Today is National Ask an Atheist Day

[scootsy]

I have actually spent a large amount of time creating lists of animals I could kill in a tooth/claw battle for survival. I have most cats on there up to before the super heavy cats such as tiger/lion. Cougar would go 50/50, but I think I could take one. Larger animals like rhinos, elephants and bears are the few in which I would have an agility advantage. My aim would always be to take hold of their back and choke them out. Limited dexterity when swiping behind their heads would minimize the amount of damage I took while completing the kill. It simply depends on my comparative advantages on how I go about accomplishing that.

 

[babe]

Maybe. My understanding is that a typical chimpanzee has about 4 times the strength of a typical adult human of the same weight, due to better muscle attachment points.



I largely agree with you there.

OK, I get how sweeping generalizations can sorta fill in all the blanks unless you really care to look at the molecular level of structure, function, and chemical transmitters and electric phenomena that ultimately has to be underlying "values". How about looking at animals for similarly general sweeping correspondences in their behaviors? yah, so mosquitos are heavily into chemical senses and can say smell sweat from a warm-blooded mammal a mile away..... or more. . . . and piranhas are pretty much automatic feeders following chemical gradients as well. . . .but I have birds nesting in my trees who will dive bomb me if their fledgling is on the ground anywhere near where I'm heading, and them seem to have every "moral vindication" for their fury. . . ..

so anyways, have fun guys. It all sounds good. So just ignore everything else you see that doesn't fit in, OK???

 

[One Brow]

so anyways, have fun guys. It all sounds good. So just ignore everything else you see that doesn't fit in, OK???

Could you be a little more specific? For example, a list of mammals that form small-medium groups and don't exhibit many of the behaviors similar to human morality?

 

[MVP]

I have actually spent a large amount of time creating lists of animals I could kill in a tooth/claw battle for survival. I have most cats on there up to before the super heavy cats such as tiger/lion. Cougar would go 50/50, but I think I could take one. Larger animals like rhinos, elephants and bears are the few in which I would have an agility advantage. My aim would always be to take hold of their back and choke them out. Limited dexterity when swiping behind their heads would minimize the amount of damage I took while completing the kill. It simply depends on my comparative advantages on how I go about accomplishing that.

Sorry, but you are delusional if you think you would even have 1% chance vs cougar one on one. Rhino, elephant and bear? Man, who are you kidding? You think you can choke elephant or rhino? Chimp would make an easy kill out of you by the way.

 

[Scat]

I have a serious question: Why do atheists always seem to have an underdeveloped sense of humor. I've never met a self-proclaimed atheist that is funny, laughs a lot or would be any fun to hang out with.

 

[Siro]

I have a serious question: Why do atheists always seem to have an underdeveloped sense of humor. I've never met a self-proclaimed atheist that is funny, laughs a lot or would be any fun to hang out with.

Maybe you haven't met many atheists? Atheism is not a genetic trait you know.

 

[Scat]

Maybe you haven't met many atheists? Atheism is not a genetic trait you know.

If I meet someone and they tell me they're an atheist I have to assume they're an atheist. Those that have told me they're atheists have little to no sense of humor.

 

[Siro]

If I meet someone and they tell me they're an atheist I have to assume they're an atheist. Those that have told me they're atheists have little to no sense of humor.

What I meant was, atheists come in all shapes and forms, just like anyone else. Maybe it has to do with you as well? You're about the opposite of an atheist, so maybe that makes it hard to get along with them.

 

[AtheistPreacher]

I have a serious question: Why do atheists always seem to have an underdeveloped sense of humor. I've never met a self-proclaimed atheist that is funny, laughs a lot or would be any fun to hang out with.

Really? I've met lots of funny atheists. In fact, I'm taking a class this semester with Dr. Phil Zuckerman on "Atheism and Secularity," and he's friggin' hilarious.

As for me, I wouldn't call myself an atheist, but I have definite leanings that way. I certainly don't believe in the traditional Christian notion of an omnipotent, interventionalist God. I'm more sure of process thought in general than I am about God -- and process can actually work without God (for instance, Bob Mesle is a process naturalist).

 

[Siro]

Really? I've met lots of funny atheists. In fact, I'm taking a class this semester with Dr. Phil Zuckerman on "Atheism and Secularity," and he's friggin' hilarious.

As for me, I wouldn't call myself an atheist, but I have definite leanings that way. I certainly don't believe in the traditional Christian notion of an omnipotent, interventionalist God. I'm more sure of process thought in general than I am about God -- and process can actually work without God (for instance, Bob Mesle is a process naturalist).

Have your views evolved in the past year? I remember you were a sort of pandeist? Our main disagreement was over whether an atheistic universe is the paradigm with the fewest assumptions.

 

[Scat]

What I meant was, atheists come in all shapes and forms, just like anyone else. Maybe it has to do with you as well? You're about the opposite of an atheist, so maybe that makes it hard to get along with them.

Only if agnostic is the opposite of atheist.

 

[Siro]

Only if agnostic is the opposite of atheist.

I thought you were a conservative Christian?