Tom Storm

This is why I don't debate Bible versus with people. Even my friend John (who is a Catholic priest) describes the Bible as 'mostly barbaric'. Bishop J...

It's like an endlessly spinning wheel sometimes. It may not be good philosophy but I sometimes think less is more. Like my mum used to say: Just shut ...

Doesn't 'rational justification' count as meeting a burden of proof - this latter term is archaic English. Isn't proof traditionally just an argument ...

So? We all know this already but it makes no practical difference. We make choices and do things. What's that Woody Allen joke - "If I had been born i...

I find questions like these to be unhelpful to my experience. We are our behavior and choices. Putting the word 'real' in front of other words is rare...

I think Nick's point may be that one is not convinced there are good reasons to accept the proposition that gods exist. This is not the same thing as ...

Much of the world seems obsessed with America. The Cocacolonization by your empire starts with culture and ends with foreign policy. Here in Australia...

Yep. Things are crook. I replaced watching the news with learning acoustic guitar. My playing is only marginally less apocalyptic than the news...

Everyone is mesmerized by road accidents, especially when they involve the rich....

People are definitely making this argument.

Ok. Not much different from saying it is incoherent. Incoherent meaning it is unclear, contradictory and muddled or fuzzy. :smile:

Not very inspiring. I can read god's report card now, from when he was a little god at school. 'He has ability, but lacks discipline to complete tasks...

Not that believers ever follow or even much read their Bibles. There are passages encouraging evangelism (below) and it's a very old tradition, includ...

Thanks for the thoughtful response. There are literally many thousands of apologists (Christian and Muslim) eagerly debating atheists - even on Tik To...

Hope you don't mind me responding too. I agree. They often do. Of course religious people often have seething contempt for atheists. They are often bo...

If someone wants to call atheism religious, it may not be strictly accurate, but I don't have a problem with that. There are lots of things people are...

Christian culture and missionaries tended to take children and stick them in church orphanages where there was often abuse, but this is a separate iss...

Maybe. I think most things people do are fucked because people do them. I hire a lot of new graduates from university, I have rarely met any who care ...

Exactly - that's what I am saying - if you think you have better ideas and can help people, you want to share it with others. Bingo! :up:

I never said that, and that wasn't what we were discussing, but you may be right about this, atheism isn't quite as dreadful to other people. Good poi...

Who's talking about science? I was addressing this below which is clearly missing a large part of the story.

Interesting perspective. We're too far apart in world-views to even start a discussion on this. Thanks for clarifying your idea. :wink:

I don't think it would be meaningful to describe them as religions, but you can if you want. It is a natural thing for organizations to engage in mark...

An elegant and acute appraisal.

I think there are many types of atheism. Including religious or mystical atheism (atheist idealism). And there are atheists who embrace supernatural f...

No, that maybe too strong, I was being a bit flip and more aphoristic. But there is a poetic sense in which this is true. It is often nearly impossibl...

I hear you. I wasn't talking about subminimal messages or indoctrination, just advertising or socialization as part of life. We tend to value the thin...

Is this correct? Can cravings or needs not be engineered by socialization or marketing which generate needs where naturally, there might not be any, o...

Religions don't have that much in common either. Even within the one faith, they have often knocked off each other in endless vicious schism infightin...

Thanks Enrique - so you come to this issue via lived experience? That can be a valuable lens.

'It is better to live than to never exist' is a simple question of meaning - most young people find themselves exploring it at some point. What answer...

Fair point. :up:

What formal qualifications do you have in this area?

:up: Sorry, I had you for a run of the mill apologist... I disagree about the Bible being of any use today re morality, but I don't have the inclinati...

You're a good Stalinist, Moses. One of the influences in my thinking is former Episcopalian Bishop Shelby Spong who, obviously, was not an atheist. "S...

Except that the god described in the Old Testament is evil, right? This creature has an enormous blind spot and is mafia boss and thug, running belief...

This old paradox comes up a lot here. I have a few conceptual issues with it. How exactly do you imagine the Abrahamic god lifts anything? (There's th...

:lol:

That's my plan!

So when god promotes slavery and genocide and rape in the Bible, how is humanism or religion supposed to understand this? You seem to be saying that b...

Maybe it's because people jump to conclusions about what they see and have different understandings for what passes as evidence. (This can support bot...

Yes - the anti-enlightenment dodge delivers us fluffy bearded baristas called Bryce...

Those are superficial generalities. What differs is how we understand god's nature - what god wants from people, what behavior is moral, the extent of...

Not at all. Christians are all over the place on theology or the Bible. I grew up in the Baptist tradition in Australia. We were taught that the Bible...

It's a joke Jackson (referencing my Kantian thread) hence the wink emoji.

Everybody is wrong. Because all we ever know is tentative and defeasible and evanescent.

Ok. You're a Kantian... :wink:

:up: For some reason, I find myself being reminded of Hitler's 1937 Munich Exhibition of Degenerate Art...

Only some say this. Many would say we don't know as things stand, but this may change. If god/s were to arrive in town, in full regalia, we would revi...

Definitions have usage not meaning. I think it's often a rookie philosophy mistake to get too concrete about definitions. I am an agnostic atheist - (...