(October 19, 2017 at 6:41 am)Khemikal Wrote: With that list of propositions, a persons "theism" is as allegorical as their reading of magic book.  It isn't theism in any coherent or meaningful sense.  Hell, -I- would be a theist if the above describes theism.

Even a common theist could tell you that.  

-I think that, at least sometimes...you impart depth where there is none, and imagine that necessary elements of theism (in general or specific) can be excluded while still cogently commenting on theism.

This post comes from this very thread but the response is so epic it deserves to be quoted for truth!

And it's an excellent example of a conclusion you reach when you understand why it's important to replace the symbol with the substance.

While this thread IS technically open to nominating yourself, I really don't think it's something that should be done.

Case in point; I'm awesome and fucking brilliant, and since everything I post is epic, I'd be filling the thread up with my sheer awesomeness, outshining everyone else, and generally posting very little elsewhere.

And who am I to make others feel inadequate about themselves (did I mention I'm also incredibly humble, too)?

(October 18, 2017 at 7:30 pm)Whateverist Wrote: For Hammy who thinks we'd better off closing the forums to theists except the poop lady and her buddy: one of the best posts from a theist ever in my experience on these forums from a few years ago.  

(July 4, 2014 at 1:48 am)Purplundy Wrote: No, you're making just enough out of this, and that is an important question that I need to answer. 
I know that a Jesus figure did exist and certain people wrote about him. 
Did he rise from the dead? I don't know, he hasn't proven that he did, to me anyways. 
Worst case scenario: He didn't. His body decomposed and is humus on its way to the planet's core. That would be disappointing; he seemed like such a nice guy. But it has no effect on my life; the Christian practice of loving your neighbor is not affected by whether or not a Jew walked outside of a cave on Sunday morning. That doesn't even mean that what he taught was false; I'd still agree that we need to help the poor for reasons other than, "Jesus said so." To think otherwise would be an appeal to hypocrisy. 
When I talk about Biblical events, I don't mean to say whether or not they happened. I'm just acknowledging that that is what somebody wrote down in a book.

Oh I never responded to make it clear that I have never said that we should close these forums to theists and I think that would be awful. I just don't think we should take their religious beliefs seriously when they talk about them, any more than we would take an adult who still believed in Santa seriously when they talked about their belief in Santa. And I can no longer sincerely take their beliefs any more seriously than that without being dishonest which I am unwilling to do and be.

And far from epic, that post is substanceless as fuck, if a Christian truly believes this "When I talk about Biblical events, I don't mean to say whether or not they happened. I'm just acknowledging that that is what somebody wrote down in a book." then they are someone who identifies as a Christian but is no more Christian than I am. It's vapid bunk.

(November 22, 2017 at 7:08 pm)Hammy Wrote:

(October 18, 2017 at 7:30 pm)Whateverist Wrote: For Hammy who thinks we'd better off closing the forums to theists except the poop lady and her buddy: one of the best posts from a theist ever in my experience on these forums from a few years ago.  

Oh I never responded to make it clear that I have never said that we should close these forums to theists and I think that would be awful. I just don't think we should take their religious beliefs seriously when they talk about them, any more than we would take an adult who still believed in Santa seriously when they talked about their belief in Santa. And I can no longer sincerely take their beliefs any more seriously than that without being dishonest which I am unwilling to do and be.

Well I never thought you seriously wanted to close the forums to them.  Must have been something about the way you worded whatever I was responding to that led me to say that.  But sometimes I get the impression you think the best reason for them being here is for the sport of ridiculing them.

But why can't we take what they say seriously?  I have no fear of falling prey to unsound arguments and being converted, do you?  As for somethings being stupid, don't we all have blind spots?

I don't agree that the subject is just all stupid and best put behind us.  I find the question of why people ever came to believe so strongly in these things interesting.  When you look how far back it goes I'm not the first to have wondered what role such beliefs may have played in our becoming such a peculiar chimp.

(November 22, 2017 at 7:08 pm)Hammy Wrote: And far from epic, that post is substanceless as fuck, if a Christian truly believes this "When I talk about Biblical events, I don't mean to say whether or not they happened. I'm just acknowledging that that is what somebody wrote down in a book." then they are someone who identifies as a Christian but is no more Christian than I am. It's vapid bunk.

I think he is alluding to thinking about them figuratively or symbolically as literature.  It isn't evident from this passage alone but that was the impression I gathered from the short time he was here.  As I remember he said he was a lay brother working in a Jesuit order on a science project.  I found him fascinating.

I have to poop

(November 22, 2017 at 7:39 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: I have to poop

Epic

(November 22, 2017 at 6:39 pm)Cod Wrote: There's nowt wrong with giving yourself a bit of credit sometimes, as we know sometime we don't get the credit we deserve

I tried that once back in the day (pre-tech). AmEx found nothing about it to be wit or epic.

(November 22, 2017 at 6:22 pm)Joods Wrote: No the purpose of this thread is to post OTHER people's posts worthy of being posted. Been that way forever.

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(December 3, 2012 at 3:17 pm)Something completely different Wrote: Since there`s a "Hall of schame", there should be a hall for exactly the oposite.

Where one quotes genius and\or remarks by other forum members.

bold mine. 

I'll just leave this here as it is part of the OP.

Question:

What if you're reading through an old thread and come across a post that you think is awesome and epic and just what you would have written if you had the chance and is really, truly worthy of this thread... and only after you've finished reading it do you discover that it was something YOU had posted months previously and had forgotten about?

(I confess I've had this happen to me with my comments on YouTube before)

(November 22, 2017 at 7:37 pm)Whateverist Wrote: Well I never thought you seriously wanted to close the forums to them.  Must have been something about the way you worded whatever I was responding to that led me to say that.  But sometimes I get the impression you think the best reason for them being here is for the sport of ridiculing them.

Nah. I am interested in the theist as a person rather than the theist's theism. When I first joined AF in 2008 I came here to debate about God after being inspired by the book The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, but ever since 2015 when I returned to AF after taking a break for several years I've made a lot of friends here and I'm not really here to debate about imaginary friends anymore.

Quote:But why can't we take what they say seriously?  I have no fear of falling prey to unsound arguments and being converted, do you?  As for somethings being stupid, don't we all have blind spots?

Well I certainly don't believe in anything as absurd, unfalsifiable, improbable and geocentric as a god or miracles or anything else supernatural, whatever my blind spots.

Quote:I don't agree that the subject is just all stupid and best put behind us.

But there's no difference between believing it's not a stupid subject to debate than debating whether Santa Claus exists to a world populated by people where the majority of adults still believe in Santa Claus is a stupid subject. Theology is no less worthless than Santaolgy.

Quote:I think he is alluding to thinking about them figuratively or symbolically as literature.  

Exactly what I'm saying. He's replacing substance with symbols when he should be doing it the other way around, at least a little bit, if he actually believes in any god any more than atheists do. Thank you for making my point for me and re-emphasizing the accuracy behind Khemical's response to you. That's epic!

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(November 22, 2017 at 7:49 pm)Clueless Morgan Wrote:

(November 22, 2017 at 6:22 pm)Joods Wrote: No the purpose of this thread is to post OTHER people's posts worthy of being posted. Been that way forever.

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bold mine. 

I'll just leave this here as it is part of the OP.

Question:

What if you're reading through an old thread and come across a post that you think is awesome and epic and just what you would have written if you had the chance and is really, truly worthy of this thread... and only after you've finished reading it do you discover that it was something YOU had posted months previously and had forgotten about?

(I confess I've had this happen to me with my comments on YouTube before)

Well obviously what you said was epic until you realized you were the one who said it when it then suddenly became not epic anymore because that's just arrogant! Duh!

I sometimes think inspirational quotations would carry a lot more deserved weight if they were all anonymous. I don't care who said it, even if it was Hitler, if what was said actually made sense. But a lot of quotes get considered inspirational purely because they were said by Einstein or something, rather than what was actually said, even if what he said makes no sense, and what's even more ironic is that most quotations by "Einstein" weren't actually ever said by Einstein He has more misquotes than true quotes!

So, it's not who said it that matters, it's what was said. And epic is epic, and witty is witty.

Now, no matter how many epic or witty posts I make, if the majority of the stuff I quoted in here was said by myself then that would really be taking the piss

But I think that I'm right to not exclude myself completely, especially when I encourage others to not exclude themselves completely either

Viva la self-love!

. . . I've had a lot of practice at that

(November 22, 2017 at 7:39 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: I have to poop

Yes, we all do.  Just not at the same time.

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(November 22, 2017 at 6:22 pm)Joods Wrote: No the purpose of this thread is to post OTHER people's posts worthy of being posted. Been that way forever.

Otherwise why not just make all my posts here directly and save Hammy the trouble.