CBC: "The Atheists - Spreading The Word"

[onager]

Just saw this show from Canadian Broadcasting. Overall pretty good, hosted by "fence-sitting agnostic" Clifton Joseph.

Interviews with Sam Harris, kids at Camp Quest and its founders, ordinary Canadians in atheist meet-ups, and others.

The opposing view is provided by "moderate Xian" Tom Harpur. He provides some unintentional humor when he is not boring us to death with soliloquies about seeing Gawd in hollyhocks and hummingbirds and cute fuzzy kittens etc. It's probably just me, but I thought Harpur had a smug, school-marmish persona that affected me like fingernails on a blackboard. I'd love to see him debate his Hallmark Gawd with a Xian or Muslim fundamentalist. Harpur would be lucky to escape alive.

At the end of the show, Harpur says: "I would hate to wake up tomorrow in a godless world."

:rofl:

I hate to break this to you, Tom, but...

[and-justice-for-all]

1. A self enforced delusion does not make it REAL, now does it?

Why do we bother debating with these people with invisible friends? How can you debat some one who has NO verifiable evidence other than their 'faith'?

that would be the first thing I would ask one in a debate; "Do you have evidence to support your claim of an all knowing all seeing all prayer answering deity?" The answer is of course "No, I do not have hard proof." Well than, you do not have an argument do you?

We do not have to disprove anything, they need to prove their claims and the fact is they never will and can not do such.

[onager]

2. They just try to shift the burden of proof...

..then dig in their heels. "You're making the claim there's NOT a god, so the burden of proof is on you." No amount of pointing out the truth has any effect. I try to always say I'm not making that claim at all. I just look at the evidence. Got some objective evidence of your god? Show me.

The believers' argument turns all rules of logic upside down. But religion has been getting away with that for several millenia.

That's one of things that really pisses me off. The religiosos figured out long ago that the universal, common-sense rules of evaluating claims and evidence posed a huge threat to their BS. So in a secular environment they try to get religion set aside in its own special category where those rules are not to be applied. It's all a "mystery." (Well, to some of, no more of a mystery than the sales pitch we would hear from a really desperate used-car salesman...)

In a theocracy, of course, they just pass laws to keep people from testing religious claims without fear of punishment.

It would be funny if it didn't have such a negative effect on the world we have to live in.

[LynzM]

4. Check out my blog, linked in my sig

I just posted an interesting article about this. Well, it's about unicorns, but it's about this idea of proof. :hi:

I agree.

[Lost-in-FL]

3. I'll rather wake up to a godless world than to...

...morning prayer chants. I have been reading a book on world conflicts and our future doesn't sound very promising.

[Deep13]

5. So an undecided and a theist hosting a show about atheism?

When does Pat Robertson start his Islamic Outreach show.