Oh for gods sake!

Posted on by Ark

 

Shermer is truly outstanding.

If you are prepared to listen to the entire 16: 00, I challenge you to offer any meaningful argument for being  a believer.

And if you are already a sceptic this brief talk will offer rebuttals for every primary argument for theism.

 

And just in case you might need a little more convincing about the errancy of the Bible … this one, from Kenneth Humphries is only 5 minutes.

Ark.

51 thoughts on “Oh for gods sake!”

  1. I very much enjoy Dr. Shermer’s books and videos. Here’s one I have on my blog Ark under my About menu tab: Dear Faith-Religious Believer which conveniently ties into this/your Shermer video… 🙂

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          1. Yes, the symbolism CLEARLY means that God and His heaven is scattered everywhere! Here, there, up, down, in and out… and to Grandma’s house we go! God’s Holy Spirit is everywhere! Even on ties!

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    3. @ Professor. I love what he says at the end. That this life, the here and now are what is important and to make the most of it. So many problems could be solved if people would think of this life and not be building “castles in the clouds” over an imaginary next one. Hugs

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          6. Both? My god…. you do have eclectic taste.
            Or maybe you just have a thing for …. James Hetfield and nothing else matters?

            The gods forbid you sing Jolene in the shower!

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          9. I love this. I first heard the album ( Nilsson Schmilsson) as a kid barely into my teens while on holiday in the south of France.
            Without You is one of the most endearing songs in pop history.
            Sad that Nilsson passed away from cancer.

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          11. @ Professor : I just listened to your music selections and I love them. I love bluegrass music. Ron is not a fan. I notice that the SiriusXM radio in the car keeps not only being changed but the station put on the ignore list. I am sure this is a design flaw in the car and I will take in back into the dealer to fix this. It is only a few months old. However I did call SiriusXM about it and they said as soon as they can get their breath back from laughing they would jump right on it. Nice to know you can get good service in this day and age. Imagine installing a radio that did not get bluegrass banjo music. I was rather surprised there were not more banjo stations but SirusXM told me they were working on it…as soon as their uncle got out of the drunk tank. Hugs

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        3. @ Professor : I just listened to your music selections and I love them. I love bluegrass music. Ron is not a fan. I notice that the SiriusXM radio in the car keeps not only being changed but the station put on the ignore list. I am sure this is a design flaw in the car and I will take in back into the dealer to fix this. It is only a few months old. However I did call SiriusXM about it and they said as soon as they can get their breath back from laughing they would jump right on it. Nice to know you can get good service in this day and age. Imagine installing a radio that did not get bluegrass banjo music. Unheard of. Hugs

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          1. Hahaha! So it would seem that you’ve already eliminated the possibility that Ron is not a viable “silent suspect” for the criminal SiriusXM “Ignore List”!? 😄

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          2. OH NO, I know my wonderful , loving, adoring, helpful, grand, long suffering, dutiful, …( ad your own additive here ) spouse wouldn’t ever do anything like that. No he promised me he would watch for them to add the banjo station so I wouldn’t have to worry about it. See how grand he is. Sadly he has not found one yet, but I am sure as soon as he does he will lock it in to the radio system. In the meantime we listen to the stations he has found that he likes. No problem as I know as soon as he can find a bluegrass station he will change the radio for me. Right ??? Hugs

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  3. Haven’t viewed it yet (gotta go out). But I’ll bet it’s filled with all the usual atheist rantings and posturings and windblown spittle … ya won’t confute us genuine True Believers with any of your facts, logic, and other dribbling raves.

    It’s in The Bible, see?

    THE holey word of God Himself—and who are you arrogant … slugs? … low-lifes to cast any form of doubt on that?

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    2. Seen it.
      Proves my point … taking cheap shots at the WOG* isn’t going to help. I mean, he’s obviously very sincere, but is his pointing out that there are umpty zillion ‘gods’ really going to affect anybody who KNOWS that there’s only One True God?

      As for that ark, Ark—surely the scribe taking notes on the spot at the time must’ve got it a bit wrong? It doesn’t sound like a sea-going ship at all—even if God made the world-ocean like a millpond and silenced the raging of the seas etc, and there was no vomit to get rid of … what did they do with umpty oodle cubic metres of poop every day? Or were they (Noah et al) the original polluters?

      * WOG … Word Of God (what else?)

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      1. I think he got a bit confused between a cube and cubits, which is a measurement roughly half an adult human arm’s length, not a shape. As for the clean up, well he had two bobcats on board, right? Pretty efficient little machines for clean up and since all anti-ocean dumping laws would be at least temporarily suspended, no big deal: dump it all overboard.

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      2. I always wondered how they managed to keep afloat in a rudderless, sailless, oarless, keelless boat with all that weight and all that rain. I should think it would have sunk like a rock.

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        1. Zecharia Sitchin had it that it was a submarine; that “god” who gave instructions to “Noah” was actually Enki and that the “two of everything” was DNA samples. I know this doesn’t sit well with the modern recently descended from the trees technological monkeys but things may just be a little more complicated, and interesting than “Hoo-Hoo, Hah-Hah, Ompa-Oompa!” waving big sticks and building pyramids… or Baalbek.

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          1. I did try to read ol’ Sitchin. Honestly. But as much as I like bits of the theme I still bounced off.
            Nonetheless there are a very great amount of unanswered questions out there: the physical facts stare at us (laughing?) but the simplest explanation of all would be a simple demonstration, not of building a pyramid but a member (or a thousand such) of The Establishment replicating some of those artefacts using the mooted ‘copper chisels’.

            Any takers?

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          2. Whether the “pyramid builders” were “gods” with technology we still fail to understand, or hairy Oompah Loompah’s with copper chisels, bad complexions and worse hairdos, what’s lacking in all discussions surrounding “man”-made megaliths is integrity. All explanations tend towards “proving” pre-arrived at conclusions aimed at shooting down the other guy. Childish and wasteful, leading to endless confrontation. If one is so sure about her/his point, why belabour it, or argue it with anyone else? Surely, If I “know” that I am “right” then I should have the intelligent wherewithal to realize that my opponent is equally “right” and we may as well agree to disagree and find some other common ground. For example, no one could ever convince me that “gods” don’t exist – I see evidence of their nefarious influence upon this world daily. It’s like gravity: I don’t see it, but I certainly can feel it’s influence upon everything. What matters is not the “presence” but the influence… IMO. If some Jack-in-the-Box “scientist” decided to disprove gravity and convinced enough academics, there would soon be another “ism” group solidly defending the no-gravity concept. Gravity would no longer be gravity, but some corruption of natural force and that source of corruption would soon to be exposed and proved to be another conspiracy theory, providing, of course, that people stopped believing in gravity.

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          3. Sitchin falls into a similar category as Daniken.

            One of the plausible theories regarding the construction of the pyramids was proposed by French chemical engineer Joseph Davidovits who suggested that some of the massive blocks were made from pulverized soft limestone and mixed with water, hardening the material with natural binders that the Egyptians are known to have used for their famous blue-glaze ornamental statues.

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          4. Yeah, read this, and many other equally, er, hm, laughable theories. None of them answer THE question: why would the Egyptians, a relatively smart bunch of people according to history, go to such trouble in the first place? Why waste human resources on such a large scale for absolutely no valid reason? Further, why is it that later pyramids so totally lack the quality and workmanship of the original monuments? Shouldn’t their technology have improved, not go the other way? Bu that’s just the tip of the iceberg of idiocy about “man made” megaliths. There are others, much more impressive than the pyramids that really, from an Earthian viewpoint, make no sense at all, have no explanation. Baalbek I already mentioned. What was the point of Nazca and its intriguing lines and designs on the desert floor? I have no problem with either Von Daniken or Sitchin or any other thinking Earthian willing to look a bit further than systematized established history i.e., outside the mandated boundaries of the accepted box thinking. I like the idea of “ancient aliens” having had a hand in our development, a lot more than imagining my recent ancestors hanging from tree branches, then coming down to burn sacrifices to the moon and the lightning. Somewhere between religionism and scientism lies truth. We just need to open our minds to endless possibilities and let our thoughts flow freely. It’s not like the sky is going to fall if we decide that “ancient aliens” which became the foundation for our beliefs in gods, actually existed! But if they did, they may still and some of them may return to have a look around. Wonder what they would think? “Seems like they haven’t evolved one bit, commandant. What’s the word, then?” Pursing her lips in disgust: “Fumigate.” Sometimes Ark, I think the anti-alien intervention league is more frightened of the possibility than the religious is frightened of their own gods.

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          5. Sha:

            I’m not so interested in ‘proving’ my favoured thoughts as finding the truth; but when I come across stuff of very dubious heritage I like sometimes to stir the waters a bit. Even to the point of being my very own personal ‘Devil’s Advocate’.

            But for stuff that’s blatantly laughable I just can’t resist trying to pop a few smug bubbles. (Hell, ya gotta allow a jaded old dog a few harmless hobbies …)

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  4. Well I don’t know Ark, there could be a bit of truth in this god thingy. I’ve been silently saying a few ‘prayers’ just recently and they have been answered, 3 wins on the trot!!! Now don’t go and burst my bubble and say it was a fluke. I reckon even you have been at it. Furthermore as another sign, when I finished watching the video and little squares appeared advertising other videos what was there in the middle? ‘European Finals 2018 from Santa Pod Raceway’ !!! (drag racing, see my blog, I went) Now explain that away! Spooky.

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  5. I enjoyed that, mostly because he is so articulate and I could understand almost every word he uttered – I’m ESL and partially deaf. (I did use the subtitles and they were pretty good too) He presents some very strong arguments, although it’s not the area I work in and from. For me gods actually do exist. In fact he got it right at the beginning: what you think, what you believe in, what you can describe in some way, what you can name and write about, and etc., that all does exist. It’s called imagination without which we would still be hanging from tree branches or hopping around at the mouth of the cave. The problem with faith is that it’s distorted, twisted, perverted imagination. Try this on for size: believe all things, believe in nothing. The problem is not believing, the problem is believing in. I can believe anything I want to and it won’t hurt anyone until I turn it into faith and force it on others, be they my children, neighbours or the global community. There’s the evil of religion. I still like that “Harry Crumb” saying: “Believe what you will but don’t believe it here.”

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