[MD] Are theists irrational?

[MarshaV]

John,

My definition?  Why should I have such a definition?  It's from the 
Copleston annotations.  An online dictionary states the definition
as: A disbeliever in the existence of God.  

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/anti+theist  

Why do you ask?


Marsha
 
 
 
 

On Jan 21, 2010, at 11:28 AM, John Carl wrote:

> Marsha,
> 
> What's your definition of an anti-theist?
> 
> 
> John
> 
> On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 12:08 AM, MarshaV <valkyr at att.net> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> Mark (Bruce mentioned),
>> 
>> 
>> It seems for you, Mark, that the loss of God is low value, although I might
>> question how much discomfort is 'some discomfort'.  My definition of an
>> atheist is:  Atheists are people who believe that god or gods (or other
>> supernatural beings) are man-made constructs, myths and legends or
>> who believe that these concepts are not meaningful.  I do not find the
>> disappointment that Bruce suggested was mandatory for atheists.
>> 
>> 
>> Marsha
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Jan 20, 2010, at 11:35 PM, markhsmit wrote:
>> 
>>> For me Quality equals God, so I can't drop the term without some
>> discomfort.
>>> 
>>> Mark
>>> 
>>> "The MOQ would add a fourth stage where the term "God" is completely
>> dropped as a relic of an evil social suppression of intellectual and Dynamic
>> freedom. The MOQ is not just atheistic in this regard. It is anti-theistic."
>>> (Pirsig, Copleston Annotations)
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Jan 20, 2010, at 11:35 AM, Bruce Underwood wrote:
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Hello all, I hope that you don't mind me jumping in on this thread, but
>> here it goes.
>>>> 
>>>> Science: Science, in my opinion, ask a separate question than religion.
>> Science asks,"how" and religion asks "why". However,one thing that folks
>> want to do is to make science into a belief. IMO, science in merely a method
>> devised at the intellectual level to ask "how" things are made, work,
>> operate, etc. Science is not something to believe in, but a set of tool to
>> explore. That said,it has become the "church of science",as Pirsig puts it,
>> and has become something that people worship.
>>>> 
>>>> Religion: Religion, on the other hand, firstly, attempts to look beyond
>> the now into unknown world of "why", but where its rudderless obsessions of
>> control, combined with ignorance, along with the thought "that man can know
>> the mind of God" has placed it in categories of distrust and hypocrisy.
>> Regardless of the fairy tales that have been created over the millennium,
>> there exists the unknown that moves and organize things against the laws of
>> nature. In MoQ we call it Dynamic Quality. The thing is, MoQ, at least,
>> provides the possibilty, with argument, for "God" to exist by whatever name
>> you want to give it. The purpose of religion should be to move life forward
>> and to give man hope. Where faith comes in is in the hope that there is more
>> to life than existance; I believe MoQ does that.
>>>> 
>>>> The section below is from chapter 11 of Lila.
>>>> 
>>>> "Thermodynamics states that all energy systems "run down" like a clock
>> and
>>>> never rewind themselves. But life not only "runs up," converting low
>>>> energy sea-water, sunlight and air into high-energy chemicals, it keeps
>>>> multiplying itself into more and better clocks that keep "running up"
>>>> faster and faster.
>>>> Why, for example, should a group of simple, stable compounds of carbon,
>>>> hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen struggle for billions of years to organize
>>>> themselves into a professor of chemistry? What's the motive?...
>>>> 
>>>> The question is: Then why does nature reverse this process? What on
>> earth
>>>> causes the inorganic compounds to go the other way? It isn't the sun's
>>>> energy. We just saw what the sun's energy did. It has to be something
>>>> else. What is it?... Dynamic Quality"
>>>> 
>>>> Theist, Agnostic, Atheist: IMO, the only person without faith is the
>> agnostic that does not search for the "truth". However, the one who searches
>> for truth will always be disappointed as a theist or atheist unless he
>> accepts the lies in either camp. The truth is somewhere in the middle and is
>> found in the journey itself. MoQ is the closet thing that points to the
>> truth that I have found.
>>>> 
>>>> My graphical representation of this found on slide 20 of the ppt deck
>> that I provided a couple of weeks back. Here is the link:
>>>> http://www.thinnerself.com/files/MoQ/lila-6a.ppt
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> 
>>>> Bruce
>>>> 

_______________________________________________________________________
   
Shoot for the moon.  Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars...