quyenthenghiem (August 29, 2008 at 11:07 pm)

I believe in Ra, muthafuckaz!

JakeLymes (August 29, 2008 at 9:24 pm)

I got erection

Noviere (August 28, 2008 at 1:35 am)

you are profoundly incoherent but I'll try and respond.It sounds like you're claiming to have the word of god, and that is a bold statement. Now, if you do, God is very sketchy with the english language. You said "I'm not talking by myself, it is God who is talking." How do I know that? Do you know how many people claim to know the word of god and how much they contradict eachother?

kristopaivinen (August 27, 2008 at 3:16 pm)

Furthermore, demanding people, who understand the conditions of scientific demonstration, to renounce their faith does certainly not help them to understand the conditions of such scientific demonstration. Failure to understand this is why the arguments of atheists have not gained enough serious attention from people of religious devotion. Why don't they understand it? Or is the problem in my understanding? If so, then I expect others to point out where my mistake comes in.

kristopaivinen (August 27, 2008 at 3:01 pm)

I didn't call myself Christian or an adherent of any other religion. I only mentioned the concept of faith, by which I mean devotion to one god and one god only. What this idea of faith constitutes falls outside of the range of my interest in this discussion, but even if my resolve does help to legitimize all the "nutters" out there, that would not liberate you from the burden of answering to my justifications of this faith, if I decided to present such justifications.

Gilmaris (August 26, 2008 at 11:57 pm)

And so, whereas you do not have Christians in the West going out of their way to proclaim themselves as moderates, you DO have Muslims doing so in the West - because they can naturally feel the general suspicion of them. And so the first thing that happens after any Muslim terrorist attack is that Muslim moderates condemn it. The media, however, focuses on the terrorists. That's the selling point, not the moderates who actually condemn the acts.

Gilmaris (August 26, 2008 at 11:53 pm)

Case point: how many Christians do you see go out to proclaim their disassosiation to the KKK? You don't, because in the Western world, most people see the KKK as distinctly separate from Christianity, even though they are a Christian organization. In the case of Islam, moderates in Islamic countries do not feel the need to speak up for the same reason. In Western countries, however, they are not as familiar a group as Christians, and so they are eyed with more suspicion.

Gilmaris (August 26, 2008 at 11:49 pm)

"I think people like you should make an effort to distinguish yourselves from the rest."As a man, I do not feel I share responsibility for the crimes of rapists, and I do not see the need to actively go out proclaiming, "not ALL men are like that". In fact, the opposite is the case: I would ONLY feel compelled to do so if rapists constituted a significant amount of the male population. As it is I don't identify myself with that minority. Nor do, or should, the religious in the case of fundies.

Gilmaris (August 26, 2008 at 11:46 pm)

"I would point out though, that by calling yourself a christian (or muslim, jew etc..) you are legitimising all the non-moderate nutters out there. People will look at you and se how logical you are and therefore assume that the nutters are logical too, as you count yourself amongst them."I really don't see how. That's just like saying that being atheist, you "legitimize" the sort of anti-theistic persecution perpetrated by dictators such as Mao, which of course is equally false.

cornflakeclusters (August 26, 2008 at 3:54 pm)

Dawkins is great, I just finished his "Blind watchmaker" from 1986. A great book on Darwinism.