Atheism

I don’t know the actual origination of this quote.  Its been on T-shirts and such.  If anyone knows the actual source, please let us know.  Meanwhile, enjoy! (Atheists: its okay to laugh at yourselves, too!) ATHEISM: The belief that there was nothing & nothing happened to nothing & then nothing magically exploded for no reason, creating everything & then a bunch of everything magically rearranged itself for no reason what so ever into self-replicating bits which then turned into dinosaurs. Makes Perfect Sense.

I care about truth if there is a God. But why should I care about truth if there is no God? In fact if there is no God, maybe I shouldn’t care about truth because it would be too sad to know…I’d rather live out my life with the illusion of happily ever after in that case. Two thousand years ago, someone echoed those sentiments: What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Paul of Tarsus 1 Cor 15:32 There was an exchange between KeithS and I in another thread, and he fired off this comment: Your comment epitomizes one Read More ›

A month or so ago, I alerted UD readers that atheists in Florida were about to place their stone monument of the Ten “commandments” of atheism.  Well, today they have unveiled their monument to atheism in front of the Bradford County, Florida, courthouse, right near a monument listing the traditional Ten Commandments from the Old Testament scriptures.  Personally, I have no problem with the monument itself being placed in a public square.  We’re a pluralistic society, all ideas are welcome and open for debate.  That is what freedom of speech is all about.  (As a side note, contrast that with Nick Matzke, the suppressor!) “When you look at this monument, the first thing you will notice is that it has Read More ›

For the past several weeks, there has been an exchange that developed in the eduction vs persuasion thread (put up May 9th by AndyJones), on first principles of right reason and related matters.  Commenter RDF . . .   has championed some popular talking points in today’s intellectual culture. We can therefore pick up from a citation and comment by Vivid, at 619 in the thread (June 12th), for record and possible further discussion. Accordingly, I clip comment 742 from the thread (overnight) and headline it: _____________ >>. . . let us remind ourselves of the context for the just above exchanges, by going back to Vivid at 619: [RDF/AIG:] And once again I must remind you that you are mistaken. Read More ›

Atheists in Northern Florida have succeeded in getting permission to put up a a rival monument to a nearby monument to the Ten Commandments. For the first time we will have what will amount to an Atheist Decalogue literally carved in stone. I for one look forward to seeing what is in this decalogue with great anticipation. It isn’t yet clear what exactly the 10 Atheist laws will be, but whatever they are, it will be very interesting to see whether or not the atheist glitterati (Dawkins, Harris, Dennet, et.al.) sign on. If they don’t, this might be the first instance of denominationalism creeping into the atheistic religion. In any case, at last the core beliefs (or lack thereof) of Read More ›

Since the issue of agent freedom and cause has again come up, it is worth the while to post the following summary on the Smith Model for agent cause and cybernetics, from the IOSE unit on minds etc: __________ >>(c) Of neurons, brains and minds   The neuron (in its various types) is the key building brick of brain and nervous tissues:   Neurons are interconnected in neural networks {added, Jun 4: cf. visualisation here}, and onward to form the brain and wider nervous system. As Christos Stergiou and Dimitrios Siganos summarise:   In the human brain, a typical neuron collects signals from others through a host of fine structures called dendrites. The neuron sends out spikes of electrical activity through Read More ›

One of our frequent objectors, JLA, has listed the consequences of evolutionary materialism, by way of objecting to BA’s further reply to the current crop of remarks at TSZ. (NB: I at first thought he might be being satirical, but, sadly, he is actually playing a straight hand. {Let me make this plain: FULL MARKS for sheer raw honesty. That needs to be respected and JLA must be treated with dignity. From what he says below, he is exposing what he sees as the too often unacknowledged consequences of evolutionary materialism, as what we could call an agnostic in transition.} ) I excerpted his list, and added some remarks on what the points reveal about evolutionary materialism. Not, because JLA Read More ›

(In case you think this is about a strawman, cf. here) A few days ago UD President, BA, posted on the topic, “If My Eyes Are a Window, Is There Anyone Looking Out?“ Reaction at objecting blog TSZ has been explosive. For just one instance — a slice of the cake reveals its ingredients, we can see ME asserting in a newly set up sandbox: Your clear implication, William, is that no one here knows anything about “centuries of philosophical debate.” We are not ignoramuses here. What you and Arrington attribute to “materialists” is simply false; you have no clue what “materialism” is. Here again you stumble because of your choice to remain profoundly ignorant of science while attempting to Read More ›

Over at the KF blog, we have recently been entertaining some ghosts from our civilisation’s past, who are concerned about its present and now sadly likely future in light of the sad history recorded in Acts 27, of a sea voyage to Rome gone disastrously wrong because the voyagers were manipulated into venturing back out at Fair Havens, when they ought to have been wintering. That is, while democracy is obviously better than realistic alternatives, there is nothing sacred or necessarily sound and wise about majority rule (even when minorities are heard out, respected and protected — as seems increasingly to be fading away . . . ), especially when the majority view has been manipulated by agenda driven interests. Read More ›