The Mad Hacker@stolaf.UUCP (The Mad Hacker) (04/22/84)
>> I'll sum up my answer: You aren't going to reach for a life preserver unless >> you realize that you are drowning. [NORRIS] > Even if the water you're drowning in just happens to be a mirage... [ROSEN] And now you tell me all our problems are just a mirage?!! (Next stop . . the Twilight Zone !-) ____ "There are no atheists in foxholes." Now who's the pragmatist? William Gulley - St. Olaf College - Northfield, Minnesota . .!inhp4!stolaf!gulley
rlr@pyuxn.UUCP (Rich Rosen) (04/23/84)
>>>I'll sum up my answer: You aren't going to reach for a life preserver unless >> you realize that you are drowning. [NORRIS] >> Even if the water you're drowning in just happens to be a mirage... [ROSEN] > And now you tell me all our problems are just a mirage?!! > (Next stop . . the Twilight Zone !-) [GULLEY] All *your* problems may very well be a mirage. Especially if you see everyday existence as a *problem* that needs to be *solved*. The mirage I was referring to was the mirage of unsubstantiated belief, the desire to believe that there is something "out there" that exists to solve *your* problems, when there is no reason to do so. > "There are no atheists in foxholes." Must we hear this tripe again? "There are no religionists with brains. (At least none that get used.)" How's that for a counterstatement? (I think it's pretty good. It provides a contrary point of view while providing an equivalent level of information.) While one might choose to believe that a person in a foxhole might strongly desire a helping hand from a deity to protect him/her, but such a desire exists only due to the predominance of religious belief, and even those with rational minds might see believing in something, anything, as helpful at such a time. Count the number of people whose lives were changed because they became Christian (or whatever) in a foxhole after their lives had been saved following prayer. Pretty high number, huh? Did you bother to count those people who prayed and got blown to bits? They don't keep those kind of statistics. I suppose those who survived were true believers and the others weren't right? Simple probability couldn't possibly have had anything to do with that... -- "I'm not dead yet!" "Oh, don't be such a baby!" Rich Rosen pyuxn!rlr