All Blog Comments

GodlessNige - Godless Business Podcast 1.4

GodlessNige — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:00:25 +0000

That looks like a windoze app which is not of use to me ;) iTunes does it, I just have to confirm my method works right. I think it does. Let me know if appears in your iTunes with it now...

Orko - Godless Business Podcast 1.4

Orko — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:57:49 +0000

To embed album art into the mp3 file, you could use the program 'MP3Tag'?

Cynskeptical - Godless Business Podcast 1.4

Cynskeptical — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:11:27 +0000

My appologies to those listening to the latest podcast. I talked way too much this time around. You may feel free to hit the mute button when I talk.

askegg - The Burden of Proof

askegg — Mon, 8 Mar 2010 12:22:57 +0000

Yes, I have been following his series for quite sometime. Very well put together and raises great points.

David Gibson - The Burden of Proof

David Gibson — Mon, 8 Mar 2010 03:47:12 +0000

Have you seen the deconversion series from the YouTube user Evid3nc3 (http://www.youtube.com/user/Evid3nc3)? While it is a very detailed personal account he outlines this "matrix" or web of the various support structures that link together to sure up religious faith and maintain the belief even after various elements have been removed. I found it pretty interesting and enlightening on how people believe so fervently in religion, especially in the face of strong evidence (having never been religious or theistic myself it is almost alien to me). Despite being well made the videos come across very genuine and heartfelt.

askegg - The Burden of Proof

askegg — Sun, 7 Mar 2010 21:00:11 +0000

Good morning Ollie, I see you were up late. "Many billions of people in the world have had communication with the spirit world." They say they have, but I have experienced "spiritual" moments at rock concerts or under the effects of some drugs. The difference with my experiences is that we can not only repeat them (as "spiritual" experiences can be repeated) by can induce them. There is a clear cause of the experience - play the right kind of music and any crowd will lose themselves. With these divine "spiritual" experiences the effects are the same, yet they attribute it to whichever god they happen to be worshipping. You can see Hindus, Voodoo, New Age Hippies, and Christians all doing to same thing. Hold your hand in the air for extended periods, sway rhythmically, play repetitive music, and modulate the intensity and you will witness "spiritual" events. So where does god come in? "Seriously, why bother debating a subject with you if all you are going to do is move the goal post continuously." I think I am beginning to see the reasons. Theist beliefs (and many more) rely on many other beliefs to support them. These other beliefs are also supported by their neighbours. So they're all in a kind of web of thought. The skeptic will take each individual thought and remove as many supporting ideas as possible. If the idea remains solid, it's probably worthwhile. Perhaps this might be a good area of discussion at the next podcast? "They are ALL heresay and anecdotal at their very core" I expect the argument to be that millions of these stories account for something. Unfortunately 1,000,000 times 0 is still 0.

Cynskeptical - The Burden of Proof

Cynskeptical — Sun, 7 Mar 2010 14:51:25 +0000

"Once again so?? Many billions of people in the world have had communication with the spirit world. Have you experienced everything that this world has to offer? Obviously not. Why do you think that just because you haven't experienced it it isn't true?" Seriously, why bother debating a subject with you if all you are going to do is move the goal post continuously. What do you mean do I think that just because I have experience it it can't be true? What kind of argument is that exactly? Yet another straw man argument perhaps? Are purposely being facetious? Or just ignorant beyond comprehension? The simple undeniable fact of the matter is that, not ONE SINGLE one of those millions of stories can be verified what so ever with any irrefutable scientific evidence and or testing. Not one story can be said to hold any such factual evidence for the existence of some magical being in the sky. They are ALL heresay and anecdotal at their very core. This does not make them evidence. The sooner you stop being sucked in like some child being offered candy by a stranger with a nice smile, the sooner you will realise how completely wrong you are. However I doubt from what you have said so far that you will come even remotely close to opening up you brain to the idea of thinking critically and logically. But good luck to you anyway and I really do hope you wake up soon.

@atan2 - The Burden of Proof

@atan2 — Sat, 6 Mar 2010 23:54:03 +0000

A well-written comment. I enjoyed reading it -- thanks. The glaring problem I see is this one: "... to communicate with God you need to believe that He is there before you can activate your spirit and communicate with him ..." In other words, the ability to personally acquire any evidence supporting the existence of God is predicated on you already believing in God. By the time you have taken the first step and been convinced to have faith you have completely thrown out your capacity to objectively judge whether anything that follows is actually a sign from God or simply appears so as a result of your own initial faith. Of course you think you're talking to God -- because you assumed to begin with that you are.

Timothy - The Burden of Proof

Timothy — Sat, 6 Mar 2010 22:30:44 +0000

"Funny that, I don't hear of any anti-love groups starting up trying to rid the world of the misguided belief in something that can't be measured scientifically." I have, and while they have a point in some areas, the main problem is that they forget, just as you have, that in any real sense of the word "evidence" or "measure"(it could be argued we could never know what love is neurologically, but on that same level, we could never know gravity was real) I can provide evidence, and measure it (hopefully being a neurologist someday, I would be in the somewhat rare position of being able to actually put my loved one in an MRI and actually test her...) So, unless you wish to claim God is an anion, God isn't love, or isn't spiritual. Which would you prefer?

Cynskeptical - Queen of Christ Starved Child

Cynskeptical — Sat, 6 Mar 2010 11:28:57 +0000

Well ok good point.

askegg - Queen of Christ Starved Child

askegg — Sat, 6 Mar 2010 10:53:58 +0000

I don't think you're disagreeing with me - I think you are adding another factor. I never claimed mine was the only reason.

Cynskeptical - Queen of Christ Starved Child

Cynskeptical — Sat, 6 Mar 2010 10:47:08 +0000

I'd disagree with you there on that last part Andrew. I think what you will find is that due to pressure from their peers, those that do come to some conclusion that their religion is full of shit won't often speak out for fear of being persecuted and ridiculed by those that they consider friends and also family in a lot of cases. To be left out in the cold and, cast out by your peers is for some a fate worse than death. Fortunately for these people, there are others in the same boat that they can go to, but for many I suspect, they do not really know about such groups as ours and others.

askegg - Queen of Christ Starved Child

askegg — Sat, 6 Mar 2010 10:15:59 +0000

Welcome TurboFool, I totally agree with you. Crazy people are perfectly camouflaged in religions because the religions themselves are crazy. Even "mostly harmless" versions of Christianity have some totally bat shit ideas at their heart. Most people are able to use their reason, logic, and modern moralities to worm their way out of literal interpretations of their "holy texts", but the can never bring themselves to condemn other people's beliefs until the actually result in horrors like this case. I suspect they do not do so because they know their own beliefs do not stand up to exactly the same criticisms - a collusion among thugs.

@TurboFool - Queen of Christ Starved Child

@TurboFool — Fri, 5 Mar 2010 22:08:50 +0000

The typical argument against this would obviously be that THIS woman was just plain crazy, and that she'd be crazy without her religion. And that's 100% true. But only religion makes it this hard to distinguish between crazy and devout, crazy and faithful, crazy and honorable, crazy and dedicated. So much of what a person like this does is so close to what religion dictates (or IS what it dictates when taken literally) that people like this don't get weeded out until it's too late, and they get others to follow them who can't tell the difference either. Without religion their insanity would be far, far more obvious, and could be stopped and helped before the harm was done. At least that's my personal opinion, but is hard to verify with as few comparison points as we have. Sure seems to add up, though. Without the backing and justification, they just become regular crazy people who need help instead of hands-off believers we're supposed to respect.

David Gibson - The Burden of Proof

David Gibson — Fri, 5 Mar 2010 05:22:29 +0000

All we need now is for JK Rowling to explain the Harry Potter books were actually revelatory and delivered by the great wizard in the sky who watches over all the muggles, one day Potter will return to defeat "you know who" in a final battle that will reveal the true nature of our world and the magic that lies within all of us. Praise be to Potter!

Nathan Parsons - The Burden of Proof

Nathan Parsons — Thu, 4 Mar 2010 18:57:45 +0000

I'm wondering if a Harry Potter cult will appear sometime; I mean there are 7 large books of those, and 6 films. I think there may actually be more evidence for the existence of Harry Potter than for God.

David Gibson - The Burden of Proof

David Gibson — Thu, 4 Mar 2010 00:53:47 +0000

I'm waiting for the mystery cult of Tom Bombadil :P

David Gibson - Queen of Christ Starved Child

David Gibson — Thu, 4 Mar 2010 00:50:37 +0000

For sure, I was trying to be as generous about the scenario as possible. Personally, I find it almost impossible to see how this particular case could have come about without religion.

Cynskeptical - Queen of Christ Starved Child

Cynskeptical — Wed, 3 Mar 2010 20:36:40 +0000

Very true. But I doubt that fact in itself would be enough for a theist not to give such comments as I have already stated above. They tend to worm their way out of any kind of guilt without even breaking a sweat.

Nathan Parsons - The Burden of Proof

Nathan Parsons — Wed, 3 Mar 2010 17:37:26 +0000

And equally, you could pick up the Lord of the Rings trilogy and touch it, read it and smell it. Nobody would claim that that is evidence for the existence of Middle Earth, or Hobbits, so making such claims about the Bible is equally unqualified. But I bet that someone would make such claims about the Bible.