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Politics : Should God be replaced? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: exdaytrader76 who wrote (17626)	6/7/2004 11:55:25 AM
From: Solon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 28931

"What motivates you?" The search for beauty, truth, knowledge.... The desire for a world where reason and peace supplant superstition and mindless killing. "How can you say you are broadly tolerant, then dismiss the ideas of millions as "not serious" enough for debate?" I have no difficulty in saying one and doing the other. There is no conflict between the two. But firstly, let me correct you: I said that "certain things do not lend themselves to serious debate" which is somewhat different. Your suggestion that the number of adherents of something gives it credibility is fallacious hog wash. Just because millions believe (for example) that the world was built in 7 days, or that Noah travelled with all the animals in the world over the mountain-tops in an ark...does not make these beliefs credible or worthy of serious debate. "Listen to yourself. Do you really think that you are so much smarter than all of those ancient texts?" What do you think? Do you think the earth was flat back then? Do you think God told people to eat dung? Do you think God helped choose an army by seeing whether the men drank water like dogs or like some other less ferocious animals? Do you think God made all people then killed them all except for Noah and family and then decided later to send one tribal group into war to exterminate his other children to the last breath? Do you think the magicians of Egypt knew how to turn water into blood and how to create frogs from scratch, but had not yet discovered how to make lice?! I venture to say that there are only certain ancient texts which you believe in, and that YOU think some others (believed in by millions) are unworthy of belief! So don't point your stubby finger at me with that unearned smugness curling your thin lips. "That link is so silly. The premise seems to be that since there were bad religious people, then all religion is bad forever" You did not read the link--or you did not understand it. It specifically disclaims any such motive or meaning. The link shows the origin of superstition and religion and it explains how "reasonable" it was for our ancestors to believe in magic and superstition and to invent answers for the many questions of minds just beginning to see relationships between rain, sun, and growth and life...and so forth. "A great brain such as yours can surely see this logical fallacy." It is a fallacy that you introduced. "Or does your pride affect your vision? Pride is the problem, not the answer." OH GREAT! Another ad hominem preacher with a supercilious attitude! Now we are to discuss whether my pride affects my vision! Because I believe the earth is round and because I believe that the God invented in the bible is cruel and because I believe that demons do not cause mental illness...therefore, I must suffer from an excess of pride! Talk about fallacious thinking! Lord love a duck! Well, I can tell you this, daytrader76: I think pride is a great thing. It is the honest appreciation of ones value and it is the handmaiden to dignity. Now arrogance is another matter. It often comes to those who have special certainty about--not only the earth--but about Heaven, Hell, and other cottages of their imagination. These people have no problem believing that Egyptian magicians knew how to create life and to turn water into blood. They done read it so in a book...and so it damn well be.