Do you have a problem with people stating their opinion?
when stated as OPINION, it's fine, when stated as a simple indeniabel FACT by persons who are noted physicists, celebrities etc, and requoted again and again is stops being opinion and becomes a slogan and slogans dont have the "just my opinion" label
when posted as a quote out of context and left standing alone as a statement, it no longer has the tone of opinion,, but becomes an appeal to authority, and a claim of FACT.
this is the quote in question. as presented by zahet strife. it was accompanied by no "context" save it comes from the "atheist meme base". when a quote is used without anny commentary or context the assumption is, the poster agrees with the statement and accepts it's conclusion.
it looks pretty declarative. it conveys a simple message, einstein didnt believe in fairy tales and neither should you. this quote even goes so far as to include ALL concepts of life after death including the hindu/buddhist/taoist reincarnation ideas, the concept of the "soul" as described in the west, the "Ka" of the ancient egyptians and the "Spirit" as found in many primitive societies. this single quote pulls the rug out from under every religious, spiritual, or supernatural believe in existence, leaving only atheism as a logical choice based solely upon the assertions of one physicist.
I too am of the opinion that there is no god. I do not, however, insist I know or claim any certainty about my opinions.
uhh huh... thast cool. you can believe that. you can believe that all week long and twice on sunday. i never even hinted that you couldnt, or shouldnt.
I also have good reason to believe that the world's religions are all bullshit,
right right, still with you. many religions are pretty fucked up, and some stopped being religions centuries ago and have become businesses. and some always were businesses, ever since they were invented in the 60's by a science fiction writer...
but once again, that doesn't make the possibility of some sort of deity, maybe one I haven't been exposed to could be real.
yeah... i feel that. you been reading my diary?
Every single one of those quotes were directed either at specific gods (like Einstein's, Russel's, Randi and Maher's), religions or superstitious thinking in general (Sagan and Beecher). I cannot see how you think that every one is making a claim that it is impossible for ANY type of god to exist. Everyone should doubt the existential nature of things that have never been demonstrable shown to be true. I can reject the idea of gods as easily as I reject faeries, unicorns, dragons and crockaducks almost all the same. Not all possibilities in nature have equal probabilities. Things that have no evidence for existence can be dismissed without much thought, but it appears you would argue - except when discussing god because it might insult someone.
Aaaand... ya lost me. lets take an example. a noncontentious example, an example that allows us to examine a faith which is centered around NOT getting butthurt. a faith that has NEVER endorsed violence, and a faith that doiewsnt loose it's damned mind ever couple centuries: Buddhism. not new age Buddhism, but good old fashioned Buddhism, the way mother use to make.
you can argue that Buddha may or may not have existed. some say he was a real dude, others say he is just a MacGuffin. either way this doesnt bother the adherents at all. his existence as a live historical person is clearly the cornerstone of his elevation to enlightenment as the Buddha. if he in fact never existed, then he could hardly have meditated under that banyan tree right?
therefore, if he never existed, and thus was incapable of meditating, and thus also incapable of achieving enlightenment then Buddhism must be based upon a lie. thi sis fairly straightforward logical thinking yes?
if therefore, buddhism is based upon a lie, then it is specious and phony. however, many rational persons (you might prefer "Otherwise Rational" but im sticking with this) do in fact embrace buddhism, and they do it without a profit motive. my favorite uncle was a devout buddhist, and he never made a dime off it. he simply embraced it and it brought him great comfort. he didnt have to buy $5000 in icons, statues, shrines, special robes, strings of beads or any such shit. his temple never passed about a collection plate, and when i went to the temple with him i was never exhorted to join, nor criticized for my heresy. cuz buddhists dont roll like that.
if you say i doubt the person buddha ever existed, buddhists wont get butthurt, and they wont throw bombs into any schoolyards or stab any filmakers for offending their faith(no matter how much steven segall deserves it),, and no matter how much you insist Buddha never lived, he was never a man, he never meditated under a banyan tree, and never attained enlightenment, it still remains an unproveable statement. you cannot disprove the existence of a man who is reputed to have lived some 2500 years ago, any more than i can prove to you that he did exist. so we both have an assertion, and niether can be proved. if however, you go on TV, declare that buddhism is bullshit, Siddartha was never a real person, and anyone who says otherwise is a lying thieving bastard who sells poison milk to schoolchildren, well then thats entirely different.
if somebody takes a quote from you and shaves off the "in my opinion" clause leaving only : "any belief in the supernatural, the soul, anything which persists after death, and any assertion of anything not proved by science is only the fears and cowardice of feeble souls" then puts that phrase on a pretty picture of you, and waves it around outside a funeral would be making an unequivocal statement.
the exact same statement made by the phelps assholes when they wave their
"GOD HATES FAGS!" signs.
imagine how hard you would hyper-rage if, those dinguses protested the funeral of some person you know, and when you cornered one of the rats, he smugly insisted
"you just dont know the context!" and pointed to the microprinting on the bottom of the sign that says
"so you should not smoke! this message brought to you by the Ad Council and the American Lung Association". thats what youre claiming here.
Looks like blackface and minstrel show right? Fucking racists... they tell kids it's from climbing up and down chimneys and working on the ship that brings Sinterklaas from Spain to Holland. By now Xmas is so commercial that kids here have both Santa and Sinterklaas giving them presents.
