I'm glad you agree that the left-wing "bias" is based upon facts.
Left-wing "bias" against a right-wing agenda... I don't see what the problem is, really.
Grand INQ
Inquisitor
JoinedPosts by Inquisitor
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Professor wins Templeton prize for maths link to God
by BurnTheShips infascinating!
i highlighted a couple of parts i agree with:.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article3540989.ece.
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God's Plan
by serotonin_wraith ineverything that happens is part of god's plan.. atheists are speaking out against religion.. therefore, this is part of god's plan.. do theists have the right to complain?.
on the flip side,.
some religious people will complain that they aren't getting special treatment (immunity from criticism, for example).. even if their complaining is a part of their god's plan (as everything is).... atheists don't believe in their god so don't actually have to pay any attention to that argument..
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Inquisitor
What is the foundation of atheist morality, Perry?
The same foundation that spurred women to reach out for gender equality: humanist values.
An awareness of what works and what sucks. If we stuck to the literalism of your Holy Scriptures, women would still be in a bonnet and pinafore, making babies to render their due.
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God's Plan
by serotonin_wraith ineverything that happens is part of god's plan.. atheists are speaking out against religion.. therefore, this is part of god's plan.. do theists have the right to complain?.
on the flip side,.
some religious people will complain that they aren't getting special treatment (immunity from criticism, for example).. even if their complaining is a part of their god's plan (as everything is).... atheists don't believe in their god so don't actually have to pay any attention to that argument..
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Inquisitor
But if we CAN "humble" our less sapient selves to tolerate/understand/excuse God's Utilitarian ways, then we must be in the optimum position to understand the desperate men who kill masses to make a political statement for an ultimate "good", would that be correct?
INQ
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Professor wins Templeton prize for maths link to God
by BurnTheShips infascinating!
i highlighted a couple of parts i agree with:.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article3540989.ece.
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Inquisitor
he is not a very impartial bystander, but a rather biased left-wing partisan. The loaded language of the article is an appeal to the heart, and not the head. - Burn
Oh did you stumble at the language and avoided the facts?
The octogenarian Templeton has always been a devout Christian. (His own faith marries the strict Presbyterianism of his childhood with a sunny Norman Vincent Peale-y optimism.)
Fact or "left-wing bias"?
Templeton has, almost single-handedly, revived the field of religious science. He gives 100 colleges $10,000 a year to teach courses in science and religion. He offers the same amount to medical schools for classes on "healing and spirituality." The Templeton Lectures send scholars to campuses to opine on faith and science.
Facts or "left-wing bias"? Do you dispute the founder's aims? The quantity of his contributions? Or the number of beneficiaries?
He believes in hard science.
Fact or left-wing bias?
Favorite projects include a Duke University study on the relationship between prayer and longevity, and research at Johns Hopkins into how meditation alters brain activity. Last year he awarded the Templeton Prize to a respected Australian cosmologist who argues that the structure of the universe reflects intelligent design.
Fact or left-wing bias?
the entire enterprise reflects a mad obsessiveness: What to make, for example, of the "Templeton Prizes for Exemplary Papers in Humility Theology"?
Fact or left-wing bias?
It pays to go beyond the first three paragraphs, Burno.
INQ
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God's Plan
by serotonin_wraith ineverything that happens is part of god's plan.. atheists are speaking out against religion.. therefore, this is part of god's plan.. do theists have the right to complain?.
on the flip side,.
some religious people will complain that they aren't getting special treatment (immunity from criticism, for example).. even if their complaining is a part of their god's plan (as everything is).... atheists don't believe in their god so don't actually have to pay any attention to that argument..
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Inquisitor
Because he relinquishes control. Not that he us unable to control.
Someone who relinquishes (=give up, put aside, let go, release) control cannot possibly still have control, or still have a finger on things turning evil into ultimate good. If He relinquishes events to its random outcome (not "deterministic" like you so eloquently put it) then He cannot still be in charge, can He?
His omnipotence is then merely a potential, lost once He allows TRUE FREE WILL. So is there genuine free will or is there "free will" with a divinely mandated quota? The latter is false advertising but allows for God to be in charge and accountable at all times and for all things.
Human events? Or natural causes? Earthquakes and tsunamis are not evil.
The occurence of great suffering in the face of an apathetic God (you claim it is "an offence" to Him, I say He should do something or stand accused. Is He not Omnipotent?) is EVIL, be it suffering as a result of human agency or "natural" disasters.
A utilitarian God, who needs to execute some grand plan, at the cost of human misery, is EVIL... or is non-existant.
INQ
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Yesterday was my birthday and what a bum day it was !
by oldflame inwell i turned another year younger yesterday, my girlfriend who has been living with me for almost a year tells me, here is your birthday present and i will not be living here any more.
here son has had a time with trouble and last summer needed a place to live.
a month ago someone stole half of my pain medications.
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Inquisitor
Good on you for giving your son a place to stay! I trust he knows what a great dad you are. Happy birthday, oldflame! INQ
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Professor wins Templeton prize for maths link to God
by BurnTheShips infascinating!
i highlighted a couple of parts i agree with:.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article3540989.ece.
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Inquisitor
AHhh the Templeton Prize. Rationalists who haven't heard of it should give pause to this quote alone:
The prize money is adjusted every year so that it remains greater than the amount given by the Nobel Foundation, which awards the Nobel prizes.
Why try to compete with Nobel Prize money? Is it to make the Templeton Prize more prestigious? Or to lure more bright minds to speak words that lend credibility to a certain worldview?
Let's see... last year's winner was Canadian Philosopher Charles Taylor who allegedly holds that Western secularism does not suffice in giving human lives meaning. Would you say a Jehovah's Witness would love to quote him as a conversation starter at the doors? I say: "No!" Plenty other fundamentalists would too!
I'm not saying I would personally disagree with Mr Taylor. After all the issue is not WHO wins the prize, but WHY they win it. WHAT is this Templeton Foundation trying to accomplish? Is the Templeton Foundation ONLY interested in rewarding purely SCIENTIFIC findings? Why has it been said that the founder is a sugar daddy of the conservatives?
God's Venture Capitalist - Slate.com
INQ
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God's Plan
by serotonin_wraith ineverything that happens is part of god's plan.. atheists are speaking out against religion.. therefore, this is part of god's plan.. do theists have the right to complain?.
on the flip side,.
some religious people will complain that they aren't getting special treatment (immunity from criticism, for example).. even if their complaining is a part of their god's plan (as everything is).... atheists don't believe in their god so don't actually have to pay any attention to that argument..
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Inquisitor
No, some things are out of God's control, yet he is all powerful.
How can the Highest Being be omnipotent when there are things out of his control??
He needn't exert his power in order to possess it.
He doesn't use force? Sure! But does He exert influence? Does He start the ball rolling without actively interfering with it? If so, then He DOES influence everything and there is NOTHING outside of His control. He owns everything and is ACCOUNTABLE for everything. Why? Becuase they occur by His will, by His permission, by His negligence/interference. There is no independent phenomena. He is the Source.
But if He does not influence everything. If He does grant genuine independence of action and thought to His creation. Then He cannot be in constant control of everything can He? This rubbish about turning every evil thing into something good is merely a saving God's face exercise. The Divine One controls even the bad events bcos He is all powerful, but don't hold Him accountable bcos He is ultimately GOOD and has more affection for humans than Carebears do.
God uses human's sins and turns them around for good, i.e., even when humans think they are rebelling against God they are actually playing into His hands (long term plans). God allows evil but will make it play out for good in the end .
So what's this ultimate good that has been accomplished by every child that has been sexually abused? Or every Jew that was gassed during the Nazi regime? Or the tsunami that wrecked properties and drowned lives? If there is every good in "evil" events, perhaps you should not oppose social welfare systems so much. Perhaps your God has yet to reveal to you what some of us already understand.
If this God has a finger even on the "uncontrollable" events, is He accountable for them?
The first is that God exists outside of time, thus free will can exist for humans without violating God's will.
???? So if God exists within the boundaries of time, there is no true free will? What does astrophysics have to do with free will????
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You like India Food?
by asilentone ini am just tired of eating chinese and mexican food.
i thought i might try something new.
do you like india food?
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Inquisitor
Yes yes I LOVE IndiaN food!
Biryani rice
Cucumber Raita
Papadum (cracker)
Chicken tikka masala (yoghurt+spice marinated chicken pieces)
Rogan josh, VindalooI can't eat stuff that is too hot. Stomach won't take it. But I love the rich smells of spice. Aniseed, coriander, cumin, cardamom... Yum!
INQ
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Wife sent me a newspaper article....
by oneairhead init was a little jdub kid that wrote a little essay in a local paper in the north east.
they wrote that they were not deprived of anything, the whole party line about no holidays and the like.
you know this kid did this just for the attention of his parents and the hall.
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Inquisitor
And there are wives in bonnets and pinafores (or hijabs) who would passionately defend polygamy, deadly certain that polygyny does not threaten gender equality...
Why would anyone (let alone a child) think he/she is deprived of anything when they think they have good reasons for making sacrifices? Of course they wouldn't call it a sacrifice. What is not having a party compared to praising Almighty God Jehovah? What is the stigma of not saluting the flag compared to the *impalement* of Christ?
But once you de-construct those reasons, once it can be rationally proven that the JW stand on birthdays and the like have NOTHING TO DO WITH GOD, but everything to do with fulfilling the sense of order and control for ultra-conservative fundie old white men in Brooklyn...THEN we see deprivation... THEN we get angry...
Whether a person celebrates a birthday is of little consequence. Even outside of the JW Village, some people do, some people couldn't be bothered to.
But when you abstain because you BELIEVE in a hidden truth that no one else of the world heeds... when you make great pains to conform according to the lies of wicked, deluded men, then THAT should be a concern.
INQ