Scientism

Doc Dutch said:
Yes, there are studies: https://www.pewresearch.org/religio...dy/religious-family/atheist/age-distribution/

Mostly young, male, Euro-American, single and broke. LOL

Trump worships money. Dawkins and Hitchens were militant atheists who also made money off of young atheists. While I believe they are atheists, they were motivated to stay so for financial reasons. Kinda like Ann Coulter playing a radical RWer for money.

Atheists waffle on the definition to inflate their numbers similar to LGBTQ puffing up their numbers with any woman who "kissed a girl", i.e. had a homosexual experience regardless of their present preferences. Example, some Atheists include Buddhism or believe in an afterlife. It's one thing to say "I don't believe in the God of the Bible", but it's another thing to say there is no such thing a God, there is nothing beyond the physical universe and/or "when you're dead, you're dead".

I lean toward panentheism.
Click to expand...

Young, angry, and broke. :whoa::laugh:

I think a distinction has to be drawn between the principled atheist (aka Niel degasse Tyson), and the person who is just angry at Christianity..


I have wandered the boundaries of atheism, agnosticism, Eastern Orthodoxy. But to me, with age comes humility. I no longer think our souped up chimpanzee brains are capable of acquiring true knowledge about literally everything, that we know how to ask all the right questions, or that we would neccesarily even understand the answers if they were handed to us.

The cosmos has an organizing principle, is hung on a precise mathmatical scaffolding, and has natural laws and physical constants that are finely tuned to allow for matter, chemistry, biology. I don't know what that means, but it means something.
 
Cypress said:
Young, angry, and broke. :whoa::laugh:

I think a distinction has to be drawn between the principled atheist (aka Niel degasse Tyson), and the person who is just angry at Christianity..


I have wandered the boundaries of atheism, agnosticism, Eastern Orthodoxy. But to me, with age comes humility. I no longer think our souped up chimpanzee brains are capable of acquiring true knowledge about literally everything, that we know how to ask all the right questions, or that we would neccesarily even understand the answers if they were handed to us.

The cosmos has an organizing principle, is hung on a precise mathmatical scaffolding, and has natural laws and physical constants that are finely tuned to allow for matter, chemistry, biology. I don't know what that means, but it means something.
Click to expand...

Dr. Tyson is a "skeptic", not an "in your face" atheist like Dawkins. Youtube has him hosting a few Skeptics conventions (the Amazing Meetings) which I found interesting to listen to while mowing.

Example:
 
Doc Dutch said:
Dr. Tyson is a "skeptic", not an "in your face" atheist like Dawkins. Youtube has him hosting a few Skeptics conventions (the Amazing Meetings) which I found interesting to listen to while mowing.

Example:
Click to expand...

I like his live and let live attitude.

He doesn't think there's any evidence to support religions. But I saw him being asked by a militant atheist why Niel wouldn't do more to directly attack religious belief, and Niel just asked his interlocutor why it bothered him so much.
 
Cypress said:
I like his live and let live attitude.

He doesn't think there's any evidence to support religions. But I saw him being asked by a militant atheist why Niel wouldn't do more to directly attack religious belief, and Niel just asked his interlocutor why it bothered him so much.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Is that the one with Dawkins?

IMO, Tyson is looking for truth and Dawkins is in it for the fame and fortune.

 
Doc Dutch said:
Agreed. Is that the one with Dawkins?

IMO, Tyson is looking for truth and Dawkins is in it for the fame and fortune.
Click to expand...

It wasn't Dawkins, it was someone else.

Niel degrasse Tyson gets annoyed when atheists try to claim him as one of their own. If he had to pick a label, he says he picks agnostic

 
BidenPresident said:
As far as "deep." You just repeat the same thing over and over. No free will. You cannot explain why that is true. I have offered many examples and you ignore them.

I think I choose to have a beer on Saturday. You say it was not my choice. You failed to explain what caused me to want a beer. At birth my genes made me have a beer at a specific time? Is this your evidence?
Click to expand...

You don't know why you wanted a beer. In fact, you don't know what you're going to want next or think next or intend to do next or forget, and then remember, next. The reason this is the case is because you don't know what your next thought is going to be that is going to generate the next want, intention, etc. You can't pick your next thought before it picks itself. If you can't pick your next thought, you don't know what it's going to be until it appears in consciousness , yet it's those thoughts that determine everything you do, where is free will?
 
Last edited:
ZenMode said:
You don't know why you wanted a beer. In fact, you don't know what you're going to want next or think next or intend to do next or forget, and then remember, next. The reason this is the case, is because you don't know what your next thought is going to be that is going to generate the next want, intention, etc. You can't pick your next thought before it picks itself. If you can't pick your next thought, you don't know what it's going to be until it appears in consciousness , yet it's those thoughts that determine everything you do, where is free will?
Click to expand...

I know why I want a beer. I like stout beer. I cultivated my tastes and do research. This is a style of beer I learned to appreciate.
 
Cypress said:
It wasn't Dawkins, it was someone else.

Niel degrasse Tyson gets annoyed when atheists try to claim him as one of their own. If he had to pick a label, he says he picks agnostic

Click to expand...

Agnostic is the most logical position. :D
 
ZenMode said:
You don't know why you wanted a beer. In fact, you don't know what you're going to want next or think next or intend to do next or forget, and then remember, next. The reason this is the case is because you don't know what your next thought is going to be that is going to generate the next want, intention, etc. You can't pick your next thought before it picks itself. If you can't pick your next thought, you don't know what it's going to be until it appears in consciousness , yet it's those thoughts that determine everything you do, where is free will?
Click to expand...

This sounds like a psychiatric disorder. Compulsive thinking.
 
BidenPresident said:
I know why I want a beer. I like stout beer. I cultivated my tastes and do research. This is a style of beer I learned to appreciate.
Click to expand...

Sure, but that level of detail is all secondary to what I'm saying.

When you're working in the yard, driving home from the store or watching TV and, in that moment, you have a thought "A beer sounds good", you didn't consciously create that thought. You didn't select that thought from all of the thoughts in your brain. That thought just appeared in your consciousness and you had no way to stop it from appearing. The reason you don't know what you're going to want next or intend to do next is because you don't know what your next thought is going to be until it appears in your conscious mind.
 
BidenPresident said:
No one would teach meditation techniques if the mind was easily controlled. It is a skill.
People learn how to concentrate the mind in order to live in the universe.
Click to expand...

Being able to quiet your mind aka stop thinking, via meditation is a skill that takes time and practice. For the average person, stopping thinking isn't possible. We are constantly talking to ourselves.

Much like the reality of how thoughts appear, the fact that we are constantly talking to ourselves is easily observable.
 
ZenMode said:
Sure, but that level of detail is all secondary to what I'm saying.

When you're working in the yard, driving home from the store or watching TV and, in that moment, you have a thought "A beer sounds good", you didn't consciously create that thought. You didn't select that thought from all of the thoughts in your brain. That thought just appeared in your consciousness and you had no way to stop it from appearing. The reason you don't know what you're going to want next or intend to do next is because you don't know what your next thought is going to be until it appears in your conscious mind.
Click to expand...

Someone who does not like stout beer does not have the thought to go drink a stout.
Similarly, someone who does not know my friend does not have thoughts about calling that person. So our thoughts have something to do with our own lives and experiences.
 
BidenPresident said:
Someone who does not like stout beer does not have the thought to go drink a stout.
Similarly, someone who does not know my friend does not have thoughts about calling that person. So our thoughts have something to do with our own lives and experiences.
Click to expand...

Of course. Our thoughts are absolutely determined by our experiences. A person with no awareness of the law and consequences couldn't be deterred from crime by the the fear of going to jail.

But, again, that's secondary to what I'm saying...

Do you know what you're going to think next? Do you have a way to stop your next thought from appearing in consciousness?
 
ZenMode said:
Of course. Our thoughts are absolutely determined by our experiences. A person with no awareness of the law and consequences couldn't be deterred from crime by the the fear of going to jail.

But, again, that's secondary to what I'm saying...

Do you know what you're going to think next? Do you have a way to stop your next thought from appearing in consciousness?
Click to expand...

Sorry, I really don't know what your point is. The mind wanders. We train ourselves to be disciplined thinkers.
The whole point of education from first grade on is to teach people how to focus on a task and concentrate the mind.
 
BidenPresident said:
Sorry, I really don't know what your point is. The mind wanders. We train ourselves to be disciplined thinkers.
The whole point of education from first grade on is to teach people how to focus on a task and concentrate the mind.
Click to expand...

Do you know what your next thought is going to be and do you have a way to stop it from entering your consciousness?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top