Comments on: I can’t speak for others…

By: Steve S.

Steve S. — Sun, 03 Jul 2005 17:59:12 +0000

Any time we can explain the behavior or opinion of another person as being partly or wholly caused by a non-rational event (a skull fracture, at tumor, he’s gay, she’s a bigot), we disregard that behavior. If the statement you made is true – that your entire line of reasoning (and mine) is based on non-rational events (randomly firing synapses, shaped by genetics, etc) – then it has no validity whatever. NONE. Trying to create a proof that there is no such thing as proofs, is much ado about, frankly, nothing. Everything you derive from this fatally flawed line of thought is poisoned by the wellspring itself.

I almost side with the post-modernists on this one. Your determination that “it’s all in our heads” is so counter to common sense, it signals an agenda of some sort. It’s either flame bait, or seriously misguided ego. Sociopaths honestly think that way, and no one else. Whatever the reason, your train of thought – and its subsequent influence on your attitude towards the existance of anyone else, never mind God, is manifest nonsense.

Steve S.

By: william G

william G — Sun, 03 Jul 2005 06:41:34 +0000

Evolution does not have a goal or anything like that. It’s quite possible that out brains will evolve to become even more superstitious than they are now. But we have not had a long time to “evolve out of our current state” 20,000 years is roughly the best guess anyone has for how long homo sapiens has been around. I just make this statment out of hope. A feeling in my brain given to me by the random gene swapping that’s been going on for a very long time.

But this is all unimportant, because when it all comes down to it, there is no proof of the divine except what we create ourselves. It’s solely based on how our synapses are firing off. Simple as that.

There is no external truth. It’s all in your head.

By: Steve S.

Steve S. — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 21:11:33 +0000

Ermmm…well, good point! I read C.S. Lewis, and paraphrasing what he said, I left the ship of Materialism a long time ago, not because I thought Christianity better, but because I had concluded that it (materialism) could not stay afloat. Something was true, but Materialism (Atheism, et al) was not it.

William G, we’ve had quite a long time to ‘evolve’ out of our present state, one that is ‘of a mingled yarn, good mixed with ill’. So far, it hasn’t happened. Doesn’t appear it will – at least, not by itself. Even if it did, your fond hope that evolution will solve our various iniquities is the same as explaining away poor behavior on anyone’s part by claiming they haven’t evolved out of it yet. This is patent nonsense.
If you follow the reasoning, their behavior is a result of purely physical processes. That’s the way human brains work, and they can’t help it. Things work that way, whether they like it or not. It is not possible for anyone to be good OR evil, because they are, like rocks and trees and the weather, what evolution has made them to be.
By saying you “hope we will evolve out of it’, you are letting slip the idea that, whatever nature has decided we will be throught the blind laws of chance, you think it is possible for things to be better or worse, and for humanity to make progress towards – or fall back from – this standard.
The reason this tack is nonsense, is because if you take the materialism thing to its logical conclusion, your behavior – including what you are saying right now about evolution – is a mere fact about you, like the shape of your lungs or the way you walk. It has no connection with any external truth, and can never have any. It cuts its own throat.

I agree that using Christ, as a means to an end, is, as Lewis said, “as though one could use the stairway to heaven as a shortcut to the nearest pharmacy.” Christ may be quoted, to illustrate a point, but it had better be made very clear by the speaker that what he is saying is his own opinion, and “hath no command of the Lord”. I think Kurtz managed that, although he treads a fine line.

Lampoons are funny, that way.

By: Occultatio

Occultatio — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 04:57:00 +0000

Technically, Kneefers, “mythological figure” is a denotatively accurate description of Jesus.

I’m just sad as a mythologist to see the label being used as such a pejorative term.

By: william G

william G — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 17:42:23 +0000

I feel sad as well.

Eventually we’ll evolve…

By: Kneefers

Kneefers — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 15:29:47 +0000

OK. I’m not going to freak out here and start screaming and start a flame war or anything, because that will just reinforce what you already seem to think about the “anti-gay movement”. But I just want to say a few things that illustrate what I believe.
Savvy?
OK.
Putting words in His mouth? Who said that anyone was putting words in His mouth? Nobody should put words in His mouth, but what you should do is look in the bible for the things he actually DID SAY. There’s a difference from using Jesus as a “mouthpiece”, and quoting Jesus to illustrate something that we believe. God and Jesus (who are one, by the way, but I’m not going into that) are the starting point (or they should be) of Christianity. Which means that we’re not twisting and using the things they said (the bible says, same thing) to further the beliefs we already have, but that we just believe thay they actually said. Maybe actually reading through the bible to see what God actually thinks would do you a lot of good.
Also, just wanted to point out that God doesn’t hate fags (personally, that website makes me feel like I want to puke). God condemning homosexuality is not even CLOSE to the same thing. God condemns lying, but that doesn’t mean He HATES YOU when you lie.
Oh, and just a friendly note, William G, your use of the words “mythological figures” and “superstition” really make me feel sad.

…Right. That’s my two cents. I tried to do it as nicely as possible. I care about you guys, or I wouldn’t have said it. Peace out.
_Kneefers

By: william G

william G — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 18:56:51 +0000

We are in a world that demands sides be taken. It’s unfortunate, but we havent really evolved that much from the territorial pack ape we were for the last three million years. Instinct tels us it’s us or them, so that’s why we give our mythological figures our own opinions. To add the support that superstition can bring your grunting and chest beating.