Really? That's strange.

Most people do both good and bad. So no I don't you never do anything bad?

Christ this is an exhausting thread to read back!

I believe in my fellow humans' capacity to do good. And I don't need to believe in God for that to happen, so therefore I don't.

Just imagine actually participating in it! It is impossible to debate with someone like IvyLeague because of his arrogance and self righteousness. He has a certain opinion of atheists and agnostics, and has the gall to generalize that opinion across the entire atheist/agnostic community.

It'd be like if I said all Christians are arrogant, intolerant, pompous jerks. But I would never generalize Ivy's characteristics onto the entire Christian community. Because that is bad.

jesus christ! i didn't know there were so many godless heathens on this board

Count me amongst them!

I don't believe in no heaven. I don't believe in no hell.

I think it is silly to make generalizations about believers or non-believers. Unpleasant judgmental people can be found among both groups. Saying that an atheist is going to change his mind when faced with crisis makes about as much sense as claiming that a religious person will know one day there is no creator.

My only major issue with some religious people (i.e. Creationists) is that they persist in making claims about the world that are demonstrably untrue (i.e. world only 4-6000 yrs old) and expecting other people to treat those assertions as scientifically valid.

Other than that you can believe or not believe as you see fit. It neither harms nor helps me.

I believe if there is a God he only helps people who help themselves to your stuff when your not home.

Don't seer how you can't believe. Just look around at nature. Some people "Don't believe" just to be cool- in their opinion. My best friend, a Special Forces soldier when just about to make a jump out of a C-130 said "I don't need you God" well, he destroyed his knee and ankle upon landing. Later in life, he became a believer again when he got cancer.

When non-believers say "empirical evidence," it means they won't accept anything as evidence unless it's in just the way they want. Of course, God providing them that would defeat one of the primary reasons we're here to begin with.

I should also add that, despite there being many definitions of God created by man, it doesn't mean there isn't one true definition and the rest are either partially correct or wrong altogether.



"Religion has always been unpalatable to those whose lives are thoroughly steeped in philosophical conjecture."



Going forward, I'll assume by "world" you mean the earth. That is one of the more prominent examples of where many Christian's misunderstanding of the Bible gives non-believers a lot of talking points. Many mainstream Christians don't know or understand much of anything beyond what they read on the pages of their King James Bible. It's why they believe the earth is only 6,000 years old. When, in reality, it's simply been approximately 6,000 from the fall of Adam until now. The earth itself is, of course, much older.

Well then, it ought to be pretty dang simple for ya: simply present the empirical evidence and state the "one true definition".

"God is a concept, by which we measure our pain" John Lennon.

This website does a thorough and admirable job of breaking down why the existence of an omniscient, omnicompetent, omnibenevolent creator makes no sense. And NO Ivy, my research went far beyond the talking points of this particular website, but it does a great job of breaking down the inconsistencies and contradictions of faith in God.

GodIsImaginary.com

This is by no means an attempt on my behalf to undermine anyone's beliefs or their right to believe. Rather, it is to give insight as to why many people don't believe in God. And hey! If you guys can throw the Bible in our faces, it's only fair that we counter with some scientific literature of our own!

Sure it is. You're letting one guy, who can't help but outrage people who don't agree with him, drive you to mock all of the believers on this board who quietly go about their faith.


Again, it's not "you guys." It's basically one guy who can't help but mock people who don't agree with him. So you're mocking everyone who believes.

I mean, just look at the title: God is Imaginary. If that's not meant to incite, I don't know what is.


And don't turn Lennon into a philosopher. He was a musical genius, but he was just a man. A very flawed, very drug-addled man. It's amazing that you can't recognize a Deity, yet you seem to "worship" a singer. And if I wanted to be mean, I'd say look what happened to him.

You certainly don't have to read any of it if you're not interested. But I imagine your faith is strong enough where you're going to believe no matter what an atheist like myself says, so what's the big deal?

And I'm not mocking anybody (except maybe Ivy), so don't get it twisted.

I believe in Capo, the Poster Almighty,
Creator of havoc and mirth
And in J. Geoff Malta, his lonely chum, our host,
Preoccupied with the Godfather Saga,
Bore the Gangster BB,
Suffered under delusional mafia wannabes,
Was ridiculed, frustrated and found SC.
By the third year it felt like hell
So SC rose up a thread to predict the year's dead
And ascended to the lead with seven.
They sit at the right hand of Turnbull, the Sage Almighty,
From time to time they have to judge members, the good and the banned.

I believe in Random Post Whoring,
the community of members,
the thinly veiled racist rants,
the resurrection of the threads
And strife everlasting.

Amen.

Ha ha ha ha ha!! That's great Kly!!







TIS

I think the truth of the god issue really matters very little in practical terms. Philosophers have been discussing it since the very beginning, with limited progress.

The point I think matters is whether this country is better or worse off for having belief in god and transcendent, objective moral laws. I think its a hard case to make that we would be a better country with the moral nihilism necessary in atheism (and no i dont think sam harris makes a compelling argument for secular morality) compared to some sort of core belief in redemption. You especially need to consider the fact most of the folks on this board are smart people that will lead their lives well probably regardless. I don't know if the same can be said for the average Joe when faced with his cosmic meaninglessness. The atheists relying on the power of reason rather draistically overestimate man's ability in that respect.

This is coming from someone who is a lapsed catholic that has strong doubts.

You want to hear Good. I just heard this the other day. One of my sons best friends just got married on Saturday. My son has been very lucky to have exceptional friends he has know since he was a little kid.

I knew the kids father he died very young. Which proves the old saying that the good have a tendency to die too young.

Any way the Grooms mother has not been well for a long time a kidney issue. I don't know her very well.

Well, after he got back. I asked him how's was the wedding. He said they had a good time. My wife started To talk to him I left the room.

She told me after he left. It seems a year ago the brides mother really liked the his friends mother. The brides mother got herself tested and was a good match to donate a kidney to his friends mother and believe it or not she did it.

That probably was the only reason his friends mother was able to see her sons wedding.

So I would say his new wife's mother is a pretty good women.

This just makes me almost desperate to hear one of Kly's closing arguments!

So then you firmly believe that the human race are all descended from Adam and Eve?

And the fuse is lit...

Yeah, really. Here we go . . .

I believe this is the way it should go: If you want to choose to not believe in God or a higher spirit then that's your choice as a human. As well as for me, I was confirmed a Catholic and will continue to follow my beliefs in God.

80-100 years from now when we are long gone and dead, if we don't end up in heaven, purgatory, or hell, then hey, you were right.

But 80-100 years from now if we at the Gangster BB are all lined up at the Pearly Gates waiting to be admitted and The Lord himself looks down on one of you non believers and simply says "NO", then the joke is on you my friends.

Personally, I think its better to believe in the big guy, you have nothing to lose by showing some faith.

Sky rockets in flight
Afternoon delight

I think that song was picketed by the Westboro Church due to the sexually implicit content .

I can believe in SOME type of god. Religion and spirituality are not mutually exclusive, after all. However, organized religion (all of it) is little more than a tool for social control. The bible lacks so much historicity, has shown many MANY historical falsities and being that the catholic bible cherry picked which teachings to include and which to omit, and with its three major redactions I don't think there's any logical room for doubt that the bible is little more than a collection of parables and not grounded in any sort of reality.

Then of course there is the near non-existence of historical documentation of such a man. The only extra-biblical sources can be traced back to Tacitus, Pliny the younger, and Suetonius... None of whom ever mention Jesus by name. If Jesus did exist, he was a carpenter who was executed for sedition. And that's it. Nothing else.


ANYWAY, if such an omniscient, sentience such as (the christian) God existed, then God would have to be above silly human vanities like the desire to be worshipped. Further Christianity just lacks any logic when you break it down to its fundamental levels. Like, for example, apparently God was geographically biased so unless you happened to be living in the middle east at the height of the Roman Empire then too bad, you're going to hell? So I guess those dumb fucks in India just chose to be born in the wrong place? Bah. I sort of feel like this is exactly why religion HAS to indoctrinate children... Because asking me to believe in the bible is like asking me to believe the Lord of the Rings is a factual account of human history.

That said, I can believe in some type of god. Perhaps something that is more like a force of nature, perhaps not even sentient in a way we understand. I believe there is another phase of existence, of consciousness beyond death, what that is, what it will took like, i have no clue. But I don't think that god, this force of nature, has any desire to be worshiped. I think its moving, every expanding with the universe, never looking back.

Of course.