Posted on 10/31/2006 4:41:17 AM PST by zippy the razor
Your wrong on that. Stalin, Hitler and Mao killed approximately 10 times the people in the last century than those attributed to Christianity in the previous 19.
It is. So much a syllogism, it is an insyllogism. Like inflammable is flammable, highly. --Socrates, prior to digesting that parsnip, conium maculatum.
Sure, easy for you to say... : )
Easier to type.
I said using the additive color model, in which black is the lack of color applied to the screen. Atheism is the absence of religion.
Let me ask another question, since you can distinguish color models, perhaps you can distinguish the meaning of words. What is religion? Or rather "What are some of the definitions of 'religion', and in what context is each appropriate?"
How and why do you fabricate nonexistent overtones into my simple and direct question?
"I admit I know nothing of self hypnosis...."
Are you certain that you know much about faith?
"....since you obviously know nothing about...."
There you go again, making false assumptions about me. You don't have a clue concerning what I know or do not know. Please quit asserting false knowledge.
"I suggest you contact a local pastor...."
I suggest that if you can't answer a question, don't try to fake it.
Good try, but you missed the mark.
Good try, but you missed the mark.
Absolutely! That, in a nutshell, is what Christians argue is the Human condition...we all of us miss the mark :)
Okay smart guy. You tell me what the similarities are between faith and "self-hypnosis" is, since you're such a genius.
In the subtractive color model.
Atheism is the religion of absense. Still, it is a religion.
I do not appreciate Christians pulling atheism into their camp of religion in order to be able to argue with it on terms that they understand.
What is religion?
In general, it involves faith in the supernatural. On a lesser level it is a common set of beliefs. Given that atheists don't believe in a supernatural deity, and that their commonality is a lack of belief, atheism is not a religion. Atheism contains no rituals, prayers, meditations or common philosophic approaches to life.
I respect any and all in your profession. It is indeed hard work that is commendable. To be fair, there are scientists who are 'coming out' about being people of faith. The theory of 'intelligent design' is getting as much play as the theory of evolution.
For examples, please visit http://www.answersingenesis.org ... also the book written by Paramahansa Yogananda, The Science of Religion is a good read (though deep).
There you go again with ad hominid attack on my character, of which you know nothing. I’m starting to have doubts about whatever “faith” you profess. Most of the folks I know with faith are very humble and treat other people with kindness and respect. You have not.
FYI an ‘ad hominem’ attack is meant to appeal to feelings or prejudices rather than intellect and is marked by or being an attack on an opponent's character rather than by an answer to the contention or question posed.
I accept your confession that you don’t know the difference between faith and self-hypnosis. It would seem that maybe you are the one who needs to talk with a pastor.
Have a very good day and please try to make someone happy. It will do wonders for your own disposition.
Stop posting to me please.
This guy is a moron - Communism, Socialism, Nazism, Fascism, etc. ARE religions. They just worship the State.
What I know is that calling a color "not a color" because some arbitrary, arcane, yet established, definition of color excludes it, when the common sense is that it is a color misses the meat and core of what "color" is. Likewise that "textbook" definition of religion excludes the meat -- the core of religion -- as most adherents experience it. As most everday people in every walk of in every corner of the world in every era of humanity have known it to themselves.
"Belief in spirits"!!! What is that? Nothing! What people experience is a sense of the spiritual! Some are deeper and more tuned to that sense than others -- and it is awe-fully hard to say whose is shallow and whose is deep. It is in the very fabric of creation to confuse the issue.
Yet we all have it. An *inner* sense of right and wrong, and of comfort when it is sought, of a sense of universally-established justice and fundamental truth when we see it and experience it. Even when it is encountered in the anti-podal version -- perversions -- of truth and justice. Like a compass points both north AND south at the same time, the spiritual sense is often engaged in the *negative*.
The very passion that you and many other self-defining atheists and secularists express is an indication of the strength of the invisible S-field that drives your own animus to such energy of position-taking.
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