The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> The Mistake Rational People make....

The Mistake Rational People make....
Posted by pancho (Moderator) - Saturday, March 3 2012, 18:59:34 (UTC)
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...when engaging in discussion with religious folk is the same mistake an Astronomer would make is he agreed to "debate" the validity or invalidity of Astrology with an Astrologist. Why on earth would an Astronomer, with a doctorate from Harvard or any other college, even consider doing so?

...do we expect an Alchemist to debate a Chemist? Why not? Aren't they both views which were believed in by lots of people? And how do we know classical alchemy doesn't work? How do we know you can't change lead into gold? Because of convoluted philosophical/metaphysical mumbo-jumbo, or because no Chemist has been able to PROVE that it doesn't work?...or is it because alchemy has never turned lead into gold?

The day it can, and the day God appears in ways that can be personally verified, as any normal person understands such things, I'll be the first to admit I must have been wrong and become a believer in alchemy.

...but we CAN challenge god and alchemy on the same grounds that the religious now challenge Darwinism, "that there is no evidence for any of its claims"...except evidence for Darwinism is all around us and in the fossil record, while no one has yet seen a god or brought proof that one exists.

"Where did Life come from and why", is not something science is yet ready to show...but at one time there were LOTS of things science wasn't ready to show, even things believed to be miracles...which they later were able to demonstrate the rational basis for...just because they can't do what religious people demand of them THIS instant, doesn't mean they won;t eventually...no one has found a cure for cancer, yet people keep spending billions of dollars LOOKING...because based on prior experience of what science has done, we have the right kind of "faith" that they can do it again...and again.

Religion merely takes the lazy shortcut by saying they already know..."and his name was.... and he did it like this....and for this reason." THAT satisfies them,,,,and yet they want proof from SCIENCE, where they have none and don;t think they need any for religion...that's the reason they say science requires faith as well,,,,because they never READ the science literature to see how it is DONE...but tell us they know how God done it.

The non-believer is under no obligation to discuss God with anybody...because God was never OUR idea.....this notion has been posited by people who then demand WE prove them wrong...before Dawkins discusses god with anybody he should demand that they bring evidence forward for the existence of such a thing...before discussing it.

My unwillingness to discuss the Tooth Fairy with you, regardless of how many children "feel better" for believing in one, or "how many people have believed in one", or even "how sad those children will be without this belief"...has nothing to do with the existence of the Tooth Fairy...and neither do I have to prove such a silly thing does NOT exist....YOU brought it up....YOU believe in it....YOU prove it!!! Especially before you demand the right to teach all children about tooth fairies, or get a tax-break from the rest of us for your "beliefs".



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