Thrown out of an FBO...

Dylan,

Hell doesn't exist, and an absence of religion isn't a religion. It's an
....absence... of religion. It is possible to have no religion, you know.


We had a extensive discussion on this a while back - google it, if you
like. I promise you: Matt won't budge. You haven't seen half of it.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Dylan Smith wrote:

On 2006-11-15, Matt Whiting wrote:

If yours were practiced universally, all mankind would spend eternity in
Hell, which is much worse in both numbers and magnitude than anything
you mentioned above. That is what I call real damage and it occurs from
your religion.


Hell doesn't exist, and an absence of religion isn't a religion. It's an
...absence... of religion. It is possible to have no religion, you know.


No, it is just a different belief system. Try again.

Matt

On 2006-11-15, Matt Whiting wrote:
Hell doesn't exist, and an absence of religion isn't a religion. It's an
...absence... of religion. It is possible to have no religion, you know.

No, it is just a different belief system. Try again.

Oh - so now if a "belief system" is a religion, is believing that when I
flick the light switch the light will turn on - is the principles that
believing the electricity company will be reliable at providing me with
electricity a religion? No.

Not having a religion is not having a religion. It isn't a belief
system. There's no system about it - it's an ABSENCE of
belief-in-a-deity-system.

--
Yes, the Reply-To email address is valid.
Oolite-Linux: an Elite tribute: http://oolite-linux.berlios.de

No it's not.

Try again.

mike

"Matt Whiting" wrote in message
news


No, it is just a different belief system. Try again.

Matt

Dylan Smith wrote in
:

Hell doesn't exist, and an absence of religion isn't a religion. It's an
...absence... of religion. It is possible to have no religion, you know.

It's possible. But not likely. Atheism is not absence of religion. It's a
dogmatic belief that there is no God. It is not all that much different in
the dogmatic belief that there is a God. Or the dogmatic belief that there
are numerous Gods. Or the dogmatic belief that there is a supernatural force
that governs all things. Or the dogmatic belief that there are 4 elements
that govern all things.

Until someone can unequivocably prove one way or the other, they are all just
religions seeking answers to pretty much the same questions...

Judah wrote:
Dylan Smith wrote in
:

Hell doesn't exist, and an absence of religion isn't a religion. It's
an ...absence... of religion. It is possible to have no religion, you
know.

It's possible. But not likely. Atheism is not absence of religion.

"If atheism is a religion, then _not_ collecting stamps is a hobby."

Until someone can unequivocably prove one way or the other, they are
all just religions seeking answers to pretty much the same
questions...

Claiming that atheism is a religion leads to a contradiction. Consider the
logic:

Statement X: "A person making the statement Y, "All religions are
invalid," makes the person a member of a religion R."

Assume statement X is true:

(1) The person is now in a religion R whose only precept, Y, is true,
making the religion R valid.
(2) But if the religion R is valid, then the statement Y is now false
(because by statement X there exists at least one valid religion, R).

Y is true in (1), which leads to (2), where Y is false.

Statement X is therefore self-contradictory for all values of R (including
R = atheism). Therefore atheism is not a religion.

QED ;-)

(I've added PHIL to indicate off-topic philosophical content :-))

"Jim Logajan" wrote in message
.. .
Judah wrote:
Dylan Smith wrote in
:

Hell doesn't exist, and an absence of religion isn't a religion. It's
an ...absence... of religion. It is possible to have no religion, you
know.

It's possible. But not likely. Atheism is not absence of religion.

"If atheism is a religion, then _not_ collecting stamps is a hobby."

The difference being that no one would ever claim that stamps don't exsist.

Jay B

"If atheism is a religion, then _not_ collecting stamps is a hobby."
The difference being that no one would ever claim that stamps don't exsist.

Not sufficiently parallel. Stamp collectors collect stamps. Do
religions collect gods?

Jose
--
"Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can't see where
it keeps its brain." (chapter 10 of book 3 - Harry Potter).
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

"Jay Beckman" wrote in message
...

"Jim Logajan" wrote in message
.. .

It's possible. But not likely. Atheism is not absence of religion.

"If atheism is a religion, then _not_ collecting stamps is a hobby."

The difference being that no one would ever claim that stamps don't
exsist.


Oh? Take a look at Emmanuel Kant for an example.

"If atheism is a religion, then _not_ collecting stamps is a hobby."

Snarf.

To snarf means to take, (usually surrepticiously) an item (usually a
small one). I've just snarfed this into my quotes file. (How) would
you like to be credited when I use it?

Statement X: "A person making the statement Y, "All religions are
invalid," makes the person a member of a religion R."

What does "valid" and "invalid" mean in this context? A religion can be
valid and false, for some reasonable definitions of "valid".

Jose
--
"Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can't see where
it keeps its brain." (chapter 10 of book 3 - Harry Potter).
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.