View Single Post
Old 02-16-2007, 06:16 PM   #7 (permalink)
mx5me
Upright
 
Location: MA
Quote:
Originally Posted by shakran
SOMEtimes? You're being too kind. I got the distinct impression from his book that he thinks religion is stupid and anyone who even thinks about believing in it is a moron.

That argument suggests some quite nasty things about god doesn't it. Let's review:

1) The earth is really 6,000 years old.
2) we're supposed to have faith in what God tells us.
3) God purposely makes all evidence point to the idea that the earth is a lot older in an attempt to trick us.

Well, to be honest, if a supreme being is out to trick me all the time, I'm really not interested in hanging out in his house after I die.

This argument also lends some interesting philosophical thoughts on god vs. the devil. I thought it was Satan that was supposed to be the dishonest trickster, not God.
The point about Dawkins (somehow I knew that quoting him would start an argument) in interesting. After The God Delusion came out, a firestorm of essays were written basically asking why he couldn't play nice and have some respect. But why should he if he honestly thinks that belief in a higher being is unfounded, dangerous and blatantly stupid? Yet from the other side of the coin, the heads of big name churches will publicly condemn non-believing "sinners" without rebuke, so is there a double standard? We all walk on eggshells in our respect for religion, but what warrants that? Why do religions reap benefits that atheists do not?

I'm confused by your 3 questions, shakran. All 3 are curious, but number 2 in particular strikes me. Aren't believers supposed to take God at his word? Isn't that was it's all about?
mx5me is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360