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an atheist is one who refuses to accept any argument they have yet heard that convinces them that there is a god. Most do NOT claim there is not a god. I would call that a closed minded atheist.
There isn't any such argument. That's the reason atheists are atheists.
Unvalidated. The explanatory mechanism for how it works appears to make no sense. But it could be something that works and we don't know why or how.
There was a homeopathic clinic that opened around here about a decade ago, and since has gone out of business. Their advertisement on TV was really something, the voice over narrative was very clever in that they managed to convey the idea that everyone depicted in the scenes of happy, smiling folks, had been the victims of deadly diseases but had been cured by the clinic. Nowhere did they box themselves in with any actual specific claims. There would be clips of someone being interviewed saying "...and my doctor said 'Carole, there is no reason you cannot resume full activity", but no mention of what was wrong with her or what sort of treatment she had or what sort of doctor made that diagnosis.
At the end of the ad, flashing oh so briefly on the screen, and in letters too small to be read with any ease or rapidity, was some disclaimer. I was watching a program I had recorded one day and that ad had also been captured, so I was able to freeze frame it on the disclaimer, enlarge the print, and actually read it. It was hilarious. It basically said...."Oh, by the way, nothing we say here has been proven and no one should come here expecting results as depicted in the ad." i.e., this has all been 100% bullbleep.
The devil is always in the small print. I went to a presentation on Homeopathy. Heaven knows why. Perhaps the fellow prommer I was chummy with at the time took me along. Nice guy but a Bit of a Whacky New age Christian. As I herd them describe Potentizing, I thought: "This is crazy". But of course just because the method sounded crazy to me didn't mean that it actually was. I kept an eye out for it, What little testing I saw produced inconclusive results and no explanatory mechanism. It was just a string of claims "Water remembers" and just insisting that Respect be given to those who had bought into the claims and hospitals open homeopathy clinics to cater to those who believed it.
It has certainly made me see that a line must be drawn between what people believe and what has a modicum of science behind it; what individual s and groups want to believe and what is peddled to the public for money. And those who insist on making an issue of giving science too much credibility should be investigated with a eye to fraudulent claims and heavy fines if that's what they are doing. I believe that we have been far too tolerant of crackpotism. Really because they get on the coat -tails of respect for religious beliefs.
As I heard them describe Potentizing, I thought: "This is crazy".
There may be some direct relationship between the number of new made up words and the degree to which you are being swindled. When you hear something like "Potenizing", then alarms should go off, lights should go on and a huge banner saying "You Are Being Hornswoggled" drops from the roof.
In the ad I was describing in my previous post, one of the clips shows a split screen. On the left is an elderly guy looking like a sad sack, saying "I thought I'd never be able to walk again pain free." On the right side of the screen is a clip of the same guy, looking robust and energetic, taking a big golf swing. And that was all there was to it....no mention of any specific malady, no reason given as to why the fellow had concluded that he would never walk pain free again, no mention of him being treated by anyone, just the scene and at the bottom of the screen, the clinic's name, which I forget, "Wholeness Awareness Holistic Care Center" or something like that. It was certainly designed to leave you with the impression that this was someone who had been cured by the clinic, but they avoided making any such claim.
For all we know the fellow may have decided he would never walk pain free again after stubbing his toe, or being so advised by a witch doctor. For all we know the golf shot could have been taken a few years before the sad sack picture. For all we know he was just some grade Z actor they hired to say the line and pose swinging a golf club.
I have not prayed in over 11 years, and in that time, I never thought to pray to deities of any kind, least of all the Abrahamic deities. And while I am agnostic relative to a First Cause, that lack of knowledge of its existence would also logically extend to its characteristics and attributes. It may not be an "entity" that needs to be invoked through prayer. Prayer would suggest said entity has anthropocentric characteristics like that of classical, philosophical theism. It suggests in intervenes in human affairs. I reject classical theism and therefore the characteristics and attributes of its proposed "higher power." Prayer is not on my radar. It just...isn't. Even during hardships and scary times (atheists in foxholes). I didn't pray after losing my first son. I didn't pray when an IED hit my first husband's convoy and several of his men were injured and there was a communication blackout and I didn't pray when I bled out and went into early stages of shock during childbirth.
Even if I did believe in a First Cause, e.g. "I believe something created the multiverses...somehow." It doesn't logically follow that I must also believe in prayer since this practice is rooted in traditions and rituals with deity concepts that exhibit specific characteristics and attributes.
Skeptics, as opposed to "I'm mad at religion and therefore an ATHEIST/AGNOSTIC" are unlikely to find themselves praying to deities they believe are fictional or mythical characters.
None of this matters. Here's the real question that drives me absolutely bonkers.
Why, on City-Data, do so many people leave off the "s" on words ending in "ist" when it is clear they are meant to be plural?
First example, see the title of this thread.
But, I also see it when people talk about "all the terrorist are in the Middle East" or "feminist all hate men" or "I think all psychiatrist are quacks".
Do these people SAY it that way? Is there something about typing "ist" that makes it difficult to add the "s" to the end? WHAT? WHAT?
why do some atheist turn to prayer in traumatic situations
a study has revealed that some atheist succumb to prayer during difficult situations. i am curious as to why this occurs because atheist tend to be objective and practical skeptics.
why would a practical setback or difficulty make a skeptic suddenly believe? can it be that they are really agnostic, not atheist
As a longtime atheist I can honestly say that I have never turned to prayer no matter what the situation. It would never occur to me. Nor, I suspect, would it occur to any other genuine atheist. But it is certainly possible that individuals who have fallen away from the beliefs they were raised into might fall back on their old programing in a traumatic moment.
None of this matters. Here's the real question that drives me absolutely bonkers.
Why, on City-Data, do so many people leave off the "s" on words ending in "ist" when it is clear they are meant to be plural?
First example, see the title of this thread.
But, I also see it when people talk about "all the terrorist are in the Middle East" or "feminist all hate men" or "I think all psychiatrist are quacks".
Do these people SAY it that way? Is there something about typing "ist" that makes it difficult to add the "s" to the end? WHAT? WHAT?
If you haven't noticed it before, you will now.
It's because of the demons within autocorrect /AUTOFILL. It fills in the singular word and then you need to backspace for the plural to come up. And that's demons are within Android just as much as within Microsoft. .
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I went to a presentation on Homeopathy. Heaven knows why. Perhaps the fellow prommer I was chummy with at the time took me along. Nice guy but a Bit of a Whacky New age Christian. As I herd them describe Potentizing, I thought: "This is crazy". But of course just because the method sounded crazy to me didn't mean that it actually was. I kept an eye out for it, What little testing I saw produced inconclusive results and no explanatory mechanism. It was just a string of claims "Water remembers" and just insisting that Respect be given to those who had bought into the claims and hospitals open homeopathy clinics to cater to those who believed it. 
