Illuminati-R-Us

MM_Dandy wrote:

5. Atheists do not live with the fear of hell.

This is true. Is this an advantage? Also, as before, not all religions have concepts like Heaven and Hell.

I'm not an atheist but I find not believing in hell a huge advantage. I spent twenty years as a Christian, and I was horrified by the idea of people going to hell. In fact, that horror is what ultimately led me to the questions that caused my belief in Christianity to crumble.

The very idea of offering an eternal punishment for a temporal existence is abhorrent to me. Especially when you consider that this punishment is given for something as simple as refusing to believe hearsay.

My life has definitely improved since I quit believing in hell, and so I see that as an advantage. Granted, this is a purely anecdotal response and may not actually represent the views of anyone else. :D

However, I can support the view from personal experience. So now we have two anecdotes already...

It always seemed like an oxymoron to me. We have a loving God, who devises a punishment that only a psychopath would come up with.

A loving God? Have you read the Old Testement?

I've stayed out of this, but I do think I need to put this link here: http://patcondell.net/ His latest isn't quite as funny as some, but does make some excellent points, as always. Go back a couple and you'll nail the last few comments here right on the head.

Enjoy! :D

Woof! - Scott

Thanks, BM65. That guy is great. Now I can shut up and just refer people to his website. :wink: :)

A great quote, from Bill Maher:

"The trouble with this world is that the stupid are cocksure, and the intelligent, full of doubt."

Still. That is how it should, it must be. Lest we trade places. I guess"full of questions" would be more appropriate for the intelligent.

Force plays a much larger part in the government of the world than it did before 1914, and what is especially alarming, force tends increasingly to fall into the hands of those who are enemies of civilisation. The danger is profound and terrible; it cannot be waved aside with easy optimism.
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt. Even those of the intelligent who believe that they have a nostrum are too individualistic to combine with other intelligent men from whom they differ on minor points. This was not always the case.

- Bertrand Russell, "The Triumph of Stupidity" 1933

I.E., people of good will fail to unite against the forces of evil because of petty differences.

Also, I believe the un-civilized man is more willing to us force than the civilized man. Which is bad. Commiting a violent act does not make one uncivilized, its after the violence, one either rises back to the leval of civilization or they remain a barbarian.

Bertrand Russell wrote:The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.

People I know are always citing (for a totally different reason) some psychological study showing that the more information people have, the less likely they are to have strong opinions.

I'll have to look it up.

I'm not sure if I agree or not...

Enzo wrote:I'm not sure if I agree or not...

Mactep wrote:

Bertrand Russell wrote:The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.

People I know are always citing (for a totally different reason) some psychological study showing that the more information people have, the less likely they are to have strong opinions.

I'll have to look it up.

They probably mean the Dunning–Kruger effect.

Interesting ... as I looked over these posts, I read the sub-forum title as "Religion & Stupidity"

Scott

Halcyon Dayz wrote:They probably mean the Dunning–Kruger effect.

That sure looks like what they are talking about - good find :P