[Merged]All religions are idiocy

[thaiboxerken]

Reason (and your ability to) is a reason to suspect there is more.

Of course - seeing a ghost may give you an additional reason to suspect,

Or seeing a miracle may give you a reason to suspect,

Or being awed by the unverse may give you reason to suspect,

Or experiencing unconditional love may give you reason to suspect,

Or enjoying your hobby may give you reason to suspect,

Or __________ may give you reason to suspect,

Or ...

I'm pretty sure he meant GOOD reasons to suspect, not such silliness as you've put forth.

 

[DanishDynamite]

If I might beg a brief sideline, why did you change your avatar back?

Thanks for noticing.

It was for purely practical purposes. When replying to posts across several pages, it is an advantage to easily find your original post when scrolling through a page. The fairly distinctive Red-and-White was easier to catch than the Muhammed-with-a-bomb-turban.

 

[DanishDynamite]

Who's talking about inventing things - especially tea cups? I never mentioned anything like that. I thought you were talking about "reasons to suspect".

Which I was. I see little difference between feeling a need to invent a magic sky-daddy and inventing orbiting sets of China.

 

[Macoy]

Thanks for noticing.

It was for purely practical purposes. When replying to posts across several pages, it is an advantage to easily find your original post when scrolling through a page. The fairly distinctive Red-and-White was easier to catch than the Muhammed-with-a-bomb-turban.

Thanks. I was intrigued by it as those images are not so easily available in the UK.

 

[A Christian Sceptic]

I'm pretty sure he meant GOOD reasons to suspect, not such silliness as you've put forth.

Oh, he meant GOOD reasons.

 

[Beth]

My experience is that you instantly get banned from such forums.

I can't imagine why!
[/quote]
No, just that there either weren't any skeptics around or that they knew they would get banned in a split second.[/quote] Has it occurred to you that the lack of responses to your OP from believers is because relatively few religious believers hang out on this forum and those that do hang out here tend not to be literalist believers.

Show me an appropriate forum, and I'll post it there.

It's a big internet and the majority of the world's population believes in one religion or another. I have a hard time believing that the most appropriate forum you could find was this one, which is primarily populated by atheists.

 

[steverino]

Who of these two is the real idiot?

 

[A Christian Sceptic]

Which I was. I see little difference between feeling a need to invent a magic sky-daddy and inventing orbiting sets of China.

Right - but why are you talking about "inventing" something in reply to a post about "reasons to suspect" something?

You also do understand, don't you, that you can have a "reason to suspect" and still have what you suspect not be true. And just because it's not true doesn't mean you never had a "reason to suspect".

And in the other direction, just because you personally have never had a "reason to suspect" about something doesn't mean that thing you don't suspect about is false.

 

[steverino]

Choose the real idiot:

 

[DanishDynamite]

Thanks. I was intrigued by it as those images are not so easily available in the UK.

Here is a random Internet site hosting it. The rest are out there as well if you search a little.

 

[DARK LORD XENU]

Generally, if you are religious, you are an idiot for so being. It may however be possible that you are just ignorant.

Read the thread, bozo.

So I have gone idiotic to ignorant to being a bozo! hmmmmm!

Obviously you do not like your own words being used against you at all mate, if your saying in one post those of us who are religious are idiots and ignorant then try going back on what you say then sorry to it but your just as much of an idiot than we religious folk are in your mind! if not more so!

Now do explain why did you say that some one is an idiot for believing in God in a post then try denying you think they are idiots in another post on the very same thread.

Also bozo I did read the thread you did say people like myself are idiots and then went back on it out of pure conveniance!

 

[DanishDynamite]

I can't imagine why!

No, just that there either weren't any skeptics around or that they knew they would get banned in a split second.

Has it occurred to you that the lack of responses to your OP from believers is because relatively few religious believers hang out on this forum and those that do hang out here tend not to be literalist believers.

Yes, it has. But we still have a few fundamentalists among us, and they are free to respond.

It's a big internet and the majority of the world's population believes in one religion or another. I have a hard time believing that the most appropriate forum you could find was this one, which is primarily populated by atheists.

You encouraged me to find a better forum. At least provide an example.

 

[humber]

I too suspect that the degree that religion is widespread means there is more to it than just a bad idea gone wrong. I seem to recall some research which indicated that there possibly was a "god" center in some peoples brains. I look forward to more research in this area.

Perhaps there is a distinction between 'all religions are idiocy' and 'all religious people are idiots'. I certainly agree with the former statement, though
finding a god centre or meme probably would not change things much.

Knowledge of such a meme or brain function would allow you to better "think like someone else" but not be able to do anything about it.

Those with enough intelligence, knowledge or lack of the meme, may be expected to then accept a godless world, but what of the remainder?

The awe that you mentioned, and often to explain why godlessness does not mean emptiness, sounds to me to be something like religious experience.

 

[DanishDynamite]

Right - but why are you talking about "inventing" something in reply to a post about "reasons to suspect" something?

You also do understand, don't you, that you can have a "reason to suspect" and still have what you suspect not be true. And just because it's not true doesn't mean you never had a "reason to suspect".

And in the other direction, just because you personally have never had a "reason to suspect" about something doesn't mean that thing you don't suspect about is false.

There is no "reason to suspect" a magic sky-daddy anymore than there is a reason to suspect magic gym socks. Hence, any belief in magic gym socks or sky daddys is an invention on the side of the believer/inventor.

 

[DanishDynamite]

So I have gone idiotic to ignorant to being a bozo! hmmmmm!

Obviously you do not like your own words being used against you at all mate, if your saying in one post those of us who are religious are idiots and ignorant then try going back on what you say then sorry to it but your just as much of an idiot than we religious folk are in your mind! if not more so!

Now do explain why did you say that some one is an idiot for believing in God in a post then try denying you think they are idiots in another post on the very same thread.

Also bozo I did read the thread you did say people like myself are idiots and then went back on it out of pure conveniance!

I don't know how to phrase things any clearer than I have. But let me try:

The only possible reason you are not an idiot if you are religious is if you had no chance to know better, in which case you are just ignorant.

Hope this is finally clear enough.

 

[A Christian Sceptic]

There is no "reason to suspect" a magic sky-daddy anymore than there is a reason to suspect magic gym socks. Hence, any belief in magic gym socks or sky daddys is an invention on the side of the believer/inventor.

I can think of many situations where I may have "reasons to suspect" magic gym socks. But they're not at all similar to "reasons to suspect" there is a God or even whether there is the supernatural.

 

[DanishDynamite]

Perhaps there is a distinction between 'all religions are idiocy' and 'all religious people are idiots'. I certainly agree with the former statement, though
finding a god centre or meme probably would not change things much.

Knowledge of such a meme or brain function would allow you to better "think like someone else" but not be able to do anything about it.

Those with enough intelligence, knowledge or lack of the meme, may be expected to then accept a godless world, but what of the remainder?

The awe that you mentioned, and often to explain why godlessness does not mean emptiness, sounds to me to be something like religious experience.

Yes, I realize that some people wish to make the fine distinction that "believing in religion is idiocy" is distinct from "believing in something idiotic makes you an idiot".

I have to say I find it hard to make this distinction.

 

[Rufo]

How odd then, that I was never taught skepticism and yet was effectively a skeptic since age 14.

Were you taught anything contrary to skepticism? Many here like to say that skepticism is the default position (as well as atheism), and I'm inclined to agree. You do not have to be taught skepticism. What annoys me is that you seem to think skepticism and atheism are views which any sensible person should be easily able to attain despite being taught otherwise, simply because you have attained them without having them taught to you.

It is idiotic to be religious. But as I've said several times now, ignorance is a mitigating circumstance.

Then I hope you understand that some are confused at your previous remark about all religious being idiots, directly contradicting this.

No one will open a book and find evidence that my gym socks don't control the White House. Or that my left ear isn't actually an alien able to camouflage to an unreal degree. Or...

No one has been taught by people they trusted most that any such things are true since birth. There are no widespread philosophies encouraging people to ignore questioning them.

The scietific method and its achievements. If you need to limit it, just take the first 10 or 100 examples.

I don't understand what you mean. What 'first' 10 or 100 examples?

Religious belief is idiotic. Anyone, who against knowledge to the contrary, is still religious, is an idiot.

I should just have asked you right away - define what exactly you mean by 'idiot'.

Because I don't know how to think as anyone else than myself. And neither do you.

I do not know how to feel as anyone else feels either. Putting myself in their situation may still help me to understand how they feel.

No, that is not mitigating enough. It is only if they had no possibilty of learning otherwise that they are just ignorant.

Now you're confusing me. You considered my first description to be "at most ignorant":

They could have access to libraries and the information, but have been conditioned into not studying it, or not to think of it as anything but lies or a form of deception.

How is that different from a person with a strong religious upbringing?

Thanks. I was intrigued by it as those images are not so easily available in the UK.

Since you appear to have an Internet connection, those images are easily available to you just about anywhere.

 

[steverino]

The only possible reason you are not an idiot if you are religious is if you had no chance to know better, in which case you are just ignorant. Hope this is finally clear enough.

This guy had no chance to "know better," according to you. So you know better than he, according to your twisted view.

 

[DanishDynamite]

I can think of many situations where I may have "reasons to suspect" magic gym socks. But they're not at all similar to "reasons to suspect" there is a God or even whether there is the supernatural.

Please explain how they differ.

And thanks for joining the debate! It seems we are finally able to get a discussion going as to why believers believe as they do.