A friend of mine who is a big contributor in the atheistexperience.blogspot.com blog wrote up a recent piece called "when does ignorance become an answer?" check it out. I will comment on it and give my thoughts mid week:
http://atheistexperience.blogspot.com/2009/03/when-does-ignorance-become-answer.html
Monday, March 30, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Oh No! I accidently killed the invisible fairies living in my shoe!
In an unfortunate lapse I have accidentally killed the family of invisible fairies living in my shoe. I am really distraught about this and have asked family members to help deal with my pain. They keep trying to convince me that there were not any invisible fairies living in my shoe. When I insisted that they were and I KILLED them they wanted to see the fairy bodies.
I told them that even though they couldn't be seen, couldn't be detected or observed in anyway known to man-kind, my strong belief and feelings that they were there was good enough to convince me. I found 3 stones in my shoe one time and I'm 100 percent sure they didn't get there by themselves. Those stones must have been brought there by the fairies, I'm SURE of it. I used to think that when things would show up in my shoes, like rocks, bits of dirt, I thought that maybe they got there by accident, by some random chance. But, the more I thought about that the more stupid it sounded! There must be some intelligence putting that stuff in there and the only thing that made sense was a family of fairies!
What I would always do before I put on my shoes was to grab each shoe, speak softly into each one, and let them know that they needed to leave temporarily (I have a really comfortable second pair for them when I need to wear my work shoes). This particular morning one of my daughters distracted me, and I forgot to let them know. Once I put my foot in I realized what I had done.
I really hope that there is a fairy heaven. If so, I hope they are there, looking down, and will forgive me.
I told them that even though they couldn't be seen, couldn't be detected or observed in anyway known to man-kind, my strong belief and feelings that they were there was good enough to convince me. I found 3 stones in my shoe one time and I'm 100 percent sure they didn't get there by themselves. Those stones must have been brought there by the fairies, I'm SURE of it. I used to think that when things would show up in my shoes, like rocks, bits of dirt, I thought that maybe they got there by accident, by some random chance. But, the more I thought about that the more stupid it sounded! There must be some intelligence putting that stuff in there and the only thing that made sense was a family of fairies!
What I would always do before I put on my shoes was to grab each shoe, speak softly into each one, and let them know that they needed to leave temporarily (I have a really comfortable second pair for them when I need to wear my work shoes). This particular morning one of my daughters distracted me, and I forgot to let them know. Once I put my foot in I realized what I had done.
I really hope that there is a fairy heaven. If so, I hope they are there, looking down, and will forgive me.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
How do you explain all this stuff?
When pushed into a corner a Christians last ditch effort usually just throws up their hands and exclaims, "well, how do you explain all of this??!" This usually refers to the universe in general, they just can't wrap their heads around how the universe came about. It can also be worded "how can something come from nothing"? Some physicists have said that there HAS to be "something" and that nothing is a lot more unstable than something.
Many physicists have tried to work on this question and are getting a lot closer to finding out an answer. But, we may never find out the answer to that question. By not knowing does not by default allow you to insert the god of your choice. It's a non answer as you're trying to explain something complicated by something even more complicated. If you are going to make the assertion that the god in question didn't have to be created and as always existed, I can make the assertion to say that the universe in one form or another as always existed. I can wrap my brain around that easier than a god that has always existed. Do I know that 100 percent? Of course not. I prefer to say that "I don't know, but am trying to work on it" than, "nope, can't figure it out, must have been some sort of god"
This video posted on YouTube really addresses the above points well, really takes hold of the "god of the gaps" argument and makes the point in an entertaining way.
The video is called "The thing that made the things for which there is no known maker."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVbnciQYMiM
Enjoy!
Many physicists have tried to work on this question and are getting a lot closer to finding out an answer. But, we may never find out the answer to that question. By not knowing does not by default allow you to insert the god of your choice. It's a non answer as you're trying to explain something complicated by something even more complicated. If you are going to make the assertion that the god in question didn't have to be created and as always existed, I can make the assertion to say that the universe in one form or another as always existed. I can wrap my brain around that easier than a god that has always existed. Do I know that 100 percent? Of course not. I prefer to say that "I don't know, but am trying to work on it" than, "nope, can't figure it out, must have been some sort of god"
This video posted on YouTube really addresses the above points well, really takes hold of the "god of the gaps" argument and makes the point in an entertaining way.
The video is called "The thing that made the things for which there is no known maker."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVbnciQYMiM
Enjoy!
Monday, March 2, 2009
Aren't you afraid of roasting in hell for an eternity?
Fortunately I've never had this question lobbed at me, but I've seen it come across many a discussion on different websites.
To answer the question, YES, I would be afraid of roasting in hell IF I had some evidence that hell existed, and that my lifestyle was going to lead me there. As of now I have not seen any credible evidence that hell (or heaven) exists other than assertions by religious people. Basically this is just a threat to get people to be scared into believing something without any evidence.
I would rather believe something by evidence than by threat. I personally believe that early in the church they decided that they weren't going to get people to believe the dogma on its own merit. They decided they had to create some sort of unimaginable pleasure if they buy it, and on the flip side create some sort of unimaginable torture if they don't.
Am I afraid of going to hell? I'm just as afraid as the person that has been told that they are going to the Flying Spaghetti Monster hell of strippers with VD and stale beer for not believing in it.
To answer the question, YES, I would be afraid of roasting in hell IF I had some evidence that hell existed, and that my lifestyle was going to lead me there. As of now I have not seen any credible evidence that hell (or heaven) exists other than assertions by religious people. Basically this is just a threat to get people to be scared into believing something without any evidence.
I would rather believe something by evidence than by threat. I personally believe that early in the church they decided that they weren't going to get people to believe the dogma on its own merit. They decided they had to create some sort of unimaginable pleasure if they buy it, and on the flip side create some sort of unimaginable torture if they don't.
Am I afraid of going to hell? I'm just as afraid as the person that has been told that they are going to the Flying Spaghetti Monster hell of strippers with VD and stale beer for not believing in it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)