Kraig Hudson

I tend not to drive particularly frugally and the car's quite underpowered so I find myself flooring it quite a lot, will it do anything bad to the car? (aside from pissing away quite a lot of petrol)

Christopher Hitchens was a personal favorite of mine, an inspiration with a deep contempt for totalitarianism.

So Hitchens, Dawkins, Dennett or Harris?

I remember I smoked around about a dozen cigarettes on a weeks holiday with friends in the 60's but I've never smoked since and never felt the urge to either. How long would it take before addiction really sets in?

Seeing as arachnophobia seems to be the most common phobia of them all - does anybody know any theories behind why this is? Were spiders more deadly thousands of years ago?

This is going to sound like a very vague statement because I have very little knowledge about this, but at what stage in pregnancy does the fertalised egg stop being just a "ball of cells". At what point do the stem cells start to differentiate and how long does it take for an actual fetus do develop basic senses?

I only ask in relation to abortion debates I've been hearing.

It seems today, you can't question someones belief about how the universe came about without being labelled as "prejudiced". You can debate and argue different aspects of politics, whether taxes should be high or low, whether we should become part of a union etc. without causing a mass of controversy, but why religion? Why has ancient superstition become so powerful? It's almost as if people are running scared from debating religion for fear they will offend someone. Some people don't even want to label themselves as atheists because their family is religious - trust me, I went through that stage about 40 years ago.

I'm talking about a different sperm from the same bloke obviously. But is there much variation in sperm cells from that person and to what extent would these variations affect what the person will like in future?

Just listening to a debate about whether Scotland should become independent.

I was wondering how Southern Ireland's coping as an independent Country in comparison to the rest of the UK. How would Scotland cope if they were to leave the UK? The arguments really only come from patriotic sentimental nationalists with only "pride" to talk about - not practicality.

Anybody live in the ROI?

I'm not from the USA so I'm interested to know how this joke of a politician managed to stay president for so long.

Can anyone enlighten me as to how these films are in any way good? Just scene after scene of mindless torture with a truly awful story line to justify it. Not only is it **** and not scary (kind of defeats the object of a horror film) it's also rather messed up.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not averse to a good horror film; I love the likes of The Shining and The Exorcist that actually get you frightened with a really good situation behind it. As for "Saw" - I really hate to imagine what nasty rubbish they'll come up with next.

think-liberal.blogspot.com/view/magazine#!/2011/11/ukip-brownshirts-in-blazers.html

Have a read of the blog above ^

This guy has a real point.

Obviously this doesn't happen in the UK/USA because we have laws protecting people against atrocities like that. But it happens in other countries in the name of their own faith. Can they still be proud to call themselves Muslim?

Muslims I talk to cherry pick the nice bits from the Quaran and say "look that's what we stand for!" They then leave out all the horrible bits and when I point them out, they simply say "oh we don't believe in that anymore." Well why not? If you believe that the Quaran is the word of "almighty Allah" surely that's what you must believe?

But of course we don't believe in those things anymore (and rightly so). That's thanks to secular, atheistic reasoning and logic. What's the point of devouting your life to a religion if you're just going to cherry pick?

Conveniently, the people who claim they have "come into contact with God" (without any evidence to support their claim) are devout followers of that faith. When I ask why this is; theists often respond by saying "well God doesn't want anything to do with them because they're disloyal".

If God really did exist, surely he would make it clear to atheists that he is present. If God really did exist, there'd be no such thing as atheism.

In my view, it definitely shouldn't. The whole world is not asexual; we're all sexual beings.

Plus it'd be a bit 1984 to start monitoring that kind of thing.

Anybody who thinks it should be banned care to share their opinion?

The Salvation Army: A company that claims to give money to those in need but spends a great chunk of the money you donate to lobby for anti-gay laws. Even if you are pig ignorant enough to be against homosexuality, it isn't right for a charity to use your funds that you intend to help people for their political agenda. Especially a political agenda like that.

I've also heard they threatened to shut down shelters in New York if anti-gay laws weren't passed. It genuinely makes me sick.

From what I hear, theists seem to believe that God treats humans as his master race.

Why doesn't he care as much about sheep, or about butterflies? What makes you think he concentrated his time on humans? Religion is man made after all, so they had to sell it I guess.

Just out of interest really.

I'm only 16 and I've obviously had limited experience of how society works outside school.

In general, I tend to hear much more intelligent and thought through arguments from lefties than righties.

Just interested in what attitudes people have on either side really.

I've always found this confusing. If a 40 year old woman pretends she's 30, the first thing that would come to my mind is "she's aged badly" rather than "wow she's young". I'm actually impressed when 50/60 year old people look younger than their years. I'm 66 and I would never say anything lower, if I was going to lie at all I'd be tempted to pretend I'm older.

Although I disagree, I respect anybody's view that we must have been created by something if there is no explanation as to how things came about.

If you've come to that conclusion, why do you suddenly believe in walking on water and water being turned into wine? Is it because "the bible says so"? I find it amazing how Christian's put forward a reasonably rational argument for there being a creator, and then they completely ruin it by their strange beliefs in things that contradict all laws of nature. It's no different from believing in flying tea pots. Can someone please explain?