Skeptics I no longer have any respect for.

[5thHorseman]

I dislike philosophy generally, it doesn't get you anywhere, look at people like William Lane Douche. But i think Dawkins knows more about philosophy than any of you give him credit for. Hardly a stupid man, and given the company he keeps........

I like PZ Myers.
Never been a fan of SkepChick.
Like Richard Dawkins.
Like thunderf00t.
Literally loved The Hitch :'(


Skepchick always seems to be a douchebag.

[theVOID]

What exactly is Gelatogate? I unsubed PZ a long time ago when I got sick of his childish bullshit.

Whatever his faults the impression I get from his writings, he seems like a decent minded British Liberal (rather like Bertrand Russell) and I like that.

They certainly have a similar demeanour in conversation which may be what you mean by "decent minded British Liberal" but on politics Russell was more of a communist in his early years (before he actually saw communism in action and was repulsed by it) and then became some form of classical liberal later in life.

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I dislike philosophy generally, it doesn't get you anywhere

Philosophy informs the scientific methods - without it there would be no reason behind the approach to science taken, thus no empirical evidence and no frameworks from which to interpret the findings.

Yeah, a lot of 'philosophy', especially the eastern kind, is complete horse shit, but there is also Analytic Philosophy and more specifically Quinean Naturalism that are incredibly useful tools for analysis.

look at people like William Lane Douche. But i think Dawkins knows more about philosophy than any of you give him credit for. Hardly a stupid man, and given the company he keeps

I hang out with electrical engineers, that doesn't make me good at designing PCBs.

[Tiberius]

Short version:

Owner of a Gelato Mio ice cream parlor saw some anti-religious talk at Skepticon IV, got annoyed, and put up a sign on the door of the parlor saying that attendees at Skepticon weren't allowed in. Some atheist took a picture of it and uploaded it to the internets, which went crazy. PZ Myers got pissed at the bigotry, as did a few people. Then the owner came onto reddit and said that he felt terrible about the whole thing, and that he'd actually taken the sign down after about 10 minutes when he'd calmed down and realised what a stupid thing it was to do. He apologised; was really nice about it, and most people accepted his apology.

PZ Myers didn't. http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2...-skeptics/

[thesummerqueen]

Basically, whatever the man did to show that he realized he had done something horrible and discriminatory and apologized for it wasn't enough for PZ, who I guess wanted him to go the extra step of getting out the whips and chains and flogging himself. "We can't let people get away with this sort of thing!!"

I think having your establishment marked in such a way is punishment enough.

[LastPoet]

The guy did man up and apologized, too bad PZ couldn't man up himself and accept the apology.

[theVOID]

I'd be fucking shit scared of a world where people like PZ and Watson had any real power, it would be some fucking totalitarian nightmare where only the values and action deemed by them to be 'morally good' were permitted.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

That book is ironically one of the reasons I've lost most respect for him. If you read it as your first book on atheism, or even on philosophy, you think it's brilliant. If however, you start to read other books on atheism, or delve into philosophical thinking even more, you realise that "The God Delusion" is a pile of crap. It tries to make several philosophical points, as well as commenting on various theological ones as well. The problem is, Dawkins has no training in philosophy, and certainly no training in theology either...and it shows...really badly.

I've said as much since he first came to public notice.;he is a polemicist,not a philosopher.He has nothing original to say as far as I can see,and seems to rely heavily on Russell.

However, after reading "God Is Not Great": I concluded Hitchens was a less rigorous and more emotional thinker than Dawkins, albeit often more entertaining.

[Anomalocaris]

it would be some fucking totalitarian nightmare where only the values and action deemed by them to be 'morally good' were permitted.

What do you think to be the real goal of christian heaven and hell if not to impose totalitarianism in the name of Jesus that extends even beyond the temperal into the spiritual?

[theVOID]

I didn't dispute that the most likely intended effect of heaven and hell is to coerce behaviour, what I noted is that we have "sceptics" and "rationalists" who would be just as quick to impose their own values backed up by their own threats which is of just as much concern - Sure, Christians might threaten eternal hell for Homosexuality, but these "sceptics" would impose real retribution (fines and/or imprisonment) for displaying an anti-gay sign in a shop window which is, for those of us who live in the real world, actually a more pressing concern as it is not just coercion via threats, but a real violation of property rights.

[Justtristo]

What exactly is Gelatogate? I unsubed PZ a long time ago when I got sick of his childish bullshit.

Whatever his faults the impression I get from his writings, he seems like a decent minded British Liberal (rather like Bertrand Russell) and I like that.

They certainly have a similar demeanour in conversation which may be what you mean by "decent minded British Liberal" but on politics Russell was more of a communist in his early years (before he actually saw communism in action and was repulsed by it) and then became some form of classical liberal later in life.

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Thank you for clearing that up, I am only familar with the later Russell who was in my view a social democrat.