Originally Posted by The Batlord

I felt a bit odd about it, but that went away when I became amused at imagining if I just up and showed the paper to my friend (who was the person I wrote down) the paper without explanation and him giving me a "Dude...huh?" sorta look. The funny thing though, is that while I don't believe in ghosts or gods or spirits or anything like that, I will not mess with a ouija board. It just gives me the creeps, and they don't do anything useful, so I see no reason to tempt fate.

Originally Posted by tore

Indeed .. And I think it would be a little harder to be a skeptic if I was in a "haunted" house all alone at night.

Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien

There is only one bright spot and that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamiting factories and power-stations; I hope that, encouraged now as ‘patriotism’, may remain a habit! But it won’t do any good, if it is not universal.

Originally Posted by tore

I wonder how much fear can contribute in religious loyalty.

Let's say I had formulated the test differently. Instead of writing a note, the test was to say loudly "God does not exist". Would that invoke a fear response like writing the note might? Would then people taking the test feel like mentally or even verbally asking God for forgiveness afterwards?

Originally Posted by Freebase Dali

Oh, I definitely have no problem saying that.

Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien

There is only one bright spot and that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamiting factories and power-stations; I hope that, encouraged now as ‘patriotism’, may remain a habit! But it won’t do any good, if it is not universal.

Originally Posted by The Batlord

I imagine all we atheists have let loose with a "**** god!" or a "Jesus can slob on my engorged knob!" at least once or twelve in our lives, but can you honestly say it wasn't about convincing yourself that he doesn't exist as much as anything else?