Do you believe in god?

Originally posted by rwingett
I will never claim that god does not exist.

I believe that I could easily find at least 20 instances of you making that very claim if I review the archives. Shall I do it, or will you concede that in the past you have claimed that God does not exist?

Originally posted by DoctorScribbles
I believe that I could easily find at least 20 instances of you making that very claim if I review the archives. Shall I do it, or will you concede that in the past you have claimed that God does not exist?

I am not always as careful with what I say as when I respond to your posts. So yes, help yourself. Find an example where I made the active claim that god does not exist. I would be interested in seeing it, and in what context it was made.

Originally posted by rwingett
I am not always as careful with what I say as when I respond to your posts. So yes, help yourself. Find an example where I made the active claim that god does not exist. I would be interested in seeing it, and in what context it was made.

I'm not going to play that game, in which you, a reliably articulate poster among a flock of others in need of serious remedial writing instruction, suddenly pretend to not understand English. We've played that game before, and I don't enjoy it.

Let us just stipulate that you have said it in the past but didn't mean it, but that I mistakenly thought you did. After all, when a well-spoken Weak Atheist says that God does not exist, one is inclined to take that at face value.

Let us also agree that if in the future a theist claims "God exists," as long as you do not tell him he is wrong, I will not bring up the argument that to do so is to deny his claim, which is to assert that God does not exist.

We've both made and understood each other's points as well as we can expect to. We each insist that we have demonstrated our point and communicated it to the best of our ability, and the other simply fails to understand or accept our argument. We obviously disagree, but to continue this debate appears to be fruitless. After all, there is a new breed of scientologists here in whose ridicule we could cooperate.

Do you accept the terms of this treaty?

Originally posted by ivanhoe
Universalism and moral relativism

http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/absolute-truth.htm

Exactly the point I was trying to drive home. For any other ethical code they have to piggyback off another religion or philosophy.

Atheism combined with a moral, ethical, etc philosophy such as communism makes a dangerous concoction. If there are no absolutes, and in the case of communism, everything is done for the good of the state, you can easily end up with 300 million dead.

Originally posted by Halitose
Exactly the point I was trying to drive home. For any other ethical code they have to piggyback off another religion or philosophy.

Atheism combined with a moral, ethical, etc philosophy such as communism makes a dangerous concoction. If there are no absolutes, and in the case of communism, everything is done for the good of the state, you can easily end ...[text shortened]... purist athiests in their beliefs. Morality can be only relative in the purist athiestic sense.

Arrogant fool

You write as if christian morality is an unchanging rock, universal in its content across the world and through the ages. If we look at the reality, christian morality merely consists of words that men have out into god's mouth and has changed as circumstances dictate.

Originally posted by aardvarkhome
Arrogant fool

You write as if christian morality is an unchanging rock, universal in its content across the world and through the ages. If we look at the reality, christian morality merely consists of words that men have out into god's mouth and has changed as circumstances dictate.

Hmmmm.... You're not being very courteous. If you want to start an insults thread, I'd be more than willing to accomodate you. It's actually atheistm we are discussing here. If you want to discuss christian morality then do it... but without sweeping statements and no backup. I'd also like to point out that it is you who brought up christian morality not I.

Originally posted by DoctorScribbles
I'm not going to play that game, in which you, a reliably articulate poster among a flock of others in need of serious remedial writing instruction, suddenly pretend to not understand English. We've played that game before, and I don't enjoy it.

Let us just stipulate that you have said it in the past but didn't mean it, but that I mistakenly ...[text shortened]... tologists here in whose ridicule we could cooperate.

Do you accept the terms of this treaty?

Yes, I accept the treaty.

Although, I would be genuinely interested in seeing if you can actually dredge up any posts where I made the positive claim that god does not exist. I'm not entirely sure you can. I am usually very careful not to do so, but I cannot guarantee that I have never done so.

In any event, I must say that I have been itching to join in with the pogrom against the scientologists. See you there.

Originally posted by aardvarkhome
Arrogant fool

You write as if christian morality is an unchanging rock, universal in its content across the world and through the ages. If we look at the reality, christian morality merely consists of words that men have out into god's mouth and has changed as circumstances dictate.

You know just as I do that this is a load of hyperbole.