Atheism Thread

If I may pursue the point; you say your keeping your mind open, but to what? Surely you believe that everything has a cause, an explanation or a reason?
So, what sort of explaination are you open to?

Any and I've probably gone through any rational explanations that there could be and not found answers.

Let's say for example that you heard someone walking up your stairs and then you took a look and there was nothing there - kind of obvious as you knew there was just you and your partner in the house anyway. Then as soon as you go it starts again and this carries on for a couple of hours. This wasn't just creaking, I'm talking about one step, then the next, then the next up to the top and then starting from the bottom again. What would you say it was?

I genuinely haven't got a rational answer to that, nor has my wife who was my girlfriend at the time nor have the various other people who shared the house with us and also witnessed different odd things happening in that house.

Likewise as a young kid should you have written a complete factual story that you had no prior knowledge of and believed it be from your imagination would that not strike you as odd?

These aren't proof of anything surreal of course but I don't think they should be dismissed either. Anyway, I'm off to work, nice talking :)
 
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Any and I've probably gone through any rational explanations that there could be and not found answers.

Let's say for example that you heard someone walking up your stairs and then you took a look and there was nothing there - kind of obvious as you knew there was just you and your partner in the house anyway. Then as soon as you go it starts again and this carries on for a couple of hours. This wasn't just creaking, I'm talking about one step, then the next, then the next up to the top and then starting from the bottom again. What would you say it was?

I genuinely haven't got a rational answer to that, nor has my wife who was my girlfriend at the time nor have the various other people who shared the house with us and also witnessed different odd things happening in that house.

Likewise as a young kid should you have written a complete factual story that you had no prior knowledge of and believed it be from your imagination would that not strike you as odd?

These aren't proof of anything surreal of course but I don't think they should be dismissed either. Anyway, I'm off to work, nice talking :)

I believe that strange things happen. Remember, we need pragmatism as a control from which to delineate. I think all manner of practical explanation should be explored first. But, if that doesn't work, well...to quote Shakespeare via Twin Peaks, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
 
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"My argument is that no group of people, and certainly no society, has ever suffered because everyone became too willing to hear arguments and data and got too interested in other people’s points of view. The zero-sum contest is between believing things for good reasons and believing things for bad reasons, you know? And it just so happens that science, 99 percent of the time, is on the right side of that cut. And religion more or less 99 percent of the time is on the wrong side." ~ Sam Harris

source
 

I might just adopt that as a mantra.

At the moment I feel religion is kicking back against the wave of ratioalism overtaking us all. It is trying to represent itself as the underdog and want atheists to appear bullying and intolerant. This is a curious position when one considers the power and wealth wealded by religion.
 
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"Now, the invention of the scientific method is, I’m sure we’ll all agree, the most powerful intellectual idea, the most powerful framework for thinking and investigating and understanding and challenging the world around us that there is, and it rests on the premise that any idea is there to be attacked. If it withstands the attack then it lives to fight another day and if it doesn’t withstand the attack then down it goes. Religion doesn’t seem to work like that. It has certain ideas at the heart of it which we call sacred or holy or whatever. What it means is, 'Here is an idea or a notion that you’re not allowed to say anything bad about; you’re just not. Why not? — because you’re not!' If somebody votes for a party that you don’t agree with, you’re free to argue about it as much as you like; everybody will have an argument but nobody feels aggrieved by it. If somebody thinks taxes should go up or down you are free to have an argument about it. But on the other hand if somebody says ‘I mustn’t move a light switch on a Saturday’, you say, 'I respect that'."

~ Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
 
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Don't say I never contributed to the atheism thread. :D
 
Innocence of Muslims?

by Richard Dawkins

A letter in today’s Guardian epitomises everything that is wrong with the liberal apologia towards Islamic violence.

Tony Blair was being interviewed about the unrest in the Middle East on the Today programme: I found it extraordinary that he should have referred to the film Innocents [sic] of Muslims as being "laughable" (Report, 18 September). If ever a film was made with the specific intention of provoking Muslims worldwide, this is it. Having viewed the trailer on YouTube, I believe it was absolutely predictable that the cruel and vulgar depiction of Muhammad would result in outrage among ordinary Muslims and violent reaction against the US and the west by Islamist extremists. Surely those who made and then distributed this disgusting – not laughable – film, bear as much responsibility for the violence as those who are reacting against it. Terence English, 
Oxford

Tony Blair, for once, was right: Innocence of Muslims is laughable in the sense of contemptible (for its poor artistic quality), though not at all laughable in the laugh-worthy sense of “Life of Brian” (which is surely one of the greatest satirical comedies ever produced, in any genre). But neither of those senses is the one intended by Terence English. He means that the reaction provoked by the film is too serious to be funny. He is right that the film is “disgusting”, but not because it offends Muslims. It is just a dreadful film – laughable in Tony Blair’s sense.

Read the rest of Dawkins' article here.
 
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Hitch at His Best!




Hitchens was a modern day genius. Full of logic, profound passion, highly articulate and a true, dry wit. Sad that he passed away.

An amazing excerpt...The full debate is on YouTube I think (thank God, haha!)

 
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Hitchens was a modern day genius. Full of logic, profound passion, highly articulate and a true, dry wit. Sad that he passed away.

An amazing excerpt...The full debate is on YouTube I think (thank God, haha!)



A fellow Hitch fan! :) That video is brilliant. I think a small part of me died when he died. Who can fill his shoes? I think Sam Harris is trying. But he doesn't have Hitch's charisma and charm. Miss him. :(
 
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'Religion is the wound, not the bandage' one of many priceless snips from the sadly deceased Dennis Potter.
 
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Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins asks if science can provide answers to the big questions we used to entrust to religion.

On More4
Mon 15 Oct, 10PM


Series 1 | Episode 1 | Sex, Death and the Meaning of Life

If there is no God watching us, why be good? Richard Dawkins examines sin.

He asks whether the old religious rules about what is right and wrong are helpful and explores what science can tell us about how to be good. Source
 
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