Afraid To Be Atheist?

Nope – I still can’t disconnect it from Onion News!;)

I laughed out loud! Sounds like an Onion News story. How anyone takes stuff like this seriously beggars belief.

.. except they list their sources….. & then there is that somewhat damning issue where the symptoms of delusional schizophrenia & belief in gods are basically the same thing.. which added to the “I have a personal relation with god” being essentially the same relationship as stalkers have with the object of their harassment etc doesn’t help matters…

😉

I laughed out loud! Sounds like an Onion News story. How anyone takes stuff like this seriously beggars belief.

hmmm…

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/study-belief-in-an-angry-god-associated-with-variety-of-mental-illnesses/

HMMM, well the Wiki says:

The Raw Story has been reported and featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, LA Weekly, the New York Post, the Toronto Star, The Hill, Rolling Stone, The Advocate, Roll Call, and Mother Jones.Boasting an average 2.5 million readers per month (2013), the site is described by Newsweek as, “Muck, raked: If you’re looking for alleged GOP malfeasance, the folks at rawstory.com are frequently scooping the mainstream media.”

The Raw Story’s original reporting has also been referenced by MSNBC’s Ed Schultz and Lawrence O’Donnell, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Real Time with Bill Maher and Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

Yep, real honest reporting there.

hmmm…

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/study-belief-in-an-angry-god-associated-with-variety-of-mental-illnesses/

The theory of inflationary universe is indeed fascinating.

I am not a scientist but I think would also be interesting to speculate about the idea that intelligences could create universes by provoking inflations. Guth has written a paper about that. Other scientists have also speculated how it could be done.

In an extremely large inflationary universe, even very unlikely events would happen a very large number of times. This also includes the probability that an intelligence would appear that would create universes by provoking inflations (if it is physically possible to do that). Then there could be a sort of recursive process of universes created by intelligences. Each intelligence could create a lot of universes that are so large that the probability of intelligences appearing inside of them would be high. This recursive process would be infinite in the future.

As a scientist, what do you think of that idea?

And as a non-professional scientist so do I. It is both simple and intriguing and the developments in our understanding are fascinating.

It still amazes me that some can accept that energy has simply always existed but cannot accept that an intelligent beings have simply always existed.

Well, this might well be false. According to the theory of inflation, the entire energy of the universe started from a quantum fluctuation of the vacuum. There was very little energy initially.

In fact, we know from observations that the energy of the universe is very close to 0. The positive energy is counter balanced by the potential energy, which, in this case, is negative.

That’s the beauty of the theory of inflation, it is a huge free lunch. You can get a huge amount of positive and negative energy ( a universe ) from almost no energy at all. Some scientists have even wondered about the possibility of creating a universe by provoking an inflation.

Scientists take the theory of inflation more and more seriously for various reasons.

Where do you suppose my station is?

Well…. Given the theme of this thread…. is it on the Circle Line? 😉

I am about as far from a theologian as it can get…

Au contraire, I think.

It still amazes me that some can accept that energy has simply always existed but cannot accept that an intelligent beings have simply always existed.

It does?

It has always amazed me that some people…but I’ll leave that for you to fill in since it is a little obvious, don’t you think?

Say we live in a universe that is the result of a huge explosion, everything we can observe, every piece of matter, every atom and all energy is what remains after that explosion; that does not mean that nothing existed before the explosion. Whatever existed before the explosion: matter, energy, whatever, was destroyed by the explosion, or changed from whatever it was, to what we can observe now.

I said earlier that concept is possible for the non-biological universe as we know it.

Too many think Christians are of one mind on the basics of the question of how and why.
Some Christians think this is the one and only time God created the earth, but there are some that think this the just the last time God will redo the earth after totally wiping out previous versions, before confining the angels that fell from heaven to what ever eternity they will get.

Debates between “Christian” factions make this thread look like a good old boys society discussion.

The Bible says God created the heavens and the earth, not the earth and the heavens.
It does not say that the Creation story of life on earth happened during that beginning.

The Bible has left out, and there are quotes from scripture books in the New Testament that no longer exist, all except the abstract of what is needed for God’s purpose. Too many who claim to be Christians try to add parts that are not there.

It still amazes me that some can accept that energy has simply always existed but cannot accept that an intelligent beings have simply always existed.

Reads like a bunch of second rate scientists and third rate theologians stroking their collective egos. Neither side can argue their corner well, though I think the science crew are making a slightly better fist of it.

And that bit of worthless fence gossip really adds to the thread, BRILLIANT!

I am about as far from a theologian as it can get but as theology is the study of the nature of God and religious belief. So you can fill the gaps you infer is lacking?

i’m surprised this thread is still running, how long did the last religion/god/darwin etc thread carry on till it turned to insults then got canned.

Reads like a bunch of second rate scientists and third rate theologians stroking their collective egos. Neither side can argue their corner well, though I think the science crew are making a slightly better fist of it.

i’m surprised this thread is still running, how long did the last religion/god/darwin etc thread carry on till it turned to insults then got canned.

Hmm, good grief you believe that something came from absolutely nothing.

Energy can neither be created or destroyed but you think it just suddenly exploded into existence from magic.

The ‘something came from nothing’ argument is often thrown at those who support the ‘big bang theory’ (notice: theory!) but I think that that argument misrepresents what the big bang theory is trying to explain.

Say we live in a universe that is the result of a huge explosion, everything we can observe, every piece of matter, every atom and all energy is what remains after that explosion; that does not mean that nothing existed before the explosion. Whatever existed before the explosion: matter, energy, whatever, was destroyed by the explosion, or changed from whatever it was, to what we can observe now.

Energy cannot be created or destroyed but then matter and energy are different forms of the same thing; we know this because of nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion is how our sun turns mass into energy; it gives out energy but it is getting lighter in the process.

Can you explain dinosaurs?

They lived, they died.

Hmm, good grief you believe that something came from absolutely nothing.

No, I believe that something was there before it, that it has always existed, that we are just a byproduct of part of it being recycled. You, on the other hand, believe in something for which there is nothing but your own belief concerning ancient superstitions hiding something that is absolutely nothing; what can I say.

Energy can neither be created or destroyed but you think it just suddenly exploded into existence from magic.
Ya sure you bet.

Energy can locally run out – witness an exhausted battery, or the fact that the Sun will eventually die. Care to explain where their energy went?

And where did you come from – did your god magically zap you into existence or was there some embarrassing biological process involved that creates believers and non-believers alike?
Are you saying your god isn’t magic? Walking on water – not magic? Feeding hundreds of people from next to nothing – not magic? Causing the sick to walk – not magic? All just conjuring tricks conspiring to fool the gullible – now that’s magic!

We have evolved from crawlers via knuckle-runners to be able to stand and move on two legs and we shall, eventually, develop well padded backsides due to our habit of sitting down in front of screens. This process has been well documented and is understood by enlightened members of the human race; not creationists, obviously, and probably one or two other aspects of the god-bothering fraternity might lop off heads in an effort to prove that we are not evolved from apes (who have never developed the ability to manage wide scale slaughter over little things like differences of opinion regarding religion) but the process is there whether you want to believe it or not. Just because you don’t want to believe it does not make it any less real; I once stood and chatted with a man who honestly believed that dinosaur bones were products of 1930’s Hollywood, buried to try and break the spirit of believers, and he was sure that no one of faith would fall for that trick – although he was a little flummoxed when I asked how his theory could explain all the dinosaur skeletons found prior to the 1930’s… Can you explain dinosaurs?

More men and women of appropriate learning have reached a conclusion that concurs with the big bang theory rather than one that agrees with that that comes from fictional historical representations supposedly given by gods or their earthly representatives – unless you include those religious bigwigs with a vested interest in maintaining a hold on the hearts and minds of their followers and an observance of their sacred commandments amongst those of appropriate learning. — There is not a fictional mode by which God did it, except in the minds and rhetoric of atheists who say there is. No fact in their rhetoric just hostility.
What scientific method God used is unknown but Christian scientists learn at least as much over time as atheist scientists do.

Logic involved with a mythical god? Good grief…whatever next.
Always been there? You have nothing to convince us and yet we are told that this god has always been. What energy are you talking about here? I don’t expect you to provide anything that might be proven because you have none, but nevertheless something that would be understood to be tangible would be nice.
And the energy represents what, exactly?

Hmm, good grief you believe that something came from absolutely nothing.

Energy can neither be created or destroyed but you think it just suddenly exploded into existence from magic.
Ya sure you bet.

Just going by what you have mentioned..

As I said, you assume too much.

So you follow me around, claim these threads are a waste of time whilst still posting on them, and just so that I don’t get ideas above my station? How perfectly base. Where do you suppose my station is?

If you stop allowing your ego to get in the way, you’ll see that I do respond on threads to which (thankfully) you do not reply (I can’t say “contribute,” because that would be overstating things,) so “following you around” is (as usual) a gross overstatement.

All of my friends are real, but you do love to assume whatever suits your particular agenda, don’t you?

Just going by what you have mentioned.

1/. Because somebody has to, otherwise you’ll continue to get ideas above your station.

So you follow me around, claim these threads are a waste of time whilst still posting on them, and just so that I don’t get ideas above my station? How perfectly base. Where do you suppose my station is?

2/- & 3/- Of all the nonsense you’ve spouted over the months, that has to be the most hysterically funny.

You say the sweetest things. Only too glad to bring a little humour into your life.