There is nothing anyone can say....

I'm an atheist and there's nothing anyone can say that will change that- no one on the entire planet. I guess you could convert me if you were doing so with the point of a gun, but there's not much anything anyone can do either. I'd be willing to bet that all of the religious people here feel the same way about their views.

So, let's party like it's 1999!

Prince, baby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFt8hMi32Jk

Make no mistake I am 99.9999+% certain no stated argument can change my mind and make me believe in any gods. Partly because of the huge burden of proof ideas about gods have, and partly because at this point I suspect I've heard almost all the major variants.

I am however very certain indeed that direct evidence could change my mind. I would be admitting if not insanity at least intellectual dishonesty of I said I could not be persuaded. That makes me as bad as a believer who will not listen to critiques of his faith. Not going there.

I've said many times how I could easily be persuaded. Double-blind study of coded bowling balls in sealed secret location monitored in several different ways - visual, pressure pads, laser, etc. Invitation of most devout believers in any faith we wish to test to pray for their particular god to levitate his bowling ball over an extensive period. Being a god, the double blind nature of the codings referring to which bowling ball is for which god should be no challenge, and the correct bowling ball for the existing god should levitate. Then I believe in a heartbeat.

:P

:party: Woot! :party:

for the existence of God. It's just after over 20 years as an atheist and all the reading I have done on the subject, I just don't see anything new. I mostly hear retreads of old arguments repackaged.

because I don't give a damn what anybody has to say about the existence of their deity!

Actually, the purpose of this thread is to show the futility of arguing about religion on the internet and to poke fun at both atheists and believers. I can get along with anybody in the real world. I'm very easy going and if someone wants to chat with me in person about religion I'll listen to what they have to say, I will probably understand where they are coming from, and I may even make a new friend. This stuff on here is just about winning arguments. I guess it can be entertaining for a little while, but I'd rather write short stories for my friends in the lounge.

This thread has been a failure so far. Two hundred views and I've got three atheists posting in it and no believers and I've been unrecced into negative territory. It's been up since yesterday. But this is probably one of the sanest threads in here, and I know a thing or two about insanity. I guess I've come to the point where it all seems silly to me so I have no choice but to try humor. The point was to try to make everyone laugh. I understand that some people on both sides of the issue have had their humor glands removed, but it's okay to goof off every once in a while. It feels damn good. I had fun writing the OP. I wish more people would have fun reading it.

We can convert ourselves, though...

in my goofball thread. What the hell were you thinking? That's like trying to mix oil and water or......atheists and Christians. Hey, wait a minute here. :D

Broaden the definition a bit, however, and you'll see that the probability envelope gets a whole lot roomier. Or would that be "Rumi"er?

That is why I call myself an Atheist, IMO the term is not useful when it is used to mean anything one wants it to mean.

The concept is inherently personal, so its usefulness is pretty well restricted to the individual in question. Of course, if you want to talk about gods with someone else you have to have a common definition. In my experience that results in the whole idea of a god devolving to something resembling a cartoon character.

I prefer not to use the term myself because of its semantic baggage, although I have had a lot of personal experiences that could be called mystical or gnostic. They don't involve any cartoon characters, though...

:)

:P

Funny story. I really am an atheist by the way, but that was not always the case. I called myself an agnostic for a long time and I was still interested in eastern philosophy up until 5 or 6 years ago. I was interested enough to pay a visit to a local Buddhist temple here in Dayton. There were two monks there and they were from Thailand. It was kind of like a missionary. Anyway, it was just me and these two monks there. They were very kind and we meditated together for about 15 minutes. I had never really gotten the point of meditation until then. I don't know of it was the incense, or the atmosphere of the place, or if the monks slipped me some LSD, or whatever. But I just felt really calm and focussed...for about 20 seconds. Because then I noticed that my foot had fallen asleep. We were all sitting on the floor and I stretched out my leg in the direction of one of those monks and massaged my foot. The monks smiled at each other and one of them shook his head. I thought they were just humored by my meditation wimpiness.

I went back to the temple a few days later and there were several people there, mostly westerners. We all meditated together for a little while and when we were through one of the monks took me aside and started talking to me. Just giving me a few pointers and some instruction. I thought that was really cool. Then I asked him a question that I should have asked as soon as I walked into the place for the first time, "Are there any cultural things or customs I should be aware of while I'm here?" The monk said, "Yes, never point your feet at anyone. It is a very bad insult in our culture."

I just about died. I was terribly embarrassed and started apologizing. The monk said it was okay and not to worry about it. :D

I discovered meditation because it is increasingly being used as an addition to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which got me reading all the interesting stuff on the neuroscience of meditation and intersections with traditional Buddhist Psychology.

I very much like the South Asian (Theravada) Buddhist traditions (like in Thailand), they are mostly free of the superstitious saint and demigod veneration found in East Asian (Mahayana) Buddhism.