In response to Mr. Dawkins assertions that religion is akin to loaded weapons (and I want it on the record that all I said was i felt that a belief in God was not harmful, I did not endorse any particlular religion) I would say that a stone atheist is a very dangerous person. An atheist (if I understand the term correctly) does not believe in the spirit world, any after life, etc. so the worst you can do to him is kill him. He can murder, rape, pillage, plunder to his heart's content knowing that there is no justice to be meted out in the here after, as I said before, the worst you can do is kill him. To me a person with no fear of any sort of divine justice is capable of anything, as much if not more so than a "religious" person. Edited to add: This is not to say atheists are immoral, barbaric, etc., this was simply taking Mr. Dawkin's logic and heading the other way with it.
Big Dog
JoinedPosts by Big Dog
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"You guys are the most preachy atheists I've ever met!"
by GetBusyLiving ina christian friend of mine had a melt down this weekend and screamed at my roommate about both of us being "preachy atheists".
he also said, in talking about me, that "i can see it in his eyes, he think's he's right!
" it was after a bunch of drinks at a bar and my roommate said that he was nearly in tears.
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"You guys are the most preachy atheists I've ever met!"
by GetBusyLiving ina christian friend of mine had a melt down this weekend and screamed at my roommate about both of us being "preachy atheists".
he also said, in talking about me, that "i can see it in his eyes, he think's he's right!
" it was after a bunch of drinks at a bar and my roommate said that he was nearly in tears.
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Big Dog
Doogie, excellent, excellent post. Very thought provoking. There is an old saying in court, that you have the plaintiff’s story, then you have the defendant’s story, and then you have the truth which usually lies somewhere in the middle.
People rip on me sometimes because I am often hesitant to come down with a firm opinion on an issue because I know, just know there is another pretty compelling argument out there for exactly the opposite position.
But I think most people have pretty firm convictions about things that they feel are important to them, their morality and that sort of thing, also I think most of us believe in more than we realize, basic math, basic science, etc., it’s the stuff that we just aren’t sure about that is tough to get totally behind.
I started a thread awhile ago about how much “science” we take on faith because most of us simply cannot understand the math or the physics behind it, we see the evidence of it when the space shuttle flies or our PC boots up, but we can’t say we truly understand how it works.
So when you get into the really big stuff, God/no God, the origin of the species or the universe I think its normal for people, even people who haven’t come out of the JW’s to be a little hesitant to say, yes, absolutely I think its this way, because yes science is self correcting, but the key is that it is correcting, so the scientific “truth” today may not be the scientific truth tomorrow so maybe I want to hedge my bet a little on that and I think that’s your middle ground.
For instance, I have been pretty well convinced that evolution happened, there just seems to be a lot of “facts” or evidence to suggest it has, but how it got started, or if it was helped along, well, the jury is still out on that one. I see that as a middle ground, I accept certain things but leave the ultimate conclusions open for now. -
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Whats your favourite food?
by PaulJ inwhat is your favourite spiritual food?
mine by a long way is my wife's lasagne.
it is out of this world.
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Big Dog
Hey Butt, do you like bernaise on your filet?
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Whats your favourite food?
by PaulJ inwhat is your favourite spiritual food?
mine by a long way is my wife's lasagne.
it is out of this world.
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Big Dog
Filet and lobster.
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"You guys are the most preachy atheists I've ever met!"
by GetBusyLiving ina christian friend of mine had a melt down this weekend and screamed at my roommate about both of us being "preachy atheists".
he also said, in talking about me, that "i can see it in his eyes, he think's he's right!
" it was after a bunch of drinks at a bar and my roommate said that he was nearly in tears.
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Big Dog
Hey GBL, don't sweat it man, you are one of my favorite posters, love your sense of humor. As LT said, you don't have the corner on the market of being an ass, we all have that aspect of our personality.
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"You guys are the most preachy atheists I've ever met!"
by GetBusyLiving ina christian friend of mine had a melt down this weekend and screamed at my roommate about both of us being "preachy atheists".
he also said, in talking about me, that "i can see it in his eyes, he think's he's right!
" it was after a bunch of drinks at a bar and my roommate said that he was nearly in tears.
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Big Dog
Before I attack someone's beliefs I always ask myself what do I have to replace it with? Do I have something better for them? If they are in a destructive cult then the answer is definitely yes, freedom to be an individual who lives their life making their own decisions and is not subject to abusive teachings or tactics. But if it is say a person in some vanilla non-invasive faith, or perhaps they say they are just spiritual, then I don't want to mess with that if they find comfort in it and it makes their life better because I don't have anything better to offer them. Hammering them into believing their is no God, or higher power, or benevolent aliens, what good does that do? Have I improved their life by stripping them of these beliefs? Unless those beliefs were destructive, and I don't find belief in God to be inherently destructive, then I don't think trying to convince a person God doesn't exist serves any purpose.
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School Shopping
by Sparkplug ini hate it!
i went and did shopping tonight for two of the three kiddos and it was so bad that i could not get into the aisles with a cart.
so i set it aside and squeezed thru the way and found ...er, fought for what i needed.
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Big Dog
Don't gripe too much Princess, mark my words, in a couple of years you will have to send your 1st graders to school with laptops, never mind the crayons.
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School Shopping
by Sparkplug ini hate it!
i went and did shopping tonight for two of the three kiddos and it was so bad that i could not get into the aisles with a cart.
so i set it aside and squeezed thru the way and found ...er, fought for what i needed.
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Big Dog
I hate these new school schedules, when I was a kid, you got out the first week in June, and never, ever, ever, went back until the Tuesday after Labor Day. That's just how it was, just doesn't seem like summer vacation anymore.
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How Do We See Others On A Discussion Board?
by Sunspot ini have always had one "motto" that i have stuck by for as long as i can recall........to treat others as they have treated me.
on a discussion board we can and do get into things that may get heated at times, but most of us can usually agree to disagree and be done with it, dignity and feelings intact.
some folks have done some "bad" things and have dealt with them or in the process of doing so.
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Big Dog
I think some of it is what I call the Reformed Alcoholic Syndrome, you know the old saw about nothing worse than a reformed drunk preaching about the evils of alcohol. You have "reformed" JW's here who have seen the "light" and become athiests, or agnostics, etc. and hammer those points as hard as they probably preached the word when a dub. I don't say this in a nasty way, I think it is too be expected, especially if one is feeling like they have been duped for a long time. So I think some of the aggressiveness can be traced to folks that have become enlightened so to speak wanting to share that with others and often being pretty forceful.
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A continuation of defd's discussion
by cruzanheart inokay, defd, i started a new topic so we won't continue to hijack panic attack's thread.
the reason why i didn't answer you back is twofold: (1) i'm at work and they kind of expect me to do other things besides post on jwd; (2) my husband chris (big tex) answered your question sufficiently for me so i didn't see a need to respond.. nina i am curious as to why you didnt finish our discussion and respond to my answer?
was raised as one of jehovah's witnesses, and i am very pleased to be able to offer my children the respect to make their own decisions about what to believe .
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Big Dog
When applied to JW mind control mental regulating is like regular bowel movements, same ambience.