Win Prizes Ask an Atheist II

[Gethelred]

Welcome to the Ask an Atheist thread II.

Previous part:

Win Prizes - Ask an Atheist - Shoe's on the other foot now!

Alright, we're going to have a change of tack. As I'm sure you can see, the thread title has been changed to Ask an Atheist. People who have a question to ask of the atheists who populate this thread - more than the christians do - should feel free to ask questions of them. If you've still got...

www.bigfooty.com

Standard board rules apply.

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

Your memory will be gone in a blink.

All those moments will be lost like tears in the rain...

 

[GrayRanga]

There could have been a great mutation that let us see light in the ultraviolet and infrared spectrums. It could have ended up being a disadvantage, or linked to a mutation that lead to still birth.

It's not just random mutation - the environment filters for the best fit.

There could have been a great mutation that let us see light in the ultraviolet and infrared spectrums which would mean we would never experience "darkness"

Great mutation. but they all suicided after a few years of chronic insomnia or the sleep deprived parents ...

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

I notice you haven't addressed what I said. Saying that we've landed here via random mutations is highly improbable is underselling it. I've never been sold on it because it's all a bit shit happens.

Could be true though. I don't know.

There could have been a great mutation that let us see light in the ultraviolet and infrared spectrums. It could have ended up being a disadvantage, or linked to a mutation that lead to still birth.

It's not just random mutation - the environment filters for the best fit.

The 'founder effect' is interesting;

Founder Effect - Definition and Examples | Biology Dictionary

The founder effect is a phenomena that occurs when a small group of individuals becomes isolated from a larger population. Regardless of what the original population looked like, the new population will resemble only the individuals that founded the smaller, distinct population.

biologydictionary.net

Last Updated: April 28, 2017

The founder effect is a phenomena that occurs when a small group of individuals becomes isolated from a larger population. Regardless of what the original population looked like, the new population will resemble only the individuals that founded the smaller, distinct population. The founder effect is due to the randomness that accompanies selecting a small group from a larger population. The smaller the population, the higher the chance that the small population does not represent the larger population. See the graphic below. If the few organisms that migrate or get separated from the parent population do not carry the same frequency of alleles as the main population, the resulting founder effect will cause the population that separated to become genetically distinct from the original population. This may lead to a new subspecies of organisms, or even entirely new species given enough time.

The founder effect can take place due to many different circumstances. The founder effect can be due to geographic isolation, when a small population of individuals migrates to a new area. In this case, the distance or obstacles between the two populations make interbreeding impossible, and the new populations become genetically distinct over time. In another scenario, a mutation may cause a population of organisms to become reproductively isolated from the parent foundation. Without the ability to interbreed with the larger population, the small population becomes distinct. If successful it will grow into a new species. Mutations and random allele changes in small populations are collectively known as genetic drift, and the founder effect is a piece of genetic drift...

 

[Ghost Patrol]

The new guy at work is from the sub-continent. He quietly asked me about Halloween, whats it all about. Wondered why Kevin said he doesn't celebrate it.

I told him it was when Jesus was circumcised.

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

The new guy at work is from the sub-continent. He quietly asked me about Halloween, whats it all about. Wondered why Kevin said he doesn't celebrate it.

I told him it was when Jesus was circumcised.

I wonder if Joseph and Mary were Orthodox?

https://www.timesofisrael.com/nyc-orthodox-jews-clash-over-oral-circumcision-rite/

22 February 2015

NEW YORK (AP) — With a swift swipe of his scalpel, Rabbi A. Romi Cohn circumcises the baby boy, then leans down and sucks the blood from the wound as prayers in Hebrew fill the Brooklyn synagogue.

The Orthodox Jewish tradition known as oral suction circumcision reaches back to biblical times but it has created a modern-day dilemma for New York City health officials, who have linked it to 17 cases of infant herpes since 2000. Two infants died and two others suffered brain damage.

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration, which came into power a year ago with a promise to reconsider an existing regulation on the ritual, is now negotiating with a group of rabbis over how to protect children’s health while still preserving religious freedom.

“The talks are ongoing but I cannot go into particulars,” said Avi Fink, the mayor’s deputy director of intergovernmental affairs who has been leading the talks. “Our goal is to achieve awareness of the risks.”

Such oral suction circumcisions are relatively rare, even in New York City, which is home to more than a million Jews — the largest Jewish population outside Israel. City health officials estimate more than 3,000 babies are circumcised each year using the oral suction method — formally called metzitzah b’peh in Hebrew.

A 2012 report by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised against the practice, saying it increases the risk of herpes infection in baby boys by 3.4 times that of other male newborns...

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

I wonder if Joseph and Mary were Orthodox?

Bloody hell.

But you can’t ridicule it, because it’s their Belief.

 

[GrayRanga]

I wonder if Joseph and Mary were Orthodox?

Of course they were.

Christ was a good Jewish boy and would have been circumcised in accordance with Jewish Law (Genesis 17:10–14, Leviticus 12:3) and definately would have been as part of the prophecy of the coming Messiah.

Christ himself stated in Matthew 5:17-20 " “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 18 “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished."

By inference, he was compliant the the Law

Of course, it was Paul of Tarsus with his love of Angels on Horseback and with an influencer's aim to broaden the marketing appeal of a small niche belief system who wrote a number of letters to the emerging market.

In Romans 8:3 Paul wrote; "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh."

An interesting philosophical and theological twist, basically as Christ was the fulfillment of the Law, a personal belief in Christ was also fulfullment of the Law on a personal level.

An interesting thing to discuss over Christmas Lunch as you suck the pork crackling and chuck some more prawns on the grill

 

[travelli]

I know this is an athiests thread, but : are all religions equal? Pope Francis created a stir with some off-the-cuff comments to an interreligious group of young people in Singapore, during his recent trip to Asia. “All religions are paths to God,” he said. “I will use an analogy, they are like different languages that express the divine.”

 

[western royboy]

I know this is an athiests thread, but : are all religions equal? Pope Francis created a stir with some off-the-cuff comments to an interreligious group of young people in Singapore, during his recent trip to Asia. “All religions are paths to God,” he said. “I will use an analogy, they are like different languages that express the divine.”

Yes - all are equal - equally full of the same amount of truth…absolutely none

 

[Total Power]

I know this is an athiests thread, but : are all religions equal? Pope Francis created a stir with some off-the-cuff comments to an interreligious group of young people in Singapore, during his recent trip to Asia. “All religions are paths to God,” he said. “I will use an analogy, they are like different languages that express the divine.”

Extra Ecclesium Nulla Sallus

 

[Total Power]

You saying you're an atheist is just as " real ". Very convenient and simple.. No God. End of story. You are free to do what you want. But your questions will never be answered by science.

All DNA and RNA bases have now been discovered in meteorites

Meteorites hold all five DNA and RNA bases, hinting that life's ingredients may come from space!

digitimed.com

"We are all star dust" Carl Sagan, how right he was!

AND, the more testimonies I hear about people who discover God and Christianity, the more it confirms the reality of these conversions for all of us. So, you are incorrect, IT IS real for very many people.

So what? People believe in all kinds of weird stuff. 3 billion people believe in ghosts. 3 million people in the US alone have seen UFOs (apparently). I would rather have questions that cannot be answered that answers that cannot be questioned. DNA/RNA etc are not miracles, they came from space, no one made it like you guys believe. We now have evidence.

No amount of feel good stories will disprove this fact. But as they if it makes you sleep better at night so be it.

 

[Total Power]

You also can NOT disprove God. The fact that CS Lewis was, like Paul, an atheist, does give us the notion that there is hope for all thinking, respectful atheists. Just because "science based", simplistic and humanistic minds can not accept the possibility of God, the fact that it is real for many people, that peoples lives have been permanently and dramatically changed has to be respected. The lives of the apostles were changed radically. You choose to dismiss, deny, or ignore that, but it is what set up Christianity.

CS fails to recognise that compassion and empathy are the backbone of any ‘universal morality’ - not some god. As for a system that created it, it’s evolution that favored compassion and morality in our species - our ancestors who were more compassionate and empathetic likely helped each other more => better survival => more opportunities to procreate, better survival of their kids’ kids.

The same reason you (and most other Christians) do not take certain verses literally (or figurately) cause it might have been true at that time but now it's plain absurd, as our social norms have changed. Slavery is inhumane, misogyny is unacceptable, atheists are not really evil, masturbation is not a sin etc etc. Some 2,000 years ago 99% of them would have agreed with these but now how many? Morality is not universal.

This is why CS said If jesus claims he was the son of God, he either is or a liar. Whoa slow down professor, why two choices when you arrived at your opinion through Pascals Wager basically?

 

[sdfc]

Oh boy, you’re argument from ignorance and personal incredulity is stunning mate!

What I am saying is it is such a low probability event that i find it hard to believe.

 

[sdfc]

Lol, we don’t “believe” in anything, we have knowledge and understanding, where we don’t, we rely upon those that do!
Don’t worry, you’ll most likely never be relied upon!

Atheists reject the existence of gods/deities. You don't have complete knowledge of the evolutionary process. You believe in a theory with a shitload of holes because it accords with your belief that there is no god.

That gets us to the question of what is the god you don't believe in. Is it an old man in the sky?

 

[sdfc]

There could have been a great mutation that let us see light in the ultraviolet and infrared spectrums. It could have ended up being a disadvantage, or linked to a mutation that lead to still birth.

It's not just random mutation - the environment filters for the best fit.

This is peppered moth stuff. It goes nowhere near explaining how we and all the other species ended up here via a huge number of highly unlikely rearrangements of amino acids.