"If you don't believe in God watch this"
Posted on: December 7, 2009 - 8:27pm
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"If you don't believe in God watch this"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m989v49WNsw
An old TEC 'friend' sent me this link on facebook.
To which i replied, "an atheist professor failed at breaking a piece of chalk, or this story is fake."
How am i even supposed to argue against someone who uses heart-warming stories as a basis for their belief?
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I, for one, can't agree with 1) the professor's oppressive methods, no one should be subjected to ridicule and fear, that is for religion to do. 2) Dropping chalk doesn't result in 'shattering,' the countless times I've seen a piece of chalk break from a professor's piece as he writes is, to me, enough evidence to know that a full piece of chalk will break into, at most, a few pieces. 3) Someone so convinced of their belief (the professor) is going to change his mind because of a slip-up, in which the chalk STILL HIT THE GROUND? Yeah, right.
Essentially, way to much hyperbole to take too seriously, among other things.
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That video was riveting~ the whole time I was watching I waited, and waited, and waited to read something amazing~never happened. Any video that can hold my attention like that deserves a middle finger up
(not to you jon)
Perhaps, over the years, the professor had developed parkinson's and his waning dexterity caused him to loose grip on the chalk. The variance in position as to previous chalk droppings may have caused the different outcome...
OH wait, that might make too much sense. I guess 'goddidit'
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lol i know renee, the video had me on the edge of my seat with its epic tone.
and in the end all that happened was the professors hand slipped.
i guess i should have written a disclaimer that the video is in no way exciting.
Feel free to tell your friend that the story is a lie. It first appeared in christian spam emails more than a decade ago. Probably even longer ago than that, but that's about when I first saw it. Snopes has an article on it too if you're interested. http://www.snopes.com/religion/chalk.asp
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
It is sad that Snopes even had to investigate this feeble, ultra-hyperbolic, insipid tripe. Did Christians actually convince themselves that this happened? "The Professor ran from the room and the student told everyone about Jesus for a half hour and they were all riveted" Oh Come ON!? What a monumental pile, there are a thousand likely and believable scenes that could follow up the slipping of the Professors hand and not a one of them are that!
It is no wonder that these dolts think that every word of their book is absolute catalogue fact, cause they just do not understand and so totally suck, like noone ever before has, at literature. Whoever wrote that wouldn't know what realistic, lifelike story was if I wrote it on a freaking jesus fish and slapped his stupid head with it, though I'm quite willing to go through the motions to test that theory.
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takes place in my brain.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
The only thing that this video has really convinced me of, is that I could make a really mediocre piece of techno music, put a sidechain compressor on it, sing some meaningless lyrics about being lonely and coming to god, call it christian music, and become insanely popular. Christian music is terrible, and the song in the back of this video was terrible.
Furthermore, come on... the professors RAN from the room (crying) and the kid got up infront of the classroom and preached for 30 minutes afterwards... please.
Honestly, Adroit, I am facing the exact same problem right now. I have been attending these religious study groups where they watch these videos titled "The Truth Series" in which a theist 'professor' tries to make christianity seem intellectually/academically valid.
My conclusion, there is simply no reasoning with people who base their entire faith on emotion. Most Christians seem to base their faith on a personal experience that they had in which they 'felt the presence of god'. Clearly you know all about that, as I read your story about TEC and thank you by the way for talking about that. I think it will take an equally powerful emotional experience to break them of their belief, one which may never come.
I think the only thing that we can do in these situations is simply voice our reasons for having doubt as humbly as possible. I really doubt that I am going to convert anyone, but if I can convince them that I can be an athiest and still be a good person then at least we have bridged a hostile gap between two conflicting ideologies.
Anyhow... that's my thoughts on the subject. Please, if anyone disagrees I would love to hear your views on the subject.
I totally agree that god is all about feelings - serotonin, oxytocin, whatever. No thought required. The fact you have to love him is a case in point.
Love me or I'll kill you. Nice one, lord. You've really activated my screw you circuitry.
Hey - that's a feeling too...
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
my goodness! someone's wearing their ovaries on the outside today!
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
btw, i second vastet. i got that email from my mom as a freshman in college in 2000. i was a firm young-earth, pretribulation fundamentalist in those days and even i thought, "well, that guy was a fuckin' moron...."
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
anyone who cannot tell that it didn't happen just from reading it is a retard. Tell me, a professor leaves the lecture hall and 300 students stay behind for half an hour to hear about jesus. What unversity student that you know would do that?
Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
No animal shall wear clothes.
No animal shall sleep in a bed.
No animal shall drink alcohol.
No animal shall kill any other animal.
All animals are equal.
LOL, thanks iwbiek..
But in all seriousness, conceited displays of shoddy craft test my patience no matter what time of the month it is, and that was worse than shoddy.
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you're welcome. wish i could take credit for that line, but i ripped it off from stewie griffin.
btw, i used your purity of fields pic in one of my recent english conversation lessons on beliefs and superstitions. thanks to it, and the help of one of my sharpest students, the topic quickly turned from new age mumbo-jumbo to the philosophical implications of arthur c. clarke's space odyssey series and star trek. my kind of lesson!
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
All hail the mighty Unblack metal.
"I do not think it is necessary to believe that the same God who has given us our senses, reason, and intelligence wished us to abandon their use, giving us by some other means the information that we could gain through them." ~Galileo Galilei
Sweeet. But I can't take credit for it either, the genius behind that little gem is Randall Munroe (whom I should already have credited by now, bad Eloise [note to self add site address to sig]) .
You can find more of his comics at xkcd.com <-- recommended
Theist badge qualifier : Gnostic/Philosophical Panentheist
www.mathematicianspictures.com
In the past three days I have discovered and read ALL of them... They're amazing! lol
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i watched it again, paying more attention. i was actually freaked out for a sec when it said in huge letters "ARE YOU LAUGHING!?" because i actually was smiling sarcastically. of course, it was meant as a rhetorical question.
it obviously comes from an email because it basically exhorts you to "send it to your friends," and compares itself to joke emails.
also, if this kid was so desparate that he "hold onto his faith" (as though admitting it's something he shouldn't have in the first place), afraid to have it challenged, why the fuck did he major in philosophy?
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
It sounds like some sixteen-year-olds in a basement who just got their first tape recorder. It's pretty funny that you showed this to me because I had been joking to some of the Chrisitan students about how much I wanted to hear Christian black metal. Alot of the students actually told me that it existed and to check out this band, so clearly people know of these guys. Is this music popular at all?
I have no clue, but I like how hard they try.
Chalk doesn't necessarily break when you drop it......
This story is boring, retarded, and obviously made up by some crackpot in his mom's basement. This is just like that stupid story about Albert Einstein winning an argument against his philosophy professor.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, | As I foretold you, were all spirits, and | Are melted into air, into thin air; | And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, | The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, | The solemn temples, the great globe itself, - Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, | And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, | Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff | As dreams are made on, and our little life | Is rounded with a sleep. - Shakespeare
and when you play it backwards a voice clear as the ring of a bell cries: Yes, jesus loves you, yes jesus loves you!
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
Thank you very much for that. I only made it about a third of the way through. Then I had to watch six Gwar videos just to get back to normal.
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