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Hello, Anyone interested in a debate?
#71
RE: Hello, Anyone interested in a debate?
Thank you all for your comments. I hope I have the chance to debate this and other topics.
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#72
RE: Hello, Anyone interested in a debate?
Sure, I'll debate on those grounds.  I'd like to take the side of the imaginary friend, hows that sound?
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!
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#73
RE: Hello, Anyone interested in a debate?
Quote:My religious affiliation is Catholic

Oh, shit....another one.


Go Blow Pope Frank Out Your Ass.
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#74
RE: Hello, Anyone interested in a debate?
Guys, remember that this is the introductions forum. Let's keep it to hellos and welcomes and do the discussions and the blowing Pope Frank out of asses in the appropriate subforums.
"There remain four irreducible objections to religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum servility with the maximum of solipsism, that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and that it is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking." ~Christopher Hitchens, god is not Great

PM me your email address to join the Slack chat! I'll give you a taco(or five) if you join! --->There's an app and everything!<---
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#75
RE: Hello, Anyone interested in a debate?
Alright.  We'll save Pope Frank for another thread.....but I think "hello" would be misplaced.
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#76
RE: Hello, Anyone interested in a debate?
Welcome matey....
Very happy to have an intelligent theist on board...

Can you do us favour and talk to the 99% of theists here about evolution.
We've been trying for ages but they don't get it.
Also, while you're at it, please don't mention that their god is imaginary ...they start going batshit for some weird reason...
No God, No fear.
Know God, Know fear.
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#77
RE: Hello, Anyone interested in a debate?
(May 22, 2015 at 12:25 am)Minimalist Wrote: Alright.  We'll save Pope Frank for another thread.....but I think "hello" would be misplaced.

Well, there's a "hell" in it, so not all bad.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist.  This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair.  Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second.  That means there's a situation vacant.'
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#78
RE: Hello, Anyone interested in a debate?
(May 21, 2015 at 3:57 pm)Anima Wrote: I admit that any morality is based on an imaginary friend.  Including those of an atheist.  The difference being the theist imaginary friend is someone else and the atheist imaginary friend is their self.


Can you clear this part up for me? Are you saying the theist imagines their friend to be someone else while the atheist is restricted from doing so?

(May 21, 2015 at 4:26 pm)Anima Wrote:
(May 21, 2015 at 4:18 pm)TRJF Wrote: Yeah, you're going to need to do a... far better job of explaining your position before someone will agree to debate you on it.

As you wish:

I understand the atheistic position to not accept that which may not be empirically verified.  Therefore it may be said atheism does not recognize that which is metaphysical and cannot be verified empirically.  

I further understand atheism to contend that our sentiments, feelings, compulsion, instincts, and so forth are simply a result of of the chemical reactions in our brains.  Thereby rendering us as meat automatons which react to stimuli.

Being meat automatons that react to stimuli means there is no "person" and we are no different than a rock which reacts to its surroundings or bacteria which reacts to stimuli.


By now it should have been pointed out to you, but this shows how far I've gotten in the thread so far.  Atheists vary a great deal in their self concept as much as anything else.  While the percentage that would agree with the part I've bolded is probably high, it is far from 100%.  The only thing you can count on with atheists is that we don't entertain a belief in gods.  Everything else varies

(May 21, 2015 at 4:50 pm)Anima Wrote: For the theist it will be the imaginary guy in the sky.  For the atheist it will be that they do not "feel" it is right.  Which leads me to my initial meat automaton statement how there is no "person" to feel.  Thus the feeling is imaginary or fictitious.

Aren't you forgetting that for the theist there must be some self-centered justification for accepting a man in the sky? Don't theists feel it is important to heed the man in the sky? Is there any reason to think this feeling is any more durable than the feeling atheists have that harming another is repulsive?

(May 21, 2015 at 4:52 pm)Anima Wrote: Ergo, the need for an imaginary friend for moral conduct.

But which one?  The one claiming to be the god of the bible - or the one that just keeps saying to kill them all?  (Please choose carefully.)

(May 21, 2015 at 4:55 pm)Anima Wrote:
(May 21, 2015 at 4:51 pm)FatAndFaithless Wrote: Then kindly stop conflating atheism with anything but...y'know, atheism.

Might we say that atheism like evolution is comprised of sub elements to it?

Evolution maybe said to be the theory which arise out of chaos theory, naturalism, genetics, and natural selection.

As such we may say that Atheism is comprised of several sub elements.

Atheism seems to be comprised of realativism, empiricism/materialism, and skepticism.

The element which I am focusing on is the empiricism/materialism portion.

Nothing to stop you from saying it, but you'd be wrong.  Atheism isn't a monolithic whole composed of essential stances.  Atheism is simply the response "no, I don't think I do" to the question "do you believe in god(s)?"  I've noticed theists have a hard time wrapping their heads around this point.

Anyone who cares to debate with theists will draw from a number of disciplines in doing so.  But he isn't representing an alternative theory of everything.  Try to imagine what it would be like to be a thinking person with a variety of interests where theism is not one of them.  No, try harder.  We don't go around thinking "since the world had no creator .." or "since there is no holy arbiter of right and wrong..".  Those elements are entirely missing from our psyches - unless we were raised with a religious mindset and have only mostly thrown it off.  

The belief system which so structures your worldview is entirely unnecessary.  It is possible of course.  It can even be laudable or beautiful, at least to some.  But it is entirely unnecessary.  If you can't see that these alternative world-views have their own pros and beauty that is only a mark of your own ignorance or bias.  If only the pious could avoid becoming pompous.  True faith requires humility.

(May 21, 2015 at 4:59 pm)Anima Wrote:
(May 21, 2015 at 4:54 pm)Iroscato Wrote: Simple question - what stops YOU from doing immoral things?

Simple answer - Pleasure.  (Atheist = it does not please "me" to do those things.  Theist = It does not please "me" or "Him")

Do you deny that it pleases you to please Him? Does it give you more pleasure to imagine you choose your actions to please Him for your sake or for His?
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#79
RE: Hello, Anyone interested in a debate?
(May 21, 2015 at 5:02 pm)Anima Wrote: So if I then ask "why do you not believe in god?" is your answer "because."?

If your answer is "I have no proof" then the question becomes what you mean by proof.  To which it is likely you mean empirical proof.  In which case welcome to empiricism.

or

You may answer that "I have not experience it myself."  In which case your answer is relativistic.  Welcome to relativism.

Hence, Atheism is not solely atheism.  In praise of your person, I do not think you are such a simple being as to say you do not believe "because."


Maybe you should simply ask the question (my bolded) and then try hard to hear and understand the answer. I personally don't believe in gods because I haven't found it necessary or advantageous to do so. There is no justification required as I am not advocating non-belief in gods. I think I understand what it is you find advantageous in having an imaginary friend that is not your self.

In my psyche's house there are many rooms and not all of them were built by me. The otherness you find without, I find within. It isn't a problem for me that you can't understand that not everything that is my self is up to me. I have no problem with metaphysics, I simply reject as an un-necessary the god construct. Believe me, when I still used it, I enjoyed it and that was simpler. Now I'm more tolerant of ambiguity and uncertainty. Or maybe my openness to the truth, what I call faith, is more complete now?

It would seem that I would like to discuss your views with you more but I'm no fan of debate as such. I've already given many responses to some of your points above. Hopefully no offense was given as none was intended, but it had slipped my mind that this was an introduction thread. So welcome to the forums. If you'd like to have a closed discussion on the matters you've brought up I am willing to do so, but assuming you are looking for someone who will espouse the views of an atheist in the manner you conceive of them, I don't think I would be your choice.
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#80
RE: Hello, Anyone interested in a debate?
(May 21, 2015 at 3:50 pm)Anima Wrote: Hello everyone;

I am interested in setting up a debate with someone regarding the need of an imaginary friend for morality.  Please let me know if anyone is interested in participating in this debate in accordance with the rules specified.  Thank you.

Well, now there's an intro thread!
Welcome aboard.
Try to keep these discussions out of the intro forum.

Why do you jump in here wanting to immediately debate?
Take a look at the threads we already have in place, preferably those in the first few pages of the Today's posts, and participate there.... you'll soon be engaged with people.



"Debate", here is AF.org is typically limited to the Debate area and that's a one-on-one thing... we like to hunt in packs! Tongue
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