Comments on: A Romanian Adventure

By: Ada

Ada — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 19:51:47 +0000

Hello,
I just read on the internet today that you have visited and had not one, but two conferences in Romania!
I am a big fan (I subscribe to Skeptic – under my husband’s name, I used his credit card to pay for it), I listen to the podcasts and I work in the media – so I should be better informed, and still had no idea about the conferences!
This is just me venting my frustration in here.
But I have an idea: Next time you go for a public conference in some place at the end of the world – can you please ask the subscription dept at the magazine to drop a mail to those in the area about the event? Some of us could benefit from that.

By: Monica

Monica — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:53:23 +0000

Hi,
I loved your post. I am Romanian (I left the country a while ago) and I still miss “sarmale” and Ursus :)
I must confess I was a bit surprised to see that biology book. I was a teenager in 1989 during the events that overthrew Ceausescu’s regime. After that, religion became more and more visible in the society(to a nauseating degree I must say, priests blessing the opening of malls,etc. etc), but I don’t recall seeing anything like that in school, certainly no biology books presenting such ridiculous views. Only the highschool philosophy book discussed God and theological points, but with quite a balanced approach. It is very worrying to hear that kids are going to study such idiotic books. I hope it will not happen or if it already does, it means the education system is really moving in the wrong direction and the atheist lobby (if there is such a thing) should try and do something about it.
I was a bit suprised to read about Remus who would run for presidential elections to enforce separation of state and church. State and church ARE separated in Romania. It is true that the Church has a huge influence on people, but Romania is not a theocracy. I wouldn’t like Remus to fight a battle that looks already lost (running for president as a declared secular person in Romania would have just as much chance to be successful as running for president of US as a gay and an atheist – although we had a president who declared himselh a “free thinker”, but only after he was elected). Wouldn’t it be better just to try and organize a sort of lobby at Parliament level or start a grassroots organization? You know, start small and grow and be reasonable.
I have always been openly atheist and although sometimes I got some disapproving looks and nasty comments in Romania, very few people seemed to have a huge problem with my worldview. It is a bit annoying and lonely to be the village eccentric, I agree :)
I have moved to a Catholic country and although I don’t see as much display of religion as in Romania, abortion is prohibited here by law and in my opinion, this actually makes this country more religious than Romania.

But yeah, I miss Bucharest and Cluj and crazy Romania :)))

By: Dan Dascalescu

Dan Dascalescu — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:17:22 +0000

@Diana Chemali: that people don’t make a cross sign when they see a black cat is certainly true; and probably few make one when they pass by a church – but the latter is probably the reality in Bucharest.

The rest of the population, I’d wager, is much more religious. I lived in Galati, a decent industrial city of 300,000, and let’s just say that priests in church clothing, people making cross signs whenever they passed a church, and public transportation vehicles displaying religious artifacts displayed in, were a tad too much for my taste.

Mr. Shermer, I greatly enjoyed your presentation at Ohlone College in Fremont on March 06, 2009 (thank you for signing my book), and I wish to thank you as well for helping spread critical thinking in my home country.

By: frank

frank — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:10:06 +0000

re: Glenn (now comment 12 – retreayt having been (properly) deleted)

ok – fair comment!

rgds,

frnk

By: Glenn

Glenn — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:51:42 +0000

Frank using English reads like a Donkey playing a violin.

By: frank

frank — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:05:38 +0000

ooops – mybad

my befuddled brain concatenated messers Shermer and Dawkins.

my apologies.
it is Mr Dawkins whom i have found abrasively offensive in his misotheism. (though absorbing and entertaining in his book (but frustratingly obtuse in proving his contentions))

mr shermer i have respect for in his circumspectness (though some of his followers seem blinkered)

hope this resolves (absolves?)

By: frank

frank — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:02:54 +0000

in reply to retreayt comment No. 12

i, too, had lost patience with mshermer in the face of his abrasive and offensively aggressive dismissal of those who profess a belief in the outworkings and presence of a supernatural “deity”.

i have now read the first and last chapters of “Climbing mt improbable” and find him a far more readable and informative fellow – well worht a read.

i am still wrestling, however, with his seeming prevarications – or maybe i am impatient. i still have not come to any place where he has shown that there is, indeed, a gentle sloping path around the impossible cliffs of the mountain.

By: Jeffrey Eldred

Jeffrey Eldred — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:37:39 +0000

You should have visited ZOMGitsCriss from youtube!

By: DEA

DEA — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:46:31 +0000

Hei Diana, Michael said 99% religiously afiliated.
If you remember the census only 0.2% were atheists. So it makes the math.

And yes there are other books which are scientifically correct, and they are the majority, but nevertheless, no creationist books should be approved by the Education Ministry.

“If the child is 16 he can choose for himself to either follow the evolutionist or creationist explanation of biology.”
This is utterly wrong, creationism is not an alternative explanation it’s just religion.

By: Peter Gluck

Peter Gluck — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:09:46 +0000

The Cluj conference and the Shermer book re. Weird things-are presented here:http://info.kappa.ro/
in the editorial No. 370 of this weekly newsletter.
Unfortunately in Romanian. I had the pleasure to meet
Michael and he has promised to answer my message.
I am preparing a letter mainly with the following points:
a) Shermer’s prediction for the future: Knowledge or Ignorance based society? Is this century a new one or is it the 12-th in a new form?
b) A discussion re. what erroneously is named cold fusion,,based on experimental data and, even more important about the technology described at
http://www.blackl;ightpower.com. According to Cipolla’s 2nd Law even skeptics can err, and CF is such a case.
c) My “Negatheist Manifesto”- I consider that atheists
i.e. zerotheists believe in too many gods and we need
religions based on negative numbers of gods. This means humans have to become more and more godlike-
by Education and Science.
By the way, an old concept, see H.G. Wells- “Men like gods” and Arthur C.Clarke’s idea that ‘perhaps or mission is not to worship God but to create him”

Best wishes and thanks for the fine conference!
Peter