What do you think of this video?

[WeezyBengal]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMDKigUbcJo

[GMDino]

(06-20-2016, 02:11 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMDKigUbcJo

Don't have time to watch at work.  But I'm curious how the topic will be explained.

[Bilbo Saggins]

Not a big fan myself.

"If there is no God, each of us is as significant as a rock on an unknown planet."

He repeats these sorts of opinions ad nauseum so as to reinforce the point that existence without God would be meaningless and void of value. Conjecture, repetition, and making any and all other viewpoints seem utterly depressing, whilst making the reality that fits his worldview seem like ice cream and rainbows.

At its core it is meant to appeal to emotion and reinforce this emotional appeal through repetition. He doesn't provide any evidence aside from a few graphs from a couple of studies, each of which is suspect. People who live longer and go to church more often may simply do so due to the correlation between people being more religious the earlier they were born, "happiness" is highly subjective and cannot truly be measured, and the correlation between charity and religion can be explained by the fact that churches are more convenient vessels for donation, something that the secular populace may not always have - if you disregard donations made to churches themselves, atheists give more. I dislike the "everything to gain, nothing to lose" bit at the end. Fear should not be a motivator if love is the desired end result.

[CKwi88]

I guess it depends on what definition of "god" is being referenced.

But if someone's entire concept of self worth and significance in the universe is conditioned on the existence of this "god" that is mighty sad.

[GMDino]

(06-21-2016, 08:55 AM)CKwi88 Wrote: I guess it depends on what definition of "god" is being referenced.

But if someone's entire concept of self worth and significance in the universe is conditioned on the existence of this "god" that is mighty sad.

I like was Penn Jillette has to say on the subject.

http://theinterrobang.com/penn-jillette-morality-without-religion/

Quote:Well, you know, God told Abraham to kill his son, and his proof of Abraham’s devotion was his willingness to kill his son. Jesus says very clearly, “abandon your father and mother, abandon your children and come with me.” There’s nothing pro-family about Christianity. That is all layered on. That is all-American. The American Christian church has a great deal of family values, but those aren’t found in the Bible, those aren’t in the root material. We have a lot of evidence, [Christopher] Hitchens, a good friend of mine, we miss him all the time, but Hitchens had a standing offer for a religious person to name a moral thing that was done in the name of religion that had not been done by an atheist. All of your self-sacrifice, all of the help for communities, have all been done by religious people and by atheists. But I’ll tell one story that I just love, I brought a date once, because this is the kind of guy I am, to hear an atheist speaker. We’re sitting there in a college-type atmosphere, probably about 150 people in the audience, and I even forgot who it was speaking because there were a lot of people that day, it might have been [Michael] Shermer, and he speaks and he finished and he opens the floor up to questions. The person on the other side of my date stands up and says, “Well if there’s no God, what’s to stop me from raping and killing everyone around me?” And my date raised her hand and said, “May I change my seat?”  

That really is the point. The question I get asked by religious people all the time is, without God, what’s to stop me from raping all I want? And my answer is: I do rape all I want. And the amount I want is zero. And I do murder all I want, and the amount I want is zero. The fact that these people think that if they didn’t have this person watching over them that they would go on killing, raping ram[pages is the most self-damning thing I can imagine. I don’t want to do that. Right now, without any god, I don’t want to jump across this table and strangle you. I have no desire to strangle you. I have no desire to flip you over and rape you. You know what I mean?

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(06-21-2016, 04:36 AM)Bilbo Saggins Wrote: Not a big fan myself.

"If there is no God, each of us is as significant as a rock on an unknown planet."

He repeats these sorts of opinions ad nauseum so as to reinforce the point that existence without God would be meaningless and void of value. Conjecture, repetition, and making any and all other viewpoints seem utterly depressing, whilst making the reality that fits his worldview seem like ice cream and rainbows.

At its core it is meant to appeal to emotion and reinforce this emotional appeal through repetition. He doesn't provide any evidence aside from a few graphs from a couple of studies, each of which is suspect. People who live longer and go to church more often may simply do so due to the correlation between people being more religious the earlier they were born, "happiness" is highly subjective and cannot truly be measured, and the correlation between charity and religion can be explained by the fact that churches are more convenient vessels for donation, something that the secular populace may not always have - if you disregard donations made to churches themselves, atheists give more. I dislike the "everything to gain, nothing to lose" bit at the end. Fear should not be a motivator if love is the desired end result.

Good post.  As you state, on the subject of charity, the religious use a completely bullshit trick by counting their offerings to the church as charity.  This is why mormons are consistently at the top of the list of highest charitable donations, because they are flat out forced to tithe, literally tithe.  Funding the bullshit machine that reinforces your beliefs is not charity IMO.

[Vas Deferens]

terrorist recruitment video.

[fredtoast]

Religious people are just weak. Their religion is their "safe space". They need it because they are too weak to deal with reality.

If there was a study done on children the ones who still believe in Santa Clause would probably be "happier" than the more mature ones who do not.

[*bfine32*]

While I understand and appreciate the intent of the message I thought the delivery was rudimentary. I periodically go to a church where the Preacher calls this type of faith as "fire insurance".

[*bfine32*]

(06-21-2016, 01:03 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Religious people are just weak.  Their religion is their "safe space".  They need it because they are too weak to deal with reality.

If there was a study done on children the ones who still believe in Santa Clause would probably be "happier" than the more mature ones who do not.

What's wrong with being happy?

[Beaker]

(06-21-2016, 04:36 AM)Bilbo Saggins Wrote: Fear should not be a motivator if love is the desired end result.

Yet this is what all religions are based upon. If you don't conform, you will be ostracized....in this life and the next.

You do not need a god to have love, morals and meaning in your life. Those exist by your choice.