T|A had 10.000 or so members… but very few of them were still active. (I know most of my Friends list is full of people who haven’t been around in years.) You won’t get all ten thousand.

I realize you probably weren’t thinking that, but I thought it ought to be stated explicitly.

How many still active people from the old site…[Read more]

I’ve been pissed off as hell at some of “his” followers though. So maybe I…[Read more]

My brother got sucked in for various reasons, and it took him thirty years to find his way back out again, after suffering enormous…[Read more]

Stutz wrote:I also try to be gentle about it because it implies that if I’m right, they won’t see their own parents again, ever, and I know that’s a great comfort to them to believe that. So, so sad and childish, but a great comfort nonetheless.

Well, that’s one load I don’t have to deal with. Whether or not the Christians are right, I won’t…[Read more]

Christianity Has a Major Boundary Problem

An excellent read… unfortunately, it won’t solve your problem.

Unless it helps to know your situation is appallingly common.

Strega wrote:
Honestly Simon, if you took one set of tarot cards and did hideous disrespectful things to them

I couldn’t help but be reminded of the time PZ Meyers desecrated a communion wafer (the person who obtained it had already received threats from outraged Catholics). Interestingly, half of the outraged comments regarding the descration…[Read more]

If one gets mentioned a lot AND manages to read almost everything new anyway, the e-mails are pointless and can be shut off by clicking on your name in the upper right and going to settings->email. (However, I don’t get any of the other emails I left enabled, either.)

Unseen wrote: Also, law can define things differently from biology.

I would say law must operate with different concepts from those biology uses; its purpose is very different. That leaves one with two options: come up with separate words for the different concepts, or use the same word for concepts that are similar.

Actually, biology uses…[Read more]

Davis wrote:
As simon pointed out…this really does border on the magic (like holy water or prayers beamed up from your mind to God).

By “Simon” here I assume you mean Mr. Matthews!

Who’da thunk we’d have two people with an uncommon name like Simon in the same place at the same time?

And yes, I’d like to see Simon (Paynton’s) answer to your q…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:

SteveInCO wrote:
Why don’t you just ask her, like maybe in sign language? Or bring her something by mouth, in return.

Uhh… no I didn’t. Try the guy in the Vatican. 🙂

I’d scratch my head, but that probably contributes to hair loss, and I’ve had enough of that. 😛

It wasn’t intended as a criticism of you but rather of the forum software.

Let me try an experiment, right here and now: ‘Because there IS no freaking doG!’ he said.…[Read more]

I use “spiritual” for this sort of thing, very, very, guardedly, amongst people who will either understand what I mean in the first place, or who will give me time to explain what I mean without going “whoop! whoop! whoop! He really believes in God deep down!!! He just said so!!!…[Read more]

Conceivably, another mission could be sent, timed so the other side of both bodies is facing the spacecraft near the time of closest approach. (If memory serves, the entire tidally locked Pluto Charon system…[Read more]

It may be that not having a belief is one characteristic of your worldview, but it cannot be the whole thing.

The vast majority of cars do have that radiator, but some do not. [I point out, in case you are scratching your head, that the original VW Beetle was air cooled, with no…[Read more]

I agree, “Humanist” is more specific. fits a large majority of atheists, and should be used where appropriate, to describe things that Humanists agree on that aren’t logically…[Read more]

OK, with that tongue-in-cheek upbraiding out of the way…

The phrase “world view” to me implies a much more detailed view of how the world works, a lot more than just “doesn’t have a god in it,” and even more so with respect to “doesn’t…[Read more]

Matt wrote:
Personally though, I never really liked the Blog section on TA. I preferred the threaded replies of the discussions to help me keep track of the covnersation. I guess now we are on AZ, I’ll (we’ll) have to get used to it.

There are some things one can do to alleviate the confusion non threading causes, such as quoting (with the quo…[Read more]

Simon Mathews wrote:As others have stated I think “phobic” is the wrong term. Phobic is an irrational fear[…]

Oddly, no one makes this complaint about the term homophobia, which one would think (by inspection) means “fear of homo[sexuals]” rather than “hatred of homo[sexuals]”. I first heard this term in the early 1980s (it may have first bee…[Read more]

It’s also important to try to squelch any…[Read more]

And I admit upfront I’ve not read either book, but I don’t think you should find it devastating that stuff an author never intended to publish, that was written before the “canonical” work (TKAM) contradicts the work.

It’s entirely possible that as she thought about the characters, she decided to send them in a different direction…[Read more]

Christianity, through it’s various flavours, has kind of reformed itself inch by excruciating inch as society has changed which is what allows Christians (fundamentalists notwithstanding) to pick and choose from the Bible these days. Islam seems to be having more trouble.

Actually fundamentalists pick and choose as well, it’s just that the s…[Read more]

@Godfreezone

@godlesszone (Ok, those both have “zone” in them…)

As a side note, a lot of people seem to be trying to get to T|A after a long absence, and not realizing they need a NEW account here. I wonder how many tried their old account and password, and just gave up? Perhaps a note on the login…[Read more]

Where the trouble starts is when people start asserting said Prime Mover wants ME to do something, and that they know what it is and are willing to ram their conclusions down my throat.

I…[Read more]

I am much more sympathetic to outing a politician than a preacher, because only the politician can be an agent of force (as you touched on). But it had better be a politician that really goes against the group he’s fighting (gays, atheists, whatever). Occasional pandering speeches is one thing, I’ve never known a politician who didn’t…[Read more]

Set A: All Firearms Related Deaths. The circle on the left. This is what the study addressed, and they painstakingly list all the codes and categories…[Read more]

Argue with him over the ownership of his wallet, on the other hand, and you’ll find yourself stuffed into a trash can you didn’t realize was big enough to hold you.

Yes, you’ve made it easy.

You continue to erroneously assert that a study showing a relationship between firearms ownership and firearms related deaths has something conclusive to say about a relationship between firearms ownership and the rate of any and all murders, excluding non-murder deaths by firearm, and including murders…[Read more]

Also it’s possible some people are misled, because “favorite” in some browsers means “put a bookmark here” I…[Read more]

Ant wrote:

My view of religion is that it’s a dictatorship, mass docile conformity, patently false and morally bankrupt. Nothing during my school years or since has ever remotely changed my opinion about this and I’m fascinated how otherwise intelligent people get sucked into it. That’s my primary reason for lurking on this forum, to disco…

[Read more]

Unfortunately, Christians often feel commanded to convert others, in fact, they express horror at the thought of anyone going to hell, and will do a lot to try to prevent it.

He may be in a state of mind where he thinks it’s just as urgent to convert you, as you would think it was to put out the…[Read more]