h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Warning to all: if you use your left hand for things...it's Satam making you do it...they say you can't make these up...obviously someone has.

Must be a real bugger for Muslims to clap then.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85KYhsdqGMY

By the way has anyone seen any catholics wandering around with black marks on their foreheads?

I ask because, as is my want, I occasionally browse through the 'god channels' for a bit of a giggle, and I paused for a while to listen to an asinine discussion on EWTN ( a catholic network) and everyone involved had a black mark on their forehead. Not small like the Hindu 'dot' I mean like some had emptied the the ink chamber of a fountain pen and smeared it.

Thinking this was the god channel and weirdness is included in the price of admission, I ignored it.

The next day I saw on the news (announcing the new commerce secretary) Jo Biden stood behind Barak Obama on the news - and he had one!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZZ6gN-uEbA (visible at 4.53 )

A quick google search later reveals Biden is a roman catholic.

So what is going on?

Are they organising?

Is this a revolution?

but seriously - why??

http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?p=4858611

Ash Wednesday.

On Darwins Birthday next year I will go around all day with a DNA symbol on my forehead.

Not to be confused with the other DNA.

I just love the first post off that Catholic site:

'I've been a returned Catholic for a little over a year and a half...I go to the morning Mass and don't wash the ashes off all day. I work in a very secular city...Kind of like being the bearer of good news. But I didn't get prideful...A nut-case started babbling irrationaly upon seeing me and my boss wouldn't look at me..."Dang, it feels good to be Catholic"'


...feels even better to not believe in such cr@p that makes you walk round all day with a mark on your forehead showing what a loony-tune you are.

And..."I felt like Christ was stuck to my forehead, and I didn't want to wash Him off."

Resist crude remark...

ANd.."It is like having Christ on you head and, I at least, feel ashamed to wipe it off"

Ah sod it...Christ has arisen and come!

My starter for 10 for this years 'Blasphemy Day'

http://www.mediawatchwatch.org.uk/2009/02/26/blasphemy-day-international/

Hi my first time on here I picked a name of the list something about flying ostriches I think and picked the top conversation on there list can anybody tell me what a thingite is and why people seem to hate catholics in this converstion?

kariblake
< why people seem to hate catholics in this converstion?>

Is this an alternative to 'why do you hate God so much?'

Just like the Catholics say they don't hate gays they just hate the sin...we don't hate Catholics we just hate illogical, irrational thought and having to suffer it being thrust into public life/law rather than keeping it all nice and private and not bothering people who don't giving a flying ostrich about it.

Please do not confuse 'discussing irrational beliefs' with 'hating'.

One normally feels sorry for the deluded rather than hate.



...oh, hello, by the way! You have picked a doozy of a discussion to start posting on.

We are nice people we just do not like wishy-washy thinking and say it as it is.

There are fluffier threads to go onto which will not scare you or make you leave...it's a good place to be...just watch out on the 'god' threads.

I also have no idea what a 'thingite' is or what the thing with 2legs is.

Please have fun around the place...

not sure if this was a polite way of saying please get off this site but as you are the only people to respond so far I think Ill stick around even if I am one of the deluded souls you refered to

I live in Australia and from what little I have read I gather life in England is a bit differnet to here re the whole God thing when you say you have to put up with irrational thinking being inserted into your laws can you explain?

Welcome to h2g2 kariblake.

I think I'm the only flying ostrich on here so that must refer to me.

The flying ostrich in my name refers to a cartoon character I used to draw.
http://public.fotki.com/CliveOstrich/clive_the_flying_ostrich/me.html

As to your questions, I haunt various places on this site, I tend to have a presence in the religious discussions because I am an atheist; I try to practice reason and rationality and am very interested in science; I also studied philosophy so have a perspective on some of the wilder claims of the religious.

Since these conversations have a tendency to attract lots of frequent posts (people disagreeing) they tend to become quite prominent but that is not the real substance of this online community.

What is a thingite? I founded a campaign (several years ago now) to rename the days of the week: Sodit, Wimpy, Wibble, Thinge, Poets, Doobry, Dontbry and a Thingites were the mad, mad, mad, mad people who like me thought this was a good idea. We got to be quite popualr we even got our won smiley but I'm semi-retired from that now. I keep my designate title as Warlord Emeritus.

Why do people seem to hate catholics? Well I don't. 4/5ths of my family *are* catholic.

I was merely remarking on the weird things that religious people (including catholics) do.

I *do* like 3dots suggestion of wearing a double helix on our foreheads on Feb 12th ! If we made it a hydrogen atom we could all pretend like we were Dr Manhattan!

So, to return to form, in a thread like 'The God Delusion' religious ideas will be challenged, and indeed gently mocked, because we don't respects delusional thinking, though we do try to understand it (and far too frequently) are left marvelling at the cognitive dissonance required to function as a talking walking sentient professor of religious ideas without imploding or left scratching our heads at the repeated non answers and obscurantism or plain making-stuff-up of our interlocutors.

In good humour and seriousness do we query the god delusion. In short it's not hate.

kariblake

See message on your personal space in the 'hello' post!

3Dots.

And please stick around...we don't mind you being deluded.

Although church and state are nominally seperate in the UK there is a relious lobby that can put force on our Parliament to make laws in the favour sometimes.

A few years ago a 'anti-gay law' came in which stopped people discriminating against gays.

The Church of England and the Catholic CHurch wanted to be exempt from this so they could still 'discriminate against gay people' because that is what god allows them to do.

Also, we have a House of Lords with about 30 unelected Bishops permenantly in it who can vote for or against legislation.

Within the UK the law is being more secular and 'protecting' the religious less i.e. making them more accountable for what they say and do. We have got rid of our blasphemy law recently (which also only counted blasphemy against Christians not Muslims..which annoyed them).

oh no! stay if you want to , what 3 dots meant and what I also implied is that the religious discussions between believers and non believers are small fraction of what h2g2 is, the tragedy is they tend to rise to prominence and are a place of argument. So this is a doozy of a place to make your home.

There are far, far, ,far better, more productive, more interesting places on h2g2 so please explore and find your nieche but stay if you want to take part.

Here are some ideas for other places to visit:

Puzzles and games thread:
A4167605

Quite Interesting Society (QI)
A22174526

The Post (Community Newspaper)
<./>thepost</.>

If you are into astronomy - have a word with the folks at the h2g2 astronomy society. A413876 I'm sure they'd like to here from a researcher in the Southern Hemisphere!

There's also the Austrailian and New Zealand Researchers Group.
A592049

Also I hope you were not affected by the recent fires.

Clive.

Nice one, Clive!

Found your hello when I went back I have not figured out yet how you see the entires as they are updated so I keep going back to my space and then clicking on the title and then I come back I take it there is a way of updating the converatin without leaving the thread?

Can I suggest you make it the symbol for Hydrogen3 on your head then it would really be special

laws here seem to be fairly tolerant re multi cultral/religion etc etc

I was raised catholic but left the catholic church for a more (insert clapping hands here) group... might interest you to know that maybe the reason we seem irrational stems from a belief that we are to think with our hearts not our heads, which is fun for me as an neuroscientist

have to admit I dont think I have ever heard anyone say Oh Budda recently

How did the bishops end up with a place in your system to be honest I have never looked into your system but I seem to remember you have two teirs is this correct? You will have to forgive me I spend most of my time with my head in either science mags/books or peering down/microscopes and up telescopes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/MP13851734?skip=0&show=25&s_type=pop&s_target=conversation

Open this link in a new window and save the URL as a bookmark, it will be a permanent up-to-date list refreshing every few minutes conversations you have joined or taken part in.




P.S Clapping hands - < applause > (no spaces) =

More on the h2g2 smileys here: <./>Smiley</.>

Had you guys really never seen the Ash Wednesday splodges before? The idea is that one gets it at early mass and isn't allowed to wash or rub it off - it has to wear off on its own.

Mind you...I've seen others get confused. I once witnessed this conversation between two colleagues:

A: 'Oh...you've got a bit of dirt on your forehead.'
B: 'Yeah, yeah.'
A: 'No - seriously...you've some dirt...'
B: (tersely) 'Well *some* people might see it as dirt.'
A: (perplexed) 'But...'
ME: 'So!...Did anyone have pancakes for dinner last night?'
A: 'Ohhhhhh!'

No. My parents are the 1/5th Protestant splinter-group from the rest so I was never exposed to it.

You are forgiven! Although, you should spend sometime with your nose in other books...or spend time browsing the info on the net to get a better feel of othe things.

I find it fascinating that as a neuroscientist you believe there is 'something out there' but as you were raised a Catholic then it's fairly well imprinted in your brain that there's a god around.



I'm no expert on the UK governmental system...there are much better people around but:-

we have a House of Commons(lower house) - this is where the MP's sit and who are voted for by the general unwashed plebs of the UK...us...the political party with the most seats gets to run the goverment (no proportional representation at the moment); and a 'House of Lords' full of unelected people.

The House of Commons will 'make laws' with when passed by vote by the
Commons then goes to the House of Lords to get passed as well.

The House of Lords is full of unelected peers called Lords (and Bishops). They are either life peers or hereditary peers. Hereditary peers have the 'lordship' title passed from generation to generation. Life peers are usually cronies of a particular party or have been made a Lord based on their excellence in a certain field (or both a cronie and expert).

The Lords is there as a 'sanity check' *cough* to make sure that the Commons does not pass 'bad law' however if enough Lords are on the side of the current ruling party in the Commons 'bad law' does get through.

There is a move to have an elected upper House of Lords to stop political croney-ism. Not sure whether this would work and is a new thread subject.

The reason I think why there are so many Bishops is that Parliament has been in existence for centuries and as we know pretty much up until 150years ago everyone thought that 'God' was a given thruth and hence the Church had lots of power and hence was in the Lords to ensure God's will was heard.

THese days they say they are still needed to give moral and ethical guidance...as if secularist and athiest have no morals or ethics!!!

Hope this helps...as I say someone else wil be able to give you a better explantion...and thinking about it there's probably an edited guide entry on it..doh...

Yes..doh..doh..doh..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A591383

I'm feeling ill...I'm being nice to someone on this thread...this thread isn't for being nice to people!!!!



kariblake: do you know who Richard Dawkins (PBUH) is? If not, you will not realise the background to the thread and why there is such *ahem* strong reaction and posts.