Summations Only

Since atheism is not arrived at from a scientific perspective, why would one need to "prove" it?You have now seen the fallacy in your earlier position:Atheism is not a religion.
Atheism is not a belief.Now, you seem to be trying to use the scientific perspective to argue that athiesm is still not anything provable within the standards of science.Since atheism is the rejection of theism, and theism is a belief in the supernatural, since science deals with ONLY the natural, it removes itself from the equation. In other words, you don't need science to prove atheism anymore than you need science to prove a-unicorn-ism/a-fairy-ism/a-astrology-ism/etc.Atheism proves itself on it's own.- Oni

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Petition to Bailout Comedy The Laugh Factory is imploring Congress to immediately fund what owner Jamie Masada calls an "Economic Cheer-Up." If Congress fails to act quickly, the Laugh Factory comedians are planning to march to Washington and plea to President Obama.

Thanks, hydro. But wouldn't you agree that atheism proves itself on it's own without the need of science? - I mean simply as a philosophical PoV - (incorporating all known methods of inquiry, including deductive reasoning)- OniEdited by onifre, : No reason given.

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Petition to Bailout Comedy The Laugh Factory is imploring Congress to immediately fund what owner Jamie Masada calls an "Economic Cheer-Up." If Congress fails to act quickly, the Laugh Factory comedians are planning to march to Washington and plea to President Obama.

Fair enough. Perhaps the word "prove" does give the implication that I meant "proof".Let me say it like this, atheism proves itself as a default philosophical position on it's own merit without the need for science...better?And, as you said, "we continue to look and find nothing, the probability of the existence of a deity gets closer and closer to zero (just as with evolution, where as we get more and more evidence supporting its accuracy, the likelihood that we've modeled reality with perfect accuracy approaches 1) but never actually reaches it."- Oni

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Petition to Bailout Comedy The Laugh Factory is imploring Congress to immediately fund what owner Jamie Masada calls an "Economic Cheer-Up." If Congress fails to act quickly, the Laugh Factory comedians are planning to march to Washington and plea to President Obama.

I've stayed out of this thread because crash is in it, and it will, as it has, devolved into him calling everyone a liar and that you're all wrong and he doesn't get why you don't see that. You know, typical crash shit.But this is just over the top racism here: I'm not Mexican, I'm Cuban B!- OniEdited by onifre, : No reason given.

Maybe it's you, man. Maybe you're not easy to discuss things with because you pull the same shit over and over, even the most easy to debate with people in the forum have aproblem with you when you are in the wrong.In every thread where you're wrong you make the same statement about everyone not admitting when they are wrong or that they are simply liars because of it. Why is that? It's a pattern, obviously.- Oni

I'll give this a shot...You can discriminate based on privilage, sure, but you can also be racist by simply not liking a race of people.When black people live near asian neighborhoods the asians are racist toward blacks and the blacks are racist toward the asians. I see that all the time. I also see hispanics say racist things about blacks, about middle easterns, about asians, and about white people. In all of those cases I took what people were saying to be racist, in any direction between the races it was going.I don't think privilage played a role in any of that, at least I can't see wear it did. Everyone was from the same social-economical background.I guess part of the problem is thinking you live in a culture where "white people" are privilaged in some way? Are they, really? Across the board? I don't see that at all. Here in the US we live in a culture where RICH people are privilaged, but not just because someone is "white" does that make them privilaged.- Oni

I believe we all have been the crazy guy, I have an aluminum hat to prove it. But here's what the rest of us don't do: lash out and call everyone a liar and say everyone is misrepresenting you and that there is an agenda or a vendetta out against you. That's crazy people talk.- Oni

I don't believe it has been stated that privilege is not involved in racism, what has been said is that it is not that only factor when someone is being racist. There is also no race that is privileged over any other race across the board. Which makes it possible for a black person to be racist toward a hispanic or an asian.You can have racism and not inlvolve privilege at all, such as in cases where people of the same social-economical class are racist toward each other. In this case privilege is not a factor, and you'll have to explain why it is.I'll just touch on a few other things: "Stuff White People Like" was written by a white guy, writing about stuff white people do. Of course that is not racist. It doesn't even make sense that you have brought it up as a point. There's a book out there called "How to be Black", it's basically the same as SWPL, but, it's written by Baratunde - a black comic. So it's not racist either. But if you switch up the writers, then it would take on a level of perceived racism. I don't know what world you live in, but cracker is most certainly seen as racist. In tv we get a list of "racist terms" from chink to the obvious nigger, but also in there is spic, cracker, honkie, etc. It is deemed racist as a word by at least standards and practice. What? I've never heard that before, and I thought I knew all the racist stereotypes.- OniEdited by onifre, : No reason given.

Maybe judging it solely on the titles, I guess, it can be taken as racist. But I don't find books written by a race, explaining their race, culture and habits in a comedic fashion as racist. They're making fun of themselves, who they are and what their culture is like. Maybe it's more self-deprecating humor than anything else. Certainly not racist to me though.It usually comes from ethnicities and cultures who find themselves in the minority, as a view into their world via humor. The ironic part (and genius part in my opinion) of "Stuff White People Like" is that white people are not the minority, and everyone has had a look into white culture (or what is presented as white culture on tv, etc.) So a look inside white culture seems unnecessary, but the author pulls it off really well. It's unique and very funny.- Oni

This is why I asked crash why he even brought it up; it's not a book about racist jokes. That's why I said it didn't make any sense to reference it. How can it be racist? It's a book written by a white guy about the white culture in a funny way.If it was a book about racist jokes, for example, no matter who wrote that it would be racist.Things can be racist regardless of who says it or writes it. Interpreting whether something is racist, while quite subjective, is also very much objective. We can all tell.A black person can say "nigga" on tv, on some networks. But, a black person could not come out on tv and say "Niggers are criminals" even though they are black. Why? Because it would be construde as racist. Thus, black can be racist to black and race can be racist to the same race.- Oni

But in cases where it was privilage-neutral (where it didn't matter one way or the other) it would still be sexism.- Oni

If this is how YOU determine what YOU perceive as racist, then cool. But it's certainly not the rule. I guess if you heard a black guy call another one a "dumb nigger" (where both are of equal social-economical status) you might not find that racist, but most would. Including public media. Including myself.Maybe your only point here is that YOU ONLY JUDGE racism based on who YOU perceive as privilaged by some arbitrary line that YOU draw up? It's not, it's a humorous look into the white culture written by someone of the white culture.You can't pick a book that has nothing racist in it and say "Look nothing racist is in it" --- yeah, no shit. You're example doesn't make sense.- Oni

I would say that trying to determine which of the two is more privilaged IS sexism.But to your point:What if they were both women, of equal privilage, one was gay though. Can that be sexism without privilage?- Oni

Neither is the DaVinci Code. You could have used that as an example too.But maybe I'm missing something. I'm a huge fan of his books, and I frequent the website. So, maybe something slipped past me that was racist and I didn't see it. Can you give an example of a "racist joke" that you read?- Oni

Here are some terms, are any of them racist or sexist:- Women are stupid.- All black people steal.Are these racist or sexist?- Oni