Of stampcollectors and atheists

Syzygys

Syzygys

As a mother, I am telling you
Valued Senior Member
Trick question: What do stampcollectors have in common with atheists???

I will explain it shortly....

Statement #1: Stampcollectors collect stamps.

Statement #2: Atheists don't believe in gods.

Therefore: Actually, there is no therefore, because those 2 definitions have nothing to do with each other.

But there is an analogy. A common ground! We have 2 groups of people with 1-1 simple definitions. The only thing what we can state about them for sure as a group is what they do as an activity (stampcollecting for stampcollectors) or what they don't believe in (gods, for atheists). Everything else is just CAN NOT BE KNOWN!!!

(Mind you, let's not complicate the issue of how many atheists are stampcollectors, if you ponder about that, you clearly didn't get the analogy!!)

Looking at each group itself, we can't know about their race, wealth, age, morality, other hobbies,eye colors, gender,etc. We know NOTHING about them! Except that 1 particular factor which is collecting stamps for stampcollectors, and not believing in gods for atheists.

So it is quite simple. When there is a clear definition for a group of people, let's not assume ANYTHING about them what simply can not be known!!
So next time when you have an irresistable desire to ask a question about atheists how they do this or that, DON'T!! Why? Because it can not be answered honestly as a group. Persons belonging to the group can give you each their own answers, but that is not necesserily valid for the WHOLE group.

Thank you for listening. Next week I will explain the difference between atheists and karaoke singers...
 
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I don't see any people who don't collect stamps forming a group denouncing stamp collectors. Do you?
 
That's because you haven't heard about the big stampcollector conspiracy. google it...

I see, you got the finer points of the analogy. :)
 
Yeah, I got it that while there are no clubs for people who don't collect stamps or don't drink coffee or don't use toilet paper, there are for those who lack belief (rofl)
 
SAM said:
I don't see any people who don't collect stamps forming a group denouncing stamp collectors. Do you?
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Or vice versa.

But if the collectors set up a city where no one could hold public office or teach school unless they publicly exhibited their personal stamp collection and enforced respectful rituals involving other people's collections,

and forbade the use of cancellation ink on valuable or rare stamps, getting them wet, etc, so the post office and people who wrote letters were put to much inconvenience in avoiding these offenses,

and rewrote the public rituals to include paeans to the joys of stamps and genuflections toward various stamp-associated events and relics

and arranged their legal system to allow lighter penalties and greater privileges for criminals who collected stamps

and every so often captured a non-collector who was particularly offensive - claiming that stamps were simply manufactured by other humans in other cities, say - and burned them alive, tied to a stake in the public square

you might then see a group of non-collectors form - a bunch of people who had nothing else in common.
 
iceaura said:
Or vice versa.

But if the collectors set up a city where no one could hold public office or teach school unless they publicly exhibited their personal stamp collection,

and forbade the use of cancellation ink on valuable or rare stamps, getting them wet, etc, so the post office and people who wrote letters were put to much inconvenience in avoiding these offenses,

and rewrote the public rituals to include paeans to the joys of stamps and genuflections toward various stamp-associated events and relics

and arranged their legal system to allow lighter penalties and greater privileges for criminals who collected stamps

and every so often captured a non-collector who was particularly offensive - claiming that stamps were simply manufactured by other humans in other cities, say - and burned them alive, tied to a stake in the public square

you might then see a group of non-collectors form - a bunch of people who had nothing else in common.
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I think you'll find stamp collectors have very little to say about noncollectors until they make a big deal about being noncollectors. Its the noncollectors who use the stamps and still think being a collector is a fancy that get under the spotlight.
 
At least stamps exist. If I were to be an invisible stamp collector, I would expect my friends to get worried.
 
Imperfectionist said:
At least stamps exist. If I were to be an invisible stamp collector, I would expect my friends to get worried.
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You could always look at standard error bars and make assumptions based on empirical subjective observations for a living. Who knows? You may even find it in you to believe in a coincidental universe and still imagine you can see causality within its framework.:D
 
SAM said:
I think you'll find stamp collectors have very little to say about noncollectors until they make a big deal about being noncollectors.
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Oh, I dunno. Somehow the stories of burning people at the stake, the requirements of public exhibition of stamp respect, the continual loud and public reiteration of heartfelt beliefs such as the divine origin of stamps, the inclusion of such beliefs in the school curriculum, the demands for respect of such assertions despite occasional major inconveniences and impositions (with the not always well-concealed threats backing them ), the evangelicals at my door and the social workers at the neighbor's,

these don't strike me as "very little". Not compared with my own strictly verbal and unimposed reiterations of the simple, quiet observation that the whole scene is based on nonsense.

A couple of years ago a bunch of collectors in my country took us to war on the basis of their stamp collector's code - they were waving their stamp collections around on podiums and talking about the astampic cancellationists who wanted to appease evil, and it worked - fired up the bombers and humvees and off they went. I wish they hadn't done that. I did try to stop them, - have you ever tried reasoning with a collectionist? Everything they do is justified by the voice of the stamps.
SAM said:
Who knows? You may even find it in you to believe in a coincidental universe and still imagine you can see causality within its framework
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Not only see it, but derive it - even the Second Law of Thermodynamics or QED, if you get really delusional and also know some math.
 
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Skaught

Does a stamp which has no energy and no mass still exist?
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depends on one's ability to detect mass and energy I guess

I mean if you felt something sticking to your foot but couldn't see anything there, there is a good chance you might have stood on an invisible stamp.

This is a damn sight kinder than what one can expect to encounter standing in with the invisible pink unicorn .....
:p
 
lightgigantic said:
Skaught



depends on one's ability to detect mass and energy I guess

I mean if you felt something sticking to your foot but couldn't see anything there, there is a good chance you might have stood on an invisible stamp.

This is a damn sight kinder than what one can expect to encounter standing in with the invisible pink unicorn .....
:p
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Hmm... So how about this, if you put a stamp with no energy and no mass on an envelope, will the post office still send it?
 
You guys are all missing the point. The point is (for the slow I will spell it out again, s-l-ow-l-y):

When there is a group of people who has only 1 distinguishing character by definition, that is the only thing what we can say about them. Everything else is just guessing at best or incorrect overgeneralization at worst.

Clear now???
 
Syzygys said:
You guys are all missing the point. The point is (for the slow I will spell it out again, s-l-ow-l-y):

When there is a group of people who has only 1 distinguishing character by definition, that is the only thing what we can say about them. Everything else is just guessing at best or incorrect overgeneralization at worst.

Clear now???
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Does that include theism?:rolleyes:
 
If you want to put them into one big tent, yes.... But then the definition will be people believing in god(s)...

We can't say anything else about them, because it is such a big tent...
 
Syzygys said:
If you want to put them into one big tent, yes.... But then the definition will be people believing in god(s)...

We can't say anything else about them, because it is such a big tent...
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I'm glad you recognise that fact.:cool:
 
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