Famous Athesist has found God

I say all power to him.
Nothing wrong in believing there is a higher being than yourself.
I think it helps keep us grounded and to not get too carried away with ourselfs. Even if it's not true, it really doesn't matter.

But of course the problem is the state has taken that belief and used it to control us. State made religion, molded to help the agenda towards total control of the population.

We humans like to think we are above everything, and in this modern world, where everything is a competition, that belief is strengthened.
Belief in a higher being is a big threat to a lot of people.
Our society perpetuates the fallacy that the individual is above the group or collective.
One function of that is higher profit levels. E.g. in a neighborhood everyone has their own lawn mower, they use it maybe once a month for an hour. If the neighborhood worked as a group and bought one really good mower then the corporations would make less money. And there wouldn't be a bunch of redundant mowers. And less resources would be used etc...etc...
Anyway the point I'm trying to make is the way we're conditioned to think of our selfs as being more important than the whole is what keeps us from believing in a higher being, among other things...........I think[shrug]
It's a threat to our "importance".

Sry I'm drunk, what was the topic?

(does that make sense? It's hard to explain...I think it's time for bed)

Originally posted by slank
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The reality is that most people 'change their views late in the game'.

Does that mean that believing in God is a sign you are dying?

QED Therefore to live forever you just have to stop believing in God!

Eureka! I have found it. The secret of the Universe.

(Well the other secret besides believing in the sacred Twinkie)
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mate, you can believe in what you want! be it the truth or a lie or something in between we all have to believe in something, even if it is the belief in 'not believing'

Did he say which god he found?

Zeus? Zoraster? Quatzecoatl? Earth Mother? Anat? Hatshepsut?
Prometheus? Mithra? Shiva? Vishnu? Krishna? Thor? The Great Bear of the Americas? Venus? Poseidon?

or are we to assume that "god" always refers to the judeo-christian myth?


I like brainwashing...its good for me! Everyone sing along..."I like brainwashing, it's good for me!"

Feel free to make up the second verse yourself....wait, that kind of independant thinking is what caused problems in the first place.
GET BACK IN LINE!


There is no enemy anywhere - Lao Tse

I'd like to see some statistics on how many people in just this country who turn away from god...

The only conspiracy in religion here is why Christians feel the need to lie so much.

Simulacra's post warrants repeating in full. On every page of this thread if necessary.

Originally posted by Simulacra
Anthony Flew is NOT leaving aethism

Antony Flew Leaving Atheism?
Have you read the news about Antony Flew abandoning atheism? This would be big news because Flew is one of the most prominent atheist philosophers of the 20th century. It would be big news, that is, if it were true. Evangelical Christians are all a twitter over the possibility, but as usual they are taking words out of context and misrepresenting them to suit their own religious prejudices.

And a word from the man himself:

Anthony Flew
'I remain still what I have been now for over fifty years, a negative atheist. By this I mean that I construe the initial letter in the word 'atheist' in the way in which everyone construes the same initial letter in such words as 'atypical' and 'amoral'. For I still believe that it is impossible either to verify or to falsify - to show to be false - what David Hume in his Dialogues concerning Natural Religion happily described as "the religious hypothesis." The more I contemplate the eschatological teachings of Christianity and Islam the more I wish I could demonstrate their falsity.
I can suggest only one possible source of the rumours. Several weeks ago I submitted to the Editor of Philo (The Journal of the Society of Humanist Philosophers) a short paper making two points which might well disturb atheists of the more positive kind. The point more relevant here was that it can be entirely rational for believers and negative atheists to respond in quite different ways to the same scientific developments. ...I recognize that developments in physics coming on the last twenty or thirty years can reasonably be seen as in some degree confirmatory of a previously faith-based belief in god, even though they still provide no sufficient reason for unbelievers to change their minds. They certainly have not persuaded me.'

Crazy Christians, disinformation is for the government!

This does remined me of a saying, that there is no true athiest with a gun to his head.

A TODDLER'S TALE

One patient was 2-1/2 years old when he had a seizure and his heart stopped. His parents contacted Parnia after the boy ''drew a picture of himself as if out of his body looking down at himself. It was drawn like there was a balloon stuck to him. When they asked what the balloon was he said, 'When you die you see a bright light and you are connected to a cord.' He wasn't even 3 when had the experience,'' Parnia said.

``What his parents noticed was that after he had been discharged from hospital, six months after the incident, he kept drawing the same scene.''

The brain function these patients were found to have while unconscious is commonly believed to be incapable of sustaining lucid thought processes or allowing lasting memories to form, Parnia said -- pointing to the fact that nobody fully grasps how the brain generates thoughts.

The brain itself is made up of cells, like all the body's organs, and is not really capable of producing the subjective phenomenon of thought that people have, he said.

He speculated that human consciousness may work independently of the brain, using the gray matter as a mechanism to manifest the thoughts, just as a television set translates waves in the air into picture and sound.

``When you damage the brain or lose some of the aspects of mind or personality, that doesn't necessarily mean the mind is being produced by the brain. All it shows is that the apparatus is damaged,'' Parnia said, adding that further research might reveal the existence of a soul.

``When these people are having experiences they say, 'I had this intense pain in my chest and suddenly I was drifting in the corner of my room and I was so happy, so comfortable. I looked down and realized I was seeing my body and doctors all around me trying to save me and I didn't want to go back.

``The point is they are describing seeing this thing in the room, which is their body. Nobody ever says, 'I had this pain and the next thing I knew my soul left me.''

There has been much scientific research on this subject [probably needless to say] but there does seem to be a leaning towards something else. Many scientists believe there is and one of the subjects which support the theory of "something else" is that of the research which has been done on the collective consciousness.

Originally posted by Voice_of Doom
Did he say which god he found?

Zeus? Zoraster? Quatzecoatl? Earth Mother? Anat? Hatshepsut?
Prometheus? Mithra? Shiva? Vishnu? Krishna? Thor? The Great Bear of the Americas? Venus? Poseidon?

or are we to assume that "god" always refers to the judeo-christian myth?


I like brainwashing...its good for me! Everyone sing along..."I like brainwashing, it's good for me!"

Feel free to make up the second verse yourself....wait, that kind of independant thinking is what caused problems in the first place.
GET BACK IN LINE!

LOL that just made my day

I posted this on a thread on the same subject somewhere else, I'll just add it here instead.

In order to denounce the existence of something, one must acknowledge that it exists to begin with; this is simply logic. The concept is well embedded into our minds, it's just the form this concept takes which must be defined.

The proble lies it the definition of "God." Amongst the plethora of faiths, I reject the anthropomorphic definition employed by many western faiths, as does this man, and find them to be tools of manipulation and exploition; these are not Gods of devine grace, these are Gods of mans greed and abhorance towards the finitudes of life which he cannot bode with.

The good doctor could just be pulling our legs, as a good kicks before he parts into the next life..

Deep

Quote: "Religion is like Drugs,
I don't mind if people want to use it,
just don't force it on other people."

What an Enlightened Position!
This is also my own Position! Religion & Drugs should be Treated in the same way - since Both can be used as a Crutch or can be used Moderately & Responsibly!

Quote of the Day: "I like Brainwashing...its good for me! Everyone sing along..."I like Brainwashing... it's good for me!""!

Good One! FUN, FUN, FUN! I wonder if we can develop Immunity to BrainWashing & Propaganda as a Species?

[edit on 14-12-2004 by Seraphim_Serpente]

Please note that allthough he now believes in God he believes in a uninvolved God who does not interfere with our world. He just believes in a "designer" not a "puppet master".

Originally posted by Corinthas
Please note that allthough he now believes in God he believes in a uninvolved God who does not interfere with our world. He just believes in a "designer" not a "puppet master".

Where are you getting your information from? Where are the sources? He never said he believed in God. He stated that the existance of God can not be falsified or proven.

Simulacra and RANT....
I don't think that anyone had or has insinuated that Mr. Flew had converted or was leaving atheism. As such, your point is what?
Mr. Flew has and still is an outright intellectual proponent of religious skepticism and atheism, correct? As such, it really doesn't matter what 'god/God' that he mentions, its the mere factoid that he mentions that he believes in some kind of 'god/God'! Please correct me if I am wrong, but atheism and the individual atheist do not believe in any type 'god/God'!

Thats what the significance is of this matter, not that he is refering to the Christian God or the Islamic God, etc. Again, its the mere factoid that he admits to believing in any type/sort of 'god/God' or Intelligent Design and then bases it off of "scientific evidences"........




seekerof

[edit on 14-12-2004 by Seekerof]

I think thier point was to point out the fundamental fact that this God he has 'found' is not the Christian God. Being that his statement was used as a justitifaction for Christians to exploit and propogate more propaganda --just as they do with Einstine.

Deep

His conversion from atheism to theism was based solely on the scientific evidence. The anthropic principal of the cosmos is what did it for him. Flew concluded that the fine-tuning of the universe at every level is simply too perfect to be the result of chance. Flew says that in keeping with his lifelong commitment "to go where the evidence leads," he now believes in God.'' Any reasonable scientist who examines the evidence will come to the same conclusion. Unfortunately many are too blinded by the ideology of Darwinism and anti-theism.

It would be easy for either side to denigrate or belittle this decision, and some of it has already happened. So I'll just say that I think it takes a large amount of courage to come out publicly and state you think you were wrong previously and have changed your mind knowing what's going to follow.

Originally posted by DeusEx
Most likely because it amuses us. It's like taking a five-hundred year step back in terms of rational thought. Is that something to be applauded?

DE

What the hell??

I would like to know you beliefs and then we will see how you would feel if people ridiculed it.



[edit on 11-5-2008 by _Phoenix_]

Let the man speak for himself...

Professor Antony Garrard Newton Flew (born February 11, 1923) is a British philosopher. For several decades, he was recognized as a prominent atheist. Yet in December 2004, he began expressing deist opinions. Read some of his thoughts about God on this interview.

[edit on 5/11/2008 by Bigwhammy]

so what?

this isn't a numbers game, it's not a matter of who believes and who doesn't and what authority and level of fame they have.

it's about a pursuit for truth.

there are many famous christians that have become atheists and there are many famous atheists that have become christians or members of other religions

it means diddly.

Originally posted by slank
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Maybe he now has alzheimers?
It makes it easier to forget the facts.
.

What ARE the facts, Slank?

I mean factually factual facts...
What exactly are they?
(Because surely facts are exact?)

I think thier point was to point out the fundamental fact that this God he has 'found' is not the Christian God. Being that his statement was used as a justitifaction for Christians to exploit and propogate more propaganda --just as they do with Einstine.

There is no "Christian God" - there is either A God or no god at all, depending on one's beliefs. (Obviously, I am referring to the monotheist, abrahamic context, to which you are referring yourself, not to Hindu and other deities.)

Deep

I think not...