Quote:
Jobar quoting Gary Huckaby:
... one of just rejection that there is a superior deity, to whom all will one day give an account to.
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For all we know, there could be such a being that does not have any interest in humanity, or even a law of karma that will punish people who make stupid arguments like that. Isn't Pascal's Wager fun?
Quote:
Jobar quoting Gary Huckaby:
Gary relates this sort of atheism to the "Idealism of Fichte, of the Ideal Pantheism of Spinoza, the Natural pantheism of Schelling, and similar forms of thought." He comments that true theism insists that God is a personal, self-conscious being, and not "merely a first cause or force."
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Linking atheism with metaphysical theories that many present-day freethinkers and atheists tend to reject.
Quote:
Jobar quoting Gary Huckaby:
Dogmatic- "It absolutely denies the existence of God. It has often been held that this is, in fact, impossible. Cousin has said, "It is impossible, because the existence of God is implied in every assertion."
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So GH accepts that there are monsters under his bed, because to flatly deny their existence somehow means acknowledging their existence?
Quote:
Jobar quoting Gary Huckaby:
Practical- "It has nothing at all to do with belief. Indeed it accepts the affirmations of theism. It has reference wholly to the mode of life. It is to live as if there were no God.
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In effect, being a nominal believer.
But a real atheist is not a nominal believer.
Quote:
Jobar quoting Gary Huckaby:
It takes the form often of complete indifference to the claims of the Divine Being or again of out broken or defiant wickedness (Ps 14:1).
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Matthew 5:22 -- you can get sent to hell for calling someone a fool.
(a lot of babbling about how there is no right or wrong if there is no God...)
That guy ought to read Plato's Euthyphro.
Quote:
Jobar quoting Gary Huckaby:
1) It is contrary to reason. History has shown how impossible it is to bring the mind to rest in this doctrine. Although Buddhism is atheistic in its teaching, idolatry is widespread in the lands where it prevails...
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Since idolatry is a widespread part of religion, idolatry is thus therefore natural, and the Bible is wrong in forbidding it. Catholics and crucifix wearers, among others, will enjoy learning about this.
Quote:
Jobar quoting Gary Huckaby:
2)It is contrary to human experience. All history teaches that there are deep religious instincts within the human breast.
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Except that most of it is in supports of religions and sects that GH considers heretical.
Quote:
Jobar quoting Gary Huckaby:
But the fact of such spiritual longing implies that there is a Being who is responsive to and can satisfy the cry of the heart. (Heb 11:6) ...Reville has said on this subject, "It would be irrational in the last degree... [to believe that spiritual longing] corresponds to nothing, that the tendency has no goal."
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Wishing will not make it so. There are lots of desired things that simply do not exist.
Quote:
Jobar quoting Gary Huckaby:
3) It fails to account for the evidence of design in the universe. (Practically all who claim to be atheists are also evolutionists, which by the way is a belief in something.)
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Whatever that evidence is supposed to be. It could be that evolution is partially driven by a long-lived community of invisible elves, but there is no positive evidence for such entities -- a "designer of the gaps" is not enough.
Quote:
Jobar quoting Gary Huckaby:
4) It fails to account for the existence of man, and the world in general. Here is the Universe: how did it come to be? Here is man: how is he to be accounted for? To these and like questions, atheists and atheistic philosophy have no adequate answers to give.
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There is a certain problem with "Goddidit": what caused God to exist?
Quote:
Jobar quoting Gary Huckaby:
Atheism is in fact a religion, for it is a belief in something or nothing. ...
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And baldness is a hairstyle. (sarcasm)
(Invocation of Pascal's Wager deleted)
[ November 15, 2002: Message edited by: lpetrich ]</p>
11-15-2002, 10:52 PM
And besides, I would bet Franklins to fivers that all that drivel came directly from some textbook from a Southern Baptist divinity school; the mind poison is so widespread that letters to this little shitpot local paper is near-as-dammit useless... what we do here at II is, I think, the best that I- that we- can do about the situation.
