There were lots of bizarre and outright nasty comments this week; here are a few that didn’t make it to the threads, but are appearing here. (I’ve realized that the Freedom from Religion Foundation’s monthly newsletter always has a section detailing the abusive letters and emails they got, many of which are far nastier than mine!)

First, here’s reader Mark,commenting on “New film on Noah and the Ark offends both Christians and Muslims“:

U are an idiot the bible is true I didn’t come from monkeys maybe u did

This could be a teenage troll, of course, but there are lots of people who could write this and mean it.

Reader Jay, commenting on: “In Heaven, everybody’s young”: a new movie proving Heaven“:

Of course the heaven movie is gonna do way better than the unbelievers. The atheist worldview is fucking bleak. Kill, conquer, and spread your genes, and then you die. No wonder autism is on the rise. You atheists couldn’t have real love if your life depended on it. Oh wait… To you guys love is just a chemical reaction anyway, nothing significant. Fuck that.

I’m not sure which atheists he knows, but I’m not familiar with that species. But in fact love is a chemical (and neurological) condition; this guy is just too wrapped up in his “other ways of knowing” to see it. And really—autism?

Reader Tony, commenting on “New film on Noah and the Ark offends both Christians and Muslims“:

Well I didn’t see this movie yet so I don’t really know if it is accurate or not. considering who the producer and director is I would only guess that its not accurate and that they did not care about making it accurate mainly to make it more interesting and make more money off of it. I do believe in the bible and I do believe in god. This website and this article is just another show of ignorance by the same type of people who made the movie. How can you not believe in something that has been around for generations before you were even here. Our country and our ancestors followed the bible the believed in god but all of the sudden we just forget that and make up new ideas of creation and say the bible was all just fiction that some random people wrote. That is what makes no sense.

There must be some kind of name for the fallacy that “the truth of an idea is directly proportional to the amount of time it’s been around.” Slavery and the denigration of women, of course, have been around at least as long as the Bible.

Reader Puzzled, commenting on “Should vaccinations be mandatory? A debate in the New York Times”

So they should get entitlements paid for by the working people, and if they are on drugs, then that’s alright? We should pay for their drug habit? Ok

I think that this means that we shouldn’t subsidize vaccinations for poor people, as that would be like subsidizing the drug habit. And I guess we shouldn’t subsidize roads and schools, either, for poor people who pay little or no tax get to use them as much as the rest of us!

Reader Keith Carroll, commenting on “How religions—and the U.S. government—let children die”:

The issue that there are times government needs to intervene in the medical care between child and parent is a very important one. On the surface the debate seems clear. First I want to make it clear I am not against modern medicine. It has come a long way from “blood letting” in order to cure diseases. As far as all these studies spoken of favor the doctor. How about the instances of abuse and deaths at the hands of doctors and hospitals. (take Boston Children s Hospital as an example) How about the millions of children being physically poisoned, burned by caustic, and torn apart in abortion clinics all at the acceptance and financial support of the “state”. How about the parent that has no religious reason to disagree with their doctor but do? They are all lumped in with those that have religious objections. For my part, I believe for instance,that chemo and radiation treatments are barbaric and cause great misery and premature death and are given even when there are no examples that these has resulted in a cure. (Pancreatic cancer as an example) There are many that have successfully treated cancer without traditional medicine but no one seems to be listening. The American Medical Association is a strong union and many times are a hindrance to medical advancement more times than not. We are a massive over medicated society. One can find many credible medical experts that agree. So in summary, the children are best not a ward of the state. Of course there will unfortunately be abuse. I’ll bet I can find though, far, far more abuse at the hands of the “state” the doctor, or by hospitals. Past history shows the “state” has been involved in atrocities such as eugenics, medical experimentation, and population control here and in other countries. Why on earth would I trust the “state” with the care of our children.

I doubt that you’ll find as many cases of doctors deliberately withholding effective medical care from children as you would of religious parents doing the same. As for chemo and radiation not being effective, and there being no examples resulting in a cure, of course that’s palpably false. Keith has failed in so many ways that he’s beyond correction or redemption. I presume that he’d get rid of departments of child and family services as well. Let parents kill or abuse their kids however they want, for you can’t trust the state.

Finally, reader Bruce Brownlee comments on “Jerry Coyne soon to be neutered and taken to Christchurch”:

Gosh if Jerry Coyne is going to Christchurch NZ ,I hope he will fall into the hands of Gareth Morgan (Cats to Go). We have too many bloody murderous cats decimating our wildlife.

Gareth Morgan, a New Zealand businessman who’s done some good environmental stuff, has also called for the euthanization of all domestic cats or, at the least, not replacing them. And I have some sympathy for the decimation of native wildlife by roaming feral cats. But to call for the death of Jerry Coyne the Cat (and I think he’ll probably be an indoor cat) is something that immediately militates banning. Oh, and by the way, I don’t want this post to initiate a discussion about killing cats; you can go to other places if you want to talk about that.