Articles written by Jon Eccles

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About me - Jon Eccles

I am not a brand.

I'm 45, British and a part of the growing international movement to move humanity beyond its early, religious phase. I like a nice turn of phrase, and I like to amuse. My goal is to earn a living by writing.

Between frenzied bouts of sacrilege,

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Sciences > Zoology How and why animals developed camouflage: 1 of 18
Camouflage, like any other animal trait, is built up slowly by natural selection.People looking to disagree with this often point to a stick insect, for instance, and ask "what's the point of looking one per cent like a stick?" This is easy to answer. If you look one per cent like a stick, you'll make slightly more descendant... More..
Sports & Recreation > Soccer (Other) Determining the best football teams in Europe: 2 of 25
In the Champions League, 15 different teams have reached the semi-final stage at least once in the last five years. The best performing team is AC Milan, who won in 2003 and lost a dramatic final to Liverpool in 2005. Barcelona and Real Madrid have also done well. No team could be said to have dominated.Some teams haven't qui... More..
Religion & Spirituality > Atheism & Agnosticism Good without God: Secular humanism and morality: 3 of 19
Arguments about religion as a guide to moral behaviour often go like this.Against: Religious people do bad things. They persecute unbelievers, they torture, they bomb, they murder.For: Atheists also do these things. Most of the carnage of the twentieth century was caused by atheists like Hitler and Stalin (incidentally, the j... More..
Sports & Recreation > Soccer Players Top soccer players in the world: 6 of 19
If you take FIFA's word for it, and measure the most successful players of the last five years by first, second or third place in the FIFA World Player of the Year, then the best player in the world is Ronaldinho. He has finished first, first and third in 2004, 2005 and 2006 respectively.The winner last year, though, in Italy... More..
Politics, News & Issues > Soccer Why soccer is not so popular in the US as elsewhere: 22 of 50
When football first left England, it went to Europe, and then to the Latin countries. Apart from England and Germany, majority Catholic countries (Brazil, Italy, Argentina, France and Uruguay) have dominated the game, and won every World Cup. As well as being mainly Catholic, all these countries are European, or ex-European c... More..
Politics, News & Issues > Soccer Have Manchester United had their day?: 21 of 42
In the short term, footballing success comes from a lucky corner or a dodgy penalty. In the medium term, it comes from a solid back four and at least one decent winger. In the long term, it comes from a solid demographic base and successful merchandising.United had a bad few years. After reaching the Champions League quarter ... More..
Religion & Spirituality > Atheism & Agnosticism An atheist examination of the Bible: 8 of 16
Why the Bible isn't 100% trueListen up all you fundamentalists. When I say fundamentalists, I mean people who believe every word in the Bible is true. It also works for people who think the Old Testament is questionable, but everything in the New Testament is true.Here's the easiest demonstration I know that the Bible isn't e... More..
Arts & Humanities > History (Other) The Black Sea deluge theory and the Biblical flood: 3 of 6
To us the modern coastline is a fixed picture, but by the standards of geological time it is a still from an action film. During the last Ice Age, which ended 12,000 years ago, water levels were much lower than they are now. Britain, for instance, was connected to Europe by a land bridge where the town of Dover stands today. ... More..
Religion & Spirituality > Atheism & Agnosticism Why speaking in the name of God is wrong: 12 of 19
If you point out some of the more blood curdling texts in the Bible or the Koran, your more sophisticated god botherers will often come up with an argument something like this.Of course you can go through the Books and pick out some repulsive quotes. This is because they were written a long time ago. We don't suggest that the... More..
Religion & Spirituality > Atheism & Agnosticism An atheist reflects on modern faith movements: What ever happened to the Enlightenment?: 2 of 3
Daniel Burage writes:"The Enlightenment" is simply a mistake made by man to try to substitute god. They mostly did this in the seventies so that they would not feel guilty about having "free sex", doing drugs, and killing each other. They HATED the fact that there was a god the governed there lives so that they could not do w... More..