I only brought up debunking supernatural claims to illustrate the broader point that the supernatural is little more than a placeholder explanation. This point is not separate from the scientific discussion, but rather, it is key to why I don't think any meaningful insight will be gained from the scientific inquiry. To most religious people, there is no disconnect between what their texts say and what the science reveals. They have simply molded their interpretations of the texts to fit with what they know from science. What many atheists who haven't had to deconvert don't seem to get is that this is not necessarily a bad thing from the religious person's view. For many people, it's not about a specific belief but about a belief in belief. The religious community member professes belief in the community's beliefs more or less, and since many of these beliefs are so vague scientifically (even claims about something that "literally happened"), it works out.
I know ~Eon~ won't be reading or responding to any of this and maybe it's pointless then to clarify my previous post. That said, I'm responding anyway because I believe that this thread can still be of use to people if they simply tried. I hate the hypocrisy of people in this thread treading the same ground over and over all while declaring the thread a circlejerk in a self-fulfilling prophecy. I get that many of the posters here are interested in the metaphysics, but a lot of the posts seem to me like their purpose is to verbally burn a Thunderf00t effigy instead of having a discussion with the people actually making their posts. A thread isn't a circlejerk just because people don't want to debate the semantics of metaphysics or because people post memes every once in a while.
I know ~Eon~ won't be reading or responding to any of this and maybe it's pointless then to clarify my previous post. That said, I'm responding anyway because I believe that this thread can still be of use to people if they simply tried. I hate the hypocrisy of people in this thread treading the same ground over and over all while declaring the thread a circlejerk in a self-fulfilling prophecy. I get that many of the posters here are interested in the metaphysics, but a lot of the posts seem to me like their purpose is to verbally burn a Thunderf00t effigy instead of having a discussion with the people actually making their posts. A thread isn't a circlejerk just because people don't want to debate the semantics of metaphysics or because people post memes every once in a while.
