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RE: Question For Fellow Atheists...
January 18, 2017 at 11:38 am
(January 18, 2017 at 8:14 am)robvalue Wrote: But surely we can all at least be civil.
Tell that to the potty police and the pre-marital groincheckers. 
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
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RE: Question For Fellow Atheists...
January 18, 2017 at 12:58 pm
Welcome Autolite,
I know talking to theists is like playing chess with someone whose strategy for staying in the game is to ignore checkmate. “Whaddaya mean the game is over? I can still move my pawns.”
Basically when on line, I say what I feel needs to be said and when I reach the point where all I can say has already been said, I’m gone.
As for neighbors and family, I keep them on the end of a long handled spoon. There’s an African proverb, the lips of wisdom are closed except to the ears of understanding. So if they come to me wanting to know then I tell them. If they just want to shoehorn a testimony or stealth bomb proselytizing, I find something else to talk about.
The god who allows children to be raped out of respect for the free will choice of the rapist, but punishes gay men for engaging in mutually consensual sex couldn't possibly be responsible for an intelligently designed universe.
I may defend your right to free speech, but i won't help you pass out flyers.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire
Nietzsche isn't dead. How do I know he lives? He lives in my mind.
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RE: Question For Fellow Atheists...
January 18, 2017 at 1:11 pm
(January 18, 2017 at 12:58 pm)Rhondazvous Wrote: Welcome Autolite,
I know talking to theists is like playing chess with someone whose strategy for staying in the game is to ignore checkmate. “Whaddaya mean the game is over? I can still move my pawns.”
Basically when on line, I say what I feel needs to be said and when I reach the point where all I can say has already been said, I’m gone.
As for neighbors and family, I keep them on the end of a long handled spoon. There’s an African proverb, the lips of wisdom are closed except to the ears of understanding. So if they come to me wanting to know then I tell them. If they just want to shoehorn a testimony or stealth bomb proselytizing, I find something else to talk about.
You forgot the part where, when they run out of pieces to move, they simply put the old pieces you already removed back on the board and pretend you didn't take them off in the first place.
Have you ever noticed all the drug commercials on TV lately? Why is it the side effects never include penile enlargement or super powers?
Side effects may include super powers or enlarged penis which may become permanent with continued use. Stop taking Killatol immediately and consult your doctor if you experience penis enlargement of more than 3 inches, laser vision, superhuman strength, invulnerability, the ability to explode heads with your mind or time travel. Killatoll is not for everyone, especially those who already have convertibles or vehicles of ridiculous size to supplement penis size.
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RE: Question For Fellow Atheists...
January 18, 2017 at 1:15 pm
(January 18, 2017 at 11:34 am)robvalue Wrote: (January 18, 2017 at 10:46 am)Autolite Wrote: But is it rising faster than Islam???
Offhand, I don't know. If it wasn't, then... what? Give up?
Well it's like I've already said, as Atheists we need to stop affording Theism any respect or credibility. We should collectively encourage the attitude that Theism is no different than any delusional belief. Instead of calling it merely a 'difference of opinion' we should all be regarding it for what it really is and that is bat-shit crazy nonsense.
Remember when we discussed the medical definition of 'delusion' and that that definition excludes religious belief? We should challenge that definition instead of accepting it. Dr Peter Boghossian of PSU is doing just this. He wants to see the medical definition for delusion in the DSM revised so that it does not exclude religious belief...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIaPXtZpzBw
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RE: Question For Fellow Atheists...
January 18, 2017 at 1:31 pm
(January 18, 2017 at 1:15 pm)Autolite Wrote: (January 18, 2017 at 11:34 am)robvalue Wrote: Offhand, I don't know. If it wasn't, then... what? Give up?
Well it's like I've already said, as Atheists we need to stop affording Theism any respect or credibility. We should collectively encourage the attitude that Theism is no different than any delusional belief. Instead of calling it merely a 'difference of opinion' we should all be regarding it for what it really is and that is bat-shit crazy nonsense.
Remember when we discussed the medical definition of 'delusion' and that that definition excludes religious belief? We should challenge that definition instead of accepting it. Dr Peter Boghossian of PSU is doing just this. He wants to see the medical definition for delusion in the DSM revised so that it does not exclude religious belief...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIaPXtZpzBw I can't disagree with any of that, however it's easier said than done. In America, at least, and it seems, the world in general, it's okay to hurt anyone's feelings for any reason EXCEPT when it comes to their religious beliefs. Sanal Edamaruku had to go into exile to hide from the backlash after telling one church that their crying statue was crying raw sewage and people should stop drinking it. That was blasphemy. The church would rather people be drinking raw sewage than have their magical beliefs disrupted by facts. And throughout the world the laws only ever protect the dominant religion in any real sense. Yeah, in America we have freedom of any religion on paper, but I've never seen any Yiddish or Arabic carved in stone at my courthouse.
Have you ever noticed all the drug commercials on TV lately? Why is it the side effects never include penile enlargement or super powers?
Side effects may include super powers or enlarged penis which may become permanent with continued use. Stop taking Killatol immediately and consult your doctor if you experience penis enlargement of more than 3 inches, laser vision, superhuman strength, invulnerability, the ability to explode heads with your mind or time travel. Killatoll is not for everyone, especially those who already have convertibles or vehicles of ridiculous size to supplement penis size.
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RE: Question For Fellow Atheists...
January 18, 2017 at 2:00 pm
(January 17, 2017 at 11:28 pm)robvalue Wrote: (January 17, 2017 at 7:36 pm)Cephus Wrote: When I find out someone has an imaginary friend as an adult, my level of respect for them goes right out the window. They might be perfectly nice people, but my level of respect for them as intellectual beings pretty much goes to zero, at least with regards to their religious beliefs.
Rational people, in the act of being rational people, are not religious, period.
Bold mine.
That is the crux of the matter. We're discussing whether someone can have otherwise respectable beliefs, as well as religious beliefs. I think it's very clear that they can. I will take whatever other things they have to say into consideration with an open mind, if they can do so without bringing their religion into it. If they insist on bringing it into everything, then yeah, intellectual conversation is pretty much a non-starter.
If someone wants to write off a religious person entirely without hearing anything else they have to say, that is up to them, but I think it's a mistake.
Certainly they can. In fact, apologists will often point to scientists who are credible in their field, who also believe in gods, as a means of showing that belief in gods is somehow rational. This is ridiculous. Faith, by definition, is not rational. Religion and science are not carried out the same way. These people are rational in their scientific work in spite of their religion, not because of it. That doesn't mean we don't listen to them, but the only thing I'm interested in hearing is how their gods can be validated rationally and that's not something they ever manage to come up with.
There is nothing demonstrably true that religion can provide mankind that cannot be achieved as well or better through secular means.
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RE: Question For Fellow Atheists...
January 18, 2017 at 2:04 pm
Was it Sam Harris who wrote, "There is sanity in numbers"?
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RE: Question For Fellow Atheists...
January 18, 2017 at 2:36 pm
(January 18, 2017 at 1:11 pm)Asmodee Wrote: You forgot the part where, when they run out of pieces to move, they simply put the old pieces you already removed back on the board and pretend you didn't take them off in the first place.
Oh thanks. Must not forget that one. Or they take my pieces and paint them to look like theirs. "The big bang only proves how great god is."
The god who allows children to be raped out of respect for the free will choice of the rapist, but punishes gay men for engaging in mutually consensual sex couldn't possibly be responsible for an intelligently designed universe.
I may defend your right to free speech, but i won't help you pass out flyers.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire
Nietzsche isn't dead. How do I know he lives? He lives in my mind.
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RE: Question For Fellow Atheists...
January 18, 2017 at 3:15 pm
Quote:We should collectively encourage the attitude that Theism is no different than any delusional belief.
Consult the Tooth Fairy thread. That seems to drive religitards right up the fucking wall.
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RE: Question For Fellow Atheists...
January 18, 2017 at 3:25 pm
(January 18, 2017 at 3:15 pm)Minimalist Wrote: Quote:We should collectively encourage the attitude that Theism is no different than any delusional belief.
Consult the Tooth Fairy thread. That seems to drive religitards right up the fucking wall. Thinking of driving something else right up somewhere else?
The god who allows children to be raped out of respect for the free will choice of the rapist, but punishes gay men for engaging in mutually consensual sex couldn't possibly be responsible for an intelligently designed universe.
I may defend your right to free speech, but i won't help you pass out flyers.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire
Nietzsche isn't dead. How do I know he lives? He lives in my mind.
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