The Skeptics Thread

Ram From Hell said:
Ah, but you cannot put words in my mouth that were not spoken. Further, my retort was in no way shape or form an excuse. What I wrote that sent you into a verbal dither was quite benign, and without prejudice. If you read more into it than was there and were stung by it, it's not my problem nor mine to ask forgiveness for.

Careful, that statement cuts both ways.

This, on the other hand does not.


The quote, a true and accurate one, was given by itself. It was not prefaced with any remarks whatsoever. Only what you see in italics above. If by the simple virtue that I have stated that I do not have faith that you are free to assume that anything that comes from my fingertips is a statement of denial of a god, then you are in fact making assumptions and/or putting words in my mouth. The thought that I would be required to preface it to mean one thing or another, rather than allowing the reader to make up his or her own mind, is wholly without merit.

If you choose to pass judgment on me simply for quoting someone else, in full context and without embellishment or remark, then you sir do owe me an apology.

In deference to your anus, I rather think you should focus on your penis, which you have quite well stepped upon with your garish dego boots.:congrats:

Yer talkin' horseshit and you know it............. Apology not forthcoming....

D
 
Django said:
Yer talkin' horseshit and you know it............. Apology not forthcoming....

D

I love your Christian attitude. You reinforce the kind of dark side of the faithful that I see day in and day out, so for that I thank you. You do speak for all of faith, right? Well, maybe you didn't say that, but you meant it, if I may borrow from your logic.

Anyone who has followed our little exchange as of late can see that you've succeeded in doing nothing to prove your point. You read my Einstein quote and called it a lie. I proved that it was true, so you instead attacked me based upon your own assumption that it had a meaning that wasn't there.

I have been civil, and you have invited me to kiss your asshole.

You're 0 for 2.
 
Ram From Hell said:
I love your Christian attitude. You reinforce the kind of dark side of the faithful that I see day in and day out, so for that I thank you. You do speak for all of faith, right? Well, maybe you didn't say that, but you meant it, if I may borrow from your logic.

Anyone who has followed our little exchange as of late can see that you've succeeded in doing nothing to prove your point. You read my Einstein quote and called it a lie. I proved that it was true, so you instead attacked me based upon your own assumption that it had a meaning that wasn't there.

I have been civil, and you have invited me to kiss your asshole.

You're 0 for 2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS7nqwGt4-I

D
 
Django said:
Hahahaha that Rocked............:rock: Succinct and to the point :D

It seems that the ATHEIST faction is just as near sighted as the RELIGIOUS faction in their zeal to prove one another wrong. Oh looky my point is from a logical standpoint....so I must be superior in my rational :slug: Who's really to say who is right or wrong ? WTF does it matter anyway ? Atheists are dumb shits anyway....Just as ardent in their ridiculous belief system as the radicals on the other side...It's basically an exercise in intolerance on both sides that provides validity to each others point of view....Nothing more or less since neither side can prove anything other then FAITH as a basis of argument.

It's laughable sitting here watching the chest puffing as if you just sacked Troy with shear ambivalence and little regard for posting anything tangible to the debate. Unless you count rhetoric and Goggle search as a basis of opinion formulary....I Love the quote factory :D So far I can only see Carlo that has offered any evidence that is truly tangible. It's called life and no matter the size of the high horse you picture yourself on nor the extent of ones blatant narcissism. You are no better then anyone else here....No one opinion better or worse then the other....Eric I know Tim and you personally and at one time Loved both of you. I know Tim to be honorable, loving, intelligent, thoughtful and neatly wrapped up into one word.....Integrity ! He exudes that word more then most men I have met.

I also know you and you carry these same traits....But sitting in class shooting spit balls and proclaiming I have the biggest pecker does little to further the engagement of the topic at hand.....Let's hear the real life witness and catastrophes that form your basis of opinion and stop regurgitating the quote factory.....The human experience that leads to the path of enlightenment and understanding of one another's beliefs is really all that matters anyway. Further bashing another's belief system never adds anything....Just extends an already asinine argument.
 
TheSickness said:
Hahahaha that Rocked............:rock: Succinct and to the point :D

It seems that the ATHEIST faction is just as near sighted as the RELIGIOUS faction in their zeal to prove one another wrong. Oh looky my point is from a logical standpoint....so I must be superior in my rational :slug: Who's really to say who is right or wrong ? WTF does it matter anyway ? Atheists are dumb shits anyway....Just as ardent in their ridiculous belief system as the radicals on the other side...It's basically an exercise in intolerance on both sides that provides validity to each others point of view....Nothing more or less since neither side can prove anything other then FAITH as a basis of argument.

It's laughable sitting here watching the chest puffing as if you just sacked Troy with shear ambivalence and little regard for posting anything tangible to the debate. Unless you count rhetoric and Goggle search as a basis of opinion formulary....I Love the quote factory :D So far I can only see Carlo that has offered any evidence that is truly tangible. It's called life and no matter the size of the high horse you picture yourself on nor the extent of ones blatant narcissism. You are no better then anyone else here....No one opinion better or worse then the other....Eric I know Tim and you personally and at one time Loved both of you. I know Tim to be honorable, loving, intelligent, thoughtful and neatly wrapped up into one word.....Integrity ! He exudes that word more then most men I have met.

I also know you and you carry these same traits....But sitting in class shooting spit balls and proclaiming I have the biggest pecker does little to further the engagement of the topic at hand.....Let's hear the real life witness and catastrophes that form your basis of opinion and stop regurgitating the quote factory.....The human experience that leads to the path of enlightenment and understanding of one another's beliefs is really all that matters anyway. Further bashing another's belief system never adds anything....Just extends an already asinine argument.

I'm guessing that ball was aimed at me in part too and at least the positions I'm standing for so I'll step up to the plate here and address it personally.

Your post is overflowing with hypocrisy and self defeating points. Argument against argument. Intolerance toward intolerance. There are people who instead of partaking in a discussion get their jollies off bashing the discussion itself. Aren't you just stroking yourself by thinking you're better than people who you feel that think they're better than someone else. (everyone follow that? :) All you're doing is being derogatory, dismissive, and reductionist.

"neither side can prove anything" How is this notion not 6ft under yet? So what if we cant? Proof or disproof are arguably impossible, it's deciding which ideas are likely to be more true than the next. Besides that, to say it's all about proof or disproof is also missing an important point.

What's the point? Instead of being a question it's more like a way to say "I don't like what you're saying so you should just shut up already" The point obviously is simply what we choose to make of it. The only absolute is that there are no absolutes. And technically nothing does matter at all, we all chose ourselves what is important to each of us.
You're simply intolerantly preaching a policy of apathy non-intolerance but if you really subscribed to what you say you'd have already laid down in a ditch and died long ago and at the very least not cared to make your post.
It was an argument piously advocating non-thought.

We'd all still be in the stone age if we followed the ideas you just presented. Progressive thinking is important and disagreements are inevitable.

Human experience. It has been my human experience to lead me to the position I'm at now. Are only catastrophic experiences valid in your mind?

The point of quotes as I see them is when you have a similar idea or position on a topic and someone before you has said it already. Rather than being pretentious or risk people think you're stealing the idea, you will credit the person who said it. Obviously instead of humility (some) people would rather think you're saying "Famous person said X; Therefor X must be true." That's call appeal to authority and is another logical fallacy.

You said something about demeaning about logic. I hold the position that good logic and reason is better than faulty logic and reason. There is such a thing as faulty logic. You can argue against that idea with illogical arguments but if you don't agree then I will point out a simple example: "All flounder are fish; therefor all fish are flounders" You see the error in that I hope.

That said, you may be right to say I'm "near sighted" because I am shut off to accepting an argument for faith or god that is illogical. It's not an issue of stubbornness either or 'just don't want to see'. I am more likely to accept an argument from the standpoint of physiology and psychology over one concerning a spiritual experience. And if you place a bible or other holy book in front of me, and an encyclopedia, I will absolutely take any facts from the encyclopedia first. If I die and the docs bring me back to life I'm more likely to thank the docs than Zeus or the Christian god. If someone tells me they hear god talk to them, I'm not very likely to make a distinction between that and intuition or in more severe cases the nuts in the asylum. It's not that I cannot be convinced or swayed. I'm fully prepared to concede. I need reasons however other than a human desire to do so.

It (any of these topics) is a lot like beating a dead horse and it really is to some degree, pointless. But it is important to me at least and that is why I choose to spend my time on this thread. And I think there is a good chance to make small impacts here and there however. No matter how much time I 'waste', it would be worth all my while if I made even one person think and contemplate about something they might not have thought about otherwise.

And if nothing else, it's good for the mind and entertaining to some of us. Even during our (relatively) short exchange here I've had to refine and specify my arguments which required me to rethink and reanalyze things I might not have thought about. I guess you could say that to me at least, it's about growing. We don't have the answers, and truth can never be more to humans than a pursuit.
 
Azmal said:
I'm guessing that ball was aimed at me in part too and at least the positions I'm standing for so I'll step up to the plate here and address it personally.

Your post is overflowing with hypocrisy and self defeating points. Argument against argument. Intolerance toward intolerance. There are people who instead of partaking in a discussion get their jollies off bashing the discussion itself. Aren't you just stroking yourself by thinking you're better than people who you feel that think they're better than someone else. (everyone follow that? :) All you're doing is being derogatory, dismissive, and reductionist.

"neither side can prove anything" How is this notion not 6ft under yet? So what if we cant? Proof or disproof are arguably impossible, it's deciding which ideas are likely to be more true than the next. Besides that, to say it's all about proof or disproof is also missing an important point.

What's the point? Instead of being a question it's more like a way to say "I don't like what you're saying so you should just shut up already" The point obviously is simply what we choose to make of it. The only absolute is that there are no absolutes. And technically nothing does matter at all, we all chose ourselves what is important to each of us.
You're simply intolerantly preaching a policy of apathy non-intolerance but if you really subscribed to what you say you'd have already laid down in a ditch and died long ago and at the very least not cared to make your post.
It was an argument piously advocating non-thought.

We'd all still be in the stone age if we followed the ideas you just presented. Progressive thinking is important and disagreements are inevitable.

Human experience. It has been my human experience to lead me to the position I'm at now. Are only catastrophic experiences valid in your mind?

The point of quotes as I see them is when you have a similar idea or position on a topic and someone before you has said it already. Rather than being pretentious or risk people think you're stealing the idea, you will credit the person who said it. Obviously instead of humility (some) people would rather think you're saying "Famous person said X; Therefor X must be true." That's call appeal to authority and is another logical fallacy.

You said something about demeaning about logic. I hold the position that good logic and reason is better than faulty logic and reason. There is such a thing as faulty logic. You can argue against that idea with illogical arguments but if you don't agree then I will point out a simple example: "All flounder are fish; therefor all fish are flounders" You see the error in that I hope.

That said, you may be right to say I'm "near sighted" because I am shut off to accepting an argument for faith or god that is illogical. It's not an issue of stubbornness either or 'just don't want to see'. I am more likely to accept an argument from the standpoint of physiology and psychology over one concerning a spiritual experience. And if you place a bible or other holy book in front of me, and an encyclopedia, I will absolutely take any facts from the encyclopedia first. If I die and the docs bring me back to life I'm more likely to thank the docs than Zeus or the Christian god. If someone tells me they hear god talk to them, I'm not very likely to make a distinction between that and intuition or in more severe cases the nuts in the asylum. It's not that I cannot be convinced or swayed. I'm fully prepared to concede. I need reasons however other than a human desire to do so.

It (any of these topics) is a lot like beating a dead horse and it really is to some degree, pointless. But it is important to me at least and that is why I choose to spend my time on this thread. And I think there is a good chance to make small impacts here and there however. No matter how much time I 'waste', it would be worth all my while if I made even one person think and contemplate about something they might not have thought about otherwise.

And if nothing else, it's good for the mind and entertaining to some of us. Even during our (relatively) short exchange here I've had to refine and specify my arguments which required me to rethink and reanalyze things I might not have thought about. I guess you could say that to me at least, it's about growing. We don't have the answers, and truth can never be more to humans than a pursuit.
Good then you caught the jist. However I never once directed any of that post towards you. Believe or not.....Have faith ;) :D I would however like to thank you for an over extended and exceedingly long winded retort that did little but tickle my sack. If I had issue with your style or position...I believe my track record speaks for itself...I would engage you directly....Relax eat some Cheetos and massage your inflated prostate....;) :D :p
 
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TheSickness said:
Good then you caught the jist. However I never once directed any of that post towards you. Believe or not.....Have faith ;) :D I would however like to thank you for an over extended and exceedingly long winded retort that did little but tickle my sack. If I had issue with your style or position...I believe my track record speaks for itself...I would engage you directly....Relax eat some Cheetos and massage your inflated prostate....;) :D :p

He's too young to have an inflated prostate... Probably has a PSA of 0.3.

D
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Einstein's 'God' letter fetches $404,000
He dismissed belief as product of human weakness, called Bible 'childish'
The Associated Press

LONDON - A letter in which Albert Einstein dismissed the idea of God as the product of human weakness and the Bible as "pretty childish" has sold at auction for more than $400,000.

Bloomsbury Auctions said Friday that the handwritten letter sold to an overseas collector after frantic bidding late Thursday in London. The sale price of $404,000, including the buyer's premium, was more than 25 times the pre-sale estimate.

Bloomsbury did not identify the buyer, but managing director Rupert Powell said it was someone with "a passion for theoretical physics and all that that entails."

"This extraordinary letter seemed to strike a chord, and it gave a deep personal insight one of the greatest minds of the 20th century," Powell said.

The letter was written to philosopher Eric Gutkind in January 1954, a year before Einstein's death. In it, the Einstein said that "the word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish."

"For me," he added, "the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions."

Addressing the idea that the Jews are God's chosen people, Einstein wrote that "the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them."

Bloomsbury spokesman Richard Caton said the auction house was "100 percent certain" of the letter's authenticity. It was offered at auction for the first time, by a private vendor.

'Rather quirky about religion'
Einstein experts say the letter supports the argument that the physicist held complex, agnostic views on religion. He rejected organized faith but often spoke of a spiritual force at work in the universe.

John Brooke, emeritus professor of science and religion at Oxford University, said the letter lends weight to the notion that "Einstein was not a conventional theist" — although he was not an atheist, either.

"Like many great scientists of the past, he is rather quirky about religion, and not always consistent from one period to another," Brooke said.

Born to a Jewish family in Germany in 1879, Einstein said he went through a devout phase as a child before beginning to question conventional religion at the age of 12.

In later life, he expressed a sense of wonder at the universe and its mysteries — what he called a "cosmic religious feeling" — and famously said: "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."


But he also said: "I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil. My God created laws that take care of that. His universe is not ruled by wishful thinking, but by immutable laws."

Brooke said Einstein believed that "there is some kind of intelligence working its way through nature. But it is certainly not a conventional Christian or Judaic religious view."

.
 
faith

faith moves mountains. and by the way dont forget to bring a shovel. religon is for people trying to stay out of hell. sprituality is for people who have already been there.
 
Pretty kewl words new guy!

Welcome...you are family from post #1.

Roy
 
Still an interesting thread, yet I still have nothing to add..
 
TheSickness said:
Hello.......................:D Nothin but tumble weeds for some reason now :confused: :D


and crickets chirping softly in the background :D


In my opinion, just about everything that should be said,has been said
 
HOT RAM said:
and crickets chirping softly in the background :D


In my opinion, just about everything that should be said,has been said
You would think huh.....I bet not though..Waiting for the regrouping ;) :D
 
I for one have been making lots of armor stuff for the last couple days and haven't had much time to post recently. I'd love to hear something to contest the points I've made though.

We could always switch things around to aliens, luck, loch ness, big foot, etc. Might be fun.
 

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