James Webb Aiding Theists?

[Kornee]

^What a whiny attention whore.

Talking to me? Ignorantly failing to do the decent thing and at least quote, characteristically 'contributes' with abusive spite. And that from someone ostensibly a fellow theist.
But other harbored ideological prejudices take precedence obviously.
At least I'm not alone in labeling you an obnoxious prick: 'Asshole' iirc was a recent single-word judgement from another member.

[Zinjanthropos]

IMHO…A new scientific discovery might lead to theologians scurrying about to find some reference to it in their biblical texts. Even if the scripture is obscure and taken out of context, I think having something in writing helps reduce or remove any lingering doubts about a religion that people may have. I think it may also solidify one’s belief and quite possibly justify some unpleasant aspects or practices/commandments of their particular religion such as genital mutilation, throwing acid in someone’s face and even the killing of a fellow human being just to name a few.

[Kornee]

The notion that, in keeping with OP, JW deep field images would in some strange way inspire even one more Hindu fanatic to throw acid in the face of an 'unfaithful' female, or one more Rabbi to suck blood from a newly circumcised infant, seems, how to say this kindly, farfetched.

I get it that there can be a strong atheist prejudice as reaction against certain religious practices and beliefs. But extend that 'logic' to the tens of millions slaughtered in the name of 'scientific atheism' during Lenin/Trotsky/Stalin reign of terror in the USSR, or that of Mao in China.

I's just entirely the wrong kind of comparative thinking. JW images are entirely neutral in respect of existence or not of a Supreme Being(s).

[Syne]

No one owes anyone a reply, much less how you may want it. Acting like an entitled brat won't help. An anti-Semite like you shouldn't tarnish other theists by admitting to it publicly.

---

Zin, I think those kind of ad hoc justifications for religion are largely a canard of non-theists. Sure, there may be some fringe wackos who might, but not actual theologians.

[Zinjanthropos]

No one owes anyone a reply, much less how you may want it. Acting like an entitled brat won't help. An anti-Semite like you shouldn't tarnish other theists by admitting to it publicly.

---

Zin, I think those kind of ad hoc justifications for religion are largely a canard of non-theists. Sure, there may be some fringe wackos who might, but not actual theologians.

Syne…If you check the internet you’ll find numerous religious sites claiming the new size of observable universe is in their scriptures. So many that I couldn’t select one over the other so I just left it out. I think you know why I threw in the rest.

[Kornee]

No one owes anyone a reply, much less how you may want it. Acting like an entitled brat won't help. An anti-Semite like you shouldn't tarnish other theists by admitting to it publicly. ...

Your bigoted definition of and skewed misapplication of that chronically overused and abused term is irrelevant.
Anti-goyism as manifested in e.g. the all too successful and religiously inspired Kalergi Plan is by far the greater problem. Piss off - hate monger.

[Syne]

Ignoring the evil anti-Semite...

---

Zin, that may well be the case, but are any actual theologians? Or just lay apologetics, at best?
Many people make claims about many things. For example, the number of sites I could find with avowed atheists touting alien abductions, lizard people, big foot, etc, etc..
Does that impugn the validity of their atheistic beliefs? Or is there just a vocal minority of loons in any given group?

[Zinjanthropos]

Ignoring the evil anti-Semite...

---

Zin, that may well be the case, but are any actual theologians? Or just lay apologetics, at best?
Many people make claims about many things. For example, the number of sites I could find with avowed atheists touting alien abductions, lizard people, big foot, etc, etc..
Does that impugn the validity of their atheistic beliefs? Or is there just a vocal minority of loons in any given group?

This guy uses the term also

https://scienceforthechurch.org/2022/09/...ry-of-god/

Excerpt:

This quest has led theologians and scientists alike to peer into the skies for clues to help them build and support cosmogonic theories.

Little interest in one religion over the other. Thank God that makes me an atheist, I wouldn’t or couldn’t explain a religious belief with a straight face. Ya there are loonies but this guy is kind of jumping to conclusion and I think that’s hilarious.

Return to JWT…. Was there any thought of adding an alien radio signal detection device, something like SETI?

[Syne]

Fair enough. There are some theologians that are wrapped up in using dubious scientific understanding as an ad hoc justification for their faith.

In Alien: Covenant, the second Alien prequel, the crew of the Covenant was brought out of stasis by a rogue signal that turned out to be a rendition of John Denver’s song Take me Home, Country Roads sang by Elizabeth Shaw, the sole survivor of the Prometheus. This transmission led these explorers to a deadly encounter. It is highly improbable that the Webb Telescope picks up a rogue alien message, as portrayed by these movies.

What? This guy seems to think that a telescope could pick up messages. In my book, that makes you bad at science and religion.

[Kornee]

Some intellectually challenged folks have a hard time understanding that it's perfectly possible in principle for an 'alien civilization' to encode messages in say the IR part of the EM spectrum that JWT is particularly sensitive to. As to whether that signalling effort would make any sense to 'sensible aliens' is an entirely different matter.