Hi Henry, just to clarify for non-Irish folks: the Minister in question, Edwin Poots, is in the government of Northern Ireland, as opposed to the Republic of Ireland. He is a self-professed creationist, so that should give people who visit here some idea of his level of common sense. You can imagine just how effective he was when he was Minister for the Environment in Northern Ireland a few years ago… He is also a noted homophobe (he has already banned gay people from donating blood in Northern Ireland, which is a breach of European Union law that will not be maintained), and is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. His comments on Africa should not worry you, as very few of his own constituents take him seriously anymore. Besides, I would imagine it would be pretty much impossible to determine whether someone has ever had sex with a prostitute, or in Africa, or any where else.
In U.S. they don’t want blood from men who have had sex with men, even if the last time was 30 years ago.
Sexual contact with an individual with HIV or viral hepatitis gets you just a 12-month wait period, as long as you aren’t both men.
Red Cross has argued to FDA that this is not rational. http://www.aabb.org/pressroom/statements/Pages/statement061510.aspx
I don’t mean to imply this is a no-brainer. Estimating the risks is complicated. Could be stuff out there we don’t even know about too. I do wonder if someone is frightened of my cooties on top of the real worries though.
Atheist experiences in Romania/East Europe. How the dramatic shifts in politics over the last 30 years or so have affected religiosity/religious privilege in that part of the world. It would be good to see these things from a perspective I imagine is quite different from the predominantly American one on FtB.
Not that there’s anything wrong with the American perspective, far from it, but it’s not the only one out there.
I’d also like to hear what’s going on in Romania. Do you get much attention or criticism there? When I read international news, I always see polls that Western Europe is becoming less religious- but then I hear about stuff like a woman in Poland dying because she couldn’t get a medically necessary abortion.
I was wondering where you think religion will be in the year 2100, or even 2200.
I know that its been asked alot, but it would be good to hear your opinion.
My pet bugbear is the impact of religious missions on indigenous communities and biodiversity, particularly in developing countries – perhaps the worst form of ongoing government-sponsored racism and ecosystem disruption, which is continued under the guise of “charitable works” and which, despite earnest efforts to get the issue on the UN platform, was not given enough attention at the Rio Earth Summit this week. I’d like to see that subject get more attention on FtB.
Like #10, I’d like to hear about religious developments in the Eastern Europe/former Soviet area, it’s not something we hear over here in our vastly western dominant part of the interwebz.
As for topics, I am also interested in atheist/skeptic news from Romania, but more in the good news. Specifically, what kinds of pro-science groups and networks exist there? In Romania, or elsewhere nearby, are there “skeptics in the pub” meetups? Any large conventions? Who are some authors and activists in the region who deserve more attention?
Did the previous totalitarian regime tie itself closely to scientism, harming the image of science today? Will you be writing about drug policy? Will you be writing about the intersection of art and science, and the sense of wonder at the universe? This last subject has been noticeable in many of your videos, second only to you great sense of humor.
I look forward to reading and seeing more of your work here on FtB. Hurray!
Awesome. Awesome awesome. Double awesome. Welcome to FTB!
Your videos are invariably great, but after your well-thought-out criticisms of the American War on Drugs at the recent American Atheists conference, I’d be particularly interested in hearing more about your political views.
Woo! I missed your announcement tweet due to time differences, but .. wow! Welcome to FtB! I’ve found your videos informative and interesting, and I’m looking forward to your perspective on issue here!
Hi Cristina, and welcome. I love the Romenian language, I wish I can visit Romenia some day.
Unfortunately, I forgot almost all my Romenian, except for “calul este al fratelui meu” and “du-te dracului”, which is not a very friendy thing to say.
Also, the pronoun “I” are the same in Romenian and Portuguese – “eu”. “Meu” is also the same word.
Welcome aboard, Criss! And now, off to add you to my Youtube subscriptions. I meet the most interesting, intelligent and articulate people through FtB!
My pet bugbear is the impact of religious missions on indigenous communities and biodiversity, particularly in developing countries – perhaps the worst form of ongoing government-sponsored racism and ecosystem disruption, which is continued under the guise of “charitable works”. . .”
It seems to me that most people drawn toward science are fascinated by nature, and tend to be less interested than the average person in relatively artificial and transient subjects of fashion trends and popular culture. I myself studied physics and math, and such preoccupations have always struck me as perhaps fun but ultimately somewhat shallow and meaningless, especially when compared to the profound beauty of nature. On the other hand, making one’s self attractive is a fundamental aspect of biological nature, but one that operates more in the realm of instinct, impulse, and emotion, rather than in the mode of reason and abstraction, as science does largely. It seems that the makers of this video don’t really understand the kinds of obsessions that draw people into science. The video seems to be made from the viewpoint that women are repelled from science because they fear it would hurt their image as sexually powerful and attractive beings (which perhaps is true to some degree, as determined by prevailing cultural norms). But there are some big assumptions at work here which seem rather misguided to me.
Christina, since you are a woman, attractive and stylish, and very rational and intelligent, it seems your opinion on this is significant. I don’t know if you have a science background (I haven’t seen many of your vlogs), but I think I recall seeing you discuss evolution in a video some time ago. So I would like to hear you comment on this marketing campaign to encourage women to go into science: how does it affect you, both rationally and emotionally, and do you think it has a chance of being effective?
Also, I’m curious about the meaning or origin of the name ZOMGitscriss, if that’s open for discussion.
With respect to atheism and religion, it seems to me that while there may be some cultural benefits to religion, just as there are with any kind of social club or group, the really annoying parts about religion are the fundamentally wrong truth claims about reality outside of subjective human values. These are primarily the claims about the existence of God, the existence of spirit or divinity or other non-physical forms of being or energy, the nature of humans, particularly the idea of the soul and the idea of an after-life.
There is a part of me that is so impatient with all this nonsense that I wish that religion could just be obliterated, that everyone would just wake up and realize how absurd and foolish it all is and abandon it immediately with a great deal of embarrassment, regret, and apology for having played a part in such a grand deception.
Yet I also feel that such total hostility toward religion damages the important cause of atheists, naturalists, and humanists, which is to persuade the public at large that religion is obsolete, false, and harmful. It’s hard to gain a person’s attention or interest by talking about how foolish and imperceptive they are (even if they truly are foolish, imperceptive, and blinded by a cultural parasite).
These opposing considerations tempt atheists into either the confrontational standpoint, which leads to annoying complaints of “stridency”, “militancy”, or even “fundamentalist dogmatism” on the part of atheists, or else into the soft and mushy standpoint of accomodationist apologetics, which invariably end up in compromise by failing to fully condemn the false metaphysical claims and grandiose assertions about human nature made by religions.
It seems to me that atheists can find a way to acknowledge the possible benefits people glean from religion, while still not compromising on religion’s conflict with science regarding the nature of reality, and religion’s pretensions to “know” something, anything at all even, about the fundamental nature of reality.
For example, there seems to be evidence from cognitive science that meditation does in fact have some efficacy that is measurable. Perhaps prayer can also have some benefit in focusing the mind, allaying fears, and strengthening self-discipline, simply as a meditative tool for mental exercise. These things can be acknowledged while still maintaining the absurdity of the idea that prayer involves messages being transmitted to a grand and powerful cosmic intelligence who would somehow intervene by bending the laws of physics on behalf of an individual. The social benefits of groups meeting to strengthen and promote positive caring attitudes, and to establish and maintain moral norms can also be conceded as a possible benefit of religion, without claiming the authority or legitimacy of some cosmic spiritual truth behind it all. These social activities are rather just an inherent aspect of the social and tribal nature of the human organism.
So it seems there is a two pronged approach, which consists of using science and reason to undermine the false and pretentious claims of religion about the natural world outside of the realm of human subjectivity, while also using knowledge from the social sciences and humanities to help explain how and why humans find happiness, satisfaction, and other benefits in the rituals and narratives of religion. This doesn’t compromise scientific truth and honesty, while still providing at least some common ground, some way that atheists can relate to the religious in a friendly way that helps them to preserve their dignity, even though our actual conviction is that they are totally deluded by ancient superstition, which is clearly an insulting and demoralizing prospect for the religiously minded to come to terms with.
Evolution and physics have made tremendous progress in discrediting religious narratives about the creation of the Universe, of homo sapiens, and of life in general. Even the Catholic church has had to acknowledge evolution, yet they cling to the notion of the soul by asserting that at some point God inserts a soul into the evolutionary process. I think that the contest between religious myths of human origin and evolution is already won. As one of my professors used to say, “it’s all over but the shouting”. There is still a lot of empty shouting going on, but it is clear that truth will prevail in the long run. Religion has nothing but dishonesty, denial, and deception to fall back on when confronting the evidence of evolution.
The soul and the afterlife seem like the really fruitful remaining frontiers, whose exploration can do much to undermine religious truth claims, which is why I’m most particularly interested in findings of cognitive sciences that refute the ideas of dualism, free will, and the imaginary possibility of consciousness surviving the death of the brain. I would be interested in anything you have to say addressing these areas.
You’re here! This is so AWESOME! Welcome to FTB, Cristina. Hope you like it here.
BTW… you did a YouTube video a little while back about how you’re not an agnostic… any chance you’d be willing to talk about that more? I wrote a blog post about how I’m both (agnostic and atheist), but I also go on to argue that everyone is agnostic mainly because Yahweh isn’t the only god concept ever invented. I was hoping maybe we could spar over it?
😛
Or not… 😀
Seriously, though. Welcome to FTB. This place just got even better with you being here.
Greetings, salutations and welcome to FTB Cristina, I’ve been watching you on youtube for a few years and immensely enjoy your takedowns of the creationists. Your feeding the little birdies was also a favorite. Looking forward to reading about your thoughts on politics, scientific and gender issues. Happy Birthday.
My question? Same as I asked Neil deGrasse Tyson–what’s your favorite poem, and why?
Oh, and with Bulgaria unearthing the skeleton of a vampire, how do Romanians feel about this trespassing on their traditional turf? (or, a serious historical treatment of such superstitions).
Awesome to see you here on FTB Christina. You are indeed Rad! My first exposure to your videos was your brutal point-by-point takedown of Ray Comfort & Kirk Cameron’s banana argument. I want to show it to my kid, but I haven’t been able to find it on your website. Could you repost it?
Can you write about your hair,i.e. is it naturally curly and how does your hair compare with your close relatives and other women in Romania. Please ignore this and write about anything you like really.
I like how you said your name with an American accent. I was born in Serbia, though at the present I live in the US, and it reminded me of how I’m always “adjusting” to accomodate my American friends.
Which, by the way, I don’t mind! Y’all are great, really, and totally worth it – some of you sometimes just really suck ass at pronouncing shit. To put it elegantly.
I am surprised about him because I’d never come across Ash…………aaaaaaaaaaaa…..ooooooooooooooooo guy like this TIGER before. What even me surf if I had that much I’ll do same. Aden wo nko me nko anaaa? 3y3 papa sorkyieeee
With what to begin? yap these is a dilemma!
I would like to see an answer, the this Nazi attitude of the new-atheist.
You know…, we are intelligent, beautiful, smart, bright, and all others who do not subscribe to our faith is retarded and inferior, and must be discriminated.
And yes, the attitude is real, if you do not believe me check your latest videos.
Also I would like to know why atheists feel obliged to massacre history. I speak here of the atheistic religious myths as: “medieval people believed the earth is flat”, or that Christianity brought 1000 years of darkness called “The Dark Ages” or that without Christianity, humanity would have colonized the universe
See how I comment on the atheist myth that “Islam saved the antique culture” http://vyckro.blogspot.ro/2012/03/about-atheists-socialist-prof.html
But the big question is: Why?
Why atheists are incapable of understanding something which everyone understands?
That is, to distinguish between a extreme and a majority?
When an atheist goes online for promoting hatred and discrimination first thing he makes is to build a reason. After all even Hitler needed a reason and did not justified the war “for having nothing better to do”. Atheists are excellent, in inventing reasons for their campaigns of hate. They always build straw mens, from what was the worst of the Catholic Church,the worst of the televanghelist churches & the worst of the protestant churches.
Obviously such a straw man is logically inconsistent, you can not put one next to another, that is a church that promotes home education to the church, that implemented universities in the west and accuse both that they oppose education. Or put the church that persecuted those with other visions and its victims & accuse both of intolerance. Still atheists are able to do that and proclaim themselves to be “bright”.
LOL
Vyck – I was wondering when you would drag your dishonest and hateful self over here. Why don’t you stop all this negative behavior, like lying and stalking and name-calling, and try to add something positive to a conversation. Do you remember what that is like? Perhaps from when you were a child?
A conversation? I was not aware that there is a conversation!
A conversation with people who constantly called others retards just because it happens they have other vision of the world than themselves?
A conversation with people who constantly propagate a false image about the religion that built modern civilization, only to justify their on hate campaign.
There is no conversation with people who do not want to have a conversation, There is no conversation with people who believe that their purpose in life is to support their predetermined conclusions, and necessarily have to “Pwned” their opponents.
I invited him to a tête-à-tête discussion (see the video on that blogg), about some lies that T.Fool spreads on yt since 2006, in order to justify his hate campaign.
And T.Fool is the fool whit the revision history.
Jeffrey G Johnsonsays
VyckRo,
Hopefully you can see the logical fallacy in taking an experience with one atheist and, as in your earlier posts, generalizing that to claims about how all atheists behave.
Also, you have to understand that accusing people of lying, thinking like Nazis, and being full of hatred is the wrong way to invite discussion. That kind of overheated emotional rhetoric is the sign of wildly extreme viewpoints and an absence of rational clarity. Nobody really wants to uselessly beat their head against a barrage of exaggerated claims with no empirical backing. The conversations to be had have occurred so many times already that it is wearying. The same points have to be rehashed over and over.
I think if you actually were to read and understand all the existing arguments, and then came up with a new objection or logical argument, one that hasn’t already been refuted and rebutted exhaustively, and you made your case calmly and clearly and rationally, then you would find plenty of atheists interested and willing to engage in that discussion.
As it is, what I can see here tells me that you aren’t looking for productive conversation; it appears more like you are just itching for a fight. No thanks to that.
@Jeffrey G.Johnson
There are two issues here:
1) about talking to atheists in general,the lack of dialogue does not come from me.As I said above (and as most people who oppose atheism)I would not be here today if not for the hatred, promoted constantly and obsessively by people like this so-called >”Cristina Rad”***u”Dr. Phil”guy<.
Atheists began their campaign of hate by calling everyone retards and intentionally promoting lies, that you do not supposed to be a scientist to understand them, as the part the whit "the Old Testament" or whit what part of the Bible, we take literally and which do not. People of different social backgrounds and religious do not have any trouble in understanding such ordinary religious concepts. But this situation apparently does not apply to "smart" atheist especially if they can foster misunderstandings, misunderstandings which can lead to hate. See my post -Who or what is VyckRo ?-
2) on thunderf00t, If I support a classic thesis generally accepted by everyone I do not have to “read and understand all the existing arguments, came up with a new objection” people who propose pseudoscientific theses must come up with real arguments to be taken seriously.
And yet I engage thunderf00t in a real discussion about the fables and myths he believes, and for almost a year has refused consistently to present his case or to stop promote his lies. See My open letter to Thunderf00t
I’m so happy to see you here. I left YT because it seemed like such a nasty place with 4chan-like trolls appearing constantly. When I saw Zinna on FTB, I also hoped you’d be blogging here too. I’d also love to see Nellydittle(sp?)blogging for FTBs. Maybe DLandonCole, too?
You are the epitome of welcomed. May I offer you my most ironic Christian side-hug?
Hello there. Just wanted to let you know that I am a Muslim and I absolutely love your youtube channel.
No, that wasn’t sarcasm.
What’s happened with the Quran is “Scholars” who have “authority” are convincing people that we have to follow what the prophet supposedly did. But as you can see from reading hadith, a God-fearing man would never do any of those things. And then the “scholars” are the only ones with “approved translations” so that any Quran written in English (and any other language besides Arabic for that matter) can be screwed up. I hate the hadith. That’s where you get all of the rape and killing and disgusting traditions. The Quran seems to reflect that because it’s the misogynist douchebags who are translating the book. AND it’s the same misogynist douchebags with an agenda who live in the Middle East who will tell their people “you couldn’t possibly understand the Quran on your own (even though you know Arabic). You must be a scholar who’s studied for years! There’s no way you can truly understand the word of God without our guidance!” No, they all have an agenda.
I totally understand your point of view. As a former full-blown atheist, I am so glad that you are analyzing things very critically and you take it apart in detail. That’s actually what you’re SUPPOSED to do in Islam but many muslims seem to forget that fact. If you want to read about Islam from a different perspective (a.k.a. a logical one), I would like to invite you to read, but by all means verify everything and criticize everything. Ask questions and never, ever accept anything that doesn’t make sense.
And just to point out, Muslim women do not have to wear a headscarf or a bedsheet, nor is it allowed to marry children, nor is rape allowed, nor is marrying multiple wives allowed, or any of that other B.S. that these douchebags are trying to impose on people. Just saying.
As a start, try this link for reading http://www.free-minds.org/god-alone
It’s a website that tries to take everything critically, and NOT follow random stories blindly.
Another good website is quran-islam.org. This guy explains how the scholars take Quranic verses and twists them to fit into their own agenda. He goes into great detail about many controversial issues. He also explains his reason for why God exists based on scientific theories alone, none based on any religious book at all. Take a look if you want.
This chick on youtube explains why muslims should NOT follow hadith which is the stuff outside of the Quran that the scholars somehow convince people to follow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhSBeLX7F9o
If you read all this and still think Islam is junk, I can totally understand that, too. I’m just trying to let you know that there are some religious people who won’t follow anything unless it’s based in science, logic and reason. I totally reject the concept of believing in something just because someone says it’s the truth. I strongly believe that if something is the truth, it will destroy any lies or falsehood. Period.
i respect you for not kiss the priest hand that was actual what jesus wants you to do but God does help people so thoughs people can help thoughs people anyone who nows jesus nows he’s misterous God does to you what you do to other people but one thing is he never stops loving you and i know you might be athiest but you are made in Gods image.
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Hello and welcome zomgitscriss! Never has your name been more appropriate because that’s my reaction upon seeing you here!
Welcome! I’ve watched all of your videos and am looking forward to reading your contributions here.
I’d like you to discuss your political-philosophy
Welcome!
Dear Christina,
A week or so ago, there was a Health Minister in Ireland who talked about excluding people from donating blood that had sex in Africa or prostitutes.
The thing is, some people (Africans) were offended. what is your take on that issue?
Henry Tumusiime
Uganda, East Africa
Hi Henry, just to clarify for non-Irish folks: the Minister in question, Edwin Poots, is in the government of Northern Ireland, as opposed to the Republic of Ireland. He is a self-professed creationist, so that should give people who visit here some idea of his level of common sense. You can imagine just how effective he was when he was Minister for the Environment in Northern Ireland a few years ago… He is also a noted homophobe (he has already banned gay people from donating blood in Northern Ireland, which is a breach of European Union law that will not be maintained), and is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. His comments on Africa should not worry you, as very few of his own constituents take him seriously anymore. Besides, I would imagine it would be pretty much impossible to determine whether someone has ever had sex with a prostitute, or in Africa, or any where else.
In U.S. they don’t want blood from men who have had sex with men, even if the last time was 30 years ago.
Sexual contact with an individual with HIV or viral hepatitis gets you just a 12-month wait period, as long as you aren’t both men.
Red Cross has argued to FDA that this is not rational.
http://www.aabb.org/pressroom/statements/Pages/statement061510.aspx
I don’t mean to imply this is a no-brainer. Estimating the risks is complicated. Could be stuff out there we don’t even know about too. I do wonder if someone is frightened of my cooties on top of the real worries though.
Welcome to FTB.
Welcome, Cristina! Glad you’re here.
It is nice to see you here, or anywhere for that matter.
Welcome Criss!
Louis
Subject?
Atheist experiences in Romania/East Europe. How the dramatic shifts in politics over the last 30 years or so have affected religiosity/religious privilege in that part of the world. It would be good to see these things from a perspective I imagine is quite different from the predominantly American one on FtB.
Not that there’s anything wrong with the American perspective, far from it, but it’s not the only one out there.
Louis
I’d also like to hear what’s going on in Romania. Do you get much attention or criticism there? When I read international news, I always see polls that Western Europe is becoming less religious- but then I hear about stuff like a woman in Poland dying because she couldn’t get a medically necessary abortion.
G’day Christina,
I was wondering where you think religion will be in the year 2100, or even 2200.
I know that its been asked alot, but it would be good to hear your opinion.
Thanks,
Michael
Welcome to FTB and looking forward to reading more of your thoughts here. Cheers! (Raised beer salute.)
Welcome Christina, nice to see you here at FTB.
As far as content, what Louis said @10.
And have you spent significant time in an English-speaking country? Your mastery of colloquial English is amazing if you haven’t!
Glad to see you here.
Welcome, Cristina!
Looking forward to seeing more of your thoughts, ideas and arguments… in one of my favorite spots on the ‘Net!
ZOMG it’s ZOMGitscriss.
Great to have you here! I love your videos, and could seriously listen to you talk all day.
Oh FFS. There goes my last vestiges of productivity.
Sums it up nicely.
Welcome Criss!
My pet bugbear is the impact of religious missions on indigenous communities and biodiversity, particularly in developing countries – perhaps the worst form of ongoing government-sponsored racism and ecosystem disruption, which is continued under the guise of “charitable works” and which, despite earnest efforts to get the issue on the UN platform, was not given enough attention at the Rio Earth Summit this week. I’d like to see that subject get more attention on FtB.
With you here on FtB i won’t need Youtube anymore except for guitar lessons.
Welcome! I love your title caption. That might be my secret favorite song!
Welcome aboard, Criss! Great to have you here!
Longtime subscriber over there. Glad to see you over here.
AMG, it’s ZOMBIECHRISS!!!
Like #10, I’d like to hear about religious developments in the Eastern Europe/former Soviet area, it’s not something we hear over here in our vastly western dominant part of the interwebz.
Ms. Christina – if you bring to this site the same intelligence and wit you give us on ZOMGitsChriss, we’ll have another winner….
Welcome!
This is great news. Welcome aboard, Cristina!
As for topics, I am also interested in atheist/skeptic news from Romania, but more in the good news. Specifically, what kinds of pro-science groups and networks exist there? In Romania, or elsewhere nearby, are there “skeptics in the pub” meetups? Any large conventions? Who are some authors and activists in the region who deserve more attention?
Did the previous totalitarian regime tie itself closely to scientism, harming the image of science today? Will you be writing about drug policy? Will you be writing about the intersection of art and science, and the sense of wonder at the universe? This last subject has been noticeable in many of your videos, second only to you great sense of humor.
I look forward to reading and seeing more of your work here on FtB. Hurray!
Hi Criss good to see you here.
I’ve been a long term fan of you on YT.
Not that I have anything against Americans, but quite a lot of the Americans here quite naturally focus on items of primarily American interest.
It would be good to see more atheist comments on what is going on in Europe – I’m a Brit by the way.
I sign with my usual internet handle, which for some reason I couldn’t register with on google.
David B
Awesome. Awesome awesome. Double awesome. Welcome to FTB!
Your videos are invariably great, but after your well-thought-out criticisms of the American War on Drugs at the recent American Atheists conference, I’d be particularly interested in hearing more about your political views.
OK this made my day…welcome!
Woo! I missed your announcement tweet due to time differences, but .. wow! Welcome to FtB! I’ve found your videos informative and interesting, and I’m looking forward to your perspective on issue here!
Hi Cristina, and welcome. I love the Romenian language, I wish I can visit Romenia some day.
Unfortunately, I forgot almost all my Romenian, except for “calul este al fratelui meu” and “du-te dracului”, which is not a very friendy thing to say.
Also, the pronoun “I” are the same in Romenian and Portuguese – “eu”. “Meu” is also the same word.
Welcome aboard, Criss! And now, off to add you to my Youtube subscriptions. I meet the most interesting, intelligent and articulate people through FtB!
{waves paw}
Welcome to FtB Cristina!
I second Mudpuddles’ request @ 10
Welcome Cristina!!
Who has money on DPR Jones being next on FTB?
ZOMGitsCriss!
Good to have you here. Is this going to be a totally separate thing from your YouTube vlogs or what?
I would be interested on your take on this video advertisement intended to spark interest in science among women (or girls perhaps):
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/06/22/science-its-a-girl-thing/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freethoughtblogs%2Fpharyngula+%28FTB%3A+Pharyngula%29
It seems to me that most people drawn toward science are fascinated by nature, and tend to be less interested than the average person in relatively artificial and transient subjects of fashion trends and popular culture. I myself studied physics and math, and such preoccupations have always struck me as perhaps fun but ultimately somewhat shallow and meaningless, especially when compared to the profound beauty of nature. On the other hand, making one’s self attractive is a fundamental aspect of biological nature, but one that operates more in the realm of instinct, impulse, and emotion, rather than in the mode of reason and abstraction, as science does largely. It seems that the makers of this video don’t really understand the kinds of obsessions that draw people into science. The video seems to be made from the viewpoint that women are repelled from science because they fear it would hurt their image as sexually powerful and attractive beings (which perhaps is true to some degree, as determined by prevailing cultural norms). But there are some big assumptions at work here which seem rather misguided to me.
Christina, since you are a woman, attractive and stylish, and very rational and intelligent, it seems your opinion on this is significant. I don’t know if you have a science background (I haven’t seen many of your vlogs), but I think I recall seeing you discuss evolution in a video some time ago. So I would like to hear you comment on this marketing campaign to encourage women to go into science: how does it affect you, both rationally and emotionally, and do you think it has a chance of being effective?
Also, I’m curious about the meaning or origin of the name ZOMGitscriss, if that’s open for discussion.
With respect to atheism and religion, it seems to me that while there may be some cultural benefits to religion, just as there are with any kind of social club or group, the really annoying parts about religion are the fundamentally wrong truth claims about reality outside of subjective human values. These are primarily the claims about the existence of God, the existence of spirit or divinity or other non-physical forms of being or energy, the nature of humans, particularly the idea of the soul and the idea of an after-life.
There is a part of me that is so impatient with all this nonsense that I wish that religion could just be obliterated, that everyone would just wake up and realize how absurd and foolish it all is and abandon it immediately with a great deal of embarrassment, regret, and apology for having played a part in such a grand deception.
Yet I also feel that such total hostility toward religion damages the important cause of atheists, naturalists, and humanists, which is to persuade the public at large that religion is obsolete, false, and harmful. It’s hard to gain a person’s attention or interest by talking about how foolish and imperceptive they are (even if they truly are foolish, imperceptive, and blinded by a cultural parasite).
These opposing considerations tempt atheists into either the confrontational standpoint, which leads to annoying complaints of “stridency”, “militancy”, or even “fundamentalist dogmatism” on the part of atheists, or else into the soft and mushy standpoint of accomodationist apologetics, which invariably end up in compromise by failing to fully condemn the false metaphysical claims and grandiose assertions about human nature made by religions.
It seems to me that atheists can find a way to acknowledge the possible benefits people glean from religion, while still not compromising on religion’s conflict with science regarding the nature of reality, and religion’s pretensions to “know” something, anything at all even, about the fundamental nature of reality.
For example, there seems to be evidence from cognitive science that meditation does in fact have some efficacy that is measurable. Perhaps prayer can also have some benefit in focusing the mind, allaying fears, and strengthening self-discipline, simply as a meditative tool for mental exercise. These things can be acknowledged while still maintaining the absurdity of the idea that prayer involves messages being transmitted to a grand and powerful cosmic intelligence who would somehow intervene by bending the laws of physics on behalf of an individual. The social benefits of groups meeting to strengthen and promote positive caring attitudes, and to establish and maintain moral norms can also be conceded as a possible benefit of religion, without claiming the authority or legitimacy of some cosmic spiritual truth behind it all. These social activities are rather just an inherent aspect of the social and tribal nature of the human organism.
So it seems there is a two pronged approach, which consists of using science and reason to undermine the false and pretentious claims of religion about the natural world outside of the realm of human subjectivity, while also using knowledge from the social sciences and humanities to help explain how and why humans find happiness, satisfaction, and other benefits in the rituals and narratives of religion. This doesn’t compromise scientific truth and honesty, while still providing at least some common ground, some way that atheists can relate to the religious in a friendly way that helps them to preserve their dignity, even though our actual conviction is that they are totally deluded by ancient superstition, which is clearly an insulting and demoralizing prospect for the religiously minded to come to terms with.
Evolution and physics have made tremendous progress in discrediting religious narratives about the creation of the Universe, of homo sapiens, and of life in general. Even the Catholic church has had to acknowledge evolution, yet they cling to the notion of the soul by asserting that at some point God inserts a soul into the evolutionary process. I think that the contest between religious myths of human origin and evolution is already won. As one of my professors used to say, “it’s all over but the shouting”. There is still a lot of empty shouting going on, but it is clear that truth will prevail in the long run. Religion has nothing but dishonesty, denial, and deception to fall back on when confronting the evidence of evolution.
The soul and the afterlife seem like the really fruitful remaining frontiers, whose exploration can do much to undermine religious truth claims, which is why I’m most particularly interested in findings of cognitive sciences that refute the ideas of dualism, free will, and the imaginary possibility of consciousness surviving the death of the brain. I would be interested in anything you have to say addressing these areas.
Hi!
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AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You’re here! This is so AWESOME! Welcome to FTB, Cristina. Hope you like it here.
BTW… you did a YouTube video a little while back about how you’re not an agnostic… any chance you’d be willing to talk about that more? I wrote a blog post about how I’m both (agnostic and atheist), but I also go on to argue that everyone is agnostic mainly because Yahweh isn’t the only god concept ever invented. I was hoping maybe we could spar over it?
😛
Or not… 😀
Seriously, though. Welcome to FTB. This place just got even better with you being here.
Yay! Congratulations! Glad to see you here.
This is 100% happy-making. Welcome!
Also, if you’ve seen the recent “Science is for Girls” PSA, I would love to hear your thoughts.
Great to see you here! Hope you had a wonderful birthday.
I predict the comment threads here will rival even Pharyngula. Welcome! We’re thrilled to have you.
O hai! You are, indeed, out of control. Fantastic!
I want to meet you some day. How about the 4th of July? 🙂
Greetings, salutations and welcome to FTB Cristina, I’ve been watching you on youtube for a few years and immensely enjoy your takedowns of the creationists. Your feeding the little birdies was also a favorite. Looking forward to reading about your thoughts on politics, scientific and gender issues. Happy Birthday.
Great vids, thank you for posting…LLP :o)
Welcome to the neighborhood!
My question? Same as I asked Neil deGrasse Tyson–what’s your favorite poem, and why?
Oh, and with Bulgaria unearthing the skeleton of a vampire, how do Romanians feel about this trespassing on their traditional turf? (or, a serious historical treatment of such superstitions).
SO GLAD TO SEE YOU HERE!
Welcome! Love your YT vids and perspective.
Yay! Welcome! There’s always a need for more Criss!!
Criss and Tfoot on FTB? Soon I won’t need to visit any other website at this rate! ;P
ZOMG! It’s Cris!
Welcome. I now have a new favorite blog!
Awesome to see you here on FTB Christina. You are indeed Rad! My first exposure to your videos was your brutal point-by-point takedown of Ray Comfort & Kirk Cameron’s banana argument. I want to show it to my kid, but I haven’t been able to find it on your website. Could you repost it?
Welcome to FtB, Cristina. And thank you for telling creationists how stupid they are.
Awesome!
Can you write about your hair,i.e. is it naturally curly and how does your hair compare with your close relatives and other women in Romania. Please ignore this and write about anything you like really.
I like how you said your name with an American accent. I was born in Serbia, though at the present I live in the US, and it reminded me of how I’m always “adjusting” to accomodate my American friends.
Which, by the way, I don’t mind! Y’all are great, really, and totally worth it – some of you sometimes just really suck ass at pronouncing shit. To put it elegantly.
Welcome Christina!
Edit: Welcome, Cristina!
(Subtle difference there. 🙂
Welcome (almost) neighbor 🙂
Welcome!
I’ve watched a few of your videos in the past, it’s great that you’ve joined!
Hi, Criss!
My topic suggestion would be girls in elevators at conventions.
nudge wink
Off is the general direction in which you should fuck.
For the perfect recipe, just add Romanian!
Please discuss this please,
discuss runaway global warming please.
bigthink.com/jameshansen
http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2011/11/11/IEA-Warming-may-be-irreversible-by-2017/UPI-85861321009920/
Please help me save the world.
Ello! ^_^
1.Discuss the Flying Spaghetti Monster and all of his noodlely goodness (funny video, love your funny videos)
2.Religious Apocalyptic Idealism or just apocalyptic idealism in general
3.Another dancing video?
4.Religion vs Law (“God told me to do it”, “god willed it”, etc) or a discussion about keeping religion out of law
5.How did you become a rationalist and a atheist? Inspiration?
6.Religious fear vs rational fear
7.Religous justification of mass murder, war, violance, prejudice, etc. sanctioned by the government (im looking at you muslims and christians)
8.The curse of eternal life, i believe multiple atheist have already talked about this
9.Morals vs ethics
10.Your opinion on “prophets”
9.
So the k-rina blog has officially been abandoned, right?
I am surprised about him because I’d never come across Ash…………aaaaaaaaaaaa…..ooooooooooooooooo guy like this TIGER before. What even me surf if I had that much I’ll do same. Aden wo nko me nko anaaa? 3y3 papa sorkyieeee
What topic I would like… hmmm!!!
With what to begin? yap these is a dilemma!
I would like to see an answer, the this Nazi attitude of the new-atheist.
You know…, we are intelligent, beautiful, smart, bright, and all others who do not subscribe to our faith is retarded and inferior, and must be discriminated.
And yes, the attitude is real, if you do not believe me check your latest videos.
Also I would like to know why atheists feel obliged to massacre history. I speak here of the atheistic religious myths as: “medieval people believed the earth is flat”, or that Christianity brought 1000 years of darkness called “The Dark Ages” or that without Christianity, humanity would have colonized the universe
See how I comment on the atheist myth that “Islam saved the antique culture”
http://vyckro.blogspot.ro/2012/03/about-atheists-socialist-prof.html
But the big question is: Why?
Why atheists are incapable of understanding something which everyone understands?
That is, to distinguish between a extreme and a majority?
When an atheist goes online for promoting hatred and discrimination first thing he makes is to build a reason. After all even Hitler needed a reason and did not justified the war “for having nothing better to do”. Atheists are excellent, in inventing reasons for their campaigns of hate. They always build straw mens, from what was the worst of the Catholic Church,the worst of the televanghelist churches & the worst of the protestant churches.
Obviously such a straw man is logically inconsistent, you can not put one next to another, that is a church that promotes home education to the church, that implemented universities in the west and accuse both that they oppose education. Or put the church that persecuted those with other visions and its victims & accuse both of intolerance. Still atheists are able to do that and proclaim themselves to be “bright”.
LOL
Vyck – I was wondering when you would drag your dishonest and hateful self over here. Why don’t you stop all this negative behavior, like lying and stalking and name-calling, and try to add something positive to a conversation. Do you remember what that is like? Perhaps from when you were a child?
A conversation? I was not aware that there is a conversation!
A conversation with people who constantly called others retards just because it happens they have other vision of the world than themselves?
A conversation with people who constantly propagate a false image about the religion that built modern civilization, only to justify their on hate campaign.
There is no conversation with people who do not want to have a conversation, There is no conversation with people who believe that their purpose in life is to support their predetermined conclusions, and necessarily have to “Pwned” their opponents.
Data Jack says: “try to add something positive to a conversation”
here, http://vyckro.blogspot.ro/2012/02/open-letter-to-thunderf00t_17.html I invited this fool to a conversation, but as I just said above there is no conversation. Atheist do not want a real conversation!
You invited him to comment on a blog post of yours that was filled with lies and revision history. Not really a conversation, liar.
I invited him to a tête-à-tête discussion (see the video on that blogg), about some lies that T.Fool spreads on yt since 2006, in order to justify his hate campaign.
And T.Fool is the fool whit the revision history.
VyckRo,
Hopefully you can see the logical fallacy in taking an experience with one atheist and, as in your earlier posts, generalizing that to claims about how all atheists behave.
Also, you have to understand that accusing people of lying, thinking like Nazis, and being full of hatred is the wrong way to invite discussion. That kind of overheated emotional rhetoric is the sign of wildly extreme viewpoints and an absence of rational clarity. Nobody really wants to uselessly beat their head against a barrage of exaggerated claims with no empirical backing. The conversations to be had have occurred so many times already that it is wearying. The same points have to be rehashed over and over.
I think if you actually were to read and understand all the existing arguments, and then came up with a new objection or logical argument, one that hasn’t already been refuted and rebutted exhaustively, and you made your case calmly and clearly and rationally, then you would find plenty of atheists interested and willing to engage in that discussion.
As it is, what I can see here tells me that you aren’t looking for productive conversation; it appears more like you are just itching for a fight. No thanks to that.
@Jeffrey G.Johnson
There are two issues here:
1) about talking to atheists in general,the lack of dialogue does not come from me.As I said above (and as most people who oppose atheism)I would not be here today if not for the hatred, promoted constantly and obsessively by people like this so-called >”Cristina Rad”***u”Dr. Phil”guy<.
Atheists began their campaign of hate by calling everyone retards and intentionally promoting lies, that you do not supposed to be a scientist to understand them, as the part the whit "the Old Testament" or whit what part of the Bible, we take literally and which do not. People of different social backgrounds and religious do not have any trouble in understanding such ordinary religious concepts. But this situation apparently does not apply to "smart" atheist especially if they can foster misunderstandings, misunderstandings which can lead to hate.
See my post -Who or what is VyckRo ?-
2) on thunderf00t, If I support a classic thesis generally accepted by everyone I do not have to “read and understand all the existing arguments, came up with a new objection” people who propose pseudoscientific theses must come up with real arguments to be taken seriously.
And yet I engage thunderf00t in a real discussion about the fables and myths he believes, and for almost a year has refused consistently to present his case or to stop promote his lies.
See My open letter to Thunderf00t
I was wondering what your take is on the movement to get a National Atheist Party formed and growing.
How do you think it will be viewed, how will it make a change things like that.
Thank you,
Thomas True
I’m so happy to see you here. I left YT because it seemed like such a nasty place with 4chan-like trolls appearing constantly. When I saw Zinna on FTB, I also hoped you’d be blogging here too. I’d also love to see Nellydittle(sp?)blogging for FTBs. Maybe DLandonCole, too?
You are the epitome of welcomed. May I offer you my most ironic Christian side-hug?
Hello there. Just wanted to let you know that I am a Muslim and I absolutely love your youtube channel.
No, that wasn’t sarcasm.
What’s happened with the Quran is “Scholars” who have “authority” are convincing people that we have to follow what the prophet supposedly did. But as you can see from reading hadith, a God-fearing man would never do any of those things. And then the “scholars” are the only ones with “approved translations” so that any Quran written in English (and any other language besides Arabic for that matter) can be screwed up. I hate the hadith. That’s where you get all of the rape and killing and disgusting traditions. The Quran seems to reflect that because it’s the misogynist douchebags who are translating the book. AND it’s the same misogynist douchebags with an agenda who live in the Middle East who will tell their people “you couldn’t possibly understand the Quran on your own (even though you know Arabic). You must be a scholar who’s studied for years! There’s no way you can truly understand the word of God without our guidance!” No, they all have an agenda.
I totally understand your point of view. As a former full-blown atheist, I am so glad that you are analyzing things very critically and you take it apart in detail. That’s actually what you’re SUPPOSED to do in Islam but many muslims seem to forget that fact. If you want to read about Islam from a different perspective (a.k.a. a logical one), I would like to invite you to read, but by all means verify everything and criticize everything. Ask questions and never, ever accept anything that doesn’t make sense.
And just to point out, Muslim women do not have to wear a headscarf or a bedsheet, nor is it allowed to marry children, nor is rape allowed, nor is marrying multiple wives allowed, or any of that other B.S. that these douchebags are trying to impose on people. Just saying.
As a start, try this link for reading http://www.free-minds.org/god-alone
It’s a website that tries to take everything critically, and NOT follow random stories blindly.
Another good website is quran-islam.org. This guy explains how the scholars take Quranic verses and twists them to fit into their own agenda. He goes into great detail about many controversial issues. He also explains his reason for why God exists based on scientific theories alone, none based on any religious book at all. Take a look if you want.
This chick on youtube explains why muslims should NOT follow hadith which is the stuff outside of the Quran that the scholars somehow convince people to follow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhSBeLX7F9o
If you read all this and still think Islam is junk, I can totally understand that, too. I’m just trying to let you know that there are some religious people who won’t follow anything unless it’s based in science, logic and reason. I totally reject the concept of believing in something just because someone says it’s the truth. I strongly believe that if something is the truth, it will destroy any lies or falsehood. Period.
Peace, sister. Keep up the good work. For real.
i respect you for not kiss the priest hand that was actual what jesus wants you to do but God does help people so thoughs people can help thoughs people anyone who nows jesus nows he’s misterous God does to you what you do to other people but one thing is he never stops loving you and i know you might be athiest but you are made in Gods image.
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