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

Thanks Ed, excelllent example. You could also look at Ireland. As the economy ramped up the priests were left behind. Another example is here in Canada in Quebec.

I fear a resurgence of the power of the religious circus masters as the world economy tanks.

Toy Box I just now followed that link. Now I know how it happened.

Yeah...but another view is that we in the developed world have abandoned spirituality to lead materialistic lives, unlike the harmonious, spiritual lives led in...er...Latin America.

Or Pakistan.

'Oh believers, do not hold Jews or Christians
as your allies. They are allies of one another;
and anyone who makes them his friends
is surely one of them;
and God does not guide the unjust.'

The Feast

In fairness, anhaga...some Muslims regard the Qu'ran as a book of stories about the life and times of Muhammed (poobah) which has some messages for modern times. In the bit above, I guess Muhammed is speaking tactically about one particular situation involving the ever-changing local alliances between Muslims, Christians and Jews during his exile from Mecca. But not all of them are daft enough to take it literally as a book of instructions.

'OK,' you might say, 'But why the Qu'ran and not, say, Beowulf.' And you'd be right.

I agree Ed. But somebody here keeps throwing out the passages, so I thought I'd do it too.

>You could also look at Ireland. As the economy ramped up the priests were left behind.<


Apparently lots of Irish Catholics are converting to CoI so they're slowly diluting their faith

>>All your posts so far, confirm my feeling that "World War III" is not stoppable by anybody (particularly by me ), but that doesn't stop me conveying my understanding and conclusions that I've reached as a researcher.<<

My posts would only 'confirm' such a feeling if a person either hadn't read what was written or hadn't understood it. Which is it warner?

The accepted consensus of historians is that the UK has passed through at least its fourth "world war" which would make it difficult for you to stop a third.

It worries me quite a lot that you think a is appropriate when discussing the potential for another global conflict but that's a whole different conversation.

On the subject of meat-machines, souls, consciousness, etc.

Yet more evidence that we are more alike than unalike:

'When Santino the chimpanzee began throwing rocks at zoo visitors in the summer of 1997, officials at the Swedish zoo had to wonder: where was he getting all of the ammo?

The answer, they discovered, was in a series of secret caches, where the chimpanzee had calmly collected — and in some cases manufactured — projectiles for later use.

According to Swedish researcher Mathias Osvath, it's "the first unambiguous evidence" of an animal other than humans making plans in one mental state for a future mental state, in this case, an agitated display of dominance from the lone male chimpanzee at the zoo.

"These observations convincingly show that our fellow apes do consider the future in a very complex way," said Osvath of Lund University, in a statement.'

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/03/09/chimp-stones.html

Interesting...

This might be of interest to some:

http://directionlessbones.wordpress.com/2009/03/08/yes-religion-is-still-the-opium-of-the-people/

It's an anarchist/communist writing about Marx' contention that religion is the opium of the people. His conclusion is that yes it is, and similarly you can't expect to cure people of it by persuading them it's bad, but rather by changing the material circumstances which lead them to it.

I seem to remember trying to explaining to Warner - about a thousand posts back - how that phrase occurs in a paragraph by paragraph rebuttal of Hegel and should be understood in that context.

>>These observations convincingly show that our fellow apes do consider the future<<
Have another banana

If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the LORD thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the LORD thy God, in transgressing his covenant; And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded; And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and enquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel; Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.

Deuteronomy 17:2-5

Quangle Wangle pudding and pie,
kissed the girls and made them cry ...

Hmm,
"Antony Flew was a lecturer at the Universities of Oxford and Aberdeen, before posts as Professor of Philosophy at the Universities of Keele and of Reading."
>> http://www.bethinking.org/science-christianity/flew-speaks-out-professor-antony-flew-reviews-the.htm

"It's all too clear that Dawkins is not interested in the "TRUTH" as such but is primarily concerned to discredit an ideological opponent by any available means."

Yes, it's very clear indeed, as it is with his 'fans' / followers. Quangle Wangle yourselves.

I'd hardly call flew an objective voice on the matter, given that he's already gone over to the other side. so presumably found some argument convincing (I can't imagine what that might have been ...)

Of course theists love Flew for this very reason.

He's welcome of course to his opinions and I don't mind him announcing them either. Dawkin's reputation is neither impenetrable or untarnished.
His argument in the article however, seems to be that Dawkins in The God Delusion, just doesn't understand deism and so cruelly misrepresents it and there are lots of people like him who think this is really important so it must be true, also and the world is complex so therefore god.

Colour me unmoved.

Desim is more understandable than theism, still just as incoherent however, and must we really drag out the reason why complexity doesn't imply design?

Okay then.

In the beginning the universe was small dense and hot, then it got bigger, a little less dense, but still quite hot, after that it got even bigger, even less dense and stated to cool down a bit. Keep this up until eventually the first elements starts to fuse in stars which then blow up. making more stars and eventually planets.. and one one or possibly more of these planets the elements turned into chemistry and began to replicate. and boy don'tcha know once they got started, they just couldn't stop. And warmer by the gentle exploding furnace of their nearby star by which they lived, they grew bigger and more complex. Until one day the star expanded, killing Everything. An no-one noticed. Eventually all the stars went out. And still no-one noticed. And this was a pity. But no-one noticed.

warner, I haven't seen you, for example, trying to teach anyone "TRUTH" on this thread. Repeatedly you and others have been asked to explain these "TRUTH"s you claim knowledge of, to offer evidence of the truth of these "TRUTH"s you claim knowledge of. We have asked to be convinced, we offered the opportunity to convince us. After a certain period of such requests and offers being rebuffed with non sequiturs and nonsense it's not hard to see why the conversation turns to mockery.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvjGIkl2yDY



"Jesus ... on a stick!"

Amazed onlooker: "I think it's just a glare from a window."

"I love Jesus - and you know I love cats, but I'm sorry...."

"It seems to me that Richard Dawkins constantly overlooks the fact that Darwin himself, in the fourteenth chapter of The Origin of Species, pointed out that his whole argument began with a being which already possessed reproductive powers. This is the creature the evolution of which a truly comprehensive theory of evolution must give some account. Darwin himself was well aware that he had not produced such an account. It now seems to me that the finding of more than fifty years of DNA research have provided materials for a new and enormously powerful argument to design."
Antony Flew