Another Zionist Actress - quits supporting Oxfam

[SpontaneousOrder]

It's more reasonable to suppose these unknown answers exist because you're living in Bostrom's Simulation (Are You Living in a Simulation?) - but you choose God because it feels nicer.

[SpontaneousOrder]

Imagine that science sets out to find purpose for everything, could the whole of existence be without purpose itself?

This is how religion works - you're afraid. People's fear makes you intellectually weak.

What is this obsession with some third party purpose? Life is an end in itself, and the purpose of your life is to enjoy it. It's in your nature and your nature is reality - you can't argue with it.

[vetran]

To believe that creatures like us could exist without a purpose is the height of ignorance IMO. To believe anything could exist without a purpose is pure ignorance IMO. Imagine that science sets out to find purpose for everything, could the whole of existence be without purpose itself?

life has a purpose, to survive, diversify and grow. That's it (IMO).

But as Voltaire said - “Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer”

but from an Agnostic point of view I believe the presence of a God figure makes crowd management easier for civilisation.

If the God I was lectured on existed then many really bad things would not have happened. The idea we are God's experiment in free will is pretty unpleasant as well.

YMMV however.

[SpontaneousOrder]

The idea we are God's experiment in free will is pretty unpleasant as well.

And free will, in the sense that religious people tend to think of it at least, doesn't even make sense.

i believe that I have free will - i make decisions myself; but my decisions are measurably influenced by my environment, and entirely predictable into the future given sufficiently powerful processing power and measuring capability. What would non-deterministic free will mean? Random decisions - if your decisions aren't predestined and occur in response to measurable environmental realities, then the inescapable implication is that they are random.

If one starts to talk about Heisenberg uncertainty in order to escape determinism, then it's still deterministic insofar as the effect (the decision) is directly related to one or more causes. And talk of quantum randomness only pints towards the other, random kind of free will.

Deterministic free will or random will? Neither of those sit very will with the concept of religion (which generally supposes that - even ignoring people's free will - God has some third, self-contradictory kind of free will).

[d000hg]

Said SponteneousOrder revealing once again the depth of his ignorance of religion.

It's fun how those who proudly eschew any involvement in religion always seem to be such experts on it. It would be a little like an Amish person telling you why Macs are better than PCs.

[SpontaneousOrder]

It's fun how those who proudly eschew any involvement in religion always seem to be such experts on it. It would be a little like an Amish person telling you why Macs are better than PCs.

Says the guy who consistently goes silent when asked to provide any kind of evidence or reason to back up their assertions.

Calling someone ignorant while being unable to articulate exactly why they are ignorant is actually just name calling - that's what the dense kids at school do to try to cover up their own inadequacies.

[NotAllThere]

...Calling someone ignorant while being unable to articulate exactly why they are ignorant is actually just name calling...

Sorry. You are ignorant because you believe religion is founded on ignorance. Anyone who has got beyond the popular understanding of religion will know that this is horse feathers.

The opposition of religion to science only exists in the minds of science-haters and religion-haters. People who don't have an irrational reaction against either don't see any opposition. Otherwise all non-atheist scientists (of whom there are many) would be beating themselves up on a daily basis - and only the most extreme catholic cults do that.

HTH BIDI.

[mudskipper]

On a lighter note:

You are with SodaStream or you are with the terrorists, says Johansson

[SpontaneousOrder]

Sorry. You are ignorant because you believe religion is founded on ignorance. Anyone who has got beyond the popular understanding of religion will know that this is horse feathers.

The opposition of religion to science only exists in the minds of science-haters and religion-haters. People who don't have an irrational reaction against either don't see any opposition. Otherwise all non-atheist scientists (of whom there are many) would be beating themselves up on a daily basis - and only the most extreme catholic cults do that.

HTH BIDI.

You could have saved yourself all those words by simply answering the question I already asked you, which was - tell me a single religion that doesn't have ignorance at it's core.

This is why I keep accusing you guys of being childish name-callers - because all you ever do is dodge the questions while asserting that I just don't understand because I'm ignorant. That's not a rebuttal - that's putting your fingers in your ears and shouting "LA LA LA LA".

[DodgyAgent]

What a foolish statement that is. Might as well come straight out of the mouth of Netanyahu himself.

The two are not mutually exclusive. There is a reason the west has fought to keep puppet dictators in the middle eastern countries - one of them being for Israel's benefit. This is such a reality it is almost laughable. When the Egyptians fought for democracy with their own blood, it's the Egyptian Army (AKA extension of US army) which takes charge. Saudi Arabia is now best mates with Israel (for those who can see past the apparent hatred). Qatar is pretty much the same as well, as is the UAE. So those countries are the ones with the dictatorships and yet Israel has least of a problem with them.

Allow the region to turn into affluent democracy and see what happens to Israel.

Oh dear we do have a chip about this. You cannot even make a coherent point. It is quite fashionable amongst the chattering lefties to denigrate Israel and patronise the perpetrators of totalitarianism and religious oppression by berating them.
And when the logic runs out there is always the conspiracy theories to fall back on.

What I admire about the Israelis is the lack of ambiguity of their policies and behaviour. A refreshing attitude compared to the what comes from the apologists of Middle eastern repression.

They seem to be doing their best with their neighbours by forming alliances. You dont seem to understand much beyond your indignant bigoted raging,