The Glade 4.0

In several different ways. The most obvious is: Free will doesn't really exist. The idea is all in your head. You could not have made choices any differently than you made them. Your eventual decision in any scenario was already decided before you made it, no matter how long it took you to make up your mind. We are just biological computers.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Maybe, maybe not. This really reveals more of a weakness in logic as a system than it does any problem with a first cause.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

This. God is the safety blanket that makes us feel safe.

Good thing I'm a universalist then (or whatever I am). My blanket is saferest...

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

Muahahahaha. Nice one...

Although, if Muslims are right, we're all going to hell here anyway, so it won't matter.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

No doubt. And this sense of safety leads to people feeling secure and happy, which is completely unacceptable. If only there were a way that we could squash such audacious behavior.

Nothing wrong with feeling secure and happy.

Sure there is, I also heard that chocolates do the same thing! Ban Chocolates!!!

Safe? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn't safe.

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Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

Oooh...Hitchiker's reference. Though I can't remember what he was talking about...Marvin maybe?

Narnia reference, actually:

http://www.google.com/#q=%22safe%3F+who+said+anything+about+safe%3F%22

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Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

Those atheists sure seem to hate the idea.

Thats right, now I remember. I knew it was something I'd read, but couldn't place it.

It is entirely possible to feel secure and happy without a god.

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It feels like all the people who want limited government really just want government limited to Republicans.
---The Daily Show

Not so much as you might think. How did the universe the begin? Why are quantum particle states ostensibly what they are? How does your brain work? Why do you fall in love?

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That must explain the complete inability of so many who don't believe to let even the mere mention of God pass without a snarky comment or a lecture on how foolish people are to believe, or how they're somehow imposing it on everyone else merely by mentioning it in their presence.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I feel perfectly secure and happy without the answers to all of those questions. Nor am I afraid of the answers, should they come. It is irrelevant to me how the universe began, outside of a passing interest. If facts should come to light that change that, so be it. Why do I fall in love? There are plenty of explanations, none of which bother me in particular. I fall in love, and there I am. The way my brain works fascinates me to no end, and I try to understand what I can about the science behind it.

But in no way has a diety ever made me feel as happy and secure as I felt when I realized religion and gods were just fabrications. Once I came to that realization, my life was in my hands, and not some deity's, fate's, or any other paranormal source, I was much happier and more secure.

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It feels like all the people who want limited government really just want government limited to Republicans.
---The Daily Show

You didn't realize any such thing. You drew this conclusion.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Conjecture, DE. The word is Conjecture. The word "conclusion" indicates logic was used, which is not a correct thing to say of atheism.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

Actually DE; I believe it was taking a leap of faith to say that gods do not exist, and to stick to it. Especially since science can only explain so far.

But to play Devil's Advocate: How is that any different than the leap of faith required to say "yes there is a God"?

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

Let me get this straight. It's illogical to say "there is insufficient evidence to support the existence of a deity"? It's *rational* to conclude that. There is no evidence what so ever to show that a deity exists, that said deity created our universe, and that said deity is involved in the world. It isn't rational to believe in something you have no evidence to support.

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It feels like all the people who want limited government really just want government limited to Republicans.
---The Daily Show

The problem here is that you answer all of those questions implicitly in your next paragraph. You may not intentionally answer the question; indeed, you probably believe that you do not care or do not possess answers or concern for those questions; however, that is not the case.If I couple this statement with the phrase you used about "the science behind [the brain]", the language tells me something you do not. You take it on faith that the universe works according to some ultimately explainable and mechanical method. It does not what that method it, just that it is exists. This is further complicated by your choice of verb and its repetition as a noun derivation: realized/realization. You think you know; you have taken on faith that the universe exists according to the explicable rules of "science". You have made a decision.

Were you truly comfortable, you would not have to frame your answers or justifications in contrast to the supernatural. Existence would remain the product of an ultimately unknowable and inexplicable system. You have your god, Montegue. You have made your choices about how; and, ultimately, that's all a religion does.

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I have no God, Khross, unless we want to expand the definition of what constitutes a God to anything a person believes. This is simply not true. Religions have gods that are actual beings, not just concepts. Allah is not a concept. Jesus Christ is not a concept. Even the Buddah is not a concept. Some followers may conceptualization their deities, but that's not a faithful version of their outlook. We are talking about actual gods - entities that are timeless and capable of creating a universe. The absence of belief is not a belief.

Science is not a god. It's a method. It's a method that is rational, and it's rational to look to science for answers.

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It feels like all the people who want limited government really just want government limited to Republicans.
---The Daily Show

Montegue:

Science does not know the answers. Science has not revealed the answers. As it currently stands, the answers are unknowable for a variety of reasons, the least of which are the limits of human perception. Science has theories and hypotheses and queries, but it does not have the facts of existence. There could be a god: there exists no evidence either way. This means that the probability of their being a god or not being god remains the same. And the limitations that prevent us from scientifically proving a god exists are the same limitations that prevent us from falsifying the existence of that god. It takes faith to deny that which you can neither prove nor disprove. You have made your choices about how in an manner every bit as irrational and unscientific as the very religions you rail again.

Rationality begins first with accepting the limitations of your knowledge and abilities.

Now, if you'd care to address science, I still have some outstanding questions about other issues and complex systems.

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Correct.

That isn't what you said, though.

Here's what you said:



That is an absolute statement regarding the non-existence of a deity. Disbelief in a deity is conjecture, because it is an unproven supposition or an unsupported belief.

Basically: You indicated your personal beliefs are atheist by making that statement. Atheism is not logical.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine