Atheists don’t get credit if we give to religious charities. We don’t get credit if we give to simply secular causes. Now, though, we’ve got a new explicitly godless charity that works to improve education and knowledge of science: the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. It’s my kind of place — and best of all, money going there isn’t going to be mistaken for support for ignorance and superstition.
Read the announcement. It’s cleared all the legal hurdles in both the US and Great Britain and has been granted charitable, tax-exempt status, and is going to be my favored choice of a charity from now on.
I hope we can have more like this, then people will see we’re not heartless heathens, just people who don’t like to support the spread of stupidity.
Finally somewhere I can trust to donate instead of charities that mask their funding of abstinence-only programs or services-in-the-name-of-the-Lord.
Myers, you ignorant bastard!!!!!!
Your dichotomization of “religion” and “science” smells like a stale fart!!!!!! WERE YOU RAPED BY A CATHOLIC PRIEST? WHY HOLD THE ONES WHO FOLLOW THE HORSESHIT ON YOUR FORUM HOSTAGE JUST BECAUSE THIS HAPPENED TO YOU!!!!!!! (OR WHATEVER) From my understanding, you have some sort of standing with the “darwinistic proponents” representation of the explanations regarding the living realms observable by discerning living organisms calling themselves fucking “human beings”. For the sake of any kind of individual, who in a metaphorical sense, you are “leading” in an expedition down the vastly unknown trails (and i hope to use the metaphor “unknown trails” in a way that even a FUCKING DUMBSHIT LIKE YOURSELF CAN UNDERSTAND) for the purpose of promoting your financial and/or philosophical agenda(s) there should be another point of view for these individuals to consider. And that is, NO THE FUCK BODY HAS ANY KIND OF SIGNIFICANT “HANDLE” THROUGH VERIFIABLE SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTATIONAL RESULTS, AS TO HOW “LIFE” IN EVEN IT’S SIMPLEST FORMS became.
Geeze, after a post like that, I feel like aborting some gay fetuses.
Neal:
What a pleasant little potty mouth. Funny though, I thought there were reasonable hypothesis about how life started. A few experiments using electricity and chemicals in a lab. If you’re saying that until we create life from simple chemicals we don’t know what we’re talking about then that’s like asking us to create a star before we can comment on stellar activity……a bit silly, no?
Yeeeeeeeeehaw. The crazies have arrived.
In case the crazy gets deleted, and I look like *I’m* the crazy, I suppose I should add… It’s about time. (Not for the crazies. They show up *all* the time). No, it’s about time we had some explicitly secular charity. Obviously, it’s pretty unlikely to get much notice, or very much in the way of large contributions. But at least I could feel good giving to something other than the SPLC and the ACLU.
sorry, he started over on the ‘Thumb, and likely found his way here though a link.
to make a long story short, what you see is what you get.
seriously.
that’s all there is with Neal.
it’s humorous at first, but then becomes rapidly tiresome.
I suggest not even bothering to wait the customary 3 posts before action is taken, as he will never say anything different than he has already.
can someone suggest a good med package for him?
Hmmm. I give him 0.6 Timecubes.
Heh.
Geez, he couldn’t even limit himself to soiling ONE thread.
Wow, looks like we have a winner. Commenter #3, come on down, you’re the next contestant on “incoherent rant!” Made me laugh out loud, that’s for sure. One small bit of advice, though: if you really want to play in the big kids’ rant pool, you really need to just LEAVE THE CAPS LOCK ON THE WHOLE TIME.
I give him 0.6 Timecubes.
Thanks for the coffee spitup on my monitor…
I vote we add the timecube as an official measure of forgot-to-take-their-meds-ness and place it alongside the venerated library of congress as a measure of data size, football fields for area and the buick as a measure of scud missile size (or sthg?)
Nice to see the trolls consider a suggestion of giving to charity as a spewing espousal of hatred and intolerance. Guess it wasn’t framed just right there…
Caledonian, I know you don’t care about my opinion on the matter, but I have to say…that’s probably the most awesome thing you’ve ever posted. :) Recommendation for new standard unit seconded. I’ll be trying to spread that meme.
Also, I entirely intend on donating to the RDF if and when I ever have disposable income, although I’m not sure that’ll ever happen. Wonderful to know about, in any case. I’ll make sure Tech professors know about it.
But as Dr. Nisbet keeps reminding us, Richard Dawkins is only against things! Dawkins doesn’t have any positive vision! New Atheism is entirely negative!
But as Dr. Nisbet keeps reminding us, Richard Dawkins is only against things! Dawkins doesn’t have any positive vision! New Atheism is entirely negative!
hey, whatever, so long as this place stays a safe haven for Don-Imus style New Atheists!
;)
(gees, OT, but somehow I rather think that thread made Nisbet turn several shades of red in the face; quite remarkable for someone apparently so well versed in communication skills).
Caledonian, I know you don’t care about my opinion on the matter, but I have to say…that’s probably the most awesome thing you’ve ever posted. :) Recommendation for new standard unit seconded.
And thirded. You made coffee come out of my nose.
To quote Terry Pratchett: “And all those exclamation marks, you notice? Five? A sure sign of someone who wears his underpants on his head.”
I know! Nisbet should invite Neal to his discussion panel!
now wouldn’t THAT be a lesson in communications?
Whoa.
Neal: “from my understanding…(or whatever)”
Relax, take a couple of hundred…mmm…darvon and see us in the morning.
Hope you feel much better and happier soon.
Or whatever.
at least he spelt Myers right although not quite sure how this site is holding the readers hostage?
On RDFRS: about bloody time. They’re number one on my list from now on too.
kevinj: “…not quite sure how this site is holding the readers hostage?”
You have to think like them (cringe) in order to “understand” what they think they understand.
In this case, we readers are “hostages” against our GOD-GIVEN WILL. PZ is like some kind of dispicable demon or something presiding over a brainwash-fest straight out of hell. (Think the big winged horned fellow in the original Disney “Fantasia” – kinda sorta like that, a demented conductor of a godless symphony. I’m convinced these folks really are regularly haunted by this kind of vision).
And that’s only a very brief and basic synopsis of the goings-on within minds like that.
Wonderful! Can we have the foundation fund a few Boy Scout Troops for Unitarian Churches, or wildlife centers, to make a toe-hold in the fight for reason in the serious having of fun?
I have ulterior motives, of course.
Premise:
Conclusion:
… therefore, a cosmic Jewish zombie who was his own father wants you to telepathically acknowledge him as your master so that he can remove an evil force from your soul that was put there when a talking snake convinced a rib-woman to eat the fruit of a magical tree.
It’s all so obvious now! Praise teh lawd!
Man. And I just decided that I’m spending way too much time on the internet, and to restrict my access to once a week for all blog reading. I’m going to miss the fun of seeing people like Neal on a regular basis. Or, you know, “(WHATEVER)”.
Okay, I’m going to start using the phrase “No the fuck body” frequently from now on. Because it will make me sound impressively coherent and persuasive. Also because it’s damned hilarious.
It would be nice to know what kinds of results the various secular organizations produce, before deciding where to send one’s charitable dollars. It’s all fine and good to have organizations that stand up for reason over religion (Dawkins Foundation), for separation of church and state (Americans United), and against the political machinations of religion (Freedom From Religion Foundation). To name just a few. The problem is that there is a significant mountain between an organization’s purpose and tangible results that actually forward that purpose. It’s a mountain that has to be clumb using organization, wise management, and even alliances. A nice sounding mission statement doesn’t even get to the first base camp.
So… if anyone has good information on what these various organizations actually are accomplishing, I’d be excited to hear it. And yes, I understand that a new organization like Dawkins’s will, just by virtue of its newness, not yet have done much. I’m not writing this to diss any of these groups, which all sound quite promising to me. I’m genuinely interested about what information there is on measuring results from the various secular charities. My dollars are dear, so I want to aim them well.
That’s a very good point. There’s an element of trust right now since the charity is new, but we evidence-based thinkers should keep an eye on GuideStar and NCCS and see how it stacks up.
Please, everybody, unless you want to offer him care and a bed in a shelter, ignore the poor mentally ill man who has wandered into a few of the threads here. He might just be trying to practice some framing, but I suspect it’s more a matter of simple derangement.
Make sure Dawkins gets his foundation on the US Combined Federal Campaign (the federal government’s United Fund siamese twin) list. That’ll make it eligible for targeted payroll contributions. It’ll certainly get mine that way.
The grammar Nazi in me does not like the mission statement of the RDFRS.
Example:
It should say:
There are others, you just have to look for them.
I was a sponsor for World Vision for a number of years, but recently decided that I wanted my “save the children” dollars to go to a charity that was not about “spreading the word.”
I found SOS Children’s Villages which does similar work but states on their website that they “…enable children to live according to their own culture and religion, and to be active members of the community.”
Which may not be the secular ideal, but to me is a far piece better than feeding and medicating them for the nefarious purpose of indoctrination to the Jesus cult.
Sandar #23 wins the intartubes!
Must be a typo.
For the record, I agree with the first paragraph of comment 12. It’s also evidently good that I haven’t started cooking tea yet…
Must be a typo.
For the record, I agree with the first paragraph of comment 12. It’s also evidently good that I haven’t started cooking tea yet…
Hey Neal,
What’s up?
Did the big bang not happen because no one was there to observe it too?
Life started somehow… we’re here aren’t we. God isn’t. Who’s making the giant leap of logic?
Oh, and Neal, you’re a total asshole.
theophylact,
I was thinking the same thing about the United Way campaigns. The RDF was just coming on-line during my company’s last UW drive and I asked if I could specify the RDF as a recipient. The UW replied that the RDF needed US charitable status first, and now that they have it we should be able to donate to them that way.
I hope the word gets out and the RDF does great!