Re: UK Bans Teaching Creationism in State-Funded Schools Read
Originally posted by reuben_tate
I didn't just say they were arbitary or not, I explained as well. And assuming I explained them, how is that not an argument? You are claiming that believing in some greater deity in general is just as ridiculous as believing in a FSM. What makes believing in the FSM ridiculous? The fact that it was arbitrarily made up. But there exists motivation for believing in a greater deity; so it's not arbitrary. The reasoning behind this motivation may be dumb, primitive, etc as many of you have said but that's not the point. If you want to argue that the reasoning is dumb, primitive, etc; then you should go ahead and attack those points directly instead of trying to tie it in with a broken analogy. Anyways, back on track, believing in the FSM is ridiculous because it's arbitrary. Believing in the existence of a higher deity is not arbitrary. Thus, the claim "Believing in a higher deity is just as ridiculous as believing in the FSM" doesn't work that well because they are ridiculous for different reasons.
You didn't explain why they're arbitrary, you just concluded the FSM is arbitrary and other gods are not without proper explanation. And even if the reasons for creating a religion may not have been arbitrary, the filling in of the god character IS arbitrary (which is what I've been trying to get you to understand the entire time already but hey reading is for nerds amirite?!). Instead of the Christian god it could've just as easily been Zeus, Ra, Allah, the FSM or any of the hundreds of other gods that have been invented because no one knows who the creator might really be (if one exists at all).
Originally posted by reuben_tate
@Reincarnate: Those are all excellent points that can be used to refute creationism without the need of having to incorporate the FSM. I'm too lazy to argue your points right now though.
Re: UK Bans Teaching Creationism in State-Funded Schools Read
I'm pretty sure one of the main purposes behind the FSM is to point out how arbitrary the typical depiction of a higher deity is. ie, Christians love to picture a white Jesus with well-groomed hair in an angelic robe, and a God the 'father' who looks similar. This is obviously not the same way people around the world might picture their deity/deities, so it's kind of an arbitrary depiction to make people feel all warm and fuzzy about it, and to make these characters more relatable. So whoever came up with the FSM was (probably) trying to say "hey, since we don't know what God actually looks like (assuming there is one), he could, in theory, be some giant monster made out of spaghetti and meatballs! You have no way to refute that, so let's keep it within the realm of possibility." (or what spitfire just said lol)
So yeah, it's arbitrary in that it didn't come into being the same way that traditional religion did, but its point still stands. Plus, people who ascribe to 'pastafarianism' do it for the giggles they get from poking fun at religion; they don't do it because they actually believe that there is some Italian dish-based God out there in need of worship.
Re: UK Bans Teaching Creationism in State-Funded Schools Read
regardless of who is "winning" the argument here, a lot of the posters have been far from civil. you prob won't have much luck reaching whomever you're responding to if you're gonna be mean about it.
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