I have something to say to the theists who feels atheists never say anything positive: You are an intelligent human being. Your life is valuable for its own sake. You are not second-class in the universe, deriving meaning and purpose from some other mind. You are not inherently evil — you are inherently human, possessing the positive rational potential to help make this a world of morality, peace and joy. Trust yourself.
vruz: ouch! but perhaps that’s a rather brutal example. I think it’s more humane to distrust anyone who hears voices in their heads, or gets direct orders from god in any form. think about it, no matter if you’re religiously oriented or not. if someone came and told you “I have a telepathic phone and I can talk to god, I can hear him in my head and he’s telling me you must give me a blank cheque. here, sign it.”. hell, no! you’re not going to get a blank cheque from me, not from any religious person in their right minds!
Sure, if you don’t believe in God, that makes perfect sense. If, on the other hand, you believe in the Bible and believe that God has talked to humanity since they first came into existence and you believe God answers prayers and gives us signs and you believe in miracles and you believe all of this other nonsense for which there is absolutely no evidence, then on what grounds can you possibly say, “Oh, well, this one person who claims to be conversing with God is lying or insane. All the rest—the ones from 2000 years ago, the ones who thought the sun revolved around the earth—they’re the ones I trust”?
vruz: and not one bit of cognitive dissonance aroused their minds. I guess what I’m getting at is that some are nuts (see: bachmann) whilst others are inconsistent, or resort to convoluted rationalisations. I think there’s a wide spectrum there. some people are crazy all the time, and some people are in my view irrational —possibly based on deep emotional programming— when such inconsistencies surface. there’s a wide gap between wholesale nuttery and inconsistent thinking.
How come every time someone kills their children and says that God made them do it, the religious people always say that the murderer is “crazy”? You never hear religious people saying, “I wonder if that murder was a miracle. I wonder if God is speaking to us directly.” Maybe they don’t really believe this shit either.
vruz: ouch! but perhaps that’s a rather brutal example. I think it’s more humane to distrust anyone who hears voices in their heads, or anyone who gets direct orders from god in any form. think about it, no matter if you’re religiously oriented or not. if someone came and told you “I have a telepathic phone and I can talk to god, I can hear him in my head and he’s telling me you must give me a blank cheque. here, sign it.”. hell, no! you’re not going to get a blank cheque from me, and not from any religious person in their right minds!
How come every time someone kills their children and says that God made them do it, the religious people always say that the murderer is “crazy”? You never hear religious people saying, “I wonder if that murder was a miracle. I wonder if God is speaking to us directly.” Maybe they don’t really believe this shit either.
