(March 4, 2015 at 9:32 pm)whateverist Wrote: I am a gnat on a flea's ass on the back of a dragon of immense proportions. How should I know where the dragon is headed or why. I don't even know if it knows I'm here. For all I know, the dragon is flying over the surface of a still greater dragon. It may even be dragons all the way up.
But from my perspective as one among many gnats on that flea, when another gnat goes on about some mumbo jumbo I don't understand at all I don't immediately wonder what he is seeing that I don't. Neither one of us is in position to see past the flea's ass. But let him think what he likes. No skin off my own ass. I don't have to say he is wrong to say I don't share his hunch. I'll worry about gods and dragons when there is reason to do so.
I'm right with you on feeling really tiny in a great big universe (thank you Dr. Hubble.)
But there is a danger when the other gnat has an inflated self image and wants not just his but your place on the flea. Mostly I find theists trying to expand their domains irritating but harmless. Usually the gullibility that got them their place in the religion machine serves to keep them there and out of major trouble. The machine itself, like most established parasites, has found a niche which doesn't overreach anywhere near as much as CEOs of Fortune 500 companies or third world dictators. It drains its hosts without killing them.
Still, I wonder if we are collectively smart enough to survive 10% as long as the dinosaurs. Mostly, it doesn't seem so and the theists are pulling down the average.
So how, exactly, does God know that She's NOT a brain in a vat?