TED Community » Tony Burbank

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• A reply on Talk: Alain de Botton: Atheism 2.0

  Jan 16 2013: Gravity is an actual thing, we can feel and see the effects it has on other things, Purpose is an idea, the only place it exists is in our heads.
  
  Most Christians believe there is a god with no evidence whatsoever. My problem with them is that so many act 100% sure and just the fact that they believe it is enough evidence for them. Religion is like a sports league, every team thinks they are gonna win the championship, they just cheer for their team because they live in the teams city. Religion is very similar because they all think that they are right and only reason they believe in their religion is because their parents taught it to them when they were children. That is what I dislike about religion, they all think that they are 100% correct but in reality, no one has a clue.

• A reply on Talk: Alain de Botton: Atheism 2.0

  Jan 15 2013: Not everything is a human concept, we can feel gravity and know that it's there, but purpose, we can make whatever purpose we want, for some it's god but I feel like that with no proof of god it's not a very logical decision.
  
  In one of comments a few back when you originally asked me why we are here I said to keep our species alive. You have translated my words in kind of weird way but as I said before, our purpose is not to just die, everyone will die, but it's certainly not a purpose. Our purpose is to eat, breath and sleep, enjoy every day to its fullest, that's what we were programmed to do. Anything that makes us happy is what we were made for (but some things take advantage of our brains programming).
  
  All I'm saying is that maybe god is the answer but without proof there is no reason to believe it. It makes me happy knowing that I am open-minded enough to look around and choose what I want to believe in (or not believe in) Science makes the most sense and explains almost everything I see (and anything we haven't explained yet people are trying to find a reason) I've heard of Christians who tell blatant lies just so he can keep the dream alive, I suppose that if it makes you happy then you could do it but when you finally open your mind I fell like that is the greatest type of freedom.

• A reply on Talk: Alain de Botton: Atheism 2.0

  Jan 13 2013: Purpose is a human made concept, no other animal has it, they just live. We made the question so there doesn't need to be an answer, our only purpose is to live.
  
  I see your point with the natural selection but I put the word perfect because that is the one you used in your question, I could have used best fit but perfect relates to your question better.
  
  What do you think the purpose of life? Is it to die and go to heaven, why not just start off in heaven and live there forever. You might say that we are put on earth to prove ourselves but why wouldn't god just make us perfect, because nothing is perfect.
  
  God is was a great way to explain the world 2000 years ago when so many things seemed magical and miraculous but as humans continue to learn our picture of the world around us evolves. When people deny what we can see and prove because it does not go with the bible that shows ignorance, doesn't it make sense that when we try to explain the world around us we look at the world and not in a book? Seeing the flaws in the bible and there having be no evidence for god is the final nail in the coffin for religion. (for me)

• A reply on Talk: Alain de Botton: Atheism 2.0

  Jan 5 2013: I suppose you don't have to prove that god is there but when telling other people that there is a god with no evidence you lose credibility. I suppose that in these comments you havn't really tried to preach god, you have just tried to dissprove others atheistic theories.
  
  We have ways to explain things such as gravity and atomic bonding but nature interacts with itself all the time so to understand atomic bonding you would have to understand electromagnetivity, the strong force and the weak force which is just too much to put here. Gravity on the hand was explained by who else but einstein. he said gravity was caused by matter creating dips in a 4-D area called space-time. The planets roll around in the "dip" that the sun makes with its gigantic mass therebye creating planetary orbit. That is about as simple as it gets because you can't ask where this fourth dimension comes from, it is simply a physical feature of our universe.
  
  There are many theories about life but I myself believe that life is just something that occurred under the circumstances of physics and the early earth. I don't believe that there is an ultimate purpose to life other then to keep it's species alive. Even in religion I'm not sure they understand why there is life. Most religions just say that we live to die and go to the oasis of the afterlife. My belief is like that except without the afterlife.
  
  And finally you literally just rephrased what I said about natural selection. I said that all the species that were't perfect died and you said that the best fit survived. Literally the same thing except I addressed the ones who don't survive and you addressed the ones that do.
  
  I hope this answered any questions you had about logic
• +1

  A reply on Conversation: Science and Religion

  Jan 3 2013: "The bible is here so it must be true, right? it was written by people 2000 years who have an amount of knowledge that doesn't even come close to the people of today. God is so wise that he loves everyone except for the majority of the planet. God wants people to go to heaven but they can only go if they are christian. Obviously he wants people to be christian but the only way he converts them is through a book 2000 years ago that has plenty of flaws and has many instances of acts that go against today's ethical standards.
  
  Actually there are plenty of books like the bible every religion has one, I'm sure you haven't read any of them because your parents/priest told you that the bible was 100 percent correct. So you have no right to say that they are wrong. I on the other hand ask for proof and when they ( and you) are not able to produce it, then I have the right to call them wrong.
  
  And finally, you are a stick in the mud, congratulations, you are as stubborn as I first thought. I consider myself to be an open minded person but listening to you claim that the bible is true because you believe it shows why you should not be allowed to argue about religion. So there, you are a stick in the mud but being stubborn is not something to be proud of.

• A reply on Talk: Alain de Botton: Atheism 2.0

  Jan 1 2013: Science works in a way where they don't try to disprove anything because it is nearly impossible to disprove something. Science works where you prove that what you have found is correct and works within the other laws of nature. So no we can't disprove god but then again we can't disprove that there is a planet where the only inhabitants are smurfs. You have to be able to prove your claim.
  
  Why is the world this way? Because the laws of nature such as gravity, atomic bonding naturally and randomly caused it to be.
  
  Why are we here?: To reproduce and keep our species alive
  
  Is there nothing perfect? All the species that were not perfect died out;natural selection. An asteroid could potentially at any moment crash into earth and end all life.

• A reply on Talk: Brian Greene: Is our universe the only universe?

  Jan 1 2013: It's possible that the multiverse could have just been there forever

• A reply on Conversation: Science and Religion

  Jan 1 2013: The reason it is still so hard to believe in god is because you are still lacking any reason why I should believe he is there. Maybe god does cause lightning but we have no reason to believe that he does. You also called yourself childish...I'm good with that. You have not given any reason on why evolution is wrong other than the bible says so and knowledge has been increasing since the beginning of human history.
  
  I'm not sure what you're trying to say about not anyone could build the LHC or make Brian Cox, it just sounds very weird the way you put it. The people who made the LHC are extremely intelligent scientists who have dedicated their lives to discovering the hidden aspects of the universe. Brian Cox on the other hand was made by his parents.
• +1

  A reply on Conversation: Science and Religion

  Dec 31 2012: A blatantly obvious contradiction in the bible comes from the ten commandments. One of the rules that all men are to follow is "Thou Shalt Not kill" but I guess that the other authors didn't get the memo. If I'm not mistaken the bible is full of murder and killings. Also, the fact that a book is completely harmonious within itself (I'm not saying that the bible is) doesn't make it true.
  
  About the validity of Plato and Jesus, All we have heard about Jesus is hear say from Jewish people who had been waiting for a messiah. Plato on the other hand is talked about in numerous accounts and we see his legacy and many of his works. To be specific, 26 dialogues by Plato, not including his book "The Republic" and he was the founder of the Academy of Athens.
  
  In the comment above this you continue to say "I'm sorry you don't believe the truth is the truth" Well you still haven't provided any reason that we should. You also said that "If you think you got here by chance, though, you believe something that is impossible" yet in the next sentence you talk about the odds and say that it is possible. I'm not really sure where you are getting your stats from too because I feel like you pulled them out of thin air.
  
  Lastly, in a sense you could conclude that a monkey did type out one of Shakespeare's entire plays; Shakespeare. Monkeys don't live for an infinite amount of time so they pass on themselves through reproduction. Science very well proves evolution and the only people who don't believe it don't understand it. Eventually that monkey had many kids and grand kids and so forth until they eventually evolved into Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens then learned languages and sciences until they could write works of art and explain their world. Eventually, monkeys did write Shakespeare.

• A reply on Conversation: Science and Religion

  Dec 31 2012: If there were a god I'm sure he would be able to suspend the laws of nature whenever he wanted to , but the problem is, the only documentation of it happening comes from a book written 2000 years ago by Christians. That's why it is difficult to believe there is a god, because the only people who have seen these acts of god use god to explain what happens around them. I see lightning and realize that it is caused by the build up of electrons while most theists in the era of 0 B.C. believed it was caused by a god. They came up with this explanation because they did not have the technology to come to reasonable conclusions, but now we do.
  
  "For anything to exist it must have been created", OK, I'm with you so far. "The cause is god" Well I'm afraid that is missing some logic. Scientists have a very good understanding of how life, the earth, the sun, the moon and the universe were created. Although the beginning of the universe is not completely understood, scientists are constantly working on solutions and there are multiple theories, that's much more than the christian community has been doing.
  
  You are allowed to have your beliefs but when you are trying to hold back the development of human understanding of the universe you are punishing society as a whole. Although you might not agree with science completely, we can use it to make predictions about the universe and create new scientific laws that rarely falter and new technologies that benefit society so until you can show us that believing in god is a good thing please refrain from preaching about his greatness.