Atheists, agnostics most knowledgeable about religion

[skipbelt 0]

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We also have a tendency to say, "fuck me" and "fuck you" without referring to the sexual act. Sometimes a word is simply an exclamation point.

there's no atheists in foxholes,
or orgasms !

[rehmwa 2]

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On a day-to-day basis, how much thought do you put into the existence of unicorns?

great, before you wrote that - zero
now, it's just right there

that, and worrying about Artesians and Masons

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[livendive 8]

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Religious person becomes Agnostic then becomes Atheist.

restated correctly

Religious person eventually grows up and admits he can never know for sure, then overshoots and decides he definitely knows something undefinable, and picks the opposite religion

"Religious person becomes Agnostic then becomes Religious again"

why not stop at agnostic - it's the only truly honest position - don't know, doesn't matter (unless you want to use your belief to judge other's beliefs) - I guess the "doesn't matter" portion isn't universal to agnostics, just that subset like minded to me.

I don't think it's so much "don't know, doesn't matter" as "don't know, can't know", but I'll acknowledge that this lends itself nicely to a "doesn't matter".

I have some vague suspicions that some would likely characterize as a pagan religion of sorts, insomuch as they pertain to "higher" level beings. As for what happens after death, I know exactly as much as anyone else, precisely nothing. All we have are our suspicions, with varying levels of confidence in them.

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[rhys 0]

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The origin of existence is not the same thing as the origin of life. Abiogenesis on this planet occured around 10 billion years after the big bang. They are not the same thing.

Those words 'on this planet' think about that for a second.

You seem to be assuming that it is most definate that only earth has life 'or' earth was the first to habour life 'or' life on earth was 100% fomed and created on earth.

Our atmosphere is constanly being bombarded with 'substance' from other realms of our universe.

Who are you to say the origin of life on earth did not exist for aeons elsewhere?

Or are you so sure that Earth is the only object that harbours life?

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If you have an interesting painting or sculpture in your house and someone asks "where did that come from?" you don't recite the entire history of the universe.

You seem to be fixated on what you know while completely dismissing what you don't.

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

[skipbelt 0]

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On a day-to-day basis, how much thought do you put into the existence of unicorns?

great, before you wrote that - zero
now, it's just right there
that, and worrying about Artesians and Masons

freemasons ? or jars ? perry ? ite ? stone ?

[turtlespeed 226]

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On a day-to-day basis, how much thought do you put into the existence of unicorns?

great, before you wrote that - zero
now, it's just right there

that, and worrying about Artesians and Masons

freemasons ? or jars ? perry ? ite ? stone ?

I think he meant Brick Layers

I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

[rhys 0]

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Do you beleive that human beings were created before all other flora and fauna by the hands of god?

Don't be stupid.

This is what christians beleive.

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

[skipbelt 0]

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Do you beleive that human beings were created before all other flora and fauna by the hands of god?

Don't be stupid.

This is what christians beleive.

some christians have no problem with adapting the theory of evolution into christian faith !

[wmw999 2,548]

Young-earth biblical literalist Christians believe that flora were created on the third day, fauna on the fifth, and people on the sixth.

Saying that's what all Christians believe (or simply not saying "some Christians" when it's a pretty small minority) is kind of like the folks who say that all Muslims are Taliban.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[kallend 2,108]

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http://features.pewforum.org/quiz/us-religious-knowledge/

I got 13/15. Grew up Christian, became an atheist as an adult..

meh, got 15/15 ... and could have answered most of those questions when I was 15.

I got 15/15 and I've been an atheist since I was old enough to think for myself.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[turtlespeed 226]

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Young-earth biblical literalist Christians believe that flora were created on the third day, fauna on the fifth, and people on the sixth.

Saying that's what all Christians believe (or simply not saying "some Christians" when it's a pretty small minority) is kind of like the folks who say that all Muslims are Taliban.

Wendy P.

In his case it is more like - Every Government Official in the US blew up the World Trade Center Buildings.

I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

[kallend 2,108]

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We also have a tendency to say, "fuck me" and "fuck you" without referring to the sexual act. Sometimes a word is simply an exclamation point.

there's no atheists in foxholes,
or orgasms !

How do you know this? Just because someone told you?

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[quade 4]

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some christians have no problem with adapting the theory of evolution into christian faith !

Well, they think they have no problem.

Some of them, in a fit of insanity, try to do some pretty stupid things in their attempts like showing humans and dinosaurs living together. While that is fine for a Flintstones cartoon show, it's pretty fucked up "science."

Source;
http://www.skepticalmonkey.com/creation-museum-photos
http://www.creationists.org/dinosaurs-humans-coexisted.html
http://creationmuseum.org/whats-here/exhibits/#dinosaur-den

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[wmw999 2,548]

Again, I wouldn't tar all Christians with conflating the biblical story of creation with evolution, just as I wouldn't assume that all atheists got there by analyzing the evidence carefully and coming to a conclusion.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[quade 4]

I said "some."

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[skipbelt 0]

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We also have a tendency to say, "fuck me" and "fuck you" without referring to the sexual act. Sometimes a word is simply an exclamation point.

there's no atheists in foxholes,
or orgasms !

How do you know this? Just because someone told you?

how obvious was my attempt at humor ?
evidently i missed the mark,
or hit a nerve !

[rhys 0]

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Young-earth biblical literalist Christians believe that flora were created on the third day, fauna on the fifth, and people on the sixth.

Saying that's what all Christians believe (or simply not saying "some Christians" when it's a pretty small minority) is kind of like the folks who say that all Muslims are Taliban.

Point taken but it does say in the bible as bill pointed out;

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This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being . . .

So I guess I should change my statement from;

All christians beleive...

to; It states clearly in the bible that...

While Amazon mocks me unapropriately in the gear and rigging forum for pondering the presence of thermite in the WTC a subject that has peer reviewed journals by respected scientists, that have yet to be refuted by anyone. We are expected to believe this drivel about the creation of life and even have to swear upon in in a court of law.

This world is seriously a fucked up place, common sense certainly does not prevail.

Majority rules, and the majority are to apathetic to want to know the truth (I am talking about religon not 9/11).

This God thing is seriously the biggest crock of shit we have ever been lead to beleive. It is quite evident, but the want to belong seems much more powerful than the need to know the truth.

This is the case for amny things.

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

[quade 4]

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how obvious was my attempt at humor ?
evidently i missed the mark,
or hit a nerve !

Humor does not appear to be your strong suit. It's certainly not "obvious."

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[quade 4]

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So I guess I should change my statement from;

All christians beleive...

to; It states clearly in the bible that...

How about, in such-and-such version of the bible it says, "(insert passage here)."

The word "clearly" is not one I'd use at all for any version. Much of the bible is written in allegory, parable and simile, frequently up for interpretation and frequently done so by just about everyone.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[wmw999 2,548]

I'll admit I always read that to mean that he planted the Garden of Eden after putting people there.

But I'll admit I haven't invested a whole lot of study into internal contradictions in the Bible; I'm one of those "the Bible is a collection of stories told by a people, collected by people, and put into a series of books. By people"

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[kallend 2,108]

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We also have a tendency to say, "fuck me" and "fuck you" without referring to the sexual act. Sometimes a word is simply an exclamation point.

there's no atheists in foxholes,
or orgasms !

How do you know this? Just because someone told you?

how obvious was my attempt at humor ?
evidently i missed the mark,
or hit a nerve !

LAME-O.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[billvon 3,080]

>some christians have no problem with adapting the theory of evolution
>into christian faith !

Well, there are indeed an awful lot of subcategories of creationism vs evolution out there:

1) Geocentrists

The flat earthers/geocentrists believe the Bible so literally that they believe the parts about the Earth being fixed and immovable; the sky is a vault above them below which all the stars and planets move. There are actually people out there like this, but they are pretty few in number, since the mental gymnastics required to believe that GPSes work on a fixed planet are pretty extreme. But these people do exist, and they have organizations. Which makes sense; there are people who believe so fervently in the exact wording of the Bible that they see their belief in the face of science as a badge of honor.

But most creationists are not like this.

2) Young earth creationists

YEC's believe in a somewhat literal interpretation of the Bible. They believe that the earth is 6000 to 10,000 years old, that life was created in six 24-hour days, that death came as a result of Adam & Eve's fall in the garden, and that geology must be interpreted in terms of the Deluge. However, they accept a heliocentric solar system and a round earth. One variant on this is the Omphalos argument, dating back to the 1850's. This variant claims the earth was _created_ to look old but is really quite new.

YEC is probably the most popular form of creationism today, because it requires the least compromise in a strict interpretation of the Bible. You can keep 90% of the Bible, discarding only the most outlandish things (fixed earth) as metaphor.

3) Old earth creationistss

OEC's essentially mix a belief in creationism with an acceptance of a planet that is billions of years old. They do so by turning more of the bible into metaphor; each 'day' of creation was billions of years, for example. This results in some odd accomodations of science and religion, but it allows more flexibility. Not as much science must be discarded to reach an acceptable compromise of belief.

One variant of this is "day-age" where each day of creation is a long period, as mentioned above. Another variant is the gap theory, where millions (or billions) of years elapsed between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2.

A third important variant of OEC's are progressive creationists, who accept much of conventional planetary formation, and even some evolution theories, but claim God created life at certain points. A common form of this is that God created life, and then some time much later, he took an ape and turned it into a man.

The latest in progressive creationism is intelligent design, where the history of the planet, including the development of life, proceeded as science has described it, but along the way God 'helped out.' This is then presented as a scientific theory by attempting to prove that no other explanation for life is possible. This has become immensely popular because it is seen as a way to "attack science with science."

4)Theistic evolution

This is quite similar to intelligent design, but is important in that it has been espoused by the Pope and taught at many Protestant seminaries. Basically God creates through evolution. It proceeds pretty much as science describes it, but God is guiding it. This is a fairly defensible position because it can effectively be 'redefined' as science learns more about the process of evolution; it can me made to not conflict with new science as long as there is some uncertainty (which will almost certainly always be the case.)

5)Physical evolution

These people believe that evolution is a physical process, guided by the principles first established by Darwin, but since greatly refined. They often believe in God as well, but feel that he does not generally meddle in simple physical processes. Any such meddling must be discovered and proven before it is taken seriously, as with any other scientific theory. Most scientists take a position similar to this one.

6)Religious-atheist evolution

This is a pseudo-religious position that states that not only is evolution not directed by God, the fact that evolution occurs is proof God does not exist. They feel that every new discovery of science (the heliocentric theory, paleontology, cosmology etc) is another nail in God's coffin. Few scientists actually believe this, although the 'battle' is often framed by creationists as a battle between themselves and religious-atheist evolutionists.

That's a pretty simplified one-dimensional span of beliefs in the creationism-evolution argument. Often, creationists feel anyone who does not believe in Genesis is by definition a religious-atheist evolutionist; just as often scientists feel that anyone who does not believe in evolution is a flat-earther. But that's a fallacy, and leads to a lot of people not listening to each other.

[turtlespeed 226]

Bill - RUN buddy - Quade is coming!

That was NOT bibliogrified!

I guess you have no resaon to fear the Bibliography Nazi, as long as you wrote thet yourself.

I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

[quade 4]

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I guess you have no resaon to fear the Bibliography Nazi, as long as you wrote thet yourself.

And what makes you think he didn't?

See the issue?

Maybe rather than spouting off, you'd like to do a bit of a Google search on what bill wrote. See if maybe he stole it from somewhere else just to prove how silly I am and how unoriginal bill is.

Go for it.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[billvon 3,080]

>That was NOT bibliogrified!

Sorry:

(Copyright billvon 2005)