h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well...at the risk of answering a flippant question seriously...

Arguing and poking fun are actively encouraged. But the involvement of schools is a special case. If religion is taken out of schools, there's nothing to stop parents subjecting their children to it in their own homes or places of worship. But if it's taught in schools, it's damned difficult to meet the secular parents' desire not to have their child subjected to it.

It's a bit like smoking in pubs.



(Struggles to extend the metaphor to shoehorn in something analogous to having to walk through a cloud of smoke at the school gates. Fails.)

>>
Do you really think atheism in our countries is on the extremist level? I mean I don't think any of us are threatening violence or trying to get religion banned, we just want the right to have a good argument about faith, maybe poke fun at it a bit, and to get it out of schools.
<<

There's plenty (well, some) of atheists on hootoo and in RL who think that religion should be banned. That degree of fundamentalist thought (I know what is best for all of humanity and beyond based on my own beliefs) is disturbing enough to separate it from garden variety athiests.

We know that there are militant or facist atheists within various human cultures. I think if atheists had more political power in our countries then yes we would have a problem.

I still don't understand the focus on the Pope.

God does not believe in Atheists
Therefore Athiests do not exist.


Novo

Hi Bouncy

God doesn't believe in athiests,
Therefore they don't exist


Novo

Well then any answer I may give you to those posts can surely have no reality outside of your own fevered imagination .

Who said that?

>>God doesn't believe in atheists,
Therefore they don't exist<

It then follows:

God doesn't believe in Himself, nor does He believe in a 'higher power
Therefore God is an atheist
Therefore God does not exist

Untidy logic?

I said God doesn't believe in atheists, I didn,t say that he didn't believe in himself, thus your argument is flawed!

Novo

Ih he believes in himself - why the need to constantly seek approval from worshippers? He should consider seeing a therapist.

What makes you think he does?

It is the athiests who appear to constantly need confirmation that they are 'right'

Novo

To believe is to make a claim in the absence of evidence.
Therefore, belief, as opposed to knowledge, requires uncertainty.
Corollary: certain knowledge of something eliminates uncertainty, and any requirement or possibility of belief of that thing.

Therefore omniscience, (all-knowledge), obviates belief.

An omniscient, (all-knowing), god doesn't believe in anything, including him/her/it self

My argument stands

Could we get a big enough couch for god? I believe Dr Melfi is about to finish with Tony Soprano, so maybe she's got a slot for him. He certainly seems to have issues.

I've thought of two different riposts, but we could go on interminably, so I'll let your argument stand

Novo

<>

Unprecedented behaviour for hootoo. What would threads be without interminable off-topic arguments?

Hi, I decided that BC is right, this IS HooToo and therefore,

Belief is not a claim in absence of evidence per se

I believe the sun will come up tomorrow, but I cannot prove that will, until the event.

I have absolutely no uncertainty about this happening, thus uncertainty is not a prerequisite.

Sentence three thus invalidated

I never mentioned omniscience ( all knowing ) you introduced that idea.

An omniscient God, by definition ( yours? ) knows all, and doesn't need a 'belief' Thus since God knows the athiests are barking up trees of their own making he/she is content to let them exercise their delusions
of universal knowledge.

My God, not your omniscient one, doesn't give a flying angel for the athieist.

Novo

A28043291

The importance of Muslims and Christians getting on better can hardly be underestimated. That is a highly positive letter

That's the ticket!


I apologize for assuming we were discussing the standard 'triple-O' variety of God. Are we discussing Thor, perhaps?

Anyway, to quote myself
>An omniscient, (all-knowing), god doesn't believe in anything, including him/her/it self<
It's not so much a question of an omniscient God requiring a belief in something as being incapable of entertaining one.
..At least, according to my understanding of what constitutes a belief

Lesser gods, such as Thor, are not characterized by omniscience.

Back to your original post:

>>God doesn't believe in athiests,
Therefore they don't exist<

And more recently..

>Belief is not a claim in absence of evidence..<



Please define 'belief', particularly in this context: Does the God to Whom you refer in that post find it necessary to believe in anything?
Can you provide an example?

Also..

>> I have absolutely no uncertainty about this happening<

What about the Vogons?


I'm absolutely uncertain absolute certainty even exists


Topic drift. It's what hootoo is about!