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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132303
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| Posted: 16 December 2019 at 12:22pm | IP Logged | 1
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Atheism isn’t that specific.
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Craig Earl
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 13 July 2019
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1251
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| Posted: 16 December 2019 at 1:28pm | IP Logged | 2
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A couple of years ago, my seven-year old niece told me that one of her classmates had dared to tell their form teacher that he didn't believe in God.
The teacher made this kid come to the front of the class, and then ridiculed him in front of his fellow pupils. I can remember my niece telling me that the teacher had said something along the lines of: 'What are you made of then if God didn't create you - plasticine?'
Cue lots of laughter from the classroom.
I have no problem with people believing what they want, as they as they don't try to force their views on me. If they insist on lecturing me, then I tend to play my joker:
'Of course you can believe in God. Lots of people have imaginary friends...'
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132303
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| Posted: 16 December 2019 at 2:04pm | IP Logged | 3
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One day in ninth grade I pantomimed what I call a stadium whistle. Fingers in the mouth. Unfortunately, I did it too well, and a shrill blast emerged as the teacher was talking. He turned to ice and stalked over to my desk. “Do you think that was appropriate?” he demanded. “No, sir,” I said. “When you and you family are in church do you do that?” “No, sir. We don’t go to church.” He seemed for a moment genuinely flummoxed, then said “Well, maybe if you did you’d be better behaved!” I wondered how my father, a practicing Buddhist, would have reacted if I had told him that story.
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Craig Earl
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 13 July 2019
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1251
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| Posted: 16 December 2019 at 4:07pm | IP Logged | 4
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Unfortunately, I did it too well, and a shrill blast emerged as the teacher was talking.
-----------
Man, I've never been able to manage that whistle...
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 16 December 2019 at 5:24pm | IP Logged | 5
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Haven’t been able to do it since!
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Koroush Ghazi
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 25 October 2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 1650
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| Posted: 17 December 2019 at 6:02am | IP Logged | 6
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John Byrne wrote:
| Atheism is not a belief system. |
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Precisely. Another point I try to hammer into people - as an atheist, I don't "believe" in anything. That is, I try extremely hard not to accept things without proof, which is the definition of belief:
belief
1. an acceptance that something exists or is true, especially one without proof.
2. trust, faith, or confidence in (someone or something).
Or, to put it less kindly, superstition.
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Michael Penn
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
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| Posted: 17 December 2019 at 6:30am | IP Logged | 7
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Interestingly, the Cambridge online dictionary has two definitions of atheist, distinguishing between America and the United Kingdom:
[1] (US) someone who believes that God does not exist
[2] (UK) someone who does not believe in any God or gods
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 17 December 2019 at 6:35am | IP Logged | 8
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I do tend to “...s” at people who say “You don’t believe in God?”
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Eric Ladd
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 August 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 4506
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| Posted: 17 December 2019 at 7:04am | IP Logged | 9
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"Haven’t been able to do it since!"
It was a divine miracle. ;)
Edited by Eric Ladd on 17 December 2019 at 7:05am
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Peter Hicks
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 30 April 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 1891
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| Posted: 17 December 2019 at 12:39pm | IP Logged | 10
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As NASA and other space agencies peer deeper and deeper into the universe, we have seen no sign of life on another planet. We have not detected any radiation signals that suggest a repeated pattern. There are no lights in space that indicate an artificial source. We have seen no earth sized exo-planets in the Goldilocks zone.
It seems we are alone in the universe.
Q: Does that waver any of your views on whether a god did/did not create the universe?
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Peter Martin
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 15803
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| Posted: 17 December 2019 at 12:59pm | IP Logged | 11
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a. The Mekon is hiding his existence on Venus with superior technology.b. The universe is large and NASA's search not so large. c. The age of the universe is large and NASA's search peeks through only specific windows of that age. d. Even if we were alone, I don't think that alters consideration of whether god created the universe.
I'm not even convinced the universe had a starting point. Our current observable universe could be an iteration of an infinite process. There's plenty of mystery either way, whether the universe came into existence from literally nothing (with all the laws of physics suddenly also springing into existence), or whether all that is is part of a process that has always been. I don't see how a magical being creating everything solves one jot of the mystery or satisfies any line of reasoning... Apart from giving a convenient excuse to think no further.
Edited by Peter Martin on 17 December 2019 at 12:59pm
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Shane Matlock
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 August 2012
Location: United States
Posts: 1760
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| Posted: 17 December 2019 at 5:06pm | IP Logged | 12
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I find it so odd that we have to define ourselves as not believing in a superstition that the majority keeps perpetuating.
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