You can't go wrong with god on your side.....can you ??

[Punkawallah]

That was Blaise Pascal, a French philosopher who came up with that nonsense.
Pascal's Wager was only referring to the Christian God - not deities in general.
What if you spent your life believing in Jesus.....only to find out that Allah is the real God? (Or vice versa).

Bummer.

 

[numbnuts]

 

[Landsurfer]

Howden .... Today .... 12 miles from the end of my ride (Snaith, Selby, Howden, Snaith) ..32 miles of wind blown pleasure ..not ...
At a roundabout, Range Rover towing huge pile of cut Leylandi ... pile fall off the trailer, driver carries on as traffic dodges the trees.
I get off the bike, wait for a gap in the traffic and move out into the road ... I notice a HGV driver has blocked the entry to the roundabout ... I clear the trees .. he drives past thumb up and sets off the horns on his vehicle ..
We both earned a little Karma for ourselves .... i hope ...
Wonder if Lord Buddha has a Class 1 licence ...

 

[classic33]

What data was used to arrive at that probability?
Citation needed.

https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/artic...robability-analyst-calculates-the-odds-on-god

 

[Dirk]

https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/artic...robability-analyst-calculates-the-odds-on-god

What data does he have on the supernatural in order to place a value on it?
How would you even gather data on the supernatural?

 

[classic33]

What data does he have on the supernatural in order to place a value on it?
How would you even gather data on the supernatural?

Use supernatural methods!

 

[Chief Broom]

I like this take on 'spirituality' - no belief is true...

 

[MartinQ]

https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/artic...robability-analyst-calculates-the-odds-on-god

Tbh, its a bit like the Drake equation and working out the probability of alien life. Even though it gets trotted out a lot, it was originally proposed as means of thinking about the factors involved, not as a quantitative method.

So the scientist believes he has answered the quantitative god question properly . Belief is a wonderful thing, in the absence of data and a big chunk of prior assumptions.

 

[classic33]

Tbh, its a bit like the Drake equation and working out the probability of alien life. Even though it gets trotted out a lot, it was originally proposed as means of thinking about the factors involved, not as a quantitative method.

So the scientist believes he has answered the quantitative god question properly . Belief is a wonderful thing, in the absence of data and a big chunk of prior assumptions.

"The young lady who just approached the bench presented me with this christmas card and this. It's a 1$ bill. It's going to be returned to her shortly, but by presenting me with this bill, she reminded me that it's issued by the treasury of the United States of America. And it's backed by the government, and the people, of the United States of America. Upon inspection of the article, you will see the words, "in God we trust." We're not here to prove that God exists, but we are here to prove that a being just as invisible and yet just as present exists. Federal government puts its trust in God. It does so on faith and faith alone. It's the will of the people that guides the government. And it is and was their collective faith in a greater being that gave and gives cause to this bill's inscription. Now, if the government of the United States can issue it's currency bearing a declaration of trust in God without demanding physical evidence of the existence or the nonexistence of a greater being..."

 

[Blue Hills]

Education has helped provide certainty and confidence, hence the continued decline of religion in the developed World.

Conversely the most religious lot are found in countries with low literacy rate.

true, and all these saints have a habit of appearing in somewhat out of the way places - of old, an incredible amount, with all the earth to play with, and the universe, chose to splash down in Italy, particularly southern italy.
i mean if you were a deity wanting to wake folk up, wouldn't you think it wiser to pull a stunt in the centre of Paris, London, Rome even, rather than some two-donkey village?

Whats upset most people however is someone actually trying to explain there is a god. What is most amazing is among the god fearing nations, rape, murder, theft, fraud etc are no different.

yep, and racism.
And on fraud, the vatican has proved pretty adept.
Calvi, found hanging under Blackfriars bridge, had told folks that the priests were after him.

 

[MartinQ]

"The young lady who just approached the bench presented me with this christmas card and this. It's a 1$ bill. It's going to be returned to her shortly, but by presenting me with this bill, she reminded me that it's issued by the treasury of the United States of America. And it's backed by the government, and the people, of the United States of America. Upon inspection of the article, you will see the words, "in God we trust." We're not here to prove that God exists, but we are here to prove that a being just as invisible and yet just as present exists. Federal government puts its trust in God. It does so on faith and faith alone. It's the will of the people that guides the government. And it is and was their collective faith in a greater being that gave and gives cause to this bill's inscription. Now, if the government of the United States can issue it's currency bearing a declaration of trust in God without demanding physical evidence of the existence or the nonexistence of a greater being..."

Yeah, but that was a civil war invention (and adopted during the cold war - Eisenhower) to prove that the union was "better" than the other. Obviously, they didn't believe in god before then and decided to use god purely for waging war. So not much changes then.

 

[Profpointy]

I got the joke.

I missed it, but got it now !

 

[Saluki]

Thanks for asking Saluki.
No change yet.
Apparently she can respond to small things like "squeeze my fingers" but as yet they cannot promise anything.

Falls, like that, with those sort of injuries are often unsurvivable at a high age. Poor lady. I should think that your friend must be beside them self with worrying.

 

[Mr Celine]

Yeah, but that was a civil war invention (and adopted during the cold war - Eisenhower) to prove that the union was "better" than the other. Obviously, they didn't believe in god before then and decided to use god purely for waging war. So not much changes then.

I have a belt my grandfather brought back as a souvenir from WW1. The buckle is stamped Gott mit uns.
Nothing changes and it's often the same god for both sides.

 

[MartinQ]

I have a belt my grandfather brought back as a souvenir from WW1. The buckle is stamped Gott mit uns.
Nothing changes and it's often the same god for both sides.

Thats one way to guarantee a god given victory