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Thursday, June 08, 2006
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Using the Argument from Morality to prove that religion cannot provide morality, in a fictional dialogue.
Atheist: What if I came up to you and said "okay, I had a dream and I figured out how everyone should live, all right, and I wrote it down in this book. Now do what it says". Would you do it?
Theist: No, of course not. Why should I believe you?
A: Okay. But what if I hold a gun to you, and you don't have any, and tell you to obey what the book says?
T: Then I would pretend to obey you until I could find a way to stop you.
A: Good, good. What if a space alien came down to Earth and told you that they made up a book of rules that humans should follow, and demands that you obey them?
T: I'd say that they don't have dominion over me. I should be able to judge for myself.
A: What if they say they will incinerate you if you don't obey?
T: Then it would be a situation of force again. I would obey but they wouldn't be moral. I think I know where this is going.
A: Where is it going?
T: You're going to ask me about God, and ask me to justify why I think the Bible is a good moral code, when it's just God's opinion. And then you're going to talk about Hell.
A: That's right! For a Christian, you're smart! So tell me, why should you believe God's opinions when you don't believe mine, or those of a space alien?
T: Because God created everything. He would know better than me what is good and what is evil. Besides, everyone is born evil and needs God's rules.
A: How do you know that?
T: Because it says so in the Bible.
A: How do you know that?
T: Because the Bible is correct.
A: You have no way of knowing that the Bible is correct. You could very well have been made to believe a lie by God. God is omnipotent, why couldn't he be tricking your mind?
T: But God is good and would never do such a thing.
A: How do you know that?
T: Okay, we already talked about that. I know that God is good because it says so in the Bible.
A: And you assume you know it says so in the Bible because you assume God is good. So you can't really answer my questions? If you can't, then you have to admit that there's no difference between God's arbitrary rules and anyone else's.
T: You're being childish. I believe in a good God and that's that!
A: How do you know that it is what you actually believe?
T: Because without this belief, life makes no sense.
A: How do you know that you need this belief for life to make sense? Life makes sense to me and I don't have the belief. God could be deluding you into believing that life makes no sense without believing in him.
T: My head is spinning.
(Via Goosing the Antithesis.)
11:10:22 PM 
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"I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel I owe anybody an explanation," - president George W. Bush.
(Via Daily Dish.)
7:22:33 PM
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A long-time Republican drive to abolish the federal estate tax came up
short in the Senate today, the latest in a string of GOP defeats on
issues dear to the party. But lawmakers remained hopeful they could
still come up with a bipartisan compromise that would reduce — rather
than eliminate — the tax.
Gosh. Now Paris Hilton will have to pay some inheritance taxes.
2:30:11 PM
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Rush Limbaugh: Liberals planning Gang Rape over Haditha  This is the type of talk radio that permeates our air waves. The kind that the Cowardly Lion says is:
HEWITT: "No, that's not right, because talk radio, when you look at Rush, at Sean, at myself, at Laura Ingraham, Michael Medved, Dennis Prager, we all conduct ourselves appropriately on the air, or the FCC will smack -- smite -- smack us down.---So, I think what we have got is basically a monopoly on responsible new media on the center-right side, and talk radio is responsible new media, even though that fever swamp on the left, the Michael Moore-disease-ridden Democrats on the left, they don't want to admit that, so they won't. But, in fact, talk radio is quite responsible."
Audio-MP3
Rush: "This Haditha story, this Haditha incident, whatever, this is it folks, this is the final big push on behalf of the Democratic Party, the American left, and the Drive-By Media to destroy our effort to win the war in Iraq. That’s what Haditha represents — and they are going about it gleefully. They are ecstatic about it… Folks, let me just put it in graphic terms. It is going to be a gang rape. There is going to be a gang rape by the Democratic Party, the American left and the Drive-By Media, to finally take us out in the war against Iraq. Make no bones about it.
(h/t Think Progress)
(Via Crooks and Liars.)
8:47:39 AM
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Not so serious that he hasn't diverted $1.6 billion out of the equipment funds for the military in Iraq to finance his Potemkin border patrol. Money quote: The Marine Corps has seen nearly 3,500 pieces of ground equipment destroyed so far, and it has lost at least 27 aircraft in the Middle East. Every day in Iraq, trucks and Humvees age four to nine times faster than they do in peacetime because of the heat, road conditions, weight of the armor, and constant use, to say nothing of roadside bombs.
For the last three years, the Marine Corps has been cannibalizing its vehicles and weapons used in training, and draining its war reserves to keep deployed troops fully outfitted.
But they can wait. Karl Rove needs to appease the base before the election. 
(Via Daily Dish.)
8:37:25 AM
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Abu Musab Al Zarqawi Killed
(Via Taylor Marsh.)
So does this mean we won the war on terror? Or the war in Iraq? No? Thought not.
8:28:55 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Steve Michel.
Last update: 7/1/2006; 9:38:41 AM.
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