Are Atheists the New Gays?

[Richpo64]

>>A local prominent high school here in town use it, aka, the Warner Robins Demons. I root for them but not by that name. There are spiritual corollaries to earthly events, in my view.<<

I totally understand. My Church uses the mascot the "Angels" and their color is red in response to the Blue Devils.

[Michael Tee]

<<Well, a deeply devout Jewish friend of mine believes that Evolution is tyranny of the deficient mind that is infllicted upon man by sin-tet-nun sofit (Numbers, Samuel, Zechariah,etc.)>>

<<What, no reply, MT?>>

Sure, Professor.  I was just trying to figure out the sin-tet-nun sofit business.  Hebrew language, probably, but I stopped studying Hebrew when I was 13.  It's all Greek to me now.      (The shame of it is, I was the best Hebrew student my teacher ever had, the only one who could carry on a normal conversation with him in Hebrew - - so he said!)   Was the sin-tet stuff supposed to be a Hebrew acronym for Numbers, Samuel et al.?

As far as your "deeply devout" Jewish friend is concerned, I'd say the devoutness is probably the tyranny of ancient scripts representing the triumph of ignorance over logic.  He should be the last guy in the world to complain about intellectual tyranny.  I've studied evolutionary theory in high school and in university biology courses, and it's a good, solid theory that provides the best explanation to date of the greatest number of observed data and can explain a great many things which otherwise would remain inexplicable or would require different and conflicting theories to explain all of them.

I will agree with your friend that the mind of man is "deficient" if by that he or she means "falling far short of perfection."  Obviously compared to what a mind should be able to understand, including the phenomenon of time, the human brain is woefully deficient.  And assuming that there is some mathematical validity to the concept of fourth and higher dimensions, of course the human brain (or at least the one presently engaged) is woefully deficient in grasping these higher dimensions.

However, the  concept of evolution is relatively simple concept to grasp.  High school students, and not only the brightest, catch on to it with relatively little effort.  It makes sense in the abstract and it makes sense when applied to specific concrete facts.  But maybe your friend isn't sufficiently evolved to get it.  Tell him not to give up, there's still hope for his great-great-grandchildren.

[Amianthus]

I was just trying to figure out the sin-tet-nun sofit business.

Hebrew word for Satan.

[Plane]

Quote from: Plane on November 13, 2007, 10:45:4This is your good luck to not be born in Afganistan , Saudi Arabia , Sudan or anywhere in between. If you are born into Islam ,or convert to it, it is death to leave it and if you are late to prayers there is a guy with a stick whose job it is to make you more aware of your duty.


Well, that is a positive happenstance for me and had I been born in one of those countries who can say that I would have become an atheist?  Perhaps I would have become a Christian or a Buddhist.  Who can say? 

I can say , if your father was Muslim so would you be , elese you would draw the penaltys of the Mosque and the state.

[Brassmask]

I do deny that the persuasive tactics of a tipical American Church are equally scarring to a beating with a stick or a death penalty.

Really?

I'd take a short sharp shock of a stick any day over being totally brainwashed for life to believe in something that doesn't exist for fear of being condemned to going somewhere ultra-hot after I die.

The point could made I suppose that American churches wind up having the same effect as the muslim mosques without the short sharp shocks.  So, I guess it is .0004% better.

[Plane]

I do deny that the persuasive tactics of a tipical American Church are equally scarring to a beating with a stick or a death penalty.

death penaltyReally?

I'd take a short sharp shock of a stick any day over being totally brainwashed for life to believe in something that doesn't exist for fear of being condemned to going somewhere ultra-hot after I die.

The point could made I suppose that American churches wind up having the same effect as the muslim mosques without the short sharp shocks.  So, I guess it is .0004% better.