Michael Savage on God and Science

[Upchurch]

Evidence of this? My personal experience would lead me to assume the opposite is true. As people get older, more and more drop their religion all together, while those that hang onto it seem to be 'more' religious, because they were they most religious ones in the first place.

By which, I would have to counter, what is your rationale for that? When you say "as people get older", do you mean as they approach adulthood or as they become elderly? My experience is that, as people become elderly, they tend to become more religious in a Pascal's Wager sort of fashion.

Aside: Bill Cosby had a comedy routine where he compared his parents when he was a child to his parents when he had children. In trying to explain to his children what his mother was really like, the punch line was to the effect of "She's an old woman, now. She's trying to get in to heaven!"

The rationale is that as people get older and the possibility of their death gets nearer, they cling to the idea of self preservation, that they will exist in heaven (or hell) after their deaths. It isn't difficult to understand.

 

[arcticpenguin]

RE: Einstein quotes

Check out The Woo Woo Credo, rule 36.

 

[Barkhorn1x]

Hmmm....

Why is it so important to believers to prove that Einstein believed in a God that intervenes in human affairs, or at least that there is a God?? And why is so important for non-believers to “set the record straight”??

Really - here is where we are if either position is accurate;

1. He DID believe in a God = So what? This does not prove God’s existence any more than pointing to Jerry Fawell’s belief in God. This is mere “argument from authority”.

2. He DIDN’T believe in God = Again, so what? This doesn’t prove that God doesn’t exist - none of us can say that w/ 100% certainty for reasons well known to us all. This position merely echoes the view of many scientists (not all by any means) that the universe is best explained by natural as opposed to supernatural forces.

As far as Michael Savage is concerned - I’ve listened to his radio show on at least 5 occasions - and I can confirm that on each one he comes across as a hate filled right wing woo woo who hurls ad-homs at anyone who dares to disagree with his stilted world view, all the while unmercifully plugging away at his merchandise.

One wonders whether people listen (he DOES get high ratings on radio) because they agree w/ the garbage he is spouting or because it is fun to hear him make an ass out of himself yet again. I know I fall into the latter category.

Barkhorn.

 

[Brian the Snail]

I seem to remember that Einstein also had quite left-wing political views. So much so, that at one point he was suspected of having communist sympathies and investigated by the FBI. Given that obviously we should all follow Einstein in his religious views (as this Savage fellow seems to suggest), perhaps we can all follow him in his political views as well.

How do you like that one, Mr Savage?

 

[Fade]

By which, I would have to counter, what is your rationale for that? When you say "as people get older", do you mean as they approach adulthood or as they become elderly? My experience is that, as people become elderly, they tend to become more religious in a Pascal's Wager sort of fashion.

I already addressed this. My experience says people become less religious as they age into their 50s and 60s and beyond.

Which is why I asked for evidence, because all I have is what I've seen, and I am not a researcher nor a statistician so I probably don't have a good sampling.

 

[Upchurch]

I already addressed this. My experience says people become less religious as they age into their 50s and 60s and beyond.

50 and 60 year olds are hardly elderly. Talk to 80 and 90 year olds and see how many you find that are religious.

 

[fishbob]

"If my comments brought pain to anyone I certainly did not intend for this to happen and apologize for any such reaction," Savage said on his Web site

Translation: I'm sorry you are upset.

Sounds like a carefully calculated non-apology.

What a jerk.

 

[QuarkChild]

I wish, I wish, I wish I were dictator of the world.

(Shoot...I can't find a smiley that has one smiley-guy slapping another smiley-guy. )

Of course, if I was really dictator of the world, I wouldn't literally slap sense and decency into people. I would wow them with my Reason and inspire them to repent of their hatreds. And I would scold the hell out of them.
"Attention, unwashed masses! I am Dictator Quark! [points at Mr. Savage] YOU, fool, are a loathsome hypocrite!..."

Okay, maybe not. But I wish something could stop bigots like that.