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Given religion's failure to settle on a coherent and consistent moral philosophy that does not simply revert to conflicting variations on "God said it!," it seems that you too need to come up with one as well.
Alternatives have been discussed and discarded since the ancient Greeks at least. But human history is a democracy, and it's voted consistently in favor of God. You may think the great mass of humanity are and always have been complete fools but I don't.
Everyone would choose the Christian and they know it. No one will admit this, though.
Alternatives have been discussed and discarded since the ancient Greeks at least. But human history is a democracy, and it's voted consistently in favor of God. You may think the great mass of humanity are and always have been complete fools but I don't.
Alternatives have been discussed and discarded since the ancient Greeks at least. But human history is a democracy, and it's voted consistently in favor of God. You may think the great mass of humanity are and always have been complete fools but I don't.
But human history is a democracy, and it's voted consistently in favor of God.
You may think the great mass of humanity are and always have been complete fools but I don't.
Human history is a democracy of ideas? Lol what?
I hate to break it to you...but when you consider that in most places the idea that you can say god doesn't exist and not get punished or executed for it is relatively new. Maybe if you think really carefully you'll remember one of those ancient Greeks who got executed for saying as much. If that's your idea of "democracy" I'd be really curious about what you call a dictatorship.
Give it time. Like most truths that people don't like hearing...it takes a little while to get a foothold. Once it does though...the old lies tend to die out or fester in obscurity.
Option 3. Cowboy camping. Dig a hole for the gold.
Good point.
It also reminded me of something I thought of earlier. So what if you have some gold on you? How is the potential 'innkeeper' going to know unless you are foolish enough to tell him?
Perhaps that points to a rather weak reason to favor the atheist. The Christian's god may decide it it time for a test and let the Christian learn of the gold in a dream. Less chance of that for the atheist.
Option 3. Cowboy camping. Dig a hole for the gold.
Good point.
It also reminded me of something I thought of earlier. So what if you have some gold on you? How is the potential 'innkeeper' going to know unless you are foolish enough to tell him?
Perhaps that points to a rather weak reason to favor the atheist. The Christian's god may decide it it time for a test and let the Christian learn of the gold in a dream. Less chance of that for the atheist.
I took the bag of gold as being necessarily too large to hide. This is why the bag is introduced into the question to begin with. If you simply had a bill-fold of thousands...you could probably conceal it easily.
Not necessarily your god, for sure.Alternatives have been discussed and discarded since the ancient Greeks at least. But human history is a democracy, and it's voted consistently in favor of God.
I do not think them to be fools. My hypothesis is that with the emergence of self-awareness, an evolutionary trait selected for because of its benefit to survival over the less-aware competition, what followed was existential angst, for which our ancestors, ever the inventive type, created memes to address the resultant fears. That evolved into religion.You may think the great mass of humanity are and always have been complete fools but I don't.
And like many religions, Christianity was created to fit our evolved nature. That does not exempt the claims of this or any religion from the requirement of its claims being demonstrated as accurately reflecting reality.Yes, or if you want you can look at it as Dawkins' idea of memes. Ideas get passed around and some survive and are passed on. Survival of the fittest.
Yes, or if you want you can look at it as Dawkins' idea of memes. Ideas get passed around and some survive and are passed on. Survival of the fittest.
Socrates, or someone else? I don't think he qualifies as an atheist martyr since the charges against him may have included introducing new gods.
I guess it does take a little while, like all of human history so far.
Practically the atheist equivalent of four Popes.
I don't know what 3 I'm living up to. I answered the OP and gave my reason for my answer. I didn't do any of the other things you said. My answer is probably similar to the reason politicians don't come out and say they're atheists. That's on you. You need to come up with a moral philosophy which is as compelling as the supernatural compulsion we all feel.
This is inspired by Tree Of Life's "Persuasiveness of the Christian Community" thread. I didn't want to hijack that one.
It's a hypothetical scenario I think I read in a book a long time ago - you're traveling to a town, but you're having to walk a long way through the woods to get there. It's snowing, temperature's below freezing, and you have to stop for the night. A man you came across earlier told you there are two cabins up ahead with warm fire and food. You asked him about who lived in them, and he replied that he didn't know either of the occupants, except it was known that one man was an atheist (cabin A), and the other man was a Christian (cabin B). That's all you know. Another thing, you're carrying a bag with your life savings in gold coins, so if you're going to sleep you'd like to be able to trust the person who's offering you hospitality not to murder you and/or steal your money. Which cabin would you go to?
Yes.I get what you're trying to say but that's not really a fair comparison, and you know it.
Not necessarily your god, for sure.
I do not think them to be fools. My hypothesis is that with the emergence of self-awareness,... [snip]
And like many religions, Christianity was created to fit our evolved nature. That does not exempt the claims of this or any religion from the requirement of its claims being demonstrated as accurately reflecting reality.
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