









451. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda
Comment #170439 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Mphil, I think you need one of theses -> 'e'
Just being pedantic :-P
452. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda
Comment #170435 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 6:28 pm
smellhound: Oh, I'm not too against the theory of evolution in general. I just don't think its perfect or fact as a lot of people do. I think it is a good theory in general. I'm not to the point of ruling out the presence of a supernatural being at many points of the development of life on earth, but the general idea of inherited traits and beneficial traits surviving and possibly creating new species. I dont have a problem with that.
453. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda
Comment #170432 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 6:25 pm
smellhound: come on. In the way that the theory of evolution drives you away from the natural human thought that there is an almighty being and an after life, it should also drive you away from morality. Both things that make people feel good etc., but you have made an intellectual assent to the idea that they are not actually beneficial/useful
454. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda
Comment #170426 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 6:23 pm
smellhound: sorry, i know this was a post on the last page, but I gotta ask again, if morality is a natural development then isnt people developing faith natural too. If so, why are you so worried about fighting it? Just wondering.
455. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda
Comment #170422 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Smellhound, just being pedantic, and because it edit: might make me smile could you answer a question for me.
Given the (brief) discussion you've had here, are you somewhat happy that the theory of evolution stacks up, and your issues are with the source of morality and the beginning of life (abiogenesis)?
Thanks muchly
456. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda
Comment #170421 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 6:17 pm
smellhound: Hey, just wanted to bring up a funny point. Not meaning to start an argument about this, but it isnt it kind of funny that people who don't believe in Darwin's theory are probably the ones who are the most viable under it. I mean, religious people breed a lot more than others.
457. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda
Comment #170415 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 6:14 pm
MPhil, glad you're around. I was afraid I might have to explain something philosphical :-)
458. Does science make belief in God obsolete?
Comment #170413 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Bizarro: I found Hitchen's essay particularly incoherent. Although it is admittedly a bit off topic, he makes the rather sweeping statement that morality shudders at the idea of God (by "God" I assume he means all gods, including the Christian God). I've always been surprised and a little disappointed that some of the greatest minds in the atheist community attack God's character with the intention of somehow detracting from the reasonability of His existence. Those such as Hitchens and Dawkins call God evil and immoral, hoping that they can sway the minds of the ignorant into buying this counterfeit logic. For the sake of argument they assume God's existence, and then presumptuously claim that his design is faulty, or that His plan for salvation and redemption reflects a spirit of malevolence and cruelty. They have even gone so far as to call God "immoral", as is implied by Hitchen's above statement.
Bizarro: God of the Bible cannot, by definition, be immoral.
Bizarro: In the Biblical scheme, whatever is moral is whatever is consistent with God's nature.
Bizarro: This is certainly a convenient argument, but I believe it is nonetheless valid. If a person is going to attack the character of the God of the Bible, this individual cannot arbitrarily disregard one of the necessary and defining attributes that makes the god they are attacking the God of the Bible. If one must assume the existence of the Christian God for the sake of argument, then one must also accept every attribute that defines God's existence.
Bizarro: Hitchen's argument really boils down to a rather crude argument from personal incredulity, and it deserves nothing less than to be discounted as emotionally charged rubbish. While it is certainly convenient to twist God's words and actions to conflict with our own sense of morality, I'm sure there are other ways of going about the business of attacking God's existence that are not so intellectually lazy.
459. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda
Comment #170402 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 6:05 pm
smellhound: I do it because I believe it is the right thing to do. Regardless of my views on God etc. (I am a Christian) I do believe that there is an objective morality of right and wrong.
460. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda
Comment #170399 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 6:03 pm
smellhound: why be altruistic if someone can't/won't ever pay you back?
461. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda
Comment #170398 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 6:02 pm
TCT: Well I can give you my reason. Because I care what happens to others. Others suffering cuts like a knife. Human solidarity, basically that elementary moral principle the golden rule, which is a fairly good rule of thumb.
462. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda
Comment #170395 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 6:00 pm
smellhound: Ok, I read the thing about reciprocal altruism, and I understand that, but again the problem becomes, why be altruistic if someone can't/won't ever pay you back?
463. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda
Comment #170394 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Brian English: Religious people have to learn that morality can't come from God. Even if there were an objective morality, God could be nothing more than a messenger of morality. But it's quite obvious there is no objective morality. Some peoples thought (still think) that slavery was (is) fine and moral. Many do not, this demonstrates that what is seen as moral changes. The basic feelings that we feel when something seen as moral is transgressed are the same as previous generations.
464. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda
Comment #170390 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 5:56 pm
TCT, I guess I now have to read Socrates. I have a new book to read every 10 minutes on this site.
If I didn't like it so much, I'd hate you people! :-)
465. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda
Comment #170389 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Dawkins' book "The Selfish Gene" goes into some detail concerning this. You can read a small snippet on wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Selfish_Gene#Genes_can_reproduce_at_the_expense_of_the_organism
466. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda
Comment #170386 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 5:52 pm
smellhound: No, sorry, i think you are missing the point. Acting moral sometimes means acting irrationally against your own interests. The only reason to do that is that you have faith that what you are doing is right. Faith in something that can't be proven I would identify as religion.
467. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda
Comment #170384 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 5:50 pm
smellhound, if morality can only exist because of god, either it is his nature and he can do nothing about it, in which case we should be after the laws which god follows. If it is his whim, then it is simply following commands, and isn't really morality.
(Hope I put that argument together in a lucid fashion)
468. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda
Comment #170383 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 5:48 pm
smellhound, I've never been religious, so by your argument I can't be moral (sorry if I'm misinterpreting).
I'm actually quite a nice guy, trying to do the right thing and be kind to people. Why do I do it, if not because of faith? It was how I was raised (thanks mum). It feels like the right thing to do.
Some (many?) on this site were evangelicals, who might have held the opinion that without god/faith, there can be no morality. Some of them no longer have a belief in god, but are still (or have become?) moral people.
469. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda
Comment #170381 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 5:44 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kin_selection
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reciprocal_altruism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_neuron
All good things to read concerning the development of morality in homo sapiens (and other species)
470. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda
Comment #170378 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 5:42 pm
smellhound: You increase your own ability to survive and thrive by not caring for and eliminating those who cannot survive on their own. I'm just arguing what is the rational action to take if you eliminate morality. I'm not arguing about what is moral or immoral
471. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda
Comment #170376 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 5:40 pm
smellhound: I don't mean this as a way to justify anything other than to say that to avoid conclusions that slavery, eugenics, involuntary euthanasia, are logical without appealing to some set of morality that is neither rational or logical. A kind of morality that, dare i say it, is faith based.
472. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda
Comment #170373 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 5:38 pm
smellhound: Sorry, as I understand ID, or at least the kind that right now I will accept as a scientific theory is that something or someone must have intervened at the start in order get the process moving. Whether it was God or something else, I don't think can be explained at this point. I think of ID as more of a rejection of saying that Darwin is enough.
473. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda
Comment #170371 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 5:37 pm
smellhound: We all have the biologically programmed goal to survive and breed.
smellhound: The only rational argument I can think of supporting this is to gain the assurance that you will not be thinned from the herd. I am just wondering if that is the explanation for why it is a bad idea to do things like that if you abandon morality
474. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda
Comment #170360 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 5:21 pm
smellhound: Ok, I'll admit that I am a supporter of ID. I also support at least some form of evolution because its pretty obvious. The reason I support ID in part is because I find no plausible explanation for the creation of the first living cell, but I digress.
smellhound: If we remove an objective source of morality, there is no reason not to want to try to encourage the reproduction of the "best elements" of society while discouraging the reproduction of the "worst elements." This would lead to more comfort for individuals who would not be given the burden of caring for people who are weak or unintelligent. Could someone explain to me how I am wrong about this?
475. Does science make belief in God obsolete?
Comment #170356 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 5:12 pm
moderndaythomas: Morality and compassion are boasted as the sole property of religion. This is a direct assault on their turf.
476. Does science make belief in God obsolete?
Comment #170355 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Bonzai: Kirk and crew went to this planet to rescue a certain Captain Pike who was believed to be captured. They found out Captain Pike was actually burned beyond recognition and became a vegetable from an accident, He was too far gone for the medical technology to fix. The aliens hooked him up to some virtue reality machine so that he could experience his life as a vibrant, handsome young man just like it was before the accident even though only in his head. In other words, the aliens created this delusion to keep the poor man happy.
477. Lying for Jesus?
Comment #170344 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Wasn't Yahweh directly refering to the Israelites when he said "And I will be their God and they will be my people."
Mel I hope you're of the line of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
478. Lying for Jesus?
Comment #170338 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 4:33 pm
phil rimmer: Not with Good Old pre-Christian Yahweh. He'd just give you a damn good smiting (and an apology if you'd been a kid and He'd been overzealous.) It was the Jebus re-branding that added the clever extra stick of Hell to go with the withered carrot of salvation.
479. Lying for Jesus?
Comment #170332 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Brian English: f he's spilled the beans, what's not to divulge? But I think it's probably more traitor to the cause in some sense. Which makes me guilty by association. Cool! I love being the rebel, loner, lunatic!
480. Lying for Jesus?
Comment #170331 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 4:07 pm
phil rimmer: They're such idiots thinking they could cut and paste a whole religion and get the same professional indemnity cover.
481. Lying for Jesus?
Comment #170326 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Brian English: He, I tried that one with Richard Morgan the other week and copped a bit of flak. Everybody flak Epeeist. (When he hasn't got the sabre on him of course.) :P
482. Lying for Jesus?
Comment #170321 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Kardashel: I've just finished some veggie burgers, in keeping with my newfound confusion about pescatarianism
483. Does science make belief in God obsolete?
Comment #170319 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 3:44 pm
phil rimmer: So we agree. The beliefs of intellectual innocents divorced from any real understanding of science:)
484. Does science make belief in God obsolete?
Comment #170309 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Phil Rimmer: But thats unreasonable. An intellectual innocent looking through a microscope for the first time might surmise an Intelligence, but thats not science.
485. Lying for Jesus?
Comment #170305 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Brian English: Maybe I should be come a moral philosopher. Beer and strippers with philosophy. Then again, doing a Bender, I could just skip the philosophy and cut straight to the beer and strippers.
486. Lying for Jesus?
Comment #170303 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Brian English: I felt a disturbance in the force, as if someone was following in my footsteps and senselessly posting on every thread.....
487. Lying for Jesus?
Comment #170301 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 3:24 pm
PhilRimmer: So those who perished in the twin towers were corrupt and any innocent children killed probably just scooped up into Allah's merciful arms. No real harm done then?
488. Does science make belief in God obsolete?
Comment #170291 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Donald: Quite extraordinary. In fact, knowledge from modern science makes belief in an Intelligence behind the cosmos unnecessary, optional, and therefore much less reasonable than before.
489. Lying for Jesus?
Comment #170287 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 3:02 pm
MPhil: Corylus, - yes I have... disgusting.
490. Lying for Jesus?
Comment #170281 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Steve Zara: 68000 assembler code as an Appendix
491. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda
Comment #170277 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 2:39 pm
oldwobbly: And Ben Stein would have to go back to running a game show on cable.
492. Student's 'Be Happy, Not Gay' t-shirt ok
Comment #170272 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Mitchell: then I don't think he is insane for being committed to saving the whales.
493. Lying for Jesus?
Comment #170270 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Mphil: Thanks. Will read them, and have visited contracraig before. I'd kind of assumed the arguments were unconvincing, but one can never be too careful :-)
Corylus, I read a review of that defence (I think). Will have to read the real thing, as it sounded too good to miss out on - ie. Justification of monstrous acts by twiddling with the details. Or something like that...
494. Student's 'Be Happy, Not Gay' t-shirt ok
Comment #170262 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Mitchell: The founders left though, because it was hi-jacked by people that now focuse their efforts fighting against "establishments",
495. Lying for Jesus?
Comment #170260 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 2:23 pm
MPhil, not sure if this is remotely you're thing, but you mentioned Lane Craigs argumentation, so I thought I'd ask.
Have you encountered his arguments in support of the ressurrection, and in your opinion do they hold water? I've heard them referenced, and I guess briefly been introduced in debate settings, but haven't seen them laid out as some kind of proof. I'm not even sure he does that - it may simply be an argument from the Gospel accounts, with some justification for the Gospels being "true".
496. Lying for Jesus?
Comment #170255 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 2:16 pm
On a completely different subject, and as this is the current unofficial "this thread doesn't really have a topic anymore" thread - is it just me, or am I commenting on just about every active thread, more than is normal/required?
This attention seeking behaviour has to stop, and stop at once! :-)
497. Student's 'Be Happy, Not Gay' t-shirt ok
Comment #170254 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Probably.
I also had the thought concerning what "creates" the batshitters in the first place. Do they start out slightly off side, and then as more people understand and sympathise, feel like they have to increase their ferocity so as not to be part of the crowd?
Not saying everyone would do this, but being different seems to be very important for some people.
498. Lying for Jesus?
Comment #170252 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Kardashovel: I was just joking, Havok.
Kardashovel: Have you recovered from your virus?
499. Student's 'Be Happy, Not Gay' t-shirt ok
Comment #170246 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 2:04 pm
I think the batshit insane stuff does cause a few to think, but generally just annoys. I guess it's up to the non-batshit guys, who were possibly made tom think by the batshitters to actually do the bulk of the convincing. Not a rewarding task, i'd think
500. Lying for Jesus?
Comment #170245 by riandouglas on April 27, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Kardashovel: I can destroy the planet.