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Atheism and the Paranormal
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Yeah those ones are fantastic.
Most of you understand the careful claim I am making. Crop Circles are fantastic and slightly mysterious art. No more, no less. Twelve foot tall shape shifting lizards.  (April 25, 2010 at 7:06 am)Pippy Wrote: Yeah those ones are fantastic. /salutes that claim. Quote:Twelve foot tall shape shifting lizards. /salu--- WHAT?! 
Please give me a home where cloud buffalo roam
Where the dear and the strangers can play
Where sometimes is heard a discouraging word
But the skies are not stormy all day
 (April 25, 2010 at 7:08 am)Saerules Wrote:(April 25, 2010 at 7:06 am)Pippy Wrote: Yeah those ones are fantastic. mk you two....  Leave the banannas alone!! "The Universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements: energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest." G'Kar-B5
 RE: Atheism and the Paranormal
April 25, 2010 at 7:31 pm
(This post was last modified: April 25, 2010 at 7:31 pm by Oldandeasilyconfused.)
Quote:He understands they are hoaxes. See here: Oh, silly old me.I missed that.. I thought it was just Pippy being Pippy.
Vampires/witches/zombies/demons.... Never seen any or have proof of any that had any power....Had a self proclaimed witch put a hex on me, the next day I found fifty bucks I told her that her hex backfired.... But ghost may be real but even if there are ghost dont mean theres a god..everyone wants to go oh I DONT know how else something could be so must be god....naaa.... But I do know the house I grew up in...well.. strange shit happend.. not just at night but broad daylight... lights turn off and on.. Doors slam (that normaly you would have a rough time closing) once my science book slid across the floor while i was reaching for it.... I went out side till someone got home that day
 .. was it a ghost ?!?!? dunno but i wouldent rule it out..
Did I make a good point? thumbs up
I cant help it I'm a Kudos whore. P.S. Jesus is a MYTH.
Lol, guys. I used to be a spiritual atheist that believed in ghosts and the possibility of a soul.
"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason." Benjamin Franklin
::Blogs:: Boston Atheism Examiner - Boston Atheists Blog | :  odcast:: Boston Atheists Report
There were naked high school girls at my work last night. It was scary. I broke wind. See above. Long story.
Sod the paranormal I want to hear about the naked high school girls. You can leave out the breaking wind part if you like. You can fix ignorance, you can't fix stupid. Tinkety Tonk and down with the Nazis.
It was Car Rally, where the high school kids have an hour or two to do a very racy scavenger hunt.
So I got to work at 10:00 pm, and my eyes were still blurry. I am kind of ornery first thing in the morning. I lit a smoke, and a van pulled up, and giggling girls got out. One yelled "Oh shit, I'm still naked," and so you have to glance up, right? She was naked. And young. And Fillipino. So she put a shirt on and went inside. Turns out she asked my buddy the cashier to sign her ass, he left his phone number there but she hasn't called... So then there were two very good looking young women, I mean they both could have been 12 out of 10. One ran across the store to purchase whipped cream in a can. She then got this same cashier (the rule is the person in the picture has to be wearing a work uniform) and took a picture of herself removing the whipped cream from the others lovely lady lumps upon her chest, with the poor 16 year old cashier standing awkwardly i the background. Last year it was more sudden. A car full of naked girls screeched up, and they jumped out and said "We need to make out with someone right now!" I wish I was making this up. So we made Pooterstein do it, since they probably had mouth herpes and shit. That is the story of naked high school girls at work, it happens every year. We wish they had stronger role models so they didn't feel the need to take part in something so immature, and treat themselves as sex objects. I always feel kind of ashamed for the strumpets. Oh yeah, and this year they lit the field on fire when it was over, the smoke was incredible. Then the cops got there and it looks like they impounded two or three of some kids dads car. Good times. I'm sure at some point withing the context of this story I broke wind casually. 
Okay, I'm going to try to stay on topic and NOT think about naked high school girls.
It seems to me that there are 3 underlying issues here: 1. The distinction between religion and magic. I'm very taken by the analysis of Levi-Strauss on this one (see The Savage Mind). According to Levi-Strauss, Religion is the projection of human qualities on to the non-human universe. A clear-cut case is the belief in divinely-ordained morality. Morals are human constructions that exist only because of human beliefs, desires and social conventions, but the religious mindset projects these human constructions on to the inanimate and meaningless universe. Magic is in a sense the reverse of religion- the projection of natural categories on to people and human institutions. A good example is Totemism, in which the differences between human tribes are understood as being the same as the differences between types of animal- so the Eagle tribe is to the Bear tribe as Eagles are to Bears. A more familiar example is Astrology. It follows from this that there is nothing contradictory about viewing the world in mainly magical terms, while eschewing religion- they're actually 2 distinct ways of looking at things. 2. The Consequences of Materialist Philosophy If you're a physicalist (materialist monist) then pretty clearly you don't believe in anything supernatural- religion and magic seem equally wrong. However, being a physicalist involves the denial of any sort of meaning or purpose in the universe beyond that which we, as conscious agents, create. Now personally, I'm very happy with this position, but IME mine is very much a minority view. Most people want the inanimate universe to have meaning, and they want to believe in something 'higher' than themselves. Equally, many people can't handle the fact that when you die, you simply cease to exist. They believe that there must be something more to it than that. Thus there are a large number of folk who are atheists (for whatever reason), but are psychologically unable to make the final step to an outright materialist metaphysics. They need some sort of 'comfort blanket' of spiritual/ supernatural beliefs. 3. Poor Understanding of Science Another issue is that the general level of scientific literacy is shockingly low. Thus many people find it very difficult to distinguish science from pseudo-science. Homeopathy, crystal healing, and the widespread belief in ESP are imo largely the product of general scientific illiteracy. Finished. Now I can think about naked high school girls again.
How do I distinguish science from the dreaded pseudo-science?
Oh wait, if Wiki declares it so... If belief in ESP is from scientific illiteracy, is playing the lottery statistical or mathematical illiteracy? Is shopping at WalMart economic illiteracy? What is the difference between snake oil homeopathy and snake oil modern chemical medicine? Oh yeah, pharma actually kills people while they rip them off... |
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