Triangle FreeThinkers Challenge

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:23:00 GMT

"TriangleFreeThinkers" is the Triangle chapter of FFRF. The domain name (TriangleFreeThinkers.org) is not presently owned by that organization, but
the owner of "TriangleFreeThinkers.org" has offered to donate the domain to TriangleFreeThinkers provided they step up to specific challenge. The Board of TriangleFreeThinkers are considering whether to accept the challenge, and have asked that the challenge be spelled out in precise detail.

Read about the challenge at trianglefreethinkers.org.

In my opinion, stepping to this challenge is no more than doing the job that TriangleFreeThinkers have assumed for themselves. For extra credit, they could

Make the timing of the meeting convenient for Bill Maher's visit to Raleigh in February 2010, and get him to attend and speak on the motion, or just make fun of both sides. (In which case they should charge for admission).
Get a famous or notorious religious person to speak for (or against?) the motion.

I think this challenge is a constructive exercise, but I am prepared to change my mind in the face of evidence and reason. You can discuss the challenge, and perhaps change my mind, by adding comments in this blog.

Think For Jesus Christ

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:39:00 GMT

I came across this postorm, that I have cached here.

It makes me wonder how some people think, or whether they think at all. If you assume that everything he asserts about what Jefferson said is true, you have to admire this guys uncritical thinking (the web site author, not Jefferson's).

He says for example:
---------------

Here's another false quote:

"I have examined all the known superstitions of the world, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology. Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the earth."

If you look at Jefferson's notes on the State of Virginia, you will see that only some of this quote was truly penned by the hand of Jefferson. Only the part that is underlined is true Jefferson. The rest is false.

-----------
So he is making a big deal of one false quotation while admitting as true an almost identical one.

False	True
They are all alike founded on fables and mythology	Religions are all alike – founded upon fables and mythologies
I have examined all the known superstitions of the world, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature.	"I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature."
Christianity...(has become) the most perverted system that ever shone on man.	The clergy converted the simple teachings of Jesus into an engine for enslaving mankind and adulterated by artificial constructions into a contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves...these clergy, in fact, constitute the real Anti-Christ.

The author of the web page declares what he is trying to achieve: "So I bring out these quotes because I, and I'm sure you, are interested in the truth even if the person in question doesn't happen to believe the way I do."

His approach to "The Truth" illustrates a curious form of thinking. A quotation attributed to Thomas Jefferson is false unless somewhere on the web is an image of the exact words of the quotation written in Jefferson's own handwriting, yet he decorates the page with bible quotations not one of which has ever been seen in the handwriting of the supposed author. He makes claims to Jefferson quotations ("Thomas Jefferson denied the Godhead and called the Bible a dunghill") without reference to supporting evidence.

But that's not the big issue. My question is how can a person read the words of "Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President, author, scientist, architect, educator, and diplomat" - the man who has a claim to be the single most influential thinker in the creation of this nation, a man whose opinion is expressed so utterly clearly and unambiguously in words that the web site author acknowledges are genuine quotations, and yet declare Jefferson to be wrong, without so much as the tiniest inkling of a reason. The web page author in effect declares Jefferson to be wrong simply because he held a different opinion.

Surely if you read what Jefferson said, and acknowledge that he wasn't the most stupid person in the world, it should make any thinking person ask why Jeffferson thought it to be true.

You might read "History I believe furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their political as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purpose. " and wonder if that sheds light on where our civil government went now government is priest-ridden. If you are inclined to accept the correctness of the bible quotations, does it not occur to you that you might be the victim of the slavery that Jefferson referred to in "The clergy converted the simple teachings of Jesus into an engine for enslaving mankind and adulterated by artificial constructions into a contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves...these clergy, in fact, constitute the real Anti-Christ."?

What is the plural of Po?

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:11:00 GMT

Pos? Poes? It seems that in all documentation I have read i have never seen anyone refer to more than one po. Does anyone know the correct form for more than one po?

Po: Everything on this website is a po.

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 02:32:00 GMT

I know it is true because I read it on the Internet.

Surely you know that web pages can lie? There's no way to know that something is true just because it says so on a web page. You can't believe it is true just because some one can write it.

PoStorm - thinking category

Triangle FreeThinkers Challenge

Think For Jesus Christ

What is the plural of Po?

Po: Everything on this website is a po.