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Author Topic:   The Impossibility Of The Flood
anglagard
Member (Idle past 836 days)
Posts: 2339
From: Socorro, New Mexico USA
Joined: 03-18-2006


(1)
Message 45 of 100 (560885)
05-18-2010 1:21 AM
Reply to: Message 44 by Dr Adequate
05-18-2010 12:09 AM


My Opinion
Dr A writes:
Why are they doing this? When it comes to things that really exist and have a well-evidenced naturalistic explanation, they insist that the naturalistic explanation is bogus and that God did it by magic. But when it comes to this miraculous flood that the Bible attributes to the will of God, they try to write God out of the picture and seek a purely naturalistic explanation.
I am puzzled as to what can be going through their heads when they do this.
Well put.
I have no rational explanation as to why a supposedly rational person would invoke miracles to cover some occurrences in the Bible and then, clumsily at best, attempt to attack science by using falsehoods about science.
My best guess is that all too often knowledge of religion, be it singular or plural, along with politics, history and sociology, is limited by the filter of the authoritarian personality. Instead of reading from the source, or understanding and comparing several sources in forming a philosophy, there is only the unquestioned replacement parent.
Therefore as humans learn how to cure disease and interact with their environment to alleviate the effects of natural disasters and famine, the role of the authoritarian godlet is significantly diminished.
To me, here lies the problem.
Despite the fact science has improved our understanding of nature, improved our collective standard of living, indeed even increased our lifespans, it is a curse upon the false prophet who promises deliverance exclusively through their person or their bullshit 'interpretations.'
The self-proclaimed authority needs their victims, and they need their human sacrifice, in fact this is one of the best ways to spot a charlatan. Be it as overt in other cultures as the Aztecs, or Carthaginians, or as overt in our culture as the Catholic Church hierarchy demanding the death of Cathars and the excuses for the rape of altar boys, or subvert as in the bilking of the duped by false prophet preachers in order to build monuments to themselves instead of feed the poor, it is morally and ethically all pretty much the same.
It has absolutely nothing to do with the core teachings of the larger religions, and everything to do with authoritarianism, be they masters or slaves.
I can only envision a partial cure, namely to teach critical thinking (and by that I mean real critical thinking, not a faint imitation) from kindergarten on to the doctorate, and to actually teach history, solely from fact confirmed by evidence and not from some racist fantasy.
But I digress. Remember, I'm just a library manager from West Texas, the belly of the beast when it comes to questioning authority figures.
Edited by anglagard, : replace the term idea with rational explanation, since in contradiction, I then go over a hypothesis.
Edited by anglagard, : clarity, after all the Catholic hierarchy does not demand the rape of altar boys but rather that such pedophile criminals be protected from any consequences.

The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture, because it seeks to turn other ideas - uncertainty, progress, change - into crimes.
Salman Rushdie
This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It’s us. Only us. - the character Rorschach in Watchmen

This message is a reply to:
 Message 44 by Dr Adequate, posted 05-18-2010 12:09 AM Dr Adequate has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 46 by Woodsy, posted 05-18-2010 7:43 AM anglagard has not replied

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