Hello!

[colubridae]

hi dr K.

good news, haven't been banned yet.


i liked lamont cranston to.

(preferred ghengis. No surprise there.)

Good to talk again.

They seem to have a strange but compelling predeliction for Cheese, they treat it as a god...
You might try the 'cheese game'

How did you feel about RDF?

[LaMont Cranston]

colubridae, It's great to hear from you! I was hoping that we might talk again about your thing with the amino acids...you know, the lefties and the righties.

As for RDF, as a theist, I've always had rather mixed feelings about Dawkins. On one hand, he is a very smart man with a brilliant body of work. I've also found him to be arrogant and pompous, and I didn't agree with a lot of things he had to say. I also know that because somebody is smart in certain areas doesn't mean that they are smart in the other parts of their lives, especially in their relationships with their fellow human beings.

I am fascinated by what happened to RDF. It seems to me that Dawkins comes across as thin-skinned, emotionally-driven, a fit thrower, petty, disloyal and quite irrational. It's one thing to tout the wonderfulness of rational thought; it's another thing entirely to actually be rational. As a businessman, I think that Dawkins seriously shot himself in the foot (or some other parts of his body). I believe he has done serious damage to his reputation and his stature as "The High Priest of the New Atheism."

Because I've never had him as a hero, role model or anything else, I can hardly feel angry or betrayed. I do intend to keep an eye on what is going on with the whole thing. Here's hoping you're doing well...

[Feck]

I never thought not believing in god (s) required me have a hero

[Bella Fortuna]

I never thought not believing in god (s) required me have a hero

I've been assigned to be your hero.

[Feck]

I never thought not believing in god (s) required me have a hero

I've been assigned to be your hero.

Well I always thought it was Lemmy But You are slightly better looking

[Skinny Puppy]

Welcome Shadow! I too am an avid fan. I have 100s of his shows. In fact, I have a collection that’s … drum roll here, in excess of 20,000 hours of old time radio. Yes really! And no, I’ve hardly begun to listen to it all. I am a packrat and get everything I can. I hope to live a long life, so I’ll never be wanting for OTR to listen to. Why at my tender age am I interested?

A friend of my dad’s used to work at a radio station and introduced me to OTR, but this is a welcome for you, not a brief (although I know interesting) bio of me.

I too look forward to engaging you on various subjects. I welcome exchanges (I’m always polite about it) from a theist’s point of view. I know we have to remain within the FUA, but that still leaves room for an intelligent exchange of opinions.

I’ve always felt that if one comes from a strong position of belief (for me atheism) then there’s no need to insult theists or try to belittle them. Both sides can hold onto their views, beliefs and ideas and still maintain an air of civility towards each other.

I also have 20 years of being an extremely devout, born again, Pentecostal behind me. It took me the better part of 5 years to finally break free. I’d been indoctrination since birth and it wasn’t until I was 20 that I left and then it was a further 5 years (up until perhaps a year ago) that I finally became a true-blue atheist.

Despite the brainwashing, I still have an interest in theology and hopefully we can have some interesting discussions.

To wrap this intro up… a big welcome!

[LaMont Cranston]

Feck, Neither believing in God(s) or not believing in God(s) requires having a hero...or a bunch of them. It's kind of like that thing about "the evil that lurks in the hearts of men." People have whatever evil they have (i.e. If I were to kick a dog, that would be an evil thing for me to do, based on my standards, and it would make me feel like shit), and they have whatever kinds of heroes, real or fictional.

In my case, I have lots of heroes, real and fictional, and it's all about people I admire because I think they are cool, honorable, courageous and so on. Although I like Superman, Spiderman and a lot of others, The Shadow has always been my kind of guy.

[Feck]

Well why the god then ? what use is it ?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Well why the god then ? what use is it ?

We're creeping up on the "How can you be moral without the Great Sky Fairy" meme.

[LaMont Cranston]

Feck, For me, it's not about the "need" to believe that God exists. Need has nothing to do with it. When I get a little more energy and time, I'll get involved in some kind of thread in the section about religious topics, and I'll present my "beyond a reasonable doubt" case that works for me. It's not that I'm being evasive; I've been travelling, I'm pretty tired and I've got quite a few other things going on.

As for "what use is it?" I find that believing God exists is quite useful for me. If the only thing it did was make me happier, that would be reason enough to find it useful. It turns out that when I add up what we might call "the circumstantial evidence," it points in the direction that there's a high probability that God exists. I do want you to know that I did not arrive at this consideration lightly, and I still do my best to keep an open mind. After being involved in many threads on RDF and RS, I've heard virtually every atheistic argument and piece of rhetoric. Although I am very interested in what atheists have to say and consider myself to be both a fan and a critic of the so-called "new atheism," I'm still a theist.

[Feck]

Guess gentle theism deserves gentle atheism

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Guess gentle theism deserves gentle atheism

Just play nice.

[LaMont Cranston]

Gawdzilla, Actually, that doesn't have to be much of an issue. Rational people should be able to figure how how to act ethically and morally. If you want to have better relationships with your fellow human beings (i.e. your wife, family and friends), you can use the scientific method to arrive at conclusions that some modes of behavior work much better than others...assuming you have the goal of having more convivial relationships. If you have the goal of of staying out of jail, you can recognize that if you behave in a certain way, you are more or less likely to wind up behind bars. You do not need to believe God exists to figure out a lot of these things. Once again, believing in God does not have to be about need.

Once again, when I'm feeling more energetic, I'll be delighted to go into much more depth about some of this stuff.

[virphen]

I hope you can do so without abusing the PM system here too.

[Feck]

I hope you can do so without abusing the PM system here too.