1. Touched by an Atheist

Comment #107644 by I-am-a-7 on January 4, 2008 at 10:24 pm

During these serious times, people of all faiths should remember
these four religious truths:

1. Muslims do not recognize Jews as God's chosen people.

2. Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah.

3. Protestants do not recognize the Pope as the leader of the
Christian
world.

4. Baptists do not recognize each other at Hooters


Is that where the Pope and George are going?

2. Sam Harris debate with Rabbi David Wolpe

Comment #107582 by I-am-a-7 on January 4, 2008 at 7:33 pm

I thought they were both great.
But....
I still don't understand what Rabbi Wolpe thinks that God is.
He didn't explain much about his rapture with divinity.
Interesting that he mentioned that the scriptures offered validity in morality for thousands of years ago but that morality would not be good for now.
Seems to me that he's picking and choosing and if the book doesn't represent a good example for today, then why not chuck it?

Sam was so cool! I think the audience would give him the winner's vote.

3. The OUT Campaign has its own Flea!

Comment #107554 by I-am-a-7 on January 4, 2008 at 6:19 pm

Granny says: Let's put it this way.
When you were born, I was old enough to change your diapers. I'm 61 now.

About Homosexuality...

Good to know that more and more scientific evidence is coming to light about homosexuality as being a natural cause rather than psychological as it was thought by religious bigots. I don't know enough nor are able to understand the biological complexities of "how" (this happens) no more than I'm able to understand the "how" of heterosexuality.

But I do know we are evolving organisms from the Cosmos without divine intervention for which we still have much to learn the hidden secrets of our own biology.

I find fascinating that the human diversity is unraveling in front of our eyes and many are unable to grasp that. I am in complete awe of nature and the beauty it offers with all its complexities.

Sorry if this is the wrong forum to post this but since the subject was mentioned, I wanted to express my views.

4. The OUT Campaign has its own Flea!

Comment #107476 by I-am-a-7 on January 4, 2008 at 3:24 pm

I shall write on the backboard teapot instead of tea cup at least 1000 times and will endure many demerits for the next hundred years.

teapot teapot teapot teapot...

5. The OUT Campaign has its own Flea!

Comment #107472 by I-am-a-7 on January 4, 2008 at 3:10 pm

I consider myself an atheist because the probabilities of the existence of God are almost nil, given all the evidence we have today for the contrary.

True, the measure of low probability can't be zero but it's extremely low. Same as proving that the tea cup in space does not exist (see TGD).

With time and with new discoveries in science, that probability becomes narrower and narrower. We personally establish that threshold. What is for me very low, makes me an atheist but may be a little higher for others and then they are agnostics.

I suspect that prior to Darwin's time, people that "suspected" that nothing supreme really existed, was more of a gut feeling. Probably the reason was because of disbelief of scriptures stories rather than conclusive scientific evidence. Those were the real agnostics and pioneers of new discoveries. Not afraid to have open minds toward possibly discovering something that was against common beliefs.

Once the pieces to the puzzle started coming together, we moved to a different plateau.

In my opinion, atheism is not a belief, nor a cult, nor denial of God nor any label anyone may want to put on it. It is knowledge of the facts that lead you to a logical conclusion.

6. The OUT Campaign has its own Flea!

Comment #107254 by I-am-a-7 on January 4, 2008 at 10:29 am

…….We should be conscience of this and encourage them to pray, meditate in the Word of God, and observe godly examples, as we all should, that we may become bolder in the faith and understanding of the things of God.

I think it's all wrong. Perhaps the word GOD is an abbreviation of GODZILLA.

Seems to me much more appropriate since his (does he has testicles?) examples are more of destruction (Old Testament… just about anywhere), jealousy, prejudice (chosen people?), egotistical, vengeance driven, irrational….etc.

So if these are the examples, they're in big doo-doo.

Oh, but then God(zilla) did something else. He sent his son to redeem the sins of men and obviously inflicted the most painful death on him to show he's all-mighty. Poor sucker!!

Dr Craig replies to the issue of God being timeless or not:
http://www.reasonablefaith.org/site/PageServer?pagename=q_and_a

"Whether God is timeless or temporal is a contingent property of God, dependent upon His will. What is impossible is changing while remaining timeless."

What a convenient hypothesis this is. He changes his will at his will. So if tomorrow he decides to send everyone to hell, then they're all screwed anyway.

And all this makes sense? Hmmmmmm

7. The OUT Campaign has its own Flea!

Comment #107007 by I-am-a-7 on January 3, 2008 at 8:58 pm

"Goodness" is completely independent of believing or not believing on any deity. We know that.
The insistence of narrow view points by religious fanatics in many cases has to do with their ignorance of provided evidence.
If their only tool is a hammer, they treat everything as a nail. In other words, never open to intelligent philosophical discussions.
It's really like trying to teach algebra to your dog.
Our actions are to be judged by their values. Helping, consoling, morality, etc.
They are unable to understand that.
I feel that to "electric words" I have "unplugged ears"
My approach is to ignore them once I see that regardless of what I say has no effect.

8. The OUT Campaign has its own Flea!

Comment #106991 by I-am-a-7 on January 3, 2008 at 7:48 pm

Atheisticism I'm older than dirt and probably could be your grandmother. But thanks for making my day! That picture was taken six months ago.

By the way, the name was taken from The God Illusion book for which a 6 is an agnostic and a 7 is a big time atheist. I think I was born that way and never believed in any deity even when it was just a "gut feeling" before I found out that my gut had nothing to do with it.

9. The OUT Campaign has its own Flea!

Comment #106986 by I-am-a-7 on January 3, 2008 at 7:41 pm

EUREKA !!

10. The OUT Campaign has its own Flea!

Comment #106975 by I-am-a-7 on January 3, 2008 at 7:20 pm

"Speak OUT for the cause of Christ.
We need to realize that it is necessary for a Christian to personally speak out against sin. We need to speak out against the sin in our own lives and other professing Christians, and also when we are confronted with sin by family, friends, and co-workers."

(Sorry, I don't know how to make those fancy shaded boxes)

I was just wondering how they "Speak OUT"
Do they post the sins on the newspaper or on the office board or on the Internet?

"Sally – Office Manager – Sleeps with her boss to get promotion"
"Dad – Shame, shame on you!! Squandering money at the roulette table"
"Joe – My next door neighbor – Shopping at Walmart on Sunday when he should be in Church"
And on and on and on………….

11. The OUT Campaign has its own Flea!

Comment #106944 by I-am-a-7 on January 3, 2008 at 6:09 pm

I most certainly enjoy reading Steve Zara's comments. He doesn't attack people. Steve attacks issues.

It makes so much sense to answer in a logical way all the illogical statements made by theists.

We can gain more ground by following Steve's example.

My $1 worth of comments (inflation made the $0.02 obsolete)

12. What We Believe: Atheism

Comment #106547 by I-am-a-7 on January 3, 2008 at 6:01 am

I think there's an inherent survival "instinct" (may be that selfish gene) in the individuals that when their backs are to the wall, they'll do anything in their power to preserve their own or themselves.

Remember when the soccer team got stranded in the Andes? What did they do? They managed to survive by eating human flesh. As painful as it must have been for them to commit that act, they did it anyway. Dlitt was right

On a lighter note, here's something that will make you smile….

During these serious times, people of all faiths should remember
these four religious truths:

1. Muslims do not recognize Jews as God's chosen people.

2. Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah.

3. Protestants do not recognize the Pope as the leader of the
Christian world.

4. Baptists do not recognize each other at Hooters

13. Could there be a Darwinian Account of Human Creativity?

Comment #106283 by I-am-a-7 on January 2, 2008 at 3:50 pm

Survival of the fittest... Obviously Wooter wasn't well fit. He's a gonner now.
he he he he

14. Could there be a Darwinian Account of Human Creativity?

Comment #106247 by I-am-a-7 on January 2, 2008 at 2:46 pm

Recent poll shows 61% believe in evolution.
Interesting article at:

http://www.livescience.com/history/080102-evolution-teaching.html

Good to know there's some common sense out there, which sometimes is the least common of our senses.

15. What have you changed your mind about? Why?

Comment #105823 by I-am-a-7 on January 1, 2008 at 9:57 pm

Hello everyone and a Happy New Year!!

I'm a new member and after reading TGD decided to take a look at this site. What an incredibly exhilarating feeling I had when I started navigating through this wealth of information and exchange of ideas.

Thank you!! Professor Dawkins for giving me the opportunity to join your site.

The belief in a god was never engrained in my mind for as long as I could remember. I can't explain why, since I was born and raised in a very Catholic society. During my youth, I felt that something must be wrong with me, cause the majority believed that it was unquestionable the existence of God and that Jesus was his son. I've searched and searched and finally became a Mormon. (May be because the Missionaries were kind of cute). My Mormon "career" ended early for I just couldn't "feel" any faith.

Begin the age of discovery – Reading all I could about the Cosmos and eventually discovering Darwin's Natural Selection theory gave me the understanding that my gut feeling was correct. It just made so much sense!

I always had present the phrase "There are no atheists in the trenches" and wondered if that really was true. Afraid that when the situation arose, would that be my turning point? Well, I must tell you that I was metaphorically recently in the trenches and I still have the same conviction. I am an atheist and will always be. The loss of my only son to a sudden heart attack didn't make me run to the illusion of protection from religion. I don't feel mad at all but just sad.

Yes indeed I have changed my mind. It has been a burden to hide under the label of agnosticism. Somehow it felt softer. I now want to feel the wind on my face and experience the freedom of letting everyone who asks, know that I am an atheist. Even though, the road ahead will not be without perils. I've already experienced rejection. But…. Since they don't pay my mortgage, I don't have to excuse myself to anyone in this regard.

Thank you to all of you who might dedicate their time to read this note. Apologizing for the amounts of "I" that are written here.

16. Archbishop of Canterbury Praises Richard Dawkins

Comment #105558 by I-am-a-7 on January 1, 2008 at 1:33 am

I don't think I have EVER found any god believer that could explain what god really is.
Is it because is inherent in humans to find a "purpose" to our existence? Is it too hard to accept that the "purpose" is really being created as we move along the Cosmos and not planned by some mystical deity?
Perhaps humans normally take the path of least resistance and it's just too difficult to question anything that the natural laws present us as evidence. It must be fear of finding out that Santa Claus never existed and they will not be rewarded with the present of afterlife.
How incredibly self centered the believers are!

17. It is possible to be moral without God

Comment #105413 by I-am-a-7 on December 31, 2007 at 1:33 pm

Question to: 51. Comment #105033 by sent2null on December 30, 2007 at 12:22 pm

I'm not sure the comment addresses the fundamental issue of what Morality is.

Running around naked in the streets of New York City would be considered as not being a moraly correct thing. But if I'm doing the same thing in the confines of my house, is that moraly incorrect?

I think morality applies or doesn't apply and that depends on the circumstances. When there is a harm done to another individual of any species, for which the case of self defense doesn't apply, then morality applies.

More or less like gravitation. Does it really apply if there is no matter?

18. Christmas with Christopher Hitchens

Comment #105382 by I-am-a-7 on December 31, 2007 at 11:48 am

So who cares about Hitchen's vacation in Cuba?
We do business with China and our market is inundated with their goods and chances are 100% of the population in the USA has one or more of their trinkets. Their political regime is 100 times worse than the one in Cuba.

It's about time we lift the sanctions with Cuba.