Sklansky's Christian/Math Challenge

[PartyGirlUK]

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This is a really retarded challenge. If Sklansky really wanted to do anything other than say 'Look at me, I'm smart, I really am!', he'd choose a difficult test that wasnt a lock to get 100%, i.e. an IQ test where people would actually have a chance of beating him.

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This wasn't about me. It was about those people who say all Jews and Muslims who have died are now in hell. Regardless of how they lived their lives. I would have much rather bet that none of them are in the top 1000 in particle physics or advanced calculus. But since I am not either, and I know no one who would take that that test for me, I had to settle for the SAT.

In any case the only reason I commented here was because people were incorrectly saying that I welshed on a bet.

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The point is that you chose a test where you will likely get 100%, so no one smart enough to contemplate being smarter than you is going to be dumb enough to take you up on this bet. Why not challenge them to problems similar to those in the IMO? Those dont require advanced math at all, yet are extremely tricky and basically noone in the world gets 100% on them. So that would seem like a much better challenge.

[btmagnetw]

"i think people with this belief are stupid, and i will prove their stupidity by showing them losing to a lifetime mathematician at a mathematics test."

durrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

[MicroBob]

btm - exactly.

It's like Garry Kasparov saying that if he beats you at chess than his opinion on whether the Beatles were better than the Rolling Stones is more valid.

[grapabo]

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The idea behind all of this of course is that any God who would send to hell pious, good people simply because they honestly believe that the Jesus story is a myth contradicts the idea of a just God.

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This misses the point. Under evangelical view of humanity, nobody is a "pious, good person" because we are all born into sin. They view the transaction of trading their life for the life of Christ living through them as a bargain that saves them from judgment for their wrongdoings, not something that they hold over nonbelievers as an instrument of superiority.

If you disagree with that and point out nonetheless that some people are pious and good, it necessarily implies that you are applying a moral standard of your own. Is this a road you're willing to go down? Because this puts you in the same company of the people you don't like.

The appeal of evangelical Christianity probably won't make sense to people who have had the resources to make amends for the things they have done wrong in their life. And it often happens that the people who have previously been able to make up for their wrongs don't figure out the lesson, and they end up, for lack of a better word, morally "stuck". This is something that happens so often in life, and the race to be righteous on one's own merits produces such weariness, that people will come to the realization that this race to maintain compliance with righteousness is futile. This is essentially the point of the Book of Romans, for one thing, as well as Jesus' repeated statements that he didn't come for the righteous, but for the lost.

Believe what you want, I don't really care. I'm an apostate myself. But your assertion that evangelical religious belief and intelligence are incompatible is as insulting as it is inaccurate.

Besides, math proficiency as the sole indicator of intelligence will only favor the trained chimps and Rain Man. If you want to show meaningful, creative intelligence, write a song or a poem that'll make someone change their view of the world around them. After all, it's the Liberal Arts graduates who really determine who's intelligent and who's not. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[blah_blah]

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Besides, math proficiency as the sole indicator of intelligence will only favor the trained chimps and Rain Man. If you want to show meaningful, creative intelligence, write a song or a poem that'll make someone change their view of the world around them. After all, it's the Liberal Arts graduates who really determine who's intelligent and who's not. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

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this is a really [censored] troll.

fyi mathematics is a liberal art at the majority of the most prestigious universities in the US.

[Your Mom]

david won't take this bet. He will always come up with some [censored] excuse. For one, he's too [censored] lazy to organize this and actually carry it out.

[Melchiades]

Sklansky is a tool.

[vhawk01]

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Yes, amazingly stupid. If he would take this bet, I know someone who would do it in the blink of an eye

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Does that person believe that I'm going to hell?

[vhawk01]

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So you challenge christians and then make the rules such that it excludes the majority of christians.

I think christians should take it as a compliment that you have to narrow it down so much knowing that if you kept the rules for all christians that you wouldnt stand a chance.

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It would be embarrassing to Christians if they took this as a compliment to Christians.

[vhawk01]

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David...there are no athiests in palatative care...I'll let others elaborate

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So unbelievably wrong. Take it from someone who has spent a decent amount of time in palliative care settings.

As if it makes any useful point anyhow.