AK_Thug AMish
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Posts posted by AK_Thug AMish
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Here is an article I found (unfortunately after the abortion debate at school). I guess you can say I've adopted a position similar to it, but I am interested in any critiques of it, the article is not too long!
also, I was wondering what the abortion debate looks like in places outside america, and feel free of course to state your opinion.
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ok I was the battlefield 1942 champ up until a few months ago, when I met fate, and WOLFENSTEIN - ENEMY TERRITORY. This is simply an awsome game, and pulled me away from my beloved bf1942. Plus, its a free download, can't go wrong with that
Is that EOD (I think) mod still around? I remember the days sniping americans, wearing a funny cone hat... BF:Vietnam is coming out though, that should be good.
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sorry if I didn't make it clear; I was just discussing what I thought was the absurdity when it comes to imagining God. To me, it makes no difference. I guess I inadvertantly slipped in a weasle word, "almost" to be careful.
ninja debate tacticsOK everyone listen up, I'm giving away the secret of life:
What I should have said earlier is that if your a good person, you'll have a pretty good life (hopefully) and if there is a heaven, hey guess what, added bonus. If there is none (like I think), then you just vanish into non-existence like everyone else.
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my point exactly. And something Pascal forgot. For all we know, if God exists, he could punish those who shave their legs, he could reward those who eat raspberries, and spit on those listen to 80's music too much
*runs to nearest church in fear of God's wrath
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Meaningful definitions, DICTIONARY ones don't count...
lets review yours anyways:
Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe.
no, I think I covered this one, unless I am lying to myself and unaware of it...
A personal or institutionalized system grounded in such belief and worship.
sorry, no secret atheist institutions or worship, sorry conspiracy theorists..
The life or condition of a person in a religious order.
obviously a religious order implies religion..
A set of beliefs, values, and practices based on the teachings of a spiritual leader.
and who would that leader be? I may listen to the many different philosophers, but that isn't religion, is it?
and my personal favorite (which I have seen before) definition used to say atheism is a religion:
A cause, principle, or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion.
then we can say stamp collecting is a religion, supporters of brittany spears are religious, cross country is religious, etc, etc!! Although analogies don't make arguements, how is it flawed? If religion is belief and worship of a supernatural entity, and atheism is not, how is atheism religion? I always wonder why religious people try and make this point anyways. Is it to try and rationalise their position? I don't know, perhaps you can enlighten me
*I guess a better analogy is this: If I play no sports, does that make me an athlete?
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$500,000 into Swiss
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Pascal's Wager: Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy
There are a few problems with the wager, first, it is no proof of God. He basically says in the opening, if I'm not mistaken, take a 50-50 chance ANY God exists. Also, he polarizes the issue, and he forgets that one actually loses something when you believe in something that isn't there. (like a lifetime of lying to yourself or something like that) And anyways, the way I see it, I don't think any nice God can punish me for thinking rationally and rejecting a notion with almost no evidence. He'll understand
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If atheism is a religion, then not playing soccer is a sport
a meaningful definition of religion: the worship of a supernatural deity.
a meaningful definiton of atheism: the rejection of supernatural entities.
also, there are not atheist churches, holidays, holy books, etc. Its more of a 'world view'
On evolution morality, which society will survive longer? One in which it is ok to murder, or one where internal killing is wrong? Murder is one of those 'laws' of morality that is almost universal perhaps it is because all cultures with murder died off long ago.
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Amish children. Jonas
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well, we work with what he have and hope for the best
I like to think of faith like this. When I drink a can of Hawaiian Punch, I do not have faith that it is good, I have trust. Trust comes from experience, faith is inherently not based on evidence. If it was, it wouldn't be faith. I appreciate your dictionary definitions, but really, they do not mean much in a philisophical debate when we are discussing the nature of the words (the second time I read your post I see that you thinkt that too). Remember, if a word's meaning came from how most people used it, then 'Jesus Christ' would mean 'oh sh**!!'
Faith is like jumping from a building, with only fog below you, and hoping that someone will catch you. Some people say burning building, but that implies that there is motivation, and with believing in God, there is no such motivation. No motivation besides parents forcing their children to attend church, anyways.
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heres a good question, "How long is a moment?" There's an interesting diagram in the book I mentioned before, and it relates to "illusionary spatial solitude"
Imagine yourself on a giant plain, with only one lamp above you, illuminating just you. This is just like time, we are not aware of anything beyond "now". What would happen if one could be aware of more area? What would happen if I was aware of not only 10:32, but 10:33 as well?
Another interesting question, 'what are you more afraid of, mr. black saying he is going to kick you in 10 minutes, or mr. black saying he kicked you one week ago?' -an interesting dilemma if you believe the past is more real than the future, that I believe only adam will truely appreciate
If anyone says they support the A-Series I will present McTaggart's A-Paradox.
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Man is inherently evil, so morals and good deeds would not have existed. That can be taken further to say that mankind would have killed itself off over time, had there not been a higher power to "moderate" and morals to put some good into our hearts.
Inherently evil? I would love to know where the evidence of this is, but unfortunately I do not think it exists. I would say man is capable of great evil, but also of great good. I think the mere fact that we still exist, and that there is no major threat to humanity in the near future disproves your second claim.
As far as morality goes, I feel that the morality provided by religion is no less superficial than any other. Just look at the differences between fundy Islam and fundy xian. Morality is more cultural and biological (evolution) than anything else.
IMHO, being god-fearing does not make you 'moral' in the true sense of the word. Who is better, the person who is good because he is afraid of eternal torture, or a person who is good because, well, he decided to be good on his own? I'm not saying that religious peoples are immoral, just that morality doesn't derive from religion. Maybe from the inside religious morality makes sense, but from the outside it sure is confusing. Even within Xianity there is so much discrepancy...
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"Take a look at the world around you, and say that it is the work of a divine being" Without trying to offend anyone, I have to say that the 'Christian God', who is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omnipotent, cannot exist logically because it would contradict himself, internally. See the argument from evil. I believe that a God with all the omni's can create a world where there is NO evil, and the mere fact that evil exists seems to disprove God. Of course we could all be living in a 'Matrix', or the 'Brain in a Jar' mind experiment, but would that really change anything, the way we preceive the world?
to Adam, I think you are confusing 'faith' with trust. At the core, sure, we take everything at faith, but remember, we have 5 senses and a mind to analyze information and offset the posibilities of being wrong.
To answer the question, Does God play an ACTIVE role? I don't think so. I unfortunately have not had a 'religious experience', although I have tried for the first 95% of my life. Why would a benevolent God abandon me, let alone the billions of other people out there? What about people who lived before 4 B.C. (the date of Jesus' birth), who had no chance of salvation? Were they abandoned too, without any chance of salvation? I don't think any God would do that, and thats why I don't think he exists. Of course, I could adopt Einstein's naturalist God. He does not roll dice.
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Read 'Time and Space' by Barry Dainton, McGill-Queen's University Press. I've gone through the 'time' section so I'll try to sum up some theories.
I'll define time simply as a change in state.
You can define time either as static or dynamic. Static time is where temporal passage is unreal, ie all time exists 'timelessly'. With static time you can have a block universe (imagine a block of the universe 'reality', with more 'reality' being added on as time passes) In the dynamic view temporal passage is real. There is also a tensed theory and tenseless. Tensed deals with the A-series, "past, present, and future". Tenseless deals with the B-series, "earlier than, same time, later than".
There are many questions that we do not have the answers for. I'll throw a few out,
- I'll think of more later. Anyways, my personal favorite time model is 'Gold's Universe', which is a symmetrical universe with a big bang on one end, and a big crunch on the other; with normal time on one, and reverse time at the other.
OK, thats enough for now
more to come... -
hmm, I wish I could have read the rest of this thread, but its 12 pages long and I don't have the time. So I'll unilaterally state my position:
I am a 'double positive' atheist, I believe that there is NO God (I'm not very agnostic) and I believe atheism is GOOD for people. I take the theory of evolution to be true, and when evidence is gathered to support abiogenesis, I'll support that too. I also take the theories of stellar evolution to be true, as with the Big Bang (I'm still reading up on Hawking though).
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Felt compelled, by unknown forces in nature, to introduce myself
I live 'round the corner from the project leader, ADAM, and he told me to stop by the forum (mainly the hall of intellectuals) and participate. I also have my own nafarious purposes, mainly learning about game development and such. so, bonjour, bien fait, au revior...
Abortion
in Hall of Intellectuals
Posted
Am I for abortion in ALL cases? no. I don't think the issue is really polarized, black or white.
I guess if I could decide the law, I would allow abortion in the first trimester, and only in cases after that where there are medical problems. I think 3 months is enough time to decide whether or not you want the baby, while still maintaining enough of a 'ban' to partially satisfy the pro-lifers.