Tell me, what happened to Unseen?   He seems to have been replaced by a Republican doppleganger.  Now he thinks that scientific debate happens on YouTube and Twitter (and Lord help us, Facebook!).

I do think that the COVID pandemic will be an abject lesson for the next 50 years on how not to do scientific communication with the public.  Sadly, part of that is because the public turns out to be far more ignorant than we thought.

The issue with agricultural methane is that it comes from renewables.  The cows eat plants; those plants got the carbon out of the air.   Left on the ground, bacteria would turn the same biomass into the same amount of methane.  In fact, that’s used for fuel in some 3rd world countries as “biogas”.  The problem with the cow farts thin…[Read more]

Here in the U.S. we’ve seen Catholic Churches & youth programs, then Boy Scout programs, then other church youth programs, then college and university programs, then youth sports programs.   And always, everywhere, the foster care and K-12 systems here.  The story is always the same… years of se…[Read more]

Suffice to say that both as a scientist and as a Catholic I’m all for the mass-education of “heathens” as you put it.  Education is a good thing.  Leaving behind indigenous health care in favor of s…[Read more]

I once had a European friend who would come over for American football games.  After a few beers he would delight in tormenting the rest of us with questions like “Why do all the big guys in armor take orders from the little guys who look like Zebras?  Do the zebra guys have g…[Read more]

WTH?

For the record, Dia de Los Muertos is not a Catholic holiday or celebration, official or otherwise, and some practices are discouraged by the Church.   It’s a cultural celebration, much like the 4th of July or Memorial Day is in the U.S.  Priests may visit cemeteries with par…[Read more]

As it happens I was just cleaning out my password manager and figured I’d log in to say “Hi”.   Sorry if the flyby isn’t welcome; I see a few of my old critiques of ideas are still categorized as “hate speech” under your guidelines.   Nice to see some of the same old characters hanging about!  You do seem…[Read more]

There is something to be said for criticizing the left for not really understanding the science and focusing on stupid stuff like cow farts or grocery bags when discussing the climate emergency.   The ma…[Read more]

Kudos to @Robert for trying, but trying to reason with anti-mask, anti-vax, anti-public health folks who’ve been sucking down Russian propaganda is just a never-ending Gish Gallop.   One is left trying to explain all of mi…[Read more]

Being cognitively impaired is then associated with higher scores for fundamentalism on some instrument for this very small sample size.  That can be spurious, it can be t…[Read more]

That just shows limited imagination!

I think the fundamental problem with setting an absolute “follow the law” ethic is that it absolves people of the individual obligation to use their own brains, to think for themselves, to be rational or com…[Read more]

PopeBeanie wrote:
Twas but a scratch. Please don’t give up, Dr. Bob.

I was amused when checking the Guidelines again that 2+ years later they were still written with me in mind.  Complete with the reference to that one cartoon I contributed over on TA to the thread asking for mocking cartoons 😉 .  I thought it fit with the theme, in a rev…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
I should last a little longer.

Glad to hear it, mate.  You had me concerned for a moment there.  Take care of yourself, and have fun at the new job.

Bob

1) It depends what you mean by “truly random”.  I believe the mathematicians have a very specific definition for that; indeed I believe there are several different classifications of randomness.   For ord…[Read more]

With the change of site ownership, I note that the Guidelines have…[Read more]

I agree. Once you take a public position that makes a moral judgment, your morals become open to scrutiny.

Are we sure we want to say that’s OK?

So a politician who takes a moral stand against, say, predatory banking … it’s OK to smear her for an affair? Or even for having had investments in AIG or Citibank?

In that case, why would…[Read more]

Now, I can appreciate it when the employer is a religious entity or one where they are trying to express a particular free-speech message, and the example provided by the employee is not consistent with that message. An atheist Sunday School teacher (with the notable exception of @Reg and his…[Read more]

On the very first day of catechism, the nun teaching our class told us that snakes used to have legs, walked upright, and talked.

*FACEPALM*

Sheesh.

Hello @BeckyL. Pleased to meet you. My apologies for the idiotic catechism instructor, but good job in thinking for yourself.

That was well thought out, thank you.

I would, however, disagree with your claim that an overwhelming majority of the 6+ billion theists in the world are aggressive, hostile, evil, etc. I think with a few moments of examination you will recognize that such a claim is unsupportable. From my experience as a theist, the vast…[Read more]

the horrors of the Church and it’s past, child raping priests, woman hating, fag hating, slavery approving, light thought control, brutal thought policing religion … the very idea as presented to us is so preposterous, so ridiculous, so incredibly stupid and moronic that it should not be taken seriously for even a moment. Should we pay any a…

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By contrast, Iceland simply…[Read more]

You know, when I was down in Louisiana, I discovered the people there do not call it the “American Civil War”. They call it the “War of Northern Aggression”.

Every time I run into this I respond “Oh, you mean the War to End Wicked Southern Human Rights Abuses? Somehow saying ‘Civil War’ just seems more civil…”

Whats the point of starting a youtube…I cant right now anyway cause parents…I doubt I will be as good as the others and frankly most of the stuff…has been dunked and talked about already…what could I possibly add? It’s the same here..I dont really post or join forums much…because I dont…really…feel like I could add anything…im not special..im n…

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Says who, @DrBob ? This is an atheist website and all our atheist members are free to be as unfair and irrational as they like.

LOL. Well, that’s true. And as I have said in this thread and on multiple occasions on the old TA site, I am completely understanding of folks who just want or need to vent. If I lived in the Bible Belt of the…[Read more]

if you’re a Christian who believes you’ve been given free will, aren’t you still often faced with a dilemma of never being sure of “what God wants”?

Yes.

So, for example:

If you quote their particularily foul lines in their scriptures in addition to pointing out contradictions, extremely questionable wisdom or…

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Humans (for the most part) are certainly capable of selecting for themselves with whom they breed

So are you suggesting, as the eugenics movement did, that humans should select breeding partners based on social desirability of…[Read more]

For my part, I don’t (usually) see anything “meaningful” in ancient scriptures. Instead, I marvel at those who infer or empower phrases or passages as if they were “wisdom” being imparted by the Timeless Creator Of All Things.

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With respect, you’re doing what a lot of apologists do: playing with words. What do you mean “my faith decided how it chooses to…” And “my faith compiled the whole thing…”

It sounds like you’re casting this “Faith” as an entity. Yet, you use “faith” as if it bolsters your particular set of brliefs, too.

Hello, @Mr.Tag. I’m sorry if…[Read more]

Do you have a source to back up your claim that “early Darwinist eugenicists” wrote sterilization laws and not good ole god-fearin’ white guys?

The history of the Eugenics Movement in the United States and elsewhere is one of the best examples of science perpetrating horrific evil on humanity. Over 64,000 people were forcibly sterilized in th…[Read more]

He is a cafeteria Christian. Thanks goodness for that because fundamentalists are scary.

I think the part you don’t understand, @Simon, is that fundamentalist is not the same thing as Christian. Most Christians aren’t fundamentalists and not all fundamentalists are Christians (there are Jewish and Islamic fundamentalists).

So it’s not that…[Read more]

Darwin’s book does not endorse racism and I believe the morality of human eugenics is not exactly clear yet. We sure use selective breeding for crops and livestock.

Um… so if I read that right, @Robert, you think that selective breeding of human beings as though they were crops or livestock may be morally acceptable. I’ll give you this, y…[Read more]

Nope, I don’t “deflect to” fundamentalists, I just take the time to learn and understand different people and different groups, so as to be able to make thoughtful and rational distinctions. I admit that requires intellectual effort, patience,…[Read more]

How is it you believe in magic sky zombies still?

@Mr. Tag, I don’t believe in magic sky zombies. That would be silly. 😉

@Strega has brought up the fear thing before, and I just don’t see it myself. Neither now nor growing up have I ever been afraid of God or religion in the way you suggest. Clowns, now… they can be scary.

I was going to say, @_Robert_, that on that basis, we should throw out Darwin’s work as well, since it has been used to justify racism and eugenics and other awful things for generations.

I’m not sure that logic is sound, are you?

Full disclosure. I am/was an occasional visiting theist to the old ThinkAtheist site, and maybe here. I’m a Christian and a Catholic (not a fundamentalist), and a faculty member in the sciences at an R1 university in the U.S.

I know it’s important to be able to vent to friends about how inane other folks can be, and I don’t want…[Read more]