Quote:
Originally Posted by kuanteen
My understanding of the Reformation is that it is a return to the original faith rather than a dilution of that faith. But you are right, it is a dilution of the Catholic faith.
But is that atheism? No, sometimes (and I think this is a key word) atheists are as dogmatic as some theists. Must theism be necessarily dogmatic?
That quote brings us back to square one. So you think no one should offer any evidence? I'm sure you don't mean this (and will begin to cite scientific discoveries that go against religious books), but has science actually produced evidence for or against a God of any sort? Or are you just a-Judeo-Christian-theist?
So you're intolerant of intolerance, especially when it is justified by "discredited" scripture? What about other kinds of intolerance, like those justified by pseudo-science? Or intolerance justified by the rule of law?
Again, I think charlatan is a strong word. People who vied for brotherly love and justice and peace? They're all charlatans...?
Here's why I sense the same bias that the other extreme also has. Is there a chance that some of these "prophets" might actually be good people who were mistaken?
I'm afraid this statement doesn't offer any proof for what you believe. Rather, its looking down on what others believe simply because it doesn't "rub along" with your intellect. If anything, I don't think it actually paints you as much of a tolerant soul.
I also hope we can clear up whether you don't believe in just the Judeo-Christian and Islamic "God" or whether no supernatural being exists beyond our comprehension at all.
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Right, Kuanteen; let me state my philosophy. I do not believe in any supernatural being, or agency or entity of any kind. I believe that the world is full of mysteries, largely predicated upon the fact that many of our discoveries have been so recent and so extraordinary that we are still reeling from their implications. What is clear, however, is that the religions of the book have traditionally claimed a monopoly on knowledge, (including scientific knowledge,) and that not content with merely stating their case as deriving knowledge (about, for example, the origins of the world) from the scriptures, they actively sought to suppress any contrary opinion.
This is a matter of fact, not opinion. Further more, this situation still, to a very large extent, prevails within islam. I listened with sadness to a muslim scholar taking part in a radio 4 'Beyond Belief' programme just a few weeks ago. He lamented the fact that at the once-prestigious University of Islamabad, there were four mosques on campus, but not one single bookshop. This, he explained, was because unfettered access to all books would include material that was contrary to the will of allah as revealed by his prophet mohammed. He further gave the example that chemistry lecturers were obliged to teach that, for example, when oxygen and hydrogen came together in a heated reaction the result -
if it was the will of allah - would be the production of water! Make of this what you will, but it is little better within christianity. Stem cell research could deliver the most wonderful relief from terrible diseases. Fundamental (and indeed not-so-fundamental) christians, including George W Bush, oppose it largely because the Catholic church tells them that at the moment of conception the zygote - this tiny aglomeration of about 150 cells - receives a soul (it doesn't try to even address what happens in the case of identical twins, where this same zygote later splits into two people - the catholic church's teaching is, as always, infallible.)
The religious sensibilities of a large swath of humanity is thus aimed at a non-existent future state, at the expense of suffering in the only experiential state any of us actually has; which is our little life.
I'm sorry, I have to get off the copmputer as my kids are trying to do their homework.
Will return later or tomorrow.
(by the way - I really am not trying to be unpleasant or whatever here, in spite of the way in ehich I state my cases. I just have total confidence in it - I'll explain why one day (used to be a christain, attende the famous, or infamous alpha couse etc,)