The World is Flat?

[xbebop]

fooflexible said:

Parokki said:

fooflexible said:

 

I love that everyone who believes in evolution acts like they are smarter then people who don't. First off Galileo wasn't killed by the church, he wrote some of his best of his scientific works right up to his natural death( at 78). They did kick him out of church, and house arrest him, which I think made him more productive scientifically, he wrote plenty of books in his house. Then I thought you meant Copernicus, being that he is another noted scientist that the church had problems with. but he died naturally at 70, and in good favor with the church might I add. In fact Science is so quick to claim men like Galileo, Copernicus, and Newton, as their forfathers, but all those men were religious, belived in God and creation, and in fact were motivated scientifically by that faith, and particualarly in Newton's case wrote more about religion then science.

 

Do you feel smarter than someone who believes in Zeus, Hera, and the rest of the Greek pantheon on mount Olympos?

What about a doomsday cult that believes the end is nigh, and aliens are coming to pick up the worthy few within our lifetimes?

I don't necessarily believe I'm more intelligent than a creationist, as indoctrination can make even a formidable thinker hold some extremely contradictory beliefs, but I definitely think my worldview is more rational, and better aligned with reality than that of someone who makes important decisions in his/her life based on the recorded oral tradition of a bunch of nomads that wondered around the deserts of the Middle East some 3000 years ago.

But yeah, a lot of the forefathers of science had seriously unscientific worldviews by our standard. Newton, for example, believed he was not inventing anything new, but rather rediscovering "the Wisdom of the Ancients" that the philosophers of ancient Greece and the prophets of the Old Testament had known, but was then lost during "the dark ages". Supposedly this knowledge contained the entire nature of the universe, and completely uncovering it would usher a Golden Age in the Kingdom of God, and other complete nonsense like that.

Well I don't believe in evolution, I'm not ignorant of it's teachings, I've probably read far more about evolution then most people who accept it. My point is people are told, here this is what's going on, and then people just believe it. People believe lot's of stupid things, people believe tons of lies too, and many things that are also true. The point is true are false, right or wrong they just believe them. I just like to encourage people in general to think and read about things before they make those choices(whether you conclude with my viewpoint or an opposing viewpoint, my thing is for people to actually know what they are talking about) for me it's simply irrational to believe all of life is chance(and that's my in a nutshell arguement, I can go on about Dawkin's writing in the matter, Darwin's original theories, discuss findings on the Cambrien age, I've read many books on this subject(not just a few websites).

As for thinking your better aligned with reality by making important choices not including the wisdom of "a bunch of nomads" in my opinions that is just ignorant of the information. Call the book outdated and you'd be wrong, the advice in their has changed alot of people around by reading it. People who had drug problems, anger managment problems, people who are depressed. Call believing in God foolish, but it's in every culture, every race every part of the earth, its a huge dliemma why evolution brought about a desire to worship a God. Most people I know who are evolutionists who are atheists, well they are typically pessemistic in life, and don't seem to have any hope as they believe their existince is only to perputate their own genes and then die, which by the way if you believe in evolution, then you should try to have as many kids as possible with as many women as possible, as that is the only accomplishment in the big picture. Yet I find alot of evolutionist,atheists who argue against evolution tend not to have children, yes they readily admit that life's only purpose is to continue your own chain of the evolutionary tree, yet they aren't making babies, it's like they failed their only bioligical purpose. 

 

As an atheist, I can tell you that I have hope and ambition. The truth is that we were born to reproduce and die, that's it. But inbewtween doing those things, we live. And I personally want to make the world a better place for my children, grandchildren, and so forth.

 How pessimistic is my viewpoint?