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Author Topic: Religion  (Read 34193 times)

Spartan-67

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Religion
« on: May 22, 2011, 10:31:55 pm »

I am an atheist and I have a serious question for Theists, How Have you come to believe in a all-powerful being?

What are your reasons? and Rational?
« Last Edit: May 22, 2011, 11:17:11 pm by Spartan-67 »
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MetalSlimeHunt

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Re: Religion
« Reply #1 on: May 22, 2011, 10:33:45 pm »

How exactly does this fall under life advice?
« Last Edit: May 22, 2011, 10:37:56 pm by MetalSlimeHunt »
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Quote from: Thomas Paine
To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.
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No Gods, No Masters.

Spartan-67

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Re: Religion
« Reply #2 on: May 22, 2011, 10:39:18 pm »

Well. . .It's all about how you live your life, believing in invisible gnomes that clean your room affects your life, would not an all-powerful being affect it as well?
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MetalSlimeHunt

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Re: Religion
« Reply #3 on: May 22, 2011, 10:42:28 pm »

It's just that this sub-forum exists to give out advice to people who request help with things, but it seems like you've made this topic to inflame theists.
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Quote from: Thomas Paine
To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.
Quote
No Gods, No Masters.

Spartan-67

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Re: Religion
« Reply #4 on: May 22, 2011, 10:44:31 pm »

I do have to admit that I would like to have an intellectual discussion with other people, I also admit that it would probably inflame people. My views are always changing, I would like to hear your rational arguments for it.
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It is ineffecient, will accomplish next to nothing, and is complete overkill. It will also probably not work. In other words, dwarfy.

MetalSlimeHunt

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Re: Religion
« Reply #5 on: May 22, 2011, 10:47:26 pm »

It's not your topic itself I take issue with, it's your presentation and location. This would be far better based in GD, and the inital question comes off as plain insulting when you don't present reasoning for why you find deities ridiculous.
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Quote from: Thomas Paine
To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.
Quote
No Gods, No Masters.

Spartan-67

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Re: Religion
« Reply #6 on: May 22, 2011, 10:49:03 pm »

I will take your advice and move it to general discussion. The reason why I find deities ridiculous is the lack of evidence for them.
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Glowcat

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Re: Religion
« Reply #7 on: May 22, 2011, 10:53:59 pm »

We're already overcrowded with Atheists. Any more and we'll have to start rationing the babies.
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Blargityblarg

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Re: Religion
« Reply #8 on: May 22, 2011, 10:58:07 pm »

There is a similar lack of evidence for there not being a God; what I take from this is that atheism, Christianity (and all subsects thereof), Pastafarianism and every other belief about the universe that has no proof either for or against is equally likely. Being a believer in Occam's Razor, and not wanting to restrict myself based on the morality of others rather than my own, I believe in no god.

To summarise, we just don't know, and as such it is ridiculous to call any belief ridiculous- such an act is useless for any purpose other than trolling.
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Bauglir

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Re: Religion
« Reply #9 on: May 22, 2011, 10:59:39 pm »

Oh goddamn it we managed for so long without another one of these.

Short version: A theist already has a perception of the world that implies a deity. Lack of evidence is irrelevant; only evidence against is worth discussing. Kind of like how you would need evidence against the existence of gravity. A theist interprets the complexity or whatever other relevant quality of the world to imply the existence of a deity, and this is the default position in his or her mind. Since it is impossible to disprove the existence of a god (although it is possible to disprove the existence of certain kinds of gods), this is rather a pointless avenue for converting people.
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“What are you doing?”, asked Minsky. “I am training a randomly wired neural net to play Tic-Tac-Toe” Sussman replied. “Why is the net wired randomly?”, asked Minsky. “I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play”, Sussman said.
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At that moment, Sussman was enlightened.

TherosPherae

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Re: Religion
« Reply #10 on: May 22, 2011, 11:01:54 pm »

We're already overcrowded with Atheists. Any more and we'll have to start rationing the babies.
For eating or stabbing? :P

Horrible joke is horrible, I know.

As for the topic, well... these threads always seem to either turn into a flamefest, a trollfest, or two parties posting the same damn thing over and over again in different words as some distorted form of arguing with each other. Yeah, I'm gonna pass on this one unless I see something worthwhile.

Like the ninjas. Those seemed worthwhile, as opposed to the statement in the first post.
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Spartan-67

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Re: Religion
« Reply #11 on: May 22, 2011, 11:03:19 pm »

We're already overcrowded with Atheists. Any more and we'll have to start rationing the babies.
Ok . . . . . . . . . . . . we can always make more.

We're already overcrowded with Jews. Any more and we'll have to start rationing money.
I can make irrelevant and false statements as well.

There is a similar lack of evidence for there not being a God; what I take from this is that atheism, Christianity (and all subsects thereof), Pastafarianism and every other belief about the universe that has no proof either for or against is equally likely. Being a believer in Occam's Razor, and not wanting to restrict myself based on the morality of others rather than my own, I believe in no god.

To summaries, we just don't know, and as such it is ridiculous to call any belief ridiculous- such an act is useless for any purpose other than trolling.

I did not say that there is definitely no god. What I meant by my earlier statement was that Absolute belief in a god is rediculous, sorry for the miscommunication.
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It is ineffecient, will accomplish next to nothing, and is complete overkill. It will also probably not work. In other words, dwarfy.

Spartan-67

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Re: Religion
« Reply #12 on: May 22, 2011, 11:04:37 pm »

As for the topic, well... these threads always seem to either turn into a flamefest, a trollfest, or two parties posting the same damn thing over and over again in different words as some distorted form of arguing with each other. Yeah, I'm gonna pass on this one unless I see something worthwhile.

Like the ninjas. Those seemed worthwhile, as opposed to the statement in the first post.

What I hope is for a calm rational discussion, I hope it will last.
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Knight of Fools

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Re: Religion
« Reply #13 on: May 22, 2011, 11:06:36 pm »

If you wanted a calm, rational discussion, try not insulting the people you're asking the question to in the same question you're asking.

(If that makes sense.)
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Cthulhu

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Re: Religion
« Reply #14 on: May 22, 2011, 11:07:12 pm »

You can't have a calm rational discussion when you start it off with open hostility.  If you want decency, you can't act like a jackass.

Not to mention it's meaningless.  What's your metric for determining what's ridiculous and what isn't?  Why is the existence of a deity so ridiculous you can't believe in it, and how is absolutely asserting one exists any more ridiculous than absolutely asserting one doesn't exist?
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