as for my 10 commandments, here goes: (best list i could put together on a whim!)

1.) Love

2.) Laugh

3.) Learn

4.) Eat, Drink (lots!) and be merry

5.) THINK! think before you speak, think before you do, be
rational and logical. USE YOUR BRAIN! (most people don’t…)

6.) “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” – Dr. Seuss

7.) Question everything. (ask questions, question authority, question the meaning of life…)

8.) Don’t worry, Be Happy.

9.) Basic human rights for all. ( i liked this one…)

10.) Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. (i kept your #10. i feel that slavery, no murder, and never hurt a child are all contained in this final rule.)

i hope you enjoy!

I just hope she doesn’t go too far with this anti-God stuff because a lot of her friends are pro-God and I’m not saying they won’t be friends with her for that reason. But that she might be starting to really hurt their feelings.

Rechelle, I don’t know you, so didn’t address this directly to you. Just trying to express my reactions to your blog lately, in case you care! (And wow, there are some mean “Christians” out there! (and not a few mean atheists, too!))

*facepalm*

and incidentally this is just idiotically wrong: “if anything else is right, then Christianity is wrong.”

WTF is “everything else”? you’re thinking in false dichotomies. are you even able to realize this? apparently not.

There are only two possibilities when considering Christianity – it is either 100% right or it is 100% wrong. There is no middle ground afforded even within Christianity. Since Christ makes claims of complete exclusivity, if there’s even 1% wrong, that blows the whole argument.

I never said that Christianity is the only option for what’s right. I did say that if Christianity is right then everything else is wrong, and by extension of that, if anything else is right, then Christianity is wrong. So… Again… Either Christianity is right or it isn’t. Those are the two possibilities. If Islam is right, Christianity is wrong. If atheism is right, Christianity is wrong. If Flying Spaghetti Monster-ism is right, Christianity is wrong. So… Again… Christianity is either right or it is wrong.

And here’s the thing about the Chesterton quote…

If there is a God, an Atheist is someone who does not believe in that God.

If there is no God, an Atheist is still someone who does not believe in God.

Now, if Atheism is correct and God exists merely as a construct of man’s own design, then Atheists are still non-believers in that construct, but since there’s actually something there for the Atheist to not believe in, the concept of God must be acknowledged as a reality. Notice that I did not say that God must be acknowledged as a reality, but the concept of God.

So if there is a God, an Atheist is still defined by the non-belief in that God (or other gods).

But if there is no God (or other gods), an Atheist is still defined by the non-belief. The Explicit Atheist position is a rejection, it is not substantive on its own. But even in the case of Implicit Atheism, as soon as a question of God or gods is brought up, the position taken on a god, God, or gods, is entirely dependent upon the existence of the notion of theism at all.

Colin -
Really? From the earliest age? So there was never a point in your development where you believed that everything you saw was yours, fully understanding personal ownership for yourself but not yet understanding personal ownership for others?

You must have been one heck of a baby.

You’re honestly denying personal moral development? Even as a child, you just KNEW right and wrong the same way you KNOW right and wrong now?

I am impressed.

that is still what is called a false dichotomy. you’re presenting two choices as if they were the only choices, without any evidence that this is so. and this is important to the understanding of Pascal’s Wager. the wager is about limited choices vis-a-vis unlimited consequences. it means that with a limited set of options that have potentially unlimited consequences, it ALWAYS pays to pick the option which offers limited punishment and unlimited reward; but when the options are as unlimited as the potential consequences, the probabilities that were in favor of the one option shrink to zero. it’s a statistics/probability thing, not a “faith” thing. don’t bring out arguments you’re only superficially familiar with.

“G.K. Chesterton once said, “If there were no God, there would be no Atheists.” How very, very, VERY right he was!”

nope. if there were no theists there would be no atheists. btw, I’m an aleprechaunist, too. does that mean leprechauns exist? what a silly argument.

2. That’s what faith is. I’ve decided – by my own judgment – that there is a God, and that I believe in Him. You have your evidence, I have mine. You think I’m crazy, I think you’re blind.

Jadehawk -
OK, fine, let me restate my entire position for the convenience of your inability to see past the words on the page:
“There are two possibilities in the universe: either Christianity is right, or it isn’t.”

Does that work for you? Because no matter what other possibilities you present now, it all still boils down to Christianity either being right or not being right. So… Is that better for you?

G.K. Chesterton once said, “If there were no God, there would be no Atheists.” How very, very, VERY right he was!

well, actually that already is completely and utterly false. once you’re willing to entertain the possibility of invisible and unevidenced beings, the sky’s the limit of the number of possible ways you could be wrong (but there’s always only one correct answer).

or as homer simpson said: “suppose we’ve chosen the wrong god. every time we go to church we’re just making him madder and madder!”

#1 – “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom,” so… Yeah, scared into becoming good is a pretty OK way of looking at it.

#2 – No, it really doesn’t fail to take moral non-believers into account. That’s actually exactly what I said in Possibility #4, when I pointed out that a life of altruism is possible. It’s up to personal moral choice. Since the morality has no higher root in that mindset, it’s perfectly possible for someone’s individual morality to be completely withdrawn from any theological implications.