Atheist vs. Theist
Rationality.
Submitted by azmhyr on February 16, 2009 - 6:18pm.Your argument is that theism is irrational in every way, because it requires belief in it without proof. And that is called "faith" by english speaking people, "iman" by us, have certain words corresponding to it in other languages. You are right. Theism does require faith in all cases. But does it necesserily mean that it is irrational? For something to be irrational, it must oppose your point of view of "rationality". And your point of view of something rational requires scientific proof. But it seems to me that people who do adhere to a god or a number of gods, or just have some sort of belief in the supernatural do not look for scientific proof, although people did, throughout history to scientifically prove god, and did not succeed, and that is why "God" is not a subject of the science of today. Other than creationists who are usually shunned from the scientific point of view for mixing dogma into positive science which does not deal with dogmatic practices, there is no scientist who tries to prove or disprove god.
So why are you looking for some sort of a scientific proof of God? IF the subject is not a part of the branches of science who deal with the phenomena of nature, what kind of a proof can you present?
Theists: the piranas have a question for you
Submitted by Kevin R Brown on February 13, 2009 - 5:54am.
Thunderfoot's latest work, brilliantly demolishing the ridiculous argument from morality. Do enjoy.
Oh, and Christians - how do you explain why, in the midst of a feeding frenzy, piranas do not simply devour one another?
So your telling me I'm born into this contract...
Submitted by Adroit on February 10, 2009 - 9:33pm.So lemme get this straight...
If I win I go to heaven forever, but if i lose I burn in hell forever?
What if I don't want to play this game?
Oh yeah I go to hell for quitting....
Thats an insane amount of pressure on me to worship the benevolent and just God who is forcing that pressure upon me.
I never signed into this contract!!!
This is unfair!!!
__________________
isn't it unfair?
__________________________________________________________
Thankfully this is not true, but i certainly feel bad for people under this pressure...
P-Dunn's Apologetics vs WWGHA
Submitted by Kevin R Brown on February 9, 2009 - 5:29am.
...This is likely my favorite WWGHA video, and I came across the response while Stumbling for it. I'll have a few comments for it tomorrow after I've got some sleep, but I'll leave it here for you guys to have 'er in the meantime.
Last week's findings
Submitted by elizabethsuzette on February 9, 2009 - 1:06am.Last week, I discovered some (rare) interesting bits on the community bulletin board at my college.
I found this interesting, although I wasn't sure exactly what the message was. I came to the conclusion that it could be one of two things: 'Don't litter your mind with religion,' or 'Don't litter the religious contents of your mind everywhere, polluting the educational environment.' What do you think?
I couldn't get the second image to upload, so here is a transcript of the paper (I left it COMPLETELY as it was, without correcting the grammatical errors):
Atheists
Atheists are just nonbelievers, who don't believe in the creation theory; they believe Darwin's theory, the Big Bang theory, or some other theory, or maybe aliens. A theory is just a presumption or a philosophical guess. Everyone believes in something --or in nothing; not even himself. I was once a nonbeliever I thought that you died and that was it, you became dust. However, one night I looked up into the heavens and said "God if you are real prove it to me." And He did!
God says if you seek me, you will find me.
'Evil atheistic regimes' Argument
Submitted by Luminon on February 8, 2009 - 9:31am.Sometimes I run off atheistic and Freethought radio shows to listen secretly at work. (I've got a headphone hidden under a bit loosened mane of my hair covering my ears) In these times, I reach for some Christian's radio shows, just like people sometimes chooses to watch a horror movie for fun and some scary moments. It's still better than my work, if listened to carefully. Recently I heard Matt Slick from CARM to describe atheistic regimes, which killed "far, far, far, far more many millions of people" than Christianic rule. Specifically, Hitler's and communistic Russia regimes. The mattslicky show is available [url=http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/carmorgpodcasting/~5/330524494/rec070808.mp3]here[/url], if you must.
Child Abuse in Action
Submitted by Hambydammit on February 7, 2009 - 11:48pm.Ok. Now, here are the things that disturb me the most:
To see this truth live in our children we must teach by both word and example. We need to remind them of Adam and Eve and what happened to them and to us as a result of their sin, and what happens in our own life when we sin. To see a true change in our children's actions we must make the story real.
The thing is, this sets up two very horrible beliefs in children who are not old enough to know better. First, it teaches them that they are bad people and that there's nothing they can do about it. Second, it teaches them that Adam and Eve were real, which obviously causes some problems when you get to pretty much any science course you can think of.
Here we see the beginning of core beliefs (for you cognitive psych people) that are going to be subconsciously triggering emotional reactions for the rest of these childrens' lives. Even if they get away from religion, they're still going to have a horrible time getting away from the deeply instilled belief that they are evil.
Invisible Friends, Bigotry, and Blame
Submitted by Hambydammit on February 6, 2009 - 10:45pm.Reprinted from my wordpress blog:
Many children have invisible friends. For the most part, the practice is seen as relatively harmless, and healthy for the budding imagination. Most of the time, invisible friends are just flights of fancy, and after a relatively short time, fade into the past and give way to big kid diversions. I tend to agree that invisible friends are mostly harmless for children, especially if the parent is very clear in explaining that games and imagination are fun, but that the invisible friend doesn’t have any real place in the universe.
As an example, most parents will not tolerate their child blaming the invisible friend for breaking the window or wetting the bed. When children begin to use the invisible friend as an excuse for their own moral failings, parents usually know enough to put a stop to the whole thing.
It occurred to me that all I'd have to do to make it during this economic downturn,
Submitted by Iruka Naminori on February 6, 2009 - 6:03pm.is spout some untrue crappola about renouncing my atheism, start up a church and lie, lie, lie my way to success. People would give me money they couldn't afford to support my ministry and any problems I had with family members would go away.
The only problem is I'm a terrible liar, but I bet I'd get better with practice.
Now, why won't I do this? The answer in a nutshell: morality. It's against my moral code to lie and steal people blind. I couldn't live with myself.
How to discover your purpose in life that resonates w/you emotionally without religion
Submitted by SmallChristian on February 3, 2009 - 1:45pm.I read this article a couple years ago and I observed it to be thought-provoking. It seems to be a rational way about finding your own personal purpose in life. Just wanted to share this article with you guys (in case you haven't read it already) and see waht you thought.
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/01/how-to-discover-your-life-purpose-in-about-20-minutes/
quick excerpt: (click the link above to read blog in its entirety, and it is part of a series if you're interested in checking out more of his stuff)
So how to discover your purpose in life? While there are many ways to do this, some of them fairly involved, here is one of the simplest that anyone can do. The more open you are to this process, and the more you expect it to work, the faster it will work for you. But not being open to it or having doubts about it or thinking it’s an entirely idiotic and meaningless waste of time won’t prevent it from working as long as you stick with it — again, it will just take longer to converge.