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stonebeard View Drop Down
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Points: 28057 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 05 2009 at 15:22
Whether a God created the Big Bang or not is silly to debate. No one could possibly give any evidence for it (now, if not ever), so why even bother proposing it? Anyway, if the prospect of everything beginning with the Big Bang is odious enough to religious people, then I see no reason why an infinite God creating that Big Bang solves any of their problems with the logic of the previous scenario.

Edited by stonebeard - June 05 2009 at 15:23
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Points: 29630 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 05 2009 at 18:19
Originally posted by Ivan_Melgar_M Ivan_Melgar_M wrote:

Originally posted by stonebeard stonebeard wrote:

I think they are arrogant if they are because the empirical evidence is usually on their side, contrary to the stance of apologists, or worse, peddlers of Creationism and fundamentalists.
 
And when society is still being bombarded with people who love bathing in ignorance as if blind faith is a good thing, I can hardly blame them. Arrogant, perhaps, but they often have the evidence to back it up.
 
Evidence?
 
Where is the evidence that  proves beyond any doubt that God doesn't exist?
 
Iván

Douglas Adams proved it fairly convincingly:
Now it is such a bizarrely improbably coincidence that anything so mindbogglingly useful [the Babel fish] could have evolved by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God.
     The argument goes something like this: "I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."
     "But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED"
     "Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
-- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (book one of the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy series), p 50
And now you're going to have to prove to me that the babel fish doesn't exist. Tongue



Edited by Slartibartfast - June 05 2009 at 18:20
Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...
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Points: 19535 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 05 2009 at 18:28
Originally posted by stonebeard stonebeard wrote:


Nowhere, of course. You'll never get beyond any doubt, likely. In my view, rational holes in religious texts and silly twisting of religious dogma is more important to counter than belief in God, even though I think there is enough evidence to make believing in a theist God less reasonable than not doing so.
 
Then your lack of faith is an act of faith equivalent to our's, you have no proves but you believe he doesn't exist.
 
Your position is as valid as our's, deserves all respect, but it's only a theory because it can't be proved.
 
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Points: 32524 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 05 2009 at 18:40
Originally posted by Slartibartfast Slartibartfast wrote:

Originally posted by Ivan_Melgar_M Ivan_Melgar_M wrote:

Originally posted by stonebeard stonebeard wrote:

I think they are arrogant if they are because the empirical evidence is usually on their side, contrary to the stance of apologists, or worse, peddlers of Creationism and fundamentalists.
 
And when society is still being bombarded with people who love bathing in ignorance as if blind faith is a good thing, I can hardly blame them. Arrogant, perhaps, but they often have the evidence to back it up.
 
Evidence?
 
Where is the evidence that  proves beyond any doubt that God doesn't exist?
 
Iván

Douglas Adams proved it fairly convincingly:
Now it is such a bizarrely improbably coincidence that anything so mindbogglingly useful [the Babel fish] could have evolved by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God.
     The argument goes something like this: "I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."
     "But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED"
     "Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
-- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (book one of the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy series), p 50
And now you're going to have to prove to me that the babel fish doesn't exist. Tongue



I appreciate the humor there, but of course, that notion requires a faulty understanding of what biblical faith is.  Faith by definition cannot be blind (seriously).  Faith (pistis) without evidence (in the Bible, that evidence is grace- charis) is pointless.  See Seneca's On Benefits.

Oh, sorry if I'm not welcome here.
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Points: 17493 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 05 2009 at 20:32
^You're more than welcome Epignosis... in this thread, if we discussion is about the existence or no of god, it's ok.... if the discussion is more about certain christian beliefs, I guess the other thread would be better...
 
Great discussion so far... I have had much pleasure reading it... You can learn a lot from diverse opinions...If not cienticial knowledge, you can learn tolerance, how to look things from two perspectives...
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Points: 37575 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 05 2009 at 21:14
Originally posted by Ivan_Melgar_M Ivan_Melgar_M wrote:

Originally posted by stonebeard stonebeard wrote:


Nowhere, of course. You'll never get beyond any doubt, likely. In my view, rational holes in religious texts and silly twisting of religious dogma is more important to counter than belief in God, even though I think there is enough evidence to make believing in a theist God less reasonable than not doing so.
 
Then your lack of faith is an act of faith equivalent to our's, you have no proves but you believe he doesn't exist.
 
Your position is as valid as our's, deserves all respect, but it's only a theory because it can't be proved.
 
Iván
Belief in the existence of god is not the same as believing in god - no one would deny that satan (if he existedWink) would believe in the existence of god, though I doubt that he believes in god. So while atheism is not believing in god, it is also the absence of belief in the existence of a god, this is not the same as a belief in the non existence of god. Atheism is a non-belief, so cannot be an act faith, [I've rewritten this paragraph several times now and it is very difficult to explain] - a christian believes that god exists - an atheist does not have that belief.
 
An atheist does not need to prove the non-existence of a god by the same reasoning that a christian does not need to prove the non-existence of Apollo, Odin or Quetzalcoatl. There is no proof to the non-existence of Zeus, but asserting that he did not exist is not regarded as an act of faith. 
 
Belief in the existence of a monotheistic god automatically denies the existence of all other god-like entities ("I am a jealous god, worship no other god but me" - is not a statement that other gods exist, but a warning against worshipping false gods - "I am the first and the last, there is no god beside me"). In principle if the existence of any non-Abrahamic god could be proved then that would essential prove the non-existence of  Jehovah.
 
An atheist denies the existence of all gods, (not a belief, but an assertion; not a theory but an axiom), so would just add Jehovah and all the biblical angels and demons to the pantheon of mythical gods from other cultures.
 
(Theories actually require proof to be regarded as a theory - a theory without proof is a hypothesis, an idea that requires no proof is an axiom.)
 
What?
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Points: 65248 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 05 2009 at 21:27
Originally posted by Dean Dean wrote:

So while atheism is not believing in god, it is also the absence of belief in the existence of a god, this is not the same as a belief in the non existence of god.
 


wow that one took me a few tries to get it, subtle
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Points: 19535 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 05 2009 at 23:40
Originally posted by Dean Dean wrote:

Belief in the existence of god is not the same as believing in god - no one would deny that satan (if he existedWink) would believe in the existence of god, though I doubt that he believes in god. So while atheism is not believing in god, it is also the absence of belief in the existence of a god, this is not the same as a belief in the non existence of god.
 
Atheism is a non-belief, so cannot be an act faith, [I've rewritten this paragraph several times now and it is very difficult to explain] - a christian believes that god exists - an atheist does not have that belief. 
 
Believing is different concept than worshiping, Im sure that Satan believes in God, because God created Satan.
 
BTW: Your definition af atheism is not exact, or beter said selective, you are ignoring POSITIVE ATHEISTS:
 
Quote
 
"positive" atheism refers to the specific belief that gods do not exist, and "negative" atheism refers merely to an absence of belief in gods.
 
So it's a fact that for some atheists (I believe the majority), Atheism is a system of beliefs.
 
Originally posted by Dean Dean wrote:

An atheist does not need to prove the non-existence of a god by the same reasoning that a christian does not need to prove the non-existence of Apollo, Odin or Quetzalcoatl. There is no proof to the non-existence of Zeus, but asserting that he did not exist is not regarded as an act of faith. 
 
Don't be so sure, for example the religious order, Forn Siðr (Odin worshipers) was granted permission to have an exclusively pagan burial ground in Denmark, so if there is people worshiping Odin and officially accepted by the Danish Government, why not Zeus?.
 
You can verify this at http://www.fornsidr.dk/dk/50#p1
 
And if I believe Jehova, Yaveh or the one with no name (Ego sum qui sum) is the true God, then I believe Odin is not God.
 
Originally posted by Dean Dean wrote:

Belief in the existence of a monotheistic god automatically denies the existence of all other god-like entities ("I am a jealous god, worship no other god but me" - is not a statement that other gods exist, but a warning against worshipping false gods - "I am the first and the last, there is no god beside me"). In principle if the existence of any non-Abrahamic god could be proved then that would essential prove the non-existence of  Jehovah.
 
The existence of an only God doesn't imply he is jealous, of who can he be jealous if the other gods don't exist?
 
And yes, we believe there's no other God, but some of us also believe that people see God in a different way than us, and that at the end all people worship the same God only that their perception of him is different.
 
As a fact on another thread i proved that Catholic Church admits salvation not only of Christians of other denominatioons, but also of non Christians who are faithful to their own moral code and search for God in a sincere way. 
 
Quote The fate of non-Catholics, as expressed at Vatican II:
 
5. The non-Christian may not be blamed for his ignorance of Christ and his Church; salvation is open to him also, if he seeks God sincerely and if he follows the commands of his conscience, for through this means the Holy Ghost acts upon all men; this divine action is not confined within the limited boundaries of the visible Church."
 
In other words, we are not talking of a jealous God for everybody, and you can't blame God for the misinterpretations of the humans.
 
Originally posted by Dean Dean wrote:

An atheist denies the existence of all gods, (not a belief, but an assertion; not a theory but an axiom), so would just add Jehovah and all the biblical angels and demons to the pantheon of mythical gods from other cultures
 
In other words
 
(Theories actually require proof to be regarded as a theory - a theory without proof is a hypothesis, an idea that requires no proof is an axiom.)
 
 
Atheism can't be an axiom, because an axiom by definition is self evident and is taken to be universally true.
 
A classical axiom is A = A doesn't need to be proved because it's self evident, but th eexistebnce or non existence of God is not elf evident neither universal, you don't prove God doesn't exist becauise is beyond your capacity.
 
Sorry but only 16% of the world inhabitants are Atheists or Agnostics (  http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html ), so hardly the non existence of God is taken as a universal truth, Atheists may believe it's an axiom, but it's only a theory or an act of faith if you want but in no way an axiom because doesn't fit the characteristic of being universally accepted as true, much less is self evident.
 
 
Iván


Edited by Ivan_Melgar_M - June 06 2009 at 01:08
            
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Points: 2081 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 05 2009 at 23:50
Originally posted by Dean Dean wrote:

Originally posted by Ivan_Melgar_M Ivan_Melgar_M wrote:

Originally posted by stonebeard stonebeard wrote:


Nowhere, of course. You'll never get beyond any doubt, likely. In my view, rational holes in religious texts and silly twisting of religious dogma is more important to counter than belief in God, even though I think there is enough evidence to make believing in a theist God less reasonable than not doing so.
 
Then your lack of faith is an act of faith equivalent to our's, you have no proves but you believe he doesn't exist.
 
Your position is as valid as our's, deserves all respect, but it's only a theory because it can't be proved.
 
Iván
Belief in the existence of god is not the same as believing in god - no one would deny that satan (if he existedWink) would believe in the existence of god, though I doubt that he believes in god. So while atheism is not believing in god, it is also the absence of belief in the existence of a god, this is not the same as a belief in the non existence of god. Atheism is a non-belief, so cannot be an act faith, [I've rewritten this paragraph several times now and it is very difficult to explain] - a christian believes that god exists - an atheist does not have that belief.
 
An atheist does not need to prove the non-existence of a god by the same reasoning that a christian does not need to prove the non-existence of Apollo, Odin or Quetzalcoatl. There is no proof to the non-existence of Zeus, but asserting that he did not exist is not regarded as an act of faith. 
 
Belief in the existence of a monotheistic god automatically denies the existence of all other god-like entities ("I am a jealous god, worship no other god but me" - is not a statement that other gods exist, but a warning against worshipping false gods - "I am the first and the last, there is no god beside me"). In principle if the existence of any non-Abrahamic god could be proved then that would essential prove the non-existence of  Jehovah.
 
An atheist denies the existence of all gods, (not a belief, but an assertion; not a theory but an axiom), so would just add Jehovah and all the biblical angels and demons to the pantheon of mythical gods from other cultures.
 
(Theories actually require proof to be regarded as a theory - a theory without proof is a hypothesis, an idea that requires no proof is an axiom.)
 
 
Thumbs Up
 
Thanks Dean for putting it so succinctly!
 
Something I miserably failed to do in another thread recently.
 
 
....and that is why I am an atheist.
 
Anything else defies logic.
 
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Points: 89372 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 05 2009 at 23:50
Weak and strong atheism? LOL

I wish people wouldn't keep coming up with these crap and pointless terminologies.

Atheism isn't a series of beliefs either.  Not to me, anyhow.  I don't believe in the existence of God(s), therefore I cannot be adhering to a belief system.  I know God doesn't exist.  I cannot prove this but I know.
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Points: 19535 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 05 2009 at 23:55
Originally posted by James James wrote:

Weak and strong atheism? LOL

I wish people wouldn't keep coming up with these crap and pointless terminologies.

Atheism isn't a series of beliefs either.  Not to me, anyhow.  I don't believe in the existence of God(s), therefore I cannot be adhering to a belief system.  I know God doesn't exist.  I cannot prove this but I know.
 
James, I'm not the one who created this terms, as a fact is a term created by an atheist named Gora if I'm not wrong, and the majority of them (almost sure of this) adopt the Posititive atheism, while Richard Dawkins adopts negative atheism.
 
And please, if you can't prove something, it's just a belief, only if you can prove it is a fact.
 
Iván


Edited by Ivan_Melgar_M - June 06 2009 at 00:02
            
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Points: 89372 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 06 2009 at 00:05
I don't need to prove it, therefore it's not a belief.  It's fact to me.  A belief is something I would be unsure about.  My atheism does not waver and I do not doubt it.  Therefore, to me, it's not a belief.  Even if I did admit to it being a belief, it still does not make me adhere to a belief system, as you say.

I never said you were the one who created that term.  I just think all these silly terms are pointless.
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Points: 2081 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 06 2009 at 00:08
With the utmost respect Ivan.
 
Seeing as you have quoted adherents, maybe you will let us have your views on the following (also from adherents)
 
Or as I expect we will see an atypical religious reply????
 
It's surprising how many people remark to me, "You're an Atheist? You must have no conscience about committing crime then." Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, if we examine the population of our prisons, we see a very different picture.

In "The New Criminology," Max D. Schlapp and Edward E. Smith say that two generations of statisticians found that the ratio of convicts without religious training is about 1/10th of 1%. W.T. Root, Professor of Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, examined 1,916 prisoners and said, "Indifference to religion, due to thought, strengthens character," adding that Unitarians, Agnostics, Atheists and Free-Thinkers were absent from penitentiaries, or nearly so.

During 10 years in Sing-Sing, of those executed for murder 65% were Catholics, 26% Protestants, 6% Hebrew, 2% Pagan, and less than 1/3 of 1% non-religious.

Steiner and Swancara surveyed Canadian prisons and found 1,294 Catholics, 435 Anglicans, 241 Methodists, 135 Baptists, and 1 Unitarian.

Dr. Christian, Superintendent of the N.Y. State Reformatories, checked records of 22,000 prison inmates and found only 4 college graduates. In "Who's Who," 91% were college graduates; Christian commented that "intelligence and knowledge produce right living," and, "crime is the offspring of superstition and ignorance."

Surveyed Massachusetts reformatories found every inmate to be religious.

In Joliet Prison, there were 2,888 Catholics, 1,020 Baptists, 617 Methodists and no prisoners identified as non-religious.

Michigan had 82,000 Baptists and 83,000 Jews in the state population; but in the prisons, there were 22 times as many Baptists as Jews, and 18 times as many Methodists as Jews. In Sing-Sing, there were 1,553 inmates, 855 of them (over half) Catholics, 518 Protestants, 117 Jews, and 8 non-religious.

Steiner first surveyed 27 states and found 19,400 Christians, 5,000 with no preference and only 3 Agnostics (one each in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Illinois). A later, more exhaustive survey found 60,605 Christians, 5,000 Jews, 131 Pagans, 4,000 "no preference," and only 3 Agnostics.

In one 19-state survey, Steiner found 15 non-believers, Spiritualists, Theosophists, Deists, Pantheists and 1 Agnostic among nearly 83,000 inmates. He labeled all 15 as "anti-christians." The Elmira, N.Y. reformatory system overshadowed all others, with nearly 31,000 inmates, including 15,694 Catholics (half) and 10,968 Protestants, 4,000 Jews, 325 refusing to answer, and 0 unbelievers.

In the East, over 64% of inmates are Roman Catholic. Throughout the national prison population, they average 50%. A national census of the general population found Catholics to be about 15% (and they count from the diaper up). Hardly 12% are old enough to commit a crime, and half of these are women. That leaves an adult Catholic population of 6% supplying 50% of the prison population.
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Points: 4625 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 06 2009 at 01:12
Atheism to me seems to be a belief if you ever thought about the concept of God or lack thereof. If you truly never pondered the question, only then would atheism not be a belief. I could pull out a nice existentialist argument, but I don't feel like it right now.
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Originally posted by progmetalhead progmetalhead wrote:

With the utmost respect Ivan.
 
Seeing as you have quoted adherents, maybe you will let us have your views on the following (also from adherents)
 
Or as I expect we will see an atypical religious reply????
 
It's surprising how many people remark to me, "You're an Atheist? You must have no conscience about committing crime then." Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, if we examine the population of our prisons, we see a very different picture.

In "The New Criminology," Max D. Schlapp and Edward E. Smith say that two generations of statisticians found that the ratio of convicts without religious training is about 1/10th of 1%. W.T. Root, Professor of Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, examined 1,916 prisoners and said, "Indifference to religion, due to thought, strengthens character," adding that Unitarians, Agnostics, Atheists and Free-Thinkers were absent from penitentiaries, or nearly so.

During 10 years in Sing-Sing, of those executed for murder 65% were Catholics, 26% Protestants, 6% Hebrew, 2% Pagan, and less than 1/3 of 1% non-religious.

Steiner and Swancara surveyed Canadian prisons and found 1,294 Catholics, 435 Anglicans, 241 Methodists, 135 Baptists, and 1 Unitarian.

Dr. Christian, Superintendent of the N.Y. State Reformatories, checked records of 22,000 prison inmates and found only 4 college graduates. In "Who's Who," 91% were college graduates; Christian commented that "intelligence and knowledge produce right living," and, "crime is the offspring of superstition and ignorance."

Surveyed Massachusetts reformatories found every inmate to be religious.

In Joliet Prison, there were 2,888 Catholics, 1,020 Baptists, 617 Methodists and no prisoners identified as non-religious.

Michigan had 82,000 Baptists and 83,000 Jews in the state population; but in the prisons, there were 22 times as many Baptists as Jews, and 18 times as many Methodists as Jews. In Sing-Sing, there were 1,553 inmates, 855 of them (over half) Catholics, 518 Protestants, 117 Jews, and 8 non-religious.

Steiner first surveyed 27 states and found 19,400 Christians, 5,000 with no preference and only 3 Agnostics (one each in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Illinois). A later, more exhaustive survey found 60,605 Christians, 5,000 Jews, 131 Pagans, 4,000 "no preference," and only 3 Agnostics.

In one 19-state survey, Steiner found 15 non-believers, Spiritualists, Theosophists, Deists, Pantheists and 1 Agnostic among nearly 83,000 inmates. He labeled all 15 as "anti-christians." The Elmira, N.Y. reformatory system overshadowed all others, with nearly 31,000 inmates, including 15,694 Catholics (half) and 10,968 Protestants, 4,000 Jews, 325 refusing to answer, and 0 unbelievers.

In the East, over 64% of inmates are Roman Catholic. Throughout the national prison population, they average 50%. A national census of the general population found Catholics to be about 15% (and they count from the diaper up). Hardly 12% are old enough to commit a crime, and half of these are women. That leaves an adult Catholic population of 6% supplying 50% of the prison population.


I'm sorry but  most of this data is meaningless to prove anything either way. If I have a bag with 100 m&ms and only 2 are red, then I can draw out 5 at random and there's a still a 90% chance none are red. The only one of any use is the last paragraph, but even that is too flawed to make a conclusive statement a differing populace is used as the basis of comparison (IE: How are the Catholics geographically distributed?) I might very well be persuaded to thinking that religious beliefs can have a higher coincidence with crime, but this post isn't going to do it.

DISCLAIMER: I have no idea what percentage of the country are actually atheist, but in my experience, I don't think I've personally met many that weren't at least agnostic.


Edited by Deathrabbit - June 06 2009 at 01:31
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Points: 19535 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 06 2009 at 01:26
Originally posted by progmetalhead progmetalhead wrote:

With the utmost respect Ivan.
 
Seeing as you have quoted adherents, maybe you will let us have your views on the following (also from adherents)
 
Or as I expect we will see an atypical religious reply????
 
It's unnecessary to quote the letter, it's in your post
 
In first place:  Haven't given any religious response, all my replies are based in logic, I'm not preaching, never did it in this forum and never will.
 
Now to that letter:
  1. Any person who says Atheists can't be moral, is a bigot and a stupid, morality is independent of any religious belief.
  2. I would have to check this statistics, but the posibilities are many
    1. Almost every atheist was born and raised inside a religion, many of this people surely are in fact atheists or agnostics that only have a nominal link towards a religion.
    2. What about the other states, and places in the world?
    3. The people with no religious training (their words) are an infimous minority, almost every atheist was raised inside a religion
    4. In countries were Catholics are minority, they can be harrased (As a fact Irish Catholics were harrassed in USA for a long time) as black people was harrassed and falsely arrested as in USA a few years ago.
    5. Most prissoners claim to be religious as a way to receive indulgence
    6. This data could be  inacurate

Of course they are implying that religious people are inmoral and Atheists are the moral?

If that's the case, it's exactly the same bigotry and stupidity as saying Atheists are inmoral.
 
But please, I gave a few arguments in reply to Dean's post which you so enthusiatically  congratulated...Is my reply wrong or acurate?
 
Iván
 
EDIT: I witnesed this, a huge number of Shinnig Path (Moisrt Pol potioan Movement) shouted "We cant be terrorists we are catholics"
 
We all know Maoists are atheists.
 
Of course this means nothing except many ctriminals clame to be religious to gain sympathy and credibillity from the naive fundamentalists who believe every person can be saved by religion, but his same people who proclaimentheir catholicism, marched inside the prisons with red flags and uniforms singing military songs..


Edited by Ivan_Melgar_M - June 06 2009 at 01:43
            
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Originally posted by Ivan_Melgar_M Ivan_Melgar_M wrote:

Originally posted by progmetalhead progmetalhead wrote:

With the utmost respect Ivan.
 
Seeing as you have quoted adherents, maybe you will let us have your views on the following (also from adherents)
 
Or as I expect we will see an atypical religious reply????
 
It's surprising how many people remark to me, "You're an Atheist? You must have no conscience about committing crime then." Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, if we examine the population of our prisons, we see a very different picture.

In "The New Criminology," Max D. Schlapp and Edward E. Smith say that two generations of statisticians found that the ratio of convicts without religious training is about 1/10th of 1%. W.T. Root, Professor of Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, examined 1,916 prisoners and said, "Indifference to religion, due to thought, strengthens character," adding that Unitarians, Agnostics, Atheists and Free-Thinkers were absent from penitentiaries, or nearly so.

During 10 years in Sing-Sing, of those executed for murder 65% were Catholics, 26% Protestants, 6% Hebrew, 2% Pagan, and less than 1/3 of 1% non-religious.

Steiner and Swancara surveyed Canadian prisons and found 1,294 Catholics, 435 Anglicans, 241 Methodists, 135 Baptists, and 1 Unitarian.

Dr. Christian, Superintendent of the N.Y. State Reformatories, checked records of 22,000 prison inmates and found only 4 college graduates. In "Who's Who," 91% were college graduates; Christian commented that "intelligence and knowledge produce right living," and, "crime is the offspring of superstition and ignorance."

Surveyed Massachusetts reformatories found every inmate to be religious.

In Joliet Prison, there were 2,888 Catholics, 1,020 Baptists, 617 Methodists and no prisoners identified as non-religious.

Michigan had 82,000 Baptists and 83,000 Jews in the state population; but in the prisons, there were 22 times as many Baptists as Jews, and 18 times as many Methodists as Jews. In Sing-Sing, there were 1,553 inmates, 855 of them (over half) Catholics, 518 Protestants, 117 Jews, and 8 non-religious.

Steiner first surveyed 27 states and found 19,400 Christians, 5,000 with no preference and only 3 Agnostics (one each in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Illinois). A later, more exhaustive survey found 60,605 Christians, 5,000 Jews, 131 Pagans, 4,000 "no preference," and only 3 Agnostics.

In one 19-state survey, Steiner found 15 non-believers, Spiritualists, Theosophists, Deists, Pantheists and 1 Agnostic among nearly 83,000 inmates. He labeled all 15 as "anti-christians." The Elmira, N.Y. reformatory system overshadowed all others, with nearly 31,000 inmates, including 15,694 Catholics (half) and 10,968 Protestants, 4,000 Jews, 325 refusing to answer, and 0 unbelievers.

In the East, over 64% of inmates are Roman Catholic. Throughout the national prison population, they average 50%. A national census of the general population found Catholics to be about 15% (and they count from the diaper up). Hardly 12% are old enough to commit a crime, and half of these are women. That leaves an adult Catholic population of 6% supplying 50% of the prison population.
 
In first place:  Haven't given any religious response, all my replies are based in logic, I'm not preaching, never did it in this forum and never will.
 
Now to that letter:
  1. Any person who says Atheists can't be moral, is a bigot and a stupid, morality is independent of any religious belief.
  2. I would have to check this statistics, but the posibilities are many
    1. Almost every atheist was born and raised inside a religion, many of this people surely are in fact atheists or agnostics that only have a nominal link towards a religion.
    2. What about the other states, and places in the world?
    3. The people with no religious training (their words) are an infimous minority, almost every atheist was raised inside a religion
    4. In countries were Catholics are minority, they can be harrased (As a fact Irish Catholics were harrassed in USA for a long time) as black people was harrassed and falsely arrested as in USA a few years ago.
    5. Most prissoners claim to be religious as a way to receive indulgence
    6. This data could be  inacurate

Of course they are implying that religious people are inmoral and Atheists are the moral?

If that's the case, it's exactly the same bigotry and stupidity as saying Atheists are inmoral.
 
But please, I gave a few arguments in reply to Dean's post which you so enthusiatically  congratulated...Is my reply wrong or acurate?
 
Iván


Just a quick thing point it out it's not necessarily bigoted to say that  people who follow philosophy X are more likely to commit crimes if the data supports it. What is bigoted is to say it's because of philosophy X that they commit more crimes. (w/o further proof, eliminating other factors, maybe philosophy X is more likely to manifest in groups with factor Y which actually causes violence) Correlation does not imply causation. It's even further bigoted to bring it down to the level where, one says "You believe in philosophy X, you immoral b*****d!"
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Points: 19535 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 06 2009 at 01:45
Please check all the posibilities I gave you.
 
Iván


Edited by Ivan_Melgar_M - June 06 2009 at 02:13
            
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Points: 4625 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 06 2009 at 01:48
Originally posted by Ivan_Melgar_M Ivan_Melgar_M wrote:

Please chjeck all the posibilities I gave you.
 
Iván

I was just make a point about statistics, wasn't trying to indict you. There's a book I want to read called "How to Lie with Statistics." Addresses all sorts of issues. The base problem is that there are way too many people w/o solid math backgrounds tryign to run around doing statistics. Further, most statistics are not generated by a divested body.
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Thanks deathrabbit, and i found some interesting data.
 
Most of the Catholics arrested and convicted in USA are:
  1. Young Latino inmigrants
  2. Most of them living in extreme poverty
  3. Most of them members of violent gangs
  4. A great percentage of them illegal
  5. Most of them with poor defence in a trial.
  6. Almost 90%  of Latinos are Catholics (At least by name)

But you forget the real truth: Poor inmigrants, members of a violent gang will probably commit violent crimes and most surely be convicted because they aren't able to pay a decent defence.

Let me put another example:
 
  1. All members of Maoist Shinning Path who killed 50,000 innocent Peruvianms are atheists
  2. All members of the Kmer Rouge who killed almost a million Cambodians were atheists
  3. Then Atheists have more chances to be criminal terrorists.

Of course this is BS, I'm leaving many facts behind, like that radical communists embrace Atheism for political interests.

Iván
 
            
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