Quote Digest

[ZeaLitY]

Ratzinger should remain in charge of the whole rotten edifice - the whole profiteering, woman-fearing, guilt-gorging, truth-hating, child-raping institution - while it tumbles, amid a stench of incense and a rain of tourist-kitsch sacred hearts and preposterously crowned virgins, about his ears.

Hah, what a beautiful badass. Dawkins, motherfucker. Calls it like it is.

[Sajainta]

Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?

[Thought]

When you're a kid, they tell you it's all "grow up. Get a job. Get married. Get a house. Have a kid, and that's it." But the truth is, the world is so much stranger than that. It's so much darker. And so much madder. And so much better.

[Truthordeal]

Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.

[GenesisOne]

Hah, what a beautiful badass. Dawkins, motherfucker. Calls it like it is.

So why does a smart guy like Richard Dawkins regularly give atheists a bad name by putting his foot in his mouth with his inane and ridiculous pronouncements about God and religion?

[Romana]

When you're a kid, they tell you it's all "grow up. Get a job. Get married. Get a house. Have a kid, and that's it." But the truth is, the world is so much stranger than that. It's so much darker. And so much madder. And so much better.

For an episode that derails into absolute turd in the last 15 minutes, it has some beautiful dialogue. Elton was a pretty sympathetic and realistic character.

[Lord J Esq]

So why does a smart guy like Richard Dawkins regularly give atheists a bad name by putting his foot in his mouth with his inane and ridiculous pronouncements about God and religion?

I don't agree with Dawkins' approach, as I find it counterproductive in terms of persuasiveness, but of all the things I have heard or read by him, he has never said anything inane or ridiculous--in contrast to the inanity of religious faith and practice, well deserving of ridicule. If he gives the irreligious a bad name to you, it is only because he is irreligious.

[ZeaLitY]

Anonymous 05/23/10(Sun)23:36 No.9471036

    someone should tell the Lost producers that God, Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell aren't real

[tushantin]

@ZeaLity: So much as I respect Atheism, theistic indifference, the right to question and skepticism, you're not merely an Atheist - you're an Anti-theist. Major difference. Don't mean to hurt your feelings because I know your intentions are noble (though offensive in some ways) and I understand every faith and science has its flaws, but suppressing the rights to believe, the rights to curiosity, and the right to follow a community is indirectly suppressing the rights to recreation, the rights to think and the rights to recreate and evolve by experience. Quite hypocritical of you, and I really hoped you were more than that.

These extremists are not the first to kill in the name of God; the cruelties of the Crusades are amply recorded. But they remind us that no Holy War can ever be a just war. Such a warped view of religion is not just incompatible with the concept of peace, but the purpose of faith - for the one rule that lies at the heart of every major religion is that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us.

For if we lose that faith - if we dismiss it as silly or naïve; if we divorce it from the decisions that we make on issues of war and peace - then we lose what is best about humanity. We lose our sense of possibility. We lose our moral compass.

There are no good Hindus, bad Hindus, good Christians, bad Christians. Either you are a good person or a bad person. Religion is not the criterion, humanity is.

[ZeaLitY]

When are you and GenesisOne going to stop following me around like little missionaries? Fuck off.

[Lord J Esq]

...but suppressing the rights to believe, the rights to curiosity...

Without regard to the rest of your post, this bit right here is an extraordinary irony. Among the living, there is no greater subversion of curiosity than belief.


Okay, one more bit:

I understand every faith and science has its flaws...

This construction is incorrect because the two are not parallel.

[GenesisOne]

Me being a missionary to you, Z? That's too good for you.

@Lord J: A belief that a person has doesn't necessarily mean that such a belief is absolute.  We have beliefs because that is how our minds work. Although we would like to think that everything we believe is based upon evidence and logic, this is simply not true. I could argue that we become emotionally bound to our worldview, so much so that worldview changes occur rarely, if at all.

While I'm here, I'd like to add (but not to get too far off topic) that the whole fight between faith and science pitted daily in the minds of many a person of faith and person of science... is not as big as we like to perceive it.

Some food for thought.

Oh, and a quote to fulfill the purpose of this thread:

One of the greatest tragedies of our time is this impression that has been created that science and religion have to be at war.

[tushantin]

When are you and GenesisOne going to stop following me around like little missionaries? Fuck off.

Sorry, man, but you're one of those people I respect the most and look up to. If it was someone else I woulda ignored it, but it's rather disappointing to see you act like a child sometimes. Sorry.

@Lord J Esq: Faith and Science are indeed parallel, and Faith may not necessarily be religious faith, it could be philosophical as well. As for the irony, I won't bother saying. You'll find out one way or the other, you're pretty smart. 

If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.

[ZeaLitY]

Einstein was an atheist. Look up his quotes. His references to God were largely allusions to cosmic mysteries, such as universal constants. And it is not childish to plainly state the truth that religion is fallacious and mistaken, as is the idea of the supernatural. It is an important mark of maturity for a sentient being to part with prehistoric explanations of phenomena that have been ritualized into dogmatic, oppressive institutions.

The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still purely primitive, legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.

[Lord J Esq]

Faith and Science are indeed parallel.

No, they aren't. Not unless you deliberately change the definition of the terms. Faith is the adoption of a premise without substantiating evidence. Science is a method of accumulating physical facts in a quantifiable manner. To find their common ancestor you would have to go all the way up the tree to "things that are human institutions." The only symmetry of any kind that they share is that scientific data are the gold standard for justifying a thesis whereas faith is the exact opposite. That is not a parallel. You had written that you "understand" that "every faith and science has its flaws." I'm not sure exactly what you think it is you understand, but what you reveal yourself to me to understand, on this matter, is not flattering enough to warrant mention.

As for the irony, I won't bother saying. You'll find out one way or the other, you're pretty smart.

Irony indeed.