Do you believe in God?

[Sonika]

This was sent to me this morning.
Typical christian comeback.

That's making a fairly simple and self-explanatory argument into a convoluted one.

Whoever makes that argument is really just shooting themselves in the foot.

[Electric_Head]

exactly
Same as the belief in a deity based on faith alone.
Which is more magic??
Creation of a solar system or the blind belief in a ghost that could part the seas, make water spray from rocks, turn sticks into snakes, etc.

The entire bible is an over exaggerated piece of children's fiction.
Makes perfect sense.

[Sonika]

exactly
Same as the belief in a deity based on faith alone.
Which is more magic??
Creation of a solar system or the blind belief in a ghost that could part the seas, make water spray from rocks, turn sticks into snakes, etc.

The entire bible is an over exaggerated piece of children's fiction.
Makes perfect sense.

My thoughts exactly.
Yet somehow SCIENTISTS are the insane ones.

[Lichee]

no

[scspkr99]

exactly
Same as the belief in a deity based on faith alone.
Which is more magic??
Creation of a solar system or the blind belief in a ghost that could part the seas, make water spray from rocks, turn sticks into snakes, etc.

The entire bible is an over exaggerated piece of children's fiction.
Makes perfect sense.

I think you are in danger of missing the point.

You don't have to consider the bible the word of god (I don't fwiw) to appreciate that it exists. It's a series of documents written by different people over hundreds of years and provides some of the earliest recorded thoughts of the time. It provides an insight into the dominant ideas, before we as people could write our history was recorded orally, the bible includes some early recordings of that oral history, it's why there are parallels to other cultural histories because of the way it is recorded.

When we have documents from thousands of years ago we are better off without them than not. It's almost ironic that those who would be so dismissive of a book are unlikely to have read it or even considered it's real cultural significance.

[Electric_Head]

And you assume I am not knowledgeable on the fact?
I`m an informed Non-believer.

From the Crusades and the Nights Templars killing in the name of to the total over exaggeration of every fact in the bible.
I will not believe for a second that a book written by man and his egotistic ways could be anything but rampant fiction.

But this is not a discussion that we necessarily need to get into.
I allow all religions their beliefs as long as they don`t try to indoctrinate me.

[magma]

Believing in the teachings of the Bible word-for-word has very little to do with believing in God... I don't know why people link the two so often. Plenty of people believe in God and have never even picked up a Bible.

Believing in God just means you believe in God. It doesn't mean you have to believe in burning bushes, plagues of locusts and women being forged from ribs. You might believe in those things as well...

[Electric_Head]

True, I was focusing on the bible which is a futile argument.
My choice is all related to life decisions.

I don`t believe in a higher power.
I believe in worms and compost, which is who I`ll feed and where I`ll be when I die.
Circle of life complete.

[magma]

True, I was focusing on the bible which is a futile argument.
My choice is all related to life decisions.

I don`t believe in a higher power.
I believe in worms and compost, which is who I`ll feed and where I`ll be when I die.
Circle of life complete.

Indeed... but there are even plenty of people who believe exactly that, but still leave room for a Creator to press the power button 13 billion years ago.

As I was saying to my housemate last night... at this stage, it just doesn't matter. God will always exist for a certain proportion of humanity wherever they find doubt that needs filling - as knowledge expands, those areas of doubt will get ever smaller, but whilst doubt exists, so will God.

Best thing is just to get on with your life.

[Blenky]

I used to believe in god because god was always synonymous with an afterlife in my mind and the thought of an afterlife with my family provided me with some comfort (this was when I was 12-13 and too young to be thinking about death tbh but i've always been quite morbid). But then I thought about the flipside and what it would be like being eternally punished, and then I thought what If my parents knew I was being eternally punished which would cause them to be punished even in their supposedly happy afterlife. So I decided the more comforting thought is that there is no great all powerful judge who will look down on me and judge me for my wrongdoings, just mud and wood.

This is just my extremely uninformed opinion from doing no reading on religion at all, so if it seems naive it's because it undoubtedly is.

[kay]

and then I thought what If my parents knew I was being eternally punished which would cause them to be punished even in their supposedly happy afterlife.

Deep

[MrAural]

Scientology.

It's kinda like this.

Jews

followed by

Christians

followed by

Scientology (A cult rather than a religion in my eyes)


My view of Scientology - Former Christians who shit themselves when we looked at Darwin's theory of evoloution and started finding evidence of such and thought "Ahh! But what if there was this big explosion of particles and gas and god kinda thought "well yeah, I'll give it a jump start, why not?".

[particle-jim]

Scientology.

It's kinda like this.

Jews

followed by

Christians

followed by

Scientology (A cult rather than a religion in my eyes)


My view of Scientology - Former Christians who shit themselves when we looked at Darwin's theory of evoloution and started finding evidence of such and thought "Ahh! But what if there was this big explosion of particles and gas and god kinda thought "well yeah, I'll give it a jump start, why not?".

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha oh wow

[scspkr99]

And you assume I am not knowledgeable on the fact?
I`m an informed Non-believer.

From the Crusades and the Nights Templars killing in the name of to the total over exaggeration of every fact in the bible.
I will not believe for a second that a book written by man and his egotistic ways could be anything but rampant fiction.

But this is not a discussion that we necessarily need to get into.
I allow all religions their beliefs as long as they don`t try to indoctrinate me.

lol

[Electric_Head]

[SCope13]

Still doesn't prove I'm not God though.

Theists, you do realize I actually could be God right? I mean, you can't prove I'm not.

Gotta love Christian logic, amirite?

That doesn't make since...

Christians like to justify their beliefs by saying "you can't prove it wrong". The whole "I'm God" think was supposed to be poking fun at that.

[SCope13]

in b4 militant atheist assholes

He means me!

But seriously, no.

Sup guys, I'm God. Don't believe me? Prove me wrong.

Okay;

Just saw this. Son of a bitch...


Still doesn't prove I'm not God though.

Theists, you do realize I actually could be God right? I mean, you can't prove I'm not.

Gotta love Christian logic, amirite?

Should god exist, I don't think he'd be a total twat.

Any guy that allows the Holocaust happen is in fact a total twat.

[magma]

Theists, you do realize I actually could be God right? I mean, you can't prove I'm not.

Scientists/Philosophers, you do realise that everyone you've ever met could actually not even exist, right? I mean, you can't prove I do. Neither of us can prove Wub does.

If you really want to break things down like that, Descartes has you on lock... you can't prove *anything* outside of your own direct experience - it's not really a particularly good way of approaching an conversation.

Gotta love logic, amirite?

Any guy that allows the Holocaust happen is in fact a total twat.

Quite, but only some believers think God would've had any choice in the matter. You're making fairly large assumptions about the God that you believe they believe in.

[Electric_Head]

Surely if the God we're talking about created earth and the solar system then why not prevent pain and suffering?

[cityzen]

Because he has to test our faith. Same reason he put fossils in the ground.