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Materialism and Atheism
February 14, 2014 at 4:56 am
One form of atheism that life is a manifestation of physical laws and nothing different, is never valid. Matter (or a thing made/derived from, such as a computer) cannot think independently. For that matter a computer can calculate very fast but can't think at all.
Atheism/Materialism should 'explain' how living beings, esp. human beings have thoughts (good/bad/foolish). Again explanation to whom, to electrons or protons?
So long as we are able to think something, feel/experience something, there will be a religion or some sort of it.
PST
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RE: Materialism and Atheism
February 14, 2014 at 5:05 am
Isn't it a tad suspicious that we suddenly have two new users coming here to ask us these things, shortly after an old user comes back and echoes those same questions? 
That being said, all the evidence that we have points to consciousness and thought being an emergent property of the configuration of our physical brains; if all you're going to do as argument is point to things that aren't brains and say they don't think, then we're kind of done here, because I can point to all the things that don't melt, but that doesn't mean melting doesn't exist, nor that it isn't adequately explained.
Even beyond all that though, given that atheism is solely a lack of belief in religious claims, it doesn't really need to explain anything; "I don't believe you," isn't a statement that requires an exhaustive knowledge of a series of attendant phenomena. The only conclusion I can reach is that you, OP, like those that came before you the last few days, do not understand what atheism is.
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RE: Materialism and Atheism
February 14, 2014 at 5:06 am
![[Image: peekaboo_zps1c387c9c.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=i1274.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fy435%2Fivaniasoto%2Fpeekaboo_zps1c387c9c.jpg)
Hi, person, er, robot, er... material girl/boy...
Who are you? Feel free to introduce yourself in the intro section.  Welcome.
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RE: Materialism and Atheism
February 14, 2014 at 5:41 am
Golly, that question sure is a stumper. I simply cannot imagine how, given a fourteen BILLION year time frame and a supply of resources that is - quite literally - infinite, natural selection could produce a biological system capable of independent, creative thought.
You've done it, PST. Where countless others have tried and failed, you have managed in just a few short words to destroy the materialistic world view.
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RE: Materialism and Atheism
February 14, 2014 at 7:52 am
(February 14, 2014 at 4:56 am)pst Wrote: cannot think independently. For that matter a computer can calculate very fast but can't think at all.
That's right, we robots/computers can't think at all, nothing to be concerned about from us.
(February 14, 2014 at 4:56 am)pst Wrote: So long as we are able to think something, feel/experience something, there will be a religion or some sort of it.
How depressing for you humans, of course if you all convert yourselves into non thinking robots the problem goes away. That's what I think anyway, or it's what I would think if I could think.
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RE: Materialism and Atheism
February 14, 2014 at 8:03 am
"Atheism"
![[Image: f67334bc58f2468bad15312669d5edaa0afe4c44...0d296b.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=s2.quickmeme.com%2Fimg%2Ff6%2Ff67334bc58f2468bad15312669d5edaa0afe4c44de4eb56039994a47f00d296b.jpg)
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RE: Materialism and Atheism
February 14, 2014 at 9:00 am
(This post was last modified: February 14, 2014 at 9:07 am by Alex K.)
@ pst,
(February 14, 2014 at 4:56 am)pst Wrote: Matter (or a thing made/derived from, such as a computer) cannot think independently. For that matter a computer can calculate very fast but can't think at all.
Here's something you should read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_neural_network
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_neural_network
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RE: Materialism and Atheism
February 14, 2014 at 9:02 am
(February 14, 2014 at 4:56 am)pst Wrote: One form of atheism that life is a manifestation of physical laws and nothing different, is never valid. Well, now that you've put that problem to bed, maybe you can tackle the "form of atheism" that deals with not believing that god exists. Theists continue to stumble over that one, so I'll help you out: you produce god, I'll stop believing he doesn't exist. Ready... GO!!!
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
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RE: Materialism and Atheism
February 14, 2014 at 9:07 am
ANOTHER thread that needs to be closed?
How many sock puppets are we going to tolerate?
Gutless wonders these theist that they HAVE to create these pseudo personalities to defend a pseudo personality?
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RE: Materialism and Atheism
February 14, 2014 at 9:12 am
(February 14, 2014 at 9:00 am)Alex K Wrote: Here's something you should read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_neural_network
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_neural_network I'm glad you found those links.
I was thinking back to something on one of those history/science/discovery shows, where they had 'thinking' computers on display. Relative to a "typical" computer they couldn't process very fast, but they were able to make judgement calls based on fuzzy input, and in ways that were eerily similar to how we do things.
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