The Funny/Stupid Pics Thread

[Art Vandelay]

I just noticed I mistook Katsuro for Ultimate Paragon. Well, whoopsie daisy, I guess.

I would say this but surely we're not very similar at all?  Or am I so bland and lacking in personality I can be mistaken for and swapped with anyone else lol?  Wait...don't answer that second one lol.

It's more because your avatars look similar at a glance.

[Ultimate Paragon]

I always thought that Dawkins, Hitchens, Dennett and Harris might be a little too hard on religion, in that there are non-violent practitioners of religions. But in looking at the sum effect of religion on a global scale, in current-day settings, I am not so sure now. Maybe Plato was entirely correct in his Cave analogy in that these Four Horsemen of the Anti-Apocalypse are doing these people a huge favor in trying to drag them out of the cave into the sunlight.

New Atheists aren't really all that different from the fundamentalists they hate so much.  Condescending, pretentious, arrogant, closed-minded, the list goes on and on.

Christopher Hitchens had this to say about Jerry Falwell's death: "“If you gave [Jerry] Falwell an enema he could be buried in a matchbox.”  While I agree with the sentiment, I think the statement could just as easily have applied to Hitchens himself.  Why do I say that?  Well, because Hitchens saw the Iraq War as a struggle between rationality and religion, which is ridiculous on more levels than I care to list.  More to the point, however, is his admiration of Leon Trotsky.  Although Ayn Rand's hero-worship of William Hickman was disturbing, at least he only killed one person. Trotsky, one of Hitchens' heroes, was responsible for the deaths of millions.  True, he wasn't as bad as Stalin, but that's not exactly a high bar to set.

Then you have Richard Dawkins, an arrogant prick who thinks his shit doesn't stink.  This is a man who compared religious belief to a computer virus.  This is the same guy who did admirable work on cultural evolution.

Sam Harris credits radical Islam to the religion itself, rather than the geopolitical history of the Middle East.  He's not the only Islamophobe in the movement, either.  Ayaan Hirsi Ali has compared Islam to fascism. 

And let's not forget Daniel Dennett, the man who compared belief in God to belief in Santa Claus.  This coming from a man who views everything through the lens of Darwinian thought.

I will admit that New Atheism has done some good things.  But why should we take the bad with the good?

[Sigmaleph]

And let's not forget Daniel Dennett, the man who compared belief in God to belief in Santa Claus.  This coming from a man who views everything through the lens of Darwinian thought.

I will admit that New Atheism has done some good things.  But why should we take the bad with the good?

I expect we have different views on what's the good and bad of New Atheism. But I'll focus on Dennet for now, because he's probably the least objectionable of the Four Horsemen,

By "compared belief in God to belief in Santa Claus", do you mean this quote?

We've got ourselves caught in a hypocrisy trap, and there is no clear path out. Are we like families in which the adults go through all the motions of believing in Santa Claus for the sake of the kids, and the kids all pretend still to believe in Santa Claus so as not to spoil the adults' fun?

Because if so:

- Summarising it as "a comparison between belief in God and belief in Santa Claus" is disingenuous.

- I believe he had a point.

[Ironchew]

New Atheists aren't really all that different from the fundamentalists they hate so much.  Condescending, pretentious, arrogant, closed-minded, the list goes on and on.

All I'm hearing here is hardcore projection. Why, in a Christian's attempt to sound caring and open-minded, are atheists such a popular target of derision? Perhaps it's because atheists are dragging them into the 21st century.

[Hoplite]

Well, Paragon, you have not convinced me otherwise. Your argument is to point out that the 4 of these people were assclowns, so to speak, and thus they are no different from religious fundamentalists. In that case, every living person is an assclown, and I bet the famed serene Buddha had his own issues, too. In other words, they are guilty of being human and having human foibles. Also, maybe you might not have noticed, but you yourself did exactly the same sort of thing that you just accused these men of doing by marginalizing them. Not that I am butthurt about it, perish the thought.

My interest in this is more the effect of religion on humanity. What is the best course of action for the future, keep on trying to coexist with religion and its effects on mankind, or try to change it for the better? This is really the first time in history that anyone has challenged the role of religion in today's context, and I think it is long overdue in coming. Remember that we have been doing nothing but coexisting with it since the first caveman howled at the moon. So which bad with the good do we have to take? The effect of religion, or the possibility of evolving beyond it?

I am thinking about retaking Philosophy classes at night again, for the fun of it. You know what is keeping me from doing that? The fact that these classes must invariably include so-called philosophers that according to Albert Camus, "committed philosophical suicide" by abandoning reason and turning to God for reasoning and rationality - men such as Pascal, Heidegger, Jaspers, Shestov, Kierkegaard, and Husserl. Yecch.

But this might not be the forum for this, I'll quit now.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2afuTvUzBQ" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2afuTvUzBQ</a>

[I am lizard]

I do.  In fact I probaby give Christianity a harder time than Islam simply because, being born and raised in a Christian country, I know far more about Chrisitanity and have far more dealings with Christians,  but I have equal disdain for all the Abrahamic religions (my ignorance regarding other world religions prevents me from reasonably having strong feeling either way about them, although I suspect many would seem just as silly to me at the very least).

For dickery and other reasons, I'm curious. You claim to have an equal disdain of all Abrahamic religions. So, how much do you know about Bahai and Druze?

Well the 3 big ones and their sub sects then...you knew what I meant Mr Pedantic (and by "Mr Pedantic" I of course mean "Mr Completely Right With a Valid Point) 

I thought Bahai's considered themselves separate from the main Abrahamic religions anyway, even if they technically aren't and are kind of a sect of Shia Islam (emphasis on the "kind of")? Or am I confusing it with something else?

I'm guessing another reason for why you don't focus on Islam is do to the fact Muslims are a repressed minority in America, Europe, and Australia.


I would also point out that technically The Quaran does say how you shouldn't attack civilians or use fire in combat (to thing the 9/11 attackers did), but I acknowledge that this has proven to do little to deter very violent individuals with a very literal translation.

[Ultimate Paragon]

[Ultimate Paragon]

[Katsuro]

I do.  In fact I probaby give Christianity a harder time than Islam simply because, being born and raised in a Christian country, I know far more about Chrisitanity and have far more dealings with Christians,  but I have equal disdain for all the Abrahamic religions (my ignorance regarding other world religions prevents me from reasonably having strong feeling either way about them, although I suspect many would seem just as silly to me at the very least).

For dickery and other reasons, I'm curious. You claim to have an equal disdain of all Abrahamic religions. So, how much do you know about Bahai and Druze?

Well the 3 big ones and their sub sects then...you knew what I meant Mr Pedantic (and by "Mr Pedantic" I of course mean "Mr Completely Right With a Valid Point) 

I thought Bahai's considered themselves separate from the main Abrahamic religions anyway, even if they technically aren't and are kind of a sect of Shia Islam (emphasis on the "kind of")? Or am I confusing it with something else?

I'm guessing another reason for why you don't focus on Islam is do to the fact Muslims are a repressed minority in America, Europe, and Australia.

Nope, it really is just because I don't know enough about Islam to attack anything specific in it without just straight-up embarrassing myself.  That and where I live there are so few Muslims but so many fundamentalist Christians, many of whom are in government (which is a bit of a problem here), extreme Christianity is far more of an issue than Islam.  In fact round here Islam is almost a non-issue really, I think I've met literally 4 or 5 Muslims here, I'm really not exaggerating.  I've made this comparison before but think of where I live as the Alabama of the UK.  Fundamentalist Christianity is kind of a problem here, Islam...not so much.

That may well change in the future though as we have been getting more and more migrants from places like Somalia, but for now this is very firmly a Christian region.

[Ultimate Paragon]

[ironbite]

Hey remember when this thread was about pictures?

Ironbite-me too.

[Ultimate Paragon]

[Second Coming of Madman]

[I am lizard]

I do.  In fact I probaby give Christianity a harder time than Islam simply because, being born and raised in a Christian country, I know far more about Chrisitanity and have far more dealings with Christians,  but I have equal disdain for all the Abrahamic religions (my ignorance regarding other world religions prevents me from reasonably having strong feeling either way about them, although I suspect many would seem just as silly to me at the very least).

For dickery and other reasons, I'm curious. You claim to have an equal disdain of all Abrahamic religions. So, how much do you know about Bahai and Druze?

Well the 3 big ones and their sub sects then...you knew what I meant Mr Pedantic (and by "Mr Pedantic" I of course mean "Mr Completely Right With a Valid Point) 

I thought Bahai's considered themselves separate from the main Abrahamic religions anyway, even if they technically aren't and are kind of a sect of Shia Islam (emphasis on the "kind of")? Or am I confusing it with something else?

I'm guessing another reason for why you don't focus on Islam is do to the fact Muslims are a repressed minority in America, Europe, and Australia.

Nope, it really is just because I don't know enough about Islam to attack anything specific in it without just straight-up embarrassing myself.  That and where I live there are so few Muslims but so many fundamentalist Christians, many of whom are in government (which is a bit of a problem here), extreme Christianity is far more of an issue than Islam.  In fact round here Islam is almost a non-issue really, I think I've met literally 4 or 5 Muslims here, I'm really not exaggerating.  I've made this comparison before but think of where I live as the Alabama of the UK.  Fundamentalist Christianity is kind of a problem here, Islam...not so much.

That may well change in the future though as we have been getting more and more migrants from places like Somalia, but for now this is very firmly a Christian region.

Fair enough.

[I am lizard]

Hey remember when this thread was about pictures?

Ironbite-me too.

Remember when we use to drag Bronies into the street and slap them with fish?
Those were the days...