Atheist extremism: How to tell when it becomes a problem

[Taxloss]

Good morning. It's 9 o'clock, and here are the headlines this day.

There was further controversy on the campaign trail today when it was revealed that presidential candidate Carl Nagas attended communion while a teenager. Nagas, who has been stressing his atheism heavily over the past weeks in an attempt to counter President Snikwad's reputation as the less devout of the two, has strongly denied that this was any more than an immature dalliance with belief. That didn't stop the chairman of the Traditional Value Coalition saying: "If he becomes President, what's he going to do? Will he swear on The Selfish Gene? Because he can say whatevr he likes to the cameras, but that book's still the truth!"

There was bloodshed in Beirut today when a humanist suicide bomber detonated himself in a crowded agnostic marketplace, killing four and injuring 22.

In Kansas, a mother is suing the local school board because it refuses to remove "dangerous" religious texts from its library shelves. Citing writers such as Bunyan, Dante, Donne and St Augustine, she said: "Why should my children be exposed to this filth? All they talk about is their bearded guru and they think they can do whatever they like because they'll be saved by death! Is that really how we want kids to think?"

President Snikwad today told a Symposium Breakfast of reporters and decision makers that victory in Iraq was "inevitable", and that "the best evidence we have to hand, plus a general hunch of mine" confirmed that fact. Snikwad went on to condemn both Pastafarian and Pinkun'icorn extremists.

Alabama's chief justice was today reinstated after widespread outcry at his decision to carve Moses and Solomon off court buildings.

And finally, today sees the publication of controversial pundit Ann Retlouc's book Reasonless Righties: Is the Right's sky ghost a gas, or more of a sort of energy thingy? The questions they won't answer.

We're back at noon. Have a reasonable day.

[opiate69]

1. =)

:toast: :popcorn:

[evlbstrd]

2. *snik*

Thank you.

[calmblueocean]

3. Makes a point.

I know people who actually think this is the world we live in, though.

[Erika]

4. Great parody.

Christians love being victims. As long as they know they will never have to really pay the price of sins they initiated.

[godhatesrepublicans]

5. Hey, when the Rapture Cult takes over, what choice will we have?

[Wrinkle_In_Time]

22. When they rise up, steal their stuff. n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

37. I have a bumper sticker:"When the rapture comes, can I have your car?"

[Gold Metal Flake]

6. Nicely done.

Fear us, we sleep in on Sundays.

[salvorhardin]

7. Made me chuckle

It's funny because it's true... or could potentially be anyway.

[skids]

8. I dunno...

...I think "The Center For Inquiry" was a pretty poor choice for a name having anything to do with (even if through contrast) religion, and you guys should be a tad bit more image conscious.

I mean unless it really is your objective to make everyone who isn't an atheist very fully aware that you don't consider them to be fit to run their own lives. If so, you'll get exactly what's merited.

[Atman]

9. Did you see the film strip?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1044071&mesg_id=1044071

.

[Taxloss]

10. Oddly enough, I posted that in the atheist & agnostic group

a few days ago. Which is pretty impressive. For a monkey.

[Atman]

11. Did you really?

I don't frequent that forum. I just assumed nothing's there.

;)

[Taxloss]

13. It's a quiet little corner of DU

that we like to fill with our own blend of violent bigotry and extremism.

Link:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=263x17442

[Poll_Blind]

24. AWESOME...that was excellent! THANK YOU! If you hadn't have...

...mentioned that I would not have seen it... thankyouthankyouthankyou!

PB

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

12. Creative. Over The Top, But Creative.

[Strong Atheist]

31. Don't see how it is over the top. Parodying ACTUAL events... nt.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[BillZBubb]

15. What utter bullshit.

You don't have a clue what you are talking about. You need to take a basic logic course as well.

[KittyWampus]

16. Right. So tell me, does Consciousness play a formative role in physical

reality?

Do you know what Reductionism is? Idealism?

[alcibiades_mystery]

18. Are you implying that consciousness requires

something like religion? That would be a strange argument indeed!

[RandomKoolzip]

26. You sound afraid. Seriously.

Your tone strikes me as fearful. Why? Not just defensive, but defensive against something terribly threatening to you...and it was like that on that other thread where you posted these same false points.

I'd like to understand where this need to spout anti-atheist anger comes from. I really do, because it seems like a pathology to me.

[Warren DeMontague]

29. Does Consciousness require "God" or "Gods"?

Then, please go to dictionary.com and look up the definition of the word "Atheist".

[trotsky]

30. Absent any evidence otherwise,

no, consciousness does not play a formative role in physical reality.

You love throwing that line around, but I've never seen you back it up.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

32. You wrote

"no, consciousness does not play a formative role in physical reality."


My brain just exploded into tiny little pieces all over my laptop. WTF does THAT mean?

[trotsky]

33. It means that thinking about something doesn't make it happen.

cryingshame is a big fan of the pseudo-science interpretation of quantum mechanics, which tries to extend various QM phenomena to the macroscopic world, and to the extent that the power of "consciousness" is actually responsible for creating and shaping reality.

If you've heard anything about the movie "What the Bleep do We Know?," that's basically what they shove.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

34. Kind of like that Star Trek

episode, huh?

[trotsky]

35. Or I Dream of Jeannie, or Harry Potter.

Or in Ghostbusters with the Giant Sta-Puf Marshmallow Man.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

40. I'm going to out myself here

I don't much care for the Harry Potter books. They bore me. She's a fine writer, but just not my thing.

[Warren DeMontague]

36. There's no denying, at least at the subatomic level, Quantum Physics is

weird.

Anyone who claims to understand it completely is probably lying. Only thing we know for sure is, it seems to work. Beyond that, what it means is open to varied interpretation.

But, let's take cryingshame's ball and run with it, shall we? As has been patiently pointed out to her, time and time and time again in these threads, if anything, an observer-created reality interpretation of quantum physics would (I would think) tend to imply solipsism, or Buddhism, or anything but the western notion of big daddy in the sky watching all, seeing all, running all.

See, (see?) if big daddy in the sky was observing everything, HE would be collapsing the probability wave in every quantum equation, before it would even come into question. The individual observer, who does have a strange part to play in quantum physics, would become moot.

She goes on and on about consciousness- but neglects to factor in that, historically, religion has been a far greater enemy of conscious, free thought than atheism, logic, and the scientific method could ever aspire to be.


***And, for the record, I thought "What the bleep do we know" was total poop. Unwatchable. If you want a crash course in quantum weirdness, without the channelling of 3,000 year old "spirit beings" getting in the way, I recommend Nick Herbert:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385235690/102-7193427-6073754?v=glance&n=283155

[TallahasseeGrannie]

41. I don't get too deeply into these sorts of discussions

but on face value, seems to me if the wee beastie quarkies are controlled by US that perhaps God is not in his heaven after all. So I'm not going there. I'm fond of my old notions.

[trotsky]

42. Oh my yes.

Quantum physics is weird and mysterious enough the way it is - no need to add on this consciousness malarkey!

(I agree wholeheartedly about "bleep" - that movie is at best pointless, at worst dangerous with its portrayal of the woman discarding her medications.)

[Name removed]

39. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[converted_democrat]

17. Please tell me you're being sarcastic..

And in case you're not.. WTF are you thinking?


on edit- I've never seen so many leaps in logic in one post before.. Stunning..

[Atman]

19. *whacka whack whacka*

Was that a JOKE? Oh...my...Go...er, uh...GOSH!

[Warren DeMontague]

20. Same crap, different thread.

Now, true to form, ignore the thorough and deserved smack-down your tired assertions receive, and, oblivious to everything except the soothing sound of your own B.S., prepare to trot out identical ones in the next thread.

Rinse. Repeat.

[progressoid]

21. OK, feel better? Now it's time for our cleasing breaths...

In with the good air O8)
out with the bad air :evilfrown:


In with the good air O8)
out with the bad air :evilfrown:


In with the good air O8)
out with the bad air :evilfrown:


In with the good air O8)
out with the bad air :evilfrown:


In with the good air O8)
out with the bad air :evilfrown:

[Hissyspit]

23. Such fancy talk for utter crap. Since when do atheists automatically

equal materialism? Since when does human ONLY equal machine. Wonderful fallacious arguments on your part, wonderful straw men, wonderful over-simplifying and over-generalization, and wonderful exemplification of the worst of right-wing faux-logic. You do a great job of showing what it is that athiests/agnostics have to complain about.

[RandomKoolzip]

25. Fuck it.

Not gonna say what I wish to say.

:rofl:

[Beelzebud]

27. I don't need an invisible father figure to tell me right from wrong.

[Strong Atheist]

28. K&R. nt.

[BrklynLiberal]

38. Kicking and recommending while ROTFLMAO!!!