Recent content by der Astronom

So just because I choose to be away for some time means I'm deciding not to respond to you at all. That's a nice conclusion. I'm not doing it here because it's not the scope of this thread. If you want to know how I justify morality, you are free to ask through PMs or post a thread up about...

I think my rate has been consistently the same for the last few years.

Sorry for the late reply; I was away for awhile. I agree that people only seem to be superficially interested in math, while there's a whole entire level of interesting stuff underneath the proofs. But it's not for everyone. And it's not represented in the right way to everyone. Who gets to be...

What, and you don't think they are? I don't know if I actually claim they are universal things that people must accept (I happen to think they should, but that doesn't mean I'm going to hold a gun up to your head if you don't; that would defeat the whole point of freedom in the first place), and...

And that wouldn't be the scope of this thread. If you think there's something out there that is significantly hampering our growth and society that you feel needs to be expressed, feel free to make another thread about it. And you could write an entire thread about it, if you feel your health...

Actually, I think something as natural as love can exist without religion. In fact, that people think religion is necessary for love seems awkward to me, at least when taken from the Christian religion. How can you even love a person you've never even met and know almost nothing about? I can...

But we were at some point, right? Some people I know of used to be religious, and would know what it's like. And despite that, they still continue to criticize religion and might believe they were better off without it. I used to be religious, and I'm telling you, I'm happier without it, and if...

Actually, I disagree. Religion is not a necessary condition of morality. If it were not, we could not contest its treatment of women, homosexuals or slavery. Learning to get along with other people and working with them does not require religion. You can get along fine with someone who doesn't...

The title came from the topic of an Intelligence Squared debate among people who are more knowledgeable about the subject than I am, and while I'm not using it to support my argument, and the result may have been in favor of being without religion, I just thought it was an interesting...

Well, religion is the excuse people use for faith healing and denying seeing the doctor. I have seen it happen too. Parents refuse to bring their children to see a doctor because of their religion. Their children could easily have been cured if they went to see a doctor, but instead, their...

No, I suppose not. But what I am getting at is that there seems to be a great ignorance about the harm religion can cause. People don't seem to see that because they've been trained not to criticize it because it's too "personal". And on the other hand, there are lots of serious problems...

I don't actually know of too many atheists who are arguing only because they want religious people to stop being religious. It would be nice, but if they don't, we can understand that it's a personal choice people choose to make. The least we can do is inform them of what we think of their...

It does at least one of two things: That religion is not so sacred that it can never be attacked. Why are we allowed to make fun of politicians or celebrities or other popular people, but we can't make fun of religion? There's absolutely no reason why we can't make fun of religion. Freedom of...

I don't actually mind if it makes people think or if it causes them to be critical of other ideas. I don't hold any particular idea to be more sacred than any other; they're all subject to scrutiny. I just think some ideas simply work better than others because criticisms against them are...

Then you are making an exception for might makes right, which means if the might is significant enough, then you'll concede that it's right. And that's not any different from believing might makes right. See, the problem here is that I have no other frame of reference for determining what I...