Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-08-01 Thread Warren Ockrassa
On Aug 1, 2007, at 11:54 AM, Andrew Crystall wrote: > On 31 Jul 2007 at 20:17, Warren Ockrassa wrote: > >> Just a couple quibbles. >> >> There are in fact stacks of religions which claim literalism. *All* > >> fundamentalist interpretations of *all* sects do so. > > ... > > Absolute rubbish, I'm

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-08-01 Thread Andrew Crystall
On 31 Jul 2007 at 20:17, Warren Ockrassa wrote: > Just a couple quibbles. > > There are in fact stacks of religions which claim literalism. *All* > > fundamentalist interpretations of *all* sects do so. ... Absolute rubbish, I'm afraid. Within Judaism the tiny Kairite movement is literalist,

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-31 Thread Warren Ockrassa
Just a couple quibbles. There are in fact stacks of religions which claim literalism. *All* fundamentalist interpretations of *all* sects do so. As to the other minor asides... On Jul 31, 2007, at 7:45 PM, Andrew Crystall wrote: > So, what do you think of Steven Hawkins? *grins* Hawking. Step

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-31 Thread Andrew Crystall
On 29 Jul 2007 at 0:29, William T Goodall wrote: > > On 28 Jul 2007, at 20:16, Nick Arnett wrote: > > > On 7/27/07, William T Goodall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> > >> > >> > >> I'm not arguing with that. I'm arguing with the fact that religions > >> present their stories as being actually tr

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-30 Thread William T Goodall
On 30 Jul 2007, at 23:19, Robert Seeberger wrote: > > That does not surprise me a bit. The idea that churches are segregated > by anything more than convenience is a bit off to me. I see people > going to mega-churches, mega-church wannabes, and the nearest church > of convenience by denomination

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-30 Thread Robert Seeberger
- Original Message - From: "Max Battcher" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" Sent: Monday, July 30, 2007 4:30 PM Subject: Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged > Robert Seeberger wrote: >> - Original Message - &

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-30 Thread Max Battcher
Robert Seeberger wrote: > - Original Message - > From: "William T Goodall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "Killer Bs Discussion" > Sent: Monday, July 30, 2007 11:46 AM > Subject: Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged > > &g

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-30 Thread Robert Seeberger
- Original Message - From: "William T Goodall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" Sent: Monday, July 30, 2007 11:46 AM Subject: Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged > > On 30 Jul 2007, at 14:21, Julia Thompson wrote: > >

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-30 Thread William T Goodall
On 30 Jul 2007, at 14:21, Julia Thompson wrote: > > > On Mon, 30 Jul 2007, William T Goodall wrote: >> >> Blacks also go to different churches of course. > > Some choose to go to all-black or mostly-black churches, others > don't. I > could go on for a good number of sentences on the subject,

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-30 Thread Julia Thompson
On Mon, 30 Jul 2007, William T Goodall wrote: > > On 30 Jul 2007, at 02:41, Ronn! Blankenship wrote: >> At 01:02 PM Wednesday 7/18/2007, Dan Minette wrote: >>> Subject: Re: U.S. health care >>> >>> >>> >>> [...] Let me give you an example from one of the clearest numbers for >>> which the US per

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-30 Thread William T Goodall
On 30 Jul 2007, at 02:41, Ronn! Blankenship wrote: > At 01:02 PM Wednesday 7/18/2007, Dan Minette wrote: >> Subject: Re: U.S. health care >> >> >> >> [...] Let me give you an example from one of the clearest numbers for >> which the US performs relatively poorly: infant mortality. >> >> The US's r

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-29 Thread Ronn! Blankenship
At 06:52 PM Sunday 7/29/2007, William T Goodall wrote: >On 30 Jul 2007, at 00:23, Ronn! Blankenship wrote: > > > At 03:08 PM Sunday 7/29/2007, William T Goodall wrote: > > > > > >> The USA is the most religious advanced country and the least healthy. > >> > >> [...] > >> > >> Very religious countr

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-29 Thread William T Goodall
On 30 Jul 2007, at 00:23, Ronn! Blankenship wrote: > At 03:08 PM Sunday 7/29/2007, William T Goodall wrote: > > >> The USA is the most religious advanced country and the least healthy. >> >> [...] >> >> Very religious countries like Nigeria seem to have very poor health. > > > > Is there any othe

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-29 Thread Ronn! Blankenship
At 03:08 PM Sunday 7/29/2007, William T Goodall wrote: >The USA is the most religious advanced country and the least healthy. > >[...] > >Very religious countries like Nigeria seem to have very poor health. Is there any other common factor between those two statistics? Correlation Again Mar

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-29 Thread William T Goodall
On 30 Jul 2007, at 00:12, Ronn! Blankenship wrote: > At 10:25 AM Sunday 7/29/2007, William T Goodall wrote: > >> You can't prove UFOs manned by yetis don't abduct you every night and >> probe you Maru > > > That explains why I wake up every morning with an overwhelming desire > to get to the bath

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-29 Thread Ronn! Blankenship
At 10:25 AM Sunday 7/29/2007, William T Goodall wrote: >You can't prove UFOs manned by yetis don't abduct you every night and >probe you Maru That explains why I wake up every morning with an overwhelming desire to get to the bathroom and smear some Preparation-H on my butt! Thanks Maru! --

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-29 Thread William T Goodall
On 29 Jul 2007, at 20:26, Dan Minettte wrote: >> On Behalf Of William T Goodall >> Correlation doesn't mean causation Dan. In a highly religious society >> like the USA those who are not members of a religious community are >> also likely to be outsiders in other ways which is likely to impact >

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-29 Thread William T Goodall
On 29 Jul 2007, at 20:26, Dan Minettte wrote: > > If you want, you could argue that healthy people tend to be > religious and > people with social and behavior health issues tend to be agnostic and > atheists, I guessbut I think the proposed mechanisms are better > explained by the causalit

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-29 Thread Richard Baker
Dan said: > If we were to differ, say on the latest work in mesoscopic > physics, we could straightforwardly reconcile those differences by > reference to the literature. Yes. And if we differed about physics beyond the current frontiers of knowledge we could in principle resolve those dif

RE: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-29 Thread Dan Minettte
> -Original Message- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > On Behalf Of William T Goodall > Sent: Sunday, July 29, 2007 9:55 AM > To: Killer Bs Discussion > Subject: Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged > > > On 29 Jul 2007, a

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-29 Thread William T Goodall
On 29 Jul 2007, at 15:31, Dan Minettte wrote: > There is no experiment that either one of us can propose to falsify > the > belief of one of us and confirm the belief of the other. So, where > does > this place discussions of religion? Is there nothing empirically > based that > can be sa

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-29 Thread William T Goodall
On 29 Jul 2007, at 15:31, Dan Minettte wrote: > On the whole, it appears that the literature indicates that > membership in a > religious community has a positive effect on one's health. Correlation doesn't mean causation Dan. In a highly religious society like the USA those who are not membe

RE: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-29 Thread Dan Minettte
> -Original Message- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of Richard Baker > Sent: Friday, July 27, 2007 5:00 AM > To: Killer Bs Discussion > Subject: Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged > > Dave said: > > &

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-29 Thread William T Goodall
On 29 Jul 2007, at 14:37, PAT MATHEWS wrote: > > I am deleting, unread, all posts with this title because nobody is > saying > anything new. Everybody has their minds made up and all the force > of their > deepest values behind it. > It's those blinkered and irrational advocates of religio

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-29 Thread PAT MATHEWS
f the individual.The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community."--William James >From: William T Goodall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion >To: Killer Bs Discussion >Subject: Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged >Date:

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-29 Thread William T Goodall
On 29 Jul 2007, at 13:55, Richard Baker wrote: > William said: > >> It has a supernatural God that makes the world, a supernatural Jesus, >> it has Jesus coming back from death, it has heaven and it has >> resurrection and blah blah blah. If you don't believe all of this >> tosh you are not a Chr

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-29 Thread Richard Baker
William said: > It has a supernatural God that makes the world, a supernatural Jesus, > it has Jesus coming back from death, it has heaven and it has > resurrection and blah blah blah. If you don't believe all of this > tosh you are not a Christian. I think it's possible to disbelieve some aspect

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-29 Thread William T Goodall
On 29 Jul 2007, at 13:33, Ritu wrote: > William T Goodall wrote: > >> All religions contain irrational defining beliefs (supernatural or >> otherwise) else they wouldn't be religions. Accepting some piece[s] >> of nonsense on faith is part of adopting a religious belief. > > That is a wonderful n

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-29 Thread William T Goodall
On 29 Jul 2007, at 02:45, Nick Arnett wrote: > > Many religions have creeds -- short statements of faith that one > chooses to > accept as true if one is to profess that faith. Creeds exists > specifically > to identify the key truths in one's faith. There would be no need > for them > if

RE: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-29 Thread Ritu
William T Goodall wrote: > All religions contain irrational defining beliefs (supernatural or > otherwise) else they wouldn't be religions. Accepting some piece[s] > of nonsense on faith is part of adopting a religious belief. That is a wonderful non-answer to what I said... > Clearly steam

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-29 Thread William T Goodall
On 29 Jul 2007, at 12:33, Ritu wrote: > William T Goodall wrote: > >> Atheist religions have different defining irrational beliefs. Nazism >> had 'Aryan supremacy', the Greens have 'Nuclear Power is Evil' and so >> on. > > I am sure they do, but I really was talking about the religion I > grew

RE: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-29 Thread Ritu
William T Goodall wrote: > Atheist religions have different defining irrational beliefs. Nazism > had 'Aryan supremacy', the Greens have 'Nuclear Power is Evil' and so > on. I am sure they do, but I really was talking about the religion I grew up with, and if you wish to place it in this cla

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-29 Thread William T Goodall
On 29 Jul 2007, at 04:59, Ritu wrote: > William T Goodall wrote: > >> Religions don't present their stories as being literally true? They >> don't claim that supernatural entities meddle in human affairs? They >> don't claim that miraculous events actually happen? They don't claim >> that divinel

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-29 Thread William T Goodall
On 29 Jul 2007, at 02:45, Nick Arnett wrote: > On 7/28/07, William T Goodall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> >> On 28 Jul 2007, at 20:16, Nick Arnett wrote: >> >>> On 7/27/07, William T Goodall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I'm not arguing with that. I'm arguing with the fact th

RE: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-28 Thread Ritu
William T Goodall wrote: > Religions don't present their stories as being literally true? They > don't claim that supernatural entities meddle in human affairs? They > don't claim that miraculous events actually happen? They don't claim > that divinely inspired prophets said things we must p

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-28 Thread Nick Arnett
On 7/28/07, William T Goodall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > On 28 Jul 2007, at 20:16, Nick Arnett wrote: > > > On 7/27/07, William T Goodall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> > >> > >> > >> I'm not arguing with that. I'm arguing with the fact that religions > >> present their stories as being actu

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-28 Thread William T Goodall
On 28 Jul 2007, at 20:16, Nick Arnett wrote: > On 7/27/07, William T Goodall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> >> >> I'm not arguing with that. I'm arguing with the fact that religions >> present their stories as being actually true > > > That is patently untrue. Religions don't present their sto

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-28 Thread Nick Arnett
On 7/27/07, William T Goodall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > I'm not arguing with that. I'm arguing with the fact that religions > present their stories as being actually true That is patently untrue. Hey, you just told an untrue story! Nick -- Nick Arnett [EMAIL PROTECTED] Messages: 408-

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-27 Thread William T Goodall
On 27 Jul 2007, at 22:21, Nick Arnett wrote: > On 7/27/07, William T Goodall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> >> I think the difference between fact and fiction is pretty clear. > > > I don't think anybody is arguing about that. Proponents of religion always seem to be. > We're talking about

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-27 Thread Julia Thompson
On Fri, 27 Jul 2007, Dave Land wrote: > On Jul 27, 2007, at 3:06 AM, William T Goodall wrote: > >> On 27 Jul 2007, at 10:44, Dave Land wrote: >> >>> The point being that religion -- whether you consider it the core of >>> your being or a mental illness, is beneficial to humankind. >> >> The ends

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-27 Thread Nick Arnett
On 7/27/07, William T Goodall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I think the difference between fact and fiction is pretty clear. I don't think anybody is arguing about that. We're talking about the relationship among facts, fiction and truth. A fictional story can contain truths. "A bird in the

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-27 Thread William T Goodall
On 27 Jul 2007, at 18:52, Dave Land wrote: > On Jul 27, 2007, at 3:06 AM, William T Goodall wrote: > >> On 27 Jul 2007, at 10:44, Dave Land wrote: >> >>> The point being that religion -- whether you consider it the core of >>> your being or a mental illness, is beneficial to humankind. >> >> The

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-27 Thread Dave Land
On Jul 27, 2007, at 3:06 AM, William T Goodall wrote: > On 27 Jul 2007, at 10:44, Dave Land wrote: > >> The point being that religion -- whether you consider it the core of >> your being or a mental illness, is beneficial to humankind. > > The ends justify the means eh? Not exactly "the ends jus

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-27 Thread Dave Land
On Jul 27, 2007, at 2:59 AM, Richard Baker wrote: > Dave said: > >> The point being that religion -- whether you consider it the core of >> your being or a mental illness, is beneficial to humankind. > > So is your position that religions are useful rather than true? Like much of what I "believe"

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-27 Thread dcaa
reless handheld. Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld. -Original Message- From: Dave Land <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2007 02:44:13 To:Killer Bs Discussion Subject: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-27 Thread Alberto Monteiro
Dave Land wrote: > > Religious Concepts Promote Cooperation > Effect seems to work regardless of a person's beliefs. > > The point being that religion -- whether you consider it the core of > your being or a mental illness, is beneficial to humankind. > You still have to prove that _c

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-27 Thread William T Goodall
On 27 Jul 2007, at 10:44, Dave Land wrote: > > The point being that religion -- whether you consider it the core of > your being or a mental illness, is beneficial to humankind. The ends justify the means eh? Perhaps if it takes blatant lies to make a society function smoothly then there is so

Re: Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-27 Thread Richard Baker
Dave said: > The point being that religion -- whether you consider it the core of > your being or a mental illness, is beneficial to humankind. So is your position that religions are useful rather than true? Rich ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/lis

Religion is Valuable: Why it Must Be Encouraged

2007-07-27 Thread Dave Land
Folks, From Nature: Religious Concepts Promote Cooperation Effect seems to work regardless of a person's beliefs. A belief in God may have promoted the evolution of cooperative behaviour, say Canadian psychologists. They found that priming people with religious concepts