Are Atheists optimists or pessimists?

realitykeeper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121548756#Comment_121548756

No. He was right. It is possible to sail around the world. It isn`t flat.

Cabaal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121548842#Comment_121548842

no it isn't flat and it was well known at that point in history that it wasn't flat...through scientific observation going back thousands of years.

If you've ever heard in school that Columbus believed the world wasn't flat and that everyone else thought it was then you've been told utter nonsense.

In short the reason why people didn't sail west is navigators thought they would run out of supplies mid-journey and die before reaching India/China as they didn't know America existed. Columbus only set sail because he believed the world was smaller then everyone else did because he was awful at maths, had the America's not existed then Columbus and his men would have died because the world was larger then Columbus incorrectly calculated. He didn't believe or know America existed at all and even when he reached land he incorrectly believed it was Asia.

realitykeeper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121551645#Comment_121551645

The round earth was a theory that had yet to be proven conclusively. Back then, learned men believed it likely the earth was round but they didn't know. For all they knew the world could have had curves and a couple of big holes in it where the sun passed through every day.

Of course the vast majority of common folk thought the earth was flat.

magicbastarder

How do you know that? What was written down about what 'common folk' thought about it?

Cabaal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121553061#Comment_121553061

Good grief, just spewing out the lazy and false info many of us were told in primary school.

The earth being round was known for at least 2000 years, it started as a theory (like most everything) but practical observations even 2000 years ago could confirm this theory for example https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/ancient-greeks-proved-earth-round-eratosthenes-alexandria-syene-summer-solstice-a8131376.html

In the mid-20th century, we began launching satellites into space that would help us determine the exact circumference of the Earth, 40,030 km.

But over 2,000 years earlier in ancient Greece, a man arrived at nearly that exact same figure by putting a stick in the ground. That man was Eratosthenes. A Greek mathematician and the head of the library at Alexandria.

Eratosthenes had heard that in Syene, a city south of Alexandria, no vertical shadows were cast at noon on the summer solstice. The sun was directly overhead. He wondered if this were also true in Alexandria.

So, on June 21 he planted a stick directly in the ground and waited to see if a shadow would be cast at noon. It turns out there was one. And it measured about 7 degrees.

Now, if the sun's rays are coming in at the same angle at the same time of day, and a stick in Alexandria is casting a shadow while a stick in Syene is not, it must mean that the Earth's surface is curved. And Eratosthenes probably already knew that.

The idea of a spherical Earth was floated around by Pythagoras around 500 BC and validated by Aristotle a couple centuries later. If the Earth really was a sphere, Eratosthenes could use his observations to estimate the circumference of the entire planet.

Since the difference in shadow length is 7 degrees in Alexandria and Syene, that means the two cities are 7 degrees apart on Earth's 360-degrees surface. Eratosthenes hired a man to pace the distance between the two cities and learned they were 5,000 stadia apart, which is about 800 kilometres.

He could then use simple proportions to find the Earth's circumference — 7.2 degrees is 1/50 of 360 degrees, so 800 times 50 equals 40,000 kilometers. And just like that, a man 2200 years ago found the circumference of our entire planet with just a stick and his brain.

Columbus didn't set out to prove it was round or anything like that https://www.history.com/news/christopher-columbus-never-set-out-to-prove-the-earth-was-round

What nugget of information are you going to come out with next?, that Columbus brought civilization to the barbaric American's 😂

realitykeeper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121553225#Comment_121553225

Changing the narrative after the fact is a symptom of delusion. With hindsight, of course everyone knows the world is round but before the Magellan voyage, it was not conclusively proved. It was believed, but it was not known.

The Believers Were Right, of course :)

magicbastarder

where did you get the information that the vast majoirty of 'common folk' believed the earth was flat?

I.R.Y.E.D

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121553061#Comment_121553061

You are promoting an atheist narrative according to various Christian sites

The Flat Earth Fallacy: According to the atheist narrative, the medieval Christians all believed that the earth was flat

You are also believing in a myth attributed to Washington Irving for people still believing in it.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121533369#Comment_121533369

Soviet communists were as anti-science as any theists, nothing which could possibly call their ideology into question was permitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysenkoism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repression_of_science_in_the_Soviet_Union

The reasons communism has been doomed to failure at every place and time it has been attempted are to do with human nature not atheism. Some communists were theists.

Of course we now see your chum Putin encouraging the revival of religion in Russia, it suits his purposes very well.

realitykeeper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121553344#Comment_121553344

I know nothing of the sites you site, or the narratives for that matter. I prefer to think for myself.

My own belief is that most people, be they Christian or not, believed the earth was flat in medieval times. Some Christians (and probably some non Christians) believed the world to be round. But, they did not know their belief was correct until the Magellan voyage proved it.

Christians proved the earth is round and most of us accept that. But I take your point, foolish beliefs like communism for example, are still adhered to by some.

magicbastarder

"My own belief is that most people, be they Christian or not, believed the earth was flat in medieval times"

So you've just decided that was the case without proof? Are we debating with figments of your imagination?

realitykeeper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121553439#Comment_121553439

Well yes, eternal salvation for every soul in Russia is a good and kindly aspiration. I only wish Leo had as much concern for us.

Sorry to disabuse you but communists do think science and not God is the way forward. Global warming and the threat of nuclear war suggest that knowledge is dangerous without the wisdom of God to contain and guide it.

realitykeeper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121553465#Comment_121553465

Every belief has a source but you need not concern yourself with mine. So do you disagree with my belief.

magicbastarder

Just couldn't be arsed arguing with someone who states something as if it was fact then admits they've no basis on which to state it.

FWIW, what I believe; I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty they possess inside.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121553468#Comment_121553468

What utter guff.

I.R.Y.E.D

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121553445#Comment_121553445

Wrong again in stating that Christians proved that the earth is round, it was actually proven by people of other faiths also.

You are also, to be polite, contradicting yourself again in your first sentence.

As for foolish beliefs, yes some people do hold them, you can see multiple examples of their beliefs online, such as rants about the IMC, Russia being a Christian country, denial of abuse by religious groups, vaccination etc.

But it isn't always foolishness it can be unfortunately just expressions of their poor mental health or just how they are made.