What I want know is where are the riots, you can’t expect to publish this and not have a bunch of rioting moslems burning embassies and the like. I want riots! I demand riots!
Mandrill, Mo is not a representation of the Holy Prophet, but a body double, as portrayed at http://www.jesusandmo.net/2005/11/24/body/. The riots were prevented by the banning of the site in Pakistan. Jolly good thing too. Wouldn’t want more people getting killed unnecessarily.
Ambros Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary has this excellent entry on faith: “FAITH, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.”
The notion that one should have faith in something or that “faith” is a good thing is the biggest fallacy in human society. Politicians abuse it most effectively.
An item of faith cannot be considered to be knowledge: ref. Platonic tripartite definition of knowledge as “True Justified Beleif” (Theatatus).
TB, India makes GoogleMaps rub out their defence sites. China stops its internet users accessing wikipedia. American neo-cons promote fundamentalist religion. I guess the whole world sucks in one way or another. It’s just a fact of life. That Pakistan censors Jesus and Mo can be justified in order to prevent the sorts of riot we saw after a Danish paper published a cartoon. The good people of Pakistan are being deprived of a good laugh and a chance to realise how DEEPLY wrong their religion is. But the undeniable existence of the Jesus and Mo cartoon strip provides hope that love can prevail. Have faith!
excellent one… interesting to note that Mo is reading Sam Harris’ “Letter to a Christian Nation”, a hard (and deserved) criticism of cristian intolerance and ignorance, specifically in the USA.
So you have no faith that humanity will some day see the abuse of sprirituality through religion for what it is? If so then why leave comments on this board? If it’s a wasted cause then what’s the point in supporting it?
Without parallel? All religions have parallel’s in (believe it or not) other religions, or do you not see the similarity between Karma and “do unto others as you would have done unto yourself”.
That would mean (gasp, shock, horror) that Bierce is wrong yet, dogmatically, he is quoted here as “proof” of the invalidity of religion.
Tell you something, when South Park bundled the atheists in with all the other blind faiths they hit the nail on the head.
Roodboy, I would like to answer your post but I don’t understand it. The grammar is clear but the meaning is non sequitur to what it claims to be remarking upon.
Hi folks, let’s sort out some terminology first. Faith, as I see it, is the mental process required to believe an assertion that is both unprovable AND impossible. There are plenty of assertions (string theory, alien life, my wife’s fidelity) which can’t be tested or falsified but which don’t don’t defy known natural law (okay, maybe not my wife’s fidelity). You don’t need “faith” to believe those particular assertions, but trust. Trust, being the product of reason and experience, is the diametrical opposite of faith, which actively vilifies rationality and respect for reality.
Which means that no rational person ever needs faith in their lives, it’s just a destructive mental conjuring trick to make infantile superstition bearable to supposedly grown-up intellects.
So Roodby, I myself have no “faith” in humanity’s better instincts. But I do, in my more optimistic moments, have a ton of trust.
you misunderstand the bierce quotation and you misquote the person posting it.
1. ‘ w/o parallel’ doesn’t mean ‘non-analagous’, nor is he referring to one religion vs others. he means ‘extraordinary or supernatural explanations’. in other words, his quote could be paraphrased as ‘faith is the believing in extraordinary things without having the evidence to do so by a person who has no knowledge of those things.’ not as pithy, but maybe clearer in meaning to 21st century speakers.
2. tao and zen didn’t say this was proof of anything.
Found my way here today thanks to a couple of posters mentioning J&M on the Richard Dawkins website; just wanted to say how much I like it. Thank you. You have a very smart barmaid working here.
Personally, I’m just going to PRETEND that christians, muslims and religious adherants everywhere are reading and learning from some of the insights on this website, even though I don’t BELIEVE it. (would be nice though).
But I do have FAITH that somebody, somewhere has some idea what Roodbooy is talking about. We sure don’t. (Think ironic reversal with a sarcastic inflection.)
Great site, keep it up. Cheers!
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March 1st, 2007 at 9:26 am
What I want know is where are the riots, you can’t expect to publish this and not have a bunch of rioting moslems burning embassies and the like. I want riots! I demand riots!
March 1st, 2007 at 12:43 pm
Mandrill, Mo is not a representation of the Holy Prophet, but a body double, as portrayed at http://www.jesusandmo.net/2005/11/24/body/. The riots were prevented by the banning of the site in Pakistan. Jolly good thing too. Wouldn’t want more people getting killed unnecessarily.
March 2nd, 2007 at 12:57 am
Pakistan sucks. Ass. Not being able to look at a website is truly the evil.
March 2nd, 2007 at 1:22 am
Ambros Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary has this excellent entry on faith: “FAITH, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.”
The notion that one should have faith in something or that “faith” is a good thing is the biggest fallacy in human society. Politicians abuse it most effectively.
An item of faith cannot be considered to be knowledge: ref. Platonic tripartite definition of knowledge as “True Justified Beleif” (Theatatus).
March 2nd, 2007 at 7:11 am
TB, India makes GoogleMaps rub out their defence sites. China stops its internet users accessing wikipedia. American neo-cons promote fundamentalist religion. I guess the whole world sucks in one way or another. It’s just a fact of life. That Pakistan censors Jesus and Mo can be justified in order to prevent the sorts of riot we saw after a Danish paper published a cartoon. The good people of Pakistan are being deprived of a good laugh and a chance to realise how DEEPLY wrong their religion is. But the undeniable existence of the Jesus and Mo cartoon strip provides hope that love can prevail. Have faith!
March 2nd, 2007 at 2:26 pm
excellent one… interesting to note that Mo is reading Sam Harris’ “Letter to a Christian Nation”, a hard (and deserved) criticism of cristian intolerance and ignorance, specifically in the USA.
March 5th, 2007 at 3:03 am
Oh dear T&Z,
So you have no faith that humanity will some day see the abuse of sprirituality through religion for what it is? If so then why leave comments on this board? If it’s a wasted cause then what’s the point in supporting it?
Without parallel? All religions have parallel’s in (believe it or not) other religions, or do you not see the similarity between Karma and “do unto others as you would have done unto yourself”.
That would mean (gasp, shock, horror) that Bierce is wrong yet, dogmatically, he is quoted here as “proof” of the invalidity of religion.
Tell you something, when South Park bundled the atheists in with all the other blind faiths they hit the nail on the head.
March 5th, 2007 at 7:09 am
Roodboy, I would like to answer your post but I don’t understand it. The grammar is clear but the meaning is non sequitur to what it claims to be remarking upon.
March 5th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Hi folks, let’s sort out some terminology first. Faith, as I see it, is the mental process required to believe an assertion that is both unprovable AND impossible. There are plenty of assertions (string theory, alien life, my wife’s fidelity) which can’t be tested or falsified but which don’t don’t defy known natural law (okay, maybe not my wife’s fidelity). You don’t need “faith” to believe those particular assertions, but trust. Trust, being the product of reason and experience, is the diametrical opposite of faith, which actively vilifies rationality and respect for reality.
Which means that no rational person ever needs faith in their lives, it’s just a destructive mental conjuring trick to make infantile superstition bearable to supposedly grown-up intellects.
So Roodby, I myself have no “faith” in humanity’s better instincts. But I do, in my more optimistic moments, have a ton of trust.
March 6th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
roodboy,
you misunderstand the bierce quotation and you misquote the person posting it.
1. ‘ w/o parallel’ doesn’t mean ‘non-analagous’, nor is he referring to one religion vs others. he means ‘extraordinary or supernatural explanations’. in other words, his quote could be paraphrased as ‘faith is the believing in extraordinary things without having the evidence to do so by a person who has no knowledge of those things.’ not as pithy, but maybe clearer in meaning to 21st century speakers.
2. tao and zen didn’t say this was proof of anything.
March 7th, 2007 at 7:00 am
Found my way here today thanks to a couple of posters mentioning J&M on the Richard Dawkins website; just wanted to say how much I like it. Thank you. You have a very smart barmaid working here.
opposablethumbs
March 28th, 2007 at 7:57 am
Hasn’t the “Faiths Just Pretending” “Not Just pretending, pretending REALLY HARD” lin appeared in a Terry pratchett books sometime? Its familiar……
April 11th, 2007 at 11:21 am
Personally, I’m just going to PRETEND that christians, muslims and religious adherants everywhere are reading and learning from some of the insights on this website, even though I don’t BELIEVE it. (would be nice though).
But I do have FAITH that somebody, somewhere has some idea what Roodbooy is talking about. We sure don’t. (Think ironic reversal with a sarcastic inflection.)
Great site, keep it up. Cheers!