Letters to the Editor
Taliesan
Published Letters: 942 Editor's Choice: 19
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792038z
[Read the article: The evolution of creationism]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]First off, sex as evil is one of the major things wrong with religion, you guys seem to see all morality as beginning and ending with what you do with your dicks.
Evil is way worse. It is that which has turned America from being something of a bastion of good in the world, into being a state which defends its right to torture because the enemy belongs to the same race, as someone who once harmed America.
It is that which allows genocide, and that is what the Iraq war really is. Iraq didn't attack you, it didn't even threaten you. It, in the end, allowed the UN's inspections, but you invaded and murdered its people anyway because they shared the racial and religious characteristics of your real enemy, Osama Bin Laden.
It is that which makes it possible for us to deny the humanity of those who are not of our race or our tribe because we find it politically expedient to use the word "They."
It is that which makes one feel it conscionable to harm the weak in the defence of the strong - who aren't particularly threatened anyway.
Evil is included in the teachings of the Bible not simply as something to avoid, but something to actively partake in - witness the old testament's treatment of the people of Israel who settled there before the Jews did.
And what is the origin of this? How do atheists explain? I don't know about all atheists, but I explain it as follows:
Humans are adaptive pack animals being forced into herd behaviour by our large numbers. We are particularly suited to smaller hunter gatherer clans, but with the way our numbers have boomed, and the way our resources largely haven't, we cannot live as smaller hunter gatherer societies.
This leads to us forming cliques within our larger cultures, with those cliques forming larger cliques, until eventually you hit a point of nations forming cliques as you have now with the western world Vs everyone else.
These cliques come with the ability to form relationships, show the better side of humanity, and move beyond those cliques (In part because being able to get on with people is a major survival trait) but they also came with the ability to de-humanise other people.
This is not unique to humanity, look at the behaviour of any pack animal, or even the bahaviour of rats, and nor is compassion, again if you look at the behaviour of any pack animal. What is unique to humans is the speed at which we can adapt our social behaviour, how we can behave as herd animals with relatively little stress while other animals tear each other's throats out.
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Lacking in substance.
[Read the article: Queen Hillary's disruptive court]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]First lets start this off as follows: Click my name and you will find I am no fan of Hillary. She is what I would term a weak candidate on the issues, and a poor choice to run for president.
That said: This whole article has about as much depth as your average kiddy pool. There was no analysis of Hillary's positions, simply a lot of babble about how poorly she delivered them.
There was no focus to it, there was just the usual Paglia bashing of anyone who actually votes Democrat because, you know, they support Democratic policies.
So long as America is going to be more concerned with whether its president is nice then whether its president has the ability to rule, you are going to end up with Bushs, Reagans and other assorted idiots running the place.
And so long as the Paglia's of the world are out there degrading political debate down to what handbags the political figures own, well you are going to suffer from stupid people ruining your government.
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Ron Paul not nuts?
[Read the article: Ron Paul distortions and smears]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Ron_Paul_There_Is_A_War_On_Christmas
Yeah, right. Oh, and as for Ron Paul and the constitution?
The notion of a rigid separation between church and state has no basis in either the text of the Constitution or the writings of our Founding Fathers.
Clearly he has never read the first Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
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Hatton
[Read the article: Queen Hillary's disruptive court]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Oh yeah, because calling on economists and TV presenters to explain the weather is just so much more logical, then actually calling upon people who study, you know, the weather. As their life's work.
Yep, reeeaaal logical.
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creationist
[Read the article: The evolution of creationism]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So you dispute the entire scientific field of archeology then.
This is why I don't like you creationists, you feel that it is acceptable to outright lie to try and prove your point.