Comment

dread gurus Comment by Baba Fats on October 19, 2012 at 8:31pm

Well put Rose

Comment by Rose on October 19, 2012 at 8:20pm

Oh, but technically I am an Atheist. By the definition of the word, I cannot deny it.

Comment by Rose on October 19, 2012 at 8:15pm

I don't think spirituality has to do with the supernatural either. In fact, I don't find my dreads to be very supernatural at all. Spirituality to me is just giving something greater meaning.

For example meditation can be considered quite spiritual, but nothing about it or it's affects are supernatural. It still has a greater meaning though.

Fasting would be the same, or dreads, or anything else people want to give significance.

Your reason for calling yourself an Atheist is the same reason for not calling myself one. I don't call myself anything. It never comes up though. People ask me what my region is and I say I don't have one. If I said "I'm an Atheist" it would feel weird. I'm not an anything.

Religion surprisingly doesn't come up much in my life though.

Comment by Kelly on October 19, 2012 at 9:52am

For me, spirituality has connotations with a supernatural universe; a premise in which I can never believe. I have no problem using the term "atheist" for myself. It sums up my complete denial of religion and the supernatural. Labels are something that we can never escape. We will always be "male", "female", "tall", "fat", "engineer", "Irish", "human" or "non believer" for example. There is no escaping this kind of thing. Using other terms seems like splitting hairs to me. Unless, of course, there is a significant difference. 

It is probable that Baba and I were talking about the same thing. There are a number of different ways that evolution can take place. Separation, environmental influences, sexual selection and advantageous adaptation. I would disagree with some statements, such as "The change in colour is a huge change." since only one gene would have to be affected  to result in a change of colour. This advantageous adaptation would then rapidly spread throughout the gene pool. But this all very trivial. 

dread gurus Comment by Baba Fats on October 18, 2012 at 6:40pm

Thanks rose.  I agree, Adam and I are probably talking about the same thing in different words with different experiments.  

But you're absolutely right.  Religion has to do with spirituality, but not necessarily the other way around.  My locks are spiritual to me too.  But I refuse to follow any 1 religious idea.  I think, if Jesus were real, he was a great guy.  If not, then who cares, it doesn't affect me.  

I don't go around arguing with people, who wear a cross or other religious image, telling them they are wrong for their beliefs.  I just don't believe it myself.  

Comment by Rose on October 18, 2012 at 6:14pm

I see some interesting comments here. I only joined because technically I am an atheist, though I don't go around using the term. I don't want to associate myself with anything. I don't believe in any religion, and that's all. I feel like atheist is too much of a title. I want there to be no association between me and religion, I just want to be a person without religious beliefs.

Haha Baba and Adam I think ya'll are making the same point about evolution in different words!

To the comment about this group being unexpected because dreads being associated with spirituality: My dreads are spiritual for me, but not religious. Religion has to do with spirituality, but spirituality does not necessarily have anything to do with religion. I actually expected way more people to be in this group!

To the comment about needing religion: http://www.npr.org/2011/11/21/142470957/would-the-world-be-better-o... This is pretty interesting.

dread gurus Comment by Baba Fats on October 6, 2012 at 1:51pm

I didn't say they were more frequent that not.  I said they were more frequent than you may think.  Evolution is a change in allele frequencies in a population over time.  

The modern consensus of evolution was introduced by a man named Motoo Kimura.  He showed that evolution is due to genetic drift more so than to natural selection.  Genetic drift includes Bottleneck effects, and Founder Effects.  Here we see that if certain events happen that geographically separate parts of a population, new species develop.  

The Even though the argument with the months in london during the industrial revolution has been proven to have been fudged, the idea is there.  When one trait allows for the survival of some of a species, and the death of another, that is evolution.  The percentage of individuals with that trait went up, or down.  Black moths survived, white moths died.  

The change in colour is a huge change.  

The theory that evolution happens in small increments is called Gradualism, and was introduced by Darwin.  And it still holds true today.  But evolution of new organisms happens in much larger leaps because it happens on a larger scale

herbalists Comment by b.jay on October 6, 2012 at 1:21pm

yeah Neil DeGrasse Tyson is extreamly smart... couldnt remeber where i heard that but your right!  the over all point is pretty interesting to think about, and i had never thought of it in that way untill it was pointed out! 

interesting to talk about and pointless at the same time... 

 

Comment by Kelly on October 6, 2012 at 12:58pm

B.jay- You are somewhat right to say that it is odd to have a word for non-belief, even if you did take the quote directly form Neil DeGrasse Tyson. But, I feel vindicated in using the term. Probably 905 of Earth's population are religious believers (a total estimation). If there were that many baseball players in the world, I'm sure that there would be a word for people who don't play. 

Baba- Sorry for my absence of late. I'm pretty busy at the moment. 

I have seen their experiment. However, you are wrong to say that massive jumps are more frequent. Evolution is a series of small changes over long periods of time, which leads to the diversification of life. These small changes may result in a major advantage in the specimen, but the genetic change in itself is generally small. These advantageous genes can spread rapidly throughout the population, but it shouldn't be confused with a massive leap. For example, you wouldn't expect the first land mammals to evolve lungs, limbs and forward facing eyes all at the same time.

dread gurus Comment by Baba Fats on October 5, 2012 at 10:47pm

You're thinking of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.  Check it out.  It's hilarious   We have a group on here for it too, but almost no members.  

The idea was first introduced by a guy in , I think Kansas or Nebraska, who was fed up with their kids having to say the Pledge in school, and them not teaching evolution, but teaching creationism.  

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