On 25-4-2011 18:30, Darren New wrote:
> On 4/25/2011 9:10, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Sun, 24 Apr 2011 16:38:24 -0700, Darren New wrote:
>>
>>> So I stop believing in god if he actually shows up? I think you have
>>> that backwards.
>>
>> Quoting Douglas Adams:
>>
>> "Proof denies faith and without faith, I am nothing."
>
> You are conflating "belief" with "faith". "Faith" is unjustified belief.
> Belief can be justified or not, correct or not. It's a state of mind not
> necessarily indicative of the real world or not.
>
> Is it still faith if you're right? If god really turns out to exist,
> would you say all those people with faith no longer had faith because
> they were right all along?

I was wondering if anyone would quote the Oolon Colluphid books, but 
didn't want to be the one who did.

The longer quote (about the existence of the babel fish) is:
---
Now, it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so 
mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some 
have chosen to see it as the final proof of the NON-existence of God. 
The argument goes something like this: "I refuse to prove that I exist," 
says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing." 
"But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could 
not have evolved by chance. It proves that You exist, and so therefore, 
by Your own arguments, You don't. QED" "Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't 
thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic. "Oh, that 
was easy," says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is 
white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.
---
It should be noted that most leading theologians claim that Colluphid's 
argument is "a load of dingo's kidneys."
---


-- 
Apparently you can afford your own dictator for less than 10 cents per 
citizen per day.

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