‘There is NO GOD’ Stephen Hawking’s final revelation of the afterlife REVEALED

It is not the job of atheists to disprove god. It is the function of an advocate to convince people there is one and we should join their church. I am not trying to convince you to leave your church because it is a scam. It is, but you are an insider who has swallowed all the propaganda.
A fictional being cannot be disproven. They leave no tracks, don't have a body and only exist in the minds of believers. Perhaps an MRI? But since they do not exist, there is no evidence possible. Show me proof that the easter Bunny is not real. Not just the knowledge, but solid evidence. He leaves chocolate eggs.
 
Then why did you say: "...because no such dragon exists..."??

I'm the boss who sacks the lazy worker despite his dragon excuse. I say, "There is no dragon. Get your stuff and go."

If you like you can be the boss who lets the lazy worker stay and soon has a bunch of workers refusing to work because of the dragon. This is why churches can't run businesses - except for their own. Their business is based on donations and wills, and their customer base grows faster when birth control is banned. Why would any business allow its customer base to be eroded away? When birth control entered the scene the church made sure its floor managers (priests) sermonized all customers about how they would burn in hell if they used it. Many people have a passionate view on this, and it all comes from their fear of hell.

In reality of course, there's nothing wrong with birth control, especially in places like Africa, where AIDs kills many. Yet Albanian-Indian Roman Catholic nun, Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (aka "Mother Teresa") did her best to stamp out birth control, thus allowing millions more to die horrible deaths.

Ah, that Dragon. It causes a lot of trouble.
 
RL #605

Fine.
But determining which workers are the most productive may not always be as easy as some may think.

I've had co-workers that often seemed to be merely waiting for quittin' time. But they were actually amazingly productive multi-taskers. What they did was not easy. But when an expert does it, it often looks easy.

BUT !!

We had dead-wood too. It's just not always an open & shut case on which ones to keep.
 
The truth hurt you I see. Poor bastard.

You said everyone prays to God at least once and will do so again. I said that if God doesn't exist then you'd be talking to yourself, as with an imaginary dragon in your backyard.

A) You imagine a dragon in the backyard.
B) You pray to that dragon, which only exists in your mind.
C) Since it only exists in your mind, you are praying to yourself.

What is the benefit?

Some people believe that talking to yourself is a sign of madness. That may be true some of the time. Other times sane people talk to themselves. Nonetheless, for all those who genuinely believe that talking to yourself if a sign of madness, praying gives them an excuse. If anyone catches them praying (talking to themselves) they can say, "I was praying to the Dragon."

Here are some translations of prayers:

Dear Dragon, please let it rain so I can grow more corn. [Man oh man, I hope it rains soon, 'cos I am way behind in my bank payments...]

Dear Dragon, please let my wife get better soon. We need her [sob]. [Don't worry, she'll get better soon. She'll pull through, surely. If she goes how will I run the farm?]
 
RL #605

Fine.
But determining which workers are the most productive may not always be as easy as some may think.

I've had co-workers that often seemed to be merely waiting for quittin' time. But they were actually amazingly productive multi-taskers. What they did was not easy. But when an expert does it, it often looks easy.

BUT !!

We had dead-wood too. It's just not always an open & shut case on which ones to keep.

True.

This process was interrupted by unions, who stopped many employees sacking lazy or cheating workers. The stealing increased and many a company had to close. Unions are basically a slow poison for any industry.
 
" Unions are basically a slow poison for any industry. " RL #608
I'm retired, on SS & pension. I've never been in a union.

BUT !!

Beware of bias confirmation. Your observations of labor unions reinforce your prejudice.

But if you look back at some of U.S. labor's horrific history, like the shirt-waist fire in NYC, we see labor unions have done some good both for labor and management.

And there were periods in our history where strong unions worked in strong industries. The 1960's UAW come to mind.

What did Detroit in as an auto-assembly locus was not labor. It was U.S.' inferior products. Consumers understood that if instead of buying a rattle-trap, unreliable Ford Fairlane, they wanted a more reliable, better built car, consumers had to be willing to pay less for it, a VW beetle for example. Great car. I've owned a few of them.

Toyota and Datsun burried the U.S. car industry. Our operations today don't look much like what they looked like in the '50's.
 
what if we don't give a fuck if you spend an eternity in hell?.......

Don't care. It is just a thing that children and people with immature minds think. There is no hell. The church made it up when they figured out scaring people would work. They had a contest to see who could make it the scariest. My fav is that the fires of hell do not give off light. That was a great idea. How much scarier is that. When did someone come back from hell and tell you what it was like?...zero. They make that shit up.
 
True.

This process was interrupted by unions, who stopped many employees sacking lazy or cheating workers. The stealing increased and many a company had to close. Unions are basically a slow poison for any industry.

Unions do not protect bad workers. They protect all workers. Management is capable of screwing with good and great workers too.unions made the auto companies into bigger, stronger businesses. They also helped create the middle class that bought those cars. Unions won the 8 hour day, time and half for overtime, vacations and benefits including healthcare. They fought for safer working conditions.. They were a huge part of what made America into the industrial power and consumer society it became.
 
I'm retired, on SS & pension. I've never been in a union.

BUT !!

Beware of bias confirmation. Your observations of labor unions reinforce your prejudice.

But if you look back at some of U.S. labor's horrific history, like the shirt-waist fire in NYC, we see labor unions have done some good both for labor and management.

And there were periods in our history where strong unions worked in strong industries. The 1960's UAW come to mind.

What did Detroit in as an auto-assembly locus was not labor. It was U.S.' inferior products. Consumers understood that if instead of buying a rattle-trap, unreliable Ford Fairlane, they wanted a more reliable, better built car, consumers had to be willing to pay less for it, a VW beetle for example. Great car. I've owned a few of them.

Toyota and Datsun burried the U.S. car industry. Our operations today don't look much like what they looked like in the '50's.

If you look at any large, powerful group that existed for a long time, you can sift through and find some positive things they did.

You can point to good things the Mafia did.

You can point to good things Feminists did.

You can point to good things Stalin and the USSR did.

You can point to good things Hitler and his National Socialists did.

You can point to good things Mexican Drug Cartels did.

You can point to good things North Korea did.

You can point to good things the unions did.

Pointing out a few good things any of these groups did doesn’t change the fact that they were overwhelmingly bad. Unions were a cancer on America and the West, and have slowed our development tremendously. The damage they did and are still doing is incalculable.
 
Unions do not protect bad workers. They protect all workers. Management is capable of screwing with good and great workers too.unions made the auto companies into bigger, stronger businesses. They also helped create the middle class that bought those cars. Unions won the 8 hour day, time and half for overtime, vacations and benefits including healthcare. They fought for safer working conditions.. They were a huge part of what made America into the industrial power and consumer society it became.
Anything industry achieved was achieved despite unions, not because of them. Like a man with cancer who still does great things, America accomplished great things while enduring blood sucking unions.
 
RL #612

You state the obvious, perhaps because you take me for a fool.
Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something. -- Plato
You're clearly not objective about this. That's fine. But demonizing labor unions doesn't interest me. They're not perfect. Neither are they pure evil.
 
Anything industry achieved was achieved despite unions, not because of them. Like a man with cancer who still does great things, America accomplished great things while enduring blood sucking unions.

Wrong. Owners killed union organizers to stop them from fighting for workers rights. It was brutal. Whatever rights and securities you have at work now came from those fights. I understand that the wealthy control the union dialogue and have convinced this generation they were criminals and not needed. But note, since unions have been crippled by the owners , politicians and the press, workers have has stagnated wages and worse and worse benefits. Auto workers make half the money they did . Pensions are nearly gone. Health benefits are eroding. Workers rights are disappearing.
Unions get absolutely no positive press. That was cemented when newspapers got rid of unions. The owners have all the say and they are propagandizing unions to death.
 
NB #615

We have to read between the lines here. I'm sure RL is a decent chap. But if you (NB #615) have ever had to meet a payroll, you know what a headache it can be.
And particularly with the competitive pressures of globalization, a plant manager in Dubuque might not have an easy time competing with Malaysia.

With thin margins, and ever encroaching competitive pressures, labor unions might seem overwhelmingly antagonistic.
I'm sympathetic, even if not in agreement.
 
...demonizing labor unions doesn't interest me. They're not perfect. Neither are they pure evil.

Unions aren't pure evil. They are about 95% pure evil, as the Nazi Party was. National Socialists did some good, but 95% of the time what they did was bad.
 
^ Yells out "OH GOD" when getting brutally butt fucked. You just cannot make this shit up!

To finish the sentence, it would be, "Oh God, how can this be happening if you are real?"

That's basically the biggest reason people give up believing in dragons. They have an angelic five year old who gets raped and murdered and all the priest can say is, "Er... the Dragon works in mysterious ways..."
 
RL #618

I'm not religious.
But I know some that are.

And a subset of them seem to thrive, not merely despite it, but perhaps to some unknown degree, because of it.

Sir Isaac Newton thought he'd defined physics fairly well. His 3 laws of motion are about the most recent laws I know of.

Then Einstein came along and blue Newton's doors in.

Does it matter?
Maybe there really is NOT such a thing as a talking serpent, or a pregnant virgin. So?

Religious persons can still get dressed up, go to church, mosque or synagogue, receive inspiration, and maintain their social ties to their community.

"god works in wondrous ways."

I don't begrudge anyone. To paraphrase Dr. Joy Browne, even if it means shoving an M&M up their nose, if it works for them, fine.

But I confess my own preference for reality-based belief systems; even at the expense of social isolation. Perhaps that's why I post in these fora. On line vs in church, I don't have to worry whether Mr. Larmer has had a bath this month. Pew!
 
Everyone here believes that you can neither prove or disprove god.
You obviously haven't been paying attention to this thread, or even your own argument.
The problem that skeptics here have is the idea that a natural world (which contains no describable or identifiable evidence of god at all) should have no bearing
on a conclusion as to whether or not a god exists.
I have already listed evidence for both cases. Argument of the stone fallacy.
That is simply saying that nothing we experience matters in determining whether or not candyland is real.
Void argument fallacy.
Fantasy is not entitled to equal dignity as everything we know. That is the line that is being drawn, or at least that I am drawing.
Argument of ignorance fallacy.
The things we know are rational, experienced and real. The idea of god has no existence other than in the realm of a thought experiment.
Argument of ignorance fallacy.
Anyone who uses the inability of recorded experience to disprove a deity should, as a matter of conscience, if nothing else, admit and pronounce that the
scientific case for god is nonexistent. Remember, we are speaking to children, dummies and god knows what else, possibly even Republicans.
Science doesn't address the issue. Science is agnostic.
One thing I am waiting to hear from Frank loudly and clearly, is that there is no scientific evidence of a deity and that there is nothing demonstrable other than
empirical evidence.
There is no such thing as 'scientific' evidence. There is only evidence. Science is a set of falsifiable theories. It has nothing to do with the existence or non-existence of any god or gods.
 
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