Polytheish vs. Monotheism , Capitalism vs. Communism

[Last Conformist]

The questions aren't equal - I might disbelieve in the existence of the coin.

Moreover, you're trying to equate a lack of belief to a belief. The "atheist" response to the coin question is "I believe neither".

[quantum_mechani]

Originally posted by Last Conformist
The questions aren't equal - I might disbelieve in the existence of the coin.

Moreover, you're trying to equate a lack of belief to a belief. The "atheist" response to the coin question is "I believe neither".

In that case the atheist response to if they believe in god or not is "I neither believe nor disbelieve it's existence".

[Last Conformist]

Well, duh!

(Sane) atheists don't actively disbelieve in God's existence, they just consider it an irrelevance on par with the existence of invisible pink unicorns.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by quantum_mechani
In that case the atheist response to if they believe in god or not is "I neither believe nor disbelieve it's existence".

No, my response is that the supposed existence of a god (whatever that entity may be) has not been satisfactorily explained, nor has it been proven.


I fail to see how I can disbelieve in something whose existence is not even verified by any recognisable standard- the idea of 'god being everywhere' and yet god also being invisible, untouchable, unmeasurable, inaudible, and so forth, seem slightly contradictory, and ultimately, irrelevant, since if god's supposed state of omnipresence is in fact no different from a seemingly nonexistent state, then I think I can manage without the supposed divine one, thanks very much.

[chequita guevara]

There is no god.

[Last Conformist]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
There is no god.

Why should we care?

[chequita guevara]

Exactly.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Last Conformist
Why should we care?

Because bad people will take away your rights claiming their god told them to do so.


Eternal vigilance is our fortress.

[Cort Haus]

That's all sorted then.

Now, was the Soviet Union a theocracy?

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Cort Haus


Now, was the Soviet Union a theocracy?

Is that the real world Soviet Union (as seen on MTV), the REAL Soviet Union (as seen in lengthy queues and broken down reactors and dried up Central Asian lakes) or the Civ 1, 2, 3 or 4 Soviet Union ?


And by theocracy, do you mean a form of government which you are going to spend six pages not describing as being in any way different from any other form of government ever ?

[Cort Haus]

I was joking, Moll

I read that crazy thread on the Civ 4 forum where you were quite rightly arguing that the SU could not be a theocracy as it did not claim divine authority. That gollum bloke wrote 150,000 words which failed to challenge the argument, but did waste a lot of time and bandwidth.

Unbelievable.

[Cort Haus]

(x2 post deleted)

[Last Conformist]

Originally posted by molly bloom



Because bad people will take away your rights claiming their god told them to do so.


Eternal vigilance is our fortress.

They'll do that utterly regardless of whether there's a God or not.

[chequita guevara]

Well you're just a little ray of sunshine, aren't you?

[quantum_mechani]

Originally posted by Last Conformist
Well, duh!

(Sane) atheists don't actively disbelieve in God's existence, they just consider it an irrelevance on par with the existence of invisible pink unicorns.

Well, you must admit speculation about gods is much more interesting (if no more useful) than about pink unicorns.
The thing is, when you look back to the beginning of the universe, talking about the universe springing into being with no catalyst from anywhere starts to look a lot like the mystical stuff in most religions.
If there was a catalyst, it could have been quite literally anything, but you might as well call it a god. Of course, then you are left with the question of where did the catalyst come from, but that is far from proving it cannot have existed (not that I'm saying it did exist).

@molly and che:

I assume you are talking about the almost certainly fictional (though entertaining) gods most people seem to think of with prophets, smiting, and generally having to step and muck about with the universe constantly.