Another modest proposal.

[Skyseer (On Moderation)]

If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is an intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.

What say you, servants of God?

[Brother Temperance]

Re: Another modest proposal.

If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is an intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.

What say you, servants of God?

I say you should stop copying and pasting nonsense from the notorious terrorist sympathiser Dawkins and get right with Christ. You going to post that list of ten questions from "ask Dr. Laura" next?

[Skyseer (On Moderation)]

Re: Another modest proposal.

I say you should stop copying and pasting nonsense from the notorious terrorist sympathiser Dawkins and get right with Christ. You going to post that list of ten questions from "ask Dr. Laura" next?

Brother, I am right with Christ. Just the other day he dropped by for tea.

[Bobby-Joe]

Re: Another modest proposal.

Brother, I am right with Christ. Just the other day he dropped by for tea.

Friend,

Are you an atheist our to mock God? We at Landover know your type; you are drunk, you live on rice noddles and when you are not mocking God you are cruising the internet looking for pornography. Frankly friend as a TRUE Christian(tm) I am disgusted by your lifestyle. Repent before it is too late.

[Skyseer (On Moderation)]

Re: Another modest proposal.

Friend,

Are you an atheist our to mock God? We at Landover know your type; you are drunk, you live on rice noddles and when you are not mocking God you are cruising the internet looking for pornography. Frankly friend as a TRUE Christian™ I am disgusted by your lifestyle. Repent before it is too late.

Bobby-Joe, Please, I'm no less Christian than you are!
I DID indeed have the Lord our Savior around for tea. Perhaps I forgot to mention that he's a bit of a celebrity around the world, so he wanted to keep it low-profile and the paparazzi away, hence why no-one knew about it.

[One-eyed Jack]

Re: Another modest proposal.

Hmmm. The difficulty with a small china teapot marooned in space is that it is not of much account. It could not be expected to leave much trace of itself in the universe at large...that is, one would not expect to find any evidence of its existence laying around on Earth.

However, an eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing God who created the entire universe might be expected to be a bit more in evidence than a small china teapot -- whether or not it was filled with tea.

If you want, you can download Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica here: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/17897. He gives several proofs of God's existence.

Your account of spurious knowledge passed through the generations lacks something: motivation. Why would not this myth die out in a few generations?

If a myth were useful to individuals and society -- if it empowered individuals and strengthened society -- then it might be expected to survive...or, more classically, one might expect societies which incorporated the mythology to prosper and grow at the expense of societies which lacked such a mythology.

If, for example, a bronze-age tribe of goatherds adopted a mythology which made them feel they were the Chosen People, that a righteous God had told them to kill the neighboring tribes and take over their land, that would make their society more formidable...and give individuals a bit of a break.

(It could not have been easy to kill somebody with a bronze sword. You would have to get in close and hack around quite a lot, and humans -- like most primates -- have very powerful built-in reactions to injury and death of their own species. It is not easy or painless for most of us to kill another human.)

And of course that's how Islam got started. Hinduism probably evolved in much the same way, as a belief-system which united a social structure, empowered and gratified individuals, and captured the imaginations of the sages of the time.

It is utterly amazing how much these spurious and false religions evolved to mimic the true and real belief in the One True God and His Son, Jesus the Christ! Isn't it amazing how one can trace the symptoms of socially-evolved belief systems -- moving ceremonies, self-righteous exaltation, unity against outsiders -- and see in them the weak, unGodly reflections of what, in Christianity, is a God-given and divine revelation of the One Truth?

It is amazing!

~~ OEJ