Stupid things atheists say: Goatherders

[Foxaèr]

I don't say stupid things. Just saying.

[Data]

Writers of the Bible knew less about cosmology than an average nine-year-old child today. So the Bible claims that the Earth is flat with the dome over it while the stars are stuck to this dome and can shake loose during earthquakes and fall to Earth.

You had better consult that 9 year old because the Bible doesn't say any of that.

It describes a world that runs on magic and has talking animals,

No.

giants

How tall?

invisible spirits, and demons that can suspend the laws of nature at will and take control of living beings.

Do you believe it possible that extraterrestrial beings exist and if so is it possible they could be described as such?

The humans in it have a magic being that lives in their body.

No.

[Data]

[quote='BrianSoddingBoru4' pid='2168682' dateline='1694942258']1. Several of your listed technological innovations were created by cultures who never even heard of Yahweh.

That wasn't the point. I wasn't specifically referring to that sort of thing, I was comparing the intelligence of the world then to the same today.

2. It's not terribly usual for atheists to describe the ancients as unintelligent or less intelligent than us. But they WERE ignorant compared to us ('ignorant' and 'stupid' are two very different things). For the record, pyramids aren't all that difficult to build.

So, if you put the ancients at sea, in the desert, in the wilderness, they couldn't survive while we, without or cell phones, GPS or anything else, could, correct? They were ignorant because they couldn't Google. Their air, food, water wasn't poisoned but they didn't have a good bead on things like we do, correct?

3. Technology doesn't make us stupid, it just makes it easier to display the stupid that was there all along.

I'll accept that. I did allude to that distinction in the OP.

4. EVERY mythology contains judges, military commanders, historians (although that one's a bit of a stretch), writers, kings, lawyers, fisherman, doctors, and prophets. The presence of these speaks neither to the validity of the Bible or the intelligence of the mythicists.

Mythicists? Okay. First of all you can't make such an unfounded claim on mythology, especially one so obviously wrong, and expect to be taken seriously by anyone other than the mooks that hang about the place, and secondly, excrement of the bovine variety.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Yeah, you guys are smart. Those guys were dumb. But, since that is an ironic statement I'll tell you what your argument should be. Instead of an emotional, astronomically stupid overconfident willful ignorance and sociopolitical ideological fixation with the foundation of occidental culture. For my argument that they were not as stupid as you, your argument should be, that I think God told them and they didn't have a clue. 

FACK.

From the other thread:

More intriguing to me is why a believer would go to an atheist forum and lecture them on how wrong they are. For all my faults, arrogance is not one of them.

To learn, isn't that obvious? I've learned more about the Bible, religion, myself, atheists, people in general and religion discussing with atheists than I ever did through intense book learnin' stuff. Grammar, math . . . not so much but that's just me.

Ri-i-i-i-ight.

[Foxaèr]

Or better put: a fiction book that contains real world elements doesn't make it non-fiction.

[Fake Messiah]

You had better consult that 9 year old because the Bible doesn't say any of that.

I'll consult with Neil Tyson who says: "For example, nowhere in the Bible is Earth described as a three-dimensional object. All references to it are flat. And until the 15th century, so too were all maps of the world, informed by scriptures."

No. [talking animals in the Bible]

Then you don't know anything about the Bible.

How tall?

Goliath is described to be 3m (10ft) tall.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I dunno, I think I've heard the expression from people like the Amazing Atheist, Aron Ra, Hitchens, Harris, and so on online.

No one here, I should have said.

Boru

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

It@Data

So, if you put the ancients at sea, in the desert, in the wilderness, they couldn't survive while we, without or cell phones, GPS or anything else, could, correct? They were ignorant because they couldn't Google. Their air, food, water wasn't poisoned but they didn't have a good bead on things like we do, correct? 

Of course they were ignorant of some of the things we know, just as we’re ignorant of some of the things they knew. That’s not a slur, it’s a simple fact. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t intelligent - ‘ignorant’ and ‘stupid’ are very different things. ‘Ignorant’ simply refers to things you don’t know, not to things you’re unable to learn. 

If I were plunked down in the wilderness, I’d very likely die without help. But if Musa Bin Habib were to take me in hand, I could learn the skills I’d need to survive. Similarly, if Musa were to be placed in a modern metropolis (Singapore, say, or London), he’d be dead in a week unless someone taught him how to survive.

Everyone’s ignorant of some things, to a greater or lesser extent.

Boru

[Data]

Of course they were ignorant of some of the things we know, just as we’re ignorant of some of the things they knew. That’s not a slur, it’s a simple fact. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t intelligent - ‘ignorant’ and ‘stupid’ are very different things. ‘Ignorant’ simply refers to things you don’t know, not to things you’re unable to learn

 

Agreed.

If I were plunked down in the wilderness, I’d very likely die without help. But if Musa Bin Habib were to take me in hand, I could learn the skills I’d need to survive. Similarly, if Musa were to be placed in a modern metropolis (Singapore, say, or London), he’d be dead in a week unless someone taught him how to survive.

Everyone’s ignorant of some things, to a greater or lesser extent.

Who the fuck is Musa Bin Habib? Nevermind. Doesn't matter. I agree with you, so why keep referring to them as irrelevant goatherders. Just a derogatory? If they aren't relevant than shut the fuck up about them, right? Then we go back to the sociopolitical. Here's the thing about that. It's a valid complaint, but even though Christ said his followers would be no part of the world wouldn't the theists, with their political views, should be allowed in a republic or democracy to play the game as well as anyone else. The majority of atheists aren't militant. The minority, by far, is. No organization. You don't have the numbers. Solution?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I called them goatherders because that was one link in the chain between Homo Naledi and Homo Sapiens Sapiens. Pre-mass media people would sit around fires and talk. Some of the talk included creating gods out of whole cloth. If you're going to get upset about the way things happened I'm going to have a lot of fun with you.