People grow up and stop believing in Santa Claus

[Jeff7]

Nihilism _is_ atheism taken to the _logical conclusion_. IE, lets assume that we had a big bang and we evolved to what we are now-- Nihilism is the only logical conclusion.

Quite the opposite of what a certain character in the movie "AI" would say, your logic is far from undeniable.

Nihilism is the only logical conclusion if you don't give a damn about other people, or about yourself. We're social things by nature, and we are living things, and we have an innate, evolution-generated desire to continue to remain living, thus we care about societies, and we especially care about continuing to live.

Of course, I guess it depends on which definition of nihilism you use. Taken from TFD.com:

- An extreme form of skepticism that denies all existence.
Well, denying existence seems kind of pointless. If we don't exist, this is certainly a damn good simulation of it.

- A doctrine holding that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated.
Ok, I've got nothing against that, as long as there are some caveats - along the lines of, "It's theoretically possible that the Large Hadron Collider will create dragons."
Yup, it's possible. Damn insanely unlikely, but possible. I won't be buying Dragon Insurance anytime soon though.
Now, can anything be known? Depends. Do you trust that your senses give you an accurate depiction of the environment around you? We have proof that they can seriously screw things up. Do you see any triangles? There aren't any there, that image is just a whole bunch of pixels arranged in a certain configuration. And hell, each pixel of each "triangle" is just a spot on your monitor which hasn't been fully illuminated.
But your brain happens to be good at assembling things it perceives as patterns, and so you may see a bunch of triangles there.
Second, communication. If the idea was for me to create an idea in your head, similar to the one in mine, then I think that goal would have been accomplished. "See those 4 triangles?" "Yes." Bam, communication.


- Rejection of all distinctions in moral or religious value and a willingness to repudiate all previous theories of morality or religious belief.
Not quite sure what this one is getting at. Distinctions between what? Right and wrong, or the individual concepts of morality which people have? Oh well. Moving along...


- The belief that destruction of existing political or social institutions is necessary for future improvement.
That sounds more like anarchy to me.
Or perhaps the keyword there is "existing." Yes, existing governments will likely collapse at some point in time, and hopefully it'll be to make way for something better. No surprises there.


- A diffuse, revolutionary movement of mid 19th-century Russia that scorned authority and tradition and believed in reason, materialism, and radical change in society and government through terrorism and assassination.
Well, the whole "terrorism and assassination" bit is kind of heading into anarchy territory again. I can't say that many atheists would support that kind of thing.


- A delusion, experienced in some mental disorders, that the world or one's mind, body, or self does not exist.
Sounds a good bit like the first part of the definition. If none of this exists, it's all doing a very excellent job of imitating existence, or at least what we define as existence.




So um, how exactly does atheism = nihilism again?
I might as well say, "Christianity = belief in poultry." It would make just about as much sense.

Dinosaurs-- extinct shortly after Noah's flood-- this is when all the oil we now use was formed. Our oil fields in their present state can't survive for more than ~10,000 years anyways-- the oil would simply break down among other things.

A young-Earther? Seriously? Oh my oh my.....

I need a break. I think I'll head over to the other side of the Flat Earth, I hear it's nice there.

I don't have all the answers but I have enough to trust God with the rest. No other book or religion explains both man's predicament (our sinfulness) and explains why we commit the atrocities we do, _and_ provides a way out.

Right, except for like, thousands of other religions and creation myths that humanity's come up with throughout the years. Hell, Buddhism has a nice philosophy on the cessation of suffering - and it's nice enough to not brainwash its followers that you're somehow inherently bad and evil and sinful and all that other BS.

Islam hopes to cleanse the conscious from guilt by having you pray many times per day and do good works. But we know if good works were all that was required to remove the guilt from our conscious, there would have been no need for Jesus to die for us-- because keeping the law (doing "good" works) was already covered in the Old Testament.

And of course, you know, a guy who was God and who was also God's son, who had to be born from a human mother, raised here, thn he dies horribly.....somehow that's part of the recipe for Sin Cleanser 2000. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. But, I digress.

 

[Nemesis 1]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cfPMKv2fBM&feature=related

Watch this

 

[JSt0rm]

Dinosaurs-- extinct shortly after Noah's flood-- this is when all the oil we now use was formed. Our oil fields in their present state can't survive for more than ~10,000 years anyways-- the oil would simply break down among other things.

WTF?!?!?!?! are you for real?

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

WTF?!?!?!?! are you for real?

And therein lies a problem.

Unlike atheism which is absolutist, people who practice a religion occupy a whole spectrum of attitude regarding science. Most of the religious I associate with have no problem with evolution or dinosaurs or anything else you could come up with, but then there are others who believe dinosaurs and humans existed concurrently.

It's hard to know who is who.

 

[Nemesis 1]

Ya That dino thing is really bad , We all ni there were ni dinos . lol

 

[Jeff7]

And therein lies a problem.

Unlike atheism which is absolutist, people who practice a religion occupy a whole spectrum of attitude regarding science. Most of the religious I associate with have no problem with evolution or dinosaurs or anything else you could come up with, but then there are others who believe dinosaurs and humans existed concurrently.

It's hard to know who is who.

Flintstones...meet the Flintstones....
What more proof could you ask for?

 

[Nemesis 1]

Well if you really want to go their Bob says to do it , So here ya go guys .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmp68Er0ZVc

 

[Jeff7]

Well if you really want to go their Bob says to do it , So here ya go guys .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmp68Er0ZVc

I heard there's also a face on Mars.

 

[rpanic]

Dinosaurs did live among men. Haven’t you seen them at the museum?

http://creationmuseum.org/

 

[ShawnD1]

Dinosaurs-- extinct shortly after Noah's flood

They went extinct before the flood. This is why dinosaurs are always found in lower sedimentary layers. If they were extinct after the flood, we would expect to find dinosaur fossils and moses family fossils in the same sedimentary layers, and we never find such a thing.

Islam hopes to cleanse the conscious from guilt by having you pray many times per day and do good works. But we know if good works were all that was required to remove the guilt from our conscious, there would have been no need for Jesus to die for us

I don't know what most protestants are up to, but Catholics are still supposed to pray and do good works.

Unlike atheism which is absolutist, people who practice a religion occupy a whole spectrum of attitude regarding science. Most of the religious I associate with have no problem with evolution or dinosaurs or anything else you could come up with, but then there are others who believe dinosaurs and humans existed concurrently.

Religion and atheism don't seem to be very opposed to each other, but being reasonable and being unreasonable are polar opposites and cannot exist at the same time. What I mean by that is a guy like Richard Dawkins (atheist) and a guy like Ken Miller (catholic) can look at the world and come to the same conclusion: the world is old, evolution is real, and the bible is mostly a book of parables. Unreasonable people will cling to a book that we know for a fact was edited by humans (council of nicaea), wear a tinfoil hat, and claim the entire universe is a conspiracy. Fossils, evolution, high school science class, it's all a huge conspiracy. Fighting against god and santa seems totally misguided since neither of those characters are the problem. Unreasonable people are the problem.

 

[fskimospy]

And therein lies a problem.

Unlike atheism which is absolutist, people who practice a religion occupy a whole spectrum of attitude regarding science. Most of the religious I associate with have no problem with evolution or dinosaurs or anything else you could come up with, but then there are others who believe dinosaurs and humans existed concurrently.

It's hard to know who is who.

Is this a positive thing for religion?

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Is this a positive thing for religion?

It's irrelevant. You might as well ask if it were a positive thing for atheism that Stalin caused the deaths of uncounted millions. Sometimes a cigar is just a smoke.

 

[Nemesis 1]

It's irrelevant. You might as well ask if it were a positive thing for atheism that Stalin caused the deaths of uncounted millions. Sometimes a cigar is just a smoke.

Stalin killed 30 mil of his own people and another 30 mil died in the war.

 

[Nemesis 1]

I heard there's also a face on Mars.

Well I had more on that but Bob says not to so I won't. You blew it.

 

[fskimospy]

Nihilism _is_ atheism taken to the _logical conclusion_. IE, lets assume that we had a big bang and we evolved to what we are now-- Nihilism is the only logical conclusion.

No, nihilism is nihilism. Atheism is atheism. You can be an atheist and believe life has a purpose. Once again, why do you seem so intent on telling others what they must believe?

More listening, less talking.

 

[totalnoob]

Stalin killed 30 mil of his own people and another 30 mil died in the war.

Stalin didn't do the killing in the name of atheism though did he? He did it in the name of the proletariat..the worker's revolution and opposition to capitalism. Hitler was raised catholic, but you don't hear 10 million deaths being put down to Catholicism do you? He did it in the name nationalism and what he viewed as the master race. The religious beliefs (or lack thereof) of recent dictators had no bearing on their struggle for world dominance..unlike the murders of the crusades, which were done explicitly in the name of faith.

 

[Nemesis 1]

Stalin did the killing because he was a heartless mindless ruthless Pig . When it comes right down to it killing is sad sad afair, Now when you talk about the Ages changing thats another story all together . More people will die in the coming Age change than all the people killed durring the last age change threw its entire period . To be honest I am Not real thrilled about it but the decievers who want to hang on to the old age are very well preparred this round they been preparring since the Christ of that age change . The New Adam /Moses/ Christ is going to have to kill many peoples because the old age isn't going to give up so easly this time .

 

[Nemesis 1]

When moses Changed the Age from the Bull to the Ramshorn, Some still hung on to that Age . The most glaring example is India were the Cow is still worshipped . Thats impressive hanging on to. All the way threw 2 Ages it survived. Incrediable.

 

[totalnoob]

Grow up Nemesis...my god... You honestly believe this primitive astrology shit?

And please stop capitalizing stuff like "age" and "bull". It makes you look like an even bigger nutcase.

 

[Zorkorist]

Stalin didn't do the killing in the name of atheism though did he? He did it in the name of the proletariat..the worker's revolution and opposition to capitalism. Hitler was raised catholic, but you don't hear 10 million deaths being put down to Catholicism do you? He did it in the name nationalism and what he viewed as the master race. The religious beliefs (or lack thereof) of recent dictators had no bearing on their struggle for world dominance..unlike the murders of the crusades, which were done explicitly in the name of faith.

It takes two to tango, and while the Crusades were bloody, and a war, Spain, has a Muslim past. (and pretty architecture today...)

The Muslims have been fighting for control at least as long as the Christians. But while the Christians had a Renaissance, the Muslims are still fighting.

 

[ShawnD1]

And please stop capitalizing stuff like "age" and "bull". It makes you look like an even bigger nutcase.

And while we're on this topic, religious people need to stop writing stuff like GOD or LORD. They are not acronyms!

 

[El Guaraguao]

Ah...what you experienced is an age old problem...so many Christians are a). not consistent with Christianity and b). do not live like Christ did. I would encourage you to try to make the distinction.
Your aunt should still love you in spite of your atheism. She should see that the best way to teach someone about God's love is to show them unconditional love in the first place.
I have many atheist friends who were alienated by Christians and I have to tell them the same thing-- the Christian is a sinner and not reflecting Christ's character.

Jesus was the type that hung out with the sinners, the prostitutes, the drunks-- because he saw them for what they were-- broken people living broken, sad lives, wanting more out of life; but unable to find it. He loved them because he saw they needed true life, a satiation in existence that only a relationship with Himself could provide. So he died for them. Jesus was like Tim Tebow-- read the (either Details or GQ) article on him-- the reporter couldn't get anyone to talk trash about him. Well, it wasn't quite like that with Jesus, the religious priests/Jews hated him, but everyone else loved him, he was the life of the party. He did not judge them for being atheists, he offered them a way out. His harshest words were for the Jewish clergy, the Pharisees, who were externally keeping the law but internally very sinful (prideful) in their hearts.

oh..

Dinosaurs-- extinct shortly after Noah's flood-- this is when all the oil we now use was formed. Our oil fields in their present state can't survive for more than ~10,000 years anyways-- the oil would simply break down among other things.
I don't have all the answers but I have enough to trust God with the rest. No other book or religion explains both man's predicament (our sinfulness) and explains why we commit the atrocities we do, _and_ provides a way out.
Islam hopes to cleanse the conscious from guilt by having you pray many times per day and do good works. But we know if good works were all that was required to remove the guilt from our conscious, there would have been no need for Jesus to die for us-- because keeping the law (doing "good" works) was already covered in the Old Testament.

ok this is where I get off. Noahs flood? you mean mass genocide, amirite?

I think you might have forgot to add a couple of zeros to your 10,000 figure. The theory amongst scientist\geologist is that it takes millions of years to process petroleum. Using petro in defense of dinosaurs in the bible, is new to me. which I find interesting. but like I said before, everybody has a different answer.

When you say (our)sinfulness, i say human nature. human nature to me, has absolutely nothing to do with the bible. If somebody attempted to kidnap your daughter, you as a parent would protect your child at all cost. much like an animal would defend its offspring. We as humans do not need to the bible to teach us that, its just human or animal nature that triggers this defense mechanism. This is why i have a problem with moral origins coming from the bible.

bolded, once again.

 

[Nemesis 1]

Grow up Nemesis...my god... You honestly believe this primitive astrology shit?

And please stop capitalizing stuff like "age" and "bull". It makes you look like an even bigger nutcase.

Your telling a 58 year old man to grow up .

Your calling me a nut case.

1) I didn't vote for OBAMA

2) I don't owe anyone anything that I have not planned out , Yep I did recently go in debt. As far as I could. I am getting a divorce. I have zero intention of paying that debt off . I still live with X very happily . I am enjoying putting it to the man . The rest of America did so why shouldn't I . I am trying to be like the majority of you . Late payments, or no payments lol Converted All our assets to Gold . So none can take it from the x to be. I like being a nut case . After 35 years of being the perfect little cuntsumer . and Iam going for alot more as scripture says to . I always thought scripture was talking about the HRCC. But now I know what evil scripture was talking about . I am going to rape it. For all I can and nothing can stop it. Yep I am a nut for fact. But Iam more sane than 95% of you all.

3 I have read your post LOL you shouldn't throw stones in a glass house it may come crashing down on yourself .

 

[totalnoob]

Yep I did recently go in debt. As far as I could. I am getting a divorce. I have zero intention of paying that debt off . I am enjoying putting it to the man . The rest of America did so why shouldn't I . I like being a nut case . After 35 years of being the perfect little cuntsumer . and Iam going for alot more as scripture says to . I am going to rape it. For all I can and nothing can stop it.

hmm..divorce..accumulation of many worldly goods (as opposed to getting rid of them as Jesus preached), and massive theft from your creditors. That's three lessons from the bible you obviously missed. What a model christian you are.

I've always known religious nuts were hypocritical. Thanks for providing us with an elegant example.

 

[Zebo]

Nemesis, my brother, use the edit feature. Fuck.