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Author | Topic: I Know That God Does Not Exist | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ringo Member (Idle past 440 days) Posts: 20940 From: frozen wasteland Joined: |
Phat writes:
I don't think you do. When you're shown that your reasoning is wrong, you always fall back on, "But I believe...."
while I will agree that I have no evidence, I would argue that I DO have reasoned argumentation. Phat writes:
Can it? And for the record, reasoned argumentation can involve both belief and science.Izquierdo.
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Phat Member Posts: 18348 From: Denver,Colorado USA Joined: Member Rating: 1.0 |
Phat writes:
while I will agree that I have no evidence, I would argue that I DO have reasoned argumentation.ringo writes: The problem here is that you want your paradigm to be the default standard...only because belief is in your opinion unevidenced. But if it really were unevidenced, there would not be as many fervent believers now, would there. I don't think you do. When you're shown that your reasoning is wrong, you always fall back on, "But I believe...."Chance as a real force is a myth. It has no basis in reality and no place in scientific inquiry. For science and philosophy to continue to advance in knowledge, chance must be demythologized once and for all. ~RC Sproul "A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." ~Mark Twain " ~"If that's not sufficient for you go soak your head."~Faith You can "get answers" by watching the ducks. That doesn't mean the answers are coming from them.~Ringo
Subjectivism may very well undermine Christianity.In the same way that "allowing people to choose what they want to be when they grow up" undermines communism.~Stile
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ringo Member (Idle past 440 days) Posts: 20940 From: frozen wasteland Joined: |
Phat writes:
What "paradigm" are you talking about? The problem here is that you want your paradigm to be the default standard... "My paradigm", as far as I'm concerned, is reality - and that damn well is the default standard.
Phat writes:
You yourself keep saying so. Just today, in another thread, you said, "You cannot have evidence for an eternal Deity nor of a living character." Get your story straight.
...only because belief is in your opinion unevidenced. Phat writes:
Think.
But if it really were unevidenced, there would not be as many fervent believers now, would there. Of course there WOULD be. That same argument could be used for Islam - or Scientology, for that matter.All that are in Hell, choose it. -- CS Lewis That's just egregiously stupid. -- ringo
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Phat Member Posts: 18348 From: Denver,Colorado USA Joined: Member Rating: 1.0 |
As for the "Fall" This goes against what you believe about the children not being punished for the sins of the fathers, doesn't it? Actually, that's a good point. I'll have to think about that. #PropsChance as a real force is a myth. It has no basis in reality and no place in scientific inquiry. For science and philosophy to continue to advance in knowledge, chance must be demythologized once and for all. ~RC Sproul "A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." ~Mark Twain " ~"If that's not sufficient for you go soak your head."~Faith You can "get answers" by watching the ducks. That doesn't mean the answers are coming from them.~Ringo
Subjectivism may very well undermine Christianity.In the same way that "allowing people to choose what they want to be when they grow up" undermines communism.~Stile
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Tangle Member Posts: 9512 From: UK Joined: Member Rating: 4.8
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Phat writes: Actually, that's a good point. I'll have to think about that. ffs Phat, where have you been for the last 10 years? You seem to live in groundhog day. That 'good point' has been written here to you and others hundreds, if not thousands, of times, but you hear stuff like this for the first time every time. Nothing sticks in your head except preacherish bullshit. Why is that?Je suis Charlie. Je suis Ahmed. Je suis Juif. Je suis Parisien. I am Mancunian. I am Brum. I am London.I am Finland. Soy Barcelona "Life, don't talk to me about life" - Marvin the Paranoid Android "Science adjusts it's views based on what's observed.Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved." - Tim Minchin, in his beat poem, Storm.
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dwise1 Member Posts: 5952 Joined: Member Rating: 5.2
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If nothing else, my rants will continue to enrage many, but I will rest easy knowing that I did my job. So then your religion has caused you to metamorphize into a troll serving a troll religion and worshiping a Troll God. My condolences.
Perhaps a secular psychiatrist can help my deluded and senile mind. In a mid-80's presentation I heard, former fundamentalist preacher (born and raised in the faith) Dan Barker described the effects of fundamentalism as being "when your theology becomes your psychology". Since then I have encountered Christian therapists and have found that they operate rather differently then normal therapists. While both use some of the same ideas (eg, setting boundaries, choosing associations that are constructive instead of destructive), the Christian therapists always have to base everything on Jesus. When I started going through my divorce, a friend steered me to her church's (Saddleback) DivorceCare program -- mainly to keep me in her singles' ministry dance classes which had twice as many women than men. While that program did have some kernels to offer, those few kernels were buried under mountains of chaff. Then to top it off, the principal and primary lesson of that course was that it was impossible for us to ever recover from a divorce except through Jesus. Therefore, as a non-Christian I was screwed (to paraphrase slightly from Woody Allen's Love and Death). So whatever good I could have gotten from that course was completely wiped away, making it even worse than a total waste. Of course, those whose "theology had become their psychology" probably benefited, but that course would not benefit everybody. I later learned that the US Army requires that all soldiers going through divorce attend that course -- the fundamentalist push to take over the US military is fairly well known. For non-Christian soldiers to be required to go through that is cruel and unusual punishment. Also, members of the Saddleback Singles Ministry would attend a series of singles lectures at Mariner's by two Christian counselors. There again I observed how they would start out with some good ideas, mostly the same that secular counselors would present and use, but then they'd suddenly veer off into the weeds by injecting their religion into the mix (eg, why should you do anything that would improve your life and reduce your misery? Not because that would be a good thing in itself, but rather only because "that's what Jesus wants for you."). And in so doing, they made their whole presentation utterly worthless for any normals in the audience. So a secular counselor/psychologist/psychiatrist would probably be able to help you, but only by by-passing your theology. And whereas a Christian counselor would be able to approach your problems through your theological framework, there's also the danger of reinforcing your problems, possibly making them worse. Somewhere you mentioned that you are committed to black-and-white thinking despite your family members trying to in vain to get you to see the grey. Now I cannot find that, so I assume that it might have gotten edited out. The world is not black-and-white, but rather completely grey. Everything meaningful is in the grey, not in either extreme. Temperature extremes are at absolute zero and most extremely hot, neither of which we can survive in. Even if we restrict those extremes to the freezing and boiling points of water at 1 atmo. (0°C to 100°C), we cannot survive in shirt sleeves at either temperature, but rather around 22°C (about 72°F, in the comfort zone). Instead of wanting to live in the extremes, we seek to live well in the grey. The extremes of light are the total absence of light and blindingly bright. Again, trying to operate in the extremes is virtually impossible, but rather we seek to operate between the extremes, in the grey. I haven't learned yet just how digital TV works, but I used to rather well versed in analog TV. In analog TV, the picture would be painted by varying the intensity of the electron beam as it scanned across the phosphorescent screen. Then the beam would be blanked (switched off by turning the intensity down to zero) during the horizontal and vertical retrace intervals. The extremes of beam intensity would result in either blank screens or totally white screens. In either case, there would be absolutely no meaningful picture painted and the TV would be completely useless as anything except as a very expensive radio. The only way for TV to work is for it to operate in the grey. And even the sound only works when operating in the grey, since the black-and-white extremes there are total silence and ear-melting noise. I recommend that you read the first few chapters of Dan Barker's book, godless, in which he tells his story of growing up a fundamentalist, becoming a minister, and losing his faith. As a travelling preacher, he visited many fundamentalist churches, all of which held black-and-white beliefs as he did at the time. But the thing about black-and-white beliefs is that you draw a sharply delineated line between those extremes. Every single church he visited drew such a line, but every line was different from the others. Compare them all together and you find a wide band that they disagreed on; dare we call that band a "grey area"? That led to him thinking, which eventually led to him becoming an atheist and then "America's Leading Atheist." Reality is grey. Black-and-white is just BS.
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Phat Member Posts: 18348 From: Denver,Colorado USA Joined: Member Rating: 1.0 |
dwise1 writes: I got it for free in my audible account and have it streaming through my Alexa as we speak. Richard Dawkins is doing the narrative. Even though I am a fundie and a believer in absolute truth I am open-minded enough to take your advice and will listen to this entire book in the next few days. I might make a post in the Book Nook. Audiobooks count, don't they? I recommend that you read the first few chapters of Dan Barker's book, godless, in which he tells his story of growing up a fundamentalist, becoming a minister, and losing his faith. As a traveling preacher, he visited many fundamentalist churches, all of which held black-and-white beliefs as he did at the time. But the thing about black-and-white beliefs is that you draw a sharply delineated line between those extremes. Every single church he visited drew such a line, but every line was different from the others. Compare them all together and you find a wide band that they disagreed on; dare we call that band a "grey area"? That led to him thinking, which eventually led to him becoming an atheist and then "America's Leading Atheist." Reality is grey. Black-and-white is just BS.Chance as a real force is a myth. It has no basis in reality and no place in scientific inquiry. For science and philosophy to continue to advance in knowledge, chance must be demythologized once and for all. ~RC Sproul "A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." ~Mark Twain " ~"If that's not sufficient for you go soak your head."~Faith You can "get answers" by watching the ducks. That doesn't mean the answers are coming from them.~Ringo
Subjectivism may very well undermine Christianity.In the same way that "allowing people to choose what they want to be when they grow up" undermines communism.~Stile
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Tangle Member Posts: 9512 From: UK Joined: Member Rating: 4.8
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Phat writes: Even though I am a fundie and a believer in absolute truth I am open-minded For what it's worth I think you're neither a fundie nor open minded, atm you're behaving more like a teenager acting a part not very well.Je suis Charlie. Je suis Ahmed. Je suis Juif. Je suis Parisien. I am Mancunian. I am Brum. I am London.I am Finland. Soy Barcelona "Life, don't talk to me about life" - Marvin the Paranoid Android "Science adjusts it's views based on what's observed.Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved." - Tim Minchin, in his beat poem, Storm.
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Faith  Suspended Member (Idle past 1473 days) Posts: 35298 From: Nevada, USA Joined:
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If there is a llink there to something to listen to I'm not seeing it, maybe someone could repeat it for me?
But this argument is silly. Reality, yes, is grey, but Christian truth is black and white. What else could it be? The historical facts aren't grey, aren't ambiguous, they are facts, therefore black and white. The doctrine isn't grey, either Jesus died for our sins or He did not, there's no grey area there, it's black and white. So what on earth is this supposed former pastor finding wrong with the black and white teaching? He says the llne is drawn in different places for different churches. Really? I don't see why there should be a llne at all, the Bible is an account of events and doctrines, accounts that by necessity ARE black and white. If there's something to listen to that makes the complaint about black and white teachings clear in the first few pages it might be worth listening to. But I have a lot of stuff to read these days, and a lot of stuff to watch, so I'm not likely to listen to some lengthy, vague and fundamentally wrong claim that Christian truth is too black and white. Edited by Faith, : No reason given.
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Faith  Suspended Member (Idle past 1473 days) Posts: 35298 From: Nevada, USA Joined: |
I can see that the "grey" argument starts to apply when you are in a class giving advice for dealing with divorce, or any other human experience, and I can see that for someone llke you the use of Biblical doctrine would be a big problem. Seems llke a big mistake for them to recommend anything that depends on Christian belief to someone llke you. At least they should try to think in terms of how other principles could help you instead of advocating faith in Christ. But perhaps they believe as you say that only Christ can heal the situation. Then they shouldn't have you in the class at all. They should recommend other options to someone llke you.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.
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dwise1 Member Posts: 5952 Joined: Member Rating: 5.2 |
Indeed DivorceCare is not suitable for everybody, but rather only for a narrow segment of the Protestant population which includes evangelicals and fundamentalists. I basically see those recommending it to everybody as an instance of ethnocentrism, ignoring ethnic differences and thinking that everybody else thinks as they do. Similar instances of such thinking would be falsely thinking that a "non-sectarian" prayer should end with "In Jesus' name we pray" or that you could claim to be an "absolutely non-sectarian organization" while enforcing very sectarian monotheistic religious requirements that are contrary to several religions that that organization claims to accept. For that last, that organization would appeal to the false belief, "Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists pray to the same God, although by different names" (despite the fact that Buddha warned against believing in gods since they would only hold you back from attaining Enlightenment) -- a 1991 AP article on a Barna Group poll cited that 65 percent of Americans agree with that same false belief; I provide that article on my page, Do We Understand What We Think We Believe In?.
A side issue that has been brewing over the past few decades has been the fundamentalist campaign to infiltrate the Chaplain Corps of all branches of the military (Navy chaplains serve the Marines). The Air Force seemed to be hit particularly hard, especially the Air Force Academy (as examined in the documentary, Constantine's Sword), though a number of senior officers have reportedly abused their power in order to impose proselytizing on members under their command. There was even an instance of a tech sergeant not being allowed to reenlist because he didn't want to swear to God in the oath of enlistment. I bring up that side issue because of news that all US Army personnel going through marital problems including divorce are required to go through that same DivorceCare program that even you agree was not suitable for me and other non-Christians. Not that the existence of non-Christians would ever occur to many Christians. For example in basic training, our TI assigned leaders to march recruits to divine services, a Catholic to command the Catholics and a Protestant to command the Protestants. Then he asked the perfunctory question of whether there was anyone not covered and a solitary hand rose up. "What else could there possibly be?" "I'm Jewish." Here's my DivorceCare story. Jan was a member of Saddleback Church and organized dance classes for the "Fifty Plus" segment of their Singles Ministry (that entire ministry consisting of about 15,000 people divided sharply into different groups by age). At the time, I was using Lindy Hop and then later other dance classes to deal with my younger son's suicide (Don't you dare!) and the growing antipathy of my wife (basically, she was trying to use her friend's trick of making my life unbearable in order to drive me out while I was trying to be there for her to deal with my son's death which she indirectly caused) -- four hours of Lindy a week recharged my emotional batteries by making me focus on something else, plus there was the novelty of having half a room (ie, the women) who were happy to see me for a welcome change (sure couldn't get anything like that at home, except from the dog). So Jan was arranging to have our teacher teach Lindy at her church, but she still had a problem of 100 women attending the class with only 50 men -- that was the balance the first night, then each successive week fewer and fewer women would show up. So she went around in class trying to recruit men in an attempt to even the balance. At some point I let her know that I was an atheist and had been one for over 4 decades at that time (now for well over half a century) in case that could be an issue and she didn't care. I continued to participate in their dance classes. Then finally my wife realized that she couldn't drive me out (what kind of man would abandon his wife in such a time of need? -- so I was putting up with incredible amounts of shit on a daily basis), so she suddenly just filed for divorce. I look around for divorce programs and found only one, but it was on the same night as the dance classes. I informed Jan that I could no longer attend the classes and why, so she talked me into their DivorceCare program.
Then they shouldn't have you in the class at all. They should recommend other options to someone llke you. That was a bit over 14 years ago and I haven't seen Jan since about 13 years ago. How it reads to me is that she was just wanting to keep as many guys in the class as possible (also, I've gotten feedback that I've always been considered one of the better leaders in the classes). I don't know if she had even given it any thought as to whether that course would be appropriate for me, nor do I know whether it would have ever occurred to her nor whether she would have even cared. Now for some fun. Rick Warren's mega-church, Saddleback Church, is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. Baptists are infamous for being antipathetic towards activities like dancing; consider the standard joke:
quote: So how did it turn out that a Baptist mega-church would have dance classes? I don't think that that direction came from the top. Any sizable organization needs to have ... organization. So they have a hierarchy of pastors who implement and manage the various ministries within the mega-church. Social dancing and dance classes are beneficial for singles, especially for older singles, so I think that the impetus for creating those dance classes started with the low-level pastor who then may or may not have asked for permission from the higher ranks (a basic military lesson is that forgiveness is always easier to obtain than permission). And apparently the only reason those classes were considered OK was because all participants were single. Then something weird happened which seemed to prove that last point. Working with a local country radio station, Saddleback had a few country dances at the church. Upper management nearly had a fit. What they feared most was that such a dance would include married couples and singles, so there was the danger that single people might end up dancing with married people. Horror! So the top pastors laid down the law! There shalt not be any partner dancing at this dance, but solely line dancing! The dance organizers received that stupid edict and said, "OK", and then simply held a proper dance with both line and partner dancing and the top pastors never knew any different because they did not attend. Shortly after those events, I was Google'ing for something and found a link about those dances. It was on a Christian forum and consisted of extremely virulent flaming of Rick Warren for having committed the extremely evil sin of allowing dancing at his church. I was shocked at how vicious those attacks were.
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Dredge Member (Idle past 102 days) Posts: 2850 From: Australia Joined: |
Tangle writes:
You're referring to symbolic language that describes a literal event in history.
Crap. Adam and Eve, talking snakes, trees of knowledge and paradise gardens are primitive myth. And the idea of condemning all mankind forever for a act performed by a distant ancestor is evil.
Where did you get "forever" from? You don't seem to know much about what the Bible says re redemption, the end of suffering and death and the future of creation.
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Dredge Member (Idle past 102 days) Posts: 2850 From: Australia Joined: |
Tangle writes:
God's promises will arrive in the fullness of time. Meanwhile, you can believe that this life is as good as it gets - if that's what makes you happy. (Personally, if I believed this life is all there is, I would be miserable.)
Also crap. You god is incapable of creating perfection? Where are we then Life 1.0? Are we waiting for the next minor upgrade?
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Tangle Member Posts: 9512 From: UK Joined: Member Rating: 4.8
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Dredge writes: You're referring to symbolic language that describes a literal event in history. Try telling that to Faith. But perhaps you can tell us all about the literal event of the Fall.
Where did you get "forever" from? You don't seem to know much about what the Bible says re redemption, the end of suffering and death and the future of creation. There is no redemption. We live we suffer we die. If something happens after that no one has any knowledge of it whatsoever. Suffering and death because of a fictional act by a ancient predecessor is an evil idea. And is inconsistent with a loving god. Why is your god running the hunger games?Je suis Charlie. Je suis Ahmed. Je suis Juif. Je suis Parisien. I am Mancunian. I am Brum. I am London.I am Finland. Soy Barcelona "Life, don't talk to me about life" - Marvin the Paranoid Android "Science adjusts it's views based on what's observed.Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved." - Tim Minchin, in his beat poem, Storm.
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Tangle Member Posts: 9512 From: UK Joined: Member Rating: 4.8 |
Dredge writes:
That lie has been pushed out by shaman for thousands of in order to make people feel better about the fact that everyone will die.
God's promises will arrive in the fullness of time. Meanwhile, you can believe that this life is as good as it gets - if that's what makes you happy. Thanks, I do and it is and it's fine.
(Personally, if I believed this life is all there is, I would be miserable.) And that kind of hopeless thinking is why it has been necessary for people to invent god myths of all kinds for thousands of years. Luckily we're finally beginning to grow up and improve our own lives ourselves and put aside the childish wishful thinking.Je suis Charlie. Je suis Ahmed. Je suis Juif. Je suis Parisien. I am Mancunian. I am Brum. I am London.I am Finland. Soy Barcelona "Life, don't talk to me about life" - Marvin the Paranoid Android "Science adjusts it's views based on what's observed.Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved." - Tim Minchin, in his beat poem, Storm.
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