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RE: If Atheism Is A Religion.....
October 7, 2013 at 2:39 pm
(October 7, 2013 at 12:08 pm)Sword of Christ Wrote: Quote:It is not unreasonable to think think that things not proven to exist do not exist.
You can "prove it" within yourself you can't "prove it with science" you're presupposing that God is something that God can be demonstrated that way but that is a mistaken assumption. You can only demonstrate the existence of physical objects and energy through that method and God is neither.
The only way to "prove" something is using the scientific method.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method
For a long time the world relied on "common sense" and what everyone knew or felt was true.
A lot of errors were made then. One of the biggest was the belief in gods
You can fix ignorance, you can't fix stupid.
Tinkety Tonk and down with the Nazis.
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RE: If Atheism Is A Religion.....
October 7, 2013 at 3:21 pm
(October 7, 2013 at 2:39 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote: The only way to "prove" something is using the scientific method.
That's just your own opinion so why should I take you an authority? Subjective evidence is a good form of evidence for yourself personally.
Quote:For a long time the world relied on "common sense" and what everyone knew or felt was true.
A lot of errors were made then. One of the biggest was the belief in gods
If we're talking about methodological naturalism then I'm behind that 100%. It's ideological naturalism which is taking it too far in the denial of the existence of a God/Creator.
hock:
Come all ye faithful joyful and triumphant.
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RE: If Atheism Is A Religion.....
October 7, 2013 at 3:26 pm
(October 7, 2013 at 2:08 pm)Sword of Christ Wrote: I've read plenty of first hand experience accounts. You could say they were hallucinating it if you want to presuppose material naturalism and consciousness as a secretion of the brain and all that business.
Right. And I could say that they aren't, if it was convenient to believe so. But what I cannot do is falsify or confirm any of those accounts. And neither can the people providing them, even when they're first hand. That's my point. When you cannot corroborate such things, then the listener may accept or reject the story on his or her own, and then biases come into play.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
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RE: If Atheism Is A Religion.....
October 7, 2013 at 4:28 pm
The definition of "evidence" for this type is "oh-I-so-want-my-bullshit-to-be-true."
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RE: If Atheism Is A Religion.....
October 7, 2013 at 9:31 pm
If atheism is a religion than I want my tax-exempt status and I'm going to start parking in those "Reserved for Clergy" spots at the hospital when I visit.
Christian apologetics is the art of rolling a dog turd in sugar and selling it as a donut.
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RE: If Atheism Is A Religion.....
October 7, 2013 at 10:13 pm
(This post was last modified: October 7, 2013 at 10:15 pm by Whateverist.)
Atheism is surely no religion but we include every division you can find in the general population. There isn't an orthodoxy.
Among those of us who answer no to the do-you-believe-in-gods-question, you'll find: those who think the question makes no sense; those who don't care; those who know damn well what you're talking about and think you're nuts to ask; those who think religion is holding us back and should be eradicated; those who are neutral regarding what 'one ought to believe' but don't personally; and some who think gods have only a psychological, literary or poetic reality. We are one house, infinitely divisible, with just one life and self-determination for all.