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POPSScience, faith and everyday miracles "An Einstein letter that sold at an auction in May leaves little doubt of his atheism. "The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish," he wrote in 1954, a year before his death." "And yet Einstein is famous for a number of teasingly "spiritual" quotations - "I cannot believe that God plays dice with the cosmos," for one - that suggest he is a theist. A growing body of Einsteinologists believes the physicist was using such God language metaphorically to express a human impulse for finding meaning and comfort in the clock-like workings of the universe. As he wrote in 1931:"
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POPSTheistic Sanity It's not often that I agree with religious leaders but when I do it deserves to be pointed out. The point that Benedict makes of refuting the claim that evolution promotes atheism is of course correct. Although many, particularly in the States, believe otherwise. Unfortunately, the persons that fall into this category are also people that are the least informed on the subject.
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POPSThe Boogey Man is Gonna Get Ya! According to the review of this new book it seems the author is rehashing the same old discounted arguments over what he dubs the "New Atheism". Using fear and misdirection it seems once again to be a weak attempt to defend the indefensible by a christian apologist.
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POPSCreationist Shows His Stuff Here's a pretty typical tirade by a fundamentalist Creationist that pretty much touches on all the points that Creationists get wrong all the time. About the only point he makes is that he's pretty ignorant about science and adheres to the talking points of the conservative right. My question is how many of these proselytizers will have to be proven wrong before they're eventually shamed into admitting that they've been lied to. The sad part is that many certainly have children who are also subjected to these ignorant views thus the ignorance is allowed to be passed along generational lines.
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POPSAtheists aren't skeptical enough and... ...the best skeptics are actually theists. The agnostics ski down the mountain into the woods, searching for hard evidence on the basis of which to decide whether God exists—which is very odd, given that a moment ago they were standing here with us, ready to climb as declared skeptics. Agnostics, plainly, are wafflers in their skepticism: As the team gets going, they U-turn back to the foothills, where every true skeptic says there is nothing to find. They do not care about the truth. But even more astonishing than that, the atheists have just gone home. They are not down in the valley looking for evidence; they are not looking at all. They have packed in the science without lifting a boot, as if the summit were already taken, the question answered.
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POPSThe Devil's Delusion More from the debates :) Better to read the whole review...i could only clip a lil bit. http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/dont-write-off-religion-just-yet/
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POPSScientific Framing - Do We Need It? Recently there's been a controversy in the scientific community concerning scientific framing. That's framing in the sense of presenting views and facts in such a way that they appeal to a larger percentage of the population. We hear this mostly in the political realm but it applies equally in the scientific realm particularly where science and politics intersect. Is it the right thing to do? Is it too Orwellian?
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POPSA Rational Review One can hope that Ben Stein can now be laid to rest as a fraud, a liar, and a snake oil salesman. One would also hope that the mental health profession would lend their services and have counselors on hand after viewing this drivel to reintroduce the viewers gently back to reality.
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POPSEinstein's Idea Of Religion A crucial point is that Einstein stated categorically that he did not believe in a personal God, of the kind assumed by most practising religious people. Einstein detested the idea of a personal God who rewarded or punished his creatures, or exercised his will by interfering in events. He felt such an idea was intrinsically connected with human selfishness, merely 'a reflection of human frailty' So what was Einstein's religion? He called it 'cosmic religion' and it was a sense of awe at 'the nobility and marvellous order which are revealed in nature and in the world of thought.. Einstein's view of traditional religion was somewhat ambivalent. He detested any idea of indoctrination or fundamentalism, but admitted that conventional religions had a role in setting ethical standards
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POPSChris Hedges: (I) Don't Believe (in) Atheists The bestselling author of The New Fascists speaks out against religious and secular fundamentalism as he explores the New Atheists: those who attack religion to advance the worst of global capitalism, intolerance and imperial projects. Hedges claims that those who have placed blind faith in the morally neutral disciplines of reason and science create idols in their own image — a sin for either side of the spectrum. He makes an impassioned, intelligent case against religious and secular fundamentalism, which seeks to divide the world into those worthy of moral and intellectual consideration and those who should be condemned, silenced and eradicated. Hedges shatters the new atheists' assault against religion in America, and in doing so, makes way for new, moderate voices to join the debate. This is a book that must be read to understand the state of the battle about faith. ISBN: 9781416567950 Author: Hedges, Chris Publisher: Free Press
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POPS18 Unconvincing Arguments for God A student asked what would convince me that God exists? I named a few miracles that would at least convince me that something supernatural exists. But the question stuck in my mind and I naturally began to think of what wouldn’t convince me. Thus, if the goal of these students was to evangelize an atheist, it seemed perfectly appropriate that I give them a list of what wouldn’t work, so they could creatively come up with some new arguments, as their class title suggests. I meant this to be educational and in no way condescending, and that is how I hope the students perceive my presentation.
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POPSSanity in Thought Reading this one could assume that it's written by one of those left-wing liberal living in sin-filled NY or LA. Actually it's a comment by someone in Malaysia. Naturally, I agree with what this writer says.
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POPSAlbert Einstein Quotes on a Personal God Did Albert Einstein believe in God? Many religious theists cite Einstein as an example of a smart scientist who was also a religious theist like them. This supposedly rebuts the idea that science conflicts with religion or that science is atheistic. However, Albert Einstein consistently and unambiguously denied believing in personal gods who answered prayers or involved themselves in human affairs - exactly the sort of god common to religious theists claiming that Einstein was one of them.
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POPSThe Incredibly Tiny Christian Universe "..astronomers estimate that hundreds of billions of galaxies exist in the universe and that each galaxy could contain hundreds of Christian-sized universes!" See? There's no "real" conflict between religion and science...is there?