nomadpete Posted July 13, 2016 Posted July 13, 2016 Yeah, strong beliefs can make you ignore the facts. The human mind is an excellent filter which unfortunately works against us as often as it works for us. It's all about balance of evidence and credibility of evidence. Working that out is where many people stumble. ..................................... Dutch, I think you have just described "Human Factors" and ALL that encompasses. Human Factors colour every aspect of our perception, not just our attempts at flying in aeroplanes. But what would I knoow, I'm just an athiest (sometimes)!
dutchroll Posted July 14, 2016 Posted July 14, 2016 But what would I knoow, I'm just an athiest (sometimes)! Yeah I have to admit that I do occasionally turn to religion myself. Wife: "My mother is coming to visit for 4 weeks" Me: "Oh God, oh Lord please no, I'm begging you......"
turboplanner Posted July 14, 2016 Posted July 14, 2016 I read that Casanova lived on oysters and "entertained " about 17 women a day.Well I find that number hard to believe but what an ambitious target huh. Maybe those old scribes knew about oysters too and did not approve. Yes, I would have said it was more too, Bruce.
hihosland Posted July 14, 2016 Posted July 14, 2016 Anyone ever stopped to wonder why there's handicapped parking spots at Churches ... Good line Bex
eightyknots Posted July 14, 2016 Posted July 14, 2016 [ATTACH=full]44253[/ATTACH]Who'd have thought Gnarly's attempt at humour would produce over 3,200 rebuttals? Built by an Aussie too. First Noah, then Ken Ham (from Queensland).
facthunter Posted July 14, 2016 Posted July 14, 2016 Inspiring.... I can see someone reflecting on that. Nev
Marty_d Posted July 15, 2016 Posted July 15, 2016 Atheist Nerd.[ATTACH=full]44260[/ATTACH] That's brilliant.
bexrbetter Posted July 28, 2016 Posted July 28, 2016 This is very interesting, got to watch the lot though ...
facthunter Posted July 29, 2016 Posted July 29, 2016 Blocked in my country on copyright grounds. The atheists have to be denied the opportunity. Nev
bexrbetter Posted July 29, 2016 Posted July 29, 2016 Blocked in my country on copyright grounds. The atheists have to be denied the opportunity. Nev You should move to China. God doesn't want you to see the truth Look up "Derren Brown - How To Convert An Atheist"
turboplanner Posted July 29, 2016 Posted July 29, 2016 [ATTACH=full]44253[/ATTACH]Who'd have thought Gnarly's attempt at humour would produce over 3,200 rebuttals? Really? Plenty of insecure assertions you mean.
DonRamsay Posted July 31, 2016 Posted July 31, 2016 Really? Plenty of insecure assertions you mean. Facts are facts and beliefs are beliefs. Never the twain . . . But for Constantine's meddling with the Christian faiths and uniting (most of) them under the creed of Nicea Christianity would either have disappeared by the end of the 4th Century or there would be hundreds of versions of it with scores of New Testaments.
DonRamsay Posted July 31, 2016 Posted July 31, 2016 . . . Look up "Derren Brown - How To Convert An Atheist" Did that and quite interesting. There is an evolutionary reason why people always want to believe there is order and not chaos and Brown explores that well.
turboplanner Posted July 31, 2016 Posted July 31, 2016 You just can't break away from Christianity and get to the big one - a disbelief in God.
Marty_d Posted July 31, 2016 Posted July 31, 2016 Not really understanding your point TP. Doesn't matter if people believe in one god or many, it's still only a belief. No proof, no evidence, just a theory that can't be tested.
DonRamsay Posted July 31, 2016 Posted July 31, 2016 Turbs, I can't accept that it is logically possible to have a disbelief in a God(s). You can accept that there are Gods on faith alone (belief) or you can think and consider the evidence. When it comes to deities, I prefer to look at the evidence and make a logical decision. It's not that I have a disbelief in gods, it's more that I haven't found any reason to suspect that gods exist. I think there are no Gods and that is a different position to suspecting or believing (based on no evidence) that there are no gods. I think therefore I live in a chaotic world where things just happen. I can live with that. I don't have the primal urge to require total order where in reality a form of chaos exists. Things don't always happen for a perceivable reason but I will grant you that if there is a God and I've missed the evidence they surely do work in mysterious ways. I love that there are more suns in the universe than there are grains of sand on the planet Earth. Either the Gods of the heavens are over achievers who don't know when to quit (one sun is enough for the Earth) or they have some other unfathomable experiments going on.
turboplanner Posted July 31, 2016 Posted July 31, 2016 Well at least that's better, you are now talking about belief of disbelief in God, rather than obsessing on some supposed relation, which Saul invented. Hopefully you can live happily with thinking there are no gods.
DonRamsay Posted July 31, 2016 Posted July 31, 2016 Other than poking fun at the illogicality of belief as a way to live your life I don't need to think about whether there are gods or not. For the same reason I don't devote a lot of time wondering about the existence of Leprechauns or admirable Russian despots or economics geniuses in Zambia. I live my life atheisticaly - without reference to deity. I don't actively disbelieve if there is such a thing. I Don bee to be anti-theist but it is tempting. I o however understand that you cannot have a logical discussion about belief because belief requires a suspension of the scientific method. When a scientist says that he believes he will have a cure for Alzheimer's within 5 years he is really saying that he "suspects" or expects to have a cure based on extrapolation of the current rate of success to date.
octave Posted August 1, 2016 Posted August 1, 2016 You just can't break away from Christianity and get to the big one - a disbelief in God. turbs, I disagree (you will be surprised to learn!) - if I am correctly understanding what you are saying I my case I did not reject the idea of god via rejecting christianity, I simply reject everything "supernatural" although I am always open to good quality evidence. I reject vishnu, shiva and devi not because I have read and rejected the hindu sacred texts but because I reject the supernatural.
facthunter Posted August 1, 2016 Posted August 1, 2016 You can "believe" There IS a god for many reasons. One strong one is. There HAS to be some purpose to MY (precious) existence. You can't just DIE ( well why not? everything else does) There is a big element of conceit in this one. What If you are wrong? (being atheist) and there IS a god and you will go to hell?. Big assumptions there, about the situation and if you are motivated by saving your miserable soul, only, Your basis of belief is self serving and the "fire and Brimstone, and weeping and Wailing and gnashing of teeth fear mongering fantasy, has worked. We can go on.. One thing that affects me is the nature of this god most religions portray. Somewhat Vain and angry who set us up to fail and fall short of what he (always HE) expects as a standard of behaviour. Wants us to worship HIM under a severe penalty being imposed Well we aren't very nice at times but I don't blame a god for it. "God was created by MAN in his own image", seems more likely than the other possibility. The universe is infinite (That's REALLY big) . WE KNOW that. A few thousand years ago the universe was not known as we know it. God was the explanation for everything. including all natural phenomena. (or numerous GODS) Theists ideas of what non theist's think, can never be valid. They wouldn't know if they hadn't been there. It's NOT a RELIGION. Thinking it IS or proclaiming it IS, is illogical. It doesn't need any other word. It's NOT an insult to god either. What we know of this GOD (Abrahamic three) is from books written by People of generally Patriarchal disposition. Blokes get a better run than the non blokes. This book is the word of GOD is almost universally proclaimed. It takes a fair leap of Faith to believe that. Nev
Bikky Posted August 1, 2016 Posted August 1, 2016 Q. How many believers does it take to change a light bulb? A. None. They just sit in the dark and demand you accept the light is still on.
turboplanner Posted August 1, 2016 Posted August 1, 2016 turbs, I disagree (you will be surprised to learn!) - if I am correctly understanding what you are saying I my case I did not reject the idea of god via rejecting christianity, I simply reject everything "supernatural" although I am always open to good quality evidence. I reject vishnu, shiva and devi not because I have read and rejected the hindu sacred texts but because I reject the supernatural. I wasn't suggesting a refection of God via a rejection of Christianity, but a person who continually tells everyone on social media that he is an atheist, but in the same conversation uses Jesus Christ ( who for tjose who don't know was NOT a God), New testament, which is primarily fiction, and medieval developments which were more about misuse of power than God. I don't have any objection to your evidence based decisions, mine are the same.
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