You know that feeling you have toward the May 21st people?

[_moksha]

Bet this serves as a big boost for 72 hour supplies to help ease the transition.

[_MrStakhanovite]

That's you. That's how we Atheists feel about you. You're irrational, wrong, and brainwashed.

You don't speak for all atheists and you sure as hell don't speak for me. Don't put words in my mouth.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Hello,

Well. You know. After 2,000 years of predicting the End Times I think they finally got it right. May 21st it is! The cicadas are out. Obviously. Obviously...



V/R
Dr. Cam

Post Script- Can't wait until all the Christians are raptured... I've got my eye on an SUV or two...

[_Simon Belmont]

The difference here is that the rationalists base their view of the world on credible evidence and fact while the religionists base their view of the world on myth and unfounded belief.

What credible evidence do you have that I have a headache right now? What credible evidence do you have that you love your mother?

What you are failing to realize is that personal evidence is just as powerful as empirical evidence.

All worldviews are not equal. Some are mainly right and some are profoundly wrong. The way to choose the best among them is to determine which ones are based on evidence and fact, provide predictive power, and can be otherwise successfully tested and relied upon.

Mormonism is certainly not among the latter.

And neither is the ever-changing world of Science.

[_sock puppet]

The difference here is that the rationalists base their view of the world on credible evidence and fact while the religionists base their view of the world on myth and unfounded belief.

What credible evidence do you have that I have a headache right now? What credible evidence do you have that you love your mother?

What you are failing to realize is that personal evidence is just as powerful as empirical evidence.

Simon, what use or relevance does your having a headache have to anyone outside your household?

What relevance other than to DrW and his mother is it whether DrW loves his mother?

Would you have the FDA abandon its testing and basing drug approvals on credible evidence and fact, and instead have it change to just being how the FDA director "feels" about a drug?

All worldviews are not equal. Some are mainly right and some are profoundly wrong. The way to choose the best among them is to determine which ones are based on evidence and fact, provide predictive power, and can be otherwise successfully tested and relied upon.

Mormonism is certainly not among the latter.

And neither is the ever-changing world of Science.

Please, Simon. What kind of a silly god do you think you are scoring points with by trying to equate the Mormon "feelings" with the predictive power of scientific developed information?

[_Ceeboo]

You know the ones. End of the world on May 21st, 2011 at 6pm. Earthquakes. Fires. Rapture.

Yikes. I hope this doesn't disrupt my garage sale.

He he he he!

Awesome, Lucretia.

Thanks for the smile. :)

Peace,
Ceeboo

[Guest]

What you are failing to realize is that personal evidence is just as powerful as empirical evidence.

Empirical Evidence is just personal evidence that written down or recorded. So no. Empirical evidence is more powerful because it can out last the observer, and can't be changed by a faulty memory or forgotten.

And neither is the ever-changing world of Science.

And that's the greatest part about Science! We're trying to figure the world out. We're wrong sometimes. In fact we like knowing how the world works so much that if you can prove that a large portion of the scientific community is totally and completely wrong on a large topic we'll give you the Nobel Prize and US$1.4 million (2009).

Science adjusts its beliefs based on whats observed. Your faith is the denial of observation so that belief can be preserved.

[_EAllusion]

I'll take a position halfway to Stak's. I think the same psychological factors that motivate one to think the world will end on May 21st or 2012 or whenever are of a same kind to the ones that motivate one to believe in "end times" religions without a specific date picked. I think we can all agree that the former is not reasonable to think. I'm wary of using the term "brainwashed,' though. And I think we need to be clear that there is a difference between thinking an irrational thing and being generally irrational.

Mormonism is part of the 19th century millennialism and used to have a major focus on the end times happening soon. The latter day saints actually being in the latter days in any "the end is near sense" has faded as the years have marched on without anything happening, but it's still built into the legacy of the religion. I think it is quite safe to say that mentality was born of the same stuff as Millerites or modern doomsday followings.

[_EAllusion]

It also occurs to me that the point of the OP should be flipped a bit. You know those people who get into kooky, fringe quasi-religious movements like doomsday beliefs? I know people pity and laugh at them. Given that so many of those people doing the laughing also do things like participate in a doomsday cult that practices ritualistic cannibalism, I think maybe they need to cool it and not think themselves so above the nightlion's of the world.

[_Jersey Girl]

And that's the greatest part about Science! We're trying to figure the world out. We're wrong sometimes. In fact we like knowing how the world works so much that if you can prove that a large portions of the scientific community is totally and completely wrong on a large topic we'll give you the Nobel Prize and US$1.4 million (2009).

Really. And what do believers get who are wrong on a large topic besides this type of mockery:

You know the ones. End of the world on May 21st, 2011 at 6pm. Earthquakes. Fires. Rapture.

You know they're talking irrational nonsense; you know they're blatantly wrong; you know they're brainwashed. You've talked about them to your family and friends and collectively laughed at their silly belief.

I also know a holier-than-thou jerk when I "read" one.