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The Forum > Article Comments > Beautiful lies? > Comments

Beautiful lies? : Comments

By John Dickson, published 25/12/2013

Self-deception has an unparalleled upside. It allows us to dare to imagine the impossible, or at least the highly implausible, and frequently to watch it unfold.

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"Self-deception can be harmful, but it can also lift us to great heights and bring about unexpected realities. Sometimes the delusions are truer than all the available evidence."

Maybe, but that's certainly not the way to bet. Particularly when the 'delusion' requires us to believe that the laws of physics can be suspended by a Sky Fairy whom nobody alive has ever actually seen, spoken to or otherwise experienced. Objectively speaking, many times more people have been damaged by their delusions -- religious and otherwise -- than the number that have been inspired. For every solo round-the-world sailor there are dozens of women, children and men suffering sickness, despair, pain and death because of their own or someone else's delusory beliefs.

If you desperately want to defend something that you can't support rationally, then you really only have two options -- do it with obfuscatory nonsense or do it with violence. Most Western Christians have chosen the first alternative, like the author, but unfortunately there are many others who prefer the second.
Posted by Jon J, Wednesday, 25 December 2013 5:18:40 PM
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Americans are filled with self-deception! They consider themselves to be 'exceptional'. They believe they are born to rule and, to that end, have put together the most massive army the world has ever seen.

Problem is, their army couldn't even defeat Iraq. Or Afghanistan. Even using depleted uranium and phosphorous munitions and napalm and Agent Orange and Shock and Awe and Drones, they still couldn't win.

Americans believe they are close to gaining world control. They just have to beat China and Russia. Ha, ha, ha! They will never beat either. They haven't got enough boots on the ground!

The other factor is that Russia and China are strong and united and have long histories that show an understanding of national survival.

The U.S. can't even learn from its own disgusting, blood-filled history or its failures on the battlefield.
Posted by David G, Wednesday, 25 December 2013 6:02:02 PM
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ahhh dick..never a truer word was spoken
sign=[lul]

yeah..hi..dikk..im CHALLENGING..the free*association..law
on new years eve..at the south bank[i will be comming from the east/likely by train]..i will be wearing my true colours

my name will be under..my..biker name
[nightmare]..the signage holding on my colors..have symbolism
that will be tatood upon my flesh..just in case they try..totake my colours..

the words on my patch..will include the words info wars
one under god then 178808..i expect my death./.by police man
somewhere around 11;11 pm..[so my father advizes]

its all..to try to link to..this
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=6152#178808

anyhow war is over..if we want to
cheers..

i now go to read
*your read.
Posted by one under god, Wednesday, 25 December 2013 8:11:26 PM
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Israel's former prime-minister, Levy Eshkol, is best known for his phrase: "Yes, I know I promised, but I never promised to keep my promise."

A healthy attitude would thus be: "I believe, but I never believed that what I believe is objectively so".

Yes, I recommend that you believe what is good to believe in, nay, what is best to believe in, rather than in what is objectively so. This at times may coincide with the objective facts, at other times it wouldn't - but what's important is that you do your best: indeed, why should the act of believing be different than any other action?

Some may consider the above circular: how would you tell what is best to believe in, other than by believing that it is the best?

However, believing that a particular line-of-action, including the act of believing, is best, has nothing to do with objective nature because no objective science has ever found 'goodness' in nature. While science is discovering the particles responsible for gravity and electro-magnetism, not even a hint of a particle of 'goodness', 'importance' or 'value' was ever discovered - hence, whatever your choice in believing that something is better than another, it is as irrational as any other choice.

Believing that "believing in whatever can be empirically demonstrated is best", is paying over-importance to achieving objective results, which in turn reflects the values of materialism - that irrational belief that material gain is good.

While only a fool may attempt to rationally prove otherwise (eg. that material gain is not always the best), I dare say that myself and many others do not agree with the above belief, that in fact we consider it a superstition.

(Interesting reference: http://ezinearticles.com/?I-Promise-to-Tell-the-Truth,-the-Whole-Truth-and-Nothing-But-the-Truth&id=6728543 )
Posted by Yuyutsu, Wednesday, 25 December 2013 10:50:42 PM
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yep truely the concept of a Creator God is absurd at least until you think about the complete irrationality and stupidity of the alternative explanations such as big bang evolution etc. Suddenly the acceptance of a Creator by faith of the obvious becomes very rational. Evolution and its other infants such as gw just makes a mockery of science. Now that is (evolution) one BIG lie.
Posted by runner, Thursday, 26 December 2013 9:56:29 AM
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Beautiful lies indeed!

The entire "New" Testament was fabricated out of the store-house or bits and pieces of the mythologies of the religions of the ancient world that preceded it - every last bit of it.
Anyone who pretends otherwise has not done their homework or is lying.

What is more it was primarily a political document, the purposes of which were to entrench the political power of the church "fathers" who won the culture wars of their time and place. Who thus had the necessary political power (via the business end of swords) to deal with those who lost the culture wars - the "heretics". And to define the new religion of christian-ism as a distinctly different religion from that of the Jews - indeed as a religion that was superior too and superceded the religion of the "old" testament. Such became the basis for centuries of applied anti-semitism.
The truth about christian-ism as a power-and-control-seeking political religion.
http://www.dabase.org/up-5-1.htm
http://www.aboutadidam.org/articles/secret_identity
http://www.aboutadidam.org/readings/birthday_message/index.html
http://www.beezone.com/AdiDa/jesusandme.html
Posted by Daffy Duck, Thursday, 26 December 2013 10:07:41 AM
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