351. Christian Shrine Needs Two Exits, Israel Says

Comment #17850 by Duff on January 17, 2007 at 3:36 am

Our omnipotent, benevolent god has never allowed there to be a fire in any of his churches. Never!! Never never never! If you tell me that is not true, I will deny it with all my being. I will never, never believe such a thing. I believe, I believe!! I do, I do, I do!

352. Gentle Rottweiler

Comment #17292 by Duff on January 12, 2007 at 5:57 pm

"The sophisticated nuances of theological thought". How does one even wrap his/her brain around such an oxymoron. Anyone who criticizes Prof. Dawkins for lack of learning of theological thought wouldn't know an intellectual argument if it jumped up and bit them on the derrier.

353. You come up here and say that, Dawkins!

Comment #17290 by Duff on January 12, 2007 at 5:46 pm

He is not only bald and fat, but he's also old. What's with that?

354. Halting progress

Comment #16939 by Duff on January 9, 2007 at 4:46 pm

Let's unweave a rainbow of the likes these fundamentalists have never envisioned. They claim to have the guidance of the Lord God Almighty, lets see if they and The Lord God Almighty can foresee what is about to smack them in the face with the rising of the unbelievers. Religionists are no match for the brains of the non-religionists.
Did you ever meet a religionist who knew which way was UP???
If they whine that the atheists are being unkind, show them how unkind we can be.
Nobody gets a pass for stupidity. Stupidity is not an excuse.

355. Intelligent design is a science, not a faith

Comment #16935 by Duff on January 9, 2007 at 4:30 pm

Somehow, I have an amazingly comforting feeling that this kind of creationist/ID nonsense is in fact, what can I say, nonsense. Is it a mystery that this person offers this kind of mystical nonsense rather than any kind of scientific fact??? Would it be because it is based on hope and deeply felt longing? Would it be because it is based on faith instead of falsifiable propositions? I am so fed up with this kind of bull, I want to put my size thirteens (large by American standards) on the apex of this ninny's no doubt miniscule derrier. I know it is miniscule because that is obviously also where his brain is).

356. Without God, Gall Is Permitted

Comment #16740 by Duff on January 8, 2007 at 11:38 am

LDMiller, I am well over 60 and was reared a believing, devout Mormon. You are a silly arse and Schuleman made no telling points. Whats more, believing devout people scare the hell out of me. I know how they think and what they think and they will, if left to their own devices, destroy humanity. So if we former believers speak out with a little vehemence, it is because we are concerned. Tough!! Get used to it!!

357. Questionable Mission

Comment #16735 by Duff on January 8, 2007 at 11:05 am

I think we can assume that some of this religious non-think has influenced our great American president and his entanglement in the mid-east. We know he claims that he is prompted by the "holy spirit" and that he believes what he is doing in the world to spread "democracy" is a part of a greater plan he firmly believes will make the world more responsive to a Christian world view. With that in mind, is it surprising that he is so tone deaf to the prompting of the secular minds (the Iraq study group, etc.), that have recently been sent by his Poppy and the American voters?
People are fond of saying he is stubborn and not inclined to listen to opposing views, but when a man believes he is listening to God, why would he be impressed by the views of mere men?

358. Sam Harris's Faith in Eastern Spirituality and Muslim Torture

Comment #16471 by Duff on January 6, 2007 at 6:18 pm

I am personally willing to cut Sam Harris a little slack simply because he is young and although very sharp, somewhat inexperienced. His tract, Letter To A Christian Nation, is absolutely brilliant and should be force fed every religious ninny in every country (forgive the hyperbole). However, he hasn't yet realized the weight of his words. His mind is in the right place, but he could use a little of Dawkin's/Dennett's wisdom.
Sam, my boy, "eastern wisdom" is only more wise because it is a little more difficult to comprehend.

359. The New Atheists

Comment #16313 by Duff on January 6, 2007 at 3:30 am

My personal favorite from the religiosi is the line about how a person's "time" has come and they are called back to God. Like the times when God gets all those people, whose time has come, onto one airplane that then goes down in some airline disaster.

360. Pat Robertson: God told me of 'mass killing' in 2007

Comment #15973 by Duff on January 4, 2007 at 3:25 am

God to Pat: "Pat, I've got a flash for you. I'm not gonna give you the whole thing, just a hint. If I told you everything, people would start thinking you were Me...so listen up....

361. Letter From America: Atheists throw down the gauntlet

Comment #15905 by Duff on January 3, 2007 at 5:41 pm

Having grown up in a fundamentalist christian environment, I can tell you that Christians (capitalized) want nothing more than violence in the name of the Second Coming. Violence is as important to the fundamentalists as it is to the Taliban and if you don't believe it, you don't know anything about the Fundamentalist Christian Religion.
Every fundamentalist looks for signs that the second coming is nigh. Violence in the middle east is the mothers milk of extremist, insane Christians, the same as it is for the insane Islamists. Hate and intolerance is the nuclear force that drives this insane war and the Christians don't have any less passion than the Muslim jihadists. A pox on both their houses!!!

362. Executing Saddam Hussein was an Act of Vandalism

Comment #15903 by Duff on January 3, 2007 at 5:18 pm

Saddam was executed for one reason and one reason only. The Shiites were convinced that if they didn't kill him when they had the chance, the Americans would leave and somehow Saddam would no longer be protected and the possibility existed that he would be freed by a Sunni force, (weirder things have happened).
The only possibility of making sure he wouldn't fall into the hands of the Sunnis would be to transfer him to the Hague under the supervision of the UN. That wasn't about to happen, so the Shiites killed him the first time they had the chance.
While I agree with Professor Dawkins that it would have been interesting to drain his mind of any relevant knowledge, I'm afraid that would have been impossible under the circumstances. The US doesn't have the same latitude of action in Irag that it had with its Allies in Germany after the World War 11.
The truly reprehensible aspect of the whole thing is that the US forces didn't foresee what would happen the moment they turned the hapless schmuck over to the Shiite government. What a bunch of losers, the US leadership who didn't realize what would happen and the Shiite clowns who perpetrated this farce.

363. Ghosts in the Machine

Comment #15408 by Duff on December 31, 2006 at 3:26 am

So, if Ms. Blum finds ghosts in the brain of normal people, does that mean that a person who is afflicted with temporal lobe epilepsy has an actual God in there?

364. 10 myths - and 10 truths - about atheism

Comment #15004 by Duff on December 28, 2006 at 3:50 am

Mr. Robertson, I once had a personal, burning testimony of the divinity of Jesus Christ. I, like you, "knew" he was the son of God. I was as sure of it as you seem to be. Now, these many years later, after actually learning something about life and science and psychology and many other things, I now know what I actually had was a thoroughly brainwashed mind; effectively created by parents, the church, and a society that discourages anyone to actually think about these things.
Now, I am convinced that there are three kinds of religious people: those who are incapable of rational thought, those who are intelligent enough, but have been brainwashed not to think, and those who are intelligent, have thought about it and even though they know they are believing in truly impossible things, chose, none-the-less, to commit intellectual suicide and continue to believe. The last type doesn't deserve anyones respect.

365. Orr on Dawkins

Comment #14793 by Duff on December 25, 2006 at 5:17 am

Yeah, we all know Stalin, knowing there was no God to punish him, just killed all those people because he was an atheist and he could. That is the kind of simple, un-encumbered by the thought process, kind of thinking that religious types are so inclined to do.
Religion, the opiate of the simple people.

366. Beyond belief: In place of God

Comment #8855 by Duff on November 22, 2006 at 1:26 pm

Nothing is more beautiful, more poetic, more fulfilling than being even "somewhat" certain about how something "probably" is. Truth and knowledge, as best as we can establish them, should be appreciated more deeply than the so called "certainty" of a myth. Long live the method we employ to tell us the difference and keep us from fooling ourselves.

367. Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and E.O. Wilson on the gospel of science

Comment #8850 by Duff on November 22, 2006 at 12:58 pm

Why does everyone get bent out of shape when religious apologists resort to character assasination? What else do you expect them to do? Give the poor things a break already.

368. Atheism, not religion, is the real force behind the mass murders of history

Comment #8844 by Duff on November 22, 2006 at 12:39 pm

Onward Christian Soldiers
marching as to war
with the cross of Jesus
going on before.
That about says it all.

369. Richard Dawkins and the "new atheists" come to America

Comment #8843 by Duff on November 22, 2006 at 12:27 pm

Randall, you say man will "offend God" if he doesn't take responsibility for his actions, and then you accuse atheists of not seeking that same responsibility to act morally. Surely you are not telling us atheists that you would not act morally if God weren't up there watching you.
Did I just hear you say, "no, of course I would act morally"! Then you fall into the famous trap of admitting that God is not necessary for man to act morally.