(January 11, 2013 at 11:54 am)Norfolk And Chance Wrote:(January 10, 2013 at 3:50 pm)Mark 13:13 Wrote: Picture the scenario; you as an athiest have now become the leader of a nation with very advanced technology. You are the full authority, there is no one to answer to and all power to rule is yours. Your scientists have developed a new device so powerful they call it the supernova. It is designed to be the ultimate deterrent from aggression as in 1 push of a button, the one now blinking green on your desktop, the world will be obliterated in a flash so fast that everyone would be dead so fast that the wouldn't even experience pain. The earth would dissappear in one brilliant flash and then nothing.
You believe that death is final, no life after no God to meet. You look at the world around and see that people continue to suffer from all the normal pains, griefs, heartaches, relationship problems. Natural disasters continue to occur. Nations and groups still find reasons for war. The poor continue to be poor and the nutcases still erupt with deadly results. You could end the whole thing in a painless moment and all suffering would be gone in an instant. Everyone is going to die anyway this would be painless for all.
Would you press the button and end suffering?
if not why?
No.
Why? Because I'm not an absolute fuckwit.
I hate this example because it is an attempt to paint atheists as evil because we don't fill in gaps with superstition.
I already explained that there are lagit reasons one might have to kill out of necessity. The reason his example doesn't work is that if he used any other label, such as "Jew" or "Muslim" or "Hindu", he'd be chewed out by them as well.
Bush Jr was a horrible president, but the moment he got word about the attacks, if the jets could have stopped 1 or more of them, I most certainly would have given the order to shoot them down and I doubt very seriously anyone would blame me or him if that had happened.
The parameters of his example still, do not address the fact that humans are a range and will react differently under certain conditions. Not to mention he wasn't even using it as a neutral example, but a loaded trap to make himself look special.
