zedvictor4

Your response is Brother D's success.

He's smarter than you think.

When is a religion not a religion?

Scientology is a for profit organisation that sells nonsense to the gullible......Hmmmmmm......Sounds like religion.

Sport is the taking part and not the watching.

What is a magical translator?

Just depends on the duck.

Hopefully all Americans are democratic.

One person has an axe to grind and so interprets the bible one way, and another person has a different axe and so interprets it differently.

Same old.

A measured response....is this the a new Mr Ethang?

That's what he tells you, and you believe him.

Just what the German people did 85 years ago.

Surely we've learnt how to spot a megalomaniac by now.

How is it incorrect? 

How is it essentially just admitting defeat?

Yep, murder is philosophically justifiable....  But that's generally not the way things happen..... Because murder is socially unacceptable.....Of course, murder like most things is open to interpretation.

Trouble is prescription drugs prolong life before they kill you.

And substances exist for sure. But the jury is still out as to how they got there....You have one idea.

Supposedly, it was Jesus's dad that made the penis and labia minora fun as well as functional for us.

It's humans that get hung up about it....God probably shakes it's head in disbelief sometimes.

Spoketh Jesus to his disciples....Yum Yum Y'all.......Though cut from later texts as we developed repression.....But never forgotten and currently very popular again.

Yep, just like the GOD that exists in your mind.

Though to be fair, various GODS started out as  very naive creation hypotheses.....

Acquired knowledge quickly disproved these old ideas......But some people still derive a great deal of pleasure from them.

Christmas is no different to Halloween......Just different costumes and a tad more expensive.

There's probably a lot more history than in the history books.

Primarily a solution to the greenhouse gas problem....Though ultimately a solution and an end to our evolutionary purpose. 

Our future will perhaps be someone or something else's history.

Constantly saving millions upon millions of lives is one of the biggest problems facing the natural world.

Medical intervention has overridden natural selection.....And so you could say that most of us are naturally unselected....Which is a fascinating contradiction.

OH GOD!... I hear the theists crying.

We need to kill to survive.

It's just that meat is fluffier and cuter than beans.

It's all in the mind, just like morality.

If there is a purpose, I doubt that it is to hang around on this speck of cosmic dust for ever.

It will be necessary to escape the Sun eventually.

As I suggested, this isn't going to happen overnight.

Solar flare proofing might  be a necessary development, irrespective of what or who is on board.....Depends upon which way you're heading I suppose.

And "masturbation chambers"...Good idea...Sexual gratification only needs a quick fix....Reproduction will need to become a more selective process, best achieved in the factory laboratory.

Why keep producing redundant illogical numpties?

How, and by whom?

I must of missed that.

Did Donald Trump do it?

Atheist minds are very open.

That's why they are atheists.

And what about Trump's hair.

Technological creep is very subtle but highly addictive.

And the masses are prone to gullibility and susceptible to the will of charismatic leadership.

And I don't suppose that either of us is on board, but the future is seemingly infinite and won't be ours to worry about.

It's taken homo-sapiens some 300000 years to get thus far.... So technology is already way ahead of us in terms of evolutionary development....And we're making it so.

The future is bright...the future is digital.

Can you prove that?

As no one else as ever been able to.

The word GOD, was the expression of human ignorance.

Today the word GOD has a variety of applications, some stupid some more reasonable.

GOD as a representation of an ultimate reality is what it is. 

And singing and dancing and praying and swishing incense around, is also what it is.

Selective breeding and a global standard of education based on pure logic. 

Humans as is, are undoubtedly clever but also illogical and prone to stupidity.

I think that we are heading in this direction, though it will be a while before the sentient inorganic has complete control over us.

I would also suggest that the GOD principle/ultimate reality, is probably inorganic.

So, maybe you are already singing from the same hymn sheet, but just don't actually know it.

What's up Doc?

Was that written in Guadeloupean?

I've just found a Calabi-Yau manifold curled up in my underpants drawer.

None of the above can be validated, as there is no universal standard.

We are simply, composite lumps of matter that think.

And morality is a concept thereof, as is GOD.

This is realism, not nihilism.

Nihilist is what conceptualist theists name call atheist realists.

Yep, everything is a product of the universe...... Even the concept of a supernatural GOD.

A nihilist would say that this has probably all happened before somewhere, and if the shit does eventually hit the fan, then what the f**K.

Though maybe we are clever enough and will find the solution, as we were meant to do.

Yep, we're rapidly evolving into a future, where humans will become more and more superfluous....This clearly suggests to me that humanity is only a means to something else.

So knowledge is going to be key,  if you want to stay in the game.

Everything is natural.

Hearing voices is a mental health issue.

And sex is fundamentally reproduction, though sexual pleasure and sexual gratification can be achieved in a variety of ways.

We currently have a global population of 7.6 billion approx. So indulging in a bit of the other isn't going to matter much. Especially as we are no longer reliant upon physical intercourse for conception.

The above is realism..... And religion is an unnecessary but popular distraction.

So if someone murders you because a GOD told them to do so..... It is not because a GOD spoke...It is because they have mental health issues.

And if it was a Christian, we should be sympathetic and if it was a Muslim we should blow the f**k out of them....And vice versa.

The wonders of humanity, hey.

Nope.

You just process data and come out with stuff, in exactly the same way that most people do.

Nothing that you output,  actually proves the existence of a specific GOD.

An ultimate reality may well be a specific GOD..... But all the eulogising, ritual and paraphernalia associated with your specific religion is just pie in the sky.

You yourself readily acknowledge that the ultimate reality is unknowable.....So why, as you have no idea what it is and what if any it's requirements might be, do you give it a name and worship it in the way that you do.

T. Ultimate reality is logical....A Specific GOD is an assumption....And therefore religious behaviour, although it might make you feel good, is pointless. 

A. Ultimate reality is logical...A Specific GOD is an assumption....And therefore religious behaviour has know meaning and is pointless. But I still feel good....Because I channel my energy into other things.

You assume that a GOD has been revealed to you....Though, this is not the same as a GOD actually being revealed to you.

One can assume anything.

Morals are constructed by those that consider themselves to know better.

And incest refers to a sex act between closely related people.

At the end of the day one chooses what one considers to be OK,  irrespective of preordained morality.

Though we generally conform to social norms,  sometimes some people choose not to.

There's a big difference between "A Creator" and  a creation.

"A Creator" has secondary implications attached.....Namely, "A Creator"......Or in other words, an uncreated precursor. 

In suggesting "A Creator" you are suggesting:  A. An unconstructed entity.  With B:  The ability to construct something from nothing.... Both of which are illogical.

Though, if it is logical that something can be constructed from nothing, then it's therefore also logical to suggest that there is no need for "A Creator".

Yep. Same old stuff.

Though the carrot thing was more of a reference to an old sci-film I watched years ago about Alien invasion....The Thing From Another World.... The alien beings weren't typically humanoid, but looked more like giant carrots.  Although the film wasn't particularly good, I nonetheless  thought that the concept was an interesting take on evolutionary possibilities.

Trump was always going to be the carrot...... Especially as he still want's to be the star of the show.

No it hasn't....A person made that up and has strung you along.

And yes, an atheist could rightly be regarded as exhibiting incredulity.

It's indisputably  a truism.....So obviously sound and reasonable.....But neither, proves the existence of a GOD, or identifies the ultimate reality.

You're still reliant on blind faith.

The problem is that politics and political support is largely based on historically acquired bias.   And just like here in the U.K. the split is usually 50/50 ish....So every 4 or 5 years or so the election is decided by the minority of unbiased voters....And this year in the U.S. they obviously realised the mistake the made four years ago, in voting for an intellectually inept megalomaniac. 

Republicans just need to find a credible candidate for next time....Because it was only Trump that lost this election....Biden was just, clearly the better a option.

Evolution is progressive, unavoidable and unstoppable.....And  the political thrashings of human society are inconsequential to the fact....And we like to think that humanity is the be all and end all.....And on the one hand we could be, but on the other we probably won't be....Relative to this particular spec of cosmic dust of course.

There may be intelligent carrots out there somewhere, that don't give a damn about  liberals, moderates or progressives.

So maybe, Trump is in fact a carrot.....Certainly the right colour, though clearly one of the less intellectual ones.

And you don't also have an agenda?

Stephen quotes the bible literally, and given that the bible he quotes from must be a fairly recent interpretation, then why do you still need to  re-interpret  in order to to be able to respond?

Let's be honest....It's because the literal bible is now out of sync with modern thinking.......It's still reliant on a fantastic creation hypothesis and is often embarrassingly, politically incorrect.

A loose historical record, embellished with a supernatural creation hypothesis.... In short, a Myth.

Some people have moved and on some haven't....And to be fair, this is the nature of data transfer and human susceptibility.....Teach your kids nonsense and they will grow up believing in nonsense.

Nonetheless, a GOD principle is still a reasonable hypothesis.....But certainly not as presented in the Bible.

You try to be a modern thinker, but are still well and truly stuck in the out of date past.

Yep, that's truism.

Yes it does.

But it doesn't stop you making things up.

Yep...You must have been away doing something....It was the 23rd of September when I made that comment.

Nope you don't get it. 

I do not believe in an ultimate reality....I merely accept the probability thereof.

The same as you, but you name it GOD, create a religion, embellish it with ritual and refer to your brain state as belief....Despite freely admitting that the ultimate reality is unknowable.

So....... You fully acknowledge that you have no idea what the Ultimate Reality is.

Then we agree.

So what's the point of a specific religion then?.......When you're fully aware that you are likely to be farting in the wind. ( Pardon the expression, but it makes the point succinctly)

Which was exactly my point.

You presume to have a special club.

So Stephen asks direct questions of the Bible and you and your clubmates interpret or misinterpret biblical scripture to suit.

Stephen clearly studies biblical scripture as you do..... So you are both theologians but in different clubs.

Respect, not kudos....To you both.

As I pointed out...It's a silly question because it asks the obvious, in a vain attempt to validate a specific GOD hypothesis, namely, your GOD hypothesis.

Quite obviously a GOD hypothesis or GOD principle is the better of the two options.....Because as I stated, nothing is nothing and something is clearly obvious to us.

Though, that one should then instantly conclude that your specific version of a GOD hypothesis is the correct one, is therefore a silly expectation.

The fundamental problem is that we currently have no idea how something was derived from nothing.

So atheistic people simply tend not to wildly over speculate as theistic people do.

Denying that the burden of proof lies with the theist, really is just avoiding the real fundamental question.

0 to GOD, or 0 to BOB, or 0 to dave, or perhaps 0 to BIG BANGO......The names which are all relatively recent human constructs, are all wholly irrelevant.

So you say a GODS essence is unknowable.

Which means, you have know idea what GOD is, yet still believe in it.

Which really is blind faith in a loosely calculated assumption.

Whereas I know the essence of the ultimate reality is unknowable, freely admit it,  so believe no creation hypotheses and therefore make no unsubstantiated claims.

But hey...We are both content.

Well "Ultimate Reality" is a TWO word term which as a specific meaning....Though that meaning doesn't  tell us what GOD is specifically.

A GOD may well be the ultimate reality, but there again the ultimate reality may well not be a GOD....It might just be BIG BANGO or a LITTLE PUFF or perhaps a hundred and one other things.