"I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabrics of their life" - Leo Tolstoy

Everyday, no matter what hour, in dimly lit smoke filled rooms across America you will find people of all classes and creeds pumping their hard earned dollars into sadist machines awaiting a large cash reward that will most likely never come. Even when confronted with the unpropitious odds, most gamblers will continue to pull the lever and watch the lemons, cherries, or what ever brightly colored icon the casino has dreamed up, start to spin and then slowly come to a rest still hungry for more of the gamblers money. These wagering pleasure seekers justify their actions with an irrational belief, or rather, faith that this one time they are above the odds and “luck” will prevail. It’s not uncommon for a pathological gambler to inform a fellow gambler of the odds, but then truly believe that the mathematical odds don’t apply to themselves because of their good luck. How can this be? How can someone know the rational truth yet decide to ignore it? Why risk loosing your money when money is the one thing your after? Studies have shown that between 5 and 15 million Americans suffer from a pathological gambling disorder. However, this irrational phenomena is not reserved just for gamblers. It can be witnessed in an even worse, and far more dangerous slave to the heuristic slot machine gun, the religious practitioner.

http://www.richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=273298#273298

I have been listening to some of the debates where people cite laws of physics or thermodynamics as evidence that there is a being who doesn't go by those laws.

What I hear (not what they say) is "there is so much I can't comprehend or explain that I must believe in a god to keep my sanity".

As soon as they come to a point where they don't have an answer, they claim it is evidence of God. I think it's evidence that humans aren't all knowing.

My compliments to anyone who considers the state of the universe. That is some feat for people who's common ancestor was something between a lemur and a monkey.

The following is taken from another blog I have up entitled, "a theists conversation". It's turning into a different topic than the original, so I figured I'd start a new blog about it and attach all of the conversations from where it changed to the most recent. Please feel free to challenge anything and all that you see. One thing I do ask is for people to back themselves up. If you challenge God, back it up with specific scripture, if you challenge Christians and what they do, back it up with actual happenings(most people have been doing this and I appreciate it). If you challenge athiests claims, back it up. This way whoever you're challenging can do the proper research to find out if they themselves are in error or to confirm what they understand to be true and why.

So I'm debating this guy in the Richard Dawkins forum...
http://www.richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16697&start=180
...This guy, samurai.

I reply

A common question among some of my theist friends is "why do people believe in a god" and "how do they begin to believe in a god in the first place"

here is one of the more plausible answers that we came up with for the question "how do they begin to believe in a god in the first place"
the answer is "hypnotism"

I guess I'm depressed. I have now heard a second Christian tell me that they first had to "love" God before they could understand what Christianity really was. The first was a friend of mine -- an otherwise very intelligent person. The second time was in a free RRS show. A guy said something that was almost exactly the same. It makes me angry and irrational. I guess tomorrow I'm probably going to get a webcam and go into the chat room and everyone will finally see my hideous (ly cute) face.

I like to think about a lot of stuff, one of them is the so called "Pascal's Wager". What it basically means, is, that you lose nothing if you believe and God doesn't exist but everything if you don't believe and he does exist. If you look at this for less than a second you might consider it rational. But after that one second, several things start to dismantle it

First: If God doesn't exist, you HAVE lost something. In Germany (don't know exactly about the rest of europe), you pay a tax when you're a member of a official church. That's about 4,5 % off your hard earned money every MONTH. You also lost the time you wasted listening to old superstitions and shit like that (Noah's Ark, Adam & Eve, I could go on and on).

Hi

My name is Matthew, I'm 20 and I'm an atheist. I'm from Germany and I used to be a christian until I was about 13. I grew up in a very Christian home, my grandfather was a reverend. So I like most kids did what my parents and grandparents did, i went to church and all that stuff. I never read the bible until I was (you probably already guessed it) 13 and even then the contradictions and useless violence made me think about me and my belief. Should I really believe in some sh.. stuff like a ship with 2 of every kind of animal on it? Or in stoning a child because it's been disrespectful?

If you haven't watched "The Power of Nightmares" yet, I believe it should be required viewing in every high school world history class. I have always believed that pattern recognition is one of the most underrated skills that can be nurtured in young people. It helps us to navigate through the lies that we are constantly being fed, and to search for the truth behind them. Without a highly developed sense of it, we will be duped into believing absurdities and letting history repeat itself over and over again. The BBC documentary "The Power of Nightmares," which was banned by all the U.S. networks for reasons which will become obvious when you read further, is a shining example of what I'm referring to as pattern recognition. It is also a must-see for its impeccable research and A-list interviewees! I'll post links at the bottom of this blog for you to view the whole series on Google video for free.