Tooth Fairy Bullshit

[vorlon13]

I wonder,

is there a recognized continuum of such entities?

tooth fairy, leprechauns, poltergeists, Baneemy, Zeus, Hera, Demeter, Gog, Magog, the God of the Jehovahs Witnesses, Venus, Mother Nature, the pig God of Captain Bligh, the catholic God, and finally, the REAL God, the god of the 7th Avenue First Baptist Church, Smyrna, Tennessee.

[LadyForCamus]

I wonder,

is there a recognized continuum of such entities?

tooth fairy, leprechauns, poltergeists, Baneemy, Zeus, Hera, Demeter, Gog, Magog, the God of the Jehovahs Witnesses, Venus, Mother Nature, the pig God of Captain Bligh, the catholic God, and finally, the REAL God, the god of the 7th Avenue First Baptist Church, Smyrna, Tennessee.

You forgot Beetlejuice!  At least he comes when he's called...

[Asmodee]

From our perspective both are identically mythical.  Many of us have had discussions with those who think they are the "best and the brightest" and, frankly, their arguments are stupid.  And what do you expect, exactly?  Do you realize how people who hold no belief in a deity are generally treated around the world?  What do you expect is going to happen if you marginalize a population, insist that they are immoral and not to be trusted and threaten them with death or worse?  They're going to get pissed off and start making fun of you.  Boo fucking hoo.

And you're one to talk about acting like an intellectual little snark.  You, who has no problem calling others ignorant and uninformed if they don't hold your beliefs.  The only difference is that your aggression is more passive most of the time.  You are a smug little prick about your beliefs no less.

And your notions that hospitals came to be because of religious convictions is just bullshit.  People are people, regardless their beliefs.  If religion never existed, hospitals still would.  Colleges still would.  There are good people in the world.  That some of those good people had access to the vast fortune religion accumulates speaks highly of them, not the religion which provided the fortune.  Good people can have stupid beliefs.  I have known good people who were atheists and bad people who were devout Christians.  It doesn't take religion to be a good person.

And as I have stated before, Catholic hospitals are not the great works of charity one would be led to believe.  Catholic hospitals usually supplant public and other private hospitals and provide charity care at a rate of roughly half that of public hospitals.  They also refuse service to people when it conflicts with Catholic beliefs without the most remote concern for the well-being of the patient, in full contrast to the Hippocratic Oath.  If a woman goes to a Catholic hospital in the middle of having a miscarriage which threatens her life she will not even be told that having an abortion will significantly reduce the threat to her health.  Her health is less important that the Catholic belief that ending a pregnancy early, even if the fetus has zero chance of survival, is worse than letting the woman die from the miscarriage.

Your beliefs are not due my respect, least of all because "some guy" held them and that guy was a really good guy.  I don't see you singing the praises of James Randi, who has devoted his life and fortune to discrediting charlatans.  I don't see you singing the praises of Richard Dawkins for his work in discrediting bunk science to keep it out of schools.  I don't see you commending the Freedom From Religion Foundation for keeping us free to not hold religious beliefs.  And hell, I don't go to Christian forums and tell all the little crybaby Christians there what dicks they are for making fun of my beliefs that there are no gods.  YOU are the one coming HERE, bitching and whining that we don't respect your fairy tales.  Again, boo fucking hoo.

[The Grand Nudger]

I wonder,

is there a recognized continuum of such entities?

tooth fairy, leprechauns, poltergeists, Baneemy, Zeus, Hera, Demeter, Gog, Magog, the God of the Jehovahs Witnesses, Venus, Mother Nature, the pig God of Captain Bligh, the catholic God, and finally, the REAL God, the god of the 7th Avenue First Baptist Church, Smyrna, Tennessee.

-cont.  Particularly, the god of Ruth Baderson, 2nd pew back, 5th from the right, aged 82.  The rest of the building is full of heretics.

[Crossless2.0]

I wonder,

is there a recognized continuum of such entities?

tooth fairy, leprechauns, poltergeists, Baneemy, Zeus, Hera, Demeter, Gog, Magog, the God of the Jehovahs Witnesses, Venus, Mother Nature, the pig God of Captain Bligh, the catholic God, and finally, the REAL God, the god of the 7th Avenue First Baptist Church, Smyrna, Tennessee.

-cont.  Particularly, the god of Ruth Baderson, 2nd pew back, 5th from the right, aged 82.  The rest of the building is full of heretics.

Sounds about right, since Ruth has dementia.

[Autolite]

Have you seen the movie??? Don't mess with the tooth fairy. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Well just thanks a lot for that clip! It used to be that I was only afraid of the dentist...

[Neo-Scholastic]

Fairies, Unicorns, Santa Claus, Bigfoot and the like would by any definition be contingent non-transcendent material beings. The Christian God is non-contingent, transcendent and immaterial. There is no point of comparison. It is a massive category error.

But philosophical objection wasn’t where I was going anyway. I was referring to something else. The practical of effect of theistic belief , Christianity in particular, supports the seriousness of the “God question” as opposed to other trivial speculations. Fairie-ology did not found the University system. Santa Claus worship did not motivate people to abolish slavery. Unicorn-belief did not inspire people to build hospitals.

For sure…

Secular organizations could have started the first Universities but they didn’t until after Christians did.
Secular organizations could have built the first Hospitals but they didn’t until after Christians did
Slavery has been abolished worldwide, but only after Christian nations did so first.

My point is that the moral principles that seem so obvious and basic to atheists today didn’t exist before they were believed and promoted by Christians first. Atheists just adopted them, like they have the modern scientific method which was developed by brilliant Christian thinkers based on their conviction that knowledge of the Nature Order reflected the Mind of a Rational Creator god. Beliefs do matter and if a particular set of beliefs are so strong and so powerful that they change the world dramatically and for the better, then I say, there is something fundamentally different about those beliefs.

[Jesster]

I got as far as you calling me a douchebag. Well fuck you then. If you expected me to get anything from your topic, then you just lost your chance. I'll skip the rest of that and move onto something more interesting, asshat.

[Crossless2.0]

Fairies, Unicorns, Santa Claus, Bigfoot and the like would by any definition be contingent non-transcendent material beings. The Christian God is non-contingent, transcendent and immaterial. There is no point of comparison. It is a massive category error.

But philosophical objection wasn’t where I was going anyway. I was referring to something else. The practical of effect of theistic belief , Christianity in particular, supports the seriousness of the “God question” as opposed to other trivial speculations. Fairie-ology did not found the University system. Santa Claus worship did not motivate people to abolish slavery. Unicorn-belief did not inspire people to build hospitals.

For sure…

Secular organizations could have started the first Universities but they didn’t until after Christians did.
Secular organizations could have built the first Hospitals but they didn’t until after Christians did.
Slavery has been abolished worldwide, but only after Christian nations did so first.

My point is that the moral principles that seem so obvious and basic to atheists today didn’t exist before they were believed and promoted by Christians first. Atheists just adopted them. Beliefs do matter and if a particular set of beliefs are so strong and so powerful that they change the world dramatically and for the better, then I say, there is something fundamentally different about those beliefs.

Yes, historical contingency is a thing. Thanks for the heads up.

I'm curious, what secular organizations can you name from that time when the first universities were formed? You know, that period in history when secularism didn't really exist, and being a heretic (much less an atheist) could get you killed.

[The Grand Nudger]

But philosophical objection wasn’t where I was going anyway. I was referring to something else.

Good, you're terrible at that.

The practical of effect of theistic belief , Christianity in particular, supports the seriousness of the “God question” as opposed to other trivial speculations. Fairie-ology did not found the University system. Santa Claus worship did not motivate people to abolish slavery. Unicorn-belief did not inspire people to build hospitals.

.....didn't they, though...?  

Secular organizations could have started the first Universities but they didn’t until after Christians did.

Christians didn't build the first universities.

Secular organizations could have built the first Hospitals but they didn’t until after Christians did.

Christians didn;t build the first hospitals.

Slavery has been abolished worldwide, but only after Christian nations did so first.

Christians weren't the first to abolish slavery.  

My point

-is hopelessly ignorant and factually untenable. 


But what else should I expect, from a person who thinks that fairy belief did all of that shit? Even more hilariously, from a fairy believer who thinks that his stolen religion and stolen respect was stolen from him, somehow. From a person who would dig up MLK and rattle his bones if it meant he might be able to shame people who -don't- believe in his fairies.

You're a joke.