God is not great: How religion poisons everthing

Liquid Len · Post by **Liquid Len** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 3:03 pm

ROFLMAO
Rolling On the Floor Laughing My Ass Off

Post by **hubird** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 3:50 pm

manfriday · Post by **manfriday** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 4:28 pm

Is this a fact? You seem to be saying that there is no such thing as objective truth, because everyone has different opinions on the details of it.

No, I am actually a believer in objective truth. My point was actually quite the opposite of what you are suggesting. I was simply pointing out that according to braincells logic that there would be no 'fact' becuase there are very few things "everybody" agrees on.

We all can and do agree that water boils at 100celcius.

Not if some of us are in the mountains!

oh rats.. everyone beat me to that. anyway..

The rest of your post I agree with 100%

Post by **hubird** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 4:52 pm

I remember I skipped a line commenting the same, to not complicate things

So we totally agree now

Post by **garyb** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 5:02 pm

i'm against Celsius. ban all imperialistic measurements!

Liquid Len · Post by **Liquid Len** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 5:18 pm

garyb wrote:i'm against Celsius. ban all imperialistic measurements!

If you're against Celsius you don't want to ban imperial measurements, but maybe you know that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter

Post by **hubird** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 5:46 pm

that one small failure destroyed his whole life...imagine, the costs, the time involved to get there...too much to bear

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 6:46 pm

In the United States, the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 was passed by congress and signed by President Ford but in 1982 President Ronald Reagan in all of his glorious wisdom disbanded the U.S. Metric Board and canceled its funding. One step forward, 2 steps back! This is one of the many reasons the world hates us.

manfriday · Post by **manfriday** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 7:14 pm

the world hates us beause of our measurement system?
If that is the case, the world is filled with morons.

oh. we knew that.

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 7:27 pm

I said one of the reasons. Perhaps you didn't read the entire post. For one thing it's stupid not to use the metric system because the metric system makes it easier to calculate and secondly, when trading with other nations, a conversion must take place. Surely you can now see how idiotic not using the metric system is. Or is my post still not clear to you? You must be an American, otherwise I am sure I would be able to explain such a simple concept to you.

BingoTheClowno · Post by **BingoTheClowno** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 8:33 pm

manfriday wrote:Hitchens is an interesting individual. I tend to agree with a lot of what he says, but I don't find a lot of his arguments particularly "strong" on the subject.

That quote does not represent the entire subject of his book.

Religion, Hitchens writes, is "violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children." ...Hitchens argues that religion is "man-made" and murderous, originating in fear and sustained by brute force and the Bible "contain[s] a warrant for trafficking in humans, for ethnic cleansing, for slavery, for bride-price, and for indiscriminate massacre."

manfriday wrote: It's hard to make a really "strong" case for or against something that can be defined in so many different ways.

Weasel Words

Wiki wrote: Weasel words are almost always intended to deceive or draw attention from something the speaker doesn't want emphasized, rather than being the inadvertent result of the speaker's or writer's poor but honest attempt at description. Generally, weasel terms are statements that are misleading because they lack the normal substantiations of their truthfulness, as well as the background information against which these statements are made. Weasel terms are the equivalent of spin in the political sphere in British English.

Purposes

Weasel words can be used to draw attention away from adverse evidence.

They are used intentionally to manipulate an audience by heightening audience expectations about the speaker's subject.

Claims about the truth of a subject at an earlier time when the truth could not have been ascertained because of a lack of hard facts, will become much harder to verify when weasel words have been used in the meantime. This may be seen when a politician, for example, later tries to alter the perception of an original speech.

A weasel phrase can be used to avoid criticism sounding negative, such as beginning an insult with the phrase, "With all due respect..."

Post by **hubird** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 8:35 pm

well, our concern is more that 'we' think the US only follows it's own interest, Irak, Kyoto, Missiles in Poland, etc.
Now again Bush refuses to answer Merkel's proposals regarding CO2 in a serious way...
Just explaining...

Shroomz~> · Post by **Shroomz~>** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 8:45 pm

One of man's natural instincts is to seek sanctuary then defend & fight to defend it. Perhaps in modern day society, many religeous believers find their own personal sanctuary in their choice of beliefs.

On another note ...Certain untrustworthy people go beyond this & embark on crusades to convert non-believers to their version of history & of 'truth', which is far from forgiveable as we stand, period. Centuries of minds corrupted by bad guys in disguise as good. Where do you start? Don't bother, you'll probably run into a string of bad luck.

manfriday · Post by **manfriday** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:07 pm

Bingo,

It's funny how your post about "weasle words" seemed so damned.. weasley.

manfriday · Post by **manfriday** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:08 pm

I said one of the reasons.

No, you said "the reason" then changed it after I posted.

Shroomz~> · Post by **Shroomz~>** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:11 pm

An interesting point man!

manfriday · Post by **manfriday** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:17 pm

Perhaps in modern day society, many religeous believers find their own personal sanctuary in their choice of beliefs.

You are probably correct. And conversely, it could be that many non-religous find santuary in the idea that there is no god, and fight to protect their belief in that.
It would certainly explain the hatred some of the angry atheists display toward anyone who does share their hatred for the religous!

Shroomz~> · Post by **Shroomz~>** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:46 pm

to whom or what do you refer when using the term 'god' manfriday???

Shroomz~> · Post by **Shroomz~>** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 10:39 pm

I must bow out of this conversation.

Post by **garyb** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 11:57 pm

i bow to the god of CO2!
MORE CO2=more O2 because plants live on CO2 and make O2.

MORE CO2=paradise!

i love CO2. that's why i produce it out of my face and my butt, so the plants can live and lower the temperature....

down with fahreheit too! damn imperial measurements!

THANK GOD FOR SCOPE!!! SCOPE!!! aaarrrrghghh............co2....celsius....