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Original poster

Honest question. Is this site a religious site?

843 replies

follderol · 26/01/2009 18:01

It seems to me there's a large amount of Christian posts. I've also noticed a fair amount of disapproval for other religions.

I am an atheist. I don't really want to be part of a christian site posing as a parenting site.

So is this actually a Christian place?

OP posts:
justaboutisnotastatistician · 02/02/2009 21:35

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AMumInScotland · 02/02/2009 20:51

Can we go back to biscuits now? I don't know enough about philosophy or obscure films.

ruty · 02/02/2009 20:34

poncey even.

ruty · 02/02/2009 20:33

i've killed the thread with a pncey poem rev. should have kept to biscuits...

justaboutisnotastatistician · 02/02/2009 18:54

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ruty · 02/02/2009 18:51

you are making my brain hurt, but in a good way. Made me think of

this

justaboutisnotastatistician · 02/02/2009 17:32

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Threadworm · 02/02/2009 17:23

That's a lovely image, justa.

justaboutisnotastatistician · 02/02/2009 17:22

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Threadworm · 02/02/2009 17:16

But actually I see that we are in a biscuit phase atm.

Threadworm · 02/02/2009 17:14

Interested in what you say Iorek about what we choose to name, though not 100% sure I understand exactly what you mean by it, in realation to whether or not we choose to privilege a mechanistic understanding.

As ever, I tend to read into your contribution what it is that I happen to find interesting, which might be a whole new ball game of a different colour barking up the wrong tree.

There isthe Wittgenstein view that we mis-analyse our linguistic practices by construing language as first-and-foremost about naming items in the world, and that wee can alternatively regard the practice itself as the locus of meaning (rather than meaning lying in language's capacity to refer to something entirely prior, out there in the world. I'm sure that is the grossest over-simplification, but it might be a way of capturing a perfectly acceptable meaning for 'There is a God' -- one which didn't collapse God into just something inner, but didn't either make any huge claim about a super-independent God out there utterly beyond knowledge.

UnquietDad · 02/02/2009 16:52

I disagree - I have presented several different facets of the argument. I've tried to use analogies, examples, goodness knows what else.

Habbibu · 02/02/2009 16:52

Cursing??!! Cursing??!!

justaboutisnotastatistician · 02/02/2009 16:51

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Habbibu · 02/02/2009 16:45
justaboutisnotastatistician · 02/02/2009 16:37

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Habbibu · 02/02/2009 16:29

The chocolate is the only redeeming feature of the hobnob. It's what takes it from "we're all dooooommmed" extreme presbyterianism-ish-like (cautious emoticon) to give it some idea of salvation.

IorekByrnison · 02/02/2009 16:20

They straddle two categories of biscuit very uneasily. They are the crossover music of the biscuit world.

IorekByrnison · 02/02/2009 16:17

I like a hobnob, but I think chocolate hobnobs are problematic.

Habbibu · 02/02/2009 16:15

I hate Hobnobs. Well, not hate in the sense that I wouldn't take them in a biscuit emergency (theology of suddenly praying in a crisis), but they really are Not Good.

Agree with ruty and Iorek, UQD. Apart from justa, it's essentially a thread of non-believers.

IorekByrnison · 02/02/2009 16:11

The problem is, UQD, I'm not sure you really are presenting an argument as such - more a straightforward statement about your personal perception of faith. So you can keep repeating it until the cows come home but you might as well be shouting "Jesus loves you", unless you are actually going to try to develop an argument in response to what other posters are saying.

ruty · 02/02/2009 16:02

but you are arguing with atheists and agnostics here UQD something you never address.

UnquietDad · 02/02/2009 16:01

Is Elvis dead? Very probably... So stop worrying and enjoy his records.

(Are there Elvis-agnostics who think we should neither admit nor discount the possibility that he is still alive?...)

UnquietDad · 02/02/2009 15:59

I'm thinking any argument is not really repeatedly necessary, no, unless of course it is repeatedly challenged. In which case you sometimes can't do more than just re-state it. This is the reason atheists end up being called "militant" and "unimaginative" - there are only so many ways you can say the same basic ideas without unnecessarily embroidering them.

IorekByrnison · 02/02/2009 15:54

Threadworm, I think it might also be to do with what we choose to name, which in turn might be to do with what kinds of experiences we privilege over others in order to arrive at a sensible understanding of the world.

I wonder whether the experiences of twenty-first century atheists and agnostics are very much different from many of those who would have called themselves Christians 150 years ago, say. Comparing the literature of the two periods might suggest not. But the focus has changed (perhaps more due to Freud than Darwin) so that we more inclined to view a mechanistic account of ourselves as complete and to ascribe meaning to our experiences primarily through such an account. To put it another way, we test our experience through this mechanistic understanding in order to decide whether it is true or valuable and name it accordingly.

As a fresh faced, Selfish Gene besotted atheist studying Coleridge twenty years ago, I couldn't really make any sense of the Ancient Mariner blessing the sea snakes unaware. Why should such an experience have such significance? Where did it fit in? Nowadays, although I am really nowhere close to having any sort of religious faith, I am more inclined to accept the idea that there might be something in this experience of sacredness that is essential to our being, and that life is too short to dismiss it as simply illusory.

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