> -----Original Message----- > From: Dinner [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2007 5:01 AM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Re: Christian's: Paranoid or not > > Depends on what your definition of is is*. I thought that you were > affronted > when I claimed Atheism a more "closed" approach? Did we get our izes
"Closed" in what sense? If we're only talking about the single fact, "Is there a God" then all these beliefs are fairly closed: Theist: There is a God, one that interacts directly with us and can be felt. Nothing can convince them otherwise. Atheist: There is no God because there is no acceptable evidence of one. However should acceptable evidence (extraordinary evidence since the claim is extraordinary) then the existence of God would have to be accepted. Deist: There is a God but nothing more can really be known. God may be dead, gone or not involved with us or it may be present, active and involved - but there is no way we can understand God. Most religion therefore (which claims an understanding of God) is at best misguided. Agnostic: The "God" question is unanswerable in any definite sense. In other words there is no evidence possible that would challenge either the faithful or the atheist - true consideration of the question is beyond our possible understanding. Now if we're talking (as many people tend to) about a general tendency towards "close-mindedness" then I don't think that any of these beliefs really present a tendency either way. Although some of the beliefs lead to "Grouping" (a fundamentalist, biblical-literalist is forced to deny all manner of scientific evidence to maintain their beliefs just as the atheist is forced to deny all manner of miracles and such) beyond that question it's a crap shoot. There's a concept in skepticism called the "Sacred Cow" - it's used to indicate a generally woo-woo belief held by an otherwise skeptical person. The Harvard professor that's convinced of mass alien abduction, the respected brain surgeon that swears by acupuncture, etc. Basically it means that otherwise logical, skeptical people can have illogical beliefs. On the other end of the spectrum there's the "Fantasy Prone Personality" - these are the kind of people that seem to believe EVERYTHING. But that said many people like this are atheists: they may believe in all sorts of weird medical treatments, alien abductions, ghosts, etc - but not in God. > Hell, that's a sorta funny similar sorta almost but not even close type > subject- What's your take about extra-terrestrials? Life elsewhere? It's hard to understand the science of things and NOT believe that there's other life out there (and probably lots of it). I'm with Sagan on most things in this area - including the fact that it's really (REALLY) unlikely that we've ever been visited despite the fact that the universe probably teems with life. The simplistic, naturalistic answer is simply: we've no reason to believe that our circumstances are particularly unlikely so there's no reason to assume that they haven't been replicated many times. > Hey, what's your take on life, while we're at it- You absolutely > positive > that > this isn't some sorta Matrix type deal- we're all sitting in vats deep > under- > ground, in the "real" world? Well... it's rare that I'll say anything is "absolutely positive". ;^) You're more likely to here "there's no compelling evidence" or "barring proof" or "the greatest probability". But, no - we don't live in the Matrix. ;^) > What gets my dander up about "The Golden Compass" affair is that if you > can > > yank Pullman off the shelves for being an atheist, why not them? > Where > > does > > it stop? > > Tally ho! In a vein not altogether un-akin: Don't censor God, Jim! > LOL Never! If nothing else the Bible is one of the most effective tools to bring people to atheism ever conceived! ;^) Actually I love the more pure, moral Christian ideals. I'm sitting her watching "Prince of Egypt" with my kids right now. Bible stories, when stripped of the irrational need to be taken as absolute truth, can be truly moving and beautiful. I know atheists that refuse to read their kids "The Chronicles of Narnia" for the same reason that Christians won't buy "The Golden Compass" and I think both sides are moronic. Any belief that can't sustain the most basic of challenges isn't worth keeping in the first place. If my kids become theists, so be it: I won't love them any less. If that's what they need, that's their choice. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Get the answers you are looking for on the ColdFusion Labs Forum direct from active programmers and developers. http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/webforums/forum/categories.cfm?forumid-72&catid=648 Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:248014 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
