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ok lets just get this strait 1st.
i never accused you of being a killer. im not here to condemn, im here to love. i just was interested in hearing how committed you are.
(but the question is much deeper than my grammar skills.)
Atheists are law abiding, normal folks - they're just much more hesitant to accept things which can't be empirically or scientifically proven.
My personal experience agrees with your statement. Atheists, by and large, are normal, law-abiding and entirely respectable people. There are always exceptions to any "rule" of course.
I guess I would describe myself as a pragmatist, and sometimes as an agnostic. With that out of the way, I have often wondered -- when looking at the infinite majesty of the known Universe, or the fragile intricacy of a flower petal, do Atheists sometimes get overwhelmed by the wonder of it all? Do you ever wish to know more than you do? Do you ever marvel at the beauty of those things for which there is presently no explanation or proof?
As the old commericals said, "Enquiring minds want to know..."
You could murder a busload of blind children and nuns, repent, and be accepted into heaven with open arms.
The only person who I have to answer to (ultimately) is myself. I could never live with having taken an innocent life.
Atheists are law abiding, normal folks - they're just much more hesitant to accept things which can't be empirically or scientifically proven.
That must be tough at 4Way intersections served by stop signs, at rush hour. You trust your very survival that the others will let you pass without smashing into you...and you have no "proof" they will. You "accept without proof" every time you get in any kind of vehicle or aircraft. You enter relationships with no "proof" they will be fulfilling...and enter into business deals with no "proof" it's not a rip-off. Every day you eat food you have no "proof" won't make you deathly ill...and go out and about knowing there are germs that you could get sick and die from, and no "proof" you won't be infected by them.
I've seen this as a common argument from Atheists...and I never understood how they could put it forth...because, they know, everybody knows almost NOTHING in life is "empirically proven"...yet we don't hesitate one second.
MOF...I don't see Atheists hesitate any more than anyone else, about accepting anything...except belief in a God.
My personal experience agrees with your statement. Atheists, by and large, are normal, law-abiding and entirely respectable people. There are always exceptions to any "rule" of course.
I guess I would describe myself as a pragmatist, and sometimes as an agnostic. With that out of the way, I have often wondered -- when looking at the infinite majesty of the known Universe, or the fragile intricacy of a flower petal, do Atheists sometimes get overwhelmed by the wonder of it all? Do you ever wish to know more than you do? Do you ever marvel at the beauty of those things for which there is presently no explanation or proof?
As the old commericals said, "Enquiring minds want to know..."
Chi pisala chumi ("Until I see you again"),
-- Nighteyes
Yes,maam or sir.....almost every day.
But that very thought of the overwhelming (you didn't say this) INTRICACY of it all is a majojr factor for my disbelieving in a single :zap" creator
But, yes, I would gather many more...many many many more, than me,would like to be alive when the explanation becomes known
That must be tough at 4Way intersections served by stop signs, at rush hour. You trust your very survival that the others will let you pass without smashing into you...and you have no "proof" they will. You "accept without proof" every time you get in any kind of vehicle or aircraft. You enter relationships with no "proof" they will be fulfilling...and enter into business deals with no "proof" it's not a rip-off. Every day you eat food you have no "proof" won't make you deathly ill...and go out and about knowing there are germs that you could get sick and die from, and no "proof" you won't be infected by them.
I've seen this as a common argument from Atheists...and I never understood how they could put it forth...because, they know, everybody knows almost NOTHING in life is "empirically proven"...yet we don't hesitate one second.
MOF...I don't see Atheists hesitate any more than anyone else, about accepting anything...except belief in a God.
It's pity, during your 30 years of being atheist that you didn't learn something about atheism.
Your 'no proof' argument is a hoary old one which any thinking atheist can show false because it's effectively a repackaging of the 'faith argument' based on the favourite theist fallacy of equivocation.
"Of course you atheists have faith - you have faith that your car will start, that your house will not fall down, that your wife isn't cheating on you."
Clearly those 'faiths' are based on repeated experience, knowledge and an acceptance of probabiliies. You know that your car might not start - in which case you'd get it repaired. You have faith that your house won't fall down because you see no sign of structural failure. Your wife? If you don't see any suspicious signs, only the paranoid would be suspicious.
But Faith in a god? Based on nothing but faith really. As is yours, though you are clearly delighted with Mystic's dressing up of Faith in scientific jargon to make it look impressive. But I've told you already, it essentially comes down to speculation.
So you take this 'Faith' fallacy and revise it. 'What proof do you have your car will start, that your house won't fall down, that your aircraft won't crash, that interpersonal relationships will be rewarding?
I must say that's pretty cunning, disguising that old fallacy to make it look new. It's almost miraculous that, in a supposed recent conversion from 30 years of atheism (during which you learned nothing about it), you acquired a craftiness in theist apologetics which few believers acquire even after 30 years of it.
On the evidence, I'd suspect that your 'I used to be an atheist - like you - until I discovered new miracle Faith!' claim is bogus. However, I'm only happy to assist your 'understanding' by explaining all those false ideas you got about atheism while you were one..supposedly.
However, while I'm here, the miracle of Paramahansa Yogananda's bodily preservation even after 20 days (under what circumstances - embalmed in an ice- cold morgue?) is a rather better miracle for Hinduism than the faith healings and personal experiences of Christianity. And far better than finding the name of Allah in Augergines.
Atheists. Be mistaken. Meditation and Yoga does not concern mysticism. Simply. Except a mouth, ears and a nose , there are other points on a body which accept / give fluctuations.
Atheists. Be mistaken. Meditation and Yoga does not concern mysticism. Simply. Except a mouth, ears and a nose , there are other points on a body which accept / give fluctuations.
That is actually a good point. The therapeutic aspects of Yoga and meditation and its close cousin, prayer, can be practiced apart from religion.
However. mysticism also encompasses the Mystical experience. A sort of mental orgasm that one gets under the right conditions. This happens in all religions and none and evidentially is a physical effect brought about by certain techniques and is not brought about be any entity outside of the body.
Thus it seems that any practical side of mysticism is very much to do with meditation and yoga and nothing to do with any religion.
What say you to that, eloy?
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