Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by George Whitney on February 12, 2011 at 4:34pm

Hedging your bets should be a guaranteed trip to imaginary hell!  I wouldn't have one of those spineless peeps on my team.

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Permalink Reply by Mo Trauen on February 13, 2011 at 12:25pm

That's just it, George.  The real reason they do this is fear.  And, I don't think it is really fear of god or hell, it's fear of the other believers and the social and economic repercussions of coming out.  If we can put a stop to religious bullying and discrimination, then we will be putting an end to the long list of intellectual fig leafs used by such people.

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Permalink Reply by Batlin on February 12, 2011 at 4:47pm

I would not take Pascal's Wager at any odds.

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Permalink Reply by Albert Bakker on February 12, 2011 at 6:07pm

Revelation 3:14-16, no matter how mindbogglingly insane that piece of mushroom-induced garbage is, still has something nice to say about cutting off the applicability of that particular probability (consequentialist) calculus:

14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; 15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

 

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Permalink Reply by el3ktro on February 12, 2011 at 6:18pm

If one believes in (the Christian) god "just in case", he should probably also believe in all the other gods, "just in case", and he should probably also protect his house from fire-spitting dragons, "just in case", or he should always carry a knife made of silver to fight against werewolves, "just in case".

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Permalink Reply by Mr. Anderson on February 12, 2011 at 6:56pm

A ring of salt around my bed every night. Just in case of witches...

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Permalink Reply by Bryan B on February 12, 2011 at 9:10pm

A gun with a silver bullet in case of werewolves

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Permalink Reply by Eoganacht on February 13, 2011 at 5:37am

A wooden stake under my pillow in case of vampires.

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Permalink Reply by Christopher Bricklemyer on February 13, 2011 at 11:10am

Don't forget to pin a note to yourself so the EMT's know to remove your body from the house feet-first. Don't want to accidentally become a vampire. Then they will need the garlic!

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Permalink Reply by Laura Foster on February 13, 2011 at 1:06pm

But what business is it of yours how/when they arrive at that?  We're talking about the privacy of one's own mind here.

 

I was one of those "spineless peeps" that George mentions, for years.  I had to arrive at "nope, there definitely isn't" in my own time and in my own way; if I'd been called spineless and told I need to just admit it, I likely would have backed up, instead of going forward.

 

In my case it had less to do with fear of death than lack of evidence one way or the other.  I was sitting on the fence and weighing things out, waiting for some definite proof of either "is" or "ain't".  If you think that makes me (or anyone else) spineless or cowardly, that's your problem, not mine.

 

I just don't think that prejudice or name-calling is serving anyone except maybe the posters' own egos.

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Permalink Reply by Mo Trauen on February 13, 2011 at 1:20pm

I don't know if you are addressing George or myself, Laura.  I didn't mean to insult.  I went through a period when I called myself agnostic and gave the same reasons that you give.  Eventually, I realized that I was doing this in an effort to "get along" and avoid discrimination.  (It didn't work, BTW.)  I realized that the search for evidence "one way or another" was implicit acceptance of the notion that I had some sort of burden of proof.  I also realized that the thing I was supposed to prove was literally impossible to prove.

 

Religion thrives on fear and its debilitating affect on the intellect.  That was my point, not to insult.  We need to take away religion's ability to make us fearful of stating the logically obvious.

 

http://goodatheistarguments.blogspot.com/2010/09/burden-of-proof.html

 

http://goodatheistarguments.blogspot.com/2010/09/burden-of-proof-ii...

 

http://goodatheistarguments.blogspot.com/2010/11/burden-of-proof-iv...

 

http://goodatheistarguments.blogspot.com/2010/10/atheism-vs-agnosti...

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Permalink Reply by Skycomet the Fallen Angel on February 13, 2011 at 1:27pm

Pascal's Wager 101....

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