A stupid attempt to widen the division between people who have different ways of trying to be good. The triumphialism reminds me, as others have noted, of a revivalist meeting in the deep south of the USA.

I wonder if anyone has heard of Johnathan Haidt or read his book; "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People do Bad Things". His blog can be read here
http://righteousmind.com/

A review of his book by that begins: "This book is is a fun read for conservatives because it pokes more holes in liberalism than it does in conservatism. In that sense, some parts of this book are quite delicious." can be found here

http://www.amazon.com/review/R3HPZ35RJ9D5ET/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0307377903&nodeID=&tag=&linkCode=

There are several pages of discussion and the going gets deep and meaningful. The ideas from both conservative and liberals are good and the discussion is evidence that people of different 'tribes' can talk and agree; but not if the tribes take a warlike approach and encourage the type of attitude that is apparent in this article.

We do not need to have a war between athiests and the religous; we can find common ground if we don't demonise the other side. Religion does 'have clothes'; it has provided much good for human beings but cultures change and for some of us there is something missing in religion; there has to be a better way is what I tell myself and I simply can't make that leap into the unknown that is called 'having faith'.

But religion is a truly wonderful story, and Jesus is a wonderful role model. However, it's been 2000 years since Jesus left us to our own devices and I think it's time we stopped waiting for him to come back and save us.

It's pretty clear we need a new story that works better and works for all of us, but religion is an essential part of any new story.

It was great to read about this gathering of sane people, one whose minds run on pure truth rather than a cocktail of divisive, ridiculous, religious fantasy.

On the other side of the world, groups of deranged believers from the U.S. and Israel are planning on nuking Iran.

It's a shame they couldn't grasp the simplicity of atheism, its truth, its connection with reality.

The is no doubt in my mind that the god-botherers will lead the world to nuclear extinction. Serves them right, I say, except that we atheists, sadly, will suffer their same mindless fate!

Yep. I got indoctrinated as a child. I am not a details person, and hence don't enter into many arguments. But there is one fact i have taken with me since highschool.
Can a fact be said to have been the source of indocrination? or does it by it's very nature have to be a falsehood?

This is not a falsehood. This is a mathematical truth, though I may not quote it correctly (school was a long time ago). It would seem that the probability for the process of evolution to have started.. i.e. the forming of the initial cell/ strand of DNA/ i am not sure what .. was way against probability, and indeed, way past any decent mathematical sense of POSSIBILITY! In every other sphere, one chance in 10 with 17 noughts, i.e., 1/100,000,000,000,000,000 is considered impossible. The probability of the first.... was way beyond that, i.e. impossible...and some. it was at least 1/ 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. that us, 10 to the power of 33. it may have been 10 to the 243 power, not sure, school was a long time ago. Perhaps i will copy and paste to some amazing scientists who are not given much credibility in the scientific community and see if they can fill in the facts better than I

sorry, had to split the comments because of word limits. Graham won't let me post any more for 24 hours no doubt!! but here goes part three of my very verbose comments....

Any way, when i mentioned this FACT to a lovely woman who had attended your conference, and was indeed blown away and excited by it.. she had a great time.. her answer was that just because you don't know how something happened, you shouldn't make up a story to explain it. not a very good response. I admit, I was indoctrinated! this mathematical fact, and the pentadactyl limb, also taught to me by the same teacher bless his socks, was enough for me. Faith decision? yes. Based on pretty good reasons for the Faith. It takes heaps more faith to believe in evolution, imho. Are all atheists evolutionists? or do atheists have varying explanations of beginnings? or do they ignore the issues? or do they push them further away by attributing stuff to aliens? if so who invented the aliens? sorry if this is too simplistic... and not wholly on the atheist topic. i have a fairly naive view that most atheists are evolutionists. Re another point, there should be no atheists, only agnostics, otherwise people claim full and complete knowledge that there is no God, which means they have been everywhere and looked everywhere for Him. not possible... If they have complete knowledge, are they not claiming to be God??
Looking forward to some responses..

Dear David,

<<The is no doubt in my mind that the god-botherers will lead the world to nuclear extinction. Serves them right, I say, except that we atheists, sadly, will suffer their same mindless fate!>>

True statement: I absolutely agree!

(assuming you meant 'There' rather than 'The')

So in your mind, David, Iranians are nice atheists (not God-botherers, God-forbid) and atheist China, former U.S.S.R (now Russia) and North Korea have no nuclear weapons and pose no threat?

Anyway, I am sure that you know your mind better than anyone else!

Dear Sharan,

Some of both theists and atheists believe in evolution while others of both convictions do not. These views are therefore independent.

It is valid to be an atheist (not agnostic) because the idea that "God exists" leads to logical contradictions. OTOH, this doesn't imply that an atheist must stop loving and worshiping God: you must have heard about the difference between conditional and unconditional love - to love God only because He exists, is conditional, hence inferior than loving God unconditionally.

Dear Poirot,

Stating that God came from anywhere is a nonsensical contradiction.

But if your question is specifically about the Jewish god, then see Habakkuk 3,3: "God comes from Teman, And the Holy One from Mount Paran."