|
Post by slartibartfast on Aug 2, 2014 10:57:54 GMT 10
Mine, as in the link I provided. (...Are you always this thick?) I will have to study very hard to be as thick as you. Do you have a degree?
|
|
|
Post by Occam's Spork on Aug 2, 2014 10:58:17 GMT 10
He prefers the findings of the Center (sic) for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass.
|
|
|
Post by Occam's Spork on Aug 2, 2014 10:59:34 GMT 10
Mine, as in the link I provided. (...Are you always this thick?) I will have to study very hard to be as thick as you. Do you have a degree? You are studying to become thick? So it IS intentional... Some things come harder for others, I guess.
|
|
|
Post by slartibartfast on Aug 2, 2014 11:02:04 GMT 10
I will have to study very hard to be as thick as you. Do you have a degree? You are studying to become thick? So it IS intentional... Some things come harder for others, I guess. Don't worry, I could never get to your level of thickness. You're pretty safe in your ivory tower.
|
|
|
Post by slartibartfast on Aug 2, 2014 11:03:02 GMT 10
He prefers the findings of the Center (sic) for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass. So you finally agree that findings from the Center (sic) for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass are ridiculous. Hey, there may be hope for you yet!
|
|
|
Post by Occam's Spork on Aug 2, 2014 11:16:38 GMT 10
Can you provide some evidence that their sources are erroneous, or is this just another genetic fallacy?
|
|
|
Post by Occam's Spork on Aug 2, 2014 11:18:28 GMT 10
You are studying to become thick? So it IS intentional... Some things come harder for others, I guess. Don't worry, I could never get to your level of thickness. You're pretty safe in your ivory tower. Know what's embarrassing? Your expressed endeavor is to be 'thick'. (Mine, is only your distorted perception.)
|
|
|
Post by slartibartfast on Aug 2, 2014 11:21:42 GMT 10
Don't worry, I could never get to your level of thickness. You're pretty safe in your ivory tower. Know what's embarrassing? Your expressed endeavor is to be 'thick'. (Mine, is only your distorted perception.) I'm trying to come down to your level (which is why I said "Don't worry, I could never get to your level of thickness"). That way you might understand an Atheist's point instead of inventing things. Hang on, you are good at inventing things! That's why you have your imaginary friend!
|
|
|
Post by Occam's Spork on Aug 2, 2014 11:22:00 GMT 10
Sorry, Slarti. I have to stop talking to you, now. I'm in an ethical dilemma.
Arguing with you is starting to feel like a bit like pushing old ladies into traffic, and slapping kittens and kicking puppies. You are helpless, and you don't even know you are making a fool of yourself. I just can't continue in good conscience.
Regards.
|
|
|
Post by slartibartfast on Aug 2, 2014 11:27:40 GMT 10
Sorry, Slarti. I have to stop talking to you, now. I'm in an ethical dilemma. Arguing with you is starting to feel like a bit like pushing old ladies into traffic, and slapping kittens and kicking puppies. You are helpless, and you don't even know you are making a fool of yourself. I just can't continue in good conscience. Regards. This always happens when you run into me. Can't beat me in argument so you 'can't talk to me'. Look at all the other topics in which I responded to your stupid claims today. You have conveniently ignored them. Toughen up, Princess, you are weak.
|
|
|
Post by Occam's Spork on Aug 2, 2014 11:32:09 GMT 10
This always happens when you run into me. Can't beat me in argument so you 'can't talk to me'. So, true. I can't fix 'stupid.' But I keep trying, anyhow. I'm an optimist. Good luck on your goal of becoming thick. I know you'll achieve, if you really work hard at it.
|
|
|
Post by slartibartfast on Aug 2, 2014 11:56:16 GMT 10
This always happens when you run into me. Can't beat me in argument so you 'can't talk to me'. So, true. I can't fix 'stupid.' But I keep trying, anyhow. I'm an optimist. Good luck on your goal of becoming thick. I know you'll achieve, if you really work hard at it. I couldn't possibly get to your level of thickness. We all know your elevator doesn't reach the top floor.
|
|
|
Post by slartibartfast on Mar 19, 2015 23:02:44 GMT 10
White Christian America in decline: This is why young people are sick of conservative religionhere’s been a lot of media attention recently to the changing demographics of the United States, where, at current rates, people who identify as “white” are expected to become a minority by the year 2050. But in many ways, the shift in national demographics has been accelerated beyond even that. New data from the American Values Atlas shows that while white people continue to be the majority in all but 4 states in the country, white Christians are the minority in a whopping 19 states. And, nationwide, Americans who identify as Protestant are now in the minority for the first time ever, clocking in at a mere 47 percent of Americans and falling. The most obvious reason for this change is growing racial diversity. Most Americans still identify as Christian, but “Christian” is a group that is less white and less Protestant than it has been at any time in history. The massive growth in Hispanic Catholics, in particular, has been a major factor in this shift in the ethnic and religious identity of this country. White Catholics used to outnumber Hispanic Catholics 3 to 1 in the 2000s, but now it’s only by a 2 to 1 margin. But another major reason religious diversity is outpacing the growth of racial/ethnic diversity is largely due to the explosive growth in non-belief among Americans. One in five Americans now identifies as religiously unaffiliated. In 13 states, the “nones” are the largest religious group. Non-religious people now equal Catholics in number, and their proportion is likely to grow dramatically, as young people are by far the most non-religious group in the country. This isn’t some kind of side effect of their youth, either. As Adam Lee has noted, the millennial generation is becoming less religious as they age. These changes explain the modern political landscape as well as any economic indicator. While not all white Christians are conservative, these changing numbers definitely suggest that conservative Christians are rapidly losing their grip on power. And while some non-white Christians are conservative, their numbers are not making up for what the Christian right is losing. And whether conservative leaders are aware of the exact numbers or not, it’s clear that they sense that change is in the air. Just by speaking to young people, turning on your TV, or reading the Internet, you can sense the way the country is lurching away from conservative Christian values and towards a more liberal, secular outlook. And conservative Christians aren’t taking these changes well at all. To look at the Christian right now is to see a people who know they are losing power and are desperately trying to reassert dominance before it’s lost altogether. The most obvious example of this is the frenzy of anti-abortion activity in recent years. Anti-choice forces have controlled the Republican Party since the late ’70s, but only in the past few years have they concentrated so singlemindedly on trying to destroy legal abortion in wide swaths of the country. In 2011 alone, states passed nearly three times as many abortion restrictions as they had in any previous year. None of this is a reaction to any changes in people’s sexual behavior or reproductive choices. It’s not like there was a spike in abortions causing this panic. In fact, the abortion rate has been declining. And despite continuing media panic over adolescent sexuality, the fact is that teenagers are waiting longer to have sex, on average, than in the past. Despite this, not only are you seeing a dramatic increase in attacks on legal abortion, the Christian right has expanded its attacks to contraception access, suggesting that something has worked them into a panic they believe can only be resolved by trying to reassert their religious and sexual values. That something isn’t changes in sexual behavior, but it’s reasonable to believe it’s because of changes in sexual values. People might not be having more sex, but they are feeling less guilty about the sex they are having. Since Gallup first started polling people in 2001 on moral views, acceptance of consensual sex between adults has skyrocketed. In a decade’s time, acceptance of premarital sex swelled from 53% to 66% of Americans and acceptance of gay Americans grew from a mere 38% to a majority of Americans. Even polyamory has become more acceptable for Americans, rising from being accepted by 5% of Americans to 14%. The fact that these changes in attitude are rising alongside the growth of irreligiosity is not a coincidence. More perhaps even than the 1960s, Americans are in a period of questioning rigid sexual and religious mores, and concluding, in increasing numbers, that they are not down with guilt-tripping people for victimless behavior and demanding conformity for its own sake. Some of them–now a whopping 22% of Americans!–are leaving religion entirely. Some are continuing in their faith but choosing to interpret their values differently than Christian conservatives would like. And so we see Christian conservatives cracking down in a desperate bid to regain control. They claim that they’re being oppressed by increasing tolerance for religious diversity. They have latched onto, with some success, the claim that “religious freedom” requires giving Christians the right to oppress others. The Republican Party is in complete thrall to the religious right, to the point where giving the Christian right one go-nowhere symbolic bill instead of another one created a major political crisis. The irony is that this panic-based overreach is just making the situation worse for the Christian right. One of the biggest reasons the secularization trend has accelerated in recent years is that young people see the victim complex and the sex policing of the Christian right and it’s turning them off. And they’re not just rejecting conservative Christianity but the entire idea of organized religion altogether. In other words, the past few years have created a self-perpetuating cycle: Christian conservatives, in a panic over changing demographics, start cracking down. In reaction, more people give up on religion. That causes the Christian right to panic more and crack down more. In the end, Christian conservatives are going to hasten their own demise by trying to save themselves. Not that any of us should be crying for them. www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/white-christian-america-in-decline-this-is-why-young-people-are-sick-of-conservative-religion/Of course, the Center (sic) for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass and their sheepish followers will disagree with all of this!
|
|
|
Post by pim on Mar 20, 2015 16:02:58 GMT 10
Is this dumb thread still going? Or has it just degenerated into ego-tripping grandstanding and mutual sledging?
|
|
|
Post by slartibartfast on Mar 20, 2015 17:42:21 GMT 10
Is this dumb thread still going? Or has it just degenerated into ego-tripping grandstanding and mutual sledging? Would that be like the verbal diarrhoea between you and KTJ? Maybe you need to read the latest article instead.
|
|
|
Post by pim on Mar 20, 2015 18:10:23 GMT 10
You mean when I expose the vacuous faux "leftism" of a spammer like KTJ? I've read that piece and I don't have a problem with it. I have no time for people who use Christianity as a vehicle for their ideological redneckery so I have a lot of sympathy with the sentiments in the article. But are you saying that the only model of Christianity is the one espoused by the most fruitcake science-denying loony toons obscurantists that pullulate in the United States? So that all you have to do to justify atheism is to lampoon the most manic and absurd versions of American Christianity?
Sorry, slarti, but I find that to be lazy. You need to do better than pick the low-hanging fruit.
|
|
|
Post by slartibartfast on Mar 20, 2015 18:56:04 GMT 10
There is nothing lampooned in the above article. It is based on recent research an nullifies the rubbish skippy claimed and sporky backed him up on.
|
|
|
Post by pim on Mar 20, 2015 19:02:24 GMT 10
It's a lot more difficult to present The Ultimate Argument that once and for all forever and ever (Amen?), everywhere and universally either conclusively debunks and disproves any metaphysical reality or dimension, or definitively and beyond any shadow of a doubt proves the existence of some sort of Deity, than any "argument" we're going to see on this thread. And you know it.
So what is this ongoing argy bargy between you and Occam about? Grandstanding and personal point scoring?
|
|
|
Post by slartibartfast on Mar 20, 2015 19:04:43 GMT 10
This is about supposed declining Atheism, you have read it haven't you?
|
|
|
Post by Occam's Spork on Mar 21, 2015 12:55:55 GMT 10
|
|
|
Post by slartibartfast on Mar 21, 2015 21:17:50 GMT 10
Typical. Has nothing to say but a stupid photo.
A new study has come out, care to comment on that, dingbat?
|
|
|
Post by pim on Mar 22, 2015 11:08:08 GMT 10
If someone came up with evidence that conclusively and beyond a shadow of any doubt proved the existence of a transcendent Deity the effect would be electrifying. The media would go overboard with headlines like "It's official! God exists!" and "60 Minutes" would be offering squillions (can you bribe God?) to secure an exclusive interview. I'd love the opportunity to script the questions! The Security Council of the UN would go into emergency session and the General Assembly of the United Nations would doubtless invite, no urge (!), the Deity to address it.
We all know that ain't gonna happen so look at the other side of the coin. If it could be conclusively, scientifically and definitively proved that there is no transcendent Being that is the First Cause of Everything, that the universe operates on the laws of physics - as amended by Einstein et al - and that death is final and absolute and that there is no Hereafter, the media would once again go into meltdown: "It's official: Religion is a fraud and God is a mirage!" I suspect politics would kick in at that point and the Tea Party and jihadist Muslims would at last have found something to make common cause over. It's a bit like the Shroud of Turin. Notwitstanding that modern forensic science has conclusively, scientifically and definitively proved it to be a 13th century fraud and NOT the shroud that Jesus' body was wrapped in, nevertheless for many people it remains an article of faith that the Shroud of Turin enfolded the body of Jesus when he was taken down from the cross and laid in the sepulchre.
Scientific proof doesn't automatically dispel obscurantism.
Personally I find the "debate" between science and religious faith to be a non-debate and therefore a waste of time.
Don't feed the trolls.
|
|
|
Post by pim on Mar 22, 2015 11:21:48 GMT 10
I think the spectacle of the arrival of God to address the General Assembly of the United Nations would put Cecil B de Mille to shame. Could you imagine the bidding for the TV rights ...
|
|
|
Post by KTJ on Mar 22, 2015 13:58:40 GMT 10
|
|
|
Post by Occam's Spork on Mar 23, 2015 3:30:36 GMT 10
A new study has come out, care to comment on that, dingbat? I agree with pim I especially don't believe the question of God's existence will be resolved by amateur philosophers on an Internet discussion board. So in response to your question: My answer is 'no'. Now please go be irrelevant elsewhere.
|
|