Why I Am Not an Atheist

Lester Thurow, professor of Economics and Management at the University of Massachusetts says:

"Some will hate it, some will love it, but biotechnology is inevitably leading to a world in which plants, animals and human beings are going to be partly man-made....Suppose parents could add 30 points to their children's IQ. Wouldn't you want to do it? And if you don't, your child will be the stupidest child in the neighborhood."
from http://cloning-for-dummies.tripod.com/the_ethical_debate.html

"[The Genesis account of creation] is not information about the external processes by which the cosmos and man himself came into being. The Fathers of the Church were well aware of this. They did not interpret the story as an account of the process of the origins of things, but rather as a pointer towards the essential, towards the true beginning and end of our being."
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2011/documents/hf_ben...

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Science & Technology

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[cardman77777]

@cardman77777 What you may have here is the effect of an invisible God. IF it is, God is invisible, the affect of His actions are not. By the way, that is a true story.

[cardman77777]

@cardman77777 Drs. tell child's maternal Grandmother that he will not survive and if he does he will not come out of the coma,no chance. My job is to help the grandmother accept the reality. She refuses and is determined to pray him back to health. She keeps vigil and prays and prays and prays eventually against all odds the boy recovers and is doing well today. Doctors are surprised. Grandmother would not give up hope on the power of prayer. . .

[cardman77777]

@FHomeBrew Ok, read carefully what I said. I did not effects were undectectable, I said realities. Let me give you a real example:

A young child passenger seat, his mother is driving. They are hit by a truck and the mother instinctively dives on the child to protect him. She dies in the accident. Jaws of life are used to remove her body which EMS does and then find the child unknown to them that he was there at the point. He is barely alive and comatose. . . .

[FHomeBrew]

@cardman77777 Neither the nature of the book, nor that of the author are really that relevant to the contents of the quote I would argue. But that's getting off-topic.

I wonder how you can believe in the power of prayer when you've already said that the effects of god may not be detectable by human beings ever. How can supposed answered prayers be credited to a god if the effect is not perceivable?

[cardman77777]

@FHomeBrew Just to be clear, the quote comes from a book by an archaeologist (Richard Leakey, son of Louis and Mary Leakey.) Colin McGinn is a philosopher in Canada. It is not a Christian or religious book.

Do I believe in the power of prayer? That believe it or not is a rather complicated subject. The simple answer is yes. But the actual answer is more profound. I believe in a transcendent and imminent divinity in which prayer is part of that expression of belief. However prayer is not magic.

[FHomeBrew]

@cardman77777 I agree with the quote in that it's anthropocentric, but don't even get me started on how egocentric or anthropocentric religions are :p The rest of the quote is comparing apples with oranges: reality doesn't limit what is conceivable in the human mind. Some of us dream of wingless-flight yet we know this cannot be a reality. Same in reverse.

But let me ask you this then: Do you believe in the power of prayer?

[cardman77777]

@FHomeBrew That is the key point. (Jesus makes it too) The question is how do you define the perceivable affect again the key element between Christians and Atheists. Meanwhile enjoy this: "It is deplorably anthropocentric to insist that reality be constrained by what the human mind can conceive . . .the limits of the mind are just not the limits of reality" --Colin McGinn quoted in Origins Reconsidered in Search of What Makes Us Human; Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin p.310-11 Anchor Books;1992,

[FHomeBrew]

Okay I'm going to bookmark where I point stuff out :p at 5:50 for example.

You've proposed that there are things that may not be detectable by any living organism and that there might be things in existence that are composed of other things than matter and energy. Which is fine. The thing is, that if they exist, they'll most likely have a perceivable effect on the universe. If they don't, then there's no actual reason to believe they exist is there? Also, I like this kind of 'new' argument :D

[cardman77777]

@FHomeBrew What you and I can perceive aided or unaided. Those things of this world made of matter which may only be perceivable by some technology (i.e. a microscope) or unaided: a mountain.

[FHomeBrew]

Also, do you go to church? Because if I were a catholic, I wouldn't due to the bad things the church has done and keeps on doing. My belief would not (and should not) be dependent upon a human organization such as the catholic church..