I heard a catholic say today, babies are narcissistic...Feed me, give me the bottle, carry me.. and thats one of the reasons they need to be baptized... wtf??? yeah.. too far gone...

I've heard members of the god squad say the same thing, as though somehow babies have considered all the options and have decided to be selfish assholes just because they can.

But then again, these are the same people who think their own intuition is an invisible being talking to them, so it's not a surprise to see such psychotic thoughts.

(June 1, 2015 at 1:21 pm)QuarkDriven Wrote: I heard a catholic say today, babies are narcissistic...Feed me, give me the bottle, carry me.. and thats one of the reasons they need to be baptized... wtf??? yeah.. too far gone...

It is probably a rationalization to try to justify the preexisting belief that babies need to be baptized.  Much of what people say regarding their reasoning is that way.  They start with a conclusion, and then look for reasons to justify it.

What I really want to know is what goes on in their heads. When they say God is talking to them, or even appearing to them, does it really seem to them like they are hearing/hearing something? I figure either they genuinely are, which is frankly very distressing; or they have convinced themselves they are when they're really not (perhaps more likely); or of course they're just making it up. I wonder how the percentages would fall.

If God has ever tried to talk to me it must have been on a day he was a bit hoarse and lost his voice.

(June 1, 2015 at 1:21 pm)QuarkDriven Wrote: I heard a catholic say today, babies are narcissistic...Feed me, give me the bottle, carry me.. and thats one of the reasons they need to be baptized... wtf??? yeah.. too far gone...

Says the same people life is a miracle then when the child is born they are like fuck it well go and indoctrinate this child when he is of imagination age to fuck up his life. 

I think that's why i read somewhere that Jesus apparently didn't cry when he was a baby. Despite the fact that crying is the only way a baby can communicate what it needs. Given how small it is, and how easily it can lose body heat, of course it's going to need almost constant attention. Almost everyone loves a well behaved baby, and nobody likes a cranky one.

(June 1, 2015 at 3:32 pm)robvalue Wrote: What I really want to know is what goes on in their heads. When they say God is talking to them, or even appearing to them, does it really seem to them like they are hearing/hearing something? I figure either they genuinely are, which is frankly very distressing; or they have convinced themselves they are when they're really not (perhaps more likely); or of course they're just making it up. I wonder how the percentages would fall.

If God has ever tried to talk to me it must have been on a day he was a bit hoarse and lost his voice.

I can tell you how it was for me, and how it was for most others I spoke with regarding this.  I do not recall any who claimed to hear a distinct, clear voice, like a real voice (like you would have to be crazy to hear).  What people had were various feelings, which they sometimes interpreted as being somehow a message from god.  I personally found the feelings idea not very convincing, and was pretty skeptical of that even when I was still a believer.

Edited to add:

I believe many simply misidentified their conscience, and believed it was god talking to them.  Some seemed to identify it with particularly strong feelings of conscience.

I'd say that all theists are too far gone.  If you really believe in that shit your brain is mush.

(I realize there are many who are just born into it and give it no thought at all.)

(June 1, 2015 at 12:00 pm)Trew2Life Wrote: How can he have always existed, fully developed, complex and omnipotent?

I suppose if you believe that the physical world is based on mathematics (I don't... but nonetheless it's an interesting concept) the latter would be an example of something that has always existed, fully developed, complex, and... well... unless you replace Jesus with Pythagoras, that's probably about as far you'd feel compelled to take it.

(June 1, 2015 at 4:21 pm)Minimalist Wrote: I'd say that all theists are too far gone.  If you really believe in that shit your brain is mush.

(I realize there are many who are just born into it and give it no thought at all.)

That is a bit harsh.  Many people escape from theism.

It would be different if people were properly raised, and then they adopted theism.  Then I would agree, their minds are mush.  But many people are very thoroughly indoctrinated as children, and so, for a time, they believe some drivel.  The smarter ones escape, but one cannot judge the level of intelligence purely by how long it takes to come to one's senses, as some people are more thoroughly indoctrinated than others.