(March 15, 2010 at 11:56 am)Frank Wrote: Sometimes us atheists have fun just regurgitating our same old arguments (maybe rephrasing them slightly to be a little more punchy). Debunking religion really is a completed task, scientifically speaking (sort of like algebra) ... finished long ago. Just because apologists come up with new ways of spinning their same old nonsense doesn't mean we need to revisit the drawing board (it just means they're fools wasting their time on a worthless occupation)....No? if you can honestly show me scientific evidence which 'debunks' religion, I will be thoroughly impressed. I don't mean to get snarky, but you are making an incredibly broad claim here, and it needs to be backed up. You may have debunked certain interpretations or ideas about religion, but the central theme of most religions is...God. And you have not debunked God in the slightest.
Quote:I'm becoming more mature in my atheism as time goes on. Now it doesn't bother me when I hear Christians or other religious people preaching their gibberish. Although when I see a dude on the subway trying to sell me Jesus, I wonder if we would be so tolerant if he were trying to sell us vacuum cleaners or some other mundane item (in such an annoying fashion)? Ahhh, well we have to tolerate it right, since most people claim to believe it (it amazes me that people are so I guess unable to cope with mortality or perhaps themselves and their own nature that they turn to mythology).I'm quite able to deal with mortality...in fact it is my own mortality upon which my faith is based. I know that I'm going to die, and that my life is sacred, so I treasure each moment of it that I've been given. I could go into more detail, but that's the bare bones of it...
Quote:When it comes to mythology I've always admired Norse mythology. Imagine, the Vikings managed to become one of a small handful of truly great ancient peoples, and according to their religion .... they lose in the end. The people (and their gods) continue to fight evil even though they know they will lose, and ultimately be destroyed. Of course they Vikings didn't have the benefit of understanding cosmology, evolution, or much of anything remotely scientific (except of course how to make a good ship, and launch an amphibious assault); so believing in mythological legends was perfectly understandable.That's interestingly something I was not aware of! I don't know too much about Norse mythology other than the bare minimum, Thor, Odin, all that stuff. Kinda cool.
Although, the reason I bolded part of that snippet is because I find it strange that it was okay for Vikings to lack scientific knowledge and theorize about 'gods' to explain it, but it was not okay for, say, the writers of the Bible to lack scientific knowledge and attribute scientific occurences to God. Just pointing that out.
