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Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

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Jimjamesak said:
Angels are part of fantasy. Left Behind requires a suspension of disbelief so great even 1980's WWF is going "*ing really?"
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My mom thought Left Behind was exactly how the end times were going to play out. She also was big on angels and thought the formation of the EU was a sign of the Apocalypse.
 
Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

Jesus: “You give them something to eat." Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. The number of those who ate was about five thousand.

Kepler: "Stupid Christians believe you turn nothing into food for five thousand."

Christians: Activate 'Feed my Starving Children', just one small charitable organization whose charter is to 'feed until all are fed'. At this point, their 70 country mission feeds over five thousand on a daily basis.

https://www.fmsc.org/impact-of-our-work/success-stories
 
5mn_Major said:
Jesus: “You give them something to eat." Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. The number of those who ate was about five thousand.

Kepler: "Stupid Christians believe you turn nothing into food for five thousand."

Christians: Activate 'Feed my Starving Children', just one small charitable organization whose charter is to 'feed until all are fed'. At this point, their 70 country mission feeds over five thousand on a daily basis.

https://www.fmsc.org/impact-of-our-work/success-stories
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Pretty sure Kepler has never said that...
 
Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

Felt a little lost- thought I missed something until I looked back and realized I didn't.
 
Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

Jimjamesak said:
Pretty sure Kepler has never said that...
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That Christians are not the bright because they believe in 'fantastical' stuff? Kepler says it all the time and in many ways.

The broader point is people like that are desperately trying to prove a point - that God doesn't exist or some such. But they aren't even asking the right question, which is - who are you and what are doing about it. While I would welcome a serious response, I'm ignoring pointless flaming.
 
Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

Huh. I guess I was wrong.

EDIT: If you really think my previous comment was "pointless flaming", then you might as well be a fundie.
 
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Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

FadeToBlack&Gold said:
Huh. I guess I was wrong.

EDIT: If you really think my previous comment was "pointless flaming", then you might as well be a fundie.
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Take stick. unprovoked- poke wasps nest. Look shocked when someone says you were poking wasp nest. others in thread try to find logic, end up hopelessly confused. hide stick behind back and try to look innocent.
 
Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

leswp1 said:
Take stick. unprovoked- poke wasps nest. Look shocked when someone says you were poking wasp nest. others in thread try to find logic, end up hopelessly confused. hide stick behind back and try to look innocent.
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C'mon les. Where in #648 did I "poke the wasps' nest?" 5mn is a pretty liberal guy in other threads, I can't imagine he thinks people who take The Bible word-for-word, are intelligent. It was a legitimate challenge to his smear of Kepler.
 
FadeToBlack&Gold said:
C'mon les. Where in #648 did I "poke the wasps' nest?" 5mn is a pretty liberal guy in other threads, I can't imagine he thinks people who take The Bible word-for-word, are intelligent. It was a legitimate challenge to his smear of Kepler.
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She was referring to 5mn, not you.

At least that's the way I read it.
 
Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

FadeToBlack&Gold said:
I can't imagine he thinks people who take The Bible word-for-word, are intelligent.
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I think you are mixing up "intelligence" with something else....I thought intelligence was a skill we learned to use to interpret information, not necessarily to determine whether said information was credible in the first place. There are very intelligent people who believe God exists and there are very intelligent people who do not believe that God exists.

Does that really make a difference in how competent they are to conduct themselves well in their daily lives?

What matters to everyone else is how we behave. What we believe only matters to ourselves.


EDIT: Apparently I was not clear enough above: there are indeed some people who take the Bible literally who also are intelligent. Those two traits are not causally linked, though there is a decent degree of correlation, it is not 100%.
 
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Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

5mn_Major said:
That Christians are not the bright because they believe in 'fantastical' stuff? Kepler says it all the time and in many ways.

The broader point is people like that are desperately trying to prove a point - that God doesn't exist or some such. But they aren't even asking the right question, which is - who are you and what are doing about it. While I would welcome a serious response, I'm ignoring pointless flaming.
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I have said many, many times that if it takes wearing a bra on your head to make you act like a good person, then wear a bra on your head. I believe that all people are fundamentally equal, which is probably a bigger suspension of disbelief than all the miracles in the Bible put together, but that belief helps me be less of a jerk (yes, it is possible that I could be more of a jerk) so I encourage myself to keep believing it. It's irrational but it is "real" in the Jamesian sense that "true is what works." I fully understand that.

"Intelligent" and "good" are entirely different dimensions. Whether you're smart or stupid is entirely the luck of the draw, whereas with only a few really extreme exceptions whether you're good or not is entirely within your control. I'd much rather hang out with good stupid people than bad smart people -- it's why I'm not a broker or a lawyer. I mean, ideal would be good smart people but I'm too queasy around blood to be a doctor and to be a psychiatrist, well, I'm not that good.

It's not normative to call somebody stupid, it's measurable and it doesn't imply anything about them as a moral or ethical person. By definition, 50% of us are stupider than the mean. Those 50% are exactly as likely to be good or bad as the 50% on the other tail.

Believing the supernatural or not probably shouldn't be called stupid, though, I'll give you that. There's another dimension -- whether someone is rational or irrational. It is irrational to believe in the supernatural, but if that 80% stat is correct then either most people are irrational or a lot of rational people hedge their bets. ;)
 
Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

FadeToBlack&Gold said:
C'mon les. Where in #648 did I "poke the wasps' nest?" 5mn is a pretty liberal guy in other threads, I can't imagine he thinks people who take The Bible word-for-word, are intelligent. It was a legitimate challenge to his smear of Kepler.
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Sorry. Mea culpa. I was also responding to his smear of Kep, just attached to wrong post. His came out of the blue and I was way confused what prompted it.
 
Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

FreshFish said:
I think you are mixing up "intelligence" with something else....I thought intelligence was a skill we learned to use to interpret information, not necessarily to determine whether said information was credible in the first place. There are very intelligent people who believe God exists and there are very intelligent people who do not believe that God exists.

Does that really make a difference in how competent they are to conduct themselves well in their daily lives?

What matters to everyone else is how we behave. What we believe only matters to ourselves.
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Funny thing is, you're misinterpreting what Fade wrote. He was speaking directly to people's opinions of Biblical literalists, not merely a believer.
 
Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

St. Clown said:
Funny thing is, you're misinterpreting what Fade wrote. He was speaking directly to people's opinions of Biblical literalists, not merely a believer.
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No I'm not. I'm saying outright that some Biblical literalists are indeed intelligent.

It's sort of like saying that some members of cults in general are indeed intelligent.

Some Mormons are very intelligent even if they take The Book of Mormon literally; or even if they believe that Joseph Smith really did find relics written in an ancient language that only he could interpret.
 
Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

St. Clown said:
Funny thing is, you're misinterpreting what Fade wrote. He was speaking directly to people's opinions of Biblical literalists, not merely a believer.
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This is the distinction that 5mn always muddies up. I say "if you literally think the wine turns into Christ's blood then (1) ew and (2) that's silly." Then 5mn cries that I've just slandered ALL BELIEVERS EVERYWHERE ALWAYS. No, I'm saying if you think a voodoo doll works then you're an idiot. If you think Nature is personified, aware of us, and takes an interest in who we put our sex organs into, you're deluded but then again so am I for thinking the Mets will sign another left-handed reliever before all the good ones are gone.

If I poke fun at faith in general it's gentle -- my parents are both believers and so are many people I cherish and respect.

If you're a fundy, yeah, I've got no use for you on that subject other than the study of aberrant psychology. But I'll still play tennis with you if you've got a decent backhand. I'm not a monster.
 
Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

Sure, I'll concede that one can be very bright in a given subject or field of expertise, and still be a total rube in another. It explains a lot of conservative engineers I know.

The Biblical literalists we all read about are people like Kim Davis, the county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples because it would violate her belief in the Biblical sanctity of marriage. Which she valued so highly, being divorced 3 times herself. :rolleyes: Was she a competent clerk in other matters? Probably. It still didn't make her any less pigheaded though.

BTW, the best way to read The Book of Mormon is with theremin music playing in the background. :)
 
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