The whole idea of science is to form a hypothesis and attempt to verify it through empirical research…Popper’s conjecture and refutation right? I’d like to hear a testable hypothesis for disproving the existence of God. Anyone? You can’t disprove something of a nature that is not defined. You can disprove someone’s definition, but interpretation and hermeneutics will evolve to redefine the understanding of God. Throwing money at any research in this regard is not wise.

Does simply having a conversation or being in the company of people or documents that acknowlege GOD (any religion) make you -or other athiests you know- uncomfortable?

That rather depends on the precise details and context. I’m fascinated by mythology of all kinds, so I’m certainly not uncomfortable reading about or discussing all sorts of different concepts and conceptions of “God” (or whatever). I have texts from many different religious / mythological traditions on my bookshelves.

However, when people start using their God-beliefs to justify bigotry and injustice, start threatening me with eternal damnation, or start trying to get their personal religious beliefs made into law, then it becomes a rather different matter…

When I saw the Dutch name I kind of figured she was from Lynden. It’s a weird little Calvinist enclave, sort of like the town in Footloose.

This is the result of an intiative we passed in November, which makes it much easier to set up an initiative campaign (basically anybody or their dog can do it now) BUT…now you have to gather a number of signatures equal to 20% of the number that voted in the last general election instead of 10% like before. That’s why Tim Eyman * was so virulently opposed to it (and why I voted for it).

Problem is, if it goes on the ballot, it’ll be in an off-year, non-general election. The fanatics can always mobilize their troops to vote in these things, but most people can’t be bothered. So if it gets the requisite signatures, it might well pass. It wouldn’t have any effect in Western Washington if it did, and Eastern Washington couldn’t get any worse, anyway, so I’m not really worried.

* Tim Eyman had already been mentioned in that thread, so I didn’t elaborate. He’s our version of Howard Jarvis, and has more or less singlehandedly destroyed the state government with one anti-tax initiative after another. We’ll go down a couple of months after California, because we’ve adopted the same model.

But seriously, now I want to understand something…Does simply having a conversation or being in the company of people or documents that acknowlege GOD (any religion) make you -or other athiests you know- uncomfortable?

I have many friends who are atheists and agnostics. They know my spirtual position and I know theirs. To my knowledge we aren’t uncomfortable by these facts.

I am for separation of ‘church’ and state, but I don’t think simply saying God or Lord counts as supporting a religion.
Give me some feedback for understanding.