Scientists discover that atheists might not exist, and that’s not a joke

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Jan Ardena said:
And we've seen the result, of godless (atheist) regimes.
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Now that would be a good thread Jan.
I can't think of any atheist regime that persecuted folk because they held a religious view but certainly religious regimes have been many and nasty.
Its sad but religion gets a bad rap from the bad things it is used to justify.
Again the poor mug who joins a religion or born into it and wants to be decent most often remains ignorant of what your peaceful bible reading atheist has learnt.
about the really nasty stuff.
I expect any congragation across your country if full of folk who have no idea about the problems in the bible or how religion is used to manipulate power and nations. They are the victims of a scandelous con job and I pity them.
I hope you will be ok Jan but please be careful defending a side that really is not all it makes out to be.

Although I doubt there is a God what I am sure about is that any supreme being has never communicated with humans and that anyone saying that God told them this or that are liars or deluded.
The liars take advantage of the deluded unfortunately.

Alex
 
Write4U said:
Really? But even if you are right, never in the name of God! There are enough bad people without needing religious wars, which rank fairly high on the scale of cruelty towards other humans.

Let me recite the Inquisition (purity police) credo again, so that you will be forced to read it!
"... for punishment does not take place primarily and per se for the correction and good of the person punished, but for the public good in order that others may become terrified and weaned away from the evils they would commit"

Pray tell how others may become terrified and weaned away from evils they have not yet committed. Oh yes, literature is full with depictions of instruments of religious torture.

09b55b0d1b32af6cdeee116208580a5e.jpg


Note the cross signifying religious supremacy.

Are you going to argue with me about who committed the worst offenses and cruelties in the name of Theism or in the name of Atheism?
Please do, it will be revealing.
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I'm not sure what your point is.

That such antics, namely the broadcasting if cruel and unusual punishments in order to supplicate a population, did not occur more grandly, efficiently and broadly under communism (or fascism ... or even within current drug cartels uploading their gruesome executions to the internet)?
That the catholic inquisition represents the final last word in social engineering according to religious thought?
That atrocities from many hundreds of years ago are more pertinent and hold greater social ramifications than those that have occurred on a industrial scale over the last 120 years?
That the antics of Catholicism never met with any sort of antithesis within religious fields?
That Catholicism, over its past 1600 years or so, doesn't have a rampant history of radically adapting itself to the contemporary social and political landscape?
 
Jan Ardena said:
Dumb pigeon, heh?
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Smart pigeon. That's what pigeons can achieve when they don't fall prey to superstitious behaviors. If that were a superstitious pigeon he would still be spinning in circles to try to get the banana.

I prefer to take the smarter approach.
 
billvon said:
Ah, so you are back to your usual games. "I just posted it; I don't really believe it."

So let's clear it up. Do you think Santa Claus is real? Yes or no?
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Santa Clause is real in the sense that he is what he is supposed to be. Any of the definitions I put forward. If you're asking if the character is a real individual that exists like you or I. No.
But where is that claim made?

Jan.
 
billvon said:
Smart pigeon. That's what pigeons can achieve when they don't fall prey to superstitious behaviors. If that were a superstitious pigeon he would still be spinning in circles to try to get the banana.

I prefer to take the smarter approach.
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Show me a pigeon that adheres to superstition.

By the way, pigeons are very smart, as far as animals go.

Jan.
 
Jan Ardena said:
Santa Clause is real in the sense that he is what he is supposed to be.
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OK, fair enough. By that definition God is just as real. In other words, he is what his believers want him to be - but there's no actual God, just as there's no actual Santa Claus.
Show me a pigeon that adheres to superstition.
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I just did, about 20 posts back. No doubt you didn't understand, so let's try again. Here's an article on Skinner's tests:
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B.F. Skinner is a psychologist best known for the Skinner Box, a kind of sensory-deprivation device which limits the creature inside it to only one form of stimulus at a time. Using one such box, he discovered 'superstition' in pigeons.
. . .
In one particular case, Skinner decided to go random on his hungry pigeons. He dropped food into the box at completely random times, independent of any behavior on the part of the pigeons. But the behavior of the pigeons, he found, didn't stay random. After a few drops of the food, the pigeons began exhibiting certain consistent behavior. One circled counter-clockwise, another spun around in circles; seventy-five percent of them exhibited some kind of odd behavior.

Skinner concluded that the pigeons had come to display 'superstitious behavior'. It was like the superstition of gamblers who believe they have a lucky hat. If the gambler wears the hat, they can't lose. If the pigeons circle the cage counter-clockwise, they will bring on food pellets.
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https://io9.gizmodo.com/5746904/how-pigeons-get-to-be-superstitious
 
billvon said:
Pretty clear. That religion has been used to justify some horrendous practices under the banner of holy righteousness.
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Unlike, say, politicians, parents, doctors, boy scout leaders, school teachers, business leaders, etc etc, all of which shine as pristine examples of socially ordained authority and leadership unblemished by horrendous practices?
 
billvon said:
OK, fair enough. By that definition God is just as real. In other words, he is what his believers want him to be - but there's no actual God, just as there's no actual Santa Claus.
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There is no God, as far as atheists are aware. That's correct.

As for superstitious pigeons. Nonsense.

Jan.
 
Jan Ardena said:
There is no God, as far as atheists are aware. That's correct.
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OK so you have no reply. You said you think Santa Claus is real, but when your own definition is used to define God as real, you panic. You have once again backed yourself into a corner and are flailing around trying to find a way out. Thanks for the amusement on a Friday afternoon.
As for superstitious pigeons. Nonsense.
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Ah, so you reject scientific research. As expected.
 
Musika said:
Unlike, say, politicians, parents, doctors, boy scout leaders, school teachers, business leaders, etc etc, all of which shine as pristine examples of socially ordained authority and leadership unblemished by horrendous practices?
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Nope.
 
Jan Ardena said:
As for superstitious pigeons. Nonsense.
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Clearly you still don't understand what Skinner's experiment showed, and you're unable to generalise the result and work out how it applies to human superstition.

Like I said, there are fundamental things you'll need to learn before you'll be properly equipped to have this kind of discussion. Let's hope that at some point you start to make an effort.
 
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