The Big Picture: Nerd Gods

[RMcD94]

Damn you Bob, I respected you, now you gotta go make the masses think agnosticism is a third choice! If you lack a belief in a deity of some kind then you are not a theist. If you are not a theist, you are an atheist. And that's that. You don't even have to have a belief. Plants are atheists, they lack a belief in a deity. If you want, you can take it further, and believe in a lack of a deity (instead of lacking a belief in a deity) and that would be explicit atheism (though really there needs to be another word for it. Agnosticism is about knowledge, yes, agnostics believe knowledge of the existence of a deity is impossible to know. Hell, most Christians preach that. Gnostics (not the Christian sect you were discussing, a different thing entirely) believe that knowledge of the existence of a deity is possible to know. Not that they believe in a deity, just that they think, at one point, it'll be possible to prove it.

Actually the most common belief from religious scholars is that Atheism is lack of belief in anything sacred. You are only a true Athiest if you don't believe in a god or higher being and don't care about anything else. And considering everyone believes in Something or cares about something they are usually not Atheist.

Not believing in a deity doesn't make you a Atheist either because there are theist beliefs that believe in some thing but not a deity. Polytheism is Multiple gods, Monotheism is one god, and nonetheism believes in no god or higher being but believes in some short of Higher power.

Agnosticism just means you believe in that higher power but don't want to commit to a particular belief.

Or at least that's what I learned in my Religion Classes in College.

Well, the internet ate my reply. Basically, never heard that definition. A = not in greek. Atheist, not theist, etc, etc. Deities can be multiple ones, or not actual beings, etc, only reason I say a deity is to save time.

 

[DaggerOfCompassion]

The reason I refuse to recognise Jedi as a religion personally is that I'm not convinced that those did it do so out of genuine belief in the concept of Jedi as a religion instead of just doing it to say "look at us! we made Jedi our religion! aren't we clever!" and as such I refuse to indulge them.

A god, when you get down to it is basically just a thing of worship right? Until you define the rest of its traits it's equal to something you really really really like. So whos to say that they don't believe? Next time I have to put my religion on a form, maybe I'll put that I worship cake. Why not? I really really really like cake.

 

[DaggerOfCompassion]

It's funny that Bob should mention superman because a German named Friedrich Nietzsche was the first theoretical creator of superman and called him Ubermensch his philosophy was biased generally around how Superman has ethical immunity.

I assume you're referring to the "splendid blond beast" line in Thus Spoke Zarathustra. As a huge Nietzsche supporter, may I just say that most people who study him agree that line wasn't written by him, but by his Nazi sister, Elisabeth, who inherited the rights to his works. That's why you can find "kill jews" subtexts in many of his works.

In fact, Nietzsche hated anti-semites. He refused to attend his sisters because she was marrying a Nazi, and once wrote that "anti-Semites should be shot."

 

[etherlance]

But I already worship a character from a game and have built a religion all around him.

He's about 30ft tall, weighs about 15 tonnes and shoots lasers out of his eyes.......


I'm talking of course.......about the church of PRIMETOLOGY!!!

Let his optical lasers of love cleanse your soul as his nuclear grenades of Divine light purify your sinful fleshy bodies.

"I DIE.....SO THAT DEMOCRACY MAY YET LIVE".

The last words of the messiah before he left to watch over us from his Robco maintenance bay in the sky.

 

[Baralak]

The Church of Gundam

So who is the head honcho?
Katoki?
Tomino?
Char?

THE UNDEFEATED OF THE EAST!

Look! The East is burning red! *fist clash*


OT: Great episode as always, Bob. I loved that Scientology bit at the end, lol.

 

[Rainboq]

It's Haruhi ffs.

Oh be quiet, he can pronounce it however he pleases.

No, he cannot.

If you heard someone butchering the French language this badly, you'd know what I'm on about.

There's a difference between language and pronunciation, language is not only pronunciation, its grammatical structure as well.

And yes, I do speak french.

I was referring to the pronunciation. If you heard someone pronounce French words incorrectly, then you would correct them.

It's like "bonjooor ooo est la camamBERT." You would correct them.

No, I would ask then to switch to English or their native tongue.

 

[Potatoballs]

I don't think you know the meaning of the word 'atheist' and/or 'agnostic', Bob. They're not mutually exclusive. If you don't actively believe in something, you are an atheist (meaning without belief, note the prefix a-), and if you claim not to know something, you are agnostic about it.

You clearly don't claim to know if a 'higher power' exists, and you seem not to subscribe to that sort of belief either, therefore I think you are an agnostic atheist.

 

[Danpascooch]

Coca-Cola didn't invent Santa Clause (or even the red and white suit I believe, they just put him in it since it went with the branding).

I'm not sure if they invented the name, but they really did invent his image in the very least.

 

[Drake the Dragonheart]

All hail Bruce Cambell! All hail Bruce Cambell! The power of the chin compels you! The power of the chin compels you!

In all seriousness though, Bob makes a good point about good advice or ideas that can be followed without necessarily believing i.e. "With great power comes great responisibility"

What about Katsumoto from The Last Samurai "Life in every breath, that is the way of bushido"

Or Bowen and Draco in Dragonheart- The Old Code:
"A knight is sworn to valor.
His heart knows only virtue.
His blade defends the helpless.
His might upholds the weak.
His word speaks only truth.
His wrath undoes the wicked."
Bushido:
Gi (honesty and justice) A samurai deals openly and honestly with others and cleaves to the ideals of justice. Moral decisions do not come in shades of gray, only right and wrong
Yu (heroic courage) A samurai never fears to act, but lives life fully and wonderfully. Respect and caution replace fear.
Jin (compassion) A samurai takes every opportunity to aid others, and creates opportunities when they do not arise. As a powerful individual, a samurai has a responsibility to use that power to help others.
Rei (polite courtesy) A samurai has no reason to be cruel, and no need to prove his strength. Courtesy distinguishes a samurai from an animal, and reveals one's true strength
Meyo (honor) A samurai's conscience is the judge of his honor. The decisions he makes and how he carries them out are a reflection of his true nature.
Makoto (complete sincerity) When a samurai has said that he shall perform an action, it is as good as done. He need not make promises: speaking and doing are one and the same.
Chugo (duty and loyalty) A samurai feels responsible for his actions and their consequences, and loyal to the people in his care. A samurai's loyalty to his lord is unquestionable and unquestioning.

I believe these are values that any person of any faith can follow, and they would be the better for it.

I personally look to the Old Code and the code of Bushido for guidance, and lately I have really been intrigued by some of the eastern religions, particularly Taoism.

 

[Woodsey]

Coca-Cola didn't invent Santa Clause (or even the red and white suit I believe, they just put him in it since it went with the branding).

I'm not sure if they invented the name, but they really did invent his image in the very least.

Look for my other post with the Wikipedia quote - they didn't.

 

[lokiduck]

Well that is fine in my book. Just making sure some people hear what's out there.

 

[Danpascooch]

Coca-Cola didn't invent Santa Clause (or even the red and white suit I believe, they just put him in it since it went with the branding).

I'm not sure if they invented the name, but they really did invent his image in the very least.

Look for my other post with the Wikipedia quote - they didn't.

the Coca-Cola advertising campaign had the effect of popularising the depiction of Santa as wearing red and white, in contrast to the variety of colours he wore prior to that campaign; red and white was originally given by Nast.

That's from wikipedia, like I said, they didn't invent Santa Claus, but they invented his image. Sure Thomas Nast created the image, but what's important is who popularized it. After all, the Vikings discovered America WAY before Christopher Columbus, but who the hell gives a shit, nothing was done about it until Columbus found it, much in the same way that Red and White Santa didn't become his popular image until Coca Cola used it.

 

[Daemonate]

Wow, don't I feel totally weird, being a long-time fan and all, and a Scientologist?


Bob wouldn't 'mention any names' about the larger religions, but apparently that doesn't apply if the target is small enough.

What a pussy.

It's interesting that Bob feels so intimidated by members of large religions that he is too scared to have a go at them in his videoblog, and yet Scientology is safe enough to attack publicaly. Apparently Bob is not afraid that fanatics will send him letter bombs or whatever else he is scared will happen if he names names about which major religions are 'misbehaving'.

Apparently Bob realises that the most civilised people like Scientologists would do is just call him out on being an ignorant, bigoted asshole, not like those scary Christians? Muslims? Jews? I don't know...maybe we Scientologists aren't the crazy ones.

And, seriously? Fuck you guys in the comments.

 

[Meta 99]

Haruhism already is a religion, and it's AWESOME!

 

[Rainboq]

No, I would ask then to switch to English or their native tongue.

Way to miss the point. Fact of the matter is that Bob pronounces Haruhi incorrectly and this is unacceptable.

*shrugs* Its kinda like arguing over the correct pronunciation of tomato.

 

[CJ1145]

I only came to watch this because the guys over at Extra Credits recommended you, and even though I dislike a lot of your videos I decided to give it one more shot.

As usual your opinions were infuriating to me for a number of reasons, I generally disagreed with most of what you said, and your ideas didn't really make a lot of sense to me.

But at least for once you were funny. Out of maybe 6 videos this is the first one I actually sincerely laughed at. Kudos, Bob.

 

[dragcrew]

just out of curiosity what did orson scott card actually do?
i read his books (Enders game saga) and know he's a mormon (and i think i heard something about his books being about the mormon religion) but im not too sure. can anyone clarify for me?