No goalpost shifting, at least not on purpose.
But, still, you can’t know they are still alive, well or bad?
Most ahteist have life insurance and want to see, as you correctly said, that good things will happen to their family after their passing, however, it still it contrary to the “if I have no evidende it doesn’t exist” way of understanding the world. Nothing wrong with nconsistencies in live, we all have them, believer or not, and carry on. We don’t usually agonise about every tiny aspect of our lives.
There are spiritual senses, but they are only “senses” as an analogy to sight or hearing. You use, for lack of a better word, your own spirit to connect to these spritual aspects.
Who? Abso-fuckin’-lutely no one. However, you freely have aprticipated on the thread and answered my questions (correctly or not). You even labelled this whole thing as a hijack.
Also, that attitude is not usually a good one in threads of this sort of topic.
You have told me your perspective, that’s 100% true. I feel, however, that you have failed to answer my actual question.
You can, you know, simply stop here, not answer, and be done with it.
You were answered. If it wasn’t the answer you wanted, then tough shit, because I’m moving on to converse with others about the subject of this thread.
Do you need to be in a wifi hotspot for that kind of connection?
Your actual question is stupid. It makes no sense. It’s been pointed out to you by multiple posters in multiple ways. Continuing to ask the same question shows a lack of understand, or a willful unwillingness to do so. Regardless, you’re not making the point you think you’re making. At all.
Well, how quick do you think you could start living WITH God? Under 12 posts? lol.
But like I said, I agree he hasn’t “become an atheist”. It seems he’s more exploring what it might be like or what would replace it or perhaps what would be left without his God.
But don’t you have to balance the supposed social aspect with the message of “us vs. them” being reinforced during some of these gatherings? There is a point in most churches where the priest/preacher/vicar/leader stands up and gives a sermon(I wouldn’t classify a typical sermon as “Bible study”), and very seldom does someone interrupt to say that they do not understand what is being said, let alone disagree with what is being said. In my mind, this is a negative aspect of going to church.
I am reminded of my fairly unsatisfying thread “How do you test your religion”. While people talk about “spiritual senses” they spend very little time reflecting on what they are and what they truly mean. “Faith is faith” and “God won’t be tested” seemed to be the answer.
I just think that saying going to church on Sundays should be put in the “good” column because it has social aspects would depend on what ideas are being re-enforced in any particular church. If there are anti-science and/or discriminatory things being taught, does this balance out the coffee klatch that happens before or after the service, or even the food bank run a couple days a month?
This seems more a response to my earlier post than the one quoted but: Building social bonds is one of the most important things to most people, so I bet for most people the answer would be it’s in the good column. Obviously going to some church that spouts racist crap is no better (for society as a whole) than a Nazi rally.
Not really, imho. Certainly not on an individual basis. Generally churches will create a sense of belonging and a support system in times of trouble. Even a racist church will do that for it’s members. Obviously there are specific cases where a church may have a parasitic nature, but I would bet the vast majority of North American church goers are not made to wear bedsheets and give all their earnings to the head priest.
The fact that I would examine each case individually shows that I am not talking about the vast majority of churches. Is there an innate goodness of all social gatherings that I am missing here?
You’re dodging the point. You said this to Aji de Gallina:
I understand the motivations that drive people to blot out their reasoning processes (something you have forthrightly described yourself as doing, above).
The truth is that Aji did not describe himself as blotting out his reasoning processes, forthrightly or otherwise. Therefore what you said was not true.
Of course this is not surprising, since nearly everything else that you’ve posted since you’ve arrived at this board has been untrue.
“What if we did something different” in the OP implies we would be discussing the vast majority. In the vast majority, church going is “good column”. Certainly more good for the vast majority than having a better grasp of molecular bonding or gravitational fields.
What good do you imagine happening with everyone being better informed on molecular bonding? I’ll be blunt: deeper scientific knowledge is useless to most people.
If the same number of people that spend time in church on Sunday morning would put the same effort and zeal into understanding scientific concepts, would that not ultimately be of greater benefit to society (and therefore themselves)? BTW, I’m also inclined to include social sciences and anthropological causes in this Sunday school alternative to church going.
Note, I’m not suggesting that many individuals are not capable of doing both to great personal success and satisfaction.
No, i don’t really think so. Most people would still have to plod along at their job the same as always and vote for whoever would be more fun at the Bar-B-Q. Sure, a better understanding of stats (mentioned in the OP) would make for a less gullible public which I would consider “good column” but most scientific nitty gritty doesn’t affect anyone’s life until someone invents the next cellphone with it.
Learning something new vs. repeating something old. Exploring horizons vs. building walls. Being given the tools to recognize bullshit vs. being given blinders.
Church sermons often deal with “what’s in the news” and how it may be interpreted. Churches are often the vanguard of social change/justice. So forgive me if I don’t agree with your generalization that it’s all old blinding walls.