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No one currently involved in this case appears to me behaving in a moronic or religiously fanatical manner, so perhaps it might be best to tone down the hyperbole and religion-bating bile for once.
There's no comparison.
There's a world of difference between someone noticing that there's still some archaic law on the statute books that hasn't been relevant for centuries and finally getting round to repealing it and actually introducing new legislation (in the same year the LHC first went operational at CERN!!)
I'm not sure if it still is on the books (but it was until quite recently) but there is an oft quoted law that it is permissible to kill a Welshman with a bow and arrow as long as it was within the city walls of Chester and after midnight. Obviously that's seen as both quaint and utterly ludicrous. But imagine if an alleged liberal democracy and EU member state, Belgium for example, came out with such a law just a couple of years ago? Would that not be derided as moronic?
However unlikely it is that anyone will ever be prosecuted the very fact that this law exists in the first place is evidence of the hold religion is still permitted to have over democracy and civilisation and the pedestal it is still inexplicably placed on by the state. It's people just shrugging and saying 'you have to respect people's beliefs' that allow things like this to continue (and while you may think this issue is too trivial to get annoyed about; the other side of the same coin is covering up paedo priests, FGM and AIDS being rampant in Africa due the church banning condom use) so the more 'religion bating bile' that can be stoked up the better as far as I'm concerned.
From the dictionary definition:
moron
/ˈmɔːrɒn/
noun informal
noun: moron; plural noun: morons
a stupid person.
early 20th century : from Greek mōron, neuter of mōros ‘foolish’.
Seems to be a fair label for this piece of legislation.
That's the beauty of religion: zero evidence is required! Don't you love how that works?
"Laughter kills fear, and without fear there can be no faith. For without fear of the devil there is no need for God."
A bit untrue to say the least.
Pretty much the entirety of Western thought and philosophy has its origins in discussing 'unprovable' or 'non tangible' ideas and concepts. And theological scholarship has played a huge role in the development of European culture and civilisation. Without Christianity Europe - or the US - would not exist in their current form.
You don't have to believe in God to recognise the huge role that Christianity has played in our ways of thinking, learning, creating art etc.
Debating things for which there is no clear evidence is what we spend our time doing on here.
"'But,' says Man, 'The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED.'
"'Oh dear,' says God, 'I hadn't thought of that,' and promptly vanished in a puff of logic.
Oh that was easy says Man and for an encore goes on to prove that black is in fact white
and gets knocked down and killed on the next Zebra Crossing
Credit Douglas Addams Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galxey .
Frankly, where would we be if we couldn't debate the hell out of nothing at all. We've got a lot to thank God for - whether he exists or not.
God is a product of our enquiring mind trying to make sense of the universe not the other way round so let's not be giving him too much credit. The ancient peoples might as well have called him X as he was just as a cipher to cover the gaps in their knowledge. Thankfully more and more people who have been educated are happy to replace X with atoms, electricity, gravity etc but we are still stuck with a few people who would prefer it if man had never discovered fire and they could still live in their caves happily surrounded by darkness and clinging to the comfort provided by knowing nothing.
If God was a product of the enquiring mind, would the Bible still be taken so seriously by people all over the world? If God was just a product of the enquiring mind, would the early Christians (and indeed Christians today) be so willing to face perseuction and death in the name of Jesus?
For non believers it's often hard to understand why believers hold their faith as strongly as they do.
And also yes probably even if you don't.
Erm, no. Religion has (from its very basis) a very different epistemological position to philosophy.
You really sure about that? The Bible is pretty clear on its position againt the occult.
“There shall not be found among you anyone who makes His son or daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures up spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 18:10-13)
?
Rather, I would expect them to more often try to dismiss the arguments of athiests through expression of outrage, appeals to historic tradition and claims of bigotry (the irony of that is not lost on me).
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/stephen-fry-s-blasphemy-case-dropped-by-irish-police-due-to-lack-of-outrage
and no, not because god wouuldn'ty turn up in court, but because there was no 'outrage', which in itself I think is far more dissettling. The part i didn't know yet is that the Irish constitution demands such a law. So it's about time the irish would, actually, amend their constitution (tip, don't put anything about guns in there, you'll never get rid of it!).
@RC7 you mean babel fish?
@Getafix to be honest I'm not so proud of this modern time at all, there's a world to win, or rather to save, and the religious fanatism in the US and lesser in Europe scare me quite as much as our middle-easter self-exploders. I'm not quite aware of such idiots in Australia, NZ or Canada. And yes, philosophy started when people were discussing everything they didn't understand, with strange reasoning to create gods (first) or a god (later) too. But this whole god-thing is a device to harness power over people, for our brains are wired for searching for safety.It taps into our basic instincts. It's taken science ages to get rid of this millstone.
Modern philosophy is not about the existence af a god-like entity, but about ethics.
And god in itself can't exist by logic. For the basis of a god's existence is it's ability to do the above-natural. But scientific method dictates that if we can't explain something, it does not mean it's happening, it means that we can't yet explain it. Our understanding of nature's laws are adapted until they fit measurements, not the other way around. So, if there was proof of any creator of the galaxies, we would adapt our knowledge, resulting in laws that fit reality. Therefore there cannot be a above-natural entity.
Now the question of 'is there a all creating entity' has, up until now, been answered with a solid 'no'. So why in entities name are we still fighting eachother? Because religion, assurance about what happens after death, the thing people are scared about most, gives power. Why else would sick people rather listen to card-readers then to doctors? Because cardreaders claim to tell the truth, whilst doctors claim to do their best. We want certainty, and if there's one thing science will never provide, it's certainty.
Now why would you say that?
Agreed.
What is religion? And what is spirituality?
The fact that it offers these things and more is the very explanation as to why it exists. It fills a hole that science cant and refuses to fill.