tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post940032000448409937..comments2024-03-28T09:19:27.451+00:00Comments on RevK<sup>®</sup>'s ramblings: Flat EarthRevKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12369263214193333422noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-2616950900189775282018-01-23T12:18:23.715+00:002018-01-23T12:18:23.715+00:00I remember once in a thological discussion discuss...I remember once in a thological discussion discussing the fact that the bible is full of grey areas and even contradictions.<br /><br />My friend is a church of England vicar and he pointed out that God gave us all a brain and we should use it.<br /><br />It's a very good point. Just because your a Christian doesn't mean you shouldn't challenge things written in the bible or elsewhere. If anything for someone who believes that they were created in the image of God surely would recognise that we have free thought.<br /><br />Similarly I can think of many people I know who ate of no faith and yet seem incapable of engaging the brain in critical thought.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-63220518893742723472017-12-23T07:05:04.689+00:002017-12-23T07:05:04.689+00:00"It never asserts something that can be categ..."It never asserts something that can be categorically disproved" --> not quite. Religions are mainly full of shit that a fish will find hard to believe. Like, would a fish believe that prophet Mohammad peace upon him flew on a winged horse? or would the same fish believe that Jesus turned water into wine? and how about Jews who believe that the universe is 6000 years old, Judaism is the most retarded btw. So, these people who believe the earth is flat are far more advanced than ordinary religious people. I'd start with ranting about normal ordinary church Sunday attendeesAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-71933946085157066682017-11-27T11:56:46.027+00:002017-11-27T11:56:46.027+00:00Have you ever met an old-school Baker Street Irreg...Have you ever met an old-school Baker Street Irregular?<br /><br />The joke is to claim that Sherlock Holmes was real and the stories substantively true, published under Doyle's name as "Watson" couldn't risk his practice; obviously details were changed to avoid libel suits.<br /><br />A vitally important part of the joke is to get very angry whenever someone claims it's a joke.RogerBWhttps://blog.firedrake.org/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-12973006511130179142017-11-21T16:31:04.265+00:002017-11-21T16:31:04.265+00:00Honestly you couldn't write this stuff:
http:/...Honestly you couldn't write this stuff:<br />http://tinyurl.com/ybwm7zuf<br />ContextSwitchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02055385944215236099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-24029475183901337952017-11-17T16:04:57.324+00:002017-11-17T16:04:57.324+00:00> As a Christian, I do think that saying that r...> As a Christian, I do think that saying that religious <br />> people are gullible, or that we're only religious <br />> because we "don't realise it's all make believe" is a<br />> bit strong. <br /><br /><br />> I feel some of us need religion to live happily and<br />> others don't.<br /><br />Needing religion to live happily, and being gullible/deluded, are not mutually exclusive.<br /><br />Personally I agree with both statements.mgboyeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11087136219633309258noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-29638070296452509352017-11-17T10:36:57.817+00:002017-11-17T10:36:57.817+00:00> As far as I'm concerned, I don't see ...> As far as I'm concerned, I don't see a problem with <br />> people believing whatever they like, as long as it <br />> doesn't cause their actions to hurt others.<br /><br />You need to look at:<br />http://whatstheharm.net/<br /><br />Of course no-one ever got hurt by religion whilst atheism continues to cause people to murder for their beliefs ... oh wait ...ContextSwitchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02055385944215236099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-8602137982511775702017-11-16T17:11:30.204+00:002017-11-16T17:11:30.204+00:00You may be interested in the "Be Reasonable&q...You may be interested in the "Be Reasonable" podcast, specifically this one:<br />http://www.merseysideskeptics.org.uk/2017/01/be-reasonable-episode-038-mark-sergant/ContextSwitchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02055385944215236099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-62032909849112650832017-11-16T13:38:20.135+00:002017-11-16T13:38:20.135+00:00Ultimately things like flat-earth belief, and reli...Ultimately things like flat-earth belief, and religious belief, all arise out of two things, each of which has been essential to the evolutionary journey that elevated homo sapiens from other hominid species, and from the apes in general.<br /><br />The first is that as children we believe what our parents tell us. This is what helps us not drown, not get mauled by a lion, not die from eating the poisonous berries etc. Young people who don't believe what elders tell them tend to get selected out of the gene pool. The inevitable outcome of this is that along with all the useful life-preserving knowledge a load of myths, legends, old wives tales, and all kinds of other nonsense inevitably proliferates from generation to generation.<br /><br />The second is that probably the single biggest evolutionary advantage that our species gained, and which enabled it to build communities, countries, empires, to cross the globe, is our ability to build, share, and maintain collective delusions.<br /><br />The United Kingdom is a collective delusion. Andrews & Arnold Limited is a collective delusion. The concept of money is a collective delusion. These are all things that objectively do not exist outside of the minds of human beings. The only reason that A&A Ltd exists is because sufficient people believe that a thing called Companies House exists, and that some writing on some pieces of paper stored there has a particular meaning, and that other pieces of paper that have stuff called 'Legislation' written on them have some meaning, and that if a person in a wig and fancy robe declares something then you have to obey them, and that if a person in a particular uniform comes to your house then they have some authority over you. These inter-subjective concepts are essential to create anything resembling a society since without them you can't possibly motivate more than a few hundred individuals in a village to all work towards a shared goal. Without these concepts you can't build cities, or create armies, or build sea ports, or establish trade, or go and conquer other lands.<br /><br />And we're so good at this collective delusion stuff that most people who just read the previous paragraph are probably thinking "hang on, no, of course the United Kingdom objectively exists, you're just using some silly examples and clever language to confuse me". And from there it's not very many steps at all to burning bushes, virgin births and even global conspiracies about the topography of the planet.<br /><br />Having an ability to absolutely and completely believe in something that's objectively false is probably our biggest strength as a species, but it also leads to a whole load of undesirable nonsense along the way.<br /><br />At the start of the twenty-first century are we finally approaching a point where we might be able to fix this, or at least to render it largely harmless? To some degree, yes. But don't expect it to happen in a hurry...mgboyeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11087136219633309258noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-49972922585099678792017-11-16T12:47:49.163+00:002017-11-16T12:47:49.163+00:00As a Christian, I do think that saying that religi...As a Christian, I do think that saying that religious people are gullible, or that we're only religious because we "don't realise it's all make believe" is a bit strong. Same for rtho782's comment declaring religions as "archaic delusions".<br /><br />However, as someone who was an atheist until a few years ago, I can also totally understand why one might think and say exactly what you have, because it's the exact viewpoint I used to have. So I don't take any offense to the statements.<br /><br />We're all different and personally I feel some of us need religion to live happily and others don't. Assuming this is the case, it's easy to see how someone in the latter category might not understand the concept at all and therefore regard it as nonsense. My own experiences would tell me I'm in the former category.<br /><br />As far as I'm concerned, I don't see a problem with people believing whatever they like, as long as it doesn't cause their actions to hurt others. So while I certainly don't believe the world is flat for a second, I don't think there's any need to go assigning Flat Earth believers to mental health schemes. Maybe there would be a case if one of them was in an important role where it would actually make a difference - someone overseeing NASA for instance, in which case they should just hire someone else for the job anyway - but certainly not in general.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-2590938737946836332017-11-16T11:56:30.238+00:002017-11-16T11:56:30.238+00:00With regard to the question of "how can anyon...With regard to the question of "how can anyone believe this", I think you touched on the answer in your paragraph about religion being unfalsifiable. Elaborate conspiracy theories are also unfalsifiable, if you are prepared to continually expand the theory (as believers always are) to include anyone and everyone who might contradict it.<br /><br />For example, we have satellites and planes that prove the Earth is round? No we don't, planes just fly in a flat circle, and have you ever actually SEEN a satellite? NASA are just another part of the conspiracy, feeding us lies!<br /><br />Similarly, the hundreds of years of science? All speculative, and probably lies. Google Earth? It's just a fictional video game! And so on, and so on.<br /><br />As for forcing these people to undergo compulsory mental health "treatment", this seems like a very ugly route to go down. These people may be nutters, but they are rarely dangerous, and are still human beings with a basic right to believe what they want to believe. If they are physically endangering themselves or others, then there is an argument for (limited and temporary) intervention, but imposing mandatory re-education on people just because of their weird opinions is not something that happens in a free or civilised society.InfiniteDissenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00463076301051295104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-55192117080062300012017-11-16T10:07:31.089+00:002017-11-16T10:07:31.089+00:00>>they believe that all of the evidence that...>>they believe that all of the evidence that proves otherwise is somehow part of a global conspiracy<<<br />If the earth is flat then how can you have a "global" conspiracy.<br />Just saying........<br />Blind Pughhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08553234834457752677noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-35667751792832094112017-11-16T09:23:15.310+00:002017-11-16T09:23:15.310+00:00>> I think it is, at the very least, a clear...>> I think it is, at the very least, a clear symptom of something very wrong with society and the education system that such people could exist outside some sort of mental health facility.<br /><br />I know you touch on this in your last paragraph, but I feel this way about religion. I don't think humanity as a civilisation will really move forward until we forget these archaic delusions.rtho782https://www.blogger.com/profile/02052870855136709228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-76640565666246723492017-11-16T08:06:01.841+00:002017-11-16T08:06:01.841+00:00I love that they claim gravity is the result of ac...I love that they claim gravity is the result of acceleration immediately upwards. Not sure how they explain satellites not crashing into the surface though. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-79222292707049489022017-11-16T00:35:20.209+00:002017-11-16T00:35:20.209+00:00*buys popcorn and sits back to enjoy the coming fl...*buys popcorn and sits back to enjoy the coming flame war*Chris - Edinburghnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-78404285701099754502017-11-15T21:25:08.387+00:002017-11-15T21:25:08.387+00:00Yeah. I came across the Flat Earth Society a few y...Yeah. I came across the Flat Earth Society a few years back. At first I thought they were just having a kid-on, but the more I looked at it I thought, jesus, these nutters are for real! Andrew Claytonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15690989157183631976noreply@blogger.com