Well, it's earned him lots of cash, so good on him. 
Now he can relax in the tropics.
Theist/Atheist or Agnostic Page 5
Quote: zooo @ August 30 2008, 5:44 PM BSTWell, it's earned him lots of cash, so good on him.
Now he can relax in the tropics.
I'm on his side for the record but, you know sometimes I think he goes for the wackos. Sometimes I think he should pick on people his own size.
Quote: ian_w @ August 30 2008, 1:50 PM BSTEveryone's doing this! Why can you not distinguish between believing in a creative force of some kind and being a fecking Christian or whatever. They didn't invent and patent the idea of a God! The two are not intrinsically and inseparably linked.
I was talking religion in general, then just stated that I found christians creepy. Actually read, then comment.
Quote: RubyMae - Glamourous Snowdrop at large. @ August 30 2008, 2:33 PM BSTChristians are not creepy.
Obviously not all, but a good lot of the ones I've sen are.
Quote: catskillz @ August 30 2008, 4:51 PM BSTDo you find all religious people creepy, or just Christians?
Well, basically anyone with that evangelical fervor, but something about christians does make them stick out to me.
Quote: SlagA @ August 30 2008, 5:24 PM BSTTo see belief in God as a sign of personal weakness dismisses the countless people in history who chose (and still choose) to die for their beliefs (I'm talking of the passive martyr sense as oppossed to the weird aggression of the suicide-bomber concept). I'm sure many of those martyrs would have found the weak cowardly easy option to be compromise of their belief system rather than face lions, torture, crucifiction, etc.
To see belief in God as a sign of intellectual capacity or incapacity is misleading. Some of the world's leading intellects held / hold a belief in God. Some didn't. So brain capacity isn't a factor when it comes to convictions or belief systems. While science has claimed adherents, it hasn't been a one-way street, there have been converts in both directions but neither side advertises their 'losses'. For quite a few people, science and religion are not mutually exclusive as some leading scientists have a faith.
To be a theist, atheist, or agnostic requires faith. Even a belief in the negative needs a step of faith in the abscence of proof either for or against. It's holding a belief in something that is unprovable (or incomprehensible) to our thankfully finite minds given our current scientific / philosophical / spiritual knowledge.
Frankie's approach of active apathy of course requires no faith.
I did have a Christian friend that made my skin tingle unpleasantly but as the doctor explained to me later it was only the onset of a stroke.
Nope, sign of weakness to me. And I'm talking about modern times, not martyrs from five hundred years ago. And I have to say that I think any intelligent person who believes in God in this day and age is lacking a bit of something somewhere. It's a personal opinion and I don't give two sods if others disagree. because it's my own opinion; I'm not trying to force it down anyones throats.
Quote: Matthew Stott @ August 30 2008, 6:37 PM BSTAnd I have to say that I think any intelligent person who believes in God in this day and age is lacking a bit of something somewhere.
I think you're getting the principle of a "higher being" confused with the tales of miracles, plagues, wine and fish in the Bible. I'm sure that there are plenty of people who believe that the latter is a load of tosh, but that the former, in some extent or variety, is possible.
Just not the stereotypical big hand and fluffy white beard reaching down from the bright blue sky...
I definitely believe in the principle of a higher being, but I'm not quite sure in what way yet. One guy at school finds it hilarious to ridicule me about it at every opportunity, even drunkenly "setting" everyone on me around the campfire at Reading; but to me he's just as bad as all the people he apparently hates for "sticking religion down [his] throat", in trying to dissuade me from having any kind of metaphysical faith.
Well said, Scatski.
*bows* I try. 
!
And you manage.
On occasion. 
Usually I just end up with awful, unrealised, innuendos!
Especially in the area of 'forcing things down peoples' throats'.
It could have been ugly.
Especially with the fire tongs around!
Quote: Aaron @ August 30 2008, 2:05 PM BSTWhyyyyyyyy?
Firstly because I'm not used to that whole world and I never know when you're supposed to stand up, sit down, clap, etc.
And secondly, the bits of the bible they were reading out were all a bit nasty. About how women were evil and stuff.
It's Christmas! Choose the nice bits for f**k's sake!
Ahhh, that's understandable then. Crazy shit.
Quote: Scatterbrained Floozy @ August 30 2008, 7:19 PM BSTUsually I just end up with awful, unrealised, innuendos!
No argument there, it's a pity you weren't a writer in the 1960s; you would have made a packet writing Carry On films.
Time machine, please!