I find it really amusing when people think I'm somehow less qualified to experience joy and sublime beauty simply because I refuse to believe in arbitrary constants like God. This guy says it better than I care to make the effort to.

http://www.eloquentatheist.com/?p=22

Retort To The Irrationalist

By Harvey H. Madison | September 6, 2007

Puzzling, it’s really puzzling. The backwardness of the self-limiting mind is what I’m referring to. I have a friend who, while disparaging me for not “opening my mind” to the paranormal realms, considers my science learning to be dull and dry. Another friend thinks that he can enjoy a sunset better than I by not cluttering up his mind with technical facts. He thinks my knowledge reduces my ability to engage in transcendence! They used to fool me.

Try as I might, my anti-rationalist friends cannot be cajoled into expanding their horizons into Reality. They feel so much safer rejecting science with its requirement to examine their beliefs in the crucible of reason. It’s comforting to believe in a soul that lives beyond death. So reassuring to pretend that a crystal of quartz worn around the neck will protect one from cancer, or that a sphere of it can tell the future. Comfortable but oh, so imprisoned. How can an intelligent mind intentionally keep itself in a dark pocket, not peeking out to see the magnificence of the Universe outside?

Ever since I can remember, I have yearned to see as far I could, turn on the lights, and uncover all of Reality. Once one deals with the fear of death and adjusts to the absence of a parent god or goddess, one cannot resist an addiction to mental adulthood and the flow of pure experience. Come and feel the pulsing and the throbbing of the Cosmos!

For years I heard the mysterious and constant “whistlers” between the stations on my short-wave radio and wondered where the curious stream of sound came from. Persistent inquiry led me to the astounding revelation that for all those nights I sat alone in a darkened room in the glow of my receiver, I was connecting myself with the very nervous system of my planet. These signals are generated by lightning strikes all over the Earth, and I now know that in my headphones I was hearing the 24 hour global symphony of thunderstorms.

When my friend looks through the telescope’s eyepiece he can stay interested for only a few seconds, but I sit at length in awe, because I see the Andromeda Galaxy with the knowledge that the photons striking my retina are ending a two million-year undisturbed voyage across an unthinkable distance. I gaze down across the sprawling spiral arms as one who is equipped to appreciate the possibility that some vast and ancient civilization is navigating its nebulosities. This is intimate contact with the Cosmos. No more can some channeled voice from Aunt Ida impress me.

Please don’t think I’m arrogant if I pass up a psychic’s routine; I’d rather run my fingers over a billion year old fossil and stretch my mind until I encounter that ancient time; or soar silently in a glider over vast cloudscapes while visualizing oceans of air. Don’t delay the astrology meeting for me; I feel more alive chasing a megaton thunderstorm to photograph million-volt bolts of electricity.

Reality is too rich to me to waste any time on the dubious.

The Cosmos is so awesome and exciting and . . . Real.

A well-thought-out writing, by Mr. Madison.

Having heard many times the position of both points of view, mentioned in this writing, it is especially entertaining to sit back and watch both sides give examples of their superior understanding and perception;each, seemingly never stressing the similarities in many points of view.

http://friendlyatheist.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/automotivator6.jpg

http://friendlyatheist.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/automotivator6.jpg

What you fail to comprehend,becuse it's NOW Nouveau Kitschy Kool
to be a Contemporary Atheist,IS many throughout the Middle Ages
and before and after,who dutifully spent great time as Scientists,
Scholar,Explorer,Writer,Philosopher,Theologist and even mere
Brute,have acknowledged the importance of a God,a Creator and
Spiritual being that sublimes our interest and daily purpose in Life.

Just because yer a dim bulb,don't go and screw-up those of
us,who can easily manage to both chew gum and tie our shoes
at the same time...
Dig Daddio !

many throughout the Middle Ages
and before and after,who dutifully spent great time as Scientists,
Scholar,Explorer,Writer,Philosopher,Theologist and even mere
Brute,have acknowledged the importance of a God,a Creator and
Spiritual being that sublimes our interest and daily purpose in Life.
Fear of being tortured provides a great motivator to toe the Church line.

Fear of being tortured provides a great motivator to toe the Church line.


The Inquisition was many century ago.
And judgin by yer character,thar mite bee a few Nuns
who'd turn quicker { Bend like a pattycakes under interrogation}
Danny You,butts i doubt it.
Yer wholly in a class by yerself.
Now,aren't ya Proud.

I find it really amusing when people think I'm somehow less qualified to experience joy and sublime beauty simply because I refuse to believe in arbitrary constants like God. This guy says it better than I care to make the effort to.

http://www.eloquentatheist.com/?p=22

Retort To The Irrationalist

By Harvey H. Madison | September 6, 2007

Puzzling, it’s really puzzling. The backwardness of the self-limiting mind is what I’m referring to. I have a friend who, while disparaging me for not “opening my mind” to the paranormal realms, considers my science learning to be dull and dry. Another friend thinks that he can enjoy a sunset better than I by not cluttering up his mind with technical facts. He thinks my knowledge reduces my ability to engage in transcendence! They used to fool me.

Try as I might, my anti-rationalist friends cannot be cajoled into expanding their horizons into Reality. They feel so much safer rejecting science with its requirement to examine their beliefs in the crucible of reason. It’s comforting to believe in a soul that lives beyond death. So reassuring to pretend that a crystal of quartz worn around the neck will protect one from cancer, or that a sphere of it can tell the future. Comfortable but oh, so imprisoned. How can an intelligent mind intentionally keep itself in a dark pocket, not peeking out to see the magnificence of the Universe outside?

Ever since I can remember, I have yearned to see as far I could, turn on the lights, and uncover all of Reality. Once one deals with the fear of death and adjusts to the absence of a parent god or goddess, one cannot resist an addiction to mental adulthood and the flow of pure experience. Come and feel the pulsing and the throbbing of the Cosmos!

For years I heard the mysterious and constant “whistlers” between the stations on my short-wave radio and wondered where the curious stream of sound came from. Persistent inquiry led me to the astounding revelation that for all those nights I sat alone in a darkened room in the glow of my receiver, I was connecting myself with the very nervous system of my planet. These signals are generated by lightning strikes all over the Earth, and I now know that in my headphones I was hearing the 24 hour global symphony of thunderstorms.

When my friend looks through the telescope’s eyepiece he can stay interested for only a few seconds, but I sit at length in awe, because I see the Andromeda Galaxy with the knowledge that the photons striking my retina are ending a two million-year undisturbed voyage across an unthinkable distance. I gaze down across the sprawling spiral arms as one who is equipped to appreciate the possibility that some vast and ancient civilization is navigating its nebulosities. This is intimate contact with the Cosmos. No more can some channeled voice from Aunt Ida impress me.

Please don’t think I’m arrogant if I pass up a psychic’s routine; I’d rather run my fingers over a billion year old fossil and stretch my mind until I encounter that ancient time; or soar silently in a glider over vast cloudscapes while visualizing oceans of air. Don’t delay the astrology meeting for me; I feel more alive chasing a megaton thunderstorm to photograph million-volt bolts of electricity.

Reality is too rich to me to waste any time on the dubious.

The Cosmos is so awesome and exciting and . . . Real.

Whoa Knappy :) How do you get a rich man through the eye of a needle :)

I feel more alive chasing a megaton thunderstorm to photograph million-volt bolts of electricity.

:) You are going to love Scummy. Knappy fried is going to be fun. Wait till you meet Her boys :) She is dragging "minds".

Knappy you are a freethinker and you define "Dubious". Knappy welcome to religion, it is a place where you should hang out more often. Activity is the life of a messageboard. And Oh my God :) Christian Knappy loose in todays world! This could be fun.

Rev. tuck

What you fail to comprehend,becuse it's NOW Nouveau Kitschy Kool
to be a Contemporary Atheist,IS many throughout the Middle Ages
and before and after,who dutifully spent great time as Scientists,
Scholar,Explorer,Writer,Philosopher,Theologist and even mere
Brute,have acknowledged the importance of a God,a Creator and
Spiritual being that sublimes our interest and daily purpose in Life.
Appeal to Belief is a fallacy that has this general pattern:

1. Most people believe that a claim, X, is true.
2. Therefore X is true.

This line of "reasoning" is fallacious because the fact that many people believe a claim does not, in general, serve as evidence that the claim is true.

Appeal to Belief is a fallacy that has this general pattern:

1. Most people believe that a claim, X, is true.
2. Therefore X is true.

This line of "reasoning" is fallacious because the fact that many people believe a claim does not, in general, serve as evidence that the claim is true.

BorgHunter Sir, you are scary :) !

I will bet that relative to what you see on TV, that you don't think that it is "Real." Sir, you just have to be non human in some sense of the word! :)

tucky :)

Great find OP

Great find OP

Sweetheart, we got have to love you! Borghunter is cool and we love him!

Tuck looks at Scummy and :) 's

AngelinaC, "Welcome" to this messageboard! May you be blessed and prosper!

tuck

AngelinaC, "Welcome" to this messageboard! May you be blessed and prosper!

*waves*
Just looking around for some other message boards, getting a bit bored with world of warcraft off topic section :)