Creation vs. Evolution

[deco_martini]

I wasn't aware I had made any "accusations". Just observations. Do you believe I am wrong in all of them?

You are arguing with a fanatic who made fun of a dead soldier at one point in the thread. Most of us have him on mute.

 

[peterbj7]

It's clear that your mind has created the mythology that great books like the Koran, and the Torah, and the Gospels, can write themselves. Like a magical quill can flutter up by itself and do the writing

That is precisely what I am NOT saying. These books were written by men, lots of them. And they (the books) have the failings and fallacies that one would expect with such antecedents.

 

[peterbj7]

You are arguing with a fanatic who made fun of a dead soldier at one point in the thread. Most of us have him on mute.

I haven't read all this thread, or even any more than a tiny part of it, and that was by accident. But I couldn't resist baiting an evident fanatic. In England Jehova's Witnesses sometimes come to the door and try to convert you on the doorstep - a friend and I used to invite them in (which greatly surprised them), sit them down with a cup of tea and maybe a pastry and generally disarm them. Then, starting very gradually, we would demolish them. They didn't feel they could leave with what they saw as such a promising prospect, and we kept them there for hours. I think the record was 7 hours. Poor guy's heads were spinning. We never saw them again.

I have a very useful book called "The Bible Handbook", which is very well researched and points out most of the contradictions and logical absurdities in the Bible, all parts of it. Indispensable in the above circumstances. My copy sadly is not with me here in Belize, but is somewhere in my house in England. I believe it's long since out of print, but it's a book I shall treasure. Maybe I'll even get it scanned and posted on the web for everyone to see and refer to.

 

[Sas]

It's clear that your mind has created the mythology that great books like the Koran, and the Torah, and the Gospels, can write themselves. Like a magical quill can flutter up by itself and do the writing.

NO, that is far more along the lines what Muslims, Jews and Christians think actually. Their minds have created a mythology that those books have had some magical dude "God" write them through the hand of man.

Yet your mind is dead to the reasons why. Truly fascinating.

Ditto.

 

[nereas]

It cuts both ways, SasPo. The amateur scientists, the amateur philosophers, the amateur debaters, and the atheists, all create for themselves a mythical house of cards, and then they throw stones at everyone else's house as being "unintellectual."

The holy scriptures of the major religions of the world were not magically written by themselves. Thus they are worthy of consideration in their own right.

And yes, any professional football player who leaves his day job to volunteer to play G/I Joe, and then gets himself killed in the process, does not make a good role model. I would say, stay in the NFL instead, which is dangerous enough and pays a lot more money. Someone else held him up as a model atheist, however I fail to see the merit in the model. Jesus said, that those who live by the sword shall die by the sword, and that was probably a fairly stern warning about playing G/I Joe.

 

[Sas]

And yes, any professional football player who leaves his day job to volunteer to play G/I Joe, and then gets himself killed in the process, does not make a good role model. I would say, stay in the NFL instead, which is dangerous enough and pays a lot more money. Someone else held him up as a model atheist, however I fail to see the merit in the model. Jesus said, that those who live by the sword shall die by the sword, and that was probably a fairly stern warning about playing G/I Joe.

My sister is one of your so called 'G/I Joes' and I find your understanding of what it means to join the military offensive and thoughtless. Do you actually know anybody in the military? Have you spoken to them about the rationale for joining? I really doubt it... from your appalling attitudes towards people in the military.

 

[Sordello]

 

[Sordello]

This can't go anywhere good!

 

[peterbj7]

I think "nereas" has amply demonstrated that he is not stupid (in terms of intellectual capability) but that he is bigoted and has a totally closed mind. He is incapable of reason in any normally accepted sense.

I am not an American and it isn't the British custom to praise and laud our military for "serving us". In most cases they decided to take a job that they expected to enjoy and get well paid at, and they can't be surprised when they encounter the less pleasant aspects of that deal. I also think both the two main theatres of war (Iraq and Afghanistan) are misguided, fraudulent (on the US & British people), and pointless. We will never win either war. Remember that there are British fighting alongside Americans in both places, and I know some of them. I am ex-military myself.

But that in no way belittles what they actually do, and what "nereas" said is insensitive and likely to provoke antipathy. He seems not to know this, which is further evidence that mentally he has divorced himself from reality. I would like to see him put in a truly dangerous situation to see how he would react. He appears not to want to be a part of normal society - a stance he can only adopt because he has the luxury of living in a peaceful country made peaceful by the people he is belittling. Fine, let him look out for himself. He will soon find that his position is in practice untenable.

So there is no point in attempting to reason with him and people like him, and I'm not going to bother any more.

Have you noticed though how he likes to change the words people have used to twist what they have said to his convenience? His introduction of the word "amateur", as in "The amateur scientists, the amateur philosophers, the amateur debaters, and the atheists, all create for themselves a mythical house of cards, and then they throw stones at everyone else's house as being 'unintellectual'." He hopes thereby to degrade what they have said. Just why "amateur" should be regarded as a term of derogation though isn't clear to me. Many great scientists & philosophers have been amateurs, and I don't know of any professional debaters or atheists. Certainly the Oxford scientists I had in mind above are world-level, with many published works.

It is sad though to come across people like "nereas", and I have to say that America is a prime breeding ground for them. He wouldn't last five minutes in Britain - he would be exposed as a fool and a charlatan, and he would find earning a living to be quite difficult.

Nonetheless this thread, or the tiny part I've participated in, has been enjoyable and most revealing.

 

[shoredivr]

My sister is one of your so called 'G/I Joes' and I find your understanding of what it means to join the military offensive and thoughtless. Do you actually know anybody in the military? Have you spoken to them about the rationale for joining? I really doubt it... from your appalling attitudes towards people in the military.

Well, way back in post #5813, while scorning the modern military, he does have a fondness for historical military heroes. Rather inconsistent, isn't it?

Of course, if you are desperate for heroes, you would grasp at anything.

Certainly no comparison to Leonides at Thermopylae, speaking of heroes. [...]
There are real heroes, and then there are whitewashed ones.

Statue of Leonides at Thermopylae