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Ragtime
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04 Aug 2007, 5:07 pm

calandale wrote:
Ragtime wrote:

Well, humans created you too, so going by that logic, your opinions are no more valid than a book's teachings.


I don't think that anyone claims,
by virtue of their ancestry alone,
that their ideas are of more value than
those written in any books.

So, if we can put aside the rather questionable
parentage of the Bible, and treat it only on its
philosophical merits, I believe that most secularists
would be tickled pink. As it does not present a consistant
and reasonable story, nor such a philosophy.


You yourself are nothing if not inconsistent, so I can't really take your word for the Bible allegedly being inconsistent or unreasonable. (Especially since I've found it to be quite the opposite; Luther said that Scripture is clearer than its interpreters.)



Ragtime
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04 Aug 2007, 5:14 pm

rideforever wrote:
To be a truly free thinker you would probably need to live apart from other people because we are as humans going to respond to others - which includes altering our thoughts in relation to others.

I suppose your thoughts could also be influenced by the magnificent trees so you would probably have to live in a vacuum away from all things, although that might alter your thoughts too.

What would you think about if you had never seen or experienced anything ? Thoughts that arise wholly from your genes (as there is no environment) ?


Anyway these kinds of threads lack focus because they lack context. If the original poster had said, well I am fed up of all the sheep-like people I see everyday, I wonder how many people are free thinkers like me / what does it take to be a free thinker ?... then it would be better.


Even if you're on an island by yourself, how are you going to escape your own biases in your thinking?



greenblue
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04 Aug 2007, 7:04 pm

I see that there are more than one interpretation of what snake said, it seems, and I have to sympathize with him, he was flamed, and he shouldn't have been treated like that, probably a lot of people here felt offended by his post, and that is why? or maybe he said things in the wrong way, even if there are valueable points in his argument?

Some links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freethought
http://www.freethinker.co.uk/
http://www.einsteinandreligion.com/freethink.html
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/ ... wder1.html

Letting you know that there is a source for what he claims, is not him being crazy or anything.


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Awesomelyglorious
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04 Aug 2007, 7:17 pm

greenblue wrote:
I see that there are more than one interpretation of what snake said, it seems, and I have to sympathize with him, he was flamed, and he shouldn't have been treated like that, probably a lot of people here felt offended by his post, and that is why? or maybe he said things in the wrong way, even if there are valueable points in his argument?

Letting you know that there is a source for what he claims, is not him being crazy or anything.

I think we already know that the term exists, the issue is a dislike of the definition he presents on the term and perhaps with how the term itself is defined elsewhere. Really though, I have difficulty sympathizing because he does tend to have a self-righteous streak and I would not call him a free-thinker because of his moralizing tendencies, and the lack of solid foundation for them to some extent.



snake321
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04 Aug 2007, 7:59 pm

Well coming from someone who openly glorifies greed, selfishness, ignorance, hostility, and elitism, your opinion doesn't count for much in my book AG



snake321
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04 Aug 2007, 8:14 pm

My point too was that, thinking inside a box limits one's options. Common sense trial-and-errors point out the holes in liberal and conservative thinking patterns, on one end you've got theocratic minded people who are ignorant to other belief systems, who deny research that they feel goes against their interpretation of the bible (research that could potentially help hundreds or thousands of people), and who are passing laws by their secular religion thereby subjugating non-believers to their beliefs.
On the other end of the spectrum you've got pc fanatics who are so scared of being called racist or sexist (as for white males), or if they are female or ethnic they just use gender/race baiting tactics and history as a vessel of fear and guilt to bully today's INNOCENT white male heterosexuals into submission, they'll defend murderers and such on the grounds that "theyr black so if you punish them your racist" (doesn't make alot of since does it? That gender or race could be a free ticket above the laws which are there to protect our prosperity and livelihood?)
Sometimes the answer is in the middle, things aren't as cut an dry as "this group is always right" or "that group is always right". A better idea is a compromise, meeting in the middle and owning up to their respective party's irrationalities on both sides, working to improve. I'm not perfect, but when I see a fault in my behavior or how I draw conclusions, I work to fix it, I don't use "human nature" as a crutch. I care for all peoples' equally. Including but not limited to my own.
I personally don't understand how someone could agree with every single thing written from one common source, as people are individuals (atleast to some degree), but the important thing is compromise, not a mud-slinging societal-wide smear campaign built on hypocracy. I mean no harm in what I have written, I only wish people could come to terms with one another on a logical basis and stop defending sociopathic behavior as normal.



Johnnie
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04 Aug 2007, 9:38 pm

people that have their minds made up and won't even listen to what other people are saying are idiots. They take a postion on something an end of story, they made up their mind so it's irrelavent if there is more to add, they don't even want to hear it, never mind consider it.
close minded is what they are and if somebody points it out to them, they become offened an attack the person who says they are close minded.

I got called for jury duty and was questioned by the lawyers, one of them asked me something like if i would have an issues with following the judges instructions pertaining to the laws, i asked him if he ment the laws the politicians wrote. The two lawyers looked at each other like ain't no way in hell does either one of them wanted me sitting on the jury.

they want people they can tell what to think and who are flag waving idiots without a clue



Mitch8817
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04 Aug 2007, 9:40 pm

Ragtime wrote:
Mitch8817 wrote:
I fit your points, and others who don't disappoint me somewhat. Then again, my expectations of myself and others were always a bit high.


The problem is, you're so much higher up than the rest of us. When will we learn to just be like you? :|


Sorry, I must have missed your point here. Is this some sarcastic insult?


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snake321
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04 Aug 2007, 9:59 pm

Well i fear this liberal/conservative divide is destroying our nation's cohesiveness, and our ability to function as a unit. It's becoming a highly dangerous phenomenon of brainwashing and psychotic behavior that is being put into people through beaurocratic propaganda. It's pitting the people against themselves in a high-school type mentality gang war of sorts. And if enough people do not wake up and wise up to the beaurocratic elite, we may well find this nation becoming the reality of george orwell's "1984".



lindarthebard
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04 Aug 2007, 10:51 pm

Holy s**t, suddenly you've grown up to be a big boy. I agree with your last two posts, Snake. You have very valid points.

Most of us have been rude/hostile/whatever because you came off as an elitist prick and very immature.
My post was rutheless, but I mean most of the over-the-top things I say in jest.

Don't define a philosophical concept. You might as well say that nurture predisposes people to the actions they take as adults and anybody that says anything else is stupid and should be killed.

Come at things from a soft angle. Somebody else suggested a better method of approaching this topic. "I'm sick of people that are sheep-like. How many free thinkers do we have here, and what do you think defines a free thinker?"

This would have opened the conversation to a friendly debate about the concept of a free thinker.

No hard feelings.



greenblue
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04 Aug 2007, 10:53 pm

Johnnie wrote:
people that have their minds made up and won't even listen to what other people are saying are idiots. They take a postion on something an end of story, they made up their mind so it's irrelavent if there is more to add, they don't even want to hear it, never mind consider it.
close minded is what they are and if somebody points it out to them, they become offened an attack the person who says they are close minded.

That sounds very familiar to me, I think I have met a few people like that.


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Awesomelyglorious
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05 Aug 2007, 11:29 am

snake321 wrote:
Well coming from someone who openly glorifies greed, selfishness, ignorance, hostility, and elitism, your opinion doesn't count for much in my book AG

And your statement is another sign of your lack of freedom as a free thinker will consider options based upon merit and logic, rather than preconceived notions. Whether or not I glorify greed, selfishness, ignorance, hostility, and elitism doesn't matter, what matters is the arguments used and their truth, or at least so would think an actual free-thinker.



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05 Aug 2007, 1:24 pm

About the first post on this thread, I think is good to question everything, in my opinion, than following something "blindly" as a few people put it. I'd like to think that I am agnostic about EVERYTHING, but I am not like that, yes I question a lot of things, but I have to admit that I take things I have been thought without question them, I accepted what other people have told me, like events from history, astronauts walking on the moon, etc.

I never questioned all of this before, but now if I think about this very deeply, how can I be so sure about everything I have been thought?


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snake321
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05 Aug 2007, 2:32 pm

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
snake321 wrote:
Well coming from someone who openly glorifies greed, selfishness, ignorance, hostility, and elitism, your opinion doesn't count for much in my book AG

And your statement is another sign of your lack of freedom as a free thinker will consider options based upon merit and logic, rather than preconceived notions. Whether or not I glorify greed, selfishness, ignorance, hostility, and elitism doesn't matter, what matters is the arguments used and their truth, or at least so would think an actual free-thinker.


Dude, I don't feel like arguing in circles with you defending moot points of "logic" through illogic. People like you are the reason things are f****d up already, you don't give a damn about nobody but yourself and you'll gladly f**k anyone over to get what you want.
As Einstein said, the merit of a man is how well he has liberated himself from himself. Some people actually give a damn about people besides themselves, this isn't illogical, it's being CONSCIOUS.
Or we could take your example and live like self serving neanderthals and blow eachother off the earth in a nuclear blast. Dude your a f*****g sociopath and you should be locked up and sent for psychiatric evaluation. Until you can talk like a sane person shut the f**k up and stop talking to me.



Flagg
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05 Aug 2007, 2:33 pm

Welcome to Omni-agnosticism, greenblue.

In the end you cannot even prove you exist, meaning your entire life could be a lie. Not just in Matrix way but in the way your just a figment of someone else's imgination or part of a dream and when they wake up or stop daydreaming......



snake321
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05 Aug 2007, 2:33 pm

AG, I won't be the least bit surprised if you end up going VA Tech on someone and end up on the news giving aspies like us a bad name.