Like Your Mother Said, Don't Jump Off That Cliff

This article about William Lane Craig points out something people who try and prove something without proof often do and I also find maddening: Simply claim that too many other people agree to have the assertion be false.

Deepak Chopra is another good example of someone who does this. It's a common tactic whereby people name-drop and quote-mine others, dead and alive, to try and claim their garbage isn't.

When I see this kind of thing I'm always reminded of something all of us heard from our mothers: "If all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you do it, too?" Old and simple wisdom is sometimes all we need to defy nonsense.

If pure numbers counted as proof, then Aristotle would still be taught in medical schools. All it takes is one new piece of valid and verifiable evidence to overturn a very large majority.

To argue majority opinion is valid based on that one fact is to argue nothing at all.

Some Questions ARE Stupid

I’ve outlined before why we can safely assert that there is/are no god(s). I thought I’d outline my main reason again--despite what some teachers say, some questions are too stupid to be considered.

For example: Who would win a fight between Spiderman and Batman? How many licks would it take to get to the center of Mars? How fast would I have to blink to go back in time?

You get the idea. I think it’s clear that not all questions are valid. Given that fact, when someone asserts that there is an invisible (sometimes visible) creature who also is everywhere (across a 13.7 billion light year universe), exists as the paradox of being all-powerful, chooses to communicate through “feelings,“ hallucinations and ghost writers, and, among other things, has a special interest in all kinds of blood, we can easily assign the question to the stupid category.

When Being Dressed Is Annoying

One problem humanity has yet to resolve is cleaning clothes at the laundromat without having to wear any of it.

Swelling Salacity Not Sustainable

I seriously can't see how any capitalistic system--being based on continual greed and "growth"--can not be seen as a pyramid scheme, all of which are illegal. They are illegal because they eventually collapse due to the false basis on which they are built: unending growth.

We seriously need to remake our economics to be based on sustainable principles that don't reward or require the need for increased capacity or swelling salacity.

All systems will crash when their limits are reached. We live on a finite planet with a limit on what it can provide. We need to work with that, not ignore it.

Morals Are Everywhere

For those who claim that atheism is invalid because it doesn't contain some sort of pre-configured moral code, atheism doesn't need to account for anything. It's simply the absence of a belief.

In addition, morality is never absent; it is a guaranteed result of culture, which can include religion or not. There's no connection to make between religion and morality.

It would be like saying being a football fan doesn't account for the structure of professional sports. It's a non sequitur.