The Blasphemy Challenge

Well, here's one, for starters. It would be nice if I could live in a society where I wasn't considered the crazy one for refusing to believe in Santa Claus for grownups, and didn't have to hear from people like you about how I can't apparently hear music, or something, unless I bow to your magical sky-man. (My ears and eyes work just fine, thank you, and a sunset is no less glorious simply because I understand how light from a star refracts through atmosphere.) Of course it is. How many believers do you know who talk about their faith being the only thing that saw them through a difficult time? Your people are falling all over themselves to tell me, and tell each other, how they use faith as a crutch - as in, something to be leaned on. Isn't that exactly how your religion is described? One step ahead of you. Aren't you aware that there's a portion of the brain that, when stimulated (by meditation, for instance, or drugs), produces precisely the same feelings of religious euphoria and spirituality experienced by believers?Stop going to church and get yourself some 'shrooms. Shortcut to exactly the same feeling, as it turns out.

I can discuss Kennedy-assassination conspiracy theories even if there was no conspiracy.
I can also discuss god-sense theories even if there is no god-sense. Not necessarily. Sometimes. What poster in this thread has denied God? As far as I know, atheism doesn't want to make a name for itself. **shrug** You believe in 'em. You find 'em.

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As far as I know, OCD is strictly Catholic. it is the Order of Carmelites Discalced, the Barefoot Carmelites, of which I was a member. If you mean OCD, as in; obsessive cumpulsive disorder, you are making my point very relevent. You think that religion is a mal-function, and are thus very close to the Hitler mentality that the Jews were genetically defficient.

I think so. We seem to be having the most difficulty teaching each other not to be, and not learning, so it must be natural to stick up for our own tribe.

YOU are the one who said there was a 'god-sense' in higher life-forms. Choice, please? Crutch or indulgence? The OP, come on now. But let's make our own 'challenge'.I challenge anyone on this board to deny God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Please review the OP.

Crash, I have been there. I have listened to music for its own sake, and have found so much beauty that I could not out a finger on it. I was an artist, and a poet, and I was forced to realize that the only way to define beauty is God. You may certainly partake, but my original idea was that to shut yourself from religion was to shut yourself off from understanding so much of the symbolism of art. It was a question, a choice. Crutch, or indulgence? I have heard about as many believers claim that religion gets them by as I have heard alcoholics claim drink gets them by. But religion, like alcohol, may be a simple pleasure enjoyed by the eclectic. Been there, done that as well. Shrooms con't compare.

I don't know where you got that from. I stated pretty plainly that I don't think there is one.
I used "lower" life forms as an example that "god-sense" is not natural. For some people it's a crutch, for some an indulgence. Maybe some people switch off on alternate Tuesdays. I said "not necessarily" because there might be other possibilities too.I dont think natural, built-in "god-sense" is one of the possibilites. As far as I know, the OP doesn't represent atheists any more than Long John Silver represents Christians.

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[qs]I challenge anyone on this board to deny God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.[q/s]why? what's the point?

I don't think it's a malfunction. I think it's our brains doing exactly what they evolved to do - seek explanations and patterns in complex phenomena.It turns out that if you operate that part of your brain without an epistemological framework like the scientific method (or something similar) you "discover" connections that aren't there, like "I always win at pool when I play stripes" or "I get laid more often when I wear my lucky underwear" or "if I pray to God, I won't die of cancer."But come on. You don't look at things like praying the rosary or stations of the cross, and see the fingerprints of OCD all over that stuff? Clearly most religious ritual comes from people with legitimate mental illness in the form of compulsions. But religious faith in general comes from the all-too-human need to seek relationships to events that happen in proximity.

There is none, as there is none in the 'blasphemy challenge'.Btw, you failed.

No, not really. The rosary is said to be from St Dominic, in an apparition. You can check him for OCD if you wish, or Mary. Stations of the cross in no way qualify as an obsession, are not the norm, or the requirement in christianity, or catholicism.

Nonsense, and I already explained why this isn't true. Honestly I don't see the first thing in your post that's an actual response to what I wrote - just more of the insulting arrogance of the believer, who claims sole dominion over the best of man's achievements but no responsibility for its greatest evils.

And you believe them? LOL!

And yes, 'god-sense' is not natural.Edited by anastasia, : No reason given.

So you agree that god-sense is not natural? Do you also agree that it is learned?

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