Religion & Spirituality

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Christians, do you think the Atheists will get funny ideas know that Desmond Tutu has been put to rest?

I know that Desmond Tutu was not The Pope but he was a figurehead of immense Theological importance and know he's gone, the Atheists might get a bit more daring.

Since Stephen Hawkins died the Atheists seem to have lost their momentum and Richard Dawkins doesn't seem to have united the movement with the same level of cohesive focus as his robot voiced predecessor.

However, Desmond Tutus death might give the Atheists confidence and I bet they would love to do something belligerent while it is still Christmas.

This doesn't worry me because I'm a Discordian and worship Eris which essentially makes me capable of spiritual "double think" which makes me immune to Atheists. However, Christians don't have this ability which makes them very vulnerable.

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Thodsis · 51-55, M

Atheists will always have funny ideas.

Thinking about religion is often amusing...

Jm31xxx · 46-50, M

@Thodsis they're only funny ideas if people suffering amuses you.

newjaninev2 · 56-60, F

@Thodsis What are the funny ideas that atheists have?

Thodsis · 51-55, M

@newjaninev2 Taking the piss out of weird dietary restrictions. Laughing at clerical hypocrisy. Stuff like that...

Jm31xxx · 46-50, M

@newjaninev2 The Big Bang. Like how is that really any better than Genesis?

Thodsis · 51-55, M

@Jm31xxx It takes longer than a sentence to explain and is peer-reviewed.

newjaninev2 · 56-60, F

@Jm31xxx

how is that really any better?

Evidence

That seems to be something of an improvement on ‘let’s make up something'

Jm31xxx · 46-50, M

@newjaninev2 so what was before the BB?

redredred · M

@Jm31xxx Nothing was before the Big Bang, so far as we know. It’s always better to have questions we can’t answer than answers we can’t question.

LeopoldBloom · M

@Jm31xxx Who created God?

newjaninev2 · 56-60, F

@Jm31xxx

before the BB

Spacetime bacame possible only with the Big Bang, so asking what was before that is an incoherent question

Thodsis · 51-55, M

@redredred Great point!

LeopoldBloom · M

@Jm31xxx Your question is like asking what is north of the North Pole.

Thodsis · 51-55, M

@LeopoldBloom That's where Santa lives...

Jm31xxx · 46-50, M

@LeopoldBloom the North Star

ElwoodBlues · M

@Jm31xxx

so what was before the BB?

Before the current Big Bang was the Big Crunch! (Some refer to it is the Big Gnab!)

It's called the "Cyclic Model" of the universe. It can also be expressed as a loop in time.

Now that I've answered your question, why don't you tell us what came before God? Yeah, I know, you'll say he's always been there. But if so, why did he wait octillions of years to finally create the universe 8000 years ago? Why all that time of nothingness? Dude, it's just as much a problem for the religious version as it is for secular version.

newjaninev2 · 56-60, F

@Jm31xxx It’s a ‘North Star' only if you’re not standing at the North Pole... otherwise it’s just a star

Jm31xxx · 46-50, M

@newjaninev2 Well OK, a North star then. As long as I didn't get it mixed up with Venus.

newjaninev2 · 56-60, F

@ElwoodBlues Creationists have been known to say that their god has always been there, but then they create the problem that it’s equally valid to say the same thing about the universe.

By removing any possible need for a ‘middle-man’, the latter has the advantage of simplicity

newjaninev2 · 56-60, F

@Jm31xxx When you’re standing at the North Pole, no star is north of there

Just as there’s no ‘before’ the Big Bang

Jm31xxx · 46-50, M

@newjaninev2 so.... Scientists just get to the big bang and then.... How is what we're left with any really different than Genesis? Essentially they're both the same, basically Scientists and religious people are saying "we don't know how it works. It just does."

newjaninev2 · 56-60, F

@Jm31xxx They’re saying “we know how it works once the singularity entered an inflationary period”. That allowed spacetime to exist.

They postulate the singularity because we don’t yet know the origin of the inflationary period.

Think about that... they don’t know.

They’re not claiming to know.

They’re not inventing a convenient fiction and declaring the matter settled

They’re saying they don’t yet know

Meanwhile, they’re gathering evidence (there’s that word again)

They may never know

In which case they always say they don’t yet know

What they won’t do is to say they know that it was caused by [insert convenient fiction of your choice]

Tastyfrzz · 61-69, M

@newjaninev2

ElwoodBlues · M

@Jm31xxx

so.... Scientists just get to the big bang and then.... How is what we're left with any really different than Genesis?

Well, although you are quite welcome to 'pray' to the Big Bang, I don't know anybody who does so. Nor do I know anybody who expects the Big Bang to provide some sort of afterlife. Nor do I know anybody who uses the Big Bang to try to impose codes of conduct on others.

The Big Bang doesn't care if you eat shellfish, skip Sunday services, get a tattoo, or marry someone of the same sex. So there's that difference.

Leviticus 19:19 “Neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.”

Yeah, the Big Bang doesn't care about mixed fibers either.

Leviticus 19:27 “Ye shall not round the corners of your heads.”

I have no clue what that means, but the Big Bang doesn't care about it!!

Jm31xxx · 46-50, M

@ElwoodBlues the first quote is just lifestyle advice and the second quote is a reference to those who make themselves willfully dumb (perhaps because of peer pressure), ie, look up Smooth Brains.

ElwoodBlues · M

@Jm31xxx I'm very pleased to learn that the Biblical ban on gay marriage is merely 'lifestyle advice' and doesn't need to be followed. Seems a lot of other folks represented all those bans in much stricter terms.

Yeah, I'm familiar with the term 'smooth brains' based on an association of convolutions in the cerebral cortex with some kind of intelligence.

In Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, which is a listing of primary words contained in the King Jame's version of the Bible, the brain is not mentioned once, whereas the heart is cited 826 times. Thought and emotions, however, can be said to occur in one's head or mind, and, therefore, the citations of "head" (360 times) and "mind" (96 times) must be examined. An analysis shows that although the head contains the brain, in the Bible the word "head" is used only in two senses: (1) as a reference to that part of the body that can be, or example, bowed, injured, or crowned, or (2) to represent leadership when someone is described as being the "head" of a household, church, or a government. But the "head" is not represented as the site where all thinking and emotional feelings originate.

Yeah, I think you need to try again on the unrounded corners of the head.