Simon Paynton

lol

Unseen wrote:
My point was the statistics we are given are probably poppycock because (a) they are procedural disasters inflated artificially by a combination of fuzzy and/or overly broad definitions. and a set of motivations almost designed to inflate the number of reports

I think you’re straw-manning the diagram to fit your agenda that…[Read more]

I think the idea of the pyramid is that the transgressions become more extreme and intense nearer to the top.  It’s a way of classifying sexual rudeness/assault in terms of severity, I suppose.

This is not the same, somehow, as Richard Dawkins pointing out a similar concept to the SkepChick who was propositioned in the elevator.  The context w…[Read more]

Personally I find the idea of “social consequences” for speaking out of turn, pretty ominous.  To me, it sounds like the Chinese government.

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
I don’t quite agree with this article on people become atheists.

Cognitive byproduct theory contends that religion arose from innate thought processes that emerged to serve other functions. …

By this account, any self-reports of atheism only go “skin deep,” in that non-believers would have to actively suppr…

[Read more]

Speaking as an armchair commentator, I’d say that the lady’s response to Dawkins’ fulsome apology was not very gracious.  I think the original guy shouldn’t have propositioned her in the elevator.

I wouldn’t say that Dawkins etc. have set anything back – but it looks like he’s hung on past his time, opening his mouth with nothing to say.  A…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
@simon – That is not what he said (or tweeted). I remember the incident very well as I had recently met him.

I wonder how well any of us would stand up if all and every of our actions and remarks are reported to the whole world.

But some things are going to put people’s backs up.  I’ve probably said things on so…[Read more]

_Robert_ wrote:
The truth of the accusations against Lawrence Krauss, David Silverman and Neil deGrasse Tyson remain murky in my mind since we did not have criminal trials.

Would that make any difference, unless there was a confession of wrongful accusation?

I think it was foolish of Richard Dawkins to say, apparently, that women shouldn’t…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
Personally, the many worlds theory fails the Occam’s Razor test.

I think it’s a simple hypothesis – multiple possibilities, corresponding multiple worlds – but surely that amount of proliferating universes would be hard to find room for.

As far as multiple universes go, I think the “Swiss Cheese bubbles” idea might be r…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
If he had actually done “a critical study of atheism” he would have had to challenge his own beliefs. But he is too afraid to because he would no longer have the “reassuring” belief that he will become an immortal, which in turn is the theists biggest intellectually immature belief.

That would be a good reason…[Read more]

_Robert_ wrote:
Yep, How intellectually inept can a ‘PhD’ be?

He doesn’t seem inept to me, only enmeshed within a certain point of view that may be very foreign to us Western atheists.

The fact that he puts his finger on the “non-reassuring” nature of atheism is proof to me that he’s got his head screwed on.  It’s true, and maybe that’s what…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
Can you spot any fallacies in this article?

He believes that atheism can never survive. “None of its argumentations are reassuring,” Father Simon said.

This is a classic example of “truth as utility” I think.  It doesn’t seem useful or pleasure-inducing, that atheism offers cold comfort in many ways.

I would have…[Read more]