Hell he even just tried to invoke the Ontological argument, which in addition to having been rebuked by Anslem's own contemporaries totally contradicts his previous claims that humans do not know what God is.

Even Plantinga's modern argument relying on modal logic is pretty weak.

Of all the arguments for God's existence, trying to do it ontologically is easily the worst.

Quote from: Meta Cognition on October 11, 2014, 04:00:35 PM

Spoiler

Don't bother, it's Dustin.

Is it? How did you find that out?

It's really quite obvious, to be honest.

Kinder and Challenger seem to agree, and I'm sure a mod would be willing to verify it if you asked.

Then what is your understanding of biblical literature?

The Bible derives its moral authority by dint of being divine revelation. Are you to tell me that stories of God punishing people for their crimes is a "cultural guideline" instead of a codified form of (divine) morality? Don't be absurd.

Gaunilo of Marmoutiers was a contemporary of Anselm's who effectively consigned much of his ontological argument to the gutter.

Don't mean to sound like a bitch but the Bible, Torah and Quran are not historical texts.

Back in ancient times people believed the world was flat, didn't make it true.

Abuse my mod powers to see every ones browser history.

Thank God I use incognito for my perversions.

Blastocysts, used in stem cell research, consist of a few hundred cells.

A fly's brain consists of a few hundred thousand.

Clearly the destruction of a fly must have more ethical weight to it, considering the disproportionate ability of the fly to process stimuli and experience various sensations.

Also, take this test to see which one you're most similar too.

I got Bundy, predictably.

If people don't give me weird shit or weird looks for having a John Wayne Gacy painting on my hoodie, you'll be fine.

What the hell is wrong with you?

Pick a cool serial killer, like Ted Bundy.

I'm a bigger fan of narratives with a slightly disturbed twist to them, more than anything else, which is why I enjoy the The Holder Series and the SCP Foundation more than most. I do remember one creepypasta which I read about four years ago which sent a shiver down my spine:

A man went to a hotel and walked up to the front desk to check in. The woman at the desk gave him his key and told him that on the way to his room, there was a door with no number that was locked and no one was allowed in there. She explained that it was a storeroom, and that it was out of bounds. She reminded him of this several times before allowing him upstairs. So he followed the instructions of the woman at the front desk, going straight to his room, and going to bed.

However, the insistence of the woman had piqued his curiosity, so the next night he walked down the hall to the door and tried the handle. Sure enough it was locked. He bent down and looked through the wide keyhole. Cold air passed through it, chilling his eye. What he saw was a hotel bedroom, like his, and in the corner was a woman whose skin was incredibly pale. She was leaning her head against the wall, facing away from the door. He stared in confusion for a while. Was this a celebrity? The owner's daughter? He almost knocked on the door, out of curiosity but decided not to.

As he was still looking, the woman turned sharply and he jumped back from the door, hoping she would not suspect he had been spying on her. He crept away from the door and walked back to his room. The next day, he returned to the door and looked through the wide keyhole. This time, all he saw was redness. He couldn't make anything out besides a distinct red color, unmoving. Perhaps the inhabitants of the room knew he was spying the night before, and had blocked the keyhole with something red. He felt embarrassed that he had made the woman so uncomfortable, and hoped she had not made a complaint with the woman on the front desk.

At this point he decided to consult her for more information. She sighed and said, "Did you look through the keyhole?"

The man told her that he had and she said, "Well, I might as well tell you the story of what happened in that room. A long time ago, a man murdered his wife in there, and we find that even now, whoever stays there gets very uncomfortable. But these people were not ordinary. They were white all over, except for their eyes, which were red."

Just out of interest, Door.

Would it not be prudent to stop the idiotic and delusional from choosing their leaders?

1. If you don't believe in the free market you're an idiot

I'd add an addendum to that saying that by "free market" we mean one without unnecessary regulations. Having a market devoid of all legislative regulations would be hellish.

The big bang/big crunch was just one example. I'm just trying to point out that it isn't circular logic as our understanding for His existence does not culminate from His definition.

I have literally no idea what you're trying to say.

You're only assuming it's circular, however it actually isn't. Take for example the big bang. We say that there may have been many other big bangs before that due to inevitable collapse/expand cycles, culminating in the extended theory of the big crunch.

"What started the big bang?"
"The big crunch"
"How do you know? What was before that?"
"Another big bang"

Point is, just because we don't know everything doesn't mean the argument is any less valid.

The Big Crunch is by no means the dominant cosmological model. Not to mention, you have a serious deficit in your scientific understanding if you think that's how logic works. Nobody, with any sense of intelligence, engages in circular logic around the Big Crunch model as you are claiming they do.

Regardless, I feel I should point out that sort of reasoning if much more satisfying of Ockham's Razor than yours.

Just finished a documentary about Gary Ridgway, who murdered over 90 women, which has this scene at the end. As the relatives of the victims are allowed to speak, the father of one of the victims - Linda Rule - stands up and tells Ridgway he is forgiven.

Now, to the interesting question: Is there a foothold of genuine emotion there, or do you think they're just crocodile tears?