Article on Atheism as a Mental Illness

slingblade said:
Anyone who doesn't believe in sky-daddy or magic is mentally ill. Didn't you know? :p
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Let's see: denying reality, talking to yourself, referring to the same old texts over and over, collective indoctrination through fear, strange rituals, seeing things that are not there...

Does this describe atheists or theists? :eusa_think:
 
Pardalis said:
Let's see: denying reality, talking to yourself, referring to the same old texts over and over, collective indoctrination through fear, strange rituals, seeing things that are not there...

Does this describe atheists or theists? :eusa_think:
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Hmmm....gee, that's a real poser.



:p
 
Pardalis said:
Let's see: denying reality, talking to yourself, referring to the same old texts over and over, collective indoctrination through fear, strange rituals, seeing things that are not there...
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You left out "Hearing voices that no one else can hear originating from inside your head, burning shrubs, or the sky".
 
I read the first paragraph, then scanned the comments and stopped.

Clearly this is an attempt to get attention. I don't see it as a "them theists poking a stick at us atheists", so to speak. I see it as someone trying to get attention.

This post is all the attention I am willing to give him.
 
I ask them to give me a single example of anything, outside of what they call nature, that came into being without intelligent direction. Of course, they can not.
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How about these antennae?

st5-3-10.jpg
st5_4w-03.jpg


These were found by an algoritm based on random mutations and selection, and they're better than anything humans have been able to think of.
 
Ixion said:
Well, I was surfing the internet (as I happen to do quite a bit), and noticed an article that caught my attention. The title of the article is "Atheism is a Mental Illness, a cry for attention". I noticed that the author is bwinwright, who posts here a bit, and admits as such in the article.

Atheism is a Mental Illness

His premise is (paraphrasing): atheists are protesting organised religion. They cannot possibly deny that an intelligent being created the universe. Order requires an intelligent being.

He never really addresses how he came to the conclusion that being an atheist infers that one must have a mental illness. The article revolves around a big straw man to support his beliefs as well. Too bad. Maybe someone else has another take on it.
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Why is it:

Articles defending Intelligent Design always appear to have been produced without it?

Articles accusing others of mental illness always appear to have been produced by it?

...

...

...

No rush, these are rhetorical questions. :rr:
 
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blobru said:
Why is it:

Articles defending Intelligent Design always appear to have been produced without it?

Articles accusing others of mental illness always appear to have been produced by it?

...

...

...

No rush, these are rhetorical questions. :rr:
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Appear? You mean to say there is more than meets the eye there?
 
These were found by an algoritm based on random mutations and selection, and they're better than anything humans have been able to think of.
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Read a whole article on those in a Scandinavian popular science magazine, and both the way they did it and the result are just amazing. According to the article, there were even a couple antennae that the scientists were unable to explain, function-wise - they worked flawlessly, but the researchers were clueless as to how.

Of course, all of this falls flat to fundamentalists, who'll ask who created the tools and world in which the researchers did their project, point out that it's not natural selection because it's driven by humans, or derail the discussion in other ways. But it's still a fantastic method of innovation that I feel will give us many awesome, not to say inexplicable, inventions in the future.
 
Before even looking at the linked item (which I've now only glanced at), I assumed it was a parody of the "religion is a mental illness" theme (or theism is child abuse, or whatever) that is prevalent in some circles (do a Google search). No-one on this board has ever even implied such, of course... :rolleyes:

So it's certainly possible that this is or was intended as a parody or satire of the corresponding opposite sentiment expressed by some atheists.
 
Fredrik said:
How about these antennae?

http://ti.arc.nasa.gov/projects/esg/images/st5-3-10.jpghttp://ti.arc.nasa.gov/projects/esg/images/st5_4w-03.jpg

These were found by an algoritm based on random mutations and selection, and they're better than anything humans have been able to think of.
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Sorry ... that algorithm was produced by intelligent intent, which directed the design of those antennae.

Now, if those antennae had spontaneaously assembled themselves from nothing, then you could claim that they were produced without intelligent intent.
 
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epeeist said:
Before even looking at the linked item (which I've now only glanced at), I assumed it was a parody of the "religion is a mental illness" theme (or theism is child abuse, or whatever) that is prevalent in some circles (do a Google search).
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I thought it was just an ironic joke - "Atheism is a Mental Illness, a cry for attention" this from someone publishing what is obviously a cry for attention itself, and with content that makes one doubt the writer's sanity... seemed ironic to me.

Some of the comments are amusing though :)
 
bobcarp said:
so is he say Einstein, Hawking, Sagan, et al, were mentaly ill?
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I'm not sure about Hawking, but Sagan identified himself as an agnostic and Einstein called himself a pantheist in the sense that Spinoza used the term. But Einstein's pantheism bears little resemblance to bwinwright's version, and I'm sure all three would find no merit in his claims.
 
Sorry ... that algorithm was produced by intelligent intent, which directed the design of those antennae.
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I called it:p (and now feel bad as Fnord is of course not a fundamentalist, but oh well)!
 
Fnord said:
Sorry ... that algorithm was produced by intelligent intent, which directed the design of those antennae.

Now, if those antennae had spontaneaously assembled themselves from nothing, then you could claim that they were produced without intelligent intent.
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Why would I want to claim that? :confused: Not only is it 100% obvious that it took both intelligence and intent to find the algorithm, but if the antennae had "spontaneously assembled themselves from nothing", it wouldn't have been an example of what evolution can do. It would have been evidence of something supernatural.
 
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