I always bring up the topic of Christians being fed to the lions by the Romans, then ask the question: "Are we to hate Italians for that?"
The fermi paradox assumes without warrant that faster than light travel is possible.
LOL
Excellent!
By that logic, the Emperor of Japan doesn't exist, either. After, all, he's never dropped by my house or sent me a message.
Actually, a lot of atheists love discussing possible solutions to the Fermi Paradox, of which there are many.
2. Join Mensa.
No problem with that - a lot of intelligent people are also emotionally very needy and cannot do without the fake comfort provided by an empirically unfounded belief system.
3. Bait and Switch # 1. Atheists love to talk about the Spanish Inquisition.
Actually, a lot of atheists are also political conservatives, who despise totalitarianism.
4. Bait and Switch # 2. Despite their pretence to moral relativity, atheists will still grant that Adolf Hitler was epically evil. [...] After about a half-hour, suddenly strike a quizzical look and say, “Wait a minute,” removing the dust jacket, “How did that happen? This is my copy of Margaret Sanger’s The Pivot of Civilization! Say, wasn’t she the founder of Planned Parenthood?”
Actually, a lot of atheists are also political conservatives, who despise Planned Parenthood.
5. Learn to talk like William F. Buckley. A comfortable prejudice for American atheists is that religious believers all speak with a heavy Southern accent and use small words.
Ha-ha!
6. Have Lots of Children. Atheists love humanity as long as there is less of it.
Simply not true.
7. Host a Darwin Read-a-loud. Invite some atheist friends to read and discuss Darwin, and then read some purple passages from his Descent of Man where he waxes eloquently on the importance of eugenics, the biologically based moral and intellectual inferiority of “lesser races,” and the inevitable evolutionary extermination of the “negro” and the “Australian.”
It's not a problem for me to acknowledge that people 150 years ago adhered to different cultural mores.
8. Talk about the Impending Crash of the World Economy. Ideas have consequences, and some of the worst economic ideas were hatched by John Maynard Keynes. [...] Then mention ever-so-casually, “Wasn’t Keynes an atheist?”
Keynes was wrong - as many atheists likewise believe.
9. Stage a Nietzsche Practicum. Atheists love the nihilistic philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who famously declared “God is dead.”
Well, I do admit to a liking for his "Fröhliche Wissenschaft," but many atheists are not apologists for Nietzsche.
10. Assault Them with Charity (cont’d. from No. 9).
My suggestion: Treat them with respect - just as they should treat you with respect.
Regards,
The good:
* Great point about the numbers killed in the inquisition. I didn’t know that, and will definitely use it!
The bad:
* I pulled up The Origin Of Species on Google Books. It doesn’t contain anything that you described. So I crossreferenced with the history of Eugenics. It was Darwin’s half-cousin Francis Galton who came up with it based on Darwin’s research, not Darwin himself. Darwin and he exchanged a number of letters, but Darwin apparently disagreed with his notions.
* Atheists usually like Keynsian economics, and credit the financial collapse to the world straying from Keynesian ideals and toward deregulation. Pointing out that Keynes was an atheist will just earn atheism brownie points to them.
* I don’t think you’ve actually read Nietzche.
Neutral:
* The charity one is good, but I’d do it differently — I’d simply point out that, despite all of the Humanist pontificating that they’re charitable out of their interests in the good of humanity, statistically, religious people give notably more.
None of this is insulting or upsetting in the least. In fact, there’s nothing here that would impact my life in any way.
Sorry guys!=)
In all fairness to Scripture, I’m pretty sure we are not supposed to be “baiting” people.
Great article! Thank you for posting this. I am putting my Mensa ring on and keeping it on right now!
This article is going on my FB page.
Already sent it to my email contacts.
You don’t call yourself seekandfind
for nothing. LOL!
I always assume that people who feel compelled to write articles like this have serious insecurities about their own faith.
MENSA burp! :-)
Because relative to the size of the universe, light is VERY slow.
2. Join Mensa.
Why would that make someone cry? Author falsely assumes atheists think religion and intelligence are antithetical.
Get them, ever so casually, to talk about persecution by zealous believers in general, and then the persecution by zealous Marxists in particular.
The problem isn't atheism vs. deism, it's a problem of anyone who has a philosophy that he thinks is worth more than human life. As far as numbers, remember that 100 million people in the 15th century would have been 1/4 of the Earth's entire population. A higher population and higher population densities, coupled with better communication, transportation and killing technology, makes for much more efficient killing. Author also compares all deaths due to communism throughout the world with one instance of death due to religious fanaticism in one country.
“Wait a minute,” removing the dust jacket, “How did that happen? This is my copy of Margaret Sanger’s The Pivot of Civilization! Say, wasn’t she the founder of Planned Parenthood?”
What's the problem here? Both were pretty evil people. The author mistakenly assumes that atheists would support abortion.
A comfortable prejudice for American atheists is that religious believers all speak with a heavy Southern accent and use small words.
Idiotic statement.
Atheists love humanity as long as there is less of it.
False. Author mistakenly equates atheists with enviro-nuts.
Invite some atheist friends to read and discuss Darwin, and then read some purple passages from his Descent of Man where he waxes eloquently on the importance of eugenics
Great, then we can go over the part where Darwin argues against eugenics, says it would be detrimental to a human society. Author doesn't know his Darwin. In fact, this could be turned around on the Christian expecting to spring a trap. I wouldn't suggest using this one.
“Wasn’t Keynes an atheist?”
What does that matter? Atheism has nothing to do with economic theory. But if it did you'd think the dog-eat-dog world of capitalism would be a better fit.
Atheists love the nihilistic philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche
Yet another false assumption.
This author could only trap the most idiotic of atheists, probably dumb college kids who have sucked up the socialist crap fed to them and have ditched their religion due to rebellion, not sincere thought.
1. Discuss the Fermi Paradox.
Things just are not looking good for the Star Trek universe, with colorful aliens on every stellar corner.
As many planetary systems as we've been able to detect, not one is much like ours. "We've found an earthlike planet!" tends to mean "we've found a rocky body that's outside the 'Roasting in the Flames' zone."
I noticed a long time ago, how much of serious science fiction involved excuses to get around the Fermi Paradox. They're "hiding". They're "resting". They're snooty, they don't like us. They're "pining for the fjords", or something.
Maybe, they're just not there.
6. Have Lots of Children. Atheists love humanity as long as there is less of it.
Or, as I think of it "far to many of you, not near enough of me."
I did this once with a rabid atheist I worked with. After debating Creation vs Evolution for a little bit and he declaring moral relativity was good and there were no absolutes, we got political and he said ‘Reagan is Evil’. His face turned bright red with anger as I then used his logic to point out how he can say such things based on his beliefs. The irony was very funny.
Incidentally, it is pure BS that Christianity and the medieval world had a exaggerated conception of the earth in relation to the created cosmos. Dante, writing in the 1300s, as he ascends into the sphere of the stars:
"You are so close to final blessedness,"It was pretty well known in the Middle Ages that the Earth was but a tiny and infinitesimal point in the universe. I'm not sure why anyone would use that as an argument against God.
said Beatrice, "that you now must keep
your eyes unclouded and your vision keen;
and so, before insiding further here,
look down and see how vast a universe
I have already put beneath your feet...."
My vision travelled back through all the spheres,
through seven heavens, and then I saw our globe;
it made me smile, it looked so paltry there."