Enlighten Yourselves

[Delicate]

I'm not worried by religious pluralism or pluralism of any sort. To me it's the same as aesthetic and musical diversity. Linguistic diversity and other forms of cultural diversity.

But I don't think you can avoid the ad hocness of your explanations by asking me a different question. Your explanations are ad hoc, and this weakness of theirs remains, right?

Forgive me, milady.... I was mistaken as to the meaning of "ad hoc"....
Now that I've taken the time to instruct myself, I must kindly disagree.

My explanation is far from ad hoc.
It flows from our slim knowledge of how life was back then and our present knowledge of human psychology.... and takes a few hints from today's missing divine.
Nothing ad hoc about it as it is quite applicable to any civilization. Many strategies have been devised, throughout the years... centuries, or even millennia, in order to keep a substantial number of people living together without them becoming a violent mess.
Religion has the merit of being one of the best methods yet found... If it was minimally thought out at the start or if it evolved into the control mechanism it became, I cannot tell.... there is no record of it... or, if there is, it hasn't been brought to my attention. And, if there ever was such evidence, it would stand to reason that the people in control and possession of it would be very interested in having it destroyed.

But the themes in the various cults do seem to have suffered some form of path from a simpler, more nature-oriented version (such as can be found in animism and shamanism) to the widely known present-day transcendental one.

Milady? I get the whole fedora atheist reference, but I'm a dude.

What actual research have you done to look into the issue? I mean besides just making up your theory?

[pocaracas]

Milady? I get the whole fedora atheist reference, but I'm a dude.

Well, that's one way of finding out...

What actual research have you done to look into the issue? I mean besides just making up your theory?

http://www.psy.miami.edu/faculty/mmccull...lletin.pdf

http://bernhard-hommel.eu/Religion%20as%...0guide.pdf

And for extra points:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17174860

[Delicate]

Milady? I get the whole fedora atheist reference, but I'm a dude.

Well, that's one way of finding out...

What actual research have you done to look into the issue? I mean besides just making up your theory?

http://www.psy.miami.edu/faculty/mmccull...lletin.pdf

http://bernhard-hommel.eu/Religion%20as%...0guide.pdf

And for extra points:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17174860

So you read two, no three(!) papers, and now you know everything? Explain how these three papers integrate with your thesis.

[Bob Kelso]

Late to the party but better late than never.

All I ask of you guys here, is to read a bible. For me, the bible personally enlightened me and reinforces my religion. Instead of retaining your knowledge by what you hear from Christians, actually read the scriptures that the religion is based off of.

I've come from a Southern Baptist (partly Catholic) home, and spent the majority of my life as a Christian, so I've read the bible more than a handful of times. I won't vote that I've read it in it's entirety because there's just some parts that I purposefully avoided because they put me to sleep even as a Christian, like the ridiculous genealogies. The bible is a large factor in my deconversion, it's just sickening.

You can be an atheist and still admit that the Bible, as a collection, is a literary masterpiece. You don't have to be a theist to appreciate it as a piece of art and monument of culture.

[pocaracas]

Well, that's one way of finding out...


http://www.psy.miami.edu/faculty/mmccull...lletin.pdf

http://bernhard-hommel.eu/Religion%20as%...0guide.pdf

And for extra points:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17174860

So you read two, no three(!) papers, and now you know everything? Explain how these three papers integrate with your thesis.

Clearly, you've forgotten what my thesis is and/or didn't even deign to read the title of the papers.... why should I waste my typing skillz?
Why should I type more to one who hasn't replied properly to a post I made filled with questions, and got some lame comparison to music!!

[Delicate]

Late to the party but better late than never.

All I ask of you guys here, is to read a bible. For me, the bible personally enlightened me and reinforces my religion. Instead of retaining your knowledge by what you hear from Christians, actually read the scriptures that the religion is based off of.

I've come from a Southern Baptist (partly Catholic) home, and spent the majority of my life as a Christian, so I've read the bible more than a handful of times. I won't vote that I've read it in it's entirety because there's just some parts that I purposefully avoided because they put me to sleep even as a Christian, like the ridiculous genealogies. The bible is a large factor in my deconversion, it's just sickening.

You can be an atheist and still admit that the Bible, as a collection, is a literary masterpiece. You don't have to be a theist to appreciate it as a piece of art and monument of culture.

Trust me, we all wish your father had done that instead of impregnating that glob of cellulite you send cards to on mothers day.

---

So you read two, no three(!) papers, and now you know everything? Explain how these three papers integrate with your thesis.

Clearly, you've forgotten what my thesis is and/or didn't even deign to read the title of the papers.... why should I waste my typing skillz?
Why should I type more to one who hasn't replied properly to a post I made filled with questions, and got some lame comparison to music!!

How can I deal with the rest of your claims if this claim is full of crap?

This is your claim: The people who wrote it, had no knowledge of any god.... they had no foresight, no insight, nothing tangible... they believed.

The first two papers claim this:
1) Relationships between religion, weight perception, and weight control behavior illustrate religion's multidimensionality.
2) the selective reward that religious belief systems provide for rule-conforming behavior induces systematic biases in cognitive-control parameters that are functional in producing the wanted behavior

The third paper by McCullough et al. has five conclusions which are much more interesting and I'm still reading it.

But look at how your claim and the evidence you cite has no connection whatsoever. You don't know how science works, do you?

[pocaracas]

Keep using those delicate neurons in your head... you may get there...

[abaris]

Trust me, we all wish your father had done that instead of impregnating that glob of cellulite you send cards to on mothers day.

Who's we? Pluralis majestatis?

So we're down to ad hominems now, which is always a clear sign for someone being filled with hot air instead of arguments. I repeat what I said earlier: Why don't you simply admit, you're a theist in your sig? Do you think your "neutral" ground is fooling anyone?

[Thackerie]

Trust me, we all wish your father had done that instead of impregnating that glob of cellulite you send cards to on mothers day.

Who's we? Pluralis majestatis?

So we're down to ad hominems now, which is always a clear sign for someone being filled with hot air instead of arguments. I repeat what I said earlier: Why don't you simply admit, you're a theist in your sig? Do you think your "neutral" ground is fooling anyone?

I'm not part of this "we" that the Delicate dude refers to, either. I find his "we all wish" statement extremely offensive. Even given the anonymous nature of internet forums, I would be ashamed to be associated with such nastiness, as would anyone with any class and conscience.

His level of viciousness certainly reads like a theist who is unable to respond in any other way.

[daver49]

I'm not part of this "we" that the Delicate dude refers to, either. I find his "we all wish" statement extremely offensive. Even given the anonymous nature of internet forums, I would be ashamed to be associated with such nastiness, as would anyone with any class and conscience.

Are you saying you don't like his "we we?"