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RE: Russia embraces religious intolerance with draconian blasphemy and anti-gay laws
July 18, 2013 at 5:39 am
(July 18, 2013 at 5:35 am)fr0d0 Wrote: "Genesis 1 isn't a scientific text.
Clearly.
However, one would expect that a man divinely inspired by an omniscient god would have accurately portrayed aspects of the bible that relate to science. Since that is not the case, those men were not divinely inspired by a god which obviously does not exist.
"Never trust a fox. Looks like a dog, behaves like a cat."
~ Erin Hunter
RE: Russia embraces religious intolerance with draconian blasphemy and anti-gay laws
July 18, 2013 at 6:13 am
I understood your post completely. The illogicality of it is astounding.
You can't see past the understanding of the cosmos at that time. You're stuck at laughing at their understanding of cosmology rather than seeing that what they are really taking about.
The metaphors we can transpose into our own theories/ language and come up with the same picture. The importance isn't the theories/ language, because they are transient. The importance is in the message that the theories/ language is intended to convey.
RE: Russia embraces religious intolerance with draconian blasphemy and anti-gay laws
July 18, 2013 at 6:15 am (This post was last modified: July 18, 2013 at 6:18 am by Silver.)
(July 18, 2013 at 6:13 am)fr0d0 Wrote: You're stuck at laughing at their understanding of cosmology rather than seeing that what they are really taking about.
No, I am stuck at being incredulous at their believing in something for which there is no evidence in support of it.
(July 18, 2013 at 6:13 am)fr0d0 Wrote: The metaphors.
Metaphors indeed. Of no real value except as flowery language.
(July 18, 2013 at 6:13 am)fr0d0 Wrote: The importance is in the message that the theories/ language is intended to convey.
Such a thing can be found in many a fiction book. It does not mean what is being conveyed is real.
"Never trust a fox. Looks like a dog, behaves like a cat."
~ Erin Hunter
RE: Russia embraces religious intolerance with draconian blasphemy and anti-gay laws
July 18, 2013 at 8:53 am (This post was last modified: July 18, 2013 at 9:05 am by The Grand Nudger.)
So what, along the lines of -is there any specific reason I ought to favor one work of fiction - say the bible, over another - say Fight Club...Curious George....or Archie comics.......when shopping for a codex by which to live my life?
(your estimation of what the bible does and doesn't mean ignores a very real -and very common- possibility btw. No distinction is made between the theological and the cosmological. One explained, illustrated, or described the other. The two notions where inseparable to those afflicted. The heavens and all they contain are the brute force of the narrative. The manner in which this or that was said to be created -or said to interect- established theology. One is useless without the other in this formulation....and this is why you end up with stories like "who but god could create a sea dragon" - the very real presence of the sea dragon to these people...in the same way that their cosmological (or otherwise material) explanations were the -proof in your face- of the narratives veracity.....and thusly the power, majesty, righteousness, superiority of said god. A mandate to worship. )
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!
RE: Russia embraces religious intolerance with draconian blasphemy and anti-gay laws
July 18, 2013 at 9:09 am
If I was god and I was going to leave a book for my miniscule, mentally limited creations to read I would make it so impressive that none of them could duplicate it.
After all, I'm a god. They're just mortals. They couldn't match me on anything. I'd blow every single damn one of them away with my book so none of them could even comprehend how that thing existed if I was not real.
In reality though, we just have these crap books that no one would even publish if you wrote it today and tried to sell it to a publisher. They'd laugh at you and consider you a pathetic writer.
Everything I needed to know about life I learned on Dagobah.
RE: Russia embraces religious intolerance with draconian blasphemy and anti-gay laws
July 18, 2013 at 3:45 pm
(July 16, 2013 at 7:52 pm)DeistPaladin Wrote: It's like being a liberal on Fox Noise. If you're a good little liberal who never makes a forceful argument, they'll let you stay around. The minute you get out of line and you say something they don't want to hear, they cut your mic and throw you out.
What liberals have been thrown out at Fox and what were their “forceful arguments”? I am not aware of any.
So I haven’t presented any invalid arguments? Good to know.
(July 17, 2013 at 9:44 am)Rahul Wrote:
Well, I can't remember exactly what I posted. This was like 6 years ago. A Christian forum had put out a direct challenge to atheists and had already banned several atheists that were members of an atheist forum I was on at the time. So I mosied on over and started a post saying something like,
"Well, we all really know that there is no God. I mean C'mon, let's be reasonable. For one..."
And then I just pointed out a couple logical flaws in the whole concept. I made sure I didn't mock God, I just expressed the idea that there was no way it was believable.
The banning from the atheist forum was a whole 'nother story. A blood feud among atheists one forum against another. They were telling some major lies about one of our members so I went over and posted a very, very long detailed post breaking down their logic and pointing out how hypocritical they were being.
No one responded for a while even as my post moved past the first page of threads. So I bumped the post. Then one of their members started cussing me out for bumping the post (which was not restricted by any rules on the forum.) I know. I checked first.
Well the thing was, I knew who that person was. Including their full, real name. So I responded with their real first name, only the first name, and asked her if she had something to say in response to my original post or was she just displaying her "normal disagreeable personality".
One of their mods immediately banned me and deleted everything. Official reason? Personal attack on her. Then all the normal members started replying on the thread with about 50 personal attacks against me even though I was already banned for making a personal attack.
The real reason I was banned? I think it was because I really did catch them being major hypocrits and called them out on it to their faces.
Eh, that forum doesn't even exist anymore.
Wow, I had no idea there were essentially gang wars between groups of atheists, that’s interesting. Thanks for sharing the story!
