Beleiving in God is the Norm

[Whitney]

I always just assumed Messenger was a theist due to the name Messenger.

[curiosityandthecat]

I always just assumed Messenger was a theist due to the name Messenger.

Haha, ditto.

[oldschooldoc]

p.s. Was Dawkins the first to coin the phrase "irreducibly complex?"

No, to answer your question. I know the idea was made famous by Michael Behe in Darwin's Black Box, and I believe he MAY have been the one who coined the term. Don't quote me on that though...unless you find I'm wrong, then quote me and call me a dillweed for not knowing.  

[BadPoison]

Thanks!

[Kylyssa]

Perhaps belief in God is the norm but the norm isn't always a good thing.  Having roundworms and fleas is the norm for feral cats.

[curiosityandthecat]

Perhaps belief in God is the norm but the norm isn't always a good thing.  Having roundworms and fleas is the norm for feral cats.

 

I did actually have fleas last year. No joke.

There's a carpeted room in the basement of our house (we rented, lived here for a year and a half) that the last tenants used as a rec room. The house is pets-free, but they obviously had a cat: the room smelled slightly like cat urine. Well, I was sorting through all my things that we don't use anymore (guys who moved in with girlfriends will understand what I'm talking about) when I noticed a little bug crawling up my leg. I flicked it off, and continued what I was doing. Long story short, I was covered in fleas, spent $100 in powders and bombs, and was piiiiiissed.

Still don't believe in God, just for the record.

[oldschooldoc]

Perhaps belief in God is the norm but the norm isn't always a good thing.  Having roundworms and fleas is the norm for feral cats.

 

[Messenger]

Perhaps belief in God is the norm but the norm isn't always a good thing.  Having roundworms and fleas is the norm for feral cats.

I mean by the word norm here: common sense or simple logic

Evolution is an imaginary theory that can be refuted easily, wait f or this

[curiosityandthecat]

Evolution is an imaginary theory that can be refuted easily

[Kyuuketsuki]

Evolution is an imaginary theory that can be refuted easily, wait for this

Let's see ... the scientific community, all bar a few hundred scientists with religious biases, accept evolution and all relevant evolutionary scientists accept evolution yet you think it is an an imaginary theory that can be easily refuted?

Oh go on then ... impress us with your mind-boggling stupidity!!!!!  

Kyu

[Kylyssa]

Perhaps belief in God is the norm but the norm isn't always a good thing.  Having roundworms and fleas is the norm for feral cats.

I mean by the word norm here: common sense or simple logic

Evolution is an imaginary theory that can be refuted easily, wait f or this

It's really a shame the forum can't enforce honesty on the "worldview" display.  

I've never met anyone who wasn't a Christian or Muslim who was a vocal creation supporter and who felt the need to call evolution "an imaginary theory" and use a holier-than-thou patronizing tone in doing so.  A theory is a conjecture or group of conjectures used to explain something such as how animals, plants, and other living things reached their current state.  A theory is that conjecture or group of conjectures whether or not they are conclusively proven.  

You see, regardless of whether evolution happened or not (it likely happened due to overwhelming historical, archeological, and biological evidence) evolution is a theory.  

Also, the word 'norm' does not mean just anything you desire.  Norm has a definition.

Norm
â€"noun
1.    a standard, model, or pattern.
2.    general level or average: Two cars per family is the norm in most suburban communities.
3.    Education.
a.    a designated standard of average performance of people of a given age, background, etc.
b.    a standard based on the past average performance of a given individual.
4.    Mathematics.
a.    a real-valued, nonnegative function whose domain is a vector space, with properties such that the function of a vector is zero only when the vector is zero, the function of a scalar times a vector is equal to the absolute value of the scalar times the function of the vector, and the function of the sum of two vectors is less than or equal to the sum of the functional values of each vector. The norm of a real number is its absolute value.
b.    the greatest difference between two successive points of a given partition.

These words have definitions and if you are to use logic as actual logicians do, you must used the accepted definitions of such terms unless you first give your atypical definitions prior to your use of the words.

Additionally, I've only known fundamentalist theists to completely reject the theory of evolution.  Most people who believe evolution happens and has happened ARE theists.  Average theists do not feel threatened by scientifically explainable phenomena such as erosion, evolution, continental drift, global warming or weather patterns.  In my experience it's pretty much just been fundamentalists who see "flaws" in evolution.  The vast majority of religious folks believe the world works according to logical principles and natural laws.  If evolution were thought to be an "imaginary theory" by the majority of theists it would never have made it into the public arena.  Theists are the majority, especially in the US.  4% of the US population couldn't force any theory, including the theory of gravity, into the public arena unless a majority of theists also thought the theory to be correct.

[Kyuuketsuki]

A belief in deity is illogical in a rational sense but people (especially en masse) are inherently illogical so yes, a belief is deity does appear to be "normal" in human society. As others have said that is not necessarily a good thing.

Kyu

[curiosityandthecat]

A belief in deity is illogical in a rational sense but people (especially en masse) are inherently illogical so yes, a belief is deity does appear to be "normal" in human society. As others have said that is not necessarily a good thing.

Kyu

I think I'd call it typical more than normal.  

[oldschooldoc]

A belief in deity is illogical in a rational sense but people (especially en masse) are inherently illogical so yes, a belief is deity does appear to be "normal" in human society. As others have said that is not necessarily a good thing.

Kyu

I think I'd call it typical more than normal.  

I agree. I don't find belief in religion and god to be 'normal' (at least what I perceive as normal), but merely typical of an ever-increasing trend towards holy fundamentalism in humans (not all, just a good chunk). Even though atheistic views have been and will continue to make strides towards a secular and logical world, the fundies won't go away very easily.

[BadPoison]

A belief in deity is illogical in a rational sense but people (especially en masse) are inherently illogical so yes, a belief is deity does appear to be "normal" in human society. As others have said that is not necessarily a good thing.

Kyu

I think I'd call it typical more than normal.  

I agree. I don't find belief in religion and god to be 'normal' (at least what I perceive as normal), but merely typical of an ever-increasing trend towards holy fundamentalism in humans (not all, just a good chunk). Even though atheistic views have been and will continue to make strides towards a secular and logical world, the fundies won't go away very easily.

So what really should be done to combat such ignorance - or what can I do to help large quantities of uninformed individuals see reason? Or maybe this should be a new topic (or more likely already is an older topic)