Hi Ross; I edited a bit off the line where I mentioned condescending, as I wasn't sure if you'd be insulted by it... my tongue in cheek can occasionally be someone elses leathal insult... and that left it hanging there out of place...
No. I disagree with some of them, and in some cases might go to the bother of pointing out their flaws, but I don't mock.
Pffff... yeah, well, are we talking about to their face or in your heart? As a Christian, they're the same, remember? Bloody glad I'm not a Christian, it's really difficult...
I see opinions that can be mocked as worthy of mocking. When Jesus said turn the other cheek, he actually meant you should turn, drop and moon. Didn't you know that?
And Pascall's wager is morally bankruptI don't think Pascall would agree with that.
Statement of the obvious! Saddam Hussain would not agree he was a tyrant.
I suspect he was quite genuine (regardless of how migguided you may believe him to be).
Genuineness doesn't preclude moral bankruptcy or excuse error.
I take the rest of your comments under advisement, though.
Is that a nice way of saying you don't have a snappy reply to the rather obvious fact god would know you were just keeping an eye on the odds, and that equally obviously such a reason would invalidate faith adopted for risk minimisation?
And that's fine. Problem is these 'placeholders' become entities regardless of their reality.And your issue with that is?
Because the entities based in ideation develop into entites people claim substance for. How do you think religion and belief in the unseen developed?
It's just a personal gripe (that I have) when I see people deconstructing other people's belief systems mercilessly, without due regard to the consequence of said actions.
Hang on a minute; so, let's leave the JW's to it? I think you don't mean that.
What I think you mean (please correct me if I am wrong) is that you don't like some people's beliefs being deconstructed.
How do we decide which ones to leave alone Ross?
If a belief system can be deconstructed, and this deconstruction shows that it's probably just wishful thinking at the end of the day, why is this a negative consequence?
Discovering the 'truth' about something is postive, even if painful, as hiding from reality is silly - reality knows where you live, you can't really hide from it.
And, if god is just an ideation, a place-holder, what's wrong with saying it? It's not like it'll mind, is it? And if people don;t know, then they should, surely?
For far too long people hve been able to spout abslute bollocks about their imaginary friends without concequences... but as Bob says, the times, they are a-changing. In responding to flower you said;
I think Abaddon has pretty much covered all the bases of religion gone wrong (although I've yet to see examples of it "gone right").
Okay, let make a list of example of where religion has gone right.
Now, I think, if we really want to be fair, we have to factor out the BAD things people would do ANYWAY, as it would be unfair to blame religion for human behaviour.
But then we also have to factor out the GOOD things people would have done ANYWAY.
So, we need a list of the good things people have done JUST because of religion, and a list of the bad things people have done JUST for religion. Non-religious groups that function as religions can be included, like totalitarian political parties.