A profound quote that concerns many.

An illness at best. But think about this quote and then think about ILP members.

“When a Man stops believing in God he doesn’t then believe in nothing, he believes anything.” — Chesterton of course

An answer to sporatic thought possibly.

“When a Man stops believing in God he doesn’t then believe in nothing, he believes anything.” — Chesterton, of course

Well, that could apply to occidentals, but what about non-theistic traditions with clearly defined sets of belief? What about atheist scientists (not an uncommon breed), would they be classified as believing in anything? What about skeptics?

Or, the converse, Gnostics and other mystics who still believe in god(s) but could be viewed as scatter-brained.

I think that sporatic thought is pretty much independent of theism. Now, identifying with a tradition/philosophic school vs. not-adhering to a tradition/philosophic school is another matter entirely . . .

No to most of what you’ve said.

I think what he means is anyone who once seriously believed in God. Many atheists have never seriously believed in God. If they have they probably went through a stage believing in anything. It’s almost a Nietzschean how will we construct ourselves now that God is dead sorta thing. People who previously seriously believed in God are now trying to figure out something new, in the process they find all sorts of things to cling on to. However, I think this does differ on exactly what kind of person stopped believing in God. I’d probably say the uneducated in philosophy, theology, etc. But I do see people who believed in God the blind faith unintelligent way who cling on to all kinds of wierd beliefs afterwords. That’s my thoughts on the matter. I could be wrong, who knows it’s Chesterton. But I figure he means try to fill in the gaps of a lost God. Some people are willing to do anything, believe anything.

That is fair. If you define it as such, then I just view it as leaving a structured tradition in favour of a non-structured one . . . in which case I pretty much agree.

I am one who believes anything and everything, and knows that exact to be true…

But you also have to remeber believeing in anything means also to believe in God. Which invalidates the whole quote…Unless you start thinking in term’s of an Infinite Universe…Which many it seams dont want to…

Perhaps Chesterton did but then again if he did he would never have written that quote…Or would he?

Who knows. I’m almost as lost as you are.

Being lost is only half the fun… :laughing:

Perhaps lol. Unless you’re looking for a destination.

Looking for a destination means you have a goal in mind to reach, This in itself will mislead you from where the truth lies hidden.

You canot find the truth by searching, by continueing to be perpetualy lost you allow yourself to learn and discover more than you ever could by searching and destineing yourself.

  1. Go into the wood’s. Have a destination in mind and try to get there.

  2. Then do it again, this time wander aimlesly.

You will find your discoveries are 10 fold.

One is never lost if one chooses to be such. You are lost when you choose a destination and miss the most important lessons of the trip trying to figure and concentrate on how to get where you need to go.

All paths lead to the same place. Step off the path go your own way for there is where truth lay hidden.

Chesterton was writing in response to many of the authors he did biographies on- he was cataloguing the fact that many of them had seemed to have ‘grown out’ of the faiths of their fathers, found them to be rediculous superstition. However, the beliefs and practices they replaced them with were truly unfounded and rediculous, and they seemed not to notice this. It’s not a statement about God, it’s a statement about Orthodoxy, and as such, any community could apply it to their own standards and see how it makes sense.
And yes, The Watcher, you are an example of the situation Chesterton was describing.

Very good. Yeah I hinted at The Watcher, I didn’t want to call him out though lol. Glad you know your Chesterton Uccisore. I only wish Chesterton would have lived in our lifetime…

Sometimes reading him, it’s easy to forget that he doesn’t. It’s uncanny how applicable his comments are.

I can see the reason in this statement, but as far as religion usually goes, belief in God has led men to believe whatever the priests decided to tell him. I think it is progress form man to believe in his own arbitrary ideas from belief in the arbitrary stuff dictated to him by a bureaucratic system of clergics.
Apart from this, as naive as a large part of the mob is, I think man in totality is worthy of a little more respect than to asume he believes anything. He will firstly believe things that are to his advantage - he believes what he wants to believe. If he is worthy of his own belief, then the following may be true:
‘When a Man stops believing in God he doesn’t then believe in nothing, he believes in Man’

Not possible, as some beliefs contradict others. You cannot be a theist and atheist at the same time. :slight_smile:

They do!? How’s that?

What is impossible to a being who believes in an Infinate Universe and one who supplies all knowledge gained from the Illogical?

Answer:

Nothing…

Everything can exist withing everything…IF, You can see it as such. Logic would defy this theory, However as I have said before my theories are founded with Illogic and simplistic Complications.

If you were to go full Circle you would find my Illogical theories of an Infinate Universe just as absurd as your theories of a limited one.

And if you believe in Logic as the sole proprieter for all youor founding Knowlage, Then you believe in Limitations and set them on the very Universe you live in.

Unlike you, I have no Limitation’s nor am I bound by your law’s of thought or can and can’t.

If you would like to get Nitty gritty with me:

The meaning of the word Impossible itself is Illogical as Logic states that anything thought of or presented in being so itself must be real and existant…Therfore by Logic’s own devise does it admit nothing is impossible.

Uccisor,

Last time I checked Uccisor, Your belief in my theories is not a requirment for them to be founded or not…

And also last time I checked you have little to no Idea what I believe.

“ALL” you know is what I say and write on a webpage which hapens to be less than 2% of what I believe…

Also, When have I said the belief in these religions is superstitious or falacy?

I havn’t.

So please make sure you check your referances before condemning, You theist’s have a bad history of Condemning before knowing. when in fact you know little to nothing of the Universe itself beyond what you experiance in society or read in a book…

I would be seriously impressed if you actualy Know what my avatar represent’s…
I’ll give you a hint…It coinsides with what I write and my name.

The Universe is not limited to the small backwater planet you call home. Actualy this planet is one of the more Devovled in the galaxy.

So please, do not think your important to any supreem being…Your not.

So you are saying “nothing is impossible for a being…”. One thing that is impossible for a being is that it is impossible for that being to not be that being. Therefore SOMETHING is impossible for that being. “Nothing is impossible” is a double negative anyways. Do you mean, “everything is possible”?

Something cannot be founded on “illogic”. Illogic is by definition, “false logic”, “invalid or incorrect reasoning”, or “lack of logic”. You are wrong in your statement.

No, your theory isn’t a theory at all, it is illogic or NOT logic. A theory has to be founded in logic to begin with. You are the only thing absurd here.

You are bound by a shit load of things. For one, the very words and language you use and think with!

Hey watcher… watch this!… “Existant” is spell with an E. and “Infanate” is spelled with I…

Wrong, A being changes every second of it’s existance. whether by Physical bodily changes or metaphysical thought paterns. The being you are now is not the being you were 5 seconds ago.

Now, the opposite to this is simple, In the metaphysical time is an optionous variable, so a being could theoreticaly remained unchanged until it chose to be, However in the physical, Time see’s to it that change is a constant.

So again both are true.

and yes Everything is Possible and Nothing is Impossible.

Really? I seam to be doing a damn good job pissing people off with it…

Have you ever read any Chaos theory?..You should.

Last I checked Theories do not requir logic to be presented, Logic is a tool used to Understand something as is warped logic and Illogic (Or the oposite of logic)

The strange thing is, Though my theories seam to be presented on an Illogical bases…They make a hell of a lot of Logical sense…

I told you, Spell checker scares the hell out of me… :laughing:

In what sense? Are you not still The Watcher? Then who am I talking to and how are you still talking to me? The group of ever changing living cells known as “The Watcher” is the same person that I was talking to before. Obviously we are always changing, DUH! The universe is in motion. But the grouping of atoms know as “The Watcher”, referenced as a person, is still YOU! We could not have meaningful dialog if you changed so much that I could not recognize you or me you.

:laughing: [snickering] And what exactly is that supposed to be?

What are true?

One makes sense, the other is a false conjugation of words. It is a double negative. Nothing, is nothing. It cannot be anything. Impossible is SOMETHING that is not possible. [b]Nothing is not something[/b]. Therefore you cannot have “nothing” possible or impossible. It is nothing.

You’re not pissing people off. You’re making dialog impossible with illogic. You’re acting like you’re going to have meaningful dialog with people, then shitting on them with illogical, nonsensical babble. You’re not pissing me off at all because you haven’t any counter arguments, with any weight, to what I have been saying. And frankly I am really enjoying ripping you a new one! :stuck_out_tongue:

I have. Have you any idea of what it is or what you’re talking about?

You didn’t check. The first definition of “logic” at dictionary.com is a coherent group of general propositions used as principles of explanation for a class of phenomena You can’t have a coherent group of anything without some logical structure. A theory is based on logical principles. Or it is based on logical principles that prove to be false. Note that illogic is NOT logic. You are using it as if it is some other form of logic.

If any of your “theories” make logical sense, then they are logical. You seem to revel in the stupidity of your words. Bottom line is that you are getting lost and messing up in your own words. Just because you can say something illogical, does not make it logical. It is clear you are having trouble with negatives, i.e “Illogic” “Nothing” “Impossible”. Each of these is a negative. Illogic means NOT logic. Nothing is nothing, NOT something. Impossible means NOT possible. I think your trouble with negatives is the major flaw in your logic. (Note: You cannot have illogic, you can only have logic or bad logic, but it is still logic, just retarded) :laughing: