Leading Atheist Philosopher Concludes God's Real

[notyoueither]

Exactly. And we all have it, faith that is, whether we have faith in God, the stuff of the universe, or little green men.

[loinburger]

Originally posted by notyoueither
The bottom line is that everyone, theist or atheist (or deist) has an assumption that underlies the world view.

Some folks recognize that their underlying assumption is probably not spot-on accurate, and may be completely off target. The annoying people are the ones who are so goddamned certain that their underlying assumptions are infallible (e.g., that atheists are just plain stupid, or that theists are just plain stupid, or something in between) that they go and start stupid trolls on the subject. (The really annoying people are the ones who are infallible to the point that they'll go around killing people who disagree with them, but I'm assuming that none of the poly trolls is quite that insane and/or ballsy.)

[notyoueither]

I'd say the people who recognize they have their own bias and admit the possibility of the 'truf' of the others are the rarity.

Beleive me. Atheist zealots can be every bit as scarey as the worst of the fundys.

[Bosh]

I like Lovecraft's perspective personally:

]"I certainly can't see any sensible position to assume aside from that of complete scepticism tempered by a leaning toward that which existing evidence makes most probable. All I say is that I think it is damned unlikely that anything like a central cosmic will, a spirit world , or an eternal survival of personality exist. They are the most preposterous and unjustified of all the guesses which can be made about the universe, and I am not enough of a hair-splitter to pretend that I don't regard them as arrant and negligble moonshine. In theory I am an agnostic, but pending the appearance of rational evidence I must be classed, practically and provisionally, as an atheist. The chance's of theism's truth being to my mind so microscopically small, I would be a pedant and a hypocrite to call myself anything else."

--H.P. Lovecraft

[notyoueither]

He makes a good case, but exactly why did some animals develop hollow bones and with that the ability to fly?

Someone has to come forth with the case for intelligent design. It sure as hell ain't explained by Darwin.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by notyoueither
What I find laughable is the atheists faith in the Big Bang, the Universe, and stuff as being the end of all enquiry.

The universe's existance is rather obvious, nye. And no one has any particular faith in the big bang - in fact, there have been quite a few alternative theories proposed.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by notyoueither
He makes a good case, but exactly why did some animals develop hollow bones and with that the ability to fly?

Someone has to come forth with the case for intelligent design. It sure as hell ain't explained by Darwin.

Yes it is. It was a useful adaptation.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by notyoueither
Exactly. And we all have it, faith that is, whether we have faith in God, the stuff of the universe, or little green men.

The only universal human faith is that the future will be similar to the past, that is, that one can inductively infer rules for the future behavior of objects through observation of the past behavior of objects. And that faith is an integral component of our brains, which is *impossible* to dismiss.

[reds4ever]

Sorry if anyone has made this point before, but clearly the guy is 81, scared of dying and is hedging his bets hoping for eternal life.

[Stefu]

Sorry if anyone has made this point before, but clearly the guy is 81, scared of dying and is hedging his bets hoping for eternal life.

yeah like totally

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by Stefu


yeah like totally

Well, like, I totally tried reading through all the theological BS, got 3/4 of the way down the first page and gave up.

I just thought I would point out the blindingly obvious and try save this thread going down the same route as every other religious thread on 'poly and ending up with 400+ posts with the same people going round and round in philosophical circles...er, totally.

[Shogun Gunner]

Originally posted by reds4ever
Sorry if anyone has made this point before, but clearly the guy is 81, scared of dying and is hedging his bets hoping for eternal life.

I need to know this. I don't want to go through baptism and give up Sundays for church if he's going to change his mind again and say god doesn't exist.

Assuming I follow this leading philosphers lead. Which is the right religion again? I don't want to make a mistake in selection. Thank you.

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by Shogun Gunner
t.

Assuming I follow this leading philosphers lead. Which is the right religion again? I don't want to make a mistake in selection. Thank you.

As I undestand it there's no point in committing yourself to Christianity early on in your life as as long as you repent (and mean it) anytime before you die youre in the clear with God.

IMHO, to begin with, it'd be better to throw your lott in with one of the other major dieties that maybe requires a longer term commitment, and then do the old switchroo to Christianity at the last minute if you get any last minute, pre death, nerves.

[Shogun Gunner]

Is there no way to hedge my bets by committing myself to every major religion (minus Scientology which is just clearly a cult) without the others knowing about it? It would be akin to signing several contracts, but at the last minute, only honoring one?

I'm reminded of Fonzie in the old american sitcom "Happy Days" where he went to church (once) to "cover all his bases" regarding the afterlife.

[Arrian]

Hmm, so one former aethist decides that he's a deist (note: he expressly rejects the gods of the various organized religions). This clearly proves that God, and furthermore the God of the Bible, exists!! Obviously!

Personally, I think it's possible that some sort of supernatural being created the universe and then wandered off to do other things. Hence me being an Agnostic (or soft aethist). Since the origin of the universe is still rather hazy to us (even if you accept the Big Bang Theory, who or what created the material that went Bang?), one must ponder the possibility of some sort of outside factor.

That doesn't exactly prove that Jesus was the son of God and all the rest of the mumbo-jumbo in the Bible.

Besides, aethists do not tend to follow dogma as well as religionistas - so EVEN IF this guy was a person of significance (I've never heard of him, at any rate), that doesn't mean we'd all go 'round saying "oh, so-and-so says there is a God, I guess we're all wrong!").

-Arrian