One of the important things to remember about Pat is that he's a comedian. You shouldn't expect him to maintain a "professional" image in his videos as you might expect from someone like Dawkins.

I happen to think Pat is great. He makes no excuses for himself. I find his material to be funny, occasionally hilarious, and he makes his audience think about some fairly important topics in the process.

I was raised Catholic. I once made the statement, partially in jest, that the good thing about Catholicism is that it creates so many Atheists. The point being that Catholicism is so oppressive and so offensive, that it's hard to imagine someone not rebelling against it. Had I been raised under a less draconian belief system, perhaps I wouldn't have been motivated to seek out my own answers.

I actually believe very much that discouraging free thought was a significant goal in the original formation of organized religion. If you can control the thoughts of a population, then you can control their actions. In the centuries that have past I believe that this control mindset has been lost in some cases, but I still see the reverberations in many religious organizations.

One of the most unfortunate parts of religious belief, in my opinion, is how it affects children before they are really old enough to question what they are being told or to have their own ideas. Even as a young child I felt it was wrong to make the decision for another person. You may say that this is not unique to religious belief and you'd be right, but again we go back to the control aspect. If I have children, I will go out of my way to encourage them to find their own answers and have their own ideas. I realize that it's unavoidable that my own beliefs will influence theirs, but I will do what I can to minimize that. Raising them as freethinkers also means that they will be free to believe whatever makes sense to them, even if it's Catholicism. I do not feel that the inverse is true.

As for the "new, aggressive atheism", yes, it does step over the line sometimes. As serious as I am in my beliefs and as much as I despise religious beliefs, I try to stay reasonable. I do not attack religious individuals, verbally or otherwise, unless they assault me first. Any lashing-out that I do partake in is usually directed towards religion as a whole and not an individual.

But religion, especially Christianity, has been on the offensive for the last 15-20 years. Atheists are "nazis", "communists", "without morals" and, of course, we shouldn't be considered citizens according to George Bush MkI. Christianity has apparently grown tired of simply oppressing its own and now seeks to oppress everyone. Some of us are tired of it.

Realizing you are living in a despotic system requires free thought.

Free thought is dangerous and discouraged thoroughly in Saudia Arabia, not because of religion, but mostly because it would make the population realize that the royal family holds none of their interests in mind as they gallop around the world in the private jets.

I commend the students who organised this protest. That said, what did they expect from a university that is owned by the mormon church? They do not promote free thought, they promote obedience.

It is nice, however, to see that they have finally found a use for the Pacific Islanders within their religion.

For more info on the wonderful treatment of Islanders by the church, look up the farming community of Iosepa, in beautiful skull valley utah, home of a future high level nuclear waste dump.

They established a "church" of free-thought?! These people are even more crazy than the fundamentalist Christians. Or worse, they are the same.

I dont think so, you have to look at it from their place in the world, the bible belt where the church is a central part of society, and seen as something positive ie: Church=community of people of the same faith. And therefore naming it church is probably an attempt to normalize atheism "we are just like you guys, good and all, its just that we dont believe in God" and I think this show clearly shows that that is needed.

Its startling to see the kind of ignorance towards atheism some of them have. That quote that Brenda wasnt quite as open-minded as them was just classy.

They established a "church" of free-thought?! These people are even more crazy than the fundamentalist Christians. Or worse, they are the same.

Well funny you say that i have this idea that we live in this computer world and the mechines are controling us all becuse thay use us all for pawer.

but yah if you belive in us as biological cerquit bords with the alusoin of free will and allso belive that the frequency of life in the entire universe (ore multivurse) is high then it would be more likely that we are a simuatoin than creatuers that wer a pure acident of time.just think how manny games ore basic simulatoins we have made then emgin how complex thay would be in 10,000 years time ore to a culture that erly on found a way to have computers grow themselfs. still not a sign of god this would just be a more evlolved life creating simple life.

as a rule i dont have arguments about religoin in the phisical world its mostly piontless. trying to have a philasophical descussoin thats purly bassed on ideas and free thought dosenot work to well when you one person that catagoricly belives there thiroy is corect. one of the best things to do in philosiphy is to adopt varouse rule sets and then pursue your own idea with them rules. your rules may be a compleat fictoin and bare no corilatoin to realty however. it enables you to exspand your mind and you can acidentaly find concepts you wouldent dreem of thinking up normaly

I don't know how it works in the "land of freedom" but in my old-style country, preventing childes to go to school is against law. It's considered kidnapping or slavery couse childes can't develop a free thought. The mom of the twins would be arrested, and helped by social healthcure, she really have problems.

Did they know that if they come to europe, the real fascist-nazi will consider them, as american, just sons of emigrated beggar and criminals that have started their economic power by the nigger work.

Just like the one proud to be son of vikings (if I understood him). OMG son of a dirty barbarian? In Italy they already had a democracy and a world empire when the barbarians didn't know how to cut their beards.

This is the point: if you think to have a pure race, there is always someone more pure. It would be funny meeting them, with my heritage I should be considered a demigod .

Anyway, I think most of the americans scared by this video didn't realize that US has a lot in common with the original (before madness) fascist idea.

What's really funny is that Kirk Cameron is impersonating Rod Serling, of Twilight Zone fame, in the beggining of the movie. I guess he doesn't know that Serling (Creator of the Twilight zone) was a huge Unitarian/humanist, and a follower of the school of free-thought?

Among other things, Unitarians like myself believe that the bible is *not* to be taken literally, nor is it meant to be the sole source of faith.

Why is it so hard for Evangelicals to accept the fact that Evolution is/was just another of God's little "plans" or "systems"? To tell you the truth, creating beings that adapt to their surroundings and weed out the weaker creatures to prolong their existence seems like a more intelligent method of creation then just snapping your fingers and having them appear like hookers at a Jimmy Swaggart party.