IntenseDebate - Techskeptic

12 years ago @ Atheist Revolution - Atheist Tactics: Dave ... · 0 replies · +8 points

Cant atheists have more than one market available to them.

Dave Silverman can continue to be on Fox news, while Hemant can continue to be on NPR. Same message, different platforms, different markets.

Atheists are well known to not be birds of a feather.

12 years ago @ Atheist Revolution - Leave the Nativity Sce... · 0 replies · +1 points

We celebrate Christmas.....but focus on solstice (which I consider to be a scientific holiday with an actual reason to celebrate)...but we also have some hanukah stuff (I keep reminding my 5 year old that the menorah is not a solstice menorah, she gets a little confused still).

celebrating these holidays are inclusive events, teach my kids about what other people believe koo-koo or not, and are generally nice times.

However, these are in my house. If I see a nativity scene on city hall, I will put up a tree of knowledge or somethng.

good luck rev Oxley

12 years ago @ Atheist Revolution - Viewers of Fox News ar... · 0 replies · +2 points

we should actually read the journal article. In it I think the most interesting part is not a fox news effect but a republican effect. Democrats who watch fox news have the same responses about global warming as dems who watch other cable news. This is not the case with republicans who seem to slide willy-nilly with whatever it is they happen to watch.

12 years ago @ Atheist Revolution - Legalizing Marijuana · 1 reply · 0 points

I think if you allow the personal growth of pot, you have ruined the primary economic benefit and increased the chances of non-personal distribution. I'm with you on the pridiculous imprisonment for pot, however the economic benefit of that would be wiped out by all the money made to fight drugs (mercenaries, equipment, etc).

I havent used pot since high school over 30 years ago and back then I mostly smoked it because is was illegal, but I am with you, it should be legal. I think it would be a good opportunity for NY to follow NHs example and completely socialize it. We can follow them with alcohol because we already have a distribution system in place for alcohol and you would ruin jobs. After the coffers are full again, we can talk about freeing the market for it.

Now if pot is ok, how about meth or coke. If those are not OK, why not? My worry is that there is clearly a line, but the line itself it fuzzy. Frankly i think opium should be legal. No one is dangerous who is using opium, even f their teeth are disgusting.

12 years ago @ Atheist Revolution - Mandatory School Praye... · 1 reply · +1 points

Maybe you misunderstood me. I agree that it is a terrible excuse if you stick with it. but if it's really just "we didn't think about it because we have always done that and no one has complained before but now that someone has we can change it " that doesn't really bother me

12 years ago @ Atheist Revolution - Mandatory School Praye... · 4 replies · +2 points

whiffle beat me to it. "We have always done that" really doesnt bother me. If no one complains what is wrong with it? The difference here is that if this were Kansas, the excuse of "we have always done that" would mean the practice is written in stone and takes an act of god to change it. Bravo Canada.

12 years ago @ Atheist Revolution - Atheist or Agnostic? I... · 2 replies · +2 points

This is a dumb chart and tries to make completely uneeded distinctions.

Virtually all atheists would change their postion given evidence of a god or something we call synonymous with god (.e. aliens that made earth). They would also agree that jesus was really the son of god if these aliens or gods told them that this was true. We probably would still find them repugnant for all the same reasons we find God repgnant now.

Atheists, agnostics and frankly many religious people live in a way as if god doesnt exist. So who cares what the minute difference is? Why the hell do we have all these other words that mean the same things also? (freethinker, humanists, brights, blah blah blah)

12 years ago @ A Place For My Stuff - Storytime: Fair Food (... · 1 reply · +1 points

Power balance bracelets were being sold at the local mall. I was alone so as not to embarrass my wife, but I started yelling out "I have magic pencils here! Magc pencils which improve your balance and make you sleep better just by writing with them".

As people looked at me like I was a dick, I said quieter, "no I'm dead serious, if you write with this pencil, you will see the exact same improvements that that guy with the bracelet is offering. Just indulge me, I'll do it for free instead of his 25 bucks, what have you got to lose?"

I did the stupid kinesiology trick to two or 3 people and pretty much cleared away the crowd as they realized that the power balance guy was full of it. It was my own personal, one and only skeptical triumph.

I'm sure a new crowd grew 10 minutes later.

12 years ago @ Atheist Revolution - Government Paying to R... · 0 replies · +1 points

Templestream,

I'm sorry but without even deciphering through your convoluted logic I can tell you immediately why it is most assuredly wrong. You tried to use only logic to prove god. There are lots of logical paradoxs, fantasies and simple "proofs" of the impossible when you miss out on the important part: Observation.

Basically you wasted a lot of your time writing that.

13 years ago @ Effort Sisyphus - Been a long time · 0 replies · +3 points

Yes, there have been many times where I have looked at all my feeds and said "Holy Crap!". At the time I took pride in my information infusion. But I scaled back on a lot of them, even the podcasts I listen to. It's pretty much just skeptoid and Radiolab now (science focused), with some SGU once in a while.

The other thing was that I was writing a lot, I looked back on some of my posts and am still proud of many of them. But, I dont feel like they have made much impact. The energy required to make impact is not an amount I am willing to expend. Plenty of people are doing it and doing it better than me, and spending their daily time on it.

But thanks for commiserating. I appreciate it.

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