Holy Crap on an shingle, I almost posted something related to the idiocy in this thread!
As an aside, my God speaks to me and he's telling me something along the lines of.......
"FUCK EVERY ONE OF YOU that continue debating religion on the intardweb."
How's that for smugness, intolerance, and blanket condemnation?
Atheism
In 1929, Einstein was asked in a telegram by Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein whether he believed in God. Einstein responded by telegram "I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings."Crankmas wrote:I recall something to the effect that Einstein's stated goal was to not understand how God thought but how he dreamed, but then again I guess ol' Al was classified as one of those simple minded born again christians that couldn't possibly have any "relevance" ha in a modern world.
Spinoza equated God (infinite substance) with Nature, which obviously means he doesn't believe in any of the traditional gods put forth by all the major religions, and would in my mind, make him very close to an atheist.
No. There are not many facets to disbelief. There are many facets to belief, because any intelligent person who believes the stuff in the bible, has to constantly over-complicate nearly everything they think and do, in order to be able to align their belief system with what they are actually seeing and learning in life.pigsteak wrote:and shamis, I am sure JB's faith is as multi faceted as your disbelief is.
Intelligent people usually have to assume the bible is allegorical, and then spend considerable time looking for allegories which allow them to bring their religious moral code into line with what they think is good behavior based on their experiences in the world.
As science and technology advance, it gets harder and harder to plug all the holes in the bible, or any religious text, so people dig deeper and deeper for better symbolism, trying to keep them relevant. Its a big complex game, and I'm happy to not have to play it anymore.
And to all the theists I'm offending, instead of boo hooing about it, you should try to throw together a decent defense of your beliefs.
This is the problem. I flatter myself into think I'm smarter than the average bear. My spirituality (or lack thereof) is a very personal thing between me and my conscious. That is the nature of faith, you question yourself, and try to improve on yourself. Call it God, call it faith, call it morality. It's essentially a matter of conscious. Half the time I can't even sort out what I believe and having anyone else indict me (or anyone else) for "beliefs" is absurd.Shamis wrote:.........And to all the theists I'm offending, instead of boo hooing about it, you should try to throw together a decent defense of your beliefs.
You want to debate text, call it text. It is simply one of many tools some people use for their faith. It is not their faith and you mistake the trees for the forest if you think so. It's really tiresome and those arguments are as simpleminded as the arguments that piss you off. I'd like to think you were smarter than that.
My Grandma considered herself a tried and true Christian and I will bet everything I own she was a better person than any of you could hope to be. If any of you people indicted her for causing problems in the school system, or problems with the politics of our culture, or any of her beliefs, I'd quite simply take you out back and shoot you in the face.
Maybe that makes me a sinner, but it would be my cross to bear, not yours.
And of course, faith is the thing that gets you through hard times. Like these hard times when the Cats are 4 and 5.
/edited cause I subconsciously couldn't believe we suck that bad.
/edited cause I subconsciously couldn't believe we suck that bad.
Last edited by charlie on Wed Dec 19, 2007 3:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.