You need to look up the definition of natural and supernatural.
Dennett’s attitude towards religion
- Thread starter BradStevens
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A jealous god.....
Exodus 20:5
you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me.
Nahum 1:2
You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me.
I Samuel 15:2-3
I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey
The definition of "hell" has morphed over the last couple of decades. I don't keep track anymore because it is irrelevant and has always been the stick to coerce.
Good catch. Satan probably is a she. Good luck with that
I have a buddy who was once married to someone we fondly called "Satan". She earned every penny of that term of endearment
If you want to find out, just go back and read McMurt’s posts, starting around 2020.
Bro already has a baby arm appendage. I'm not giving him the satisfaction of searching through is posts. He's got enough of an advantage already 😂
VanPastorMan
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None of what he says matters if 1. Jesus was the Son of God clothed in flesh (John1:1-3,14) and 2. He died on the Cross to pay the sin debt of us all and then later proved He actually did it by rising from the dead.This article lists some of the high points (not even close to enough, in my mind) of Dan Dennett’s thought.
10 Brilliant Insights from Daniel Dennett
A glimpse of a mind jammed to the rafters with ideas.nautil.us
On religion:
Religion doesn’t need to be abolished—merely fixed
Does religion “poison everything,” as my dear, late friend Hitch [Christopher Hitchens] insisted on saying? Only in a very attenuated sense, I think. Many things are quite harmless in moderation and poisonous only in quantity. I understand why Hitch emphasized this view; as a foreign correspondent he had much first-hand, dangerous experience with the worst features of religion, while I know of all that only at second hand—often from his reportage. I, in contrast, have known people whose lives would be desolate and friendless if it weren’t for the non-judgemental welcome they have received in one religious organization or another. I regret the residual irrationalism valorized by almost all religion, but I don’t see the state playing the succoring, comforting role well, so until we find secular successor organizations to take up that humane task, I am not in favor of ushering churches off the scene. I would rather assist in transforming these organizations into forms that are not caught in the trap of irrational—and necessarily insincere—allegiance to patent nonsense.
Despite that incredible physical asset only rarely do things seem to go my way. If there is a god I believe some of us he created just to F with and laugh at
You’re not forced to worship or choose God. Not sure what you’re getting at? Best of luck to you.
All those defnitions beg the question.
What force turned the undefined quantity of gas and matter into this ball we call earth? It’s the same force that Newton observed. Nobody knows what it is.
Not in your supernatural world it doesn’t. That is true.
But in this world, it could. There are very smart people in positions of power in the US and the world that would love to see the end of religion and don’t buy into Dennett’s belief that religion offers anything worth having (no, not Trump or Biden). His arguments matter in that debate.
Actually, you are the one begging the question.
Gravity is a natural explanation for observed phenomena. God is outside natural phenomenon.
Hmm, so religious people don't try to control others? When is the last time atheists knocked on your door to convert you?
Threads like this are tough for me since inevitably it comes down to someone has "wrong" beliefs. I don't know there is a wrong. I may not at all accept how others interpret The Bible, but I cannot possibly say it is wrong for them. Same for those that reject The Bible.
“Stick to coerce”? That necessarily implies somebody wields the stick. I don’t agree, but I acknowledge some people do believe that.
You asked the question of what kind of God would force you to worship them. Just an answer--nothing more, nothing less.
The more I consider it, the more it seems free will is a myth. That book, Determined, helped but there are a lot of other reasons. Chief being that I believe physicists who suggest we live in a simulation.
Which raises the question of God, God could be the programmer.
Those are Mormons. I can handle them. The atheists come to place you in a cage.
Yeah, it was. Happened a few years back. They still celebrate her birthday every year. Absolutely kills me, can’t imagine what it must be like for them…
Maybe I’m wrong & there is a higher power of some kind, but if there is, it is certainly not the benevolent, loving, omnipotent being that sees us as children….
I think gravity is inexplicable.
Of course we see its effects. It is a law of nature, but we don’t know what it is. Gravity is inextricably interwoven with the nature of the universe. We don’t know what that is either.
Who said they are atheist? Do you know for a fact there are no believers?
What does your Bible say where mine says, "And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
Gotcha. So, there is no God because he sucks at being God. And you conclude that judgement based on your relative morality and/or logic?
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Not sure I could function after that
I don't think the value in religion is found in God. I think it's found in how we treat other people.
Gravity is the attraction of masses to each other. Why they attract we don't exactly know, but they do.
The thing is we can test gravity, we do it all the time and have some very specific results. The God of Christianity requires faith and we are specifically not to test.
No, that's what you said.
I simply critiqued the freewill issue and the idea that the boss gave us free will, which I think you already know but thought it might be cute to say something else. There are plenty of arguments for and against the existence of a supernatural entity but those weren't addressed. I simply pointed out that free will or whatever you might choose to call it, comes with a large stick and large carrot.
Awful beyond despair. I have a buddy who is a PA in Grand Rapids and works at the Devos Children's hospital in the pediatric cardiology department. He's not allowed to talk about his work around us friends because it is miserable. Impossible to fathom the depths of despair a parent or parents might have.
You didn’t critique my free will comment. You expanded it to outcomes and made a moral judgement of those outcomes.
No sir. That is not what happened. I merely demonstrated that the free will you have so gleefully surrounded yourself in was an illusion. I pointed out examples of consequences of not following the boss' orders and consequences of following the boss' orders.
I don’t want to place you in a cage. I want to free you to the mountain.
There are A LOT of atheists who are libertarian, snarl. I know you know this.
If you had another kid, you’d have to find a way. If not, I think that’d be the end of me.
My favorite are the Paul Wolff anarchists. I have no idea what they believe in let alone talk about
I spend a lot of time at children’s with my daughter’s pancreatitis. This Wed as a matter of fact for another ultrasound. And I see parents who are essentially living there. Their little kids there for months on end. Just brutal. Your heart goes out to them
I agree we don’t have free will from outcomes. We do have free will to choose God. I disagree with your conclusion.
