Okay Pulsey, then who are you referring to with "its very sad how some atheists reject the idea of religion and yet cannot stop obsessing themselves over it."? Darkmatter? Hitchslap? Me? Some other un-specified atheists?

Who, exactly, are you claiming 'cannot stop obsessing' over religion?

Does the video make a connection between religion and '9/11 or ' ISIS?? Does it discuss the impact religion has on 'climate change denialism'?

No. The creator of the video obviously had no intention of that, the video was merely a parody, mocking people's religious practices - praying to a deistical figure for help.

Yes, it parodies prayer. *And* it also presents an argument against a common theistic belief about prayer. You seem to ignore this latter function, calling it 'merely' a parody, as if that was all it was.

And even if it *was* 'merely' a parody, what the hell's wrong with that? You don't like parody in general? Or is it only when it's about religion, or what?

I do hope you will agree that the act of praying is entirely harmless.

No, of course it isn't. Did you not read the example I posted about the prosperity gospel? Losing your home due to defaulting on a mortgage you believe will be divinely intervened over harms the person who believes prayer works. If enough people do the same, then it also harms millions of other people via the contribution to an ongoing housing bubble, and the ensuing economic collapse. (I don't believe this has been shown to be certainly the case, but it is hypothetically a plausible contributor, and so should not be dismissed out of hand.)

Praying for your child to be cured by faith, rather than by medicine, harms the child and the family.

There are tons and tons of examples of prayer causing harm. You just haven't been paying attention to them.

Praying gives people positive obvious psychological effects, optimism, hope, self-reflection, its a form of meditation.

Perhaps, for some. For others, it causes great anxiety and anguish, when prayers are not answered. There are no studies I know of that show that prayer is only good or harmless.

Praying does not give people ideas to fly planes into building, nor does it inspire climate change denialism.

Not sure how you could possibly know that.

Now why is there a need to attack a harmless concept like that? Is that not obsession?

Not harmless.

But even if it was totally harmless, it's still silly. What's wrong with making fun of something silly?

Okay Pulsey, then who are you referring to with "its very sad how some atheists reject the idea of religion and yet cannot stop obsessing themselves over it."? Darkmatter? Hitchslap? Me? Some other un-specified atheists?

What!? What is the topic of this thread? I am talking about the video of course!

No, of course it isn't. Did you not read the example I posted about the prosperity gospel? Losing your home due to defaulting on a mortgage you believe will be divinely intervened over harms the person who believes prayer works. If enough people do the same, then it also harms millions of other people via the contribution to an ongoing housing bubble, and the ensuing economic collapse.

What!? Do you truly believe that? This is so terribly retarded I'm not sure if its a troll!

(I don't believe this has been shown to be certainly the case, but it is hypothetically a plausible contributor, and so should not be dismissed out of hand.)

You pretty much acknowledge how how absolutely retarded your argument is when even you start casting your own doubts. You are clearly being eristic

Not sure how you could possibly know that.

What!? How does praying give people ideas about 9/11 or Climate change? Does a deistical figure advice them on world issues when people pray?

But even if it was totally harmless, it's still silly. What's wrong with making fun of something silly?

There's nothing wrong and I never said there was anything wrong. All I said was that its sad people who declare Religion as a myth are the same people who can't stop talking and making videos on the subject.

This is getting silly...

I do hope you will agree that the act of praying is entirely harmless.

How ignorant is that. There are countless stories of children dying because their parents refused medical treatment over faithhealing and prayers. Some states in america even have some religious exemption LAWS preventing parent to be prosecuted for manslaughter, murder and child neglect if they decide to chose prayer over medicine. Harmless my ass, ignorance is never harmless

Without the church, we would not have had mendelian genetics.

Without the church, not have printing press. Or many many books for that matter.

Without church, we would not have many monasteries and temples at which priests and monks could partake in scientific activity.

Without religion, our entire history could possibly have been entirely different, more barbaric and violent. Not to mention, our first sources of literature would not be here without religion.

So, early genetics, literature, General scientific activity and defense against Barbarism.

And don't even bring up crusade crap. Because on the same side of the coin there was Islam and the Islamic nations of the day were faring very well and were extremely enlightened.

So much bullshit

The Church had all the power and money at the time, scientist and artists were depending on the Church. Everything was tied to the Church. The Church was the authority that decided where the science should go, and if it was going in the "wrong" direction, scientist had to publicly denie the result of their research. Scientist had to fight against the church monopoly on the "explanation of the world" to get the truth out. So don't tell me "without the church" this and that. Whithout the church and religion nobody knows where we would be in terms of scientific progress AND social progress, but i have a feeling that religion certainly slowed humanity's progress. Maybe that at a time, when they first appeared, it could be argued that monotheistic religions had a positive impact, gathering people and organizing society around it. But now we are struggling to free ourselves from these dark ages ideologies that empedes humanity from achieving its potential.

Since only about 83% of the US identify as Christian (google search), 0.3 / 0.83 = 0.36.

Just here to correct wct's earlier error. According to Pew Forum, 70.6% of Americans identify as Christians.

So that would mean the calculation is: .3(.706) = 21.18% of Christians are Bible Literalists. That's about 67 million. 20.8% of those identifying as Christians, identify as Catholics. It's about the same amount. And yes Catholics and Bible Literalists are minority groups within the American Christian movement.

Link: http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/


I also love that only 1.6% of Americans identify as Atheists :)

Liberals have tried hard, but God isn't dead in America.

Edited 1/24/2016 19:53:32

There are no liberals in America.

There are no liberals in America.

LOL wut?

@Jai
actually ~40% of americans believe that humans were created as they are today, less that 10000 years ago.
And among the 60% that believes in evolution, only ~30% actually believes that it was through natural processes, and not by divine intervention.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/170822/believe-creationist-view-human-origins.aspx
http://www.upf.edu/pcstacademy/_docs/Pew-Science_Survey_2009.pdf (p37)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_of_support_for_evolution

Edited 1/24/2016 20:24:53

What's wrong with believing god set evolution into motion, and for that matter, anything astrophysics related?

You can't prove or disprove it. Nothing wrong in believing it if you can't provide justification as to why it's incorrect, after all, there was a point in time where scientists believed that the earth was the center of the universe before Nicolaus. Who was telling them any different? How could you tell them before Nicolaus?

sure, nothing wrong about believing in a flying teapot orbiting Jupiter, or believing in unicorns...
Nothing wrong, its just ridiculus
Natural processes explains evolution, there is no need for divine intervention, therefore there is no rational reason to think that it is the case

Edited 1/24/2016 20:35:38

What natural process caused the earth to be filled with life. ..

What caused the non life to become to life. ..

Where did that non life come from. ..

Where is the origin of the non life. ...

Why is there this origin of non life. ..

This chain of questions leads to divinity being the primary answer.

And there is nothing wrong with believing a teapot orbits Jupiter or that unicorn exists yes. Ridiculous is a subjective term.

@Jai
actually ~40% of americans believe that humans were created as they are today, less that 10000 years ago.
And among the 60% that believes in evolution, only ~30% actually believes that it was through natural processes, and not by divine intervention.

Hitchslap read my post again. I did not talk about evolution, natural processes, or divine intervention. I only corrected wct on the number of Americans who self-identify as Christian. We used this number along with the % of Christians who believe in Bible Literalism (30%) to figure out what population of Americans believe in Bible Literalism. Your comment is completely irrelevant.

I honestly don't see why a few horses couldn't evolve a horn of some sort for mating or defensive purposes. What's so ridiculous about that?

We used this number along with the % of Christians who believe in Bible Literalism (30%) to figure out what population of Americans believe in Bible Literalism. Your comment is completely irrelevant.

Oh right...i thought creationist counted as literalist. My bad. But now that you mentionned the irrelevance of my comment, I realize that 40% of american believing that god created the earth 6000 years ago has nothing to do with Bible Literalism... Wait what?

What natural process caused the earth to be filled with life. ..

What caused the non life to become to life. ..

Where did that non life come from. ..

Where is the origin of the non life. ...

Why is there this origin of non life. ..

This chain of questions leads to divinity being the primary answer.

None of wich has anything to do with The Theory Evolution. Thanks for making my point.

Edited 1/24/2016 21:59:38

According to a theory we all have common ancestor, well, where did that life originate from? This is where we see God's work.


Maybe you should brush up on the theory before you spread your autism.

hey genius, the origin of life has nothing to do with the theory of evolution, you can have a divine god setting up the first spark of life, and it wouldn't change one bit the theory of evolution. We don't have a theory of Abiogenesis yet, but i'm guessing that your god of the gaps that you are placing in our ignorance of exactly how life came to be will soon shrink a little bit more as be make scientific discovery. sad, really