they should follow the example of Jesus:

WALK. Or maybe get a Donkey.

This is America's problem. Huge cities designed for cars, awful public transport, no will to change the system. The car is your wheelchair. It's not the same for every city in America, but its certainly the majority case. We've got it almost bad in the UK, but we do drive much smaller cars and our petrol is heavily taxed.

Another thing - the emissions problem is not actually really down to gas. That would be the fault of the source of 49% of America's power generation - Coal. All those little gains for planes and cars are like a drop in the ocean.

345. God seekers go public

Comment #179949 by DamnDirtyApe on May 14, 2008 at 3:00 am

That gives me an idea...

Bioscientologic Designology.

This sounds technical enough to confuse the common moron, right?

346. 'My daughter deserved to die for falling in love'

Comment #178945 by DamnDirtyApe on May 12, 2008 at 9:36 am

Al's concerns over the actions of the occupation forces in Iraq are completely justifiable. The travesty of thousands dead cannnot be understated.

In as few words as possible - We broke it, we bought it. Bush and Blair have pushed this crap onto all of us.

347. On Fitna, the Movie

Comment #178819 by DamnDirtyApe on May 12, 2008 at 5:26 am

Yep, free speech even for douchebags - but when the douchebags do speak, lets make sure that some mechanism or group of people is in place so that everyone knows they are douchebags. Holy media, batman!

...Not the best solution, but -a- solution. They certainly did their bit against Expelled:No good reviews abound.

348. On Fitna, the Movie

Comment #178744 by DamnDirtyApe on May 12, 2008 at 1:49 am

I think part of the problem was not that Fitna didn't have a point. I think it was mostly down to the fact it was rather poorly made. The issues could have been addressed more stringently. It was far too emotive, and given the subject, that's all too easy to be. Religion, superstition and fanatism can only be defeated with logic, reason, and a clear head.

349. 'My daughter deserved to die for falling in love'

Comment #178408 by DamnDirtyApe on May 11, 2008 at 11:13 am

This is the monstrosity of man. Everyone must see this.

350. Church of Scotland mediators to quell disputes

Comment #178297 by DamnDirtyApe on May 11, 2008 at 5:42 am

100% agree with the pamphlet plan. I would also suggest dropping this fine example by native Scot Iain M Banks:

http://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/~stefan/culture.html

- don't read my next line if you want to spoil the punchline!




'I know it's all nonsense, but you've got to admit it's impressive nonsense. And like I said at the start, none of it exists anyway, does it?'




If only Jesus said something that. I'd probably be convinced he'd existed with a statement that profound.