Posts by MadGiant

130

Atheists and JWs are on the same footing!

by exWTslave in

atheists believe that god should stop the large-scale injustice on earth; if he does'nt, then he does not exist.

jws believe that god will intervene sometime in the last days!.

interestingly, both throw themselves on their own expectation of soemthing god should or will do, yet in fact something god does not have to do.

MadGiant

"When people stop believing in the existence of God, automatically their humaneness disappear." - ex

Philosophy my ass. With all due respect, you don't have critical thinking skills. You are still trap inside the cult.

What about the secular humanist, Buddhists, Hinduism, Jain, Confucian & Taoist. These groups or religions treat gods as metaphors and/or not really existing. This is no different from treating the pagan stories as metaphors rather than real events, something that is even more common. If a pagan doesn’t believe that the gods in their tradition are real, then they will probably be an atheist. Some may eschew this label, but others are comfortable with it and openly identify as pagan atheists (or atheistic pagans).

Ismael

I think you are entitle to a formal apology from your former university, as well as full refund from tuition and compensation for wasted time.

130

Atheists and JWs are on the same footing!

by exWTslave in

atheists believe that god should stop the large-scale injustice on earth; if he does'nt, then he does not exist.

jws believe that god will intervene sometime in the last days!.

interestingly, both throw themselves on their own expectation of soemthing god should or will do, yet in fact something god does not have to do.

MadGiant

"By profession, I am an ordinary professor of philosophy in a University College." - ex

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, judgment, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument. In more casual speech, by prolongation, "philosophy" can refer to "the most basic beliefs, concepts, and attitudes of an individual or group".

I was going to respond to the post addressed to me. After reading this little detail, I realize that anything I'll write would be a waist of time.

How come you are a professor and can't identify flaws in your own thought process? You should be able to address problems using rational arguments. So far, you have used more logical fallacies that anyone else on this forum.

Never mind,

Ismael

40

Is God evil, just because he fails to prevent suffering?

by defender of truth in

a poster on another thread made the following comment, that really made me think.. it is about god: .

"imo i would say [god is] not evil but just indifferent.

apathy allows it.

MadGiant

What is a god?
Can we agree on a single definition?

Ismael

edit: what This is my tigersuit said.

40

Is God evil, just because he fails to prevent suffering?

by defender of truth in

a poster on another thread made the following comment, that really made me think.. it is about god: .

"imo i would say [god is] not evil but just indifferent.

apathy allows it.

MadGiant

"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" - Epicurus

The justified of evil

1. God is aware of the evil in the world, but the evil has the purpose of making humanity better. Suffering evil betters the spirits of individuals and moves them closer to god.
2. A perfect world is one in which evil things occur, since a perfect world is one which allows people to develop spiritually.
3. Evil exists because it separates those who deserve to go to Heaven from those who don't, or that evil doesn't matter because good people get rewarded in Heaven anyway.
4. We cannot possibly know the reason that evil exists in the world, due to our puny humanness.
5. God has a plan but we're too stupid to know what it is, so quit complaining about all that genocide artificial selection and get on with it.
6. Evil doesn't exist, it's just the absence of good, just like darkness is just the absence of light.
7. Iif something is evil that means there's a God because evil implies a universal standard of morality".
8. The blame Satan strategy.

What can I say.

Ismael

130

Atheists and JWs are on the same footing!

by exWTslave in

atheists believe that god should stop the large-scale injustice on earth; if he does'nt, then he does not exist.

jws believe that god will intervene sometime in the last days!.

interestingly, both throw themselves on their own expectation of soemthing god should or will do, yet in fact something god does not have to do.

MadGiant

"Try going into your inner self, and see whether what I did would work for you or not." - ex

Self-hypnosis has lots of different names; relaxation, meditation, auto-hypnosis, changed state of awareness, selective awareness, focussing, trance and they are all a natural state for the brain to experience.

"Hypnosis and the placebo effect are "so heavily reliant upon the effects of suggestion and belief that it would be hard to imagine how a credible placebo control could ever be devised for a hypnotism study." -R Barker Bausell

130

Atheists and JWs are on the same footing!

by exWTslave in

atheists believe that god should stop the large-scale injustice on earth; if he does'nt, then he does not exist.

jws believe that god will intervene sometime in the last days!.

interestingly, both throw themselves on their own expectation of soemthing god should or will do, yet in fact something god does not have to do.

MadGiant

A logical fallacy is, fundamentally, an error in logic. This means that an argument that uses one certainly doesn't hold if you're using logic and reason as your source of decision making.

130

Atheists and JWs are on the same footing!

by exWTslave in

atheists believe that god should stop the large-scale injustice on earth; if he does'nt, then he does not exist.

jws believe that god will intervene sometime in the last days!.

interestingly, both throw themselves on their own expectation of soemthing god should or will do, yet in fact something god does not have to do.

MadGiant

"According to dictionary anecdote is “a short amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person.” Why can’t this be a proof? Now it is proof for me. When you try, it becomes a proof for you. When the whole world tries, it becomes a proof for the world." - ex

Testimonials and vivid anecdotes are one of the most popular and convincing forms of evidence presented for beliefs in the supernatural, paranormal, and pseudoscientific. Nevertheless, testimonials and anecdotes in such matters are of little value in establishing the probability of the claims they are put forth to support. Sincere and vivid accounts of one’s encounter with an angel or the Virgin Mary, an alien, a ghost, a Bigfoot, a child claiming to have lived before, purple auras around dying patients, a miraculous dowser, a levitating guru, or a psychic surgeon are of little value in establishing the reasonableness of believing in such matters.

Anecdotes are unreliable for various reasons. Stories are prone to contamination by beliefs, later experiences, feedback, selective attention to details, and so on. Most stories get distorted in the telling and the retelling. Events get exaggerated. Time sequences get confused. Details get muddled. Memories are imperfect and selective; they are often filled in after the fact.

People misinterpret their experiences. Experiences are conditioned by biases, memories, and beliefs, so people's perceptions might not be accurate. Most people aren't expecting to be deceived, so they may not be aware of deceptions that others might engage in. Some people make up stories. Some stories are delusions. Sometimes events are inappropriately deemed psychic simply because they seem improbable when they might not be that improbable after all. In short, anecdotes are inherently problematic and are usually impossible to test for accuracy.

Ismael

130

Atheists and JWs are on the same footing!

by exWTslave in

atheists believe that god should stop the large-scale injustice on earth; if he does'nt, then he does not exist.

jws believe that god will intervene sometime in the last days!.

interestingly, both throw themselves on their own expectation of soemthing god should or will do, yet in fact something god does not have to do.

MadGiant

"To all those who want proof for the existence of God:
I AM THE PROOF." - ex

Believers all claim that their god answers prayer when from my experience all that's going on is something called selective observation, where a believer counts the hits and discounts the misses. Keep track, list the specific prayers you pray. Keep in mind that you generally will only pray for things which you expect can happen too. You do not pray that a mountain is uprooted and planted in the sea. So already your prayer requests are limited and already you do not pray for the kinds of things jesus told you could happen because you live in a scientific era. Then be brutally honest with the results. No fudging like horoscope readers regularly do.

Was the prayer answered exactly as you prayed it? No punting to what believers around the globe do, either. No saying, well god knows best, or that he didn't give me what I wanted but what I needed. Then see what happens. Then see how many times prayers are answered.

The bottom line is that I cannot believe. But even this should be no trouble for god if he exists. Just like he supposedly showed himself to Moses, Gibeon, and Paul he could do so for me. And if he could do that without abrogating their human freedom then he can do that with me too. Pray that this happens. I'm open to it. God could even snap his fingers and take away what he created me with, a critical mind. Then I wouldn't demand evidence any more and believe. Of course if not, the problem is why he created me this way and then doesn't provide what I need to believe. Crazy isn't it.

And today logical fallacies are:

appeal to emotion
You attempted to manipulate an emotional response in place of a valid or compelling argument.
Appeals to emotion include appeals to fear, envy, hatred, pity, pride, and more. It's important to note that sometimes a logically coherent argument may inspire emotion or have an emotional aspect, but the problem and fallacy occurs when emotion is used instead of a logical argument, or to obscure the fact that no compelling rational reason exists for one's position. Everyone, bar sociopaths, is affected by emotion, and so appeals to emotion are a very common and effective argument tactic, but they're ultimately flawed, dishonest, and tend to make one's opponents justifiably emotional.

And:

anecdotal
You used a personal experience or an isolated example instead of a sound argument or compelling evidence.
It's often much easier for people to believe someone's testimony as opposed to understanding complex data and variation across a continuum. Quantitative scientific measures are almost always more accurate than personal perceptions and experiences, but our inclination is to believe that which is tangible to us, and/or the word of someone we trust over a more 'abstract' statistical reality.

Ismael

66

"We're calling on your neighbours to promote a website"

by Simon in

wow, it's true - they don't call to 'promote god's kingdom' anymore but just their website!.

we just had an old lady call and tell us that was exactly what they were doing and it has "lots of good things on their for children".

yeah, right ... sparlock?.

MadGiant

That's good, a phase two perhaps?

Soon they will start to promote merchandise thru the website (for sale). How long so you think is going to take to turn JW.org into anway.com (cult), herbalife.com (cult) or something like that. Witnesses will be "encourage" to buy (via donations) something on regular bases.

Ismael

130

Atheists and JWs are on the same footing!

by exWTslave in

atheists believe that god should stop the large-scale injustice on earth; if he does'nt, then he does not exist.

jws believe that god will intervene sometime in the last days!.

interestingly, both throw themselves on their own expectation of soemthing god should or will do, yet in fact something god does not have to do.

MadGiant

Albert Einstein is sometimes claimed by religious theists seeking the sanction of a famous scientist for their theistic views, but Einstein denied the existence of the traditional concept of a god. From some perspectives his position would be seen as atheism or no different from atheism. He admitted to being a freethinker, which in a German setting is much the same as atheism, and as any good freethinker, his views changes with evidence.

I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotisms. (Albert Einstein, Obituary in New York Times, 19 April 1955)