Behaviour report by the London school of economics

treliac

Cleaver wrote: »

Agreed. So a progressive, modern way forward would be for society to live to a set of moral codes and treat each other in a decent way, but at the same time realise that there is no requirement to worship a made up man (men) in the sky.

As you've probably sensed, I'm an atheist. My Nan, on the other hand, is 87 and a staunch Catholic. She goes to church every day, and I think it does her the world of good. She gets to socialise, speak with same-minded people, do some good work for charity etc. and it's great for her. There seems to be a strand of atheism at the moment that seems hellbent on trying to 'convert' religious people to not believing in God, which seems rather ironic. I'm happy with people being religious, if that's what floats their boat (and this includes my Nan). As you say Really, most religious people seem to follow a code of being generally nice and charitable, which is great.

Having said all this, I do have a quiet wish that people would understand that we don't really have a requirement for superstitions any more, whether they be god, horoscopes, faries or anything else. It's quite bizzaire to me that in 2010 that all this stuff still exists, but I guess it doesn't do that much harm.

You make some excellent points here Cleaver, but you're being a tad patronising too!

Really2

Cleaver wrote: »

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Having said all this, I do have a quiet wish that people would understand that we don't really have a requirement for superstitions any more, whether they be god, horoscopes, faries or anything else. It's quite bizzaire to me that in 2010 that all this stuff still exists, but I guess it doesn't do that much harm.

Touch wood, they might realise soon.:)

Malcolm.

treliac wrote: »

Indeed.... there's so very much we really don't know or understand. After all it wasn't that long ago 'they' thought the world was flat!!

Yes, who would have thought energy is equated to mass, and space and time are interconnected. And space-time bends around a black hole (otherwise known as my brain!).

Really2

treliac wrote: »

You make some excellent points here Cleaver, but you're being a tad patronising too!

That is such a nice put down I had to thank it. Much nicer than any I write to GD.

treliac

Really2 wrote: »

Touch wood, they might realise soon.:)

Doubt it... which says more about people's need for beliefs, idols, call it what you will.

Malcolm.

sjaypink wrote: »

So if a bloke shags around hes thick, if a woman shags around shes clever?

Wow, I don't even believe in god or nuffin neither, and my exs have told their mates I was pretty liberal.... ?

Knew it. Move over Generali, brain of the board here :-)

Perhaps all the thick guys brag about all the women they haven't slept with to feel like a 'geezer', while the clever guys didn't? I'd be interested to know whether the number of people the guys and girls claim to have slept with bore any resemblance to one-another. I suspect not.

Cleaver

Malcolm. wrote: »

However we 'know' the universe exists, so the question is how? Tis best not rule anything out.

Richard Dawkins talks about something like this in his book 'The God Delusion' (which I wouldn't recommend to anyone by the way, unless you enjoy reading the same 5 pages over and over again. For a staunch atheist he doesn't half sound like a religous man trying to convert you...).

With regard to the universe being created, or indeed any other supposition, it is actually best to rule certain things out. Let's take as an example how I remember stuff. Is it:

a) little invisible people living in my foot, writing stuff down
b) a miniture, invisible Dell laptop in my head that does the work for me
c) a certain part of my brain that has the function of memory

You can't actually prove that it is, or isn't, any of the above. You could chop off my foot and show that there are no people there, but I couldn't simply say that they've ran off. You could point out that laptops can't exist in someone's head, but I could say that this is a really special laptop. At the end of the day, there is a lot of evidence that suggests that there is a part of my brain which helps me remember stuff. Years of scientific tests, theory and practice support this. Most people would go with the evidence available and go for the logical option of c.

I think that as time goes on, there is more and more 'evidence' to suggest that God doesn't exist. It's not a case of "well, you don't know, I don't know, so let's say we're all agnostic and it's 50/50", there is simply no evidence for a man living in the sky creating stuff. There is, on the other hand, lots of scientific evidence and convincing theory about how stuff does get created.

As I said above though, I have no truck with religious people. Most seem lovely, it's just that their beliefs aren't for me.

fc123

Cleaver wrote: »

Having said all this, I do have a quiet wish that people would understand that we don't really have a requirement for superstitions any more, whether they be god, horoscopes, faries or anything else. It's quite bizzaire to me that in 2010 that all this stuff still exists, but I guess it doesn't do that much harm.

...nodding away until I got to this...nothing wrong with horoscopes....:o They warn you what is going to happen over the following week.

Really2

treliac wrote: »

Doubt it... which says more about people's need for beliefs, idols, call it what you will.

TBH it was an attempt at humour about superstition. Best I could do as well.

treliac

Malcolm. wrote: »

Perhaps all the thick guys brag about all the women they haven't slept with to feel like a 'geezer', while the clever guys didn't? I'd be interested to know whether the number of people the guys and girls claim to have slept with bore any resemblance to one-another. I suspect not.

Depends whether they're all claiming to have slept with the same one....