Ahhhhh, you know it is a placebo effect...you know this how? Through faith, of course. How bloody scientific... It really is absurd that the so called rationalists, lovers of science, are found so frequently to be making logical fallacies, making false claims, making statements that are not factually proven, and showing such emotionalism when they are held to critical thinking about their own religion of atheism... Why don't you just come clean and admit you are an emotionally driven fool who latched onto a religion different than other religions? You can't explain it on your own, you can't make an argument on your own, all you do is exactly what the evangelicals do...preach their faith and when questioned say "Read the Bible." When you can stand on your own and make your own arguments, please do. Until then, you are helping to make my case that atheism is a mental illness, or is the product of a mental illness...
I don't have a Sky Daddy placebo. My poll shows the ET Townies for what they are...mindless non thinking drones.
Why aren't you answering my point, and instead pointing to Vitz's argument? Is it because your logic flaw is now exposed? You see, I'm not ignoring it - I was addressing one of your points. I can do that, can't it? starting with a piece of your evidence before going on to other ones. Now, on to Vitz. So he's got a fun theory on atheism and father figure problems and used a bunch of stories about some prominent historical figures and philosophers to back it up. Um... seems like shoddy work to me - where's the double blind sample test? How many normal atheists have father issues or parental issues? However religious types have problems with their parents? Show me a peered reviewed article on that matter and I'll be open to reconsider my views. Because, you see, unlike you, I'm willing to accept that there might be evidence to prove me wrong.
Vitz's study is supporting evidence. Which you are ignoring... Vitz made a guess, he ran a study and found results. He reported those results. If you think that atheists don't have daddy issues, what can be said? If you think many atheists were not abused by their Church or religions conditioning, impacting their mental health, what can be said? It is not as if most of the atheists come in with a clean slate... Say for the sake of argument that religious conditioning is abusive, is destructive to the mind of a child. Okay, then the child's mind has been damaged, and the result is mental illness. So why then wouldn't the atheists where were subjected to religious conditioning not be suffering from mental illness? How many of these atheist went into counseling to return to a neutral state in which they could calmly and evenly reach their own conclusions? Not many...most have an ax to grind against religion, just like some poor adults are still working through childhood issues with their daddy. You can reason all you like, but when there are resentments at the core, then reason becomes a tool to make the resentments true, not a tool of discovery of truth. p.s. I am not claiming that religious conditioning is or is not destructive. I think it can be, and certainly there are factual reports of child abuse by members of Churches, so yes it can really screw up someone's mind, and yes they often snap and go 180 degrees away from what they were doing. This is pretty easy to understand for even the casual observer of human nature and human psychology. All of this reinforces my case for atheism being a mental illness. Agnosticism would be the normal state for a mind free of any conditioning. If you really can't see and feel the degree of resentment in the ET atheists, then what can I say? Holding resentments is a mental illness, and it clouds the judgment. I watched Christopher Hitchens yesterday debate some Christian fool. The Christian fool was claiming that America was a Christian country, and Hitchens was saying that the framers were mostly Deists. Well, if the Christian fool was intelligent, he would have said "Yes, Chris, you are right. The Framers were not atheistic so America is not an atheistic country, it is a spiritual country that believes in some form of God." The Christian fool was so caught up in the emotion and his Christian bias that he missed the chance to put Hitchens in his place. Oh well...
And so, our beloved OPTIONAL777 goes into crescendo mode of fluff, self-loathing and zero impulse control. Why do I get the sense that another cat in your neighborhood will soon go missing?
Sorry, like what? If you stated it in some early part of this thread, I might have skipped over it - if so, please repeat. But I have read his articles in the past. I don't see anything in the way of formal study. Also, because you seem so inclined to call me out when I missed one of your many, illogical points, I will do the same to you. You are still ignoring my point that your "proof" sourcing from the mayo study is logically flawed. Please address.
Actually, I meant URINAL777's neighborhood. Even so, a doorman is an excellent precaution, no matter how far away from him you may reside. Now if only ET had one as well, eh?
Always good to see the rationalist, the lovers of science and reason take the high road... LOL!!! Thanks for continuing to make my case. What kind of person claims to put reason, science and logic at the most important tools... Yet is then seen crawling into the emotional gutter to feed... Only a mentally ill person...
Ain't that the truth. Once again, thanks for the gimme. You really shouldn't have. It's a veritable embarrassment of riches.