@SGD Ah I think we are coming a bit closer together here, but you are backpeddling a bit.

There is a BIG difference between you telling me that it is MY job as a rational person to disprove the existance of God the Son and the Holy ghost, v. telling me that dark matter is unmeasurable.

You see, Dark Matter is based on actual calculations and rational deliberation which leads scientists to see that something is missing from their model. As it turns out, I'm willing to CONSIDER dark matter as a possibility because it is based on something thought out and observable (though itself it may not be). That said, I would not be surprised at all if it turns out to be bunk. But that's the great part of science, Dark Matter can turn out to be real or not real and NO SCIENTIST is going to FATWAH me for believing on either side. It's exactly as you say.

As for why religion needs to go, well it is exactly for the reason you state: they DO try to force their views on others. When Sarah Palin, champion of the religious nuts in this country, gets up and tells us that fruit fly research is "silly and pointless" I see that as highly dangerous and definitely something that needs to be addressed. Killing and threatening artists. Suicide Bombers, child-abuse cover-ups, intelligent design, Jesus camps, invading the west bank, female oppression, and good christians don't vote for Obama.... all great examples of how "good teachings" of a religion have been cast aside in favor of fear, hate mongering, and irrational behavior.

Religion has forced itself on human culture for all of our history and while some good has come of it, a great portion of the bad in the world can be traced back to someone listening to a magical being in their head (or as I often suspect, saying they do in order to sway uneducated masses).

So in conclusion, I think you are now a lot closer to me in what I mean (though I fall on the other side of the argument when it comes to the usefulness of religion), but I do think you backpedaled a bit. Dark Matter /= Jesus.

Sigh... just waiting for Sarah Palin to weigh in and tell me that this isn't important, you know like all that bullshit research involving fruit flies.

It would be awesome if this happened, but in this current economic/political climate, I don't see it happening.

>> ^chilaxe:
However, conservatives generally didn't object to the election of Bush, to the invasion of Iraq (indeed, they felt even questioning it was beyond the pale), to McCain joking about bombing Iran, to enhanced interrogation/torture, or to the GOP's general anti-science attitude (fruit flies, honey bees, etc.), so it doesn't seem reasonable to say conservatives didn't support these things and it was only Bush's fault. Most conservatives are neocons under that definition.


Uh, no. A neocon is a conservative on some topics (say, taxes) who believes in big government. It has nothing to do with anti-science (which is an embarassment to me) or the other topics, I guess, beyond the fact that normal conservatives agree with neo-cons on some of the topics.

Part of the problem is that our society is so highly polarized into an us-and-them mentality that people think that if you agree with President Bush on one topic, you do/should agree with him on all topics. And to a certain extent it's true - a lot of conservative senators voted for Bush's stimulus bill, but voted against Obama's (when they suddenly rediscovered they were for small government, because Bush was gone).

^I think it's used as a general term for the conservatives who give reasonable conservatives a bad name.

However, conservatives generally didn't object to the election of Bush, to the invasion of Iraq (indeed, they felt even questioning it was beyond the pale), to McCain joking about bombing Iran, to enhanced interrogation/torture, or to the GOP's general anti-science attitude (fruit flies, honey bees, etc.), so it doesn't seem reasonable to say conservatives didn't support these things and it was only Bush's fault. Most conservatives are neocons under that definition.

Reminds me of Sarah Palin's remark on fruit fly research being useless.

Why do these jackasses think they understand what they're talking about?

Glen Beck pushing "research?" That sounds like some liberal scam in which scientists sit around and watch fruit flies, volcanoes, and bees... all at the same time if they got their way!

Haha what next?!

Research on fruit flies in FRANCE?!?

Crazy liberals!

I was about as speachless myself after watching his 'speech.' Talking down to everyone as if he was trying to explain his party to some 10 year olds. Acting like Katrina wasn't a republican fuckup. And last but absolutely worst, constantly saying the republicans 'went along with' the bad decisions and horrible fiscal spending of the last 8 years.

As long as they attempt to treat the nation like children and pretend they are cool with one of the two black guys in the party leading it and the only Indian guy the parties 'rising star'... it just shows how clueless the republican party in Washington truly is. I mean hell the party leader went so far to say the republicans need a 'hiphop reboot'.. I mean wtf is that? Besides laughable.

You guys can keep talking down to the citizens of this country like we are all children who don't understand anything. Meanwhile Obama keeps talking to us like adults. Lets see how far that gets you 4 years from now.

Seriously... attacking Volcano Monitoring is about as stupid as attacking fruit fly research.. or attacking the money spent to build up levees in Louisiana.



Edit: BTW John Stewart was on his game last night something crazy. His response to the Jindal speech was great, and the 'light baconaize' bit was 'rotflmao' material. Someone upload those!

Zebrafish embryos? What will they think of next... research on fruit flies?!

Well, the current charges haven't been substantiated, but her comments on fruit-fly research (which like many other of her imbecilic statements was broadcast straight from her own mouth) do show that she is dangerous and ignorant. Far more ignorant than a world leader should be.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'fruit flies, autism, research, unc' to 'fruit flies, autism, research, unc, science, lie, docm, rbar, wasted, life' - edited by MycroftHomlz

That's IF you believe in Biology. I already told you science is a lie.

>> ^Crosswords:
Her speech writer/adviser may be a dumbass for putting that in there, but she's a dumbass for keeping it in.
Anyone who took biology in highschool should know fruit flies have been a staple of biological research for decades. Easy to obtain, easy to care for, nobody cares what happens to fruit flies, and probably most importantly, they're prolific breeders.
It's an appeal to the anti-intellectuals, it's Bush's 'fuzzy math', it's go with the gut, and it's a large part of what's wrong in this country.

You've officially gone full retard in my opinion. There is no point reading anything further from you.
To come here in defense of this unbelievable and, in fact dangerous, stupidity has thrown out whatever credibility you may have had as some republican voice of reason. A person's belief's obviously will affect their policy decisions.

If she believes that fruit fly research (which aids in the fight against autism) is frivolous, that's a problem. If she believes dinosaurs roamed the earth (alongside humans!) only a few thousand years ago that's a problem. If she isn't sure that global warming is caused by man, that's a problem.

If you don't think that the VP having zero understanding of basic science is a problem, then you have a problem.

I can't be bothered reading anymore of your crap.


>> ^quantumushroom:
I don't see Palin forcing her religion on anyone or promoting it as policy. I do see Fraudbama and Friends planning to surrender in Iraq and stealing from the rich to give to the less rich to buy votes.

Her speech writer/adviser may be a dumbass for putting that in there, but she's a dumbass for keeping it in.

Anyone who took biology in highschool should know fruit flies have been a staple of biological research for decades. Easy to obtain, easy to care for, nobody cares what happens to fruit flies, and probably most importantly, they're prolific breeders.

It's an appeal to the anti-intellectuals, it's Bush's 'fuzzy math', it's go with the gut, and it's a large part of what's wrong in this country.

The horrible truth is that compared to Europe, we're in a fucking theocracy.


Thats absolutely the truth. The US is, with the current government in power, barely more secular then many Muslim nations.

It's rather striking that this country was founded on religious freedom but we are the least secular 1st world country in the western world. The good thing is more and more people every day see crap like our supposed leaders saying stuff like 'fruit fly research is inconsequential', and become part of the secular movement in this country.