The end comments on the article are interesting. I wonder if other religion’s believers will see a correlation, say, in this country.
On 3 March 2008, in a popular TV show, Sanal Edamaruku, the president of Rationalist International, challenged India’s most “powerful” tantrik (black magician) to demonstrate his powers on him. That was the beginning of an unprecedented experiment. After all his chanting of mantra (magic words) and ceremonies of tantra failed, the tantrik decided to kill Sanal Edamaruku with the “ultimate destruction ceremony” on live TV. Sanal Edamaruku agreed and sat in the altar of the black magic ritual. India TV observed skyrocketing viewership rates.
[...]
After nearly two hours, the anchor declared the tantrik’s failure. The tantrik, unwilling to admit defeat, tried the excuse that a very strong god whom Sanal might be worshipping obviously protected him. “No, I am an atheist,” said Sanal Edamaruku. Finally, the disgraced tantrik tried to save his face by claiming that there was a never-failing special black magic for ultimate destruction, which could, however, only been done at night. Bad luck again, he did not get away with this, but was challenged to prove his claim this very night in another “breaking news” live program.
The failure to even understand the basic difference between science and religion will cause the failure of the US. This myth that science is taken on faith is being perpetuated by those who want to destroy our democracy and replace it with a theocratic system. They are called Christian Reconstructionists and millions are duped into following these people.
# 5 gregallen said
Before you atheists get all smug, I should remind you that your faith in technology and religionless utopia have been tried and shown to be disastrous folly. Yet, you still believe.
gregallen, you cannot deny the truth as presented by this following image.
http://tinyurl.com/294yek
#13 is an idiot. Like all religious nuts, they think “belief” in magical invisible beings is the SAME as scientific analysis. Dude, you’re stupid. An airplane doesn’t fly just because some scientists have “belief” in aerodynamics, physics and mathematics. These are provable repeatable predictable results. Science DOES have conjecture (like life on other planets) but they pose it as conjecture. It’s insipid 24/7 cable news outlets and the like that report it as ‘fact’ without noting the complicated details of some 25 page research paper. Funny even religious idiots REALLY truly trust science at heart, they just pretend in arguments that they don’t. They all trust how the internal combustion engine works, trust the lights come on when they flick a switch in their house, trust their airplane will fly, trust the geosynchronous orbiting solar powered satellite to beam down a microwave signal of digital compressed video to their computer controlled HD TV so they can watch some idiot televangellist explain how his “belief” is the same as science. ROLFMAO
#21 – “faith in technology and religionless utopia have been tried and shown to be disastrous folly.”
What magical world do you live on? I don’t remember any nation that existed without religion, relying solely on ‘faith’ in technology, which then fell apart. Are you confusing a dream or a book you read with reality?
Far as I know there has never been a free democratic non-religious nation in the world, basing its laws and traditions solely on reason and science. Now if that DOES ever happen, and it fails, that would be interesting.
#22 LOL you live up to your name!
Good game.
It still shocks me that religionists would have so little dignity as to admit to believing such unknowable things. Have they no shame?
#21 Julieb — good link
#23 LOL — I’m with you, but I think the religionists are thinking about what a failure communism has been.
#6 – #5: who said anything about Athiests having faith in technology and/or “religionless utopia”?
Who? Theists.
#16 – We are all religious. Whether we choose to admit it or not.
We are all religious if, and only if, you insist on redefining religion to mean whatever you need it to mean to satisfy your ludicrous notion that we are all religious.
This sort of show puts us Christians in a dilemma. Do we let the atheist die and Hinduism get the credit or do we protect the atheist from his own folly and give ammunition to the secularists?
Obviously, a Christian prayed protection for the atheist. Ignorant atheists usually die from demonic attacks like that.
Communism and Socialism are “atheistic” (“without a god”) faith systems, but not all atheists are Communists or Socialists. Budhists is also atheists, for example, and faith in the Red Sox does not involve any gods or rationality, either.
Most people with strong faith in something simply cannot understand that some of us just don’t have a faith system. They have one, so we have to have one, and we are just lying to ourselves if we believe we don’t. It’s not worth arguing about. They are unable to process the input.
#28 – Wow… I’m glad you are joking because I just don’t have the energy for the sort of flaming a serious guy would deserve…
Oh great–next I’ll find out that cake is a lie…
Great job, Mr. Edamaruku!
#21 – julieb
Love those flowcharts.
#13
I can see your point about scientific evidence not always open to revision. Scientists who have discovered something tend to resist interpertation to anything of the contrary (espcially if they are making money off of it). But religion is no different, if not completely closed minded about anything being “diffrent.”
Technically the scientific method is “supposed” open to support, or contradict since debate about theories and test results are argued constantly all the time.
But it’s the same thing with religion. Why are there so many diffrent religions, if there’s really supposed to be only one god? Even among the same religions (ahem, Christians) there’s literally thousands of different types with their own little spin on the bible, as to why they exist. Most of these off-shoot churches exist because someone had a “different” idea than what’s cannon, and they were excomunicated.
My point it’s we are talking about human nature, truth vs. bullshit. Not religion vs. science.
The fact that we live in a time where we get to instantly debate things worldwide… is new, relatively
#29 – Communism and Socialism are “atheistic” (”without a god”) faith systems,
You COULD also so that capitalism and democracy are atheistic systems faith systems too. Neither system involves a god.
Something else that capitalism and democracy share with communism and socialism is that none of them are faith systems either.
#29, Phillep,
A good post, but I offer a slightly different take on one point.
Communism and Socialism are “atheistic” (”without a god”) faith systems, but not all atheists are Communists or Socialists.
The two major countries that implemented communism, The USSR and China deified their leaders into gods. So while the leaders claimed their was no “god”, they made their own for the people to worship. While the citizens were extolled to do things for the country, the leader WAS the country.
For example, Lennon was embalmed and put on display. Statues of him were prominently displayed in every town. The same with Stalin even when he was alive. The condemned sent letters to Stalin begging him to intervene as some mistake had been made. Even though it would have been Stalin that ordered the execution. China worshiped Mao the same way.
I love reading the comments on this post, such intellectually stimulating thoughts racing across land, sea and air. Passionate speaches and humorus quips. All signifying squat.
In the end it all turns to dust, in the wind.
(Sorry about the “in the wind” part, couldn’t help myself)