Comments for Is it just me...?

Comment on My very own atheist bus! by Crystal D.

Crystal D. — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 03:05:53 +0000

Nice, this sounds like a ton ‘o’ fun! I want to make a mean one. lol.

Comment on My very own atheist bus! by literarydeadkittens

literarydeadkittens — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 23:46:09 +0000

Sweet. I’ll give it a bash later, but if you don’t mind I’ve tagged you for a meme:

http://ichthyes.wordpress.com/2009/03/02/google-search-meme-cont/

Comment on I just don’t get this prayer thing by john

john — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:30:17 +0000

Depending on the religion, one may not be able to separate the supernatural diety from the morality. Following from Nietzsche it’s fairly easy to see how dieties come about and from dieties/kings, morality. So at least in the west, I don’t know that one can separate it out.

Also, this statment – “You would think that something powerful to create an entire universe wouldn’t have this problem of low self-esteem with a constant need to have its postition confirmed.” – is a little silly. I mean a person with a self esteem problem often will create great things in an effort to prove their worth – think of the abused wife who constantly creates a clean house in an effort to prove that she’s worthy of love and praise. So I’d assume a diety isn’t really any different – especially if we’re to believe that dieties are just created from our own likenesses.

Comment on That praying stuff again by john

john — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:19:46 +0000

I don’t understand where the confusion is.

The laws of nature aren’t understood fully or aren’t always followed as we understand them. Anomolies happen. Occasionally those anomolies happen around a person who believes whatever action they just took caused the anomoly. Clearly the nurse believes that she’s caused some such thing and that she can do it again by following the same course.

That belief can only be enhanced when someone agrees with her – thus she asks for them to join in or whatever. Not to mention, asking whether the patient would like to join in would cover her butt in that they wanted her to pray for them.

Would that annoy the patient? Maybe. I think, unless the nurse is threatening the patient in some way – Like saying, “f you don’t let me pray, I’ll unplug this machine here” – then who cares?

Comment on Atheist or Agnostic? by Simon

Simon — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:31:55 +0000

I suppose I'd never really considered the terms atheist and agnostic to be compatible. I can see what you're getting at, but I'm not sure I'm comfortable with saying that I know I can't prove something, but I believe it anyway. I think heard others say that they are, technically and philosophically, agnostics, but in practical terms, they are atheists. I'll stick with that for now!

Comment on I just don’t get this prayer thing by Is it just me…? » That praying stuff again

Is it just me…? » That praying stuff again — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:18:56 +0000

[...] to my earlier post about praying, does this nurse actually believe that a prayer for one of her patients would [...]

Comment on Atheist or Agnostic? by Lyle

Lyle — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:12:00 +0000

An atheist is someone who does not have a belief in a god or gods. It does not mean that the atheist is sure there are no gods. An agnostic is someone who thinks it can not be known for sure if a god exists. Therefore, I am an atheist AND an agnostic. I think it is very unlikely that any gods exist, but I can’t be absolutely sure. If there is in fact, a god or gods, one of the gods could decide to make herself known to humans, so a god could prove her existence, but the non-existence of gods can’t be proven. I think people who do not have a god belief and use the agnostic label but reject the atheist label and atheist who either misunderstand what an atheist is, or they don’t want the atheist label because of some negative views associated with the word atheist.

Comment on This is 2009, right? by Simon

Simon — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:41:59 +0000

I'm going to see Michael Shermer at Bristol University. Their list of free public lectures is here. They also have Dan Dennett in March and David Attenborough in September! I went to a Richard Dawkins talk years ago when my PhD supervisor organized a conference on Genetic Algorithms and RD gave the keynote address. For a while I used to work in the area of Artificial Life and Evolutionary Computation, so that's how I first got into his work (and that of Daniel Dennett). The Shermer talk was pure luck. I get email updates from the National Secular Society and on Friday evening I noticed they mentioned this talk. I work in Clifton, so the university is only a short walk away. I'm looking forward to it and I'll probably write it up.

Comment on This is 2009, right? by literarydeadkittens

literarydeadkittens — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 09:55:28 +0000

Dammit! How are you going to get to see Michael Shermer? Everyone gets to talks by Dennet, Shermer, Dawkins, etc and I miss where they’re happening everytime!

Umm, oh yeah, back on topic. The BBC loves equality, especially if its equality to loons and faith-heads, though I admit some excellent documentaries come from them too.

Comment on New baby by literarydeadkittens

literarydeadkittens — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 08:52:16 +0000

We stopped at two, you’re slightly insane going for number three, but have fun with him I was lucky, my first was still at home when number two came along and was just nuts about having a new baby around.