Perry,
First of all, my congratulations and best wishes to some of the happy times you have described. I wish you many more.....
Of course, this being your thread, you are more then free to talk about whatever you want. I, in joining in, assumed you wished to discuss your first observation, that of atheists and what you perceive to be cognitive dissonance on their part. Thus, my first comments were directed in that vein.
I am unsure what you wish to accomplish by bringing this up and then not addressing the replies. If at best, you would like all of our statements on the matter, then you have accomplished this.
I will instead address what you have said thus far....
Cover the entire North American continent in dimes all the way up to the moon, a height of about 239,000 miles (In comparison, the money to pay for the U.S. federal government debt would cover one square mile less than two feet deep with dimes.). Next, pile dimes from here to the moon on a billion other continents the same size as North America. Paint one dime red and mix it into the billions of piles of dimes. Blindfold a friend and ask him to pick out one dime. The odds that he will pick the red dime are one in 10 37 .
Math, the friend Science has, and that Religion wishes it had. This is an example of advanced, theoretical statistics. Did you know, for the sake of argument, that depending on which quantam physics theory you wish to mine, that it would be a mathmatical impossibility for the big bang NOT to have taken place? Because thats what numbers do.
The problem with your example (which sounds like you got it out of the JW Creation book, although I know it isn't from that fundie source) is that it is designed for a "flash" effect. It is designed to impress, but it doesn't prove anything, and certainly doesn't improve the chances of your god exisiting. Let me put another spin on your example. I will replace dimes with me. (obviously I can't account for weight and mass differences, we will have to talk to Mr Spock there... lol) My insertions to your text are in red.
Cover the entire North American continent in AllTimeJeff's all the way up to the moon, a height of about (?) miles (In comparison, the amount of AllTimeJeff's to pay for the U.S. federal government debt would cover (?) with AllTimeJeff's.). Next, pile AllTimeJeff's from here to the moon on a billion other continents the same size as North America. Paint one AllTimeJeff red and mix it into the billions of piles of AllTimeJeff's. Blindfold a friend and ask him to pick out one AllTimeJeff. The odds that he will pick the red AllTimeJeff are one in 10 37 .
I use humor in this case to make a point. Use whatever example you want, make the numbers enourmous, it still doesn't prove your god exists. It DOES prove that our universe is vast, and their is way more that we don't know then what we do know.
However, you do not seem to suffer the burden of not knowing, with the requisite humility involved in this. To assert what you do, and that you have special knowledge, and have even communicated with god, is fine for you. It is lacking in relevance for the rest of us. Sadly, the best evidence that you can offer are irrelevant statistics, misapplied in a similar manner to how JW's use facts.
What troubles me is that you paint atheists with a very broad brush. I hope that readers of this thread understand that atheists do not think or believe as you have described Perry. You are simply wrong, with all due respect, and there is no other way to put it.
