Comments by Roland_F

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.

352. 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.

353. 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…

354. 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.

355. 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...

356. 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.

357. 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 ?

358. 'Irrational Atheist' trounces God-deniers

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

Wooter => Selfishmind => Becomethearrow ??

359. 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 !

360. 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 !!

361. 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.

362. 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'.

363. 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 !!

364. '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).

365. 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.

366. 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

367. 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.

368. 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.

369. Florida in the process of approving new science standards

Comment #114305 by Roland_F on January 21, 2008 at 8:49 pm

14. Comment #114299 by LorienRyan

Intelligent Design is just as valid a theory as Evolution is - although the evidence supports Evolution as the reasonable conclusion.

Theory has a very specific meaning in science, something proofed many times and not yet falsified.
ID is just some fantasy story of 6 days creation around 6000 years ago, teaching it in schools is like also adding Ron Hubbard's science fiction fantasy of Scientology about first creation in Space Opera " 70 trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion years ago (7�10**85 years): The Story of Creation Implants " .

Or what about 'enriching' Physic teachings with lightening in thunderstorms are made from Zeus as alternative to high Voltage discharges, or thunder is made from Thor's hammer etc..

370. This Week's Flea

Comment #114301 by Roland_F on January 21, 2008 at 8:31 pm

In another posting I already showed that morality can not come from the Bible at all. I was using verbal explanation instead Boolean algebra. When the only source of investigation is the Bible, there is no way to derive anything as morality good or bad when it's contradicting each other.
Example : is killing morally allowed -- true or false ?
Source 10 commandments : you should not kill => killing = False
871 stories about God ordered murder, genocide� => killing = True

The 871 counts: http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/index.htm

So it can't be decided from the Bible alone because of all these contradictions. Or just decide by the majority of hints in favor of 871 to 1 for killing = true. Then killing is morally acceptable and very God pleasing.

When highlighting this total inability to logically derive any morality from the Bible and the complete inability of a fixed 2000 and 2500 years old book to adapt to changing Zeitgeist (no more slavery, treat women equal �), the last defense of religious people is a single sentence inside the NT about the 'Golden Rule' of reciprocal altruism, so from 400 pages there is just this 1 single sentence left as moral guidance. And this Golden Rule is millions of years old, also encountered in animal behavior and therefore nothing new introduced from Jesus in 33-36AD.

So all morality can only be derived from a value system outside old books. The cherry-picking of a few sentences from 400 pages, rejecting some of the teachings, individual interpretation in a Catholic, Anglican etc. sense are all done based on external value systems of each Bible interpreting individual.
So holding up a book (the 'empty page Bible' from Steve Zara ) is just a smokescreen to gain more trust for someone's very own individual morality system.

371. Gay Jesus play blasted by bishop

Comment #114286 by Roland_F on January 21, 2008 at 6:47 pm

For reasons that elude me, the leaders of Christian churches don't like men having sex with each other.

In Germany an 'informed insider' (a priest and teacher of catholic theology) called homosexuality widespread inside the priesthood and called the Catholic Church the "biggest transnational gay organization'.

And to add some more quotes ('The eternal child' Clive Bromhall page 240-241)
[The German invaders of Roman Europe, for instance as well as the Muslims who came into contact with Christians in medieval Spain, all insisted that Catholic priests tended to be gay. Many other observers also noted the prevalence of homosexuality in the church]

[Aside from the various other activities, members of the Inquisition burned vast numbers of homosexuals alive to 'save their souls from eternal damnation'. But despite the numerous cleansing sprees that have occurred throughout history, homosexuality has persistently resurfaced within the Church's ranks.]
[Recent studies have reported staggering levels of homosexuality in the Church. Among Catholic clergy in the USA, it has consistently been indicated that hat between 20 and 50% are gay].

372. Violence fear over Islam film

Comment #114279 by Roland_F on January 21, 2008 at 6:02 pm

59. Comment #113941 by Nighttripper

whilst in Muhammed's time peadophilia was not a crime �.We could condemn whole societies as peadophile perverts on the basis of the modern laws and values we have today. And yet, we don't when we speak about the Greeks or the Romans...

I am not sure if in ancient times the pedophile practice was that common and mainstream activity. For me there is quite a difference between lets say (A) marring their 3 year old royal offspring with another 4 year old royal offspring to join kingdoms, or (A) like in tribal areas (Africa, Papua�) the marriage of 12 year old girls with 14 year old boys. Compare this to case (B) a 30-40 year old Arab taking a 6 year old girl � a very big difference of experience and power level in this relation.

I have no detailed info how this relations of Romans with their 'lover boys' was, so far I had assumed they were some 14-16 year old boys who anyway just made the puberty experience of same sex relations, I am not sure if this was on their own will or forced slavery ?? As I am not so sure about this relation I just like to comment it might have also a different 'quality' than for example the rape of 7-8 year old Altar-boys by Catholic priests.

Anyway beside this guesswork what was morally accepted around Christ (1st century AD) or around Mohammed's times (8th century AD) the main topic is that religious people are claiming the key to all our current (21st century AD) morality issues can only be their old ancients texts which are the unerring word of God and therefore timeless moral guideline for us today.
Read their holy books full of hatred, sadism, mass killings, slavery, suppression of women �etc� and you might find their position to claim global morality values on this basis very preposterous.

373. Violence fear over Islam film

Comment #113934 by Roland_F on January 21, 2008 at 3:14 am

Nighttripper: When you see the other topic 'honor killings' there some Islam fundie's are claiming that they need Muslim schools in the UK to prevent little girls from bad (e.g. western) influence and keep/teach them in the good Islamic values. There was this habit of the prophet also mentioned how good this values are.
My intention was more the possible 2 year prison term for highlighting this 6year marriage, 9 year intercourse fact of the prophet in Austria. Ok the politician is rightwing and made some other crap statements, so this news article just mentioned a possible 2 years jail term.
So what is the difference: Michael Jackson admit he likes to sleep with young boys, Mohammed with 9 year old girls � both would be consider pedophile for our standards � why is this a crime to highlight this about the prophet but not for M.J ??
Double standards !!

374. Violence fear over Islam film

Comment #113927 by Roland_F on January 21, 2008 at 2:44 am

What I wanted to highlight is more the preventive surrender from the appeasement fraction who give away piece by piece the 'Western values' like free speech, free press etc�
Highlighting that the prophet married a 6 year old girl and take her with 9 is a fact that should not be hidden for appeasement. Involve them in rational discussion � if this is possible at all � and don't shy back because they claim it's based on faith and therefore taboo to discuss anything.
There are some other similar Islam topics running parallel today in this forum, so my intention is more about to 'stand up and fight our achieved values' and not let fundamentalists of every religion highjack and occupy the moral high ground based on their holy books.
It's not about agitation but about defending rationally our position also -or especially � against religious faith heads.

375. Violence fear over Islam film

Comment #113923 by Roland_F on January 21, 2008 at 2:30 am

53. Comment #113921 by Nighttripper
It's not a LAW is some internal journalistic guideline

376. Violence fear over Islam film

Comment #113905 by Roland_F on January 21, 2008 at 1:31 am

22. Comment #113677 by dialector about burning the Koran

You do not desecrate a religious book by tearing it up. That is desecrating wood pulp. A book is not the pages it is printed on, it is the meaning of the words on the pages.

Sorry wrong atheist view: The Muslim understanding of the Koran is that even the paper the word of God is printed on, is holy. So there is no paper recycling possible in Islamic countries as a single Koran page might be ending up in the tons of re-pulping of recycling paper.
That's why the worst offence (like US troops did in Iraq) is the usage of Koran as toilet paper.

Last week I read an article in the German Online newspaper (Spiegel) about the speech of an Austrian right wing politician. She called the prophet Mohamed (be peace upon him) a child molester because of his (be peace upon him) marriage with a 9 years old girl. Of course this insulting the holy prophet (be peace upon him) in Austria is punishable with up to 2 years in jail, according to this article.

The main problem is that this Islam criticism is high jacked from the fascists, because the moderate mainstream politicians are busy with appeasement. Like Swiss Police force should abstain from eating in public during Ramadan, all naming of the holy prophet (be peace upon him) in newspapers has to be added with the phrase 'be peace upon him' in several European countries �etc� and things like this. Some commentator called it the preventive surrender of the free world, free press and freedom of speech to the radical Muslims to avoid 'hurting their feelings'.

377. The New Theology

Comment #113228 by Roland_F on January 19, 2008 at 3:34 am

I think at least deism is a reasonable strategy as the first step�
Some theist are becoming agnostic and some theist desire some kind of 'very remote' deist God to still feel some comfort.
Let's see it as a first step towards enlightenment.
Little chicks can't leave their mother hen shield right away and little babies have to learn step by step to walk on their own feet.

378. Fish out of water: Your Inner Fish

Comment #113222 by Roland_F on January 19, 2008 at 2:45 am

64. Comment #113218 by mark8

This is a blog that creationists on some other forums are posting in an attempt to discredit Neil Shubin and his book Your Inner Fish.

Hi Mark,
Keep it easy �this post from your link is very weak. I have seen much better spin-doctoring on ID preaching websites.
Usually they are throwing pages of very detailed schoolbook knowledge at the reader to fake competence, enter a few lines that is too complex it must be designed ('God did it') and continue some more schoolbook descriptions.

This 'inner fish' article is just another of thousand of confirmations of evolution and just another nail to the coffin to the creationist approach � how could a perfect intelligent God designed such a crazy imperfect unintelligent stupid construction.

379. Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up

Comment #113204 by Roland_F on January 18, 2008 at 9:58 pm

155. Comment #111276 by DennisDaniel

The universe cannot be eternal as it would have burned out an eternity ago.

What means the universe is 'burned out' ?? the stars are running a nuclear fusion of hydrogen to helium, then later after further compression all the way to iron. In supernovae explosions there are some higher elements (until Uranium) created and blown into space and a hyper dense Neutron star remains � so disorder is increased and no more atoms left but only neutrons.
In black holes this further compression continues below Neutron level, e.g. squeezing the space in-between Neutrons, to dense packed quarks, strings or whatever is underlying. The energy radiated itself remains inside the universe and can condense back again to matter (like photons to electrons).
When the gravitation is contracting the universe back towards a big crunch all these matter is recycled again.

There are several cosmological models out there one of the most used within the last decades is a big bang � big crunch � big bang cycle � e.g. eternal.

Like mentioned in TGD even if cosmologist are not sure which model to follow or what was the previous or next universe looking like, or which kind of multiverses are existing in parallel etc� why to ask a theologian and not the cleaning staff or the security guard ?
It is interesting to hear theists talking about the universe based on their knowledge derived solely from a patched, distorted self contradicting book assembled around 550BC.

380. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #113194 by Roland_F on January 18, 2008 at 9:02 pm

Scooternyc
Sounds like a white male American (e.g. privileged) joking arrogantly about suppressed poor masses.
The land of the unlimited possibilities (from dishwasher to billionaire) � unfortunately there are lot's of countries where people don't have a chance of 'free choice' many of them just because US imperialism like Noam Chomsky would put it.

Anyway travel to some poor country, visit a slum, and see their miserable hopeless situation, fighting for daily survival which is jailing them in poverty with no chance to escape and get educated for a better life. Now go there and tell them it's their choice � their own fault that they don't found Microsoft and became filthy rich.

There are some people who would have the chance in a proper environment and are just too lazy, but most of them are lost.
How to help them ?
Not just throwing permanent money for daily food, every person rescued from starvation today will have 10 kids in the next generation and these kids need to be feed then additionally the next time.
There is no perfect solution to end this problems, but as the root of all suffering is exponential population growth maybe the only solution would be using the aid for birth control measures. Unfortunately this is a religious taboo in Christian countries.

381. The New Theology

Comment #113188 by Roland_F on January 18, 2008 at 8:14 pm

What's new ??
Deism is just pulling back the God of the gaps all the way to the very beginning of the universe, basic constants of nature and evolution rules. So they have still some gap filler for the meaning of life left.
Many theists acknowledging the scientific findings and are talking more of a deist God, mixing it up with some theist God who still listening to their prayers and still try to keep their old fairy tale book alive somehow � an exercise which requires quite some bending backwards .

There was this 'Pagan Christ' topic here in the forum, where the priest Tom Harpur � was finding out that Jesus is the copy of the Egypt Horus myth from 2000BC. He then rethinks his whole Christian religion and define "the Jesus in all of us" more like Buddhist teaching but is still practicing as Anglican priest.

At least these developments are not obstructing the advance of science with fundamentalist or creationists crap.

382. Questions Delay Creationist Master's Degrees

Comment #113176 by Roland_F on January 18, 2008 at 6:55 pm

47. Comment #113028 by D'Arcy

Surely Roland_F is not arguing against the date set by the great Bishop Ussher of Armagh? 9 am 3rd October 4004 bc

I don't remember exactly the source where I picked up the Feb-4022BC from, but it shows again that there is really an urgent need for the more than 2 billion faithful Christians to attend fulltime some years of creationists Genesis school.

Possibly the discrepancy in day zero is resulting from spin-doctoring a little with the Bible dates to avoid inconsistencies of Methuselah still living 17 years into and after the great flood even when he was not on board of Noah's arc.
Just some idea: maybe day zero was adjusted backwards 18 years, so that Methuselah died conveniently before the flood started ??

There are so many versions of papyri or sheepskin documents, version in Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek translations with different timing. All this Bible inconsistencies should be sorted out for the next 400 years and only then in 2408AD when everything is globally agreed, the Creationists are allowed to invade the biology teachings.

383. The Pagan Christ

Comment #112727 by Roland_F on January 18, 2008 at 2:30 am

I think the belief "poisons" the good deed, as the warm feeling that can come from doing good can be assumed to come from God, not one's own mind.

Or the 'good deeds' are only done for the hope to avoid hell, or to increase your good Karma to increase the chances of rebirth into a higher level, but not just to help people in need.

384. Questions Delay Creationist Master's Degrees

Comment #112722 by Roland_F on January 18, 2008 at 2:16 am

40. Comment #112710 by Goldy

Sad really - only 2 chapters in and it's all gone to pot. How this has been missed all these millenia beats me.

When the Pentateuch was assembled in shared exile of northern tribes (Israelites since 722BC) and southern tribes (Judeans since 587BC) in Babylon the contradiction of Genesis-V1 versus Genesis-V2 was quite obvious. Both version were nevertheless kept to test your faith.

Now arguments go that there are actually 2 separate events the V1 for ordinary humans on day 6 and another V2 only for the chosen people from Adam to Abraham. Also Islam is following the Abrahamic line, so the V1 humans must be all the remaining heathens.

With this 2 Genesis versions the religious spin doctors even try to explain away inconsistencies like the inbreeding of a single family tree from Adam to Abraham and beyond, or that Cain after slaying Abel was the last human left on earth � V2 Cain (from the chosen line) just take an outside wife from Genesis-V1 humans.

But this missing knowledge proves again the urgent need for a global 'accredited creationist schools' focusing at least the first 3 years on studying the first 3 pages of the Bible.
This education is followed by 1 year per page study of the remaining Bible (my version has 383 pages) � so humans are only allowed to authorized and certified preach the 'word of God according to the Bible' when they are 400 years old. Which is by the way no problem for chosen people, who were getting offspring beyond 100 years and are usually reaching around 900 years of age

385. Gigantic fossil rodent discovered

Comment #112696 by Roland_F on January 17, 2008 at 10:24 pm

14. Comment #112695 by flyingfsck

They haven't got much really, just half a skull. It is amusing how the article talks about the extraordinary long teeth, while the fossil doesn't actually have any, and the whole body is an extrapolation from very little

Paleontologist are very good at this extrapolations. When you know the usual length to width ratio of rodent teeth, you can estimate the length of a bigger tooth. When you know how deep the teeth are rooted inside the skull you can calculate also the length, and from this the force they can withstand without breaking off all the time. And cross check all these calculations.
Ancient fossils found are sometimes limited to a jawbone, skull fragment etc.. and paleontologist recalculating the entire body from this tiny information.

Of course this can lead to extrapolation errors, where a disabled skeleton might be misinterpreted as some new species, and cretinist happily jumping on every small mistake.

386. Questions Delay Creationist Master's Degrees

Comment #112689 by Roland_F on January 17, 2008 at 8:32 pm

5. Comment #112552 by D'Arcy

Oh dear! Is Texas really going to teach that the Earth was created in October 4004 bc

Genesis started on 22 February 4022 BC not the totally wrong date 4004 BC. This shows that Texas desperately needs a Genesis Creationist school to avoid this misunderstandings.

Also there are several inconsistencies to be sorted out :
(1) the 2 versions of Genesis with the sequence problem of version 1 (animals before humans) and version 2 Adam before animals.
(2) Why are humans imperfect when they are created to be like God ? (Genesis 1.24-26). ?
(3) This humans are godlike is stated as 'like us' (plural !!), so where does the other God's went after this creation ?
(4) Does Adam has a navel, when he was not born from a mother?
(5) Why some of these God's created Eve from the rib of Adam on the 7th day where God/Gods is/are supposed to have rested ?
(6) Why did God (whichever of the 'us') forget to make rain, and which God created the rain after 'everything was already finished and good'.
(7) How does Cain and Abel make children when there are no women ?

So really lot's of research to be done from a accredited Creationists school.

387. The Group Delusion

Comment #112420 by Roland_F on January 17, 2008 at 4:13 am

Wooter: just read Kepler and Newton about planetary movement and gravity it's already 400 years long understood and explained. Just read any book about astronomy about forming the solar system you will find explanations why planets, stars and galaxies are spinning and rotating.

Simple explanations accepted by millions of scientists and taught to billions of students in all these centuries. Even the religious institutions and the most stubborn creationists organizations don't question gravity, movements of the solar system and long ago they retreated to define their deity all the way back to the big bang of the universe.
Only you creature of homo sapiens don't get it�. doesn't you feel lonely!!

At least you succeeded to get some of the bloggers (Styrer-and DasSquid ) here fighting against each other, because one doesn't' checked the history of your infantile postings.
Offensive is only your unbelievable ignorance, lies and plagiarism.

388. The Group Delusion

Comment #112321 by Roland_F on January 16, 2008 at 8:20 pm

201. Comment #112305 by Diacanu

Wooter - Are you f... 6 years old? Seriously.

As admitted by himself before: he has the mindset and 'reasoning sieve' of a 6-11 year old elementary school pupil.

389. Dinesh D'Souza: Winner of the 2007 Bad Faith Award

Comment #112315 by Roland_F on January 16, 2008 at 8:09 pm

19. Comment #112131 by Geoff about Scientology:

was a little disappointed to see that the BBC article didn't call it a CULT.

You mean the trailer where the Scientology guys follow the BBC crew like a shadow wherever they drive, the reporter once escapes into the toilet with his camera crew to speak undisturbed, and at the end the BBC reporter nearly break down and start yelling at the SC-manager after visiting their brainwash center with psychotic soundtracks, light strobes and huge pictures of Holocaust victims �and a dark voice explaining why Auschwitz were good for the Jews ??

The RD Forum moderator should really post this BBC video here (if this hasn't already happened before).

When the Scientology members in their white dresses streamed to their church like hypnotized lambs after the sirens sounded for assembly, it reminded about the movie 'time machine', where the outside world humans march like in trance trough the gate into the underworld to be enslaved or eaten form the underworld mutants.

About Scientology copyright: I heard that you are only told the true basics of their believe system, after attending several seminars costing up to 250.000 $ in total. The BBC showed a small cartoon movie about their 'divinity' : far away in the Universe 70 million years ago there are poor souls trapped into a volcano and Xeno throw H-bombs into the volcano to free the trapped souls who cluster together and travel trough space to reach earth and enter Ron Hubbard who created the Scientology cult�.or some weird story like this.

390. The Group Delusion

Comment #112291 by Roland_F on January 16, 2008 at 6:58 pm

Userid 'Wooter' does not exists any more -- but she can still post ..... A Miracle, a miracle !! ... God must exists !! (maybe God 's themselves are bypassing RD-Forums user Id checks)

That this Wooterism posts ignoring every basic foundations of the last 400 years of science are still allowed here, shows how confident atheists are about our case, compared to the censoring, delay or prevention of posts in ID preaching websites.

But isn't it scary that the Wooter's of this world are so well organized, well funded (Vatican, Opus Dei, Templeton, Wahabism schools�..) and Wooter's spiritual friends even highjack the currently ruling political party of the USA.

391. The Group Delusion

Comment #111953 by Roland_F on January 16, 2008 at 4:12 am

165. Comment #111937 by wooter

Roland i promise I am gonna sort out your way to be evasive later. By the way, primary school kids' ages are 6 to eleven. Don't worry about them. They are having fun too while learning.

It is completely useless to discuss with someone who rejects gravity (God is spinning the earth so there is day and night, God moves the earth around the sun so there are seasons) God is moving all creatures around like on invisible strings �etc� maybe kids are enjoying this but they loosing the chance to learn ....if you are really a teacher.
There are flat earth societies where you can discuss staff like this, here is not quite the right place for this.

You are spamming this forum with Kilobytes of crap, you promised to restrain from here �. Please stick to your promise !!

392. Huckabee Wants A 'Faith-based' Constitution

Comment #111947 by Roland_F on January 16, 2008 at 3:46 am

14. Comment #111910 by YssiBoo

To all american atheists: If your country becomes a theocracy (theocrazy?) you are welcome to seek political refuge in my country. We need more good atheists in Norway as well.

I already joked with a Norwegian colleague last year about Americans coming to Norway:
- they have lot's of Oil
- the US will claim Norway is secretly developing weapons of mass destruction
- Halliburton can maintain the Oil drilling platforms anyway much better

And now additional a very important topic - Norway is an secular & atheist country !

So the US guys showing up in Norway might not be well educated atheists scientists you hope for, but guys in olive green uniforms�

393. The Group Delusion

Comment #111801 by Roland_F on January 15, 2008 at 7:43 pm

Wooter strikes again:

I HAVE GOT BA and MA degree. �� your explanations cannot get through my students' reason of sieve and mine too.

So someone with the reasoning of 6 year old kids holds allegedly university degrees ?!?

When I was first coming along your postings I thought it's from some 12-14 year old kid, and others here seems to got the same feeling as they were asking for your age.
You are shy to tell us your native language, your residence country or where you have got this alleged university degrees.
Your postings show a variation of linguistic quality and styles so possible a group of ghost writers or editors using Wooter is a generic user id.
You claim you have read all books from RD, but because most of your so called 'questions' are answered in every detail in this books I really doubt it.

The sources of your copy & paste activities were identified and links to refutations of this creationist nonsense provided you don't even try to read or understand them.
Links were provided to cretinists own 'head office' organizations showing that you are using passages which are marked as unauthorized and not to be used any more from ID preachers.

That's what we call TROLL.

to deal with E.T, there is no need to have education.

This is a very good self explanation of you, so in this context we can understand your ideas like God is spinning the earth every morning, circle the earth around the sun, the sun is made from oil, all animals and humans can't move on their own (a clump of flesh) and God has to move them around (pull them on invisible puppet strings ?), God crated different races and fingerprints for police to identify criminals�.etc� and any rational scientific explanation of the last 400 years is not fitting though your 'reason sieve'.

Biology refutes ET ; Physics refutes ET ; Thermodynamics refutes ET ; Timing refutes ET ; Astronomy refutes ET ; Chemistry refutes ET

All these science achievements are refuting creationism, ID and Biblical Genesis stories about the weird idea of a literal 6 days creation 4000BC they are not refuting Evolution theory.

Really bad that good Christians are not allowed to taste from 'the tree of knowledge' which is a very bad sin and only with ignorance and without knowledge they can go to heaven�Matt5:3 : [Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven].

394. The Group Delusion

Comment #111536 by Roland_F on January 15, 2008 at 12:45 am

107. Comment #111210 by wooter

My REASON' SIEVE is getting in the way. Evolution Theory cannot get through my reason's sieve.

Most likely there are some old fairy tales scribbled on sheepskin blocking the sieve. After cleaning the sieve reason might go though at least.

Would you please give us a chance by looking at the evolution tree. This is one of the questions so far nobody dares to send me any?

Every good biology book should contain the evolutionary tree of species. Just try to remember the book 'The ancestor's tale' from RD , which you claimed to have all read before, it's all about this 'tree' on more than 600 pages.

395. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #111201 by Roland_F on January 14, 2008 at 2:35 am

I think one has to be careful as to what "average" means

To be precise I have to put all info from this (was too lazy to type all before):
-- almost 50% more than 500
-- another 30% between 100-500
-- over 90% at least 25

Not sure how they calculate this .. maybe extrapolate on a lifetime ?? So multiply the high yearly number of twens linear to 80 years ?? No idea I can just put the quote here.

396. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #111163 by Roland_F on January 13, 2008 at 8:12 pm

46. Comment #111158 by Cartomancer

Do homosexuals find it easier to attract one another than heterosexuals? Hmm, I'd love to see a study done on this

Here a study not about long term relationships, but of sexual relations of Homosexuals:

["Homosexual man and women differ hugely in the average number of sexual partners they have. Alan Bell and Martin Weinberg from the Kinsey institute for sex research found that the average gay man has 33 times the number of sexual partners than the average lesbian, while other studies have claimed even larger difference. The Kinsey researchers also found that nearly half of the man has over 500 different sexual partners. Much of this sex had taken place between comparative or absolute strangers." ]

Reason is again that different economics: man only have to produce some sperm, woman can get pregnant and will be busy with childcare for several years.

["Edward Wilson, Harvard professor and the father of sociobiology provides the reason for the marked difference in gay and lesbian sexual behavior. It pays for males to be aggressive, hasty, fickle and undiscriminating while it is more profitable for females to be coy, hold back until they can identify males with the best genes."]

So gays are more showing the true male instinct compared to trimmed down heteros.
[" Homosexual men rather than having to content with reluctant female sexual partners, now have male sexual partners that are just as enthusiastic about opportunistic sex as they are"]

(quotes from Clive Bromhall 'the eternal child' pages 276-278)

397. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #111160 by Roland_F on January 13, 2008 at 7:39 pm

The book of Michael Shermer is nothing new, I've read all this examples in several other publications already.

There are other examples busting the myth of the Homo economicus even if there is no economic interaction with others to out compete each other:
people usually choosing the smaller 3 years salary total when the yearly earning is increasing rather than the higher 3 years total when it's decreasing:
Choice A: year-1 = 50T, year-2 = 60T, year-3 = 70T so 3 years sum is 180T
Choice B: year-1 = 80T, year-2 = 70T, year-3 = 60T so 3 years sum is 210T
Most people choose 'A' because it 'feels better' to go up instead down, a true Homo economicus would of course take 'B' especially as inflation is additionally benefiting the high payments in year-1.

There was for example the BBC series from Robert Winston author of the books 'Human instinct' and 'the human mind'.
His example was the rating of 'sexual attractiveness' of him from woman sitting in a café when
(a) arriving in an old car with old cloths then his attractiveness rating was 1-2
(b) arriving in front of the café in a Rolls Royce, with designer suit and Rolex watch his attractiveness rating was 9-10.
So status and money seems to make someone more attractive e.g. a clear advantage for selection.

398. Fish out of water: Your Inner Fish

Comment #111153 by Roland_F on January 13, 2008 at 6:45 pm

About this article: It shows indeed very UNINTELLIGENT DESIGN which can be fully understood and explained with gradual evolution.
All this imperfection is the best example that it can NOT be created that crazy by purpose from an all knowing perfect God, when even a highschool student with a little biology and anatomical knowledge could go the drawing board and propose a much better design.
The only reply I've got from cretinists was this imperfect design is made from God because of 'the fall' (Adam and Eve's sin in Eden � which by the way happened AFTER all creatures already existed) or cretinists reply a Bible quote that there are unbelievers and the true faithful must be strong'.

399. Fish out of water: Your Inner Fish

Comment #111149 by Roland_F on January 13, 2008 at 6:32 pm

15. Comment #111097 by Deepthought

I've been dealing with quite a few theists who believe that the bible is the "inerrant word of god" and I have a hard time convincing them otherwise.

I was reading ' The Unauthorized Version � truth and Fiction in the Bible' from Robin Lane Fox after it was mentioned in TGD. It's written from someone who 'don't believe in God but believe in the Bible'� just to totally shredder the holy book for the next 400 pages.
The unauthorized version gives an account of internal inconsistencies, looks into the history of it's assembly full of patches, distortions and additions over generations of scribes. Different versions of the same stories like 2 genesis, 2 Abrahams exile, 2 Lot's, 4 (from a dozen) Gospels, contradictions of archaeological evidence (like for example Jericho never had walls), contradictions with other (Roman, Greek,, Egyptian, Babylonian�) recordings, impossibilities because of Jewish custom and rules of high court proceedings�etc�.
I haven't looked into the Bible or its history so far, but I was very astonished that 2 billion humans on this planet follow a teaching derived from such a weak source and millions take it even literally.

Another source about contradictions, immoral, and nonsense in the Bible :
http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/index.htm

400. Two Ex-Jehovah Witnesses to Tell Why They Became Atheists

Comment #110867 by Roland_F on January 13, 2008 at 5:01 am

I try to match/assign this statement about a doomsday scenario.: