Why do people believe in God?

Discussion in 'Religion Archives' started by aaqucnaona, Feb 24, 2012.

  1. lightgigantic Banned Banned

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    in the context of a rabbi and a priest being the other parties in the scenario, sure.

    Google "rational skeptic" and "religion" and you tend to find discussions from or about self-confessed atheists
    :shrug:
     
    Last edited: Apr 9, 2012
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  3. lightgigantic Banned Banned

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    If the truth is nothing higher than pointing out the mechanical faults of a guillotine about to be used upon you, it becomes comedy

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  5. Saturnine Pariah Hell is other people Valued Senior Member

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    All i found was this
    http://rationalskeptic.wordpress.com/category/science-and-religion/
    and this
    http://rationalskeptic.wordpress.com/category/politics-and-religion/
    also this was funny to read
    http://www.gospeloutreach.net/whychristianity.html
    That is what i got from putting " Ratinonal skeptic and religion" into the search browser.
     
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  7. Saturnine Pariah Hell is other people Valued Senior Member

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    I'd much rather die knowing the truth than living with a spurious lie. I prefer edification over ignorance any day. If i were to die that way...i would have no complaints.
     
  8. lightgigantic Banned Banned

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    websites with a ...
    http://rationalskeptic.wordpress.com/christopher-hitchens-archive/

    what on earth do you think it could suggest?

    If this is what would drive you to explain how to properly use a guillotine to your captors for the express purpose of cutting off your head, you are nothing more than a humorous anecdote

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  9. Saturnine Pariah Hell is other people Valued Senior Member

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    http://www.rationalskepticism.org/nontheism/how-can-we-create-a-world-without-religion-t30637.html
    http://www.rationalskepticism.org/religions-belief/


    That's all buddy.
    As for the whole execution thing, wouldn't they fucking notice that the two before him were not saved by "GOD's divine will" but by a simple mechanical error in the machine? In addition what crime did the rational skeptic or the two others commit? Were they arrested and killed for merely having faith or lack of faith?
     
  10. Saturnine Pariah Hell is other people Valued Senior Member

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    Yes i know it's an obvious reiteration of what we were arguing about but i find it to the more crucial part of that little story.
    The death toll ranged in the tens of thousands, with 16,594 executed by guillotine 2,639 in Paris, and another 25,000 in summary executions across France.
    Senseless bloodshed.
     
  11. lightgigantic Banned Banned

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    16,330
    you missed the edit

    go back


    who can say?
    Its the nature of a joke to stick to the bare essentials for the sake of not cluttering up the punchline.

    Hence the joke

    A violinist is playing a concert at Carnegie Hall. He finishes the piece. Voices in the audience shout, "Again! Play it again!"
    The violinist is pleased. He plays the piece all the way through a second time.
    "Again!" the voices shout once more. "Play it again!"
    The musician's self-satisfaction knows no bounds: this is Carnegie Hall, and I'm asked to play not one, but two encores?
    When he finishes, the voices rise yet a third time, and the same thing happens after several more repetitions.
    Incredulous, the violinist finally walks to the front of the stage and addresses the audience: "Seven encores of the same piece at Carnegie Hall? It's unheard of! Am I that good?"
    The audience members shout as one voice:
    "You'll do it until you get it right!"


    doesn't read as

    A violinist is playing a concert at Carnegie Hall. The Hall was built by irish immigrants during the later half of the 17th century by a rich portland land owner who often drank wine chilled with ice cubes.
    He finishes the piece. Voices in the audience shout, "Again! Play it again!" ... except for the husband of a school teacher who is asleep due to prescription medication for the pain due to the recent stomach surgery he underwent 3 weeks ago.

    etc etc
     
  12. lightgigantic Banned Banned

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    do you know who Christopher Hitchens is?
     
  13. Saturnine Pariah Hell is other people Valued Senior Member

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    I was familar with him yes..haven't read any of his books.
     
  14. Saturnine Pariah Hell is other people Valued Senior Member

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    I have watched him debate and hold interviews in the past...but alas not much else after his death. Personally i find Richard Dawkin, Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking to be far more entertaining than Mr. Hitchens(may he rest in peace)
     
  15. Saturnine Pariah Hell is other people Valued Senior Member

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  16. lightgigantic Banned Banned

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    will the irony never end?
     
  17. Saturnine Pariah Hell is other people Valued Senior Member

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    As long as we are humans....no...The irony of this man could conceivably never end so long as there is single man willing to discuss it.
    "How does one get to Carnegie Hall?" " Practice, Practice, Practice"
     
  18. Saturnine Pariah Hell is other people Valued Senior Member

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    .Can't really speak ill of the dead with such little knowledge of the man, but I digress the man was a influence of the world today whether it be negative or positive.
     
    Last edited: Apr 9, 2012
  19. wynn ˙ Valued Senior Member

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    Why?
    Can you elaborate?
     
  20. aaqucnaona This sentence is a lie Valued Senior Member

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    Who makes snowflakes? Perhaps, like snowflakes, the universe formed, not made?

    But there never was a first flower, was there? There wasnt the first bird either - only a dinosaur population more like todays' birds than its parental population. The same goes for flowers - there was no first individual flower, only a population of plants that had more and more flower-like attachments over the generations.

    Some 80 lakh years ago existed some populations of a great ape in africa, from this population speciated* most modern great apes. Our lineage happened to find a survival advantagw by becoming lean, running, upright apes - hairlessness helped us cool better. Our brains became our speciality, like a cheetah's speed. And here we are...

    Not really. We can demonstrably show that our hypothesis about these answers are supported by objective observations of reality.

    A good sumation of the "cop-out" theism can sometimes be.

    Good for you! Though perhaps, you should state it as you withhold your judgement or reject the ideas when there are not logically consitent and demostrably justified by empirical observation.

    I love that - weak agnostic atheism. Quite a resemblance of my own stance.

    I am game.

    Creation/formation of the universe - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_cosmology

    First flowers -
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowering_plant#Evolution
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_history_of_plants#Flowers

    Humans -
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolution
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humans

    More -
    http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/top_news/


    *Speciation -
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speciation
     
  21. Saturnine Pariah Hell is other people Valued Senior Member

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    I can forgive and tolerate ignorance, I can forgive accidental misinterpretation...However when those actions coincide with very detrimental effects on society or cause society’s progress to be latent then it’s those type of people that I cannot forgive or tolerate. For 8 years I have been a social pariah, moving to Florida at the time of 2004 seemed like a good idea, however I soon found myself in precarious situation of being avoided or even called out by my neighbors. “Love Thy Neighbor”…I didn’t get that, Just cold shoulders and hateful glares. The saddest part is…I’ve been open and friendly to these people for years and what do these Loving, Tolerant, Respectful “Christians” Do? They just look at me as human shit…not even worthy of their attention or time.

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  22. wynn ˙ Valued Senior Member

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    Can you go a bit further with this explanation -

    Given that those people treat you the way they do, and that you think and feel about them the way you do, what does this tell you about the Universe?

    According to the Theory of Evolution and the idea that life is a struggle for survival, those people are hardly doing anything wrong or strange - they have just evolved up to a point and they are just trying to survive.

    Do you accept the Theory of Evolution and the idea that life is a struggle for survival?

    If yes, then why still be troubled by how other people behave?
     
  23. Rav Valued Senior Member

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    2,422
    There's nothing about embracing the evolutionary account that requires one to adopt it's principles for the purposes of constructing a personal philosophy. Evolution tells us (part of) the story of how we came to be, and what we came to be is creatures who are capable of transcending those principles.

    Even Dawkins himself has remarked "We should not live by Darwinian principles, but Darwin explains how we got here".
     
    Last edited: Apr 11, 2012

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