Toto

What exactly is your problem with the Enlightenment notion of rationality? Do you make use of postmodernism to bootstrap your way back to pre-Enlightenment anti-rationality?

Someone7

Amen! And praise and honor and wisdom and thanks and glory and strength be to our god, from everlasting to everlasting!

But the ass brays: Yea-Yuh.

He carries our burden, he took upon himself the form of a servant, he is patient of heart and never says No; and whoever loves his God, chastises him.

But the ass brays: Yea-Yuh.

He does not speak, except he always says Yea to the world he created; thus he praises his world. It is his cleverness that does not speak: thus he is rarely found to be wrong.

But the ass brays: Yea-Yuh.

Plain-looking, he walks through the world. Gray is the body color in which he shrouds his virtue. If he has spirit, he hides it; but everybody believes in his long ears.

But the ass brays: Yea-Yuh.

What hidden wisdom it is that he has long ears and only says Yea and never No! Has he not created the world in his own image, namely, as stupid as possible?

But the ass brays: Yea-Yuh.

You walk on straight and crooked paths; it matters little to you what seems straight or crooked to us men. Beyond good and evil is your kingdom. It is your innocence not to know what innocence is.

But the ass brays: Yea-Yuh.

Behold how you push none away from you, not the beggars nor the kings. Little children you let come unto you, and when sinners entice you, you simply say Yea-Yuh.

But the ass brays: Yea-Yuh.

You love she-asses and fresh figs; you do not despise food. A thistle tickles your heart if you happen to be hungry. In this lies the wisdom of a god.

But the ass brays: Yea-Yuh.

Aethernaut

To quote a stanza of the William F. Denton poem regarding this so-called "atheist's creed":

"I'll pin my faith to no bigot's sleeve;
I'll swallow no griping creed;
I'll ask my Reason what to believe,
And ever her answer heed."

-SK

Oolon Colluphid

Total and utter codswallop. Evolution is the process by which all living things have come to be as they are, by descent with modification from a common ancestor. Not 'develop'. Individual organisms develop; it is lineages that evolve. Biological evolution, contrary to the common usages of the word, has nothing whatsoever to do with how "families, organizations, people-groups, etc develop". Analogies, if they are to be drawn, are analogies. And as for morality being based on it... evolution, being a science, has nothing whatsoever to do with shoulds and shouldn’ts either. It is about how the living world is.That is the naturalistic fallacy, whereby how nature is is taken as a guide to how we should behave. I doubt there’s anyone here who thinks that how nature behaves is mostly anything other than appalling, at least if we were to act similarly. So our morality is not based on any "evolutionary scheme".

From the ignorance in that sentence and the " " round evolution, I smell a creationist. Geoff, do feel free to come on over to the <a href="http://iidb.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum&f=58" target="_blank">Evolution / Creation Forum</a> here, and you’re welcome to air any problems you see with evolution. We’ll set you straight if we can, or perhaps you’re onto something. Give it a go!

TTFN, Oolon

geoff

Oolon,

As I have stated previously, the original post I wrote is an encapsulation of posts written by non-theists (of various persuasions). So when you wrote, "from the ignorance in that sentence" [re: evolution] you were impugning non-theists' thoughts. And, again, I was merely soliciting modifications, which you kindly obliged. Thank you.

Time to close this board out.

Wyrdsmyth

Someone7,

You just read (or re-read) Thus Spake Zarathustra, didn't you?

scumble

Implicit in the question is the assertion that people do arrive at justified true beliefs. In a way, talking about "true beliefs" is almost meaningless, since you don't have to believe things that are true, basically. Belief doesn't come into the equation.
The question, as it is, is not in a particularly good state to be answered.

[ May 21, 2002: Message edited by: scumble ]</p>

geoff

The way I posed the question is the same way professional epistemologists pose it. See, e.g., John Pollock's Contemporary Theories of Epistemology.

Koyaanisqatsi

A better question would be, "Why do you believe in something that is so evidently an ancient fantasy?"

If you want to deconstruct theistic beliefs, then don't ask an atheist since atheism is the absence of theistic beliefs.

I don't understand why this is such an impossible concept for poeple who believe the dead walk!

We don't believe ancient fairy tales are true. There is absolutely no reason to believe ancient fairy tales are true.

It's no more difficult than that.

As for the world around us, we use the tools available to us with the granted and accepted understanding that it is mutable.

Not knowing doesn't scare us. End of story.

MrDarwin

If there is any kind of atheist creed, it would be:

I believe in those things for which there is evidence.