I liked Leon Brown's question to one atheist while he was open air preaching, he asked the man, "How many grains of sand are in the beach out there" (referring to the beach that was nearby) The man of course says "I have no idea", Leon goes on to say "And you're gonna tell me there is no God. And you can't tell me how many grains of sand are there. In this big world, so infinite and vast you can't tell me how many grains of sand are there, and yet you can tell me there is no God"
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But it is theoretically possible to *count* the grains of sand. Sure, PRACTICALLY, it's impossible, but the grains are there, and given enough time, a way to keep the tides back, and a pair of tweezers...
Edit: Changed the emphasis to make a bit more sense.
There are between a kazillion and a google grains of sand. Elementary.
There are many gods and goddesses. Every tribe dreamed up at least one. Take your pick. Protip: Play the field, and don't pay any attention to the monomaniacs.
"In this big world, so infinite and vast you can't tell me how many grains of sand are there, and yet you can tell me there is no God"
No, I'm gonna tell you there's no proof of God. And a very large number of grains sand isn't proof of anything except the very long time it must have taken to weather the whole damn lot of them from solid rock.
And of course, you have never approached it with a critical view. There is a difference between "I have no idea" because there are too many things to count and our cognitive capacity and our ability to count is limited(and the number is irrelevant)and "I have no idea"............because I have no idea.
But in theory the sand can be counted. There are methods of verifying an actual number while you're line of reasoning is at best speculation.
You don't know how many grains of sand there are either but you're going to tell me you know there is a god?
The old "argument from ignorance" - you can't answer X, therefore Y.
"In this big world, so infinite and vast you can't tell me how many grains of sand are there, and yet you can tell me all about God based on a book written by some anonymous bronze age Arab goat-herder."
And Leon Brown knew how many grains of sand there are?
Seriously, you ask us these stupid fucking questions then get so fucking smug when we don't know the answer.
AT LEAST WE ADMIT WE DONT HAVE THE FUCKING ANSWERS!!!!
Sorry, rant over.
BTW I found this
Sand on a Beach
So what is basically being stated here is that the more you know about the world, the closer you get to atheism.
Yes, that sounds about right.
"open air preaching"
I suppose that's like playing air guitar:
1. Absolutely no talent required; any fool can do it.
2. It doesn't accomplish anything practical.
3. It either annoys spectators or gives them something to shake their heads and laugh about.
This is insane, this is an argument for atheism if anything. The believers of the world are the ones telling you exactly how many grains of sand there are. The religious are telling you there are exactly 12,044,616,333 grains of sand on that beach and are asking you to bet your entire life and base your entire mode of behaviour on that assertion. The atheist is the one saying, 'I see no reason to believe that is exactly how many grains of sand there are'.
"How many grains of sand are in the beach out there"
WARNING!!! Non-Sequitur imminent, this is not a drill, I repeat this is not a drill!
"In this big world, so infinite and vast you can't tell me how many grains of sand are there, and yet you can tell me there is no God"
I thought God was supposed to more significant than a grain of sand. To know how many grains of sand there are on a beach, one has to take into account every single one of them, and nobody cares to know how many completely unimportant grains of sand there are on some mostly irrelevant beach.
I also thought these guys say there is only one god they call God. It's not like we are not able to spot him because there are so many other gods blocking the view.
Leon Brown's question is not a good one simply because he managed to surprise and confuse someone with it.
How green is a duck? ... How green is it? You can't tell me how green a duck is and you expect me to believe there is a god? BRRT! Your time is up. So, you agree there are no gods? No need to answer, as we already established that. Thank you, no further questions.
"I'm thinking of a word. What word am I thinking of?"
"How the hell should I know?"
"And you're going to tell me there is no God?"
srsly, nobody really knows that, how is that a qualification.
Argument ad epic non sequitur.
Let's see...1,2,3,4,5,6,7...aw screw that.
"And you're gonna tell me there is no God. And you can't tell me how many grains of sand are there. In this big world, so infinite and vast you can't tell me how many grains of sand are there, and yet you can tell me there is no God"
Yes. While I admit that one cannot actually, absolutely, completely, prove there is no God, certainly one can prove the God of the Bible does not exist, and there is no evidence in favor of the existence of the God of the Bible or any other god.
I can't prove there isn't a cheap, plaster statue of Milton the monster ruling a civilization on a planet in some nearby galaxy, but that doesn't make it true, or likely, or even remotely likely at all.
Frank -- Good point.
Nothing that says the beach and us forming over a long period of time would expect to know that. Again
Christian; impossible task suggested.
Atheist; How would I know that?
Christian,: you think you know everything
Atheist: Never said such a thing.
Christian: I win
Atheist: Ok you tell me. how many grains of sand on the beach?
Christian: I don't have to prove anything
The problem here is that sand actually exists, and a beach full of sand would be good evidence for its existence.
You catch my drift?
Why is it that fundies use the worst arguments to back up their claims?
canadiest
This is the guy (Ray Comfort) who claims a banana proves god. }
Hahahaha - believes "a banana" proves god? And claims not to have descended from monkeys? Hahahahahaha
Someone (Sagan?) said there are more planets than grains of sand on all of Earth's beaches. I don't know how many that is, but I know how many stars are in the sky.
Answer; (E) All of the above
;-) (from Densa test)
Philbert: apparently it comes from the fact that bananas fit easily into the human mouth and come in a handy-dandy zipper-like package. Or something like that.
That argument would probably carry a little more weight if bananas were the only fruit in existence .
What does God need with a starship? Can't answer? Obviously, God doesn't exist then.
You'd think Rita would realize how stupid her argument is.
Lumax, you are my hero.
I'd have just said, "I know there's sand. In the exact shape and quantity, I cannot say," and we'd both have lost. Then Leon would buy me a beer, if he was decent.
I'm probably the 100th to point this out, but the name "Comfort Food" is telling. Empty of value, bad for you, used when trying to avoid reality...that pretty much describes it.
"If you're telling me that your God is as small as a grain of sand, I'm prepared to admit that He could be hard to find yet still exist. But I've never been told that God is small, insignificant, drab..."
or better
"I can tell you how many grains of sand there are: about as many as humans have had gods over the centuries. Which one is yours again?"
As an aside, apparantly there are more molecules in a glass of water than grains of sand on the earth.
Isn't science so much more wonderful than god!
Maybe because we can see the vast amount of sand that would take to long to count but we can't see god, instead, we see the proof against him.
Also what he said isn't proof for god
Far be it from me to defend this idiot, but the stament makes more sense within his own world view in as much as one the Pslams (I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to discover which one) states that God can count the number of grains of sand on a beach; the implication being: 'Your science can't do that, therefore it is inferior to god.' But its still a non sequitur.
I just realized something ..... how did he no the guy was an atheist? Was he wearing a sign? Or was it that the guy was in spasms from laughing?
BTW - Thank you Brenz you are my hero as well 'cause you remembered the beer.
Your argument isn't an argument. If it were, it could be used to justify any disputed thing or creature, despite lack of evidence. He could've just as easily said "yet you can tell me there is no Yeti" or invisible pink unicorn, or flying spaghetti monster or whatever.
GREAT argument! it proves the existance of Zeus, Odin, Jupiter, Zarathustra and Horus. Um- where on that beach did you bury YOUR particular god again?
Easy.
For the purpose of this argument, let's say a grain of sand has a height, width and length of 0.5 mm, and therefore a volume of 0.125 mm3. If the beach was 1 kilometer long, 0.5 kilometers wide, and let's say the sand reached to 2 meters deep. To make it easier- 1000m x 500m x 2m = 1000 0000 m3. 0.125 mm3 = 0.0125 m3, so 1000 0000 divided by 0.0125 = 80 0000 0000 grains of sand on our theoretical beach.
Eh, I like the one about, "tide goes in, tide goes out, you can't explain it pinheads!" better
Okay Rita, pray to know the answer to how many grains of sand are on the beach and see what happens.
Nothing?
What's the matter? Doesn't your god know? Does your god not bother answering prayers? Maybe your god just doesn't like you.
Leon Brown: How many grains of sand are in the beach out there?
Atheist: I have no idea.
Leon Brown: And you're gonna tell me there is no God. And you can't tell me how many grains of sand are there. In this big world, so infinite and vast you can't tell me how many grains of sand are there, and yet you can tell me there is no God.
Atheist: Mr. Leon Brown, do you know how many grains of sand are in the beach out there?
Leon Brown: What? Err... no I don't.
Atheist: So you don't even know the finite number of grains of sand on this one beach, and yet you claim to understand the will of an infinite being?
That's not be able to define the grains of sand not on A BEACH but EVERY BEACH. C'mon Rita, what did your God tell you? Even YOUR GOD did'nt define that. What the fuck use is he? Does he know?
There are provable beaches and a definition of a grain of sand. You Comfort folk better start giving some REAL, DEFINED answers or shut up. Scientists will give you a ballpark figure based on all available data, you, as usual give us NOTHING.
The interesting thing is, it refutes not the atheist's argument, but Brown's. The grains could theoretically be counted using a scientific apparatus devised for this purpose. Difficult and useless, but possible. Now this guy, he couldn't count them with the help of God or without it, so fail.
10^23
Next imbecilic question.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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