An infinite progress

[HappySkeptic]

A lot of Unitarian Universalists are atheists. I attend occasionally myself. Another example of atheists who don't believe in God but don't reject religion.

I've sat in on a few UU sermons, that shit was kind of weird.

I'm a UU, and the cool thing is -- we are encouraged to critique the sermons.  There is no-one giving wisdom from on high.

[Ahriman]

I've sat in on a few UU sermons, that shit was kind of weird.

I'm a UU, and the cool thing is -- we are encouraged to critique the sermons.  There is no-one giving wisdom from on high.

Well, to be fair, when I used to attend Mass, I didn't consider the priest's sermon to be "giving wisdom from on high", I always knew whatever he said, was his own interpretation of things.

[Spongebob]

Well, to be fair, when I used to attend Mass, I didn't consider the priest's sermon to be "giving wisdom from on high", I always knew whatever he said, was his own interpretation of things.

Just a couple hundred years ago that wouldn't gotten you severe corporal punishment.

[Ahriman]

Well, to be fair, when I used to attend Mass, I didn't consider the priest's sermon to be "giving wisdom from on high", I always knew whatever he said, was his own interpretation of things.

Just a couple hundred years ago that wouldn't gotten you severe corporal punishment.

Not if I pretended to go along with it anyway.

[Astreja]

BTW, it is possible that the net energy of the universe is zero, so the Nordic serpent didn't really have to do anything

But the serpent is way cooler.

One of my artistic dream projects is to get a commission to do the World Snek as a huge concrete sculpture in the vicinity of Gimli, Manitoba (which has a large Icelandic presence).  There would be two sections, marking "Jörmungandr 0 km" and "Jörmungandr 40,074 km", one kilometre apart.  (Actual numbers would depend on the circumference of the Earth on the circle that runs through the town of "Gimli.")

[Paleophyte]

In an atheist's mind, rejecting religion and rejecting the idea of God, are the same thing.

Telling people what they think rarely ends well.

I reject religion because it is either poorly contrived superstition with no basis in reality or politics without the oversight and ethics depending on the flavour.

I reject the ancient gods because they are mythological absurdities that made the volcanoes erupt or the crops flourish.

I reject the modern gods because they are ancient gods pimped out by organized religion and infinitely more absurd than their ancestors.

I don't reject the deistic god(s) and can probably make a better argument for them than most theists. I simply don't believe in them. If you don't understand the difference between rejection and lack of belief then you're completely missing what atheists are.

[Spongebob]

Just a couple hundred years ago that wouldn't gotten you severe corporal punishment.

Not if I pretended to go along with it anyway.

Actually I had a typo.  Meant to say "would've".

You can be flippant about it if you like, but in all seriousness what I said is true.  Christians punished people for heresy.

[downbeatplumb]

The only difference between your view of the universe and mine is that mine contains precisely one less magic man who died on the cross and rose from the dead to pay for all the times we shook our peckers too hard after we took a piss.  

Interesting. Mine contains one less unexplainable, unknowable, uninvestigatable, uncaused, event in the past.

Your point?

But yours contains a complex being that causes things but never says how this being is supposed to have done i,t or where it got the stuff the nature of the god or indeed anything useful at all.
It explains nothing and actually begs many more questions than it thinks it answers.
Using Occams razer we can discount god as first cause. 

Any hoo here are some scientific ideas of what came before the big bang.

[The Grand Nudger]

I somehow doubt that our new friend has an explanation for this event - seems like we might be in the same boat on that count.

[LadyForCamus]

So can the great wibble wobble, now show me your evidence for this god instead of telling me what you think he/it can do

Why do you care about evidence so much?

Why don’t you?