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Creationism versus Atheism. Who wins?
October 28, 2010 - 2:54am
Richard woke up from a TERRIBLE sleep to his worst nightmare come true.
A compelling voice bid him step forward.
"This is RIDICULOUS" he stammered as he did so.
"We ain't so happy either, DICK!" shouted St Peter.
"Some of the brothers cut off their wings when they heard that Dawkins was being allowed in".
"That type of cut really BURNS"
"Whats for dinner?", replied Dawkins, Licking his lips.
Elvis once sang, "In my father's house are many mansions"
Somewhere in another universe, Dickory Dawk' observed a clock. When the clock struck two, away she flew. Hickory Dickory Dawk'
Atheism takes it by one.
Creationists disbelieve in "n" deities. Atheists disbelieve in "n+1". It's a pretty close one, though, and gets closer as n --> infinity.
Passion versus Logic. Hmmm depends on the game I guess.
To quibble a bit with that: I think Creationist disbelieve in "n - 1" deities (i.e., they believe in 1 deity) and atheists disbelieve in "n" deities (i.e., they believe in no deity).
Why presuppose all Creationists are monotheists?
Excellent point.
Although, in our corner of the world (North America), the creationist theme is dominated by monotheist Christians.
But, your point is well-taken.
Because the polytheists would lag even further behind. For the Ancient Romans, for example, it would be like "n-50".
Why? Just try creating a universe by committee.
Actually, that could be an excellent explanation for the platypus.
Working under the assumption that Christians are actually monotheists of course (and you have to accept some interesting word games to equate trinitarianism with monotheism).... and don't get me started on Mormons...
[ETA... link should show now]
More to the point, why presuppose all monotheists are Creationists?
They are not equivalent.
A great many, possibly more, who believe in some kind of god, simply do not care about or see as central the question of how the universe got here.
Least of all are monotheists in general equivalent to Creationists. The latter are generally understood in our contemporary time as Biblical literalists- the 6,000 year old universe, etc.
In other words its a straw people comparison to set up 'Creationism vs. Atheism' if you are positing- even tactitly [as is the case in this discussion] that the Creationists are representing all people who subscribe to some kind of theist religion.
I'm with you KenS but this is the babble banter forum. Logic and facts need not apply.
The apples to apples comparison would be Creationists versus Evolutionists [or whatever you call people who subscribe to contemporary understanding of an evolved universe].
And among the 'Evolutionists,' I think it is safe to say that theists would far outnumber atheists.
Did you know that "evolutionist" is a silly word coined by Young Earth Creationists in order to make the fact-based view more comparable to their silly-assed arguments? It's not a term accepted by the science community - there isn't, really, any such thing.
You mean - they created evolutionists?
I believe Betrand Russell once noted about unitarians that they believed in at most one god. Of course they are not invited to the competition, but maybe they can ref.
Yep. The evolutionist is nothing more than a straw man.
Didnt know how 'evolutionist' was used. Sounded dumb / wrong, even not knowing it had been used as a perjorative.
Got another name for the animal? [more than 3 words makes if difficult to call a label]
It's Dawkins versus the seven big religions of the world. Place your bets everyone, the clock is ticking on our own mortality. The religionists say we're all only as far away from meeting Jesus, Muhammad, nirvana etc as our own deaths. The Kingdom is all around us everywhere.
Popcorn! Fresh pretzels ! Cold root beer!
That is the most relevant question.
Asking: "Creationism versus Atheism?" is not much different than asking, say: "Militarism versus Democracy". It's simply not an either-or question.
Just wanted to note that the quip was noticed, because the following flow seemd to have missed its elegance.
pssst, KenS, there is no need to stroke U's ego... he knows how clever his remark was.
Or would that be his Ugo? He's a good guy that U.
If a tree falls in the forest....
.. ........
... is it enlightened?