Atheism, etc. and the existence of the soul

JimiTime

Zillah wrote:

Oh wait...you're a young-Earthist? Oh for the love of...

You're just wrong. There are millions and millions of reasons why you're wrong. La la land. Looper dooper town. Nonesense.

No, I believe I said I believed in the existence of Adam and Eve and not in proto-humans. this does not translate to young earth. i don't really care about the age of the earth, it makes no odds to me. the existence of adam and Eve does though.

Its also how utter nonesense, such as creation myths, were recorded.

and indeed how the idiocy of evolution is written down! See, we can both throw stones. But do I care you think its nonsense ehhhhh....No.

Theres a big difference between an educated estimate and a guess.

In relation to what you guys say about the unlikely existence of God, I believe this is a total double standard. you have no evidence of alien life, by all means explore and delve, but until there is life discovered, its a guess, might be an educated guess, but its a guess nonetheless

People who dismiss the likelihood of alien life are usually people who grossly underestimate the sheer mind blowing scale of the universe. Our planet is a dot within a dot within a titanic ocean of existence. Here, try this on for size: http://www.co-intelligence.org/newsletter/comparisons.html

Oh, and this is fantastic.

To clarify, i do not dismiss the likelihood of alien life. Why would I? i merely pointed out that it is largely irrelevant to discuss the notion, as there is no evidence for it.

robindch

bluewolf wrote:

why do you and jakkass always insist anyone arguing has "contempt" for the religion

I don't have contempt for religion at all as I mentioned in a reply to Jimitime a week or two back - it's a fascinating area of study and as inescapably human as language, music, humor and many other things, but arguably larger and deeper a social construct than all of them.

Having said that I do have considerable fear and contempt for what religion will make cheerfully people do -- whether it's chopping up the Midianites into little bits or flying jets into tall buildings.

You could compare it to explosives; interesting properties, but occasionally lethal.

Zillah

JimiTime wrote:

I don't base my beliefs on science

This kind of comment always strikes me as very unusual. "Science" is not some odd notion that some people make use of, by definition it represent our most diligent efforts at getting the correct answers about the world. Saying you don't base your beliefs on science is like saying you don't base your beliefs on trying to be right. Religion and science are not two different but equal ways of looking at the world, science has proven itself time and time again to be our best chance at correctly answering questions about the world, anything else is fraught with error, as religion has shown us time and time again.

No, I believe I said I believed in the existence of Adam and Eve and not in proto-humans. this does not translate to young earth. i don't really care about the age of the earth, it makes no odds to me. the existence of adam and Eve does though.

Yes, but you understand that millions of (being virtually all of) the smartest people in the world, who have been given the best education possible, have staggering mountains of evidence and robust scientific theories that say the Biblical notion of Adam and Eve is absolutely poppycock? Where do you draw the line? The Bible says Earth has made in six days, bit by bit, by God. Do you believe that? The Bible also says Adam lived for something immense, like 900 years, do you believe that? What criteria do you use to decide what bits are true or not?

How can you discount the fossil records for proto human species? You think they just invented Homo Erectus? Homo Habilis? Cro Magnon and Neanderthals? There's a few tired Creationist arguments...the devil put them there, carbon dating doesn't work, the flood did it...they're all nonesense.

I believe this is a total double standard. you have no evidence of alien life, by all means explore and delve, but until there is life discovered, its a guess, might be an educated guess, but its a guess nonetheless

We have evidence that life exists.
We have evidence that life exists on this planet.
We have evidence that life can begin spontaneously given the right conditions.
We have evidence that such conditions are possible on other planets.

If you then break down the numbers about how many planets there are and build a predictive model, you can set the likelihood of any given planet having life as preposterously unlikely and still result in there being millions of planets where we would expect life. Again, you're just not appreciating how big the universe is.

I can tell you have no experience in this subject, and frankly its a little frustrating, please go do some reading first.

idiocy of evolution is written down!

Ugh. *bangs head on table*

What, pray tell, is your argument against evolution?