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May 8, 2010 at 2:11 am (This post was last modified: May 8, 2010 at 2:15 am by tavarish.)
(May 8, 2010 at 2:04 am)AngelThMan Wrote: This only proves my point. As you see, the 0.2% that won't say is listed in its own category. There was no such listing in the religion category.
How does this prove your point that an unnaccounted fifth of the MENSA member population is necessarily theistic?
There is no information to make that assumption. There isn't any information AT ALL about the other 19.4 percent. This is exactly my point.
(May 8, 2010 at 2:04 am)AngelThMan Wrote: They could just as easily have said 19.4% didn't say, or didn't respond. They didn't because that's not the case.
You have yet to demonstrate this.
(May 8, 2010 at 2:04 am)AngelThMan Wrote: Listing one category to say that 0.2% didn't reveal their sex (which by the way are probably trannies or in that family), is no big deal. But listing 10 more religions was probably too cumbersome, and they instead omitted them.
You need evidence for your claim. I bolded it so you won't forget. The claim is underlined.
(May 8, 2010 at 2:04 am)AngelThMan Wrote: Haven't you ever seen an incomplete list? This is what it usually means. They are giving you the highlights of the list, not the whole thing.
Please demonstrate that they were producing abridged statistics.
(May 8, 2010 at 2:04 am)AngelThMan Wrote: Regardless, this is a pointless discussion. Even by your math, the majority of Mensa members are believers. So let's stop it right here.
Which was irrelevant to the conversation in the first place.
(May 7, 2010 at 7:58 am)tackattack Wrote: Complete lack of evidence is not evidence to the contrary therefore not a dismissal, thus requiring faith. Then again that also depends on what your definition is of evidence in the context of the immaterial.
Great, i think we are approaching Concordia! Its the same here.... I believe String Theory is a possibility but i don't see any strong evidence for it... just hints and ideas... plus my own laughable understanding of the physics behind it. I don't have faith in String Theory (yet), but I do have a kind of faith in the universe being a natural object without divine intervention... because there is no proof of a god, but there is no proof as to how else if could have occurred (yet!)... and again, with things like abiogenesis and creation of the universe i have to accept things that I can only just get my head around.... the physics or biology/biochemsitry are way beyond me.... however, my wife is a molecular biologist with a PhD in something intelligent sounding.... she usually puts me right when i start to get strange ideas about biological things... still, she can't change a light bulb herself and her knowledge of physics is sorely lacking.
harmony is always a good thing.
(May 7, 2010 at 9:55 am)tavarish Wrote:
(May 7, 2010 at 4:22 am)tackattack Wrote: 3-weak reference to an article I read link I'm no molecular engineer, but DNA could stre a lot of stuff. Oh and the scientific use of the word junk probably correlates to the God of the Gaps for Christianity. It's only junk because we haven't figured out what it's for yet.
Point taken.
(May 7, 2010 at 4:22 am)tackattack Wrote: 4-So you don't believe in abiogenesis?
No, I don't believe in it. I accept that it's a possible and perhaps plausible theory, but I don't believe in it as a matter of personal trust or intellectual assent.
(May 7, 2010 at 4:22 am)tackattack Wrote: 5-Are you intentionally being obtuse? There is finite matter in the known universe where the current adaptations of humanity can reach and survive in. In a future where we manipulate our own DNA to live thousands of years and an increase of control of our enviornment and increasing birth rates, is it not obvious that something will have to bend, and I doubt it will be the universe.
No, it isn't obvious. At all. You assume a lot in this paragraph. I was asking how you can assert these things without a point of reference in the world today. I can say we all evolve into ogres and live with talking donkeys, but I would have no way of knowing if that would be true or not.
(May 7, 2010 at 4:22 am)tackattack Wrote: 6-Sure. Assuming form is limiting; If you had a choice between form and formless existence which would you choose?
I don't know, what would a formless existence feel like?
(May 7, 2010 at 4:22 am)tackattack Wrote: 7-Then don't play, I don't feel there is any objectifiable proof that God exists.
Then why believe he does?
(May 7, 2010 at 4:22 am)tackattack Wrote: 8-Even a perfect circle isn't perfect atomically. It depends on your perspective. What seems absolute or perfect to humanity at this stage could end up being near perfectwith a different perspective.
You're obfuscating the point a bit. This wouldn't be perfection by human standards. Something that changes to adapt to its surroundings isn't perfect - perfection needs no change. Do you understand?
4-Understood. Would demonstratability convince you enough to believe in abiogenesis?
5-I wasn't asserting anything... just exploring a possible theory.
6-idk, I've never been a cloud of energy. I can imagine that it'd be fairly freeing and profoundly esier than an existence within a form. You?
7-Because there is evidence that isn't objectifiable that some feel is valuable.
8-perfection is based more off utilit and thus does not exclude chang. If I said absolute instead, then unchanging would be part of the definition.
"There ought to be a term that would designate those who actually follow the teachings of Jesus, since the word 'Christian' has been largely divorced from those teachings, and so polluted by fundamentalists that it has come to connote their polar opposite: intolerance, vindictive hatred, and bigotry." -- Philip Stater, Huffington Post
always working on cleaning my windows- me regarding Johari
(May 8, 2010 at 12:41 am)AngelThMan Wrote: Sweet Lord, give me patience with this child!
Please stop talking to yourself and get back to your argument.
I'm not asking for much, just empirical evidence that your Jewish spin-off god concept exists, that's all. The least you could do is state that, at this time, you need to gather more information, or look for ways of finding a deity scientifically, and/or rethink your current definition of "god" into something more plausible and demonstrably real, like say, an Invisible Pink Unicorn. :p