There are few things more fun than perusing the comments on the MLive website whenever there’s an article about CFI Michigan, and the recent article about our lawsuit over the Richard Dawkins speech cancellation does not disappoint. There are some hilariously idiotic comments, like this one from LifeAsAChristian:
I guess believing, as Dawkins does, that extraterrestrials came millions of light years (against Albert Einstein theories) to plant human life here is easier to believe than a loving God who created humans with freewill and then sent his Son to die for a sacrifice for those peoples sinful ways. We all have the right to choose what we believe, more than not it is the atheists who cry when we choose to follow our hearts rather than our minds, our souls rather than what our eyes tell us.
Wow. So much stupid packed into one paragraph. I’m sure it will come as quite a surprise to Dawkins that he believes aliens planted life on earth.
And from Tracks:
Who are atheists trying to convenance themselves there is no God?Atheists cant sway a true believer so whats your point? Is it because you feel your a minority,and want to feel better about what your beliefs are,by trying to convince the struggling to buy into your philosophy?Why do people have a conscience?if we didnt, we all would kill, steal, rape, and feel we could do what ever we wanted to do with no rules to live by.So if someone didn’t like what we said they would hunt us down and kill us.I know this might sound harsh but its very true.Your consciences doesn’t come from the sea,or the stars in the universe it is a gift from God (THE HOLY SPIRIT).
I would never try to “convenance” him otherwise. Whatever that means.
From rightsideofbrain:
This is so funny. How can you sue based on religious freedom when you have no religion- when you are anti-religion. Of course, you can’t.
Why are you not writing books about 6 headed dragons from Mars? Is it because they don’t exist? Yet, you write books and preach that there is no God. If there isn’t- why would you protest something that doesn’t exist?
The truth is that you know there is a God. You are just attention seekers who don’t like a structured religion. That is Ok. Attend a Catholic Church and try to make changes so it is more current to your thinking. Or a Babtist Church, or Jewish or whatever.
But protesting, writing books and whining about something you don’t believe is real? That is laughable.
And a follow up from jdb:
I think that they do this because religion provides purpose, meaning, contentment and happiness for many people – and they sure can’t stand anyone having that! That is why there are so many condescending comments from the athiests here.. and probably why they are suing a private club for not wanting to let them use their facilities..
From Chicago76:
There is no logic or reasoning in atheism. The fool says,”There is no God.” Fools following around fools, pretending they know where they are going, and they are actually going nowhere.
The comments on the Detroit News article on the same thing weren’t quite so bad, but still had some amusing ones, like this one from Brian Kitchin:
So why can’t he cancel him? If he had a signed contract he probably owes him the money though. Atheist are some of the most thinned skinned folks I’ve ever known. I guess they take any slight personal. It’s hard when you consider yourself the center and most important being in the Universe to take any correction or not get your way.
I love how he answers his own stupid question — they had a signed contract — and then goes on to offer silly speculation about atheists thinking they’re the most important being in the universe to explain the non-answer to that stupid question.
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kimrottman
May 5, 2012 at 9:14 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
That person has been listening to Ben Stein. I saw Dawkins talking about this in an interview. He explained that he’d said before that he doesn’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility that, if there is intelligent life elsewhere, they could be advanced enough to engage in some kind of panspermia shenanigans. Ben Stein caught wind of it and has since been running around telling everyone who’ll listen that Dawkins believes we’re descended from little green men who landed on Earth 4 billion years ago.
helenaconstantine
May 5, 2012 at 9:19 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
to Clarify the fist comment, in Expelled, Dawkins indeed proposes alien intervention as the only possible way that ID could be real, but only as a thought exercise.
slc1
May 5, 2012 at 9:20 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
AFAIK, this notion was advanced by Fred Hoyle, who is a creationist hero for his 747 in a junkyard meme as an argument against evolution. I suspect that Dawkins’ actual position is that it is marginally more probable then the existence of god but not by much.
RickR
May 5, 2012 at 9:28 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
And as usual, breathtaking projection is the order of the day-
Uh yeah, let’s ask Jessica Ahlquist about that.
Phillip IV
May 5, 2012 at 9:39 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I guess he’s right – both ideas are bullshit, but the first one is far easier to believe. The second one, about a “loving” god who created humans with a free will, then started punishing them for using it, and then decided to forgive them by way of torturing his own son to death…now that’s far fetched.
Well, I guess you could call that a very thought-inspiring question, just not in the way the writer intended. But you definitely have to think a long time to figure out what they’re even trying to say.
Doug Little
May 5, 2012 at 9:39 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
slc,
I’ll go out on a limb and say that it is way more probable than the existence of the supernatural with both being eclipsed quite substantially by a home grown self replicating molecule. Actually these three ideas for how life began would exist quite nicely on a logarithmic scale.
dingojack
May 5, 2012 at 10:45 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Millions of lightears? Why would life exist only in one place in every spiral galaxy? And if it did how would that be a relativistic problem (more than 9 billion lightyears I could see, but millions? Nah).
The second nearest G class star (that is, a star rather like our own in surface temperate) is about 4.5 lightyears away.
Clearly they get an F- in their science classes.
Dingo
Artor
May 5, 2012 at 11:17 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The second commenter makes a convenancing argument about morality. Just think about all the amoral atheists who go around killing people they disagree with. Oh wait, that’s the religious people, sorry.
Michael Heath
May 5, 2012 at 12:01 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I think this is the biggest howler, from Brian Kitchin:
It reminds me of conservative Christians complaining about gays taking over and wanting special rights.
Tabby Lavalamp
May 5, 2012 at 12:25 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Yes. It’s the people who don’t believe we are specially created by deity each with a special purpose who will live forever in mansions in heaven who consider ourselves the centers and most important beings in the universe.
fifthdentist
May 5, 2012 at 1:21 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I know it’s been a few decades since I’ve been to church, but I still can’t believe I never heard of the 11th commandment being added, “Thou shalt not properly use apostrophes.”
Rip Steakface
May 5, 2012 at 1:43 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@11 fifthdentist
As I recall, the 11th commandment is thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican.
Zeno
May 5, 2012 at 5:13 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It would be more accurate to say Ben Stein dragged it out of Dawkins in person, demanding to know whether there was any scenario under which Dawkins could imagine ID to be true. That was when Dawkins grudgingly conceded that there was a tiny glimmer of a possibility that intelligent life might choose to spread life to other planets—not that there was any evidence that anything like that had occurred on earth. As one might have expected, the brain-dead creationists immediately concluded that Dawkins believed terrestrial life to be the result of seeding by little green men. Creationists are the best argument against the existence of intelligent life on this planet.
Homo Straminus
May 5, 2012 at 9:01 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
From the rather bleary-eyed Tracks: “Atheists cant sway a true believer so whats your point?”
Oh I dunno, maybe convincing the doubters that it’s ok to believe in reality?
Chiroptera
May 5, 2012 at 9:35 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
…and probably why they are suing a private club for not wanting to let them use their facilities…
Actually, they are suing the owner of a public venue for violating the laws governing public venues.
andrewpang
May 6, 2012 at 6:06 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ed, do note that the Detroit News comment section sorts comments by the most upvotes, unlike the MLive.com. The top comment on Detroit News: “Looking forward to a successful outcome. Our laws should not allow such bigotry and bullying. Kudos to CFI for standing up for our rights!” Followed by: “So the Wyndgate Country Club is afraid of what one of the world’s leading scientists, who is also a perfect gentlemen, has to say. How pathetic.”