Remarkable!

A site on Reason rattles off a list of advisory board members picked on… celebrity status.

Maher had never even met Harris, and yet he is on the advisory board of Harris’s project?

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yeah what the hell? did he just join the advisory board? I am fairly sure I saw Bill on the list when the site was first launched.

Well awesome anyhow. Sam = clear and sound voice of reason.

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one thing sam mentioned was being open to people awakening to a higher state of life . it gave me great joy to hear that because i feel that is the way for change. people must awaken their lifes and see that they have the power within not outside themselves. there is a natural rhytheme to the uninverse and everything is based on the law of cause and effect.

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I saw on the Internet that Bill Maher opposes vaccination, Western medicine and laboratory research using animals.  For the Reason Project, he’s poifect!

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Nah, Jimmy.

Atheism has no set of constant intellectual companions.  I have read many TRP posts from conservative as well as liberal types.  In fact, I’m now sure which one dominates members’ thinking.

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Oh.  Well, at least that explains why so many of them didn’t want a great medical doctor running the National Institutes of Health.  There’s a logical answer for everything.  You just have to look hard enough.

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Simpleton,

It would be unreasonable for the Reason Project not to have a unbelieving celebrity like Maher on the advisory board. His “celebrity status” = a lot influence, a large audience, and significant amount of money.

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I commend your work so far and hope to see progress in the promotion of reason.  It’s long overdue.

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I’ve been waiting 4 years for Bill Maher to invite Sam Harris on his show.  I hope Harris returns to take on some panelists in the discussion portion of the show.  Hopefully this gives The Reason Project some much needed PR.

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Simpleton: Bill Maher & Brent Forrester are the only two members of the Advisory Board who could reasonably be considered celebrities.  And there’s no evidence they were chosen for their statuses as celebrities.

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Jimmy: True Maher has often expressed an apparently irrational distrust of the pharmaceutical industry and suggested multiple times that we could potentially learn much from Eastern medicine (which is at least empirically falsifiable).

But you’re making quite a leap to suggest that Maher’s beliefs are shared by any of the other members of the advisory board.  You write:::

There’s a logical answer for everything.  You just have to look hard enough.

And yet from your post I wonder whether you’ve read any of the books from the Advisory Board members.  Or even read their blogs (those that write them).  What has Sam Harris published which suggests that he opposes Francis Collins because he shares Maher’s views on Western medicine, vaccinations or animal testing?  How about Christopher Hitchens?  Is there some Youtube video out there which suggests that Ayaan Hirsi Ali or Steven Pinker don’t support Francis Collins because he’s a “great medical doctor” not to be trusted?

As Sam Harris has so eloquently put it: don’t pretend to know things you do not know.  Your comment suggests that you are intellectually lazier than you probably are.  That you read this site and comment on it suggests that you are better informed than that.

Please let us destroy any bad ideas that Bill Maher may flirt with, but we do a disservice to reason to suggest that his views are commonplace among the Advisory Board members and that their opposition to Francis Collins as head of the NIH is so flippantly superficial.

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I agree with Simpleton about the “celebrity status.”  Come on, Sam, surely you can do better than Steven Weinberg.  Who are you going to pick next, Britney Spears?

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Hamilton…
You’re making a joke about the Stephen Weinberg question, right?  Especially the comparison to Britney Spears?  You’re being sarcastic, right?  Aren’t you?

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I think we can apply clear reason to determine that yes, Hamilton was being sarcastic, given that Mr Weinberg is Nobel Laureate in Physics.

What a marvellously enlightening website this is.  I am pleased I was introduced to it through Maher’s Real Time.

I will do my best to spread the word.

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Candle:  Just so we’re straight, I didn’t say anything about any of the other members of the advisory board.  Go back and check.  I know this because I make it a rule never to pick on anyone bigger than I am, although I’m not sure if that’s because of the moral law or evolution.  Does it say in any of them books?

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Jimmy: apologies if I misrepresented your thoughts.

You (or someone calling themselves Jimmy) wrote:

Well, at least that explains why so many of them didn’t want a great medical doctor running the National Institutes of Health.

I assumed that by “so many of them”, you were referring to the other members of the Advisory Board.  I’m not sure who you’re referring to by “them” but I am sorry for making that assumption.

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We need more discussions like this on television. They make me feel better to be human.

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Candle:  The post to which I was responding (way back up there somewhere) was talking about all the various posts on the board, and I had assumed that there was some group of Reason Project “members” that was bigger than just the members of the advisory board, and that they could be easily swayed by the sugary lies of Bill Maher.  If I’m wrong about that, I’m sorry.  But at least I have the sweet satisfaction of disproving YOUR completely baseless theory that I’m not as intellectually lazy as I appear.  So there.

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Our morality comes from us being mammals. Mammals brought love into the world. 

With few exceptions a reptile abandons its egg to hatch alone. The young reptile has no knowledge of its parent. it’s life begins and ends with its own experiences.

But with the suckling and cherishing of young which was distinctive of mammals, love was brought forth into this world. The family unit. Care for your offspring which can radiate out towards others. Our morality stems from this.

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I just found this Project from watching this interview on YT. I am so pleased to see so much dialogue, for once, on the topic of sky daddy worship and it’s deleterious affects on society and world harmony. For so many yrs, I have impatiently waited for folks, especially in the USA, to come to this point of questioning the whole crazy stance of god worship. When Bush was elected into office, it felt like a slide backwards into the bronze age but now I feel a greater ‘wind’ of change to a more sane country. Hope this wind of sanity keeps up.

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DoctorMelkor:

No, I was not joking.  By choosing Steven Weinberg for the advisory board, Sam was obviously just pandering to Weinberg’s legions of teenage groupies.  I mean, really—unifying electromagnetism with the weak nuclear force?  What kind of qualification is that for a so-called “Reason Project”?  Once we start letting in Weinberg and his ilk, where will it end?

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I like seeing discussions like these on TV (or actually on the Internet, where I watch TV).

Bill Maher’s interview just introduced me and surely many others to the Reason Project, so as an advisory board member he’s proving his worth.

I would like to see more debate on the origin of morality. I’ve long pondered the origin of the earth/universe, but morality might be a more tractable problem. Any recommendations?

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Morality only exists where there is responsibility. If God does not exist, then morality is a small thing that involves mostly our neighbor. But if God exists, then morality encompasses all of creation and most of all ourselves, for “we are not our own, we belong to the Lord.”

And, by the way, God does exist. And we are more than mammals. (What a dummy.)

Where does the lack of morality come from? This is a better question.

Morality ends when we deny ourselves, that is, when we live other than we were meant to live. When we go against our conscience we are immoral. When we live as animals live we are immoral. When we live only for ourselves we are immoral. When we make others suffer on purpose we are immoral.

But this discussion is a smokescreen. Sam Harris and Bill Maher have backed themselves into a corner with their intellectual atheism. They have no foundation for a case of morality in the world. The question of where does morality come from is stupid and futile when the starting point for this discussion is atheism. These guys believe in animalistic behavior if it earns the user money or fame, or doesn’t hurt anyone, or makes the user feel good. and on and on. When you make human beings the measure of what is right or wrong, you stack the deck. There can be no right or wrong, except only in extreme cases.

These guys need to stfu, if they know what’s good for them and for those who hear them. They will have a heavy price to pay. It would be better for them to tie a stone around their necks and throw themselves into the sea than lead the littlest ones astray. (Not my warning.)

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mario, did you hear that there is an insurance company that has included a new clause in it’s contracts. It’s rather timely too. it states that if your home suffers any damage, particularly chimney damage, on the evening of Dec, 24 then the company is not liable. Clearly Santa Claus is responsible.

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Why is it so hard for people to get their minds around the fact that there is no Invisible Man in the Sky? The best thing I’ve ever heard in this endlessly childish conversation is that scientists embark on a mission to disprove the existence of God; what they find is evidence of a higher power that no human can possibly comprehend.

In our shallow little minds, we create “God” to explain the incomprehensible. Of course we assign “God” a gender; since it’s a man’s world, we call “God” “Him”. 

We then devolve into who’s “right”, with splinter groups of every faith insinuating themselves into a nonsensical conversation that should never have started.

Human beings created “God” to explain the unexplainable. One by one, science unlocks the mysteries of life, of creation, of the exponential expansion of the universes. With every mystery solved, a million more reveal themselves.

Our primitive minds created primitive rituals to worship a “God” that doesn’t exist. We even assigned “Him” anger issues, to help explain how & why he “smites” us with worldly calamities.

Infantile superstitious bullshit.

I fear for the future of the human race. No species of living being can be this stupid for this long without extinction lurking right around the next corner.

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I never heard of this website before hearing it mentioned on Real Time Friday night.  Thank you, Bill Maher for having Sam Harris on your show.  It is definitely true that the circumstances of a person’s childhood color how he or she views religion as an adult.  I am not a believer, but do not fault those who do believe.  In most cases, it is so ingrained in them that they have no choice.  I teach my children to think for themselves, and am not attempting to sway their thought in any one direction.

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Lisa, I hope that all parents in the future do as you on this issue. I’ve sometimes thought that as a parent if your child wanted to jump off a rock into the water below, you wouldn’t allow them to unless you knew the water was deep enough. If there was no way of finding out how deep it was, you still wouldn’t allow your child to jump. You wouldn’t say, “i’ve ‘heard its deep enough, go ahead, jump” or “I believe it’s deep enough, go for it”.  No, you would find out first.  That should be with the existence of ‘God’ also. At some point and for some time your children believe that you know everything. Please be reasonable.

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Thanks, Ray.  I would cringe at the thought that I would try to influence my kids in the belief or non-belief of the existence of God.  We take our kids to a rather liberal Methodist church for Sunday school.  (We are not regular).  The kids receive a positive message and enjoy it with their friends. This is our sole reason for attending.  My husband and I enjoy the positive message delivered by the minister.  It always has something to do with how to live your life as a happy, fulfilled person and how to pass that on to your children.  Not much religion in that.  Yes, Jesus is mentioned in the service.  No big deal.  When we talk amongst ourselves, I tell my kids that NOBODY knows whether a God exists, including me, and that anyone who claims to know one way or the other is lying.  I tell them to not just take for granted what any person tells them, but to think for themselves.  I am confident that whatever opinions they have as adults will be the result of many years of thoughtful consideration.  They are very smart (ok, that is a mom’s opinion!)

For me, I don’t believe in a big “high-school principal in the sky”.  However, I could be wrong.

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Re: Simpleton, astronomer24. It is not unusual at all that Bill is on the advisory board and had not met Sam. If you understand how a board works its pretty clear. I’ve never been a member of a non profit organization but I have been a corporate board member and I imagine they are conducted in a similar way.

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I have to say I was a little dissapointed with this. First i thought it was a given that Maher would put him on the panel. Second it was strange 1. How Maher didn’t seem to be that familiar with Sam’s arguments and 2. was quite catty about wanting credit for ‘new atheism’. This from Maher who steals from George Carlin(a better candidate for comedian laureate of atheism) repeatedly!

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To John Phillip Green:

a good place to start is the book by Marc Hauser, “Moral Minds: How Nature Designed our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong” His thesis is that a moral ‘grammar” evolved, akin to Chomsky’s universal grammar of language. Different cultures then add various memetic “plug-ins” to that basic software package. His lab work attempts to bypass the cultural plug-ins to expose the kernel of the moral sense

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Simpleton,
It would be unreasonable for the Reason Project not to have a unbelieving celebrity like Maher on the advisory board. His “celebrity status” = a lot influence, a large audience, and significant amount of money.
posted on August 23, 2009
==

In other words, Reason is insufficient to propagate itself?

The irony aside, requiring that we have someone from “the celebrity side” just because…he is a celebrity is A Good Thing?

Isn’t that deceit really the opponents of Reason use?

If that tactic is reasonable, should we explore other means? 

Like violence, for example.

After all, violence has moved relatively fast to drive out abortion clinics and doctors in the US.

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Maher is a strange bedfellow for atheists because of his odd “non-reasoned”  beliefs in many areas.  Additionally, I don’t think he has ever said he is an atheist, or even an agnostic.  There are several examples of him saying he “believes in god”.  He does despise religions, and I think that is the best that can be said.

I think he was half serious when he responded to Sam’s statement about _End of Faith_ being the first in a series of books kicking off what is now called the “New Atheist” movement.  I was very uncomfortable when he said, “Oh, I thought that was me?”

And this is the poor example that is receiving the Dawkins prize soon?

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Hey, Johnny and Ray, be careful. Your puny ideas are most likely based upon lifes lived running from God. You do not see the value of an eternal life because you do not want your actions in this life to be judged. Atheism has given you the belief in only yourself. You have your God. And you worship him all the time, don’t you piglets?

You are guilty of spewing out nonsense without proving if your words are true.

You have searched nowhere and have given no time to God. So you judge others according to your own lazy minds. A thumbs up from some dumb chick is your reward. Shut up soon, piglets.

You think you are helping the human race by proclaming that we are accidents of nature, life is temporary, mental illness is a bad dice roll, losing a child has no happy ending, death is a black hole, and on and on.

You think God’s existence is bullshit. Imagine. Smoke another joint. Maybe you can discover another great truth. Morons.

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Oh my… Brother Mario..

I don’t know about you all, but I can barely get through ONE of his ridiculous rants ... could you imagine spending eternity listening to this clown? that would be my hell…  Jesus Christ!!

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Sam disparages Francis Collins, who cures diseases, and sucks up to Bill Maher, who opposes flu shots.  Ya gotta love that kind of mental discipline.

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“A thumbs up from some dumb chick is your reward.”

Mario is having trouble with this concept because his reproductive apparatus, on the best of days, resembles a Non-Newtonian fluid rather than a solid.

And this IS a falsifiable assumption, but the actual experiments may be frowned upon by the Pope.

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Brother Mario,

You stated in a different article that I should study the bible. You have the Spirit guide your words…

Really.

If your words really are coming from the “Spirit,” then once again, I rejoice in my atheism.

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Oh, and it lives… not lifes. Geez.

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Deb, you will rejoice for a time, then you will find the sorrow too great. AT that time your atheism will falter, and you will give to God what is his.

And thank you for correcting my spelling. My Masters in English missed it.

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Brother Mario,

Without getting into whether I agree with your statements or anyone else’s, why resort to name-calling and verbal abuse to prove your point?  This forum could be a place to engage in decent discourse between people with different views.  Your convictions are strong, and that is admirable, but every single comment I have read of yours has been insulting and childish.  Don’t you understand that this is exactly what drives most of these people away from anything having to do with any kind of God?  Why does having different views make you a dummy, or make you stupid?  Why do you personally feel the need to engage in this kind of discourse?  Why can’t you just argue your point and leave the name-calling to children?

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Brother Mario,

Arrogance and ignorance are devilish companions.

Pray for deliverance my son.

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Brother Mario is a troll. The end. Don’t feed the trolls.

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Atheist Crusader,

You seem not to understand either.  Calling someone a troll doesn’t advance any kind of reasonable discourse either.  Until we can engage in civil debate without resorting to childish name-calling and demonizing those with opposing beliefs we will get nowhere.  You and Brother Mario are opposite sides of the same coin.

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Native Son, Atheist Crusader was referring to an “Internet Troll” - not a troll as in a small goblin-like man living under a bridge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)

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Thanks DebG.  I’m fairly new to discussion boards and the lingo.  Sorry to Atheist Crusader, too. Misunderstood your comment.

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Sam Harris is nothing short of a total bad ass. I have never in my life heard such eloquence on atheism. The guy made a flawless case. Can we please get this man on the panel next time!

John Wilkinson: I didn’t think Bill was being catty or wanting credit for the “new atheism”. I took that simply as a comedian going for laughs.

Johnnnymac66: I love your comments. It is indeed revealing that god has “anger issues” of rageaholic proportions. I can’t possibly imagine where “he” got that from, LMAO!

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Bummer! The video is no longer available. Some kind of copywrite issue with hbo….

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Sam did the athiest community proud.Some of the comments I’ve read must be religious-right republicans.Keep up the good work,Sam.

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