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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time!
But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money!
I'll miss you Maestro.
No, atheists don't go to anti-church, or try to put the smoke back into incense. But they begin their beliefs from a position of faith.
Robert A. Heinlein once wrote (approximately), "There is no compelling evidence supporting the theory of life after death. Neither is there any evidence against it. Soon enough you will know, so why worry about it?"
Is there any evidence to show that God DOESN'T exist? And if there isn't any, why doesn't denying the existence of God count as an act of faith? You don't really know there's no God; you just believe it. Personally I have no idea who's right and who's wrong so I go with the true system of evidence and non-faith: a-gnosticsm. What happens when you die? i dunno. Does God exist? i dunno.
Can we please contain this thread to Carlin and Sports and not have yet another tiresome "my belief system is better than your belief system" debate?
Sheesh, next thing you know someone will link Carlin's passing to Hillary Clinton somehow ;)
enderjed wrote:
No, atheists don't go to anti-church, or try to put the smoke back into incense. But they begin their beliefs from a position of faith.
No, they do not. That's ridiculous. That's no different from asserting that if I refuse to accept my neighbor's claim that he saw a 300' long UFO I am approaching it from a "position of faith".
No, I am not. I am approaching it from the POV that HE is the one making the extraordinary claim and it is HIS duty to support it not mine to disprove it (especially as Logic 101 shows, one cannot prove a negative).
Again, the most generic atheist position is implicit, simply passive withholding of the investment of intellectual or emotional capital and resources in an extraordinary claim ALREADY made. There is NO active component. OTOH the God believer is making an active, positive claim. It is his job to support it.
When you get your head together on this, let me know. Until then I will regard you as a loon.
I think this digression is oddly apropos to Carlin's passing. To wit, my favorite bit of his is the "invisible man in the sky" routine.
Carry on, crusaders!
is the plain white one
Or just a catholic that didnt give a fuck?
That's a distinction without a difference.
Are half asleep in church. But they perk up later for the ballgames. Sports is God here.
People in Saint Louis wear a Pujols jersey not a Jesus one.
I would also do his cheer that made no sense (as most cheer don't) at my football games in Dallas. Got me a lot of looks in the stands. So, one last cheer for you George (his explanation of the lines in parenthesis) :
Rat Shit, Bat Shit, Dirty Ol' Twat (perfectly good way to start a cheer, as far as I'm concerned)
69 Assholes Tied in a Knot (I don't know what that means, either)
Hooray!
Lizard Shit!
Fuck!
And the one that best captures his spirit:
Rollerfucking!
RIP
You're wrong. Whether religious or atheist, in the end we all go home - to the Earth, to the elements, to the universe, from which we all came. What does or does not happen after that makes no difference.
RIP George. Gonna miss your wit - it's far more effective than pedantry.
Thank you for the tribute to George Carlin. I loved all his humor, political, social but his sports humor was astounding.
The entire riff on baseball vs. football was spectacular. (Worth the Mark Twain all on it's own.) He was a man that cared about words, and what they said about, we, the people who used them.
There will be more great satirist to come, but George will hold a special place in my heart (and a residence in either a cloud filled heaven or a nook on one of the rings of hell – much to his surprise) forever.
is played in a stadium. War Memorial Stadium.
Baseball is played in a park.
In football, you wear a helmet.
In baseball, you wear a cap.
RIP George. I hope you're kicking back with Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce, riffing on why Heaven needs pearly gates anyway.
King Kaufman has a beard...
Gabby Hayes had...Whiskers!
Jesus Christ (oops, should I say that?), can't you guys go and bicker on the JREF Forum or something and leave this thread to the Carlin fans? Why is it that so many Salon comment threads end up down at this level:
DOGMATIC, ANGRY ATHEIST: I take myself VERY seriously, and you wrote something that suggested the slightest possibility of theistic belief or magical thinking. I can't let that slide or rationalism as we know it might grind to a halt.
CLUELESS BELIEVER: Huh? Atheism is a fundamentalist religion.
DAA: My kind are so intellectually superior to your kind, it scares me. Let me list all the reasons why you are a moron and why you probably believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.
CB: You can't prove God doesn't exist.
DAA: I have to go and write angry e-mails to the History Channel about their latest Christianity show, and e-mail James Randi to let him know I e-mailed the History Channel. I will let my minions take over eviscerating your pathetic theistic arguments.
CB: Why are you guys so angry/vague talk about God, spirit, etc.
DAA: [More of the same]
CB: [More of the same]
THE REST OF US: Give it a rest, will you people? Can we please get back to George Carlin/clitoral circumcision/Barack Obama? PLEASE?
Aaaaaaaand eventually we give up and abandon the thread while you mental giants duke it out. Yawn. Please spare us this time, OK?
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