Why are atheists disliked in America?

[KanadaHye]

Re: Why are atheists disliked in America?

I can't watch the video at the moment but claiming human embryos have gills is incorrect.

“Early embryos have what we call pharyngeal pouches, or branchial pouches. Fishes have a branchial apparatus which develops and gives them gills which they need. A gill is a communication between the pharynx and the outside so that the large surface area of a gill can absorb oxygen and excrete wastes just like human lungs do. But the human embryo has pouches, it never has slits communicating with the outside.”

A human embryo doesn't absorb oxygen from water as fish do with gills. The human embryo is fully supplied with oxygen through the umbilical cord.

[Siggie]

Re: Why are atheists disliked in America?

I'm pretty sure humans are human from conception to birth and don't have gills or tails during development stage.

Watch the video.

[KanadaHye]

Re: Why are atheists disliked in America?

Dead serious. Why would human beings have gills or tails in their dna at all?

I'm pretty sure humans are human from conception to birth and don't have gills or tails during development stage.

[Siggie]

Re: Why are atheists disliked in America?

Huh? Gills and tails? Are you serious?

Dead serious. Why would human beings have gills or tails in their dna at all?

--- Edit

I haven't watched this through so I can't point to a specific time (at work now ), but I strongly suspect this is nearly identical to the talk I saw Jerry give about his book last year at a different conference. If so, he will discuss the physical evidence for evolution and the gills are among the many others. It also provides a decent explanation of evolution, which is handy as I don't think the majority of people have an accurate grasp of what it is.


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[KanadaHye]

Re: Why are atheists disliked in America?

The design of the eye. Reproductive/digestive systems. The fact that human embryos develop gills and tails that then disappear.

Huh? Gills and tails? Are you serious?

[Siggie]

Re: Why are atheists disliked in America?

What do you mean we or animals are "not adapted enough"? The Earth also adapts to what people do with/to it, the forces are reciprocal.

The design of the eye. Reproductive/digestive systems. The fact that human embryos develop gills and tails that then disappear.

[KanadaHye]

Re: Why are atheists disliked in America?

The life on this Earth is adapted to Earth because of evolution! Evolution fits the observations better than creation because neither we, nor other animals, are well enough adapted to suggest design.

That's a very inspirational story about inventing things, but because God cannot be imagined into existence, your example is not persuasive.

What do you mean we or animals are "not adapted enough"? The Earth also adapts to what people do with/to it, the forces are reciprocal.

[Siggie]

Re: Why are atheists disliked in America?

I think the universe is too perfect and mankind too imperfect for there not to be a greater source of intelligence. If someone were to say they saw God or God spoke to them, nobody would believe them anyways. Certainly people can have visions in their dreams and attribute that to having contact with God but it could just be that our minds are more powerful during sleep than when awake. Concepts of good and evil, God and Devil, etc. are representations of pros/cons, hot/cold, positive/negative. If you think about it, all the forces that are holding the universe together is in perfect equilibrium and if there was an imbalance, our world would cease to exist.

In the same way that we don't have evidence to prove there is a God, we also don't have evidence to prove there isn't a God. Atheists argue proof is not needed for something that doesn't exist. For whatever reason, we are conditioned to imagine things that don't exist, something we refer to as vision. If people didn't have vision, there would be no cars, no television, no vcr's, etc. These things came from people that had vision. Mind you, some people are still hunting for the fountain of youth and Big Foot (imagination is separate from vision). There was a time when people sat there and wished they could change the TV channel without getting up and wham, the remote control was invented. Some people wish and hope while others do work and create. I would be shocked to find out that scientists and inventors in the past were non believers, despite what most of us are told today.

The life on this Earth is adapted to Earth because of evolution! Evolution fits the observations better than creation because neither we, nor other animals, are well enough adapted to suggest design.

That's a very inspirational story about inventing things, but because God cannot be imagined into existence, your example is not persuasive.

[Siggie]

Re: Why are atheists disliked in America?

Also the atheist can never really justify philosophically or morally his existence. In other words, what difference does it make if I live or die? Not how should I live, but why should I live in the first place. You will find that the answer to that question lies beyond the purely rational realm. If you take that there is no meaning, you descend into nihilism and into the realm of absurdity...

I don't understand what you mean... apparently, I've never struggled with this. Why am I here? Broader, more distal reason: Millions of years of evolution. More proximate? My parents had sex and conceived me. Is it any less amazing to be alive? Nope. Does it make me less motivated to do something with my time? No.

[Siggie]

Re: Why are atheists disliked in America?

For the "hallucination" thing, let's try this...

Bob's grandma is in the hospital dying of a low terminal illness. Bob has a vision in which he believes that God spoke to him and told him the humane thing to do would be to put an end to Grandma's suffering and reunite her with God. He takes his pistol to the hospital with him the next day and shoots Grandma in the head.

Has Bob seen/heard God? Is he guilty of any crime?