That is a quote from Ayn Rand who wrote Atlas Shrugged which dramatizes the clash between the prevailing wisdom and a more rational philosophy.

http://objectivistliving.com
http://aynrand.org
http://atlassociety.com

http://fff.org
http://mises.org
http://campaignforliberty.com

http://YALiberty.org

Matt the Knife #199 seems to quote other christian fundies in an attempt to rationalize xtian views opposed to atheist ones, a jury of his own hand ultra peers as it were. Thankfully the jury selection process is not so biased(or is it?)

In any case, when i debate a dogmatic i tend to do the opposite. My last post paraphrased matthew 7:3 using bible logic which will surely be acknowledged for its wisdom by the dogmatic christian. When do we as atheists or freethinkers ever see them effectively use an atheist quote to support their own stance.

“Heh heh. I should just sit back and let you sink your own ship.” #31

Murky origins perhaps but still a strong statement…
“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.”

I am confident that in spiritual terms that it is much more complex than either simple faith or simple denial would indicate, or that we can imagine.

“The way so many intellectual people are deliberately driven and deceived by a bunch of religious donkeys makes me strongly believe that those donkeys hide among themselves an arcane top-sectret”. –Flavioos

# 58 – “Back to Atheist Sunday school for ya, OFLTO. “philosophy” will get you dementia and tertiary syphilis, like it did Nietzche. Faith and spirituality will get you inner peace.”

# 155 – “As to my blissful “ignorance”, what’s it to ya? According you congregants in the Church of Atheism, once you’re dead, it’s all over. Better to be blissful than to be the miserable, arrogant, confused, self-loathing, bitter, thoroughly unhappy fucks that so many Atheists seem to be.”

Oh how I long for the degree of inner peace that you have Sir.

Then we have:

# 95 – “Ho ho ho (no racism implied) Merry Christmas!”

# 106 – “Sure. Like Hwang “Human Cloning Master” Woo-Suk, the Korean guy who published is made-up research in the premiere scientific journal in the world, Science. After peer-review and all. Only the revelation by “PD Su-cheop” (the Korean equivalent of Entertainment Tonight) that he was a phony led to his eventual outing and resignation in disgrace.”

I just felt there was a significant amount of emphasis on your use of the words “the Korean guy”. Enough so, that I felt it my personal duty to reinstate that there is in fact, “no racism implied”.

You and many others should take a page from the book you hold so dearly to. Last I heard, Christianity was supposed to be a peaceful religion. Also I find it odd that so many branches of Christianity came from the same words. Where as Atheism always results in the same conclusion: There is no God.

The real evil is hiding behind your religion. How else can Fred Phelps justify his horrible and senseless rantings? You wish to “enlighten” people, we wish to educate them.

You always have an answer. Though often the answer requires you ignore some obvious facts.

1. I am not American, therefore USA Today (presumably a sub-standard scientific journal) is completely unknown to me.

2. I have a very scientific mind. This doesn’t mean that I enjoy learning about science. It means that I want to know how everything works. If I see some invention in a magazine, or in a blog. I instantly want to know how it works. I want to see diagrams and source code and calculations and all that stuff.

I know how the world works by applying scientific that I have been taught to what I have experienced for myself.

Difference between my logical method and an equivalent religious method is that my method can be applied to anything. And I can take the theory, expand on it, and apply it to something else. most of science meshes together well.

Think about it, what proof do theist’s have of their god(s) existence besides feelings and personal beliefs, the realm of psychologists. A person armed with scientific knowledge, can prove almost anything, the flow of electricity can be proved with simple experiments. Lightning can be scaled down to a basic electrical arc. Something that hundreds of thousands of tradesmen use all the time.

Before you claim that people that believe science are no higher than theists, think about how science got to where it is today. Where science moves at breakneck speed, religion plods along at snails pace.

jasmine
tech-chek.blogspot.com

I’d like to think that religion and spirituality deal with meaning and the “why”, whereas science deals with facts and the “how”, but when holy texts make factual claims about the world, such as that the universe was created in a week, or that Mary was a virgin who gave birth, or that Jesus magically healed the sick, it’s hard to maintain that distinction. The Bible is not merely a book of guidelines on how to live well, it is predominantly a historical book that contains stories purported to be factually true.

Either these things actually happened, or they did not. It is up to you to decide whether such miracles are likely to be true or whether they are more likely to be ancient mythology. The authors did not leave us guidelines as to which parts of the Bible are metaphorical and which are literal. We atheists generally recognize this and realize that when assessing the claims of the Bible, we can only assume it means what it says.

Nobody has absolute knowledge, but science and (true) philosophy represent humanity’s best attempts at an honest, fair, systematic, and logical distillation of factual truth about our universe. The history of science and logical thought is full of error, but that is to be expected in any human endeavor. It also shows that we are progressing; science has built-in protocols for discarding old ideas in light of new evidence, and the latest knowledge is the standard by which we judge our past mistakes.

Let’s all maintain some humility here. Nobody is being intolerant by expressing their thoughts. Is the person intolerant, or are their ideas threatening to you? If it’s the latter, this should inspire you to think deeper rather than to attack the messenger.

Finally, let’s move beyond the whole “religion/spirituality fulfills me” thing. Please reread quote #6 by Shaw above to see why this may be nice for you, but is beside the point.

Okay, I have another “Finally”: agnosticism is the only valid position, true, but it is a generally meaningless thing to say that nobody knows if God exists. Of course they don’t. The debate is about belief, not knowledge. Atheists don’t believe, theists do, and we’re discussing which position is more rational. Only the very misguided claim to know that there is or is not a God, and these folks can be safely ignored.