Counterfeits.

[Sparko]

So you're not disputing that "The flat Earth model is an archaic conception of the Earth's shape as a plane or disk" and that "Many ancient cultures subscribed to a flat Earth". Good! Because that was the point being made.

No you were making an idiotic retort to my comment about religion but your retort was totally off point and non sequitur

[Tassman]

No you were making an idiotic retort to my comment about religion but your retort was totally off point and non sequitur

Nonsense! I was correcting you. You were questioning the fact that people believed in a flat earth "for thousands of years" including during the Bronze Age and Iron Age civilisations of the Near East where and when your religion emerged.

[Sparko]

Nonsense! I was correcting you. You were questioning the fact that people believed in a flat earth "for thousands of years" including during the Bronze Age and Iron Age civilisations of the Near East where and when your religion emerged.

Do you have alzheimers?


here is the exchange:

There's no good reason to think this collection of myths and folk-tales is "inspired by God".

Lots of good reasons. Not that you would accept them as good. But apparently billions of people have for thousands of years. But hey, you are smarter than billions of people right?

Billions of people for thousands of years believed that the Earth was flat. But hey, we're "smarter than billions of people right"?

it was a dumbass retort that was WRONG.

[37818]

Nonsense! I was correcting you. You were questioning the fact that people believed in a flat earth "for thousands of years" including during the Bronze Age and Iron Age civilisations of the Near East where and when your religion emerged.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_flat_Earth

[Tassman]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_flat_Earth

We're not talking about the Middle Ages.

My reference was to the flat Earth cosmography common to most pre-scientific cultures including the Bronze Age and Iron Age civilisations of the Near East, these being when the Genesis Creation Narratives were composed.

[Tassman]

it was a dumbass retort that was WRONG.

[Sparko]

I know what you were trying to do but you failed.

1. I said there was lot of evidence for God, which you would not accept but billions have over the last few thousand years.

2. You tried to say the same thing about the flat earth.

Until about the 1800s, well after belief in a round earth was common and flat earth was known false, there were never a billion people on earth. In fact most people believed in a round earth by at least a thousand years before. And if you took the entire population of humans from the beginning of time until the year 1000, it would not have even added up to 1 billion. So your claim that billions believed in a flat earth is false.

You failed.

And you chose to pick on a part of my argument that was not even important in yet another Tassman rabbit trail. I was talking about evidence for God, that I said I accepted but you would not, but that others have (billions of them) - The evidence was the point, not the number of people. Other than many have accepted the evidence for God so it must be good evidence, not "no evidence" as you keep insisting.

[Tassman]

I know what you were trying to do but you failed.

1. I said there was lot of evidence for God, which you would not accept but billions have over the last few thousand years.

2. You tried to say the same thing about the flat earth.

Believing in deities is a faith statement unsupported by substantive evidence

[Sparko]

Believing in deities is a faith statement unsupported by substantive evidence

I said there is plenty of evidence that is good enough for billions of people for thousands of years to counter your idiotic claim that there is no good evidence for God. Apparently there is or so many people would not believe in God. The God of the Bible. I find the evidence that there is a God and that he is YHWH, God of the Bible, very compelling. You don't. That doesn't mean that there is no evidence, just that you don't believe the evidence. Billions of others do. If there were no evidence then that would be pretty far fetched, right?

That is the point I was making. It has nothing to do with saying it is true because billions believe in it (argumentum ad populum) but that billions believe in it because there is evidence that it is true. Please learn your logical fallacies before going around claiming someone is committing a fallacy.

[Roy]

I said there is plenty of evidence that is good enough for billions of people for thousands of years to counter your idiotic claim that there is no good evidence for God. Apparently there is or so many people would not believe in God. The God of the Bible.

Since when did most believers in God do so because of the evidence, rather than because of social conditioning?

[Sparko]

Since when did most believers in God do so because of the evidence, rather than because of social conditioning?

People are not stupid. They don't go around believing dead people rise up and walk around without doing some searching. Even when raised in a Christian home, most children are taught evidence and not just some brainwashing. Those that do get the brainwashing usually fall away once they enter the real world. Those who have a good foundation remain faithful. And continue to study.

[Tassman]

People are not stupid.

People can be gullible if their worldview allows for the existence an invisible miracle-working deity and a supernatural universe.

They don't go around believing dead people rise up and walk around without doing some searching. Even when raised in a Christian home, most children are taught evidence and not just some brainwashing.

Children tend to believe whatever they are taught by the authority figures in their life.

Those that do get the brainwashing usually fall away once they enter the real world. Those who have a good foundation remain faithful. And continue to study.

[Sparko]

People can be gullible if their worldview allows for the existence an invisible miracle-working deity and a supernatural universe.



Children tend to believe whatever they are taught by the authority figures in their life.

until they get old enough to start thinking for themselves. How many adults believe in Santa Claus? Eventually most people start questioning things. Christianity has never been about just rote beliefs drummed into someone's head. It is taught with evidence right from the beginning. Sure there are some exceptions, usually in wacky isolated cults. But generally, as the children get older they get exposed to more and more evidence, just like school children in science.

Children are not the only "source" for Christians. I wasn't a Christian until I was 40 years old. Do you think someone brainwashed me? I looked at the evidence and found it convincing. You may not. That is the great thing about free will. Nobody is making you believe, Tassman. I do pray that one day you do though.

[Tassman]

until they get old enough to start thinking for themselves. How many adults believe in Santa Claus?

Eventually most people start questioning things. Christianity has never been about just rote beliefs drummed into someone's head. It is taught with evidence right from the beginning. Sure there are some exceptions, usually in wacky isolated cults.

There are those who think that ALL religions are "whacky cults". Regardless, people tend to conform to the prevailing worldview of the culture in which they were socialised.

But generally, as the children get older they get exposed to more and more evidence, just like school children in science.

Invalid comparison! Science is supported by a vast accumulation of empirically verified evidence, whereas religious beliefs are not supported by any empirically verified evidence at all. None!

Children are not the only "source" for Christians. I wasn't a Christian until I was 40 years old. Do you think someone brainwashed me? I looked at the evidence and found it convincing. You may not. That is the great thing about free will. Nobody is making you believe, Tassman. I do pray that one day you do though.

And yet it was the prevailing belief-system of your culture, i.e. Christianity, to which you turned. If you had been raised in Pakistan you most likely would have turned to Islam. In you had been raised in one of the Scandinavian countries you would probably have had your secularist worldview reinforced...just as I did in secular Australia.

[Roy]

until they get old enough to start thinking for themselves. How many adults believe in Santa Claus? Eventually most people start questioning things. Christianity has never been about just rote beliefs drummed into someone's head. It is taught with evidence right from the beginning.

Not in my experience. Christianity was taught as authoritative assertions, anecdotes, rote learning of various hymns and prayers with no evidence beyond references to extracts from the Biblical text.

I looked at the evidence and found it convincing.

If you don't mind me asking, what evidence convinced you?