Archbishop of Cantebury - STFU !

[contractor79]

He is IMHO the strongest leader the CofE has had in my rather long memory. Not a raving tyrant, but a strong force in theology and society.

are you a Christian?

[Moscow Mule]

You lesser human beings make me laugh
You just can't abandon the God idea, can you, so you sit on the fence trying to hedge your bets.
As any intelligent person can see, religion and gods are purely human cultural artefacts.
Once you've understood that, and the fact there are better ways to explain emergence of life on earth, the God idea can be discarded completely.

The argument that it is not proven either way is nonsense - it hasn't been proven that tooth fairies don't exist either but you're not "tooth fairy agnostic" are you?

And you claim to be a man of science...
Is the existence of the tooth fairy falsifiable?

To put it another way - why isn't it possible that some being planted the spark from which you evolved (admitted, it was probably more of a squib). The God illusion may well be a "cultural artefact", but the possibility of there being something more powerful in the universe than humans cannot be denied by anybody with a grasp of statistics and the number of planets in our galaxy alone.

And - as it happens, I'm not on the fence with the tooth fairies - don't you remember those black and white pictures from the 1930s? Proof positive if you ask me.

[contractor79]

And you claim to be a man of science...
Is the existence of the tooth fairy falsifiable?
.

yeah there's no difference between God and a tooth fairy obviously, doh

[Moscow Mule]

I take the point but I would say that, although you may go with that description if indeed you care what I think, but an important part of my philosophy is that I do not think about it and I do not care to refine the description. The whole question of classifying one's point of view like this belongs to religion, and I am non-religious. Not anti-, but definitely non-. I dislike being dragged into these discussions, as if the religious people, who would prefer me to believe in their god, will settle for making me at least discuss their interests in their terms.

Never accept the premise of the question eh?

[Moscow Mule]

yeah there's no difference between God and a tooth fairy obviously, doh

In this discussion, no.

Shush now, theologians are talking.

[contractor79]

In this discussion, no.
.

then it's a stupid discussion

[Moscow Mule]

then it's a stupid discussion

Do you want why it isn't explained to you, or are you going to look it up?

[contractor79]

Do you want why it isn't explained to you, or are you going to look it up?

explain to us why tooth fairy is a valid analogy, do you not think there's any serious major differences between tooth fairy and God?

[Moscow Mule]

explain to us why tooth fairy is a valid analogy, do you not think there's any serious major differences between tooth fairy and God?

In the essence of the discussion, no.

There’s an equal amount of evidence for the existence of both.
Existence (or not) of either cannot be proven.
Both have basis in human interpretation of facts.

If you like, we can replace the tooth fairy with any of the following;

Father Christmas
Easter Bunny
Flying Spaghetti monster (not strictly, as it's a made up spoof but you get the idea)

[contractor79]

In the essence of the discussion, no.

There’s an equal amount of evidence for the existence of both.

nonsense, get an education please