Hirnlego's Comments (187)

“Thumbs up from me as well.

I often link to a piece by Shermer:
http://skeptically.org/logicalthreads/id2.html”

“The only thing uniting non-believers is their lack of belief. I often say this but it is worth repeating, everything else is sold separately.
And there really aren't any non-beliefs to push on people. It's not a replacement for religion but rather an absence from it.

Hitchens makes a great case on why it is correct to oppose religion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYaQpRZJl18”

“readthissomewhere

"Like some of the best comedic voices of our time, artists finely tuned to the realities that define contemporary society, in Carlin, what appears to some as the prototypical outbursts of a nihilist, are... in actuality.­.. the pained cries of a badly disappointed humanist constantly on the edge of total misanthrop­y...

[...] His HBO viewers got an especially sharp taste of this in his take on the Ronald Reagan administration during the 1988 special What Am I Doing In New Jersey? broadcast live from the Park Theatre in Union City, New Jersey.

Carlin, always the rebel, the irrepressible nonconformist in a society where to passively conform is to be complicit in a large catalog of wrongs, crimes, and idiocies, ranging from wholesale mendacity to imperial wars, has gone, true to form, against the current. Thus, while most ordinary souls travel rightward as they acquire more property, Carlin has cheerfully and defiantly traveled left. Now 70, with his sharp wit as cutting and on target as ever, he continues to tell it like it is, cutting through the thick layers of national bullshit as some form of high-octane nuclear laser. He has important warnings to communicate, warnings that we should take to heart, once we stop laughing, that is. He probably wouldn't have it any other way.

George Carlin is a rare national treasure. It's good to know that he's around."

Too bad he is not still around.”

“Yes. Actual scientists. But that is not all.

Where do you get your viewpoints? Prisonplanet? Naturalnews? Quakery websites?

And what happened to a full comment tree? Bill asks for a dialogue and those who say that he is full of it in this case have their comments deleted. Way to go!

What do you have to hide? What crappy science do you folks have to sell?”

“And not everyone has the same experience with homeopathy.
So I cannot say with 100% certainty that it is all placebo.

If you for instance go to "psychic" person and you believe psychic powers the chances are that you will notice and remember when he or she get's it right but you ignore the often far more numerous cases where the cold reading was wrong.

http://skeptically.org/logicalthreads/id2.html”

“Third post (sigh..)

There is nothing to hide.”

“Go to scienceblogs and type in Tom Jefferson in the search field.
I bet you haven't bothered to read criticism.”

“Science works with probability. Theories are seldom 100% coherent and it is not impossible that a small fraction of homeopathy will some day be proven to be correct.
But atm, it's like belief in a deity. It too lacks evidence. Some day there might be.

If and only then when something pseudo-scientific as homeopathy is accepted by serious scientists (it is not) then TONS of scientific books will have to be re-written.

Homeopathy is old and has yet to produce scientific evidence to back up its claims.

I bet that no proponent of homeopathy would like to take on James Randi's million dollar challenge.”

“Its likely a placebo effect.

Water for instance has no memory.

More importantly there is a lack of scientific evidence.

It's quackery.”

“From your bio:
"Dana Ullman, M.P.H. is widely recognized as the foremost spokesperson for homeopathic medicine in the U.S"

And yet you say:
"The pro-vax folks are fundamentalists and maintain blind faith in "science." A tad ironic when they don't even seem to understand that word!"

Homeopathy is a pseudo-science.”

“It certainly is possible:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8361863.stm”

“I would have some sympathy for tea baggers if they would have bothered to protest during Bush's presidency­..

100 new militia groups since Obama elected; watchdog alarmed
http://rawstory.com/2009/11/100-new-militia-groups/

Gun sales up, record number of paranoia. This is ridiculous.”

“The have's-all control most things..”

“Tea partiers punk’d into supporting removal of white people from US

http://rawstory.com/2009/11/tea-partiers-punked-white-people/”

“Well which God? The God you were brought to believe since childhood as true?
Morality is a creation of evolution, a necessary "software" to keep the animals (which we are too) and its kin alive. No need to bring religion into this.
And since we haven't for a long time understood much of anything (that is true even today) we humans have at many times created *many* different gods and stories in order to try to explain it all. Some of those old stories are still alive and taught as true, with again, the evidence lacking.

That man exist is no evidence for any deity. Sorry.”

“With enough time I find answers to problems without even actively thinking about them. And many people in many cases think they have answers but it really is a theory (even a conspiracy theory) put in place to try to understand the world.
The human mind even creates patterns if there really aren't any. Its still a very primity "machinery".

http://skeptically.org/logicalthreads/id2.html

Praying doesn't heal patients faster, there are many studies on this. And praying never heals cripples.
Its make believe. A modern variant of that is the secret.”

“And when it comes to scientific evidence your anectodal "evidence" is completely useless. Those anectodal stories are btw full of contradicting experiences.”

“No, its absurd to believe without evidence.
Russia's problems were political, not god-denial.”

“Lennox is a softspoken man who talks slowly and doesn't get a lot said. Lots of I believe "x", I believe "y", but the arguments to support those claims were utterly lacking.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/07/dawkinslennox_round_2.php”

“I've seen that. Can't remember anything like that happening.”

“I doubt Donohoe is helping Catholics. I think he is one of the reasons more people leave religion behind..”

“correction: will NEVER follow..”

“Also, no deity does competently spread a one true faith.
Even if you belong to Christianity most people will follow those teachings and will therefore be punished.

Nah. I just expect more more from a deity. Or deities (which cannot be ruled out).”

“Sure. Like diseases. And making most of the planet inhabitable. Making us so easily die of thirst, hunger etc..
Its not competent design:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_nqySMvkcw

And Jesus could for instance have done more when he visited earth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOfjkl-3SNE

Imagine a politician with the same power as a deity who created it all. And he could interfere to stop lots of bad stuff from happening, but choose not to? That is not good work. And people would be outraged at the politician. But many of you let god get away...som­ehow him allowing lots of bad stuff is ok. It shouldn't be.”

“The same is true for all deities. They're all - absent
But because there are so many the chances of us inventing them is huge..”