God Damn! I love it! Great post!
I think the OP is either sarcastic or moronic. I’ve seen enough of both around here to be persuaded either way.
So, when will inertia come back to defend his posts or laugh at us all?
I do agree that while we do not directly see black holes, we can often measure their effects. BTW, don’t forget x-ray radiation emitted from gases being pulled into a black hole that’s part of a binary system. I always thought that was a rather elegant smoking gun right there.
See their auras?
Please, please tell me you’re pulling our legs here.
I wasn’t aware that the heart was a sense organ. And you might be able to see their auras, but I certainly can’t. And I’m not going to just take your word on their exsistence. For all I know, you might be crazy.
The stupidest thing an atheist ever said is that he thought he had a good chance of changing the mind of a fundamentalist Christian.
And boy, am I sorry I ever said it.
You dumb atheists. (Just kidding! 
)You don’t know what this thread is about? Didn’t you read the entire thread? Go look up at Jpeg Jone’s post on 03-20-2003 06:40 PM. He got it, he linked to it, what’s your excuse?
This thread doesn’t really work because atheists aren’t trying to rationalize or apologize for any absurd beliefs. You won’t find the same kind of comically stupid statements that many religious people will make because atheists are not faced with the conundrum of trying to square their beliefs with a contradictory reality. There are no embarrassing little facts out there to fuck with atheism.
There is a fundamental difference here. Adopting a religious view of the world requires at least some belief in a metaphysical or supernatural reality. One must accept, without evidence, that something exists outside of the physical universe. In many cases, what one is required to believe can be very dissonant iwth observable phenomena or even flatly refuted. This is true, for instance, with Christian Fundamentalist beliefs in Biblical literacy. The contrast between belief and reality can prompt a variety of responses ranging from the naiive, to the angrily defensive, to tortured and elaborate apologia.
Atheists are never put in this boat. Nothing in the observable universe seems to contradict an atheistic view. You may find atheists who are guilty of logical fallacy when it comes to trying to disprove God (e.g. evolution proves that God does not exist), and, to be sure, there are atheists who are stupid, but the defense of atheism does not require the kind of logical hurdles that the defense of some religious view do.
Please let me be clear that i am not saying that a belief in God or any metaphysic is ipso facto “stupid” or absurd. I’m saying that some religious views (not just Christian) fly in the face of reason and difficult to articulate or defend without sounding ridiculous.
I think if we reversed this threads and asked for the smartest things ever said by Christians and atheists we would see a lot more parity in seeming intelligence.
:rolleyes: Sorry Diogenes but it’s going to be awhile before I get over the enlightenment of this thread
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=170518&perpage=50&pagenumber=1
as a fan of ALL music… I think the comments where you call country music fans to be “sister raping hillbillys and retards” and follow that up by attemting to justify the use of the insult “white trash” as being NOT a racial slur.
Well, Bubba…that’s gotta be one of the stupidist things I EVER heard an athiest say…
Granted you did finally lighten up a little.
Sorry Di, I had to do it you know.
t-keela, two things:
1.) I’m not an atheist.
2.) I wasn’t making the statements in the Dixie Chicks thead indefense of or as a proof of atheism.
Read the OP:
My point was that you will not hear the same kind of nonsensical arguments for atheism that you will for some religious points of view is that atheism does not have to counter any logical obstacles.
I finally, I did not apply all those pejoratives to country music fans, but only to the idiots (country fans or not) who felt the need to make a big show of destroying CDs and called radio stations to demand that an act be taken off the air because someone in the band expressed a political view that they didn’t like.
You’re not an atheist? Sorry, my mistake…sounded like it.
As far as the OP regarding the supernatural…well that’s kinda subjective anyway and this thread has gone off more than once hasn’t it?
Non-sensical arguments come from all sides. Perhaps not as frequently, but still they do come from atheists as well.
Perhaps you remember the story about my friend who claimed God doesn’t exist because we can’t SEE him. While arguing that some things do exist even though we can’t see them.
Regarding the quote from D/C thread…dude I was just yanking your chain. We worked that out in the other thread I thought. Didn’t ya see my smilies?
Peace
damned coon-asses :rolleyes: always tryin to get the last word
I’m an agnostic. I’m neutral on the issue.
I agree that idiots can come from all sides. I’m not making a statement about the relative intelligence of atheists vs. theists. I’m not saying that atheists can’t make stupid arguments. i’ve actually defended Christians on these boards from fallacious or uninformed attacks by atheists. Atheists are really faced with only one logical hurdle, though, how to prove a negative. A Biblical literalist has to contend with actual factual refutation of their beliefs so their own apologia is naturally going to become more contorted and silly.
Atheists can say stupid things, but I just don’t think they provide the goldmine of comedy that blindly dogmatic religion often does.
No problem. maybe I got my back up a little too quick, there.
It happens…
The saddest day of my life was the day I woke up and realize there was no god.
My life long fantasy of making sweet sweet love to a softly glowing, beautiful winged woman would never come true.
Luckilly about 45 min after getting to school I learned about this cool thing called “Genetic Engineering”.
And this is why I’m a virologist.
Oh, and if anyone has a fantasy involving a 6 breasted green alien woman I can get you some contact information with a bovine research group and their experiments with GFP.
I’m both bored, sleep deprived and quite possibly insane.
I once heard an atheist say, “Hey, maybe there is a god after all.”
What a fucking dumb-ass!