I Like the Atheist Life (OT)

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MisterE

Social climber
Sep 1, 2012 - 08:25pm PT
Look what showed up in the mail today - LOL!

High Fructose Corn Spirit

Gym climber
-A race of corn eaters
Sep 1, 2012 - 08:52pm PT
My "allegiance"... when it comes to my own "practice of living" concerns more trust than doubt... concerns respect for reason and evidence... last but not least, concerns belief, not nonbelief. I am not a nonbeliever, I am a believer.

My "allegiance" accentuates the positive.

.....

re: deification

Jesus, crucified and succeeding that, deified. That's more like it.

Jesus: Crucified and deified. (Kind of a catchy ring, wouldn't you say?) That's the real truth of it.

If you don't know what deification is (a great many Christians don't), look it up. You'll see that our species has a rich and storied history in deification.

"If he's greater than me, he must be a God." (Yeah, that's it.)

All people interested in human civilization - its continuation - should hold the feet of the great historical figure - Jesus of Nazareth - to the fires of reason and research to see if in fact his status doesn't amount more to deification than to divinity.

Of course, we all know where the irreligious believers of science and the good life stand on this point, don't we? :)
P.Rob

Social climber
Pacomia, Ca - Y Que?
Sep 1, 2012 - 08:57pm PT
Or is he just blowing smoke? Maybe I'll check to see if there's any context on the other thread (you know, the one with the misspelled title) that might substantiate his claim. Otherwise he's just another phony trotting out the usual "defender of the faith" pablum.

Personally, I think your posts are spineless, P.Rob. WADR.

Mr. jarabe de maíz alto en fructosa the intent of my spineless posts were two fold:

1) The simple and continuing generalization of people of faith as of having no active intellect or ability let alone a passing knowledge of science. So in short I posted a quick reference to Dr. Henry “Fritz” Schaefer to dispute such a contention. Here is a more in depth biography of Dr. Fritz
Biographical Sketch
Dr. Henry "Fritz" Schaefer

Henry F. Schaefer III was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1944. He attended public schools in Syracuse (New York), Menlo Park (California), and Grand Rapids (Michigan), graduating from East Grand Rapids High School in 1962. He received his B.S. degree in chemical physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1966) and Ph.D. degree in chemical physics from Stanford University (1969). For 18 years (1969-1987) he served as a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. During the 1979-1980 academic year he was also Wilfred T. Doherty Professor of Chemistry and inaugural Director of the Institute for Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Texas, Austin. Since 1987 Dr. Schaefer has been Graham Perdue Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Center for Computational Chemistry at the University of Georgia. In 2004 he became Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus, at the University of California at Berkeley. His other academic appointments include Professeur d'Echange at the University of Paris (1977), Gastprofessur at the Eidgenossische Technische Hochshule (ETH), Zurich (1994, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006), and David P. Craig Visiting Professor at the Australian National University (1999). He is the author of more than 1100 scientific publications, the majority appearing in the Journal of Chemical Physics or the Journal of the American Chemical Society. A total of 300 scientists from 35 countries gathered in Gyeongju, Korea for a six-day conference in February, 2004 with the title “Theory and Applications of Computational Chemistry: A Celebration of 1000 Papers of Professor Henry F. Schaefer III.”
Critical to Professor Schaefer's scientific success has been a brilliant array of students and coworkers; including 50 undergraduate researchers who have published papers with him, 83 successful Ph.D. students, 41 postdoctoral researchers, and 60 visiting professors who have spent substantial time in the Schaefer group. A number of his students have gone on to positions of distinction in industry (Accelrys, Allstate Insurance, American Cyanamid, AstraZeneca, AT&T, Avaya, Bicerano and Associates, Chemical Abstracts, Computational Geosciences, DeNovaMed, Dow Chemical, Electronic Arts, Endress-Hauser, GAUSSIAN, Goodrich, Henkel, Hughes Aircraft, IBM, Komag, Lehman Brothers, Locus Pharmaceuticals, Mobil Research, Molecular Simulations, Monsanto, OpenEye, OSI Software, Pharmaceutical Research Associates, Polaroid, Proctor & Gamble, Q-CHEM, Reagens Deutschland, Ricoh, Schroedinger, SciCo, Sugen, and WaveSplitter Technologies). Four of his graduated Ph.D.s have successfully started their own companies. Several have gone on to successful careers in government laboratories, including the Australian National University Supercomputer Center, Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, NASA Ames, National Cancer Institute, National Center for Disease Control, National Institutes of Health (Bethesda), Naval Research Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, and Sandia National Laboratories. Charles Blahous went directly from his Ph.D. studies with Dr. Schaefer to the position of American Physical Society Congressional Scientist Fellow, and eventually to positions of significant importance in the U.S. political system (chief of staff for Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming and later Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire; and currently chief strategist for President George W. Bush's initiative to reform social security; see Wall Street Journal article April 22, 2005).
Many of Dr. Schaefer's students have accepted professorships in universities, including the University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Arizona, Budapest University (Hungary), University of California at Merced, City University of New York, Fatih University (Istanbul, Turkey), Georgia Tech, University of Georgia, University of Giessen (Germany), University of Girona (Spain), University of Grenoble (France), University of Guelph (Ontario), University of Illinois-Chicago, University of Illinois-Urbana, Johns Hopkins University, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, University of Kentucky, University of Manchester (England), University of Marburg (Germany), University of Massachusetts, University of Michigan, University of Mississippi, National Tsing Hua University (Taiwan), University of North Dakota, Ohio State University, Osaka University (Japan), University of Paris - Sud (France), Pohang Institute of Science and Technology (Korea), Portland State University, Pennsylvania State University, Rice University, Rikkyo University (Tokyo), Scripps Research Institute, Stanford University, University of Stirling (Scotland), University of Stockholm (Sweden), University of Tasmania (Australia), Technical University of Munich (Germany), Texas A&M University, the University of Texas at Arlington, University of Trondheim (Norway), and Virginia Tech.
Dr. Schaefer has been invited to present plenary lectures at more than 200 national or international scientific conferences. He has delivered endowed or named lectures or lecture series at more than 40 major universities, including the 1998 Kenneth S. Pitzer Memorial Lecture at Berkeley and the 2001 Israel Pollak Distinguished Lectures at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa. He is the recipient of fourteen honorary degrees. He was the longest serving Editor-in-Chief of the London-based journal Molecular Physics (1995-2005). He was also the longest serving President of the World Association of Theoretical and Computational Chemists, from 1996 to 2005. His service to the chemical community includes the chairmanship of the American Chemical Society's Subdivision of Theoretical Chemistry (1982) and Division of Physical Chemistry (1992). At the 228th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (Philadelphia, August, 2004) the Division of Computers in Chemistry and the Division of Physical Chemistry co-sponsored a four-day symposium in honor of Dr. Schaefer.
Professor Schaefer's major awards include the American Chemical Society Award in Pure Chemistry (1979, "for the development of computational quantum chemistry into a reliable quantitative field of chemistry and for prolific exemplary calculations of broad chemical interest"); the American Chemical Society Leo Hendrik Baekeland Award (1983, "for his contributions to computational quantum chemistry and for outstanding applications of this technique to a wide range of chemical problems"); the Schrödinger Medal (1990); the Centenary Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry (London, 1992, as "the first theoretical chemist successfully to challenge the accepted conclusions of a distinguished experimental group for a polyatomic molecule, namely methylene"); the American Chemical Society Award in Theoretical Chemistry (2003, "for his development of novel and powerful computational methods of electronic structure theory, and their innovative use to solve a host of important chemical problems"). In 2003 he also received the annual American Chemical Society Ira Remsen Award, named after the first chemistry research professor in North America. The Remsen Award citation reads "For work that resulted in more than one hundred distinct, critical theoretical predictions that were subsequently confirmed by experiment and for work that provided a watershed in the field of quantum chemistry, not by reproducing experiment, but using state-of-the-art theory to make new chemical discoveries and, when necessary, to challenge experiment." The Journal of Physical Chemistry published a special issue in honor of Dr. Schaefer on April 15, 2004. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004. He was named the recipient of the prestigious Joseph O. Hirschfelder Prize of the University of Wisconsin for the academic year 2005-2006. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (London) in 2005.
During the comprehensive period 1981 - 1997 Professor Schaefer was the sixth most highly cited chemist in the world; out of a total of 628,000 chemists whose research was cited. The Science Citation Index reports that by December 31, 2004 his research had been cited more than 35,000 times. His research involves the use of state-of-the-art computational hardware and theoretical methods to solve important problems in molecular quantum mechanics.
Professor Schaefer is also well known as a student of the relationship between science and religion. One or more of the lectures in his popular lecture series on this important topic have been presented at most major universities in North America, including Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, M.I.T., Yale, Princeton, and the Universities of Alberta and Toronto. Dr. Schaefer has also presented these lectures in many universities abroad, including those in Ankara, Bangalore, Beijing, Berlin, Bern, Bratislava, Brisbane, Budapest, Calcutta, Canberra, Cape Town, Chengdu, Christchurch, Cluj-Napoca, Delhi, Durban, Goa, Hong Kong, Hyderabad, Istanbul, Kanpur, Krakow, Kunming, Lausanne, London, Lucknow, Madras, Mumbai (Bombay), Paris, Prague, Sarajevo, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Sofia, Split, St. Petersburg, Sydney, Szeged, Taipei, Tokyo, Urumqi, Warsaw, Xiamen, Zagreb, and Zurich. His continuously evolving lecture The Big Bang, Stephen Hawking, and God appears in many locations and in several languages on the worldwide web. This lecture has been one of the most popular articles about science on the web in recent years, as discussed in Michael White and John Gribbin's best selling biography of Professor Hawking (pages 314-315 of the 2002 edition). On April 24, 2002 Dr. Schaefer received the Erick Bogseth Nilson Award, given to an outstanding university professor in North America, by the organization Christian Leadership. In May 2005 Dr. Schaefer was elected a Corresponding Associate of the Catholic Academy of Sciences in the USA. A brief spiritual biography (through 1991, written by Dr. David Fisher) of Professor Schaefer may be found on pages 323 - 326 of the book More Than Conquerors, edited by John Woodbridge (Moody Press, Chicago, 1992). At the University of Georgia Professor Schaefer teaches a popular two credit freshman seminar each year entitled Science and Christianity: Conflict or Coherence? Dr. Schaefer's book with the same title had its third printing in March 2004 and reached position #84 the same month on the best-selling list of Amazon.com. The fourth printing (with additions) appeared in March 2006

I also posted some quotes from Blasie Pascal here is a brief bio
Blaise Pascal, (born June 19, 1623, Clermont-Ferrand, France—died August 19, 1662, Paris), French mathematician, physicist, religious philosopher, and master of prose. He laid the foundation for the modern theory of probabilities, formulated what came to be known as Pascal’s law of pressure, and propagated a religious doctrine that taught the experience of God through the heart rather than through reason. The establishment of his principle of intuitionism had an impact on such later philosophers as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Henri Bergson and also on the Existentialists


My intent was to show how science and faith ( even a half millennia apart) are not contradictory, nor swept away by easy and incorrect statements and platitudes.

2) Even your boy Dr. F points out the tone & tenor of your posts.
It's too bad me and Fruity could never team up
He is just a little judgemental to aid a fellow traveler, and instead bites the hand that feeds

It appears that you have chosen to focus in on “this P.Rob guy” instead dealing with the content of the posts and you have yet to refute them.

I remember when peeple thought you were just a punk.

Listen Little Homie, I do not know if you ever were or still are a “little punk”. From your posts your obvious well read, have, I assume, at least undergrad if not graduate education. If you do not equate your posts to name calling.. so be it - cool.

"If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen. Like Campbell says, if you don't participate then you're on the sidelines. And if you participate and don't give as good as you get, you get rolled over. So it's not nearly so simple as we all would like. Hence what we witness, and what we have, in politics and these culture wars and in history at large".

You are right – civility - wtf was I thinking? I do want you to know – as a posted in the original and no defunct “Love Athiest Life” - I applaud the courage, strength and will to accept as evidence that there is No God! I have siblings & friends that live the life – some of the closest people to me – cherish them I do. Just could not do it for myself – I guess I just did not evolve that way. I hope you stay healthy spirit mind and body

“If possible, on your part, live at peace with everyone” Romans 12:18 h.c.s.b.

P.S. Go away – always a possibility – get rolled over ……. he he ya oh my ha ha ha – now you are making me laugh Mr. Corn Spirit – yes sir you done tickled me good. Stay strong little Homie & stay committed to your cause
Norton

Social climber
the Wastelands
Sep 1, 2012 - 08:59pm PT

Monotheistic Deification

It may surprise some to learn that a monotheistic doctrine of deification was taught by many of the church fathers, and is believed by many Christians today, including the entire Eastern Orthodox church. In keeping with monotheism, the Eastern Orthodox does not teach that men will literally become "gods" (which would be polytheism). Rather, as did many of the church fathers [2], they teach that men are "deified" in the sense that the Holy Spirit dwells within Christian believers and transforms them into the image of God in Christ, eventually endowing them in the resurrection with immortality and God's perfect moral character.
High Fructose Corn Spirit

Gym climber
-A race of corn eaters
Sep 1, 2012 - 09:11pm PT
No Norton, that's not the simple definition of deification that I speak of. With all due respect, my friend, your post muddles the subject where it is important to have clarity.

deification: the making of a deity.

Ptolemy: deified (Son God of Amon-Re)
Cleopatra: deified (Daughter Goddess of Isis)
Jesus: deified (Son God of Jehovah / Yahweh)

I only chose these three because they were all contemporaries 2,000 years ago. Deifying great leaders 2,000 years ago was "all the rage" in Mesopotamia.

More later...

Of course, fundamentalist Christianity et al would like to see the subject complicated, the waters murky, in order to preserve the status quo, their dying institutions. But the definition is so simple, clear and straightforward it shouldn't puzzle anyone.

Where are the Sunday sermons that focus on mythologies of old, superstitions, subjects like deification - all in a simple straight-forward manner. The fact that they don't exist, that they are kept behind closed doors, discussed in secret if at all, speaks volumes.

Reverend Rick Warren should discuss why the divinity of Cleopatra or Ptolemy is illegitimate but not the divinity of Jesus. Do we really wonder why he won't discuss these off-topics?

.....

P.Rob, I see you posted. Welcome back to the debate, man, I missed you!
Norton

Social climber
the Wastelands
Sep 1, 2012 - 09:28pm PT
With all due respect, my friend, your post muddles the subject where it is important to have clarity.

well then I feel vindicated that my muddling prompted further, needed, clarification

and for that, I thank myself, and you for providing it

so shall it be
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Sep 1, 2012 - 09:28pm PT
So Mr E, back to the joke thing, would you ever knowingly ride in a plane with a Budhist pilot? Is it in our best interests to have a pilot who believes in reincarnation?

Give me an atheist pilot every time! In the words of that Rastafarian ( a fundamentalist Christian offshoot, more or less) Bob Marley; "if you knew what life was worth, you would look for yours on earth,". That seems pretty nondenominational to me.

Daphne,
"to boldly go where no one has gone before!"?
O
"to go where no one has gone before, boldly!"?
Or
"boldly to go where no one has gone before!"?

Great seeing you too Lynne, may the force be with you!
P.Rob

Social climber
Pacomia, Ca - Y Que?
Sep 1, 2012 - 09:48pm PT

Missed you also Mr.Spirit - been putting extra time losing my tail as I evolve up from snails - thanx for keeping the fire stoked
klk

Trad climber
cali
Sep 1, 2012 - 10:56pm PT
I'm tired of feeling like I live in a country that automatically condemns anyone who doesn't have "faith" as somehow abnormal.

then yr gonna need to move a lot farther away than groveland

heh
WBraun

climber
Sep 1, 2012 - 11:04pm PT
anyone who doesn't have "faith" as somehow abnormal.

Relax ....

Everyone has faith. Atheist, theist and everyone in between.

If you don't have any faith in anything at all then you don't even exist at all ......
luggi

Trad climber
from the backseat of Jake& Elwood Blues car
Sep 1, 2012 - 11:08pm PT
Hey Syrup don't know why I showed up here but I was curious...I like to learn....concerning your earlier post on deification...please expound on what other species have evidence of that occurrence. It would truly be for my edification. Interesting how you used it. It intrigues me....
MisterE

Social climber
Sep 1, 2012 - 11:30pm PT
Some people are just bulldogs, and there is no cure for that.

Piss off, Dr. F - keep to the things your mind wraps comfortably around, and leave the mystery for the rest of us.

You are the worst kind of righteous disruptors - one who has the skill and free time to create emotional states for your black-or-white world: be it political or religious.

Just look at your on-line persona. You must be a sadist...or a masochist. Probably both.

You are fukking irritating in the worst of ways. This is the only response I will ever give to this horrible emotional troll called "Dr. F"
snowhazed

Trad climber
Oaksterdam, CA
Sep 1, 2012 - 11:32pm PT
Dr. F- what is the difference between 'trust' and 'faith'

Since you 'trust' reality
jstan

climber
Sep 1, 2012 - 11:58pm PT
I understand people in the jungles of New Guinea view cargo planes as deities. They even build models. And believe it or not they know man has walked on the moon. If I were having to struggle every day in a jungle, I surely would wish I could get up above the trees. You can even see some of this tendency in ST's aviation thread. And then there is always the business that without a gun we can't kill at any real distance.

Humans have fundamental urges, like flying, that we simply cannot do. Perhaps we create deities that are able to do what we cannot. Jesus was reportedly resurrected. Walking on water, etc. The transference , of course, requires the deities look just like us. So it is we don't worship drosophila melanogaster.

With the exception of some sci fi horror movies. That has to be the basis for the horror. They can fly and we can't.
jstan

climber
Sep 2, 2012 - 12:13am PT
And there us a horror movie titled "Birds!"
High Fructose Corn Spirit

Gym climber
-A race of corn eaters
Sep 2, 2012 - 10:35am PT
MisterE wrote,
Piss off, Dr. F - keep to the things your mind wraps comfortably around, and leave the mystery for the rest of us.

The bulldogs getting your goat, eh? lol

Remind us, are you a Christian?

If so, traditional fundamentalist Christian (bible is literal truth) or modern renascent Christian (bible is allegory, metaphor, myth)?

Where you coming from?

.....

Seems to me, loss of mystery is the price we pay for increased knowledge. Benefits and losses to both sides of the coin. We really can't have it both ways, either as individuals or as communities, can we?

One man's meat is another man's poison. That's what these culture wars are sorting out, I think, what's going to be the meat going forward.
High Fructose Corn Spirit

Gym climber
-A race of corn eaters
Sep 2, 2012 - 10:45am PT
Sh#t, I'm all over the map, I've got a bone to pick with you, Dr. F.

Why can't you distinguish different species of faith like so many others do and quit falling into the Christian religious trap, actually the Christian's long-standing rhetorical traps like the one involving "faith." When Christians speak of faith, they mean "blind faith" or "baseless faith" relative to evidence or reason. Don't you see that? (But obviously they won't themselves call it "blind faith" for what should be obvious reasons.)

When you call their "blind faith" simply faith, you're letting them frame the conversation. You're expressing yourself out of their rhetoric, their rhetorical framework.

"Faith," like "belief," is too good an English word, too prevalent as well, just to hand over to Christian religion for their sole use.

Call em on their blind faith, or blind trust, not simply their faith. Call em on their blind trust (aka blind faith) that has no basis in reason or basis in evidence or facts.

I trust in my climbing rope. It's earned my trust (aka faith). It's earned by faith (aka trust). It's an earned faith hard-won; for sure, it's no blind faith. If I didn't have faith - indeed, an evidence and reason-based faith - in my climbing rope I wouldn't go climb with it.
High Fructose Corn Spirit

Gym climber
-A race of corn eaters
Sep 2, 2012 - 10:53am PT
Maybe you just don't get this, too subtle. Perhaps a course in rhetoric or linguistics would help? Or read Frank Luntz's books on the power of words, wording, right framing. Lakoff also has written and lectured extensively on the subject.

As far as citing definitions go, perhaps it would help to remember Christianity and the English language grew up together over many centuries. One of the effects of this is that our beloved English today has a strong Christian religious slant to it. It helps to remember this.

......

Faith in the religious sense means

"In the religious sense." Exactly. So when you use their definition, you're letting "their side" frame the conversation, control the rhetoric, however you prefer to say it.

As a Dem, a passionate one at that, I'm sure you don't let Republicans (the other side) frame the conversation in their terms (and I'm sure you know what this means and Im sure you understand the importance of this). So, correspondingly, why as an atheist let the supernaturalists or theists (in this case, Christians) frame the conversation and thinking in their terms, their rhetoric, which serves otherwise favors their agenda? Just think about it.
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Sep 2, 2012 - 10:53am PT
Well, HFCS you tried, with Dr F. Or threw him a shovel to dig himself in deeper; whichever.
WBraun

climber
Sep 2, 2012 - 11:12am PT
When you present facts to Dr Failed and then he fails. he then backtracks and says it's just my opinion.

That's why he's called Dr Failed ....

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