Does a belief in a god show lack of education?

[Sheldon]

Although your more of a one-liner comic than interested in engaging the issues,

Puerile ad hominem, and your is a possessive pronoun.

I'll gladly discuss all with you if you can confine yourself to posting to me once or perhaps twice a throw, rather than epexegetically spewing all across this thread and onto conversations with other (more engaged, more sincere) people.

I will post as and when I am minded to, and you may engage or not as you are minded to. If you continue to make unevidenced claims, and base arguments on known logical fallacies, like the argumentum ad populum fallacy you used repeatedly, that a few posters including me pointed out, while you kept implying you were being rational, then I will point out such contradictions. Since this is a debate forum after all.

 

[Sheldon]

Being an atheist means you think 99% of people are irrational

No it doesn't it means I lack belief in any deity or deities, and it is ludicrous hyperbole to imagine either theist or atheist could engage with 99% of all theists well enough to assess how rational they are generally.

name ANYTHING other than God that nearly everyone believes FALSELY and your assertion about collective insanity is correct.

Well that wasn't my comment obviously, but I don't see the relevance of your question, the number of people who hold a belief tell us nothing about the validity of that belief. A bare appeal to numbers is just an argumentum ad populum fallacy, as has been explained.

Otherwise, get out of the way and stop interfering with we who hear from God.

This is a public debate forum, open to both theists and atheists, if you don't want to engage with atheists then there are forums on this site strictly for theists.

 

[Sheldon]

Although your more of a one-liner comic than interested in engaging the issues,

PASS THE BUTTER!

God told me.

Physician heal thyself...

 

[Dan From Smithville]

I'd be tempted to answer you, but nothing of what you said address my point.

Let's reduce from 99% to 90% of people affirm/say/LIVE their truth that God IS.

Name ANYTHING OTHER than God that 90% of people FALSELY adhere to.

Still waiting, and I've asked this multiple times of multiple skeptics and scoffers at RF.

I'd be tempted to answer, but I do not understand the question. It does not seem rational or based on any evidence. At least, none you have supplied.

Or is this some hypothetical situation? In that case, any answer is sufficient. Just change the parameters of the hypothetical.

Why don't you provide the evidence you have used to derive your percentages. Do 99% of people believe in God? Do 90%? What is the standard you are using to show belief? Is it merely saying they believe?

You seem to be posting a lot and saying nothing at all.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

God told me.

Can you demonstrate that? I don't believe you.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

God told me.

I believe God is telling me to be honest in my learning, understanding and positions.

I have never been told anything about you by God or about your claims or hypothetical nonsense.

We may share a belief in God, but approach it from radically different rationals.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

I'd be tempted to answer you, but nothing of what you said address my point.

Let's reduce from 99% to 90% of people affirm/say/LIVE their truth that God IS.

Name ANYTHING OTHER than God that 90% of people FALSELY adhere to.

Still waiting, and I've asked this multiple times of multiple skeptics and scoffers at RF.

You are mistaking being skeptical of you as being skeptical of God. I would never make you equivalent to God.

 

[Sheldon]

Let's reduce from 99% to 90% of people affirm/say/LIVE their truth that God IS.

One made up stat is much like another, and all equally irrelevant. What I mean is that 99.987% of people think stats are made up on the spot.

Name ANYTHING OTHER than God that 90% of people FALSELY adhere to.

Why does that matter beyond a bare appeal to numbers? How many times must it be explained that the number of people who believe something tell us nothing about the validity of that belief? NB This is true even if we only have one example of the fallacy...

Still waiting, and I've asked this multiple times of multiple skeptics and scoffers at RF.

You keep ignoring the answers probably because your loaded straw man question isn't getting the "gotcha moment" you had anticipated.

 

[Heyo]

Two arguments were made:

Belief in God is false, demonstrating that nearly every person who has ever lived is irrational.

Belief in God leads to belief in magic, anchoring the point above.

Which is it? Only atheists are rational and should be the masters of society or what?

I have increasing difficulty to understand your argument.

@Sheldon, @Dan From Smithville, @IndigoChild5559, @night912, sorry to bother you but could you look into our dispute and give your opinion on whether I met BilliardBall's challenge to name an equally irrational belief to theism? Can you explain to me BilliardBall's argument why I didn't meet the challenge?

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

I have increasing difficulty to understand your argument.

@Sheldon, @Dan From Smithville, @IndigoChild5559, @night912, sorry to bother you but could you look into our dispute and give your opinion on whether I met BilliardBall's challenge to name an equally irrational belief to theism? Can you explain to me BilliardBall's argument why I didn't meet the challenge?

I don't know BillardBall's thoughts, but I recognize something as a skeptic. For all humans for all times and all cases of different contradictory claims, not just about gods, you get that 99% of all humans properly were or are irrational. But that is absurd, because it becomes normal. All normal humans are irrational, so now what?
There is still a humanity, babies are born, lucky people have lives, have children and live good lives if lucky.

Further in an even more absurd sense, to claim to be rational is how weird it might sound a case of special pleading.

Now for this version of rational, based on facts or reason and not on emotions or feelings, I have found it impossible to be rational all the time. And i doubt any other human can do it, including you.

 

[Sheldon]

I have increasing difficulty to understand your argument.

@Sheldon, @Dan From Smithville, @IndigoChild5559, @night912, sorry to bother you but could you look into our dispute and give your opinion on whether I met BilliardBall's challenge to name an equally irrational belief to theism? Can you explain to me BilliardBall's argument why I didn't meet the challenge?

Well BilliardBall used an argumentum ad populum fallacy, and is now repeating it endlessly. For some reason he is ignoring all attempts to explain this. He is also insisting, for reasons only he seems to understand, that others demonstrate another irrational (his words) belief than theism, and again he is repeatedly making the same bare appeal to numbers.

 

[IndigoChild5559]

I have increasing difficulty to understand your argument.

@Sheldon, @Dan From Smithville, @IndigoChild5559, @night912, sorry to bother you but could you look into our dispute and give your opinion on whether I met BilliardBall's challenge to name an equally irrational belief to theism? Can you explain to me BilliardBall's argument why I didn't meet the challenge?

Could you provide a link to the post you want me to review? Thanks

 

[Heyo]

Now for this version of rational, based on facts or reason and not on emotions or feelings, I have found it impossible to be rational all the time. And i doubt any other human can do it, including you.

Yep. I am highly irrational right now - I smoke. Most of the day I'm running on autopilot, not thinking about what I do. And I observe others doing it also.
But when it comes to beliefs (in god or magic), I put my brain to work and while I do make logic errors now and then (which I try to find and correct), I think I am less faulty than believers.

 

[Heyo]

Could you provide a link to the post you want me to review? Thanks

It starts with BilliardBall's challenge here and my response here. The chain goes on with #415, #430 and #457. TIA

 

[IndigoChild5559]

It starts with BilliardBall's challenge here and my response here. The chain goes on with #415, #430 and #457. TIA

Billiard Ball's challenge was to come up with another less than rational belief that is believed by 90% of the population.

You suggestion was magic. I'm sorry, but your answer does not meet his requirement.

First of all, you are mistaken when you say that everyone who believes in God believes in magic. Magic is the idea that you can say a spell or do a ritual that will alter objective reality. Tons of people believe in God who do not believe in magic. You certainly cannot say that 90% of people believe in magic.

Prayer, because it is a request that can be turned down, is not the same as magic.

 

[Bird123]

It's not a matter of intelligence.

IMO, the person who believes in God has probably made a mistake in critical thinking, but intelligent people can make mistakes in critical thinking.

When a person values or settles on beliefs, over the Discovery of the facts, they are indeed overlooking so much. That is a mistake in thinking that can lead one away from what actually is.

Real Truth is not always an agreeable thing. Creating those beliefs so they are agreeable is not on the journey toward the Discovery of Real Truth.

One must be open for all possibilities until the truth is Discovered. Further, truth must constantly be questioned rather than accepted for one might Discover their truth was actually a belief all along. Example: There was a day when the truth was that the smallest part of an element was the atom. After acquiring more knowledge, this long held truth was never the real truth at all.

That's what I see. It's very clear!!

 

[night912]

Of course they are irrational.

I can prove a negative, "Sheldon didn't put butter in the fridge" by simply opening the fridge and having a look.

You are claiming that NOWHERE in the UNIVERSE is POSSIBLY a God, which is a statement of eyes big enough to see the whole fridge (omniscience) and is utterly, of course, irrational.

I'd consider you rational if you were agnostic or just like me, a lover of Jesus Christ, or somewhere between.

This rambling is irrelevant to what I said. How about you stop dodging and actually address my points.

 

[night912]

You're likely only reading our posts and not the whole thread, where I've mentioned I can live with 90-99% of people are not as irrational as atheists--who won't even admit to agnosticism, because their argument "I am omniscient and therefore know that an invisible God or even a galaxy-sized God nowhere exists."

You're omniscient? I find that irrational. We now have:

All atheists are irrational, so either EVERYONE is irrational or GOD EXISTS.

How about you stop dodging and actually address my points.

 

[night912]

Of course they are irrational.

I can prove a negative, "Sheldon didn't put butter in the fridge" by simply opening the fridge and having a look.

You are claiming that NOWHERE in the UNIVERSE is POSSIBLY a God, which is a statement of eyes big enough to see the whole fridge (omniscience) and is utterly, of course, irrational.

I'd consider you rational if you were agnostic or just like me, a lover of Jesus Christ, or somewhere between.

How about you stop dodging and actually address my points. That means no strawman arguments.

 

[night912]

I have increasing difficulty to understand your argument.

@Sheldon, @Dan From Smithville, @IndigoChild5559, @night912, sorry to bother you but could you look into our dispute and give your opinion on whether I met BilliardBall's challenge to name an equally irrational belief to theism? Can you explain to me BilliardBall's argument why I didn't meet the challenge?

The explanation that I can think of is that BilliardBall expected an answer that "gotcha" can be used in response, but since the replies given showed his fallacy and/or met his challenge, BilliardBall has resorted to using the ad nauseam fallacy. Sorry, if that didn't help you, but I can't think of any other explanation right now.