tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7069028752161632102024-11-01T07:05:24.540-04:00Godly bloodlust from talking snake to lake of brimstoneBart B. Van Bockstaelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14689331945672800561noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-706902875216163210.post-87320538387938758642016-01-05T07:56:00.000-05:002016-01-05T07:59:45.254-05:00

When Mel Lastman said in June 2001, before going to Kenya in support of Toronto's 2008 Olympics bid: What the hell would I want to go to a place like Mombasa for?...I just see myself in a pot of boiling water with all these natives dancing around me. he was heavily criticised for this "racial slur", and was encouraged to apologise for it. While reprehensible, I would argue that it isn't a

Bart B. Van Bockstaelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14689331945672800561noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-706902875216163210.post-59864005367187947642015-11-22T20:20:00.001-05:002015-11-23T18:57:46.487-05:00

I had not thought it possible, but it seems that we are once again entering a period of religious warfare. Religion is toxic, a virus of the human mind. While I will always continue to defend freedom of religion on a personal level, I will not relent in my battle against it on a societal level. I have always advocated teaching the scientific method at the youngest possible age. While science

Bart B. Van Bockstaelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14689331945672800561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-706902875216163210.post-18772466304888105022015-11-22T07:03:00.000-05:002015-11-27T17:43:46.581-05:00

An article by Heather Tomlinson about John Lennox was recently brought to my attention: Ten quick responses to atheist claims. In the article, she reports Lennox' replies to ten claims he claims atheists make. This my attempt at replying to what he says.  Please do not hesitate to point out where I am wrong, and why. If your argument is sound, I will change my view. 1) You don't

Bart B. Van Bockstaelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14689331945672800561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-706902875216163210.post-50564035294551850022013-10-28T15:46:00.002-04:002013-10-28T15:50:04.847-04:00

There is currently a measles epidemic in the Bible Belt of the Netherlands. People have been withholding the measles vaccine (and others) from their children because – according to them – their god doesn't want them to vaccinate their children. As a result, 2016 patients with measles have been counted since May 2013. There were several hospitalisations, and now, the first confirmed death, an

Bart B. Van Bockstaelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14689331945672800561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-706902875216163210.post-13123388512136363752013-07-02T09:17:00.002-04:002013-07-02T09:20:26.817-04:00

I have always been a defender of the freedom of religion, and the freedom of believing in any other type of nonsense, on one simple condition: that freedom must stop where it harms others, just as any other freedom must stop there. In the Netherlands, there is now after 14 years, a new outbreak of the measles. At least 160 children are infected, all in the Dutch version of the Bible belt, 5

Bart B. Van Bockstaelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14689331945672800561noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-706902875216163210.post-60883356081082869672012-04-07T11:57:00.001-04:002012-04-07T12:01:30.431-04:00

The resistance against gay marriage is probably the best evidence that Christians and other religious nutjobs are not after "tolerance" but rather "domination". If a Christian does not want to marry someone of her/his own sex, fine. That doesn't harm me, it doesn't change me, it does absolutely nothing to me. On the other hand, how exactly is a Christian harmed by -say- Elton John's marriage?

Bart B. Van Bockstaelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14689331945672800561noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-706902875216163210.post-55751234419607990672012-02-28T03:37:00.001-05:002012-02-28T04:08:33.839-05:00

Richard Dawkins Evolutionary biologist and zoologist Richard Dawkins is renowned as one of the world's leading public atheists. Religionists often call him arrogant, shrill, intolerant and aggressive in his defense of atheism. Many religionists claim that Richard Dawkins' atheism is nothing but another form of religion, that he is an ignorant clown who doesn't know much, and that his

Bart B. Van Bockstaelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14689331945672800561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-706902875216163210.post-41863994333255247352012-02-24T09:02:00.000-05:002012-02-24T10:10:16.931-05:00

William Lane Craig [04] In case you are not familiar with him, William Lane Craig [01] is an individual who works as a Jesus shill for Biola University [02], an institution of questionable academic integrity that requires all its staff to accept an intellectually untenable doctrinal statement [03]. This is a text, full of unproven claims, which I don't feel like reproducing here, since it can

Bart B. Van Bockstaelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14689331945672800561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-706902875216163210.post-31670667218336409222012-02-12T21:25:00.003-05:002012-02-12T22:00:53.963-05:00

Bill Maher (Photo: Wikipedia) First, let's be clear: I am not all that fond of Bill Maher [01]. Anybody who suggests that headaches are not caused by Aspirin deficiency [02] and that Aspirin should therefore not be taken when one has a headache, is a bit of a loon and a crank, and almost certainly does not score too high on any reasonably reliable intelligence scale. When we have an acute

Bart B. Van Bockstaelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14689331945672800561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-706902875216163210.post-49313868205128579792012-02-08T04:17:00.000-05:002012-02-11T14:33:25.109-05:00

Sacrifice of Isaac (1635) Most Americans claim they are, but are they? There are numberless Christian sects in the US, and all over the world for that matter. They all differ in what they consider Christian and what not except for one major point: they almost all agree that they are right, and that all the other Christians are wrong. Only the viewpoints of their particular sect are the right

Bart B. Van Bockstaelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14689331945672800561noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-706902875216163210.post-50132226618993410322012-02-07T05:34:00.001-05:002012-02-08T02:47:02.820-05:00

I grew up with a Catholic extremist father, a failed Trappist monk, and a mother who didn't seem to believe in much of anything, except for the hypocrisy of going through the movements. Both my parents firmly believed in the Biblical "Spoil the rod, spoil the child" adage, and they applied it with great enthusiasm and creativity. While Christopher Hitchens had to learn through voluntary

Bart B. Van Bockstaelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14689331945672800561noreply@blogger.com0