Hostile to atheists

by d 281 Replies latest members politics

• 

  still thinking

  That was an interesting read zid...I am going back to read some of your links...especially the chimp one.

  I have been reading a bit about stone henge lately. It is quite fascinating. It would appear that it was used for a number of different things and changed to suit the beliefs and customs of each era.

  From what I can gather...it started out at a burial/cremation site...then progressed and was added to. There also seems to have been the possiblility of ritual sacrifice there. And the connection to the river was a big part of the rituals.

  Not only is what they did there fascinating, but what it was bult for. It would appear that they put a lot of thought and knowlegde into the placement of those stones. So much so, they could predict eclipses and other solar/lunar activity....It has my interest spicked, thats for sure.

  Ha ha, I have more questions than I have time to answer them. I am constantly asking why, who, where, what, when. My partner just laughs at me and says, go on, get on google, you know you want to find out now. My joy of joys in life is asking why. I said to him, when I stop asking why, you will know I am dead.
• 

  ziddina

  Stonehenge is interesting, and be sure to research its companion ritual circle, "Woodhenge", while you're at it... I'm sure that most information on Stonehenge nowadays contains information on the fairly recent discovery of "Woodhenge", too...

  But...

  Now that they've discovered "Gobekli Tepe" - droooooooooll..........

  Getting back to Stonehenge, briefly...

  I picked up a "coffee table" book recently, titled "Magic Stones - The Secret World of Ancient Megaliths" by Jan Pohribný.

  Until I purchased that book, I had no idea of the extent of 'standing stones' in the British Isles, Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, Italy, Corsica, Sardinia, Majorca....

  Wowiiieeee... It's primarily a book of photographs - gorgeous photos, I might add - but it certainly shows how extensive that "standing stones" concept was, among pre-literate groups.
• 

  ziddina

  Oh, the "chimp one", is actually a two-parter...

  Here's the main website - which includes numerous links for the Acheulean period of the Berekhat Ram and Tan-Tan figurines:

  http://www.originsnet.org/publications.html

  The two pdfs on chimpanzees are near the top of the lists of files... The first file discusses other chimpanzee behavior, but you might want to read it first, as it lays the groundwork for the second file.

  Be sure to go to the 'home page', and check out the "Olduwan", and early/middle Paleolithic information, too...

  Oh, and here's the section on the "Acheulean figurine", otherwise occasionally known as the "Acheulean goddess"...

  http://www.originsnet.org/nenatoolsfems/
• 

  still thinking

  Wow! I just googled Gobekli Tepe. I had never heard of it before. I'm gonna look at that a bit more. Thanks zid...

  hee hee...that lot will keep me out of mischief for a while...
• 

  ziddina

  You know it, girl!!

  You'll probably run across this in your readings [about Acheulean period artifacts], but I'd better mention ahead of time that the "Acheulean goddess" is more properly referred to as the "Acheulean figurine" or the "Berekhat Ram" figurine, in most cases...
• 

  designs

  Ancient sites in Turkey and Syria were of special interest when I studied Genesis outside of the Wt. literal reading of Adam and Eve many years ago.

  9000 BCE kind of steam rolls Adam and Eve, but hey they could have been Turkish descendants.
• 

  still thinking

  I am slowly making my way through your links zid...and am enjoying them emmensely...

  I have been looking at other websites today with information about Göbekli Tepe and have just read your National Geographic link for Göbekli Tepe. Very interesting. I loved the comment at the end of the article....

  "I think what we are learning is that civilization is a product of the human mind."

  Wouldn't you just love to be a fly on the wall when they built that? I think we have really underestimated our ancestors. And OMG!!!! Imagine if they find something even older as they dig deeper!

  Funny how they seem to have become more stupid and less advanced as time went on. The amazing skill, cooperation, and organisation diplayed in creating a construction like that...then every few years covered up and less ambitious structures built...what's that about? Were they dumbing down the massess with religion back then too? LOL

  Mind you, our decendents might think the same of of us...we have monuments standing that were built thousands of years ago, and yet, many of the structurs and homes we buld today really aren't made to last. Maybe less elaborate builds are a sign of increasing intellegence.......or....maybe we are more stoooopid than our ancestors....hee hee hee
• 

  Phizzy

  Tammy uses the argument that because irrational beliefs have been held for a long time by a variety of cultures this is evidence for their truth.

  ? wot ? say that to Tim Minchen.

  As to family and the general believing public being hostile to Atheists it springs from their feeling that yours and my stance as a non-believer is a personal attack upon them in some way.

  As Professor Richard Dawkins has pointed out, it is no such thing, and his advice for believers is "grow a thicker skin", he probably would have preferred to say "evolve a thicker skin" but that would not suit the believer perhaps.

  His point being that all we do is gently question the validity of these beliefs that have no evidence, we are not attacking the person that holds them, we just cannot understand why they do, and think themselves not to be deluded.
• 

  tec

  Tammy uses the argument that because irrational beliefs have been held for a long time by a variety of cultures this is evidence for their truth.

  Wha...????

  First, what is an irrational belief is subjective to the person making the statement.

  Second, I have said that because people have always, in every culture that we know about, were compelled to seek out and believe in some sort of higher power (god/goddess/spirit/animal spirits/etc) is evidence for some sort of a higher power. Not the only evidence. Just one more bit to the pile.

  People are not very good at conceiving of something completely brand new... it must be based upon something else. If we are a purely natural species, then I do not see the possibility of us conceiving of something more than what we can see, hear, touch, smell, taste. Peace, tammy
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  ziddina

  "and his advice for believers is "grow a thicker skin", he probably would have preferred to say "evolve a thicker skin" ..." Phizzy

  Oooo, Phizzy, I LIKE that! Can I use it? Purty please??