So Tom, you had to be told that when an apple leaves a tree it falls downwards. You hadnt figured that out for yourself? Much of general science needs no explanation as its fairly self evident. There are no fairies pushing your pistons down. Its the expansion of a gas doing that. Thats the beauty of Science. Its the accumulation of self evident truths for the most part. Truths that can be put to the test and repeated with identical results. Until you get down to a quantum level when things go screwy and a bit fuzzy round the edges. The fuzz will clarify once we establish more information. Centuries in Theology have accumulated nothing but bitter vitriol and pain for mankind. Whilst I tolerate and respect peoples beliefs, that does not mean I blindly accept it. Mankind and humanity would be a much better place without any of it and that is a self evident truth also. No amount of study in Theology has yielded anything other than more lies, deceit and intolerance. Yet I, with my atheism am expected to tolerate the intolerable who themselves tolerate nothing in return? So it is I who must turn the other cheek, yet those who preach it do not. Yeah, right on Tom. Not a chance. I will continue to let them know that I think they are fuckwits and that their beliefs are fantasies borne from ignorance and moronity. Its my duty as a piss taking wanker.
I don't respect people's religious beliefs, if they're rubbish; I tolerate and respect people as human beings and their human rights including their right to believe rubbish. In my view, those rights do not include any right to impose religious beliefs on those who do not share them, nor the right to brainwash the young and the vulnerable.
The law of universal gravitation was not self-evident to anybody until Isaac Newton discovered it. "Any two bodies in the universe attract each other with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them." So not only does the Earth attract the apple, but the apple also attracts the Earth; and the Earth does not only attract nearby objects like apples, but also distant ones like the moon and the sun. Seems obvious in hindsight, but took a great genius to realise this.
Im not arguing with science, I am, in fact, strongly anti-religion and a lover of science. However, how do I know that free oxygen combines as 2 atoms of oxygen? How do I know that other than by believing what I am told? Sure, I can go and do an experiment and find a way to prove it. But that proof also lays upon assumed knowledge (again, I'm sure the knowledge is correct too) but as a lay-individual I have no idea if it is true or not, I just believe it.
Everyone knows that Oxygen is diatomic Tom. (ignoring all the allotropes etc). This is what going to Yamaha has done to you. Soon you will be collecting idolatries and flagellating.
All this bollox is which exactly why I have not a shred of religion in me , look what it does on a forum , shit no wonder its killed more people than anything else . These two arseholes deserve to die , if anybody ever did its these two , forget religion and what we or they believe , there is living and dying . We happen to chose to do that in a democratic law abiding way , something they pissed all over whilst carrying out the most heinous of crimes in broad fuckin daylight . Let me push the button , pull the trigger , inject em or drop em through a trap door , I'll do it guaranteed . Lee Rigby's wife said " how do I protect Lee's son from seeing and knowing what happened to his dad. That doesn't half strike a cord , imagine that if you will in circumstances around your own lives , the lives of your children or parents , that must be awful . Religion I shit it.
Science has accumulated millions of facts down the generations, and it is true that it's not possible for each of us to re-run every experiment, repeat every observation, or recapitulate every step of reasoning. The point is that every bit of science is based on evidence which is verifiable and every conclusion is in principle falsifiable. Yes, we 'trust' - but what we trust is that we are being told truths based on evidence; and that if any of them turn out not to be true after all, they will be immediately corrected. Religion is on entirely different lines. Religions assert as facts matters about heaven and hell, sin, resurrection, etc. which believers are asked to accept on trust - but they are matters about which there is not and never has been any evidence whatever. They are not verifiable, and there is no method of correcting them if wrong. These "facts" are indistinguishable from fictions. Terms like knowledge, belief, faith, trust, and proof are used by religious people in entirely different senses from the way they are used in scientific contexts.
Funny how an omnipotent being is somehow supposed by believers to have some sort of ego that needs feeding by constant worship and sacrifice. Theyre omnipotent for fucks sake. Look omnipotent up in the dictionary.
Interesting. Some quite emotional opinions, even some quite violent ones. I wonder how these to fellas where convinced, to hack an innocent to death.. T think the sentencing is right under current laws, but wonder if you couldn't do something more constructive with long term prisoners. (A debate for another time)
Amusingly, religions often claim that their god is omnipotent and omniscient and omnibenevolent. Anyone who is even slightly acquainted with logical thought must have noticed that these qualities are wholly inconsistent with one another, and with the world around us. This has often been remarked upon. Religious believers have no answer, but persist in the same claims regardless. Quite amusing, as I said.
I also find it fascinating how some people who don't subscribe to traditional religion find it so important to denounce the view of these 'traditional religionists' to the point where they have to adopt their own belief! Baffling!
So to be clear, are we now saying we believe in the Daily Mail as the one true believable divine newspaper.?
OK OK Steve,I know - I was pulling your leg. 'Manners make man' is the motto of New College, and of Winchester.
