Good ol' Christain values...

[JCL666]

Atheist claims such as that life is meaningless, humanity is purposeless, morality is a man-made concept, consciousness is an illusion and other nihilistic and irrational belief systems based on absolutely no evidence but the assumptions derived from the idea that God does not exist, is what makes atheism absurd.

*Atheism is a broad term, not all of those absurdities will apply to all atheists. They do however apply to Dawkins, nihilistic wanker that he is.

Within your first comment, I thought you were making a quite witty observation regarding absurdism.

However after reading this reply I think you're saying that anything based on the premise that an omnipotent supreme being does not exist is absurd......

 

[Nibble]

Mustafa, that's somewhat ridiculous. I don't believe in God but i don't feel I have any irrational views on what existence is. I simply believe that the world is filled with amazing things and people are capable of fantastic acheivements and of being useful, and unbelievably happy. Much the same as Christians I just happen to believe that I don't need a God to explain why all that is here, it's miracle enough as it is without a divine being at the root of it.

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

claiming that god definitely doesn't exist is just as ridiculous as me claiming that he definitely does

 

[Nibble]

Admiring the amazing things in life is something we all have in common regardless of our beliefs. However what is in dispute is what the cause of these amazing things is.

Agreed, but I don't think believing one thing or the other is ridiculous.

 

[cunning fergus]

Some people believe women are inferior and it's okay to drive planes into buildings. I think it's dangerous to let people believe what they want without questioning things.

Dawkins may be a tad smug, but pointing out the absurdities of religion is fair game in my eyes.

Thing is that Dawkins concentrates his efforts on attacking Christianity, but let's be honest that is like pushing at an open door.

Dawkins and some of the other pious atheists on here would gain a lot more kudos if they had the balls to get along to places like Bradford, Alum Rock or Whitechapel and stand outside the places of worship there with their signs saying "Allah doesn't exist enjoy bacon" or something like that.

Until he does he is irrelevant.

 

[Lush]

I am blaming you all for this banner ad that's now popping up ...

 

[beorhthelm]

Atheist claims such as that life is meaningless, humanity is purposeless, morality is a man-made concept, consciousness is an illusion and other nihilistic and irrational belief systems based on absolutely no evidence but the assumptions derived from the idea that God does not exist, is what makes atheism absurd.

*Atheism is a broad term, not all of those absurdities will apply to all atheists. They do however apply to Dawkins, nihilistic wanker that he is.

no, none of those absudities apply to atheists, they apply to nihilists. why impose these ideas on atheism? i'd have thought as a biologists, Dawkins isn't anywhere near being a nihilist as there is plenty of purpose in life itself.

 

[Gilliver's Travels]

claiming that god definitely doesn't exist is just as ridiculous as me claiming that he definitely does

So, by that logic, claiming that a fifteen-headed fish doesn't exist is just as ridiculous as claiming that it does?

It's impossible to prove that something absolutely does not exist. You cannot prove a negative. But there is always a need to look for evidence, and at the balance of probabilities, for and against.

So, while no one can absolutely prove that God does not exist, the probability of that vengeful, thunderbolt-wielding old monster of the Old Testament having any existence beyond the minds of its raving, flat earth-believing, fantasist authors is infinitesimally small.

 

[Gilliver's Travels]

I am blaming you all for this banner ad that's now popping up ...

View attachment 38931

See? He moves in mysterious ways.

 

[Woodchip]

What are Pagans and Wiccans allowed to think according to he who decides everything ( [MENTION=7]Mustafa Kemal[/MENTION] )?

 

[JCL666]

Claiming to know that God doesn't exist leads to absurdities in ones belief system in a similar way that having faith does. When it comes to the unfalsifiable, a rational mind is an open mind - if you choose to believe that God doesn't exist, you will in all probability find yourself having an irrational and absurd understanding of what life & existence really is, just like Dawkins does.

Well, I've read quite a few of his books and I am pretty sure that he doesn't claim to know that god doesn't exist. He puts forward a number of theories and arguments that support the premise that god doesn't exist.

In fact in February last year he said: 'On a scale of seven, where one means I know he exists, and seven I know he doesn't, I call myself a six.' apparently he refined it to 6.9', then said 'That doesn't mean I'm absolutely confident, that I absolutely know, because I don't.'

I still don't get what you're describing as absurd. Could you provide some examples?

 

[clapham_gull]

I tend to view the world at work through databases and don't even work in IT.

True, I'm afraid. I always try and work the tables out in my head when 99% of the time no database is involved.

I'm quite rigourous about it. For database designers here I even try and elimate the use of NULL since it arguably breaks the relational model.

I even divide people into those properly designed into a number of tables containing mostly numbers and those that are simply a very very long simple table full of text fields.

Each had its worth.

Hard to criticise the religious when I do something equally abstract and abitrary and meaningless to most people.

 

[JCL666]

I tend to view the world at work through databases and don't even work in IT.

True, I'm afraid. I always try and work the tables out in my head when 99% of the time no database is involved.

I'm quite rigourous about it. For database designers here I even try and elimate the use of NULL since it arguably breaks the relational model.

Hard to criticise the religious when I do something equally abstract and abitrary and meaningless to most people.

How does NULL break the relational model?

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

Personally I find people who take any religious text literally to be the most dangerous/ crazy/ hypocritical

Would that include things like - "Do unto others as you would have done to you".?

Or "Don't Kill", or "Don't Steal" or any of the other teachings on which i believe our legal system is based?

 

[clapham_gull]

How does NULL break the relational model?

It's a very fierce academic debate.

People have fallen out over it.

Theorectically I agree it does, but practically it is difficult to not to have it.

If you are genuinely interested google the works of C J Date and Fabian Pascal.

The problem is it has no meaning in the database. Maybe staff and the application "know" but if you are going to strictly adhere and apply classic logic it has no sense.

The relational model is supposed to be based on long standing mathematical principles, but Codd broke it when he allowed NULL.

Practically I think attempting to use it sparingly leads to better design and much easier to extract/tranaform the data later particularly for new applications.

Even if allow values such as "don't know yet", "doesn't apply here" etc.

NULL I can live with, however I have a particular problem with "text" fields. They are usually an indication of bad design in my opinion.

Sorry I could talk about this all night. Just like Christians.

That's my point.

 

[JCL666]

Would that include things like - "Do unto others as you would have done to you".?

Or "Don't Kill", or "Don't Steal" or any of the other teachings on which i believe our legal system is based?

Our legal system is not based on teachings from the bible. It's origins are customary law with a wide range of sources including normans, anglo saxons, vikings and romans. Some of them were christians.

 

[JCL666]

It's a very fierce academic debate.

People have fallen out over it.

Theorectically I agree it does, but practically it is difficult to not to have it.

If you are genuinely interested google the works of C J Date and Fabian Pascal.

The problem is it has no meaning in the database. Maybe staff and the application "know" but if you are going to strictly adhere and apply classic logic it has no sense.

The relational model is supposed to be based on long standing mathematical principles, but Codd broke it when he allowed NULL.

Practically I think attempting to use it sparingly leads to better design and much easier to extract/tranaform the data later particularly for new applications.

Even if allow values such as "don't know yet", "doesn't apply here" etc.

NULL I can live with, however I have a particular problem with "text" fields. They are usually an indication of bad design in my opinion.

Sorry I could talk about this all night. Just like Christians.

That's my point.

Ah ok, yeah in purist terms it does.

Man I don't know what sort of data systems you work on, but things like normalised data and classic relational datasets are OLD HAT.....

NOSQL and spatial databases.. That's the FUTURE baby!

 

[The Buttery Biscuit Base]

One thing I have never really got about religion, most will accept that the is one god. We have on proof he exists, but if one was to say 'I adhere to the Ancient Greek or Roman or even Nordic gods' people would find that laughable.
What's the difference.

And...

If I was to submit an essay for university and my entire referencing was based on hear say and urban rumours I'd fail.
Why do religious people just accept things in a book that for the most part was passed down through word of mouth for several hundred years (I remember once at primary school, someone fell and cut their knee, talk around school was that someone fell and broke both legs, that was in a couple of hours, what could 500 years do). This is all without any real evidence. This isn't a dig, truly I am interested.

 

[John Bumlick]

What are Christains?

you find them in Jesus' pants after a vindaloo and a few pints...

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

But atheists don't claim to follow the teachings of christ, those of forgiveness and love and turning the other cheek and so on.

Depends what part of the bible you adhere to.

Some religious people take teachings from the old testament.