Know your audience

[The_Amaster]

Then why does the scientific community believe in global warming? It cannot be proved, they believe that it is fact through general consensus.

That may not be your best example, cause we may soon be able to prove global warming. I still stand by the Big Bang and the origin of life.

[Glenn the Great]

I just said, you can't blithely disregard people's feelings, stating that they are complete morons. People don't "feel" about luck, they think about it.

In the world of scientific and objective thought, "feelings" have no place. Only experimental observation is meaningful. Many people have far too much confidence in the human mind.

[phattonez]

^^^Yet science does not completely understand it.

[The_Amaster]

One scientific theory says that it's impossible for anything to understand how itself works, i.e the human brain can never understand itself.


To quote one of my favorite authors: "There is one theory stating that if people ever actually figure out the meaning of life and how everything works, it will instantly dissapear, and be replaced by somthing infinitly more bizzare.

There is another theory stating this has already happened."

[phattonez]

^^^What's your point?

[Saffith]

Geez, I'm away for a couple of days, and I miss out on all of this?
I'm gonna pick and choose a few things to respond to. I haven't got all day here.

How about the Big Bang? There's almost no rational explentaion for how that could have come about, yet almost all scientists accept it.

It was the result of a quantum fluctuation. They happen all the time. This one happened to be an extremely large one with a total energy of 0 (due to the negative potential energy resulting from gravity).
Such a thing is extremely unlikely, but, y'know, give these things enough chances...

Then why does the scientific community believe in global warming? It cannot be proved, they believe that it is fact through general consensus.

Are you a climatologist? How many years have you spent in school studying the workings of the weather?
Do you really think the people who devote their lives to this stuff don't have good reasons for thinking what they do?
Gravity hasn't been proven, either, you know. Science doesn't do proof.

You are arguing against specific beliefs of religion, namely Christianity, rather than the idea of a higher being. This is why I feel that atheism is flawed. No matter how hard you try, you can never prove that a higher being does not exist. There is absolutely nothing you can do to prove that. Therefore no intelligent, thinking person can say "There is no God" and have any credibility. You can believe that all you want, but that doesn't make it true. Just like with religion.

Do you think the same thing of people who don't believe unicorns exist?
Most atheists I know, myself included, acknowledge there's a nonzero chance that some sort of God exists. But I see no more evidence of any such thing being out there than of Cloris Leachman secretly plotting to kill the Pope. There's some amount of faith involved in believing she's not, but it's so little that it seems foolish the give the idea any credence at all.

[Beldaran]

AGN would be so boring without my inflammitory and uncompromising rants.

[AtmaWeapon]

I guess you saw through my plan to point out none of my points were really addressed by anything but an ad hominem attack thus outing you as a troll. :mad:

[Beldaran]

The bottom line, Atma, is that you believe in magical faries and wizards and so forgive me if I don't take your arguments seriously.

If you can convince me that your magical beings are real, then I'll hear you out, but until then you can just forward your lengthy attempts at showing how being a non-insane person is "close minded" to the flying spaghetti monster.

[phattonez]

Gravity hasn't been proven, either, you know. Science doesn't do proof.

Then why am I being told that I need to prove that God exists?