Look over the earlier thread:

http://www.nogod.org.nz/2010/02/atheist-bus-campaign-determined-to-roll-on-despite-set-back/?cp=all#comments

There’s some contact information for NZ Bus available there.

Now that you mention it, I wouldn’t mind hearing from Simon if there’s anything more we can all be doing regarding NZ Bus’ decision and the Human Rights Commission.

“Liberalism, atheism, male sexual exclusivity linked to IQ By Elizabeth Landau, CNN

(CNN) — Political, religious and sexual behaviors may be reflections of intelligence, a new study finds.

Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa at the the London School of Economics and Political Science correlated data on these behaviors with IQ from a large national U.S. sample and found that, on average, people who identified as liberal and atheist had higher IQs.

Religion, the current theory goes, did not help people survive or reproduce necessarily, but goes along the lines of helping people to be paranoid, Kanazawa said.”

so tempted to go ‘nah nah nah nah nah’.

You’re right, of course. Methinks I’m getting too jaded about what people do and don’t take seriously.

I was always dismissive of Pascal’s Wager, because it never cuts in all directions. If you point out that the Wager applies to Zeus, they just say something like: “But everyone knows Zeus isn’t real!”

So I’ve always been inclined to interpret its use negatively. Now that you point it out, I’ll admit I’ve been wrong to do so.

Carry on. ^_^

For my two cents:

Aside from the problem that the Wager applies to Brahma just as much as it does to Yahweh, there’s another issue to consider:

Hedging your bets isn’t the same as actually believing something. If someone really believes in God, they shouldn’t need the Wager to help convince them.

So if the current reader is both a believer and considers the Wager to be a good reason to believe… Consider the true nature of your beliefs more closely. Do you believe, or do you just go through the motions of belief and hope nobody notices? Pretending to yourself that you believe isn’t the same as actually believing.

On the off chance that God does exist, I doubt He’d be any more impressed with the quality of your ‘belief’ than I am.

It’s worth some reflection.

Just starve him of attention.

a) If there’s no God then that’s fine; Christians were wrong and atheists were right – big deal. If this is the case then we’ll never know anyway as if there’s no God then there’s no afterlife, we simply die and that’s that. No “i told you so”.

In a) you assume an afterlife can only exist if God exists. Personally I don’t believe there is anything after we die, but you obviously do. However, what if we’re both wrong? God doesn’t exist (you’re wrong), but there is still an afterlife (I’m wrong)?

This leads us to the situation where I, as an athiest, have found that there is more to life than the physical existence I just lived though. This would leave me, personally, surprise and amazingly jubilant at the prospects of the future.

You on the other hand, find yourself in a position where you have lead your life in a certain style, denied yourself certain pleasures along the way to appease a god you “know” full well exists, only to find that your God doesn’t exist after all.

How would you feel then?

Personally, I’d feel ripped off.

b) There is a God and atheists are foolish (Psalms 14:1) and wrong! This means that everything the Bible says is true; true Christians will spend eternity with Jesus Christ and all God haters and sinners will spend eternity separated from God in suffering and darkness.

This is of course on the assumption that God exists. However, the conclusions you draw from the final proof that God exists (you dying and meeting the big guy) are still incorrect.

b1) God exists, this means that everything the Bible says is true.
The problem here is that the Bible has been proven to be factually incorrect on many, many things already. The cognitive dissonance of Christians to hold on to “everything the Bible says is true” is astounding.

b2) God exists, true Christians will spend eternity with Jesus Christ
Given that the previous condition (“everything the Bible says is true”) is proven to be incorrect, and this “promise” is made in the same book, it’s validity and correctness has to be questioned.

b3) God exists and all God haters and sinners will spend eternity separated from God in suffering and darkness

See b2.

In addition, what about those atheists that don’t hate God? Personally, I don’t believe in your God, or any god for that matter. But I don’t hate Him, or them. Personally I think it’d be fantastic if God was real. Being able to do what ever I liked and absolve myself through confessional. Being able to externalize responsibility of my own actions because “it’s Gods will”. The comfort of this perfect place to live for eternity provided I follow a set of rules (which set of the thousands though?) for less that 100 measly years.

It would be comforting. I’d like to believe. But there’s just not enough evidence.

b) There is a God and atheists are foolish (Psalms 14:1) and wrong! This means that everything the Bible says is true; true Christians will spend eternity with Jesus Christ and all God haters and sinners will spend eternity separated from God in suffering and darkness.
Hmmm…I think option b) is a no-brainer.