Most of you will be aware of Pascal's Wager, and indeed, of those of you who aren't aware of it by name, most of you will likely have heard it without knowing what it's called
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I've always wanted to rebute the whole Pascal's wager thing with "That's a good point! I'll become a muslim right away!" seeing as Islam is an older (possibly bigger?) religion. I don't get into debates with Christians in the last few years though so I haven't gotten the chance.
Islam is actually about 600 years younger than christianity, actually. Depending on the version of christianity you're talking about, of course.
But again, Pascal doesn't even acknowledge any possibility in his silly little wager that there's the possibility that neither side is right; that there could be any other god or any other version of his god. It's the biggest reason why it falls apart upon the lightest of scrutiny.
Well I was really thinking about the Protestant-branch, seeing as that's pretty much the only one you'll find in Norway. I was under the impression it's a pretty young religion but I'm not sure from where. It is, at the very most, only 2000 years old after all.
Yeah, that's why I specified "depending on the version of christianity you're talking about". Heck, there's new versions of christianity coming out practically every day!
(and the Protestant Reformation began in the early 16th century, for the record)
I've always felt that if there's some sort of perfect god-entity out there, that we, as imperfect beings, can never even begin to understand the motivations, or even the actions, that such a being would take. I mean, seriously, what could interest a being that has everything? Ultimately what I'm getting at, though, is that a perfect being would have no interest and no need for the imperfect, and would therefore either disregard us completely or feel somehow compelled to remove us from their presence.
tl;dr if there is a God he's AN ELITIST AAAAAUGH RUN CONSERVATIVES RUN
You know the Westborough Baptist Church? The "GOD HATES FAGS" guys? I remember thinking about them a little while back:
I was thinking, "Can you imagine if these guys were right? If they really WERE the one true religion that they claim to be? If the entire universe - billions of galaxies, containing billions of stars each, with tens of billions of planets, each with their own rich, complex atmospheres, orbits, chemical compositions and histories, black holes, nebulae, pulsars and such... all of this was merely a backdrop for mankind, created in their god's own image, and that of all of mankind, the only people truly expressing the will of the creator of all of this were a bunch of ugly, mean-spirited redneck assholes screaming "GOD HATES FAGS" at heterosexual people going to funerals? If THAT was the true point of this whole complex universe?
Could you even IMAGINE a sadder, more pathetic universe than that?"
Well, let me ask you a simple, yes-or-no question: Cam you truthfully make the statement "I sincerely believe that there actually is at least one god which genuinely exists?"
It seems to me that if an atheist were to really, honestly embrace worship of the christian god, something would have to sort of break in their head first. Thus the Stockholm Syndrome bit. I've written about that fairly extensively in the past, though for the life of me, I can't find it now...
That seems like an awfully harsh idea of what changing religious outlook means. You'd have just as much reason to freak out at people who went from born-again Christianity to atheism, in that case.
Presumably the story is that people who go psychotic are relatively likely to drastically change their religious outlook, and not that people who drastically change their religious outlooks are likely to be psychotic.
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But again, Pascal doesn't even acknowledge any possibility in his silly little wager that there's the possibility that neither side is right; that there could be any other god or any other version of his god. It's the biggest reason why it falls apart upon the lightest of scrutiny.
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(and the Protestant Reformation began in the early 16th century, for the record)
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tl;dr if there is a God he's AN ELITIST AAAAAUGH RUN CONSERVATIVES RUN
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I was thinking, "Can you imagine if these guys were right? If they really WERE the one true religion that they claim to be? If the entire universe - billions of galaxies, containing billions of stars each, with tens of billions of planets, each with their own rich, complex atmospheres, orbits, chemical compositions and histories, black holes, nebulae, pulsars and such... all of this was merely a backdrop for mankind, created in their god's own image, and that of all of mankind, the only people truly expressing the will of the creator of all of this were a bunch of ugly, mean-spirited redneck assholes screaming "GOD HATES FAGS" at heterosexual people going to funerals? If THAT was the true point of this whole complex universe?
Could you even IMAGINE a sadder, more pathetic universe than that?"
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(The comment has been removed)
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(The comment has been removed)
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(The comment has been removed)
It seems to me that if an atheist were to really, honestly embrace worship of the christian god, something would have to sort of break in their head first. Thus the Stockholm Syndrome bit. I've written about that fairly extensively in the past, though for the life of me, I can't find it now...
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(The comment has been removed)
Presumably the story is that people who go psychotic are relatively likely to drastically change their religious outlook, and not that people who drastically change their religious outlooks are likely to be psychotic.
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