Comments for HumanistLife

Comment on Does God Matter? by David Pavett

David Pavett — Wed, 09 May 2012 07:56:36 +0000

@David Fairley

Totalitarianism dressed up as if it were not religion (e.g. Soviet Communism) is no less worrying than totalitarianism dressed up as religion. Surely the problem in such cases is the totalitarianism and not the religious or anti-religious trappings.

Comment on Does God Matter? by David Fairley

David Fairley — Tue, 08 May 2012 20:55:07 +0000

The real endeavour is as ancient as any endeavour- the fight against totalitarianism dressed up as religion. Thou shalt have no authority before me…

Comment on World Homeopathy Awareness Week by Thomas54

Thomas54 — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:37:12 +0000

@Stephen, I see what you did there

It amazes me that homoeopathic “remedies” can still be sold in the shops. If they must be sold, they should be alongside a prominent notice informing the public what they are buying.

As things stand, uninformed consumers view the sale of the product as evidence of its legitimacy.

Comment on World Homeopathy Awareness Week by Stephen

Stephen — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:00:22 +0000

Odd that they need the publicity of an awareness week. I’d have thought the less said about it the better. (That’s homeopathic marketing theory.)

Comment on Do aliens really exist? by PaulJ

PaulJ — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 00:32:16 +0000

Clincher in the last ten seconds: ufologist has a film coming out. So naturally he’s not biased in the least.

Comment on Atheists: lazy reactionary skinflints? by Tony Ryan

Tony Ryan — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:17:52 +0000

Typical Daily Mail nonsense really

Comment on Homeopaths on homeopathy by Thomas54

Thomas54 — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:27:45 +0000

That reminds me… I must stock up on mercury, ready for the next time I have a sniffly nose.

Comment on Do aliens really exist? by Thomas54

Thomas54 — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:02:42 +0000

Interesting only in the sense that people are prepared to believe such unreliable accounts of events that took place 30 years ago. So much woooo.

Comment on Two years of adventure travel gives rise to a book about enlightenment and humanism by Ash

Ash — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:29:55 +0000

As a prophet of environmental doom, I fundamentally disagree with several of Peter’s core ideas – but I’m very glad I read the book and engaged with those ideas – because it’s very well written indeed, highly persuasive, intelligent, funny and original.

Read it – you won’t regret it.

Comment on Two years of adventure travel gives rise to a book about enlightenment and humanism by Mark Panda

Mark Panda — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:21:33 +0000

taken out by bees, what a pansy. Its like sharks don’t exist.

Comment on Atheists: lazy reactionary skinflints? by David Pavett

David Pavett — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 14:49:19 +0000

I agree with Chris Theobold’s comments and I hope that the Demos report will receive a thorough analysis. I’ve had a quick look at it from which I came to many of the same conclusions as Chris. In particular I noticed tables in which practicing religious and non-practicing religious were, in effect, stacked up against secular respondents. This is really absurd without more investigation of exactly what is entailed in being religious but non-practicing.

As we know people who never give religion a second thought in their day-to-day lives will for various reasons, especially upbringing, say “yes” when asked “are you religious?” or “do you believe in god?”. In terms of what they do with their lives this often means little or even nothing. This means that the same data could be interpreted in the opposite sense. Instead of practicing religious, non-practicing religious and secular (in effect declared secular) would could have had practicing religious, effectively secular and declared secular. Then the results would have looked very different.

I will read the report carefully but on first glance, as Chris says, it has all the appearance of a report drawn up to reach the conclusion desired by the authors and panel producing it.

P.S. Ed Miliband is not “admittedly agnostic” he is an atheist.

Comment on The Ancestor’s Trail by mike long

mike long — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:02:06 +0000

I have moved to spain as OAPso its dificult to join you on your quest.(money)
so i wish you great sucess with your endevour, i am 76 and have been a secularist
without realising it for 70 años.keep up your good and very essential work
mike

Comment on Secularists on Thought for the Day will expose the loneliness of atheism by PaulJ

PaulJ — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 17:13:46 +0000

There’s so much wrong with Guy Stagg’s article one hardly knows where to start. But I’ll start (and finish) by agreeing with Thomas54. Stagg clearly hasn’t been listening to TftD.

Comment on Secularists on Thought for the Day will expose the loneliness of atheism by Thomas54

Thomas54 — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 10:49:56 +0000

Giy Stagg certainly spouts a lot of nonsense.

TFTD is “Intelligent and focussed”? Have I missed something? Is there another Radio 4 Today Programme in another dimension?

What does Stagg know of atheism to pronounce it “lonely”? He seems to be under the impression that religious belief is a prerequisite for thoughtful dialogue.

Comment on Baroness Warsi and Religious Identity by Philip S Hall

Philip S Hall — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 23:46:18 +0000

Believers delude themselves into thinking that their humanitarian instincts are put there by a divine power when in fact they are simply being human.

Much if what they feel is right is shared by all right-minded people both religious and non-religious. In order for human-society to function we need to explore what we have in common not what divides us.

And that’s the real trouble with all this talk of what makes us British or whether we are a “Christian country”. They mean different things to different people and in the end become divisive.

Comment on Humanism – A newbie’s perspective by David Pavett

David Pavett — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:33:20 +0000

I share your feelings about the negative connotation of the word ‘atheist’. I don’t believe in God but it is no part of my belief system to deny the existence of God. Such an entity just doesn’t appear in my thinking about things. Most atheists reply that it is the right word since it covers not only those who deny God’s existence but also those who just don’t happen to have that belief. I do not find this entirely satisfactory.

I have friends and family members who do believe in God. Most of them agree with me that religion should have no privileged place in public life and that is really all I want from them. They can believe what they like so long as they don’t try to force it on anyone else.

I think that there is a danger of the BHA presenting itself as some kind of anti-God party. I think that is a mistake.

On the issue of children I think that the only honest thing is to tell them about religion and to make sure that they are familiar with its ideas and stories. As for belief they should be told that there is disagreement among adults as to religion with some in favour and others rejecting it. It should be explained that when they are old enough to know the arguments on both sides they will be able to make their own minds up. That is how I brought my children up. I read them a children’s bible so that they knew the stories. Neither of them has ever shown the slightest inclination to religious belief. Had they done so I would have accepted it but the likelihood of young people put in the position of making an informed choice choosing to be religious is, I believe, vanishingly small.

Comment on Atheists and Christians clash over ‘blessed’ highway by Thomas54

Thomas54 — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 19:17:31 +0000

The behaviour of the Christians in this story isn’t far removed from voodoo.

Comment on Humanism – A newbie’s perspective by Daniel

Daniel — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 12:04:22 +0000

Hollyoaks omnibus

no need to thank me

Comment on Humanism – A newbie’s perspective by CB

CB — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:33:33 +0000

I think:
The deep truth is there are no facts, to a theist atheism is just somebody’s very wrong opinion, to an atheist theism is an equally wrong opinion. So if it’s all opinion then none of it is fact because to be fact it has to be accepted as such by “everybody”. So facts don’t exist, and it’s all opinion. Great we don’t have to agree if we don’t want to and we can all just get on with our lives. It’s a shame that is only an ideal. Or is it? It’s only an ideal if you don’t put it into practice. So we have only ourselves to blame for not getting on with each other and taking things too far IF that is your opinion of it.
The even deeper truth is that it is behaviour, not belief, that makes a good or bad person.
Indeed you don’t need anything else to have a moral, idea, or a principle.
This of course COULD equally just be an opinion. But in reality depending on the individual logic can go hand in hand with either philosophy and the mere theoretical just as well as it does with materialism and “fact”.
So Bearing this in mind, the greatest truth of all must be that it is down to every individual to find out and decide for themselves (and no other) which is the right way.
And that it is not belief or non belief in of itself that is the greatest problem but the ego and behaviour of people when they form a group that then wish to impose their belief, or non belief on others. It is the illusion that anybody is wrong or right, the illusion that you need to be given a “right to” to be able to do or think something that causes problems because only then is it truly unrealistic.

“You have no right to say/ think that because you’re a heathen.” Well the jokes on you because you can’t stop people having an opinion short of killing them.

The above ofcourse is only a theory of mine. It is an opinion. Maybe not, maybe others think the same way, maybe they don’t. Others may like it others may hate it. But I thought it and I’ve decided to go with it, and I don’t care what anybody else thinks ,you can think and have opinions all you like, because that’s all it is even if you claim “facts”. It is my actions that have repercussions not my thoughts, so I can believe or not believe anything I like, and (here’s the best bit) so can YOU.

Comment on Science: Astonishing photos of two mating abdopus aculeatus by Thomas54

Thomas54 — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:41:34 +0000

Fascinating creatures.

This must be the 4th or 5th cephalopod article I’ve read in recent days. Weird.

The first was a piece by China Mieville in Arc 1.1 magazine. He recounts a visit to the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole. Very interesting, with several links to related sources.