Religion II

[Actor]

Originally Posted by boxcar

I know truth is not determined by a vote. You might want to remember that the next time AGW is discussed in the same breath with the "consensus of science". Or the next time evolution is discussed.

"Consensus of science" is your little phrase, not mine. Peer review is an ongoing process that never ends. No one person or group ever declares that any theory has officially passed peer review and is now dogma. So while it's very unlikely that some theories (like germ theory) will ever be superseded it could happen.

You point out the dominance of Christianity among the worlds religions that it's become an argumentum ad nauseam. It comes along with about the same frequency as emails telling me that there's millions of dollars waiting for me in a bank in Nigeria.

[Actor]

Originally Posted by boxcar

You wanted evidence that a certain Greek god's existence was never called into question. I gave it to you. Plato, ...

Tell me chapter and verse where Plato dismissed the gods.

Originally Posted by boxcar

... Socrates ...

Socrates never wrote anything. He was entirely verbal. We have only the reports of others as to what he said.

Originally Posted by boxcar

... and others dismissed them entirely.

What others? Chapter and verse.

[dnlgfnk]

Originally Posted by Actor

I'd like to make a small digression to ask a question of anyone who cares to respond.

Back in the 1960s there as a made-for-television movie titled Leviathan Five. The story told of five men trapped in an underground lab. They know how long it will take for rescuers to reach them. They also know that their air will run out before then and they will all die. But there is just enough air that four people might survive is one of them dies. Which one do they kill?

The movie did not go into the religion of the five but suppose that four of them where atheists and one was a true Christian. Would not the logical choice be to kill the Christian? After all, the Christian believes he will go to heaven and that the others will burn in hell. Should not the Christian accept the role of sacrificial lamb since he will immediately go the heaven and one or more of the others might afterward repent and be saved? Also, from the atheists point of view, the Christian should fear death the least.

Your dilemma addresses consequentialism.

As a Catholic, I would not will the death of any of the five, as summed in para #1752 in the following...

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_cs...m/p3s1c1a4.htm

I'm not sure atheistic philosopher Massimo Pigliucci would, either. " I do not see an exclusive focus on consequences as viable to construct an entire ethical theory"...

http://rationallyspeaking.blogspot.c...entialism.html

[Actor]

Originally Posted by boxcar

Give me some ancient person of note that dismissed Christ's existence.

The most fervent and successful censors of all time are the Christians. When Christianity became the official Roman religion they went on a book burning spree. But they did not succeed completely. I refer you to The Greatest Story Ever Sold by D.M. Murdock, chapter 6, "Further Evidence of a Fraud." Murdock points out the existence of a movement, Docetism, which advocated the proposition that Jesus never existed. Ergo, the Christ Myth Theory is not a modern invention.

[boxcar]

Originally Posted by Actor

"Consensus of science" is your little phrase, not mine. Peer review is an ongoing process that never ends. No one person or group ever declares that any theory has officially passed peer review and is now dogma. So while it's very unlikely that some theories (like germ theory) will ever be superseded it could happen.

You point out the dominance of Christianity among the worlds religions that it's become an argumentum ad nauseam. It comes along with about the same frequency as emails telling me that there's millions of dollars waiting for me in a bank in Nigeria.

You must have done something to merit all those scam emails. I believe I have received only one such email in my life.

[boxcar]

Originally Posted by Actor

Tell me chapter and verse where Plato dismissed the gods.
Socrates never wrote anything. He was entirely verbal. We have only the reports of others as to what he said.
What others? Chapter and verse.

Wow! How Kool is that!? Socarates must not have existed either, since like Jesus he never wrote a word of scripture.

Regarding what some of the philosophers thought about the pantheon of Greek gods:

http://askphilosophers.org/question/4976

[boxcar]

Originally Posted by Actor

I'd like to make a small digression to ask a question of anyone who cares to respond.

Back in the 1960s there as a made-for-television movie titled Leviathan Five. The story told of five men trapped in an underground lab. They know how long it will take for rescuers to reach them. They also know that their air will run out before then and they will all die. But there is just enough air that four people might survive is one of them dies. Which one do they kill?

The movie did not go into the religion of the five but suppose that four of them where atheists and one was a true Christian. Would not the logical choice be to kill the Christian? After all, the Christian believes he will go to heaven and that the others will burn in hell. Should not the Christian accept the role of sacrificial lamb since he will immediately go the heaven and one or more of the others might afterward repent and be saved? Also, from the atheists point of view, the Christian should fear death the least.

Apart from capital punishment lawfully administered through the judicial process, taking any person's life for any reason is not man's prerogative. Man's duty is to obey the 6th commandment.

[Actor]

Originally Posted by boxcar

You must have done something to merit all those scam emails. I believe I have received only one such email in my life.

You must lead a dull life.

[Actor]

Originally Posted by boxcar

Wow! How Kool is that!? Socarates must not have existed either, since like Jesus he never wrote a word of scripture.

No one is telling me that if I believe in Socrates I will spend eternity in paradise and if I do not believe in Socrates I will burn forever.

[Actor]

Originally Posted by boxcar

Apart from capital punishment lawfully administered through the judicial process, taking any person's life for any reason is not man's prerogative. Man's duty is to obey the 6th commandment.

War? Self defense?

[boxcar]

Originally Posted by Actor

You must lead a dull life.

No...just a life where I try to minimize risks, most especially in the wild and wooly www.

[Actor]

Originally Posted by boxcar

No...just a life where I try to minimize risks, most especially in the wild and wooly www.

I.e., a dull life.

[boxcar]

Originally Posted by Actor

No one is telling me that if I believe in Socrates I will spend eternity in paradise and if I do not believe in Socrates I will burn forever.

Exactly! It's the message you don't like and so you make up all kinds of lame excuses to ignore it. Thanks for confirming that.

[Actor]

Originally Posted by boxcar

Exactly! It's the message you don't like and so you make up all kinds of lame excuses to ignore it. Thanks for confirming that.

Ad hominem– Appeal to motive – a subtype of the ad hominem fallacy that dismisses an idea by questioning the motives of its proposer.

[Actor]