Quote Originally Posted by braddog10
Forget rationality.
No! Rationality is the only way to make sense of the world. If we're just going to throw it out the window, we can't come to know anything. We have to apply logic to our observations about the universe if we're going to get anywhere in our understanding of how things work.
There is a tremendous amount of which you are uninformed, ill informed, Ignorant actually.
Right...what's your point? Everybody is ignorant about the vast majority of information stored in the universe. Just because I don't know everything there is to know doesn't mean I can't know anything.
You also do not understand the sweeping structure that the dominion mandate established. To argue your points here as I have seen, Your embarrassing your self........
What are you talking about? Dominion mandate?
I am not trying to be rude,..But, it's just not a smooth issue. There is very little difference between you and some evangelist out there with his bull horn and his propaganda plastered all over everything.
Not really. I try to back my arguments up with logic and reason. I am always willing to change my mind about something. Show me where I'm wrong and I'll happily agree with you.
Your just preaching your own religious ideology, in no better fashion than some judgemental religious hypocrite. The two of you are two peas in the same pod, the Christian religious hypocrite at one end and you the aetheist religious hypocrite. at the other. Preaching your own religious ideology.
Atheism is not a religion. It is nothing more than the lack of a belief in gods. A religion is a structured belief system about the supernatural. If atheism is a religion, then clear is a color.
You know blessed little about scripture, to claim that it says one thing or the other.
Who are you to say what I know and don't know? Obviously I haven't had the time to read the holy scriptures of every religion on the planet, but I do spend a lot of time reading the Bible, the Qur'an, etc. In fact, that's what I did for much of my afternoon yesterday. I am trying to find out to the best of my abilities what these scriptures are teaching. I just don't see any good reason to believe that any of these books are true regarding claims of the supernatural.
I would suggest you begin by studying the Dominion Mandate, and don't give me the crap from your spin doctors, on the subject.
What is this Dominion Mandate? Is it a holy scripture that has some evidence to back it up? If so, please show me the evidence. If it is convincing enough, I'll be delighted to believe whatever it says.
Sorry, I have gotten a bit weary of your BS.
If what I am saying is bullshit (I thought you were trying not to be rude), then please, show me the flaws in my logic and I will be more than happy to correct them. I am always trying to correct the flaws in my knowledge, so as to become a wiser person.
The religious self righteousness you have plastered all over your page.
My page? Huh? I'm just trying to uphold my opinions, because I believe my opinions to be correct. That's what makes them my opinions. If my opinions are wrong, tell me why they are wrong. Don't just say "you're wrong because you think you're so right". Of course I think I'm right. But if I'm wrong about something, I want to know what that something is and what the truth is. I'm always glad to have somebody prove me wrong so I can become smarter.
It's mocking, rude, ... You may understand...but you mirror the religious hypocrites, that plaster their critical judgemental views. Do you despise religious hypocrites? Check your self out, Many many things come back as self hate>>> Deal with it...the comparison is poor ........ I don't know any religious christian, that displays their mean correctness in such an arrogant way as you and others. It's pathetic dude.
If you don't have anything substantive to say about my opinions, why are you even talking? Don't just attack me for being "arrogant" and "pathetic". If you don't like my point of view, show me why my point of view is incorrect already!

If you don't like reading people's arguments for why their opinions are correct, then don't read what they have to write. But if you actually have something to say about those opinions, go right ahead. Fruitful debate is how we expand human knowledge. Just shutting up and keeping all our opinions to ourselves isn't going to get us anywhere, and neither is all this childish name-calling of yours.

You haven't even addressed my line of reasoning for why I think prayer can't possibly do anything. If you think I'm wrong about that, just tell me why. Tell me how prayer could possibly do anything if there's a God who already knows everything there is to know, and I'll be glad to retract my earlier statements. You seem to think that I'm fixated in some sort of dogmatic ideology. I'm not. I just found a really good logical argument against prayer, and no counter-argument has yet convinced me that it doesn't hold.
Wash your car... Your bumper stickers also just minimize you further.
I don't have a car.
Start respecting your self.
Why do you think I'm not respecting myself?
Your smarter than this.
I'm smarter than what? Myself?
Breuk, both of you Religious Hypocrites, mocking judgemental, the worst don't come close to you two.
I don't see what's wrong with mocking silly ideas that have no logic or evidence to back them up. Mockery, combined with a little logic, can be a powerful tool for helping others to critically think about things we take for granted in this society.

When you "forget rationality", as you urged me to do at the beginning of your post, you have nothing to fall back on except blind faith, beliefs held because of tradition, authority, wild speculation, or wishful thinking. I don't want to think like that. I want to actually look at the world and understand how it works as best as I can. In my quest for knowledge about the universe, I have not found one good logical argument, or one good observation, which would lead me to believe that prayer could possibly do anything. And until someone does, I won't believe it. I can't believe it. For the same reason that I can't just close my eyes and say "I believe in unicorns" and really mean it. I need to be shown why something is true, especially if it conflicts with my own common sense and what I observe. All you're offering is an ad hominem attack on me because apparently you don't like the idea that I think my own opinions are correct, or maybe you don't like the idea that I'm basing my opinions on rationality. What do you want me to do, say that my opinions are wrong? Reject logical thinking altogether?