A British Atheist Philosopher, 81, Now Believes in God

reply to post by nahsik


"He is lying to himself."

Interesting.

So now you are saying that if you don't believe in what YOU believe then you are delusional.

Sounds like you have your own religion.

"Blasphemer!"

Just remember that if you are not a believer then you better be right.

Could get hot.

Originally posted by KOGDOG

Ha... ha... today's scientific paradigms are tomorrows superstitions. Better to look for what we suspect to exist rather assume that what we cannot yet prove does not.

I think you actually have that backwards...most superstitions have been replaced by scientific knowledge over time. Since one can only prove that something DOES exist, and not that something DOES NOT exist, the burden of proof lies on those professing the existence of god.

My previous statement stands...in the absence of evidence for the existence of god, the simplest explanation is that there is not one.

reply to post by thematrix


You said, "...instead of pussying out like this old guy did."

thematrix, Interesting thoughts you have...

Hi, OT here...

If you/we just become good fertilizer in the end...to WHOM would he be pu$$ing out to?

Was that a logic slip? btw, you're older now than your last post...tic toc...tic toc..

It is interesting that as people get older they don't become more religious with age. At least that is what I heard in my developmental psych class. You'd really think they'd want to get their crap together before they croak

So it more than likely wasn't him realizing that he is soon going to die, as age seems to have no effect on religiousity.

reply to post by ghaleon12

Scientist seems to believe the opposite of you.

Hah, it's really interesting just how quickly one can have a change of heart once they begin to feel the devil biting at their ass.

Originally posted by Alxandro
Hah, it's really interesting just how quickly one can have a change of heart once they begin to feel the devil biting at their ass.

and if that's really the primary motivation for going to god, then "heaven" must be full of a lot of fake souls.

reply to post by nahsik


Hurray for him.

Or...

Too bad for all the young minds he indoctrinated.

Can't decide on which angle to go with.

Originally posted by scientist

and if that's really the primary motivation for going to god, then "heaven" must be full of a lot of fake souls.

Of course there really is no way to prove this is there?

Something tells me sincerity is part of the key to get into heaven.

Originally posted by Alxandro
Hah, it's really interesting just how quickly one can have a change of heart once they begin to feel the devil biting at their ass.

You might notice he's now a deist - he doesn't believe in devils, angels, heaven or hell.

reply to post by keeb333


Correct, but as I scientist I cannot completely discount the probability of the other side. That's a personal thing though. I'm not a devout follower of Occam's razor and believe that keeps us inside a box of assumptions rather than allowing science to properly explore all possibilities. Sometimes the simplest and most logical conclusion is not the answer. That's just a personal opinion from my years of studies as a Zoologist, which involved a lot of evolutionary biology, microbiology, behavioural ecology and molecular biology.

Evolution exists, regardless of what the creationists think, and I do not have 'faith' in the Christian sense so i'm not copping out in any way. I definately don't believe ID is anything to do with the Christian God. For all I know it could have been aliens. I'm also like the Kabbalistic theory of the big bang as it focuses on energy. My view of 'god' is energy, matter, vibrations and light. But a few things that are generally 'accepted' in modern-day science actually throw up way more questions than they pretend to solve - how cell mechanics evolved without the whole organism already existing and what is the selection pressure of intermediate changes in evolutionary paths (pseudostages) to name a couple. These discussions should really be threads on their own.

ID gets highjacked by Christians making majority of scientists stay completely away from it. It's a 'cop out' that the hypothesis isn't explored from a non-Chritian point of view IMO.


[edit on 19-9-2008 by Nammu]

the impression I got from the article is that he doesn't necessarily mean God as in the christian God, or Allah, but a God that created the universe. That "God" could be just about anything.

reply to post by nahsik


The saying goes "there is no such thing as a atheist in a fox hole"