Strega

PopeBeanie wrote:
Twas but a scratch. Please don’t give up, Dr. Bob.

I was amused when checking the Guidelines again that 2+ years later they were still written with me in mind.  Complete with the reference to that one cartoon I contributed over on TA to the thread asking for mocking cartoons 😉 .  I thought it fit with the theme, in a rev…[Read more]

@diane – “why do some Christians expect atheists to examine the Christians’ purported evidence?”

– that sounds like a very normal and reasonable thing for them to want.

@strega, @reg, @DangMartin – this right here is like talking to Creationists.

I’ll look at my situation no. 2: these were not normal occasions like walking down the street or e…[Read more]

@strega – “Simon, if you think I’m riding roughshod over statistical analysis, you do not understand statistical analysis. You as an individual do not provide sufficient variety to form a statistic.”

– I’m drawing on “all the experiences I’ve had in my life”.  I feel that’s a pretty wide population from which to take samples or examples or 1-offs.

@strega – you’re riding roughshod over statistical analysis.  The explanation you’re talking about – random chance – is overwhelmingly unlikely.  The overwhelmingly likely explanation is X or Y definite, structured thing.

“How many other times have you needed it and not found it?”

– lots of times, like everyone else.  But when I’ve been going ou…[Read more]

@strega – I’m not exactly insinuating, because I just don’t know.  It LOOKS just like the hand of God.  But that doesn’t mean it is.  Some people believe in “guardian angels” – the departed spirits of one’s friends and relatives, who are able to affect reality.

It’s almost certainly not natural, so that only leaves supernatural.

@strega – those things are unlikely to be chance.  That just doesn’t stack up.

The thing is with rights is that over time, they have been extended to more and more groups.  This is part of the moral and ethical progress of the world, that Steven Pinker talks about.  The right to being treated with respect is becoming more and more universal.

@Strega – “Odd isn’t it, that as soon as you create rights, you have to protect the…[Read more]

@Strega – I often reply that I don’t think prayer works. I have had theists say they would pray for me but whatever it was they would pray for did not materialize. So now I suggest that they either stop asking their god to change the plan he has for me or up the ante and sacrifice a kid goat instead to see if that will make a difference.

@Strega –

“That this creator then gave a shit about a tiny blue dot in its massive creation”

“regular communication with the primal force”

what I mean is that I agree with you that the Bible is not evidence or proof of anything on its own; but I can have some understanding of the sentiments or meaning – I do kind of get it.  It’s a good way to…[Read more]

@Strega – I don’t agree with it, obviously, since I’m a confirmed atheist.  I’m just saying that it’s consistent: if you want to be a Christian, or whatever, then these ideas don’t contradict.

@Strega –

“That this creator then gave a shit about a tiny blue dot in its massive creation is highly questionable.”

“regular communication with the primal force”

– to be fair, I think these are reasonable propositions given the frame of reference.  It says in the Bible that God loves every little sparrow, and knows every hair on your head.

@Strega – we presume that the ancestors of the Homo family line were “social but not very cooperative”, i.e. mainly competitive: living in a dominance hierarchy based on fighting ability, because this is what all the other primates are like now, who live in similar habitats.

The Homo family were required to live cooperatively in order to survive…[Read more]

@caseydorman – I’m not talking about the process of evolutionary change over aeons.  I’m talking about the process of individual beings living their lives.  Each one experiences a pressure to thrive, survive and reproduce.  This arises from 1) the fact that DNA reproduces; 2) evolution and natural selection.  If we put these two together, then ove…[Read more]

@Strega – “an objective moral framework”

– I’m not necessarily trying to do this, as “objective morality” can mean a number of different things, none of which I’m trying to achieve.  But “universal”, yes.

“if you’re trying to encompass all humanity, you’ll fall over. Conceptually, your moral code would look like ant behavior.”

– I’m not sure…[Read more]