Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Are Babies Atheists?

Are Babies Atheists? |Blogs | NCRegister.com:

Been talking a lot about atheism lately, an interesting look at the apologetics surrounding this claim.

I'm a bit on the fence.  In my wife's daycare, there are certainly kids who ask the question "who is God?"

But the same kid is the one who shows he already knows the most in so many other ways, so maybe it is just a language difficulty, especially with non-religious parents who simply avoid the issue.

31 comments:

Unknown said...

I myself don't include people who are ignorant of the existence of (the concept of) God as atheists. Other people might, in which I would change my position to "anti-theist".

When I think of an atheist, I think of someone who is well aware of the reported attributes of the God that doesn't exist. I know full well the concepts that I reject.

The only problem I have in completely accepting atheism is that I do see the universe as proof of the existence of a creative intelligence that is one of the attributes of the entity that people typically name "God". I should therefore see myself as more of a Deist than Atheist.

The next step to becoming a Theist would be to see this creative intelligence as a person who interacts with his creation and intervenes in human affairs. That is possible but not probable.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

You are incorrect. Tempus Fugit, Memento Mori. It is not just an insurance sales pitch.

If the Tibetan Buddhists are right, and I am correct in linking my interpretation of their work to Catholicism and modern science, then the rumored "deathbed conversion" becomes a very real concept indeed; and such experiences that you need for that final conversion are in fact, as universal as neuralreceptors dying.

Insurance in our order is voluntary: death is not voluntary.

Thus, IF you are open enough to admit Deism, that is in fact, good enough.

Unknown said...

There will be no deathbed conversion for me.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

So, if faced with *absolute proof* in the Bardo/Purgatory (which I remind you, has now been proven by science to exist; and can be duplicated with the drug ketamine and its effects on NDMA receptors) you'll decide to go to Hell rather than accept the visions?

I strongly doubt that- especially if as you already say, you aren't a committed enough atheist to do so.

Unknown said...

Trust me. No one has to worry about Hell. It is an entirely man-made concept conjured up to make people believe in an ultimate justice for the punishment of those who seem to be capable of getting away with all kinds of atrocities such as people like Hitler. Who doesn't want to think of him burning in Hell as opposed to him simply ceasing to exist when he took his life before he could be captured, tried, convicted and executed. He isn't burning in Hell and neither will I. You don't want me to go to Hell. Why would God?

Theodore M. Seeber said...

Bill, when you are being irrational and rejecting data, I can't trust you.

Only when you accept data and provide an alternate explanation for the data, can I trust you.

Many, many NDE survivors have now reported visions of Hell as well as visions of Heaven. I can't reject their data just because it fails to make sense to your "I don't want to be punished for my sins" theology.

Unknown said...

"I can't reject their data just because it fails to make sense to your "I don't want to be punished for my sins" theology."

Then continue to be controlled by the Catholic Church. Go to them for your salvation and believe everything they tell you. Keep condemning gays and people who use birth control. Don't question anything that they tell you, no matter how ridiculous it may seem.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

Has nothing to do with control. Has to do with understanding and accepting evidence as presented.

Gays and people who use birth control need to be questioning what the society is telling THEM, and why.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

If not, Planned Parenthood sure has wasted a lot of donor and taxpayer money over the last 100 years advertising and attempting to change the culture (and largely succeeding with people like you)!

Not to mention all of those TV sitcoms and Disney films making fathers out to be buffoons to discourage fatherhood, and the current Teen Outreach Program to minority populations to convince them to get sterilized and use contraception.

That's a huge waste of money if such things do not need to be promoted.

Unknown said...

'and largely succeeding with people like you"

I hadn't even heard of Planned Parenthood when I started using contraceptives. From what I understand, it's founder's mother had 18 children and died giving birth. I can see how someone like that might want to change situations such as that.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

I can too, but eliminating the human species would not be one of my options.

Doesn't matter- the specific horror-company is not the point.

Unknown said...

"eliminating the human species would not be one of my options."

I don't think Planned Parenthood is going to eliminate the human species. Your just being an extremist in every argument you try to make.

Unknown said...

"It is their stated aim to eliminate the unfit"

That is not the same as eliminating the human species. That's the point I was trying to make.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

Eliminate the unfit, you short circuit evolution. When you short circuit evolution, you shrink the gene pool. When you shrink the gene pool, you end up with a species like Weyerhaeuser Super Trees- that goes extinct with the first parasite capable of taking advantage of the weakness.

Unknown said...

You're exaggerating the effect of Planned Parenthood on the future of the human race. It's what you do.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

I am stating what their aims are. I hope greatly that they don't have that effect- but 55 million dead in the United States, even more contracepted out of existence, a 90% refusal rate to let Downs Syndrome children be born, the sex imbalance in China and India, all show that not only is it possible to use abortion and contraception to have a negative effect on the human gene pool, it is nearly inevitable that it will.

All it takes is one child who may have had a beneficial mutation not being born- to create this negative effect.

Unknown said...

"All it takes is one child who may have had a beneficial mutation not being born- to create this negative effect."

If so, we will never know. But it doesn't appear that the human race is in need of any significant mutations to carry on its existence.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

It didn't appear that pine trees needed significant mutation to carry on their existence either, until the Western Pine Beetle appeared.

It didn't appear that cotton needed significant mutation to carry on its existence until the Boll Weevil appeared.

What will eliminate the Eastern American European, I wonder?

Unknown said...

"What will eliminate the Eastern American European, I wonder?"

It won't be the lack of beneficial mutations that results from abortions and contraception. Maybe it will not be eliminated until life on Earth is extinguished by a cosmic cataclysm.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

All civilizations end- but the Church goes on. History has proven this time and time again.

Unknown said...

No one is questioning the staying power of religion. It's harder to keep a civilization going than a church.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

Having a rational church can help the civilization- but only if they listen to it.

Unknown said...

This government will never listen to the Catholic Church again. The HHS Mandate is the final F you.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

That all depends on who blinks first and if Obama has the courage to actually declare martial law and become el President for life. I am hoping he does not, but the recent revelations about Cardinal Dolan being harder on the Government than on the Archcare union do indeed suggest the Church has lost almost all political power, not that She had much to begin with (there is good reason Pope Leo XIII called Americanism a heresy).

Unknown said...

"there is good reason Pope Leo XIII called Americanism a heresy"

To bad for Leo. If he had his way, all Americans would answer to him. Separation of Church and State is a good thing for both.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

It can be, when it is complete.

When it turns into the State restricting the activities of the Church and using bullying tactics, that isn't separation anymore.

Unknown said...

I don't see anyone doing anything like that to the Church.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

Only because you haven't been in any of the suppressed ministries. One of the first ones was feeding the homeless without a street vendor's license- I got arrested for that once, got thrown out of court because we're pretty liberal in Oregon, unlike Philadelphia or Orlando. Helping women escape the sex trade was the second one to go- Catholic Charities was kicked out of being the *primary* help for that because they wouldn't refer prostitutes for abortions so that their pimps could go on selling them. Adoption services that don't serve gays have been closing nationwide. The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament have been refused access to the Native American reservations that their historic ministry has been in.

I suspect it will get much, much worse before it gets better- you can fit a lot of beds in the Hermiston Weapons Depot now that most of the weapons have been incinerated.

Unknown said...

"I suspect it will get much, much worse before it gets better- you can fit a lot of beds in the Hermiston Weapons Depot now that most of the weapons have been incinerated."

Is that just another one of your exaggerations?

Theodore M. Seeber said...

You want the good news?
Umatilla Chemical Depot incinerated the last of its chemical weapons in October 2011, leaving huge underground bunkers free to be remodeled for various uses.

The bad news: NDAA 2012 sections 1021-1022 authorized indefinite detainment of American Citizens, and the only change the Obama administration insisted on before signing it into law, made it worse- all they have to do is declare that you are a terrorist in a warrant (trial not required, defense not allowed).

Theodore M. Seeber said...

Nobody knows for sure, but I think that is one potential use, yes. I can't think of many other potential uses for that complex. Not geologically stable enough for nuclear storage (as the Hanford Reservation, just a few miles north, leaking radioactivity into the Columbia has shown).

They have been shipping a lot of beds and equipment there. But there are other options. FEMA has been revamping their Reagan era camps as well, and of course, the Forest Service has recently refurbished Tule Lake and Pinedale camps in California and Mindoka in Idaho (those last three were last used during WWII for "enemy aliens", mainly Japanese- got some friends of my mother whose parents were in those camps, and the farm she grew up on was an emergency sale during the war, even had a ancient bathhouse still when I was growing up).

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