Lord Jagannath.

[wildwood]

Any Theists on here that think these spiritual villagers are nuts?

http://af.reuters.com...idAFTRE5A91E620091110

[andrew1707]

Yes, but probably no more nuts than your average christian.

[wolf63]

morning wildwood and the other person ;-)

[andrew1707]

Morning!

[naomi24]

No more nuts than people who venerate books - or bits of wood, or cloth, or stone, reputed to have been connected to some unseen deity – or who pray to statues – or to something they can only imagine exists.

I doubt you’ll get many answers from theists.

[keyplus90]

At least these villagers can negate one of atheistic point that why should you believe in god if you can't see him. There you go now you see something so believe in him.

[DTCwordfan]

the villagers want the Government to shell out the dosh before they release it, nothing about deism rather about being nummamorous.

[jomifl]

Keyplus, don't be daft, all they can see is a turtle. You know perfectly well that it isn't a god, after all if it was you would have to worship it too.

[Khandro]

Some people see god in everything.

[jomifl]

Khandro, if only everyone did..

[keyplus90]

Jomifl - I wasn't talking about myself as I am sure that a turtle can't be a god. But it was a thought for the others.

[jomifl]

I agree with you there Keyplus, I can't see how a turtle can be a god but then....why not?

[LazyGun]

Its a silly strawman argument Keyplus.

Theists make great claims for god - an all seeing, all powerful entity that can and will respond to individual prayer, as well as being able to circumvent the laws of physics to effect the alleged miracles.

The empirical proof that most atheists might accept as proof of god is not a sea turtle proclaimed by villagers as an incarnation of god, but an entity that can do what a god should be able to do - re arranging the stars in the sky, on request, to spell out something like "hello earthlings - had you lot guessing" would probably do. :)

[vulcan]

perhaps one day a turtle will arrive looking like Paul McCartney, perhaps it will sing to them.

[sandyRoe]

If I can see God in a wafer of bread...

[naomi24]

... now that's ^^ sensible! ;o)

[sith123]

that is in india. Naturally hindus believe in many gods. And if they want to believe let them. Its not affecting you, is it?

[jomifl]

Sith, it does affect me, it worries me that a nation that has nuclear weapons has an electorate that believes in a turtle god. It should worry you too because if they are right then your god doesn't exist, no matter what you choose to believe.

[sith123]

//it worries me that a nation that has nuclear weapons has an electorate that believes in a turtle god. //

i find that particularly funny. America has nuclear weapons and some americans believe that the end of the world is soon, on a show it said may apparently. Britain has nuclear weapons and some people in Britain probably have weird beliefs and superstitions.

also they are a village. Not a city. if it was a city that would be more case to worry but the fact is that they are a village. What power do they have over nuclear weapons?

you said i should be worried. Im not, i dont believe in their beliefs. if they do, let them.

[Khandro]

^^ That seems fair enough, I thought of posting something along those lines and including Israel.

[jomifl]

I alo find it worrying that the US government is unduly influenced by the christian right wing and that the US feels bound to support Israel (because of the beliefs of the religious right) however appalling it's deeds. Whilst I don't think for one moment that nuclear war will break out over a turtle, the (to me) irrational beliefs of the villagers are shared by a large proportion of the Indian population. These beliefs are not shared by India's nuclear neighbour Pakistan. These two countries have been at loggerheads ever since partition which was based on religious differences exploited by manipulative politicians. The number of(religious) massacres carried out in the subcontinent have been under-reported and/or ignored by the rest of the world.