lcb

Dinner on the Grounds. Have any of you atheists ever been to a good old fashioned southern baptist dinner on the grounds? baked beans, fried chicken, 'tater salad, sweet tea, 'nanna puddin, homemade cherry pie!...horseshoes and sack races and games for the kids, gospel singing and fiddles and banjos, pretty girls in bright taffeta dresses that smile so sweet....

Defiant Heretic

but...
If 1/3=.333 repeating
And 3*(1/3)=1
And 3*.333 repeating=.999 repeating
Then either .999 repeating = 1 or the reflexive theorem (x=x) is false.

David Bowden

And if there were no ESP, there would be no Randi...

I've never seen a dress smile, but then I've never had dinner on the grounds, so I can't be absolutely certain that such sweetly-smiling dresses don't exist...



-David

PS - Koy, I still haven't thought of a single, sound theist argument. But along with the rest of the Infidels, I'll keep trying. If God exists, he can't hide from all of us for much longer!

[ August 13, 2002: Message edited by: David Bowden / wide-eyed wanderer ]</p>

HRG

[quote]Originally posted by Koyaanisqatsi:
[QB]

No, actually, it is not.
[quote]
Yes, actually it is. This has been discussed many times, on the Infidels as well as on other boards.

In order to make sense of the infinite string 0.9999999...., you must first construct the real numbers out of the rationals and then define the value of the string as the sum of an infinite series. It turns out that different series can have the same sum; thus the infinite strings from which they came define the same real number.
There is nothing "irrelevant" for a true mathematician

Regards,
HRG.

Koyaanisqatsi

Again, only in mathematical calculations do we say that .9999 repeating is equivalent to 1.

Or did you all miss that?

[ August 14, 2002: Message edited by: Koyaanisqatsi ]</p>

St. Robert

IesusDomini,

If there were no God, there would be no theists either. It is God alone, who has freely given you and I the privilege of accepting His forgiveness or rejecting it. It is strictly at your personal discretion to believe or disbelieve in God and His unconditional love for you. The origin of choice between believing or not believing was given to you by the one true God, who we obviously love to discuss.

Atheists passionately disbelieve the existence of God because they, more than anyone even theists, desire to know for sure that that they are loved by the One who created them.

It is a pleasure to correspond with you Boris.

[ August 14, 2002: Message edited by: St. Robert ]</p>

Phil TK

Hey, that was the best definition of an agnostic I've heard for ages. What do you mean that 'Isn't saying much' for christ's sake! (if you pardon the expression) That stament says it all!
The reason you are not certain is because your brain does not have the processing power to understand the workings of our universe. This is a strong week for agnostics on the SW. This catagorisation of 'strong and weak atheists' is utter bunkum. In this context, atheists are just as ignorant as theists. It is the pinnacle of arrogance that there are beings on planet earth barely half a century old (as an average)who think they can formulate a finite decision on the existance of god -or not. Such is the vastness of our universe we can hardly claim to be experts on what is out there. As a preliminary, we now know for a scientific fact (through documented experiment)that certain sub-atomic particles can under certain events exist in two places at the same moment in time. Who would have thought eh?This is proof that our understanding of our universe can evolute. At the moment, being an atheist or theist with 'finite' beliefs is in relative terms rather like being a resus monkey trying to grasp the rudiments of a pentium iv. If the resus monkey was an agnostic he would quite rightly admit he can't handle the concept and wait until his species evolutes into a higher primate and then try again.
Thinking atheists are agnostic at heart, come on admit it! if you live for 40 billion years, is your finite belief at this moment in time going to carry you through!
The answer even to that question has to be 'I don't know for sure'
And you don't

Synaesthesia

And I don't, and I'm a strong, radical, damned-to hell-do-not-pass-go atheist.

Perhaps that implies that not all strong atheists are certain.

Doubting Didymus

You're saying that an accurate definition of agnostic is a person who is not sure of the existence of god, but is also not sure of the existence of leprechauns?

Tell me, Phil, when did you start questioning your non-belief in leprechauns?, or have you been an agnostic leprechaunist all your life? Are you agnostic toward her majesty the pink unicorn? agnostic to the proposition that it's turtles all the way down?

Koyaanisqatsi

Yeah, you got us there! We're all looking for love from fictional characters out of ancient cult mythologies.

Your comment is as ridiculous as saying we passionately "disbelieve" the existence of Zeus because we, more than anyone, even those who believe in Zeus, blah, blah, blah.

I know that your conditioning induces a paralytic fear the instant you even attempt to think about something outside of your unfortunate brainwashing, but see if you can--just once--overcome your conditioning and understand that, for us, the word "God" is identical to the word "Allah," which is identical to the word "Zeus," which is identical to the words "Horton the Elephant," which are identical to the words "The Jolly Green Giant," etc., etc., etc.

Identical.

Why is that so difficult for you to accept? I don't mean "accept as true," just accept that it is actually possible that your beliefs only reflect upon you and your desires and no one else?

How does a lack of beliefs in a god or gods translate into a desire to believe, outside, of course, of your own desperation?

[ August 15, 2002: Message edited by: Koyaanisqatsi ]</p>