User:Teratornis/RichardDawkins.net posts

This will be a user subpage with links to all my posts to RichardDawkins.net. By an amazing coincidence, my username over there is Teratornis too. If your desire to read my stuff over there is so strong you can't wait for me to list it properly, you can Google for some of it. And then I urge you to seek help.

2007
This is a lightly annotated list of links to my comments on RichardDawkins.net, sorted by the date of my first comment, and group by article comment thread. I only include links to my comments; you can scroll through the comment threads to see comments by others. I might eventually transcribe some of my comments to if that seems sensible to me.


 * 12:27, 13 October 2007 (EDT): even though I only started posting on RichardDawkins.net in September, 2007, my Hypergraphia has already made it challenging to find and annotate all my postings there. So the following list is not complete yet.

The Atheists Interviews

 * The Atheists Interviews
 * Comment #79322 by Teratornis on October 16, 2007 at 11:44 pm
 * Another verbose post about escaping irrationality (which I posted much later than the original article appeared), and some followups:
 * Comment #79484 by Teratornis on October 17, 2007 at 11:58 am
 * Comment #79474 by Teratornis on October 17, 2007 at 11:28 am

Do you have to read up on leprechology before disbelieving in them?

 * Do you have to read up on leprechology before disbelieving in them? by Richard Dawkins, The Independent
 * Comment #72372 by Teratornis on September 20, 2007 at 9:46 pm
 * I pointed out how the Bible says faith gets us to heaven and we can test our faith right now, by working miracles, which should raise some questions among all the Christians who see they cannot move mountains by speaking to them, as to whether their demonstrably sub-mustard-seed faith is going to suffice to save their souls.
 * Comment #72377 by Teratornis on September 20, 2007 at 10:22 pm
 * I found my comment here amusing (I cannot speak for anyone else).

AAI Convention webcam

 * AAI Convention webcam by Rational Response Squad
 * Comment #74148 by Teratornis on September 27, 2007 at 12:16 pm
 * Education doesn't always produce skepticism, but it seems to produce such skepticism as we have, especially of the readable variety.
 * Comment #74405 by Teratornis on September 28, 2007 at 3:05 pm
 * We have made progress, on an historical time scale
 * Comment #74636 by Teratornis on September 29, 2007 at 6:58 pm
 * My first mention of the euphemism treadmill and the related dysphemism treadmill on this site.
 * Comment #74643 by Teratornis on September 29, 2007 at 7:30 pm
 * More about the style over substance fallacy.
 * Comment #74740 by Teratornis on September 30, 2007 at 7:52 am
 * I advised against getting angry, because after all, we're not doing too badly for a bunch of monkeys.
 * Comment #74752 by Teratornis on September 30, 2007 at 9:14 am
 * Getting on my soapbox about booze, tobacco, gaswasting, and jihad, and how nobody I know is 100% into critical thinking.
 * Comment #74756 by Teratornis on September 30, 2007 at 9:32 am
 * Working in the No true Scotsman fallacy.
 * Comment #74762 by Teratornis on September 30, 2007 at 10:04 am
 * I'm having fun here with the Argumentum ad populum, Association fallacy, and a mention of performance enhancing drugs.
 * Comment #74767 by Teratornis on September 30, 2007 at 10:20 am
 * More about the problem with anger.
 * Comment #74768 by Teratornis on September 30, 2007 at 10:25 am and Comment #74769 by Teratornis on September 30, 2007 at 10:32 am
 * A couple of small replies about craziness and anger.
 * Comment #78422 by Teratornis on October 12, 2007 at 7:17 pm
 * Here's what I think about a few minor points: absolute morality, external costs, social optimality, recreational drugs, and avoidable violence.

In honour of Dan Dennett

 * "In honour of Dan Dennett" by Richard Dawkins
 * Comment #76777 by Teratornis on October 7, 2007 at 8:21 am
 * Comment #77636 by Teratornis on October 10, 2007 at 12:47 am
 * Summary: it's nice to honor Daniel Dennett, and it will be even nicer when science figures out how to make everyone at least as smart as Daniel Dennett.

We Few, We Happy Few, We Band of Brothers

 * We Few, We Happy Few, We Band of Brothers by Andy Thomson, Richard Dawkins Foundation
 * I have not posted any comments to this article (actually, it's a video presentation), but the topic is quite interesting, and Andy Thomson is the first bona fide evolutionary psychologist I've seen featured on RichardDawkins.net (which is not to say there haven't been others; I have yet to plow through the entire site content).

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams criticizes popular atheist writers

 * Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams criticizes popular atheist writers
 * Comment #78568 by Teratornis on October 13, 2007 at 4:04 pm
 * The Archbishop dusts off the "nobody I know believes that sort of religion" excuse. I point out how no atheists I know are mass-murdering Communist despots, but that doesn't stop religious people from bringing up Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot in debates about God.
 * Comment #78585 by Teratornis on October 13, 2007 at 4:46 pm
 * Comment #78591 by Teratornis on October 13, 2007 at 5:20 pm
 * Comment #78602 by Teratornis on October 13, 2007 at 6:17 pm
 * Getting on a bit of a roll there.

Stretching the Search for Signs of Life

 * Stretching the Search for Signs of Life by Dennis Overybye
 * Comment #78604 by Teratornis on October 13, 2007 at 6:49 pm
 * Clearly, I side with Frank J. Tipler on the Fermi Paradox question, although I am skeptical about his Omega Point hypothesis on ecological grounds (I suspect computer viruses, SPAM, and its equivalent will continue to degrade progress from Moore's law enough to prevent a technological singularity of the type Tipler optimistically expects). I posted several more followup articles in which I pretty much wiped the extraterrestrials right out of existence, at least those of the detectable-by-radio persuasion:
 * Comment #78630 by Teratornis on October 14, 2007 at 12:41 am
 * Comment #78631 by Teratornis on October 14, 2007 at 12:56 am
 * Comment #78722 by Teratornis on October 14, 2007 at 2:03 pm
 * Comment #78724 by Teratornis on October 14, 2007 at 2:11 pm
 * Comment #78788 by Teratornis on October 14, 2007 at 11:53 pm
 * Comment #78794 by Teratornis on October 15, 2007 at 12:19 am
 * Comment #78808 by Teratornis on October 15, 2007 at 1:30 am
 * Comment #79228 by Teratornis on October 16, 2007 at 2:26 pm
 * Comment #79235 by Teratornis on October 16, 2007 at 2:37 pm
 * Comment #79240 by Teratornis on October 16, 2007 at 2:47 pm
 * Comment #79247 by Teratornis on October 16, 2007 at 2:57 pm
 * Comment #79251 by Teratornis on October 16, 2007 at 3:16 pm
 * Comment #79261 by Teratornis on October 16, 2007 at 3:35 pm
 * Comment #79274 by Teratornis on October 16, 2007 at 4:40 pm
 * Comment #79606 by Teratornis on October 17, 2007 at 11:53 pm
 * Comment #79628 by Teratornis on October 18, 2007 at 1:43 am
 * Comment #79632 by Teratornis on October 18, 2007 at 1:50 am

Dan Dennett award and speech at AAI 07

 * Dan Dennett award and speech at AAI 07
 * Comment #79316 by Teratornis on October 16, 2007 at 10:31 pm
 * A brief (for me) note about how belief hinges on tiny snippets of reality. Of course my comments pale in comparison to Dennett's brilliant talk.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali at AAI 07

 * Ayaan Hirsi Ali at AAI 07
 * Comment #79721 by Teratornis on October 18, 2007 at 10:22 am
 * Comment #79726 by Teratornis on October 18, 2007 at 10:38 am

Debate between Christopher Hitchens and Alister McGrath

 * Debate between Christopher Hitchens and Alister McGrath
 * Comment #80306 by Teratornis on October 21, 2007 at 9:00 am
 * Comment #80307 by Teratornis on October 21, 2007 at 9:01 am
 * Comment #80322 by Teratornis on October 21, 2007 at 10:48 am
 * Comment #81174 by Teratornis on October 24, 2007 at 10:38 am
 * Comment #81177 by Teratornis on October 24, 2007 at 10:53 am
 * Comment #81194 by Teratornis on October 24, 2007 at 11:40 am

A new website addition: Debate Points

 * A new website addition: Debate Points
 * Comment #81353 by Teratornis on October 24, 2007 at 4:05 pm
 * I suggested that this feature for the RDF Web site cries out to be wikified. Essentially the RDF site admin wants to collaboratively edit pages describing the debate points and responses to them that routinely arise in debates about atheism/theism, and creation/evolution. I don't think the forum/blogging-type software that the RDF site uses is anywhere near optimal for this kind of collaborative editing project. At best, they will end up with long threads of disorganized comments (like talk pages on a wiki), but without the distilled final result (like articles on a wiki).

Debate between Christopher Hitchens and Dinesh D'Souza

 * Debate between Christopher Hitchens and Dinesh D'Souza
 * Comment #81491 by Teratornis on October 24, 2007 at 8:29 pm

A new website addition: Debate Points

 * A new website addition: Debate Points
 * Comment #82933 by Teratornis on October 28, 2007 at 9:51 am
 * My response to the question: "Why do you care about something you claim not to believe in?"
 * Comment #82947 by Teratornis on October 28, 2007 at 10:28 am
 * My response to the objection that atheism is self-invalidating.

Matthew Chapman at AAI 07

 * Matthew Chapman at AAI 07
 * Comment #83344 by Teratornis on October 29, 2007 at 6:20 pm
 * I have several replies in this thread, touching on such noncontroversial topics such as medical cost inflation, open source software, the minimum wage, and meritocracy.

Technical complaints about RichardDawkins.net
It took me some time to notice a way to list my posts on RichardDawkins.net:


 * http://richarddawkins.net/userComments,page1,20552

Actually the site uses the term "comment" for comments to articles, which is all I have posted there so far, and the term "post" for forum posts (of which I have zero). I'm still new over there. I think they use phpBB or something. Whatever software they use, I'm not very good with it yet, and I'm not sure where they hide the detailed online help (if any exists beyond one very terse page of editing help). In my observation, everything which is not a wiki tends to suck, because only on a wiki can users themselves fix the problems they find, and document how they do things. I have never seen a Web site in which distant unseen administrators defend the interests of users as well as users can (that is, users who are not lusers).

Wikipedia links

 * wp:Ayaan Hirsi Ali
 * wp:Daniel Dennett
 * wp:Richard Dawkins