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take out the magic, and how silly are the beliefs?
forgiveness?
trying to be just a little bit better than today than yesterday?
that if you answer to a cause greater than yourself your life may take on some real meaning?
amazing grace? the nonliteral kind?
love thy neighbor?
those beliefs, as expressed by many people, seem like valid beliefs to me.
at some point, tired, one has to separate the junk from the good stuff. A blanket tossed over everything just doesn't make sense.
Denying that we may be part of a larger more complex system is just as silly as a corpse flying. those two blind faith statements are just flat silly beliefs.
so just who's beliefs are we siding with?
It's funny when I first joined the forum, some of the members repeatedly posted how they just wanted to be left alone! absent of any religion! However, to accomplish this seemed to require them to log on to their computers daily and purposely go to the religious category to complain about being bothered about religion...so, it's not a simple desire to be left alone... they would like for others to abandon their belief system and adapt whatever their worldview entails, thus the insults.
I don't understand still subscribing to superstition and supernatural voodoo in the 21st century. Subscribing to superstition and supernatural voodoo made sense when people were largely ignorant of the workings of the universe. But superstition and supernatural voodoo have no place in our modern understanding of the natural workings of the universe.
People are still largely ignorant of the workings of the universe. Especially the materialists who think they understand the workings of the universe.
Once when visiting California, I met the husband of a distant friend, a self proclaimed "New Age Guru"
Some quality time spent with this guy showed that he was a self styled "Phony" (ie huckster, fraud, Fake...) Which turned out to be the same with most of his friends....fakes and phonies. Which oddly enough was like most of the populace of my parents church from the pulpit on down....phonies and fakes. Many of the New Age claims, like those of many Christians today, cannot be backed up with facts or proof, and comes down to who is most gullible to follow whoever promises to meet a certain need at that moment.
So you finally realized there are phonies and fakes anywhere you go?
Tired of the Nonsense can speak for himself (and does, quite well). I would restate and apply his logic more broadly:
I don't subscribe to a belief that has no evidence to support it.
Thus, I don't believe that there are little green men living on Mars. I don't believe the earth is flat. I don't believe there is a pot of gold hiding at the end of a rainbow. I don't believe in the Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny. I don't believe in conspiracy theories that say NASA faked the moon landing. I don't believe in demonic possession. I don't believe in trolls under bridges. I don't believe that Santa has a workshop at the North Pole. I don't believe that the core of the earth is molten chocolate. I don't believe that 9/11 was an inside job. I don't believe that Zeus throws lightning bolts from Mt Olympus, or that Thor's hammer causes thunder. Annnnnd.... I also don't believe in heaven or hell, or the Garden of Eden, or global floods, or the Exodus from Egypt, or resurrection from the dead, or miracle cures, or golden plates buried in Joseph Smith's backyard, or 72 virgins waiting for me in heaven if I blow myself up, or a divine intelligence that created us and watches over us.
There are, of course, lots of things not to believe in! But they are united by one common element.... lack of evidence.
And, of course, all the evidence, the spiritual experiences people have had in all times and places -- all those are hallucinations. The brain creates the same kinds of elaborate hallucinations in millions of different individuals from different cultures and times.
It's nice that you have that all-purpose argument. You don't have to think or look at anything that conflicts with your materialism.
Have I expressed a desire to repress anyone's right to vote or reproduce? I have simply been pointing out that religious beliefs are silly. Silly as defined by the definition of the word silly.
It's funny when I first joined the forum, some of the members repeatedly posted how they just wanted to be left alone! absent of any religion! However, to accomplish this seemed to require them to log on to their computers daily and purposely go to the religious category to complain about being bothered about religion...so, it's not a simple desire to be left alone... they would like for others to abandon their belief system and adapt whatever their worldview entails, thus the insults.
Because some of us are fed up with the religion has always thrown at us.
It's funny when I first joined the forum, some of the members repeatedly posted how they just wanted to be left alone! absent of any religion! However, to accomplish this seemed to require them to log on to their computers daily and purposely go to the religious category to complain about being bothered about religion...so, it's not a simple desire to be left alone... they would like for others to abandon their belief system and adapt whatever their worldview entails, thus the insults.
Isn't the point that they experience Not being left alone by religion and they are never going to be left alone until religion is pushed out of society into whatever little religious clubhouses they want to have.
The only way that is going to happen is to change public perception and those 'members' are doing their bit here. It isn't as much as those spiffing vids and the TV shows that some atheists are doing, but we are not all Movers and Shakers.
And, of course, all the evidence, the spiritual experiences people have had in all times and places -- all those are hallucinations. The brain creates the same kinds of elaborate hallucinations in millions of different individuals from different cultures and times.
It's nice that you have that all-purpose argument. You don't have to think or look at anything that conflicts with your materialism.
No, we don't, but we choose to, because if something is true, we want to know. So what we do is look at the evidence, if presented. So far you have presented none, just gap for God arguments.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Good4Nothin
And the only examples you give of supposedly theist beliefs are silly. You ignore any spiritual beliefs that are modern and rational.
Well, this is the place to explain and validate them. Any time you're ready.
And the only examples you give of supposedly theist beliefs are silly. You ignore any spiritual beliefs that are modern and rational.
Seems reasonable to me, it's the old fashioned, irrational beliefs that cause trouble.... and this fact has been mentioned more than once. There ARE some atheists that are adamant and narrow-minded, bu not that many here.
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