RIP Jack Chick

[Martinus]

Listen to Minsky. If anyone got God right, it's the Jews.

[The Brain]

Mary did God right.

[Martinus]

Mary did God right.

She did him good.

[Berkut]

  How about this old trope: can your god make a rock so heavy that he can't lift it?

Yes.  And then he'd lift it just the same.
This is like a atheist's Anselm's Proof.  Argument by semantics.

Yeah, I never really found that argument that interesting. It amounts to saying "Can you do something that you cannot do?"

There are pretty obvious logical problems with the concept of omnipotence, and the idea of a God, but the fact that we can semantically define impossible issues isn't one of them.

[Hamilcar]

There are pretty obvious logical problems with the concept of omnipotence, and the idea of a God, but the fact that we can semantically define impossible issues isn't one of them.

Really? I think this is at the core of the issue. An omnipotent being just creates increasing depths of logical contradictions and puzzles that make the faithful resort to the idiocy of Tertullian's "I believe because it is absurd."

[Martinus]

Tertulian is right though. A God that can be described by any term is not the opposite of that term - therefore is not truly a God.

[Hamilcar]

Listen to Minsky. If anyone got God right, it's the Jews.

They certainly have reached exquisite heights of dissembling and rationalization trying to adhere to incoherent and barbaric rules in a world that has since advanced in ethics, science and... pretty much everything.

[Razgovory]

Christianity in its various flavors is just so obviously man-made and obsesses over truly parochial concerns. Take a step back, and you can see how ridiculous it is.

Is this a scientific answer?  If so, please show your work.

[garbon]

The thing is - once you accept the fundamental message that Jesus was the Son of God who died for our sins, it quite frankly opens up a lot more questions from there.  If God exists why is there evil in the world?  Are Christians required to keep kosher?  So what day of the week is the sabbath?  How exactly do we organize God's Church here on earth?

Questions that generally end with, oh that myth my parents told me about might not be true.

True. But life without myth is very dull and boring one. The trick is to find your own life's myth. This doesn't even have to be overtly spiritual. It could be a belief in humanism, or social and political activism, or even your kids. Cynical life is unbearable. Just be careful you don't fall into a crusading mode.

So not believing a myth = cynicism?

Yeah. If you have nothing that makes you get up in the morning, then what's the point of living?

Incidentally, I don't see the concept of myth in any negative way.

So you can't have a reason to get up in the morning without myth?

I'm not saying myth is a negative thing, I just think you are stretching the definition to its breaking point if it covers all things that make you want to live life.

[11B4V]

Christianity in its various flavors is just so obviously man-made and obsesses over truly parochial concerns. Take a step back, and you can see how ridiculous it is.

Is this a scientific answer?  If so, please show your work.

It's just stupid

[The Minsky Moment]

like religion, science isn't meant to be questioned

???
Thy are nothing alike.
Religion provides accounts and a set of beliefs that are taken as given.  The scientific method takes nothing as given other than the fact of the appearance of certain perceptible phenomena.

[The Minsky Moment]

They certainly have reached exquisite heights of dissembling and rationalization trying to adhere to incoherent and barbaric rules in a world that has since advanced in ethics, science and... pretty much everything.

Which explains the lack of famous Jewish scientists?

[The Minsky Moment]

Really? I think this is at the core of the issue. An omnipotent being just creates increasing depths of logical contradictions and puzzles that make the faithful resort to the idiocy of Tertullian's "I believe because it is absurd."

So then I define "omnipotence" to mean the power to do anything that does not involve logical contradiction.
Yeah, problem solved by definition!

[Hamilcar]

They certainly have reached exquisite heights of dissembling and rationalization trying to adhere to incoherent and barbaric rules in a world that has since advanced in ethics, science and... pretty much everything.

Which explains the lack of famous Jewish scientists?

It's great training for science and many other intellectual pursuits. But you know that.

[LaCroix]

like religion, science isn't meant to be questioned

???
Thy are nothing alike.
Religion provides accounts and a set of beliefs that are taken as given.  The scientific method takes nothing as given other than the fact of the appearance of certain perceptible phenomena.