Alternative to Intelligent Design

Off Topic Politics & World Issues
41

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Orbitalboner wrote:
I convince myself that I made the right choice by using simple logic. If God truly cared about the salvation of my soul, he would address me directly rather than through a 2000 year old book. Being omni-present and omni-potent, this shouldn’t be too much of an inconvenience. If he did that I would have no problem following his teachings and abiding by his rules.

The flaw in your thinking, Captain Logic, is that it would no longer be a choice for you…and that is the point. Like I said, true logic would lead you toward being agnostic. You simply don’t like the concept of God and there is a huge difference between that and any sort of logic or philosophy.[/quote]

I’m both agnostic and athiest. I’m athiest because I DON’T BELIEVE that there is a god. I’m agnostic because I don’t believe strongly that there is no god.

Okay, this is equivalent to having a jar of jelly beans that I’m not allowed to count. It looks like there aren’t that many jelly beans in there, so I believe that there are less than 100 jelly beans. At the same time, I can admit that there could be more than 100 jelly beans, because I haven’t counted them.

I have absolutely no reason to believe in a god, as defined in christianity, islam, etc… but I won’t say for certain that there’s no higher being. Just as no one can prove to me that there is a god, I can’t prove that there is no “god”.

42

[quote]Orbitalboner wrote:
Professor X wrote:
You all really seem to be having fun with this. I would have expected this much attention for that idea in junior high school. The fact that it seems to have caught on with a large number of adults is pretty scary considering not one of you actually believe this, meaning deep down, each time it is mentioned it is dig at religion. Whatever makes you happy, but what is really the point of this besides degrading what a large percentage of the world believes?

LOL, that is the point. What could be more fun than making fun of people who believe in fairy tales by making up even more ridiculous fairy tales?[/quote]

Yeah…too bad for those people that believe in evolution.

43

[quote]Professor X wrote:

The flaw in your thinking, Captain Logic, is that it would no longer be a choice for you…and that is the point. Like I said, true logic would lead you toward being agnostic. You simply don’t like the concept of God and there is a huge difference between that and any sort of logic or philosophy.[/quote]

LOL, I should really change my name to captain logic.

You’re right, I guess. I don’t KNOW whether there is a God or not, I simply don’t see any evidence that there is one.

If I were presented with a cult of pink elephants, who say “Yes we were definitely created by a gang of pink elephants and they will decide whether this thing called your ‘soul’ will suffer eternal damnation or eternal bliss, so you BETTER do what they say!” I would probably not ‘suspend judgement’ simply because someone gives me a choice by presenting something that is impossible to prove.

44

[quote]harris447 wrote:
…
There are ancient beliefs? Fine: let’s teach 'em all. Let’s learn about the cow that licked a hole in the ice-patch of nothingness to create the world from the Norse myths
…

[/quote]

All of these should be taught, just not in science class.

45

[quote]Professor X wrote:
… true logic would lead you toward being agnostic. You simply don’t like the concept of God and there is a huge difference between that and any sort of logic or philosophy.[/quote]

Agreed.

46

Strange.

How can anyone who actually believes in God get insulted by the material in this thread?

Is your God so fragile that mere mention of a parody will tarnish his religion and followers?

No. What you are offended by is that people are willing to exclaim loudly that they don’t believe in what you believe.

Well, boo fucking hoo. People don’t have to believe what you believe, and you don’t get to hide from that fact because it might offend you.

Isn’t that what we keep hearing in these threads all the time? That we have the right to free speech and others have the right to say things we don’t like?

If you are offended that it was suggested that the Flying Spaghetti Monster (may you be touched by His Noodly Appendage) be taught in school, then you should understand how others feel when your religion is forced upon them in school.

It makes no difference how right you may or may not be, or how much faith you have, it simply is not right to teach your “faith” based beliefs to those that don’t want them.

Science is a different turkey. There is no faith involved in science. It is simply observation and deduction with tests performed to see if the prevailing theories seem to hold true within the laws of the universe as they present themselves to us.

If there is a God, we obviously have brains suitable for working towards an understanding of things, so should we not use them?

Faith is personal. It is yours. If your faith is shaken, disturbed or threatened by the Flying Spaghetti Monster, then you have a problem with your own faith, nothing else.

–

ProfX,

Garrr, everyone knows that strippers leave a bit more to the imagination… for a while! See you at the beer volcano…

47

[quote]KJ Bridgewater wrote:
You all (PX and Gregus excluded) are a bunch of sanctimonious pricks. If the tables were turned and it was religious people constantly dissing atheists you hypocrites would attack like rabid dogs. Then you turn around of this Ramen shyte.

You don’t believe in religion? Fine. But every “Ramen” call or reference to the flying spaghetti monster is nothing more than a childish insult to those who do.

This thread is the porterhouse of TubeSteak Boogies.[/quote]

It seems to have escaped your attention, but religious people are constantly insulting atheists. You know, burning in hell for our sins, not letting gay people marry because “it?s Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve”.

I?m not even counting those that blow shit up for Allah, or murder in front of an abortion clinic for Jesus.

And then there is Pat Robertson who is insulting me by being a member of my species. To share 98,5 % with a chimpanzee is one thing, but 100% with him?

48

[quote]Professor X wrote:
The fact that it seems to have caught on with a large number of adults is pretty scary…[/quote]

That could apply equally well to Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, etc.

The other point to consider with FSM is that it was not originally a dig against religion, but a satire designed to ridicule the notion that ID should be taught in science class along side evolution. Apparently, ID proponents were too dumb to understand why ID is not science; the FSM illustrates the point in a way they can comprehend.

Now, any claims of “well, you can’t refute the possibility of Intelligent Design” can be answered with “you can’t refute the possibility of the Designer being a Flying Spaghetti Monster either.” If we’re going to do science based on “stuff we can’t refute,” well then, we’ll just pull stuff out of our asses all day long and call it science.

If FSM offends believers, well tough shit. I respect your right to believe in anything you want, but I don’t have to respect your beliefs themselves. Do you respect and honor Santa Claus because millions of kids think he’s the real thing? Me neither.

49

[quote]Orbitalboner wrote:
If I were presented with a cult of pink elephants,[/quote]

Actually, it’s an Invisible Pink Unicorn.

50

[quote]pookie wrote:
… Do you respect and honor Santa Claus because millions of kids think he’s the real thing? Me neither.
[/quote]

Absolutely. He brings joy to my children and millions of others. Why would I want to tear down the myth of Santa Clause?

51

[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
pookie wrote:
… Do you respect and honor Santa Claus because millions of kids think he’s the real thing? Me neither.

Absolutely. He brings joy to my children and millions of others. Why would I want to tear down the myth of Santa Clause?[/quote]

Wait till they make laws because “Santa Claus said so”. You?ll see the problem then.

52

[quote]vroom wrote:
Strange.

How can anyone who actually believes in God get insulted by the material in this thread?.[/quote]

I wasn’t insulted at all. I just thought I would play the same game.

53

[quote]pookie wrote:
Orbitalboner wrote:
If I were presented with a cult of pink elephants,

Actually, it’s an Invisible Pink Unicorn.[/quote]

Is it? Hmmm, well now you’ve piqued my interest. Perhaps I will suspend judgement after all…got to be cautious when it comes to unicorns.

54

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Whatever makes you happy, but what is really the point of this besides degrading what a large percentage of the world believes?[/quote]

Just in case. Remember that most cristians do not believe that man literally came from eden. Most christians, specially catholics, accept the book of genesis as a deep metaphor with a very important theological message; and these christians study evolution and understand that evolution explains how man --and all species-- came to be.

Having said that, “the point of this” is showing the syllines of schoolboards that want to include religious teaching in a science class room.

RAmen.

55

[quote]vroom wrote:

ProfX,

Garrr, everyone knows that strippers leave a bit more to the imagination… for a while! See you at the beer volcano…[/quote]

And this is just retarded. Why would you leave anything to your imagination in “paradise”? Again, your higher power is a dumbass…and it shows.

The bottom line is, this noodle fascination (which I am sure Sigmund Freud would dissect with disregard) lost all of the “funny” about 2 minutes after it was first thought up.

56

Vroom,

Offended? Not at all; Not like I actually expect more from you anyways. I’m simply pointing out that you’re engaged in behaviour that you would quickly chastize other people for. That is hypocrisy.

Talk all of the smack you want, it’s not like people like myself, PX, Disc Hoss, RainJack etc. go around condemning “unbelievers”.

Coz if we did, would you respect our right to “loudly” express our objections to your beliefs? HELL NO! you and the rest of the FSM crew would be the first to jump in.

57

[quote]Professor X wrote:
vroom wrote:

ProfX,

Garrr, everyone knows that strippers leave a bit more to the imagination… for a while! See you at the beer volcano…

And this is just retarded. Why would you leave anything to your imagination in “paradise”? Again, your higher power is a dumbass…and it shows.

The bottom line is, this noodle fascination (which I am sure Sigmund Freud would dissect with disregard) lost all of the “funny” about 2 minutes after it was first thought up. [/quote]

Yes it did.

Prof X, you are rapidly approaching the point we are trying to make…

58

[quote]KJ Bridgewater wrote:
Coz if we did, would you respect our right to “loudly” express our objections to your beliefs?[/quote]

You can express your objections to beliefs I don’t have all you want. Note that there is a lot of stuff I don’t believe (among which are about 3000 or so variations of religion), so I hope you’ve got a lot of time.

For the record, we don’t object to your beliefs, we just find them ridiculous. You can believe what you want, I don’t give a fuck. But when those beliefs start getting pushed down our throats through laws, policies, rules and regulations, then we object. Don’t worry, if someone proposes laws based on FSM, I’ll object to those too.

59

[quote]orion wrote:
Zap Branigan wrote:
pookie wrote:
… Do you respect and honor Santa Claus because millions of kids think he’s the real thing? Me neither.

Absolutely. He brings joy to my children and millions of others. Why would I want to tear down the myth of Santa Clause?

Wait till they make laws because “Santa Claus said so”. You?ll see the problem then.[/quote]

I see 2 problems.

ID has no place in science class because there is nothing scientific about it. I do understand this problem.

The other problem I see is people trying to belittle others beliefs.

As long as you are not strapping a bomb to yourself and getting on a bus in the name of god I generally don’t get into telling someone their faith is bullshit.

60

Hey, dumbass, being called a God hater and a moral relativist isn’t a condemnation?

Did you say something about hypocrisy?