Paul ’s Comments (group member since Sep 12, 2010)

Paul ’s comments from the Atheists and Skeptics group.

I was recently shaken by the realisation that it is just about possible that the Republican ticket will be Ron Paul and Rick Perry. If there are posters of Republicans say Paul/Perry for the white house, I am changing my fucking name. Seriously.

Yes! Go us!

Excellent, not the ending to that sketch I expected!

arguing why christians should be more welcoming of atheists

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brandon...

Will wrote: "Yeah, I meant mushrooms, actually (which I've yet to do). Did you see AMERICAN: The Bill Hicks Story? What a great documentary."

I helped out with publicity for American when the film makers were doing a tour of independent UK cinemas, also did some photos of the talk at the Showroom Cinema in Sheffield.

This post was prompted by hearing the kerfuffle caused by Bill Maher's xmas eve tweet about Tim Tebow - of whom I had never previously heard, as I belong to the 95% or so of the world that neither knows nor cares about American Football, and have to put the 'American' in as 'football' refers to the game where you use your feet to control the ball. But I digress.

Apparently Tebow is a player who has become beloved of a section of the fans and media because he paints bible verses on his face and loudly credits god for his successes. In his match on xmas eve he played badly and Maher made a joke about god screwing him on xmas eve.

I'm not a big sports spectator, but in the UK this kind of behaviour (Tebow's, not Maher's) is generally treated with either patient disdain. My first encounter with the idea came when as a kid I was an avid viewer of the annual World's Strongest Man competition. One year it was one by an American who went on and on about god granting him his victory, to the bemusement of the British presenters. Even at that age (10? 11?) I found it extremely odd. Wasn't his win down to his effort, his training? When he lost (nobody wins all the time) was that because god thought the other guy deserved it more - even if it was that big Swede who put his victory down to Thor and his Viking blood? And, more importantly, why the hell would the creator and maintainer of the whole of creation give a toss who won a game made of arbitrary rules for entertainment purposes? To demonstrate the power of god, perhaps? If the World's Strongest Man was won by someone half the size of the rest of the contestants whose training consisted entirely of prayer, then maybe I'd take notice.

Does the same thing happen in other areas of life? Well, politics, obviously (in some countries). I assume there must be business leaders who thank god when their share price goes up and airline pilots who give a quiet hallelujah after a successful landing - although they're probably discouraged from doing it over the intercom.

I think it's definitely the loud, public, declaiming nature of the "praise the lord!!!" that is the problem. I've seen plenty of athletes kiss a crucifix before a race. The magnificent English triple jumper Jonathan Edwards was a devout christian (which almost ruined his career early on, as he initially wouldn't compete on a Sunday) and would quietly pray before a race, but this comes across as more about ritual and focus and a gathering of strength than anything. (Edwards, by the way, famously parted with his faith a few years ago and has stated that he's never been happier! It was fairly public as he was presenting a religious TV programme and quit due to his loss of belief). I guess it's the overblown public, in-your-face nature that makes Tebow so popular with some - US christians being so beleaguered and all, they need all the affirmation they can get! I guess there's also the media angle of setting him up or a fall. As a high-profile sports celebrity there's a good chance he'll be caught in bed with a goat, or involved in an illegal midget-baiting ring or something. Not that I'd indulge in schadenfreude if this were to happen, obviously...

A brawl breaks out between around a hundred Greek orthodox and Armenian clerics at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and is broken up by police with batons.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middl...

Generally amusing, but the comment from the police commander is quite telling: "No one was arrested because all those involved were men of God." Perhaps if they learnt there were consequences to their actions they would stop behaving like children.

What. The. Fuck?

This is like whatever state it was passing a law stating that pi is exactly 3, except with discrimination thrown in.

That is interesting. Most neolithic peoples did build large stone structures (neolithic meaning new stone age), as they hadn't really developed the technologies to fabricate other materials. My ex and her father were archaeologists, and I well remember the rolling of eyes when TV programmes would assume that large stone structures were always ritualistic in nature, a hypothesis often disproved on further investigation.

The British monarch is purely a figurehead, and I believe that the Queen's speech is not entirely free of political interference; I think it is run by the Prime Minister's office to be okayed. Whereas the archbish in recent years has become something of a loose canon (see what I did there?), and has been more involved in politics that religion.

Another tradition is that Channel 4 (which is a commercial station that receives some state funding) broadcasts an alternate christmas message http://www.channel4.com/programmes/th...

Dutch wrote: "Ok I know he's a dork. I did know this. Believe me. He's American. His humour sucks pretty much all the time. But I did like the atheist bashing, I don't know why."

His style actually makes me think of a cleaned up Andrew 'Dice' Clay - on of those rare performers who I'd watch and genuinely wonder if my humour gland had suddenly atrophied while I wasn't looking.

Dutch wrote: "*Hangs head in shame*"

We all have our guilty pleasures. I was about to list mine, but this may be a family audience.

Dutch wrote: "Dane Cook did a funny routine about 'god blessing' an atheist when they sneezed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWZ59q...

Even as an atheist, I thought this was cute. He makes no qualms he..."

I'm sorry: Dane Cook and funny do not belong inthe same sentence...

I am happily and openly an atheist, and have been for many years. The guy in this article alludes to an interesting point, without actually raising it (I thought it a rather poor article myself); atheism is simply, as is often pointed out, a position of non-belief in opposition to the traditional cultural norm. In itself, it says nothing about one's moral or ethical or 'spiritual' (whatever that means) standpoint. Most atheists I know are also humanists (although I also know believers who are), and this is our statement of beliefs.

But the question asked by the nurse, and by so much of society, isn't "what is your well-thought out philosophical position". It constrains this to asking about religion, the bias being that this is the be all and end all of ethics.

Just saw this on the BBC, can't say I'm surprised with the current climate amongst the media of fear of any criticism, perhaps magnified as it is the Jonathan Ross show.

The song is on youtube, btw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SFdUJ...

Praise be to magic,woody allen, zombie, komodo dragon, hovercraft jesus!

Not sure if this has been posted on one of the Hitchens threads yet. The thing that really disgusts me about this statement is the reasonable tone in which it's delivered, as though the bloke can't really understand why anyone would object to it.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/17...

Also, has he never heard that famous George Carling routine:

When it comes to bullshit, big-time, major league bullshit, you have to stand in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims, religion. No contest. No contest. Religion. Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time!

But He loves you.

I swore loudly and vehemently when I read this earlier. Not that I have much respect for the man to begin with, but this sanctimonious pile of shite really got on my nerves.

Farewell, Hitch.

One of my favourite of his quotes, which answers so thoroughly the charge that life is empty without religion:

"A life that partakes even a little of friendship, love, irony, humour, parenthood, literature, and music, and the chance to take part in battles for the liberation of others cannot be called 'meaningless' except if the person living it is also an existentialist and elects to call it so. It could be that all existence is a pointless joke, but it is not in fact possible to live one's everyday life as if this were so."

And at his opinionated, acerbic, truthful best:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIviuf...

John wrote: "I said "Jeeee-sus H. Kee-rist" in a tone that I hope was sufficiently blasphemous tone to cause at least one sect of the Christian Church to invalidate my forced baptism."

On a forum I used to be on there was a lass who suddenly started pulling people up for blaspheming - using such words as 'damn', etc - claiming it was her right to be offended (not in so many words, but that was the gist). The rest of us pretty spontaneously started either using alternates ("by Mithras' foreskin!") or baiting her in other ways. One of my favourite's has always been "Jesus wept!" When pulled up for blaspheming I just point out I'm quoting the shortest sentence of the bible so can hardly be doing so. Oddly, she turned out not to have a great sense of humour about it...

"propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda’s clear and present danger to American liberties"

what, like that pesky freedom of religion they're always supposedly concerned about.

Bloody hypocritical buggers.