Peter

Add friend
Sign in to Goodreads to learn more about Peter.


Little America: T...
Rate this book
Clear rating

progress: 
 
  (page 130 of 384)
"Very interesting read about Helmand province, our history here, and the significance of the province to the Afghan counterinsurgency. Excellent read." Sep 14, 2013 04:17AM

 
Loading...
Bill Maher
“New Rule: You don't have to teach both sides of a debate if one side is a load of crap. President Bush recently suggested that public schools should teach "intelligent design" alongside the theory of evolution, because after all, evolution is "just a theory." Then the president renewed his vow to "drive the terrorists straight over the edge of the earth."

Here's what I don't get: President Bush is a brilliant scientist. He's the man who proved you could mix two parts booze with one part cocaine and still fly a jet fighter. And yet he just can't seem to accept that we descended from apes. It seems pathetic to be so insecure about your biological superiority to a group of feces-flinging, rouge-buttocked monkeys that you have to make up fairy tales like "We came from Adam and Eve," and then cover stories for Adam and Eve, like intelligent design! Yeah, leaving the earth in the hands of two naked teenagers, that's a real intelligent design.

I'm sorry, folks, but it may very well be that life is just a series of random events, and that there is no master plan--but enough about Iraq.

There aren't necessarily two sides to every issue. If there were, the Republicans would have an opposition party. And an opposition party would point out that even though there's a debate in schools and government about this, there is no debate among scientists. Evolution is supported by the entire scientific community. Intelligent design is supported by the guys on line to see The Dukes of Hazzard.

And the reason there is no real debate is that intelligent design isn't real science. It's the equivalent of saying that the Thermos keeps hot things hot and cold things cold because it's a god. It's so willfully ignorant you might as well worship the U.S. mail. "It came again! Praise Jesus!"

Stupidity isn't a form of knowing things. Thunder is high-pressure air meeting low-pressure air--it's not God bowling. "Babies come from storks" is not a competing school of throught in medical school.

We shouldn't teach both. The media shouldn't equate both. If Thomas Jefferson knew we were blurring the line this much between Church and State, he would turn over in his slave.

As for me, I believe in evolution and intelligent design. I think God designed us in his image, but I also think God is a monkey.”
Bill Maher, The New New Rules: A Funny Look At How Everybody But Me Has Their Head Up Their Ass

A.C. Grayling
“People should be left to believe what they like, so long as they harm no one else. Apart from normal expectations of politeness, it is not however clear why people should require their personal beliefs to be treated with special sensitivity by others, to the point that if others fail to tip-toe respectfully around them they will start throwing bombs.”
A. C. Grayling

Christopher Hitchens
“In order to be a part of the totalitarian mind-set, it is not necessary to wear a uniform or carry a club or a whip. It is only necessary to wish for your own subjection, and to delight in the subjection of others.”
Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

Christopher Hitchens
“Nothing proves the man-made character of religion as obviously as the sick mind that designed hell.”
Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

Sam Harris
“People of faith tend to argue that it is not faith itself but man's baser nature that inspires such violence. But, I take it to be self-evident that ordinary people cannot be moved to burn genial old scholars alive for blaspheming the Koran, or celebrate the violent deaths of their children, unless they believe some improbable things about the nature of the universe.”
Sam Harris, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason

year in books
Will Me...
450 books | 153 friends

Amie Ja...
67 books | 94 friends

John Fi...
146 books | 99 friends

Ashlee ...
27 books | 36 friends

Louise
12 books | 41 friends

Tricia
55 books | 61 friends

David G...
3 books | 41 friends

Robyn M...
7 books | 36 friends

More friends…


Polls voted on by Peter

Lists liked by Peter