[pianoperformer]

Originally Posted by coLLege kid07

If you don't allow yourself for the possibility, there isn't much of a chance for another circumstance.

Of course there is. All anyone is asking for is proof. Skeptics will accept something if there is scientific proof to back it up.

Originally Posted by coLLege kid07

Yes you are right. There is some truth in alot of religions.

How do you know? Is there some truth in the earth being flat?

Originally Posted by coLLege kid07

Point was not necessarly saying that believing blindly in absolutely anything is a good idea but if you've never experienced it yourself or attempted to...why doubt it?

why not? That's exactly what skeptics are doing. They say that it's foolish to believe in something unless there is observable, impirical, measureable evidence of it. You apparently say that you may as well believe in it, because, there's no reason not to? I say, the reason is because it probably isn't true, and can't be said to be true until it is backed up with evidence.

Let's say that I tell you the universe was created by the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Would you believe me? Why doubt it, right?

Originally Posted by DiscoDan

Let me pose a hypothetical situation: let's say that I am a world leader who, miraculously, comes up with proof based on careful logic and deduction that God cannot exist. I then state to all the atheists of the world that we must therefore purge the world of all non-atheists, as we cannot afford to have a world filled with people living their lives based on delusions. Some people, who think that I "have all the answers" due to my supernatural intellect, actually go through with my advice and begin to murder and ravage non-atheists.

Soon after, a man known as Dan889 posts a message on a popular internet message board, "Atheism can be dangerous and harmful" in which he points out how people who trusted me due to my superior intellect actually went through with actions that did much more harm than good. This Dan889 character then also states, "People should never make important decisions in the lives based solely on atheists' advices."

Is Dan889 misguided in his criticism of atheism?

There's quite a difference. Psychics are giving advice based on supernatural abilities that are not proven. Imagine if I came up to you and said that an alien told me last night that you should look for a new job. Would you believe me? I certainly hope not. You'd ask for proof of this meeting. Now if I told you about a specific job, you might say "hey, that's an interesting choice," and perhaps consider it, just because it was brought to your attention, but you would not say, "the guy who talked to the alien said I should go into this field, so I definitely should."

It's the same in this case. Of course, accepting random advice from anyone you don't know is foolish, but people especially seem to trust psychics because of their supposed supernatural source, and so there is a higher chance of someone trusting them than someone they just meet on the street.

That's not to say no psychic should be trusted. I think the admonition here is to take anything they say with a grain of salt, and look into it yourself and decide which is the best path for you. It may be the path they suggested, but only after you did the requisite research and found it to likely be the best path.