God

[Stark Evade]

Re: God

We all make a leap of faith when we expect not to float off or our juice to pour into a glass and not float away. As you know gravity is described using the general theory of relativity. Theory being the keyword, notice how it is not a law.

But at the end of the day, we do make a leap of faith when we choose to believe in God, as Kierkegaard so eloquantly wrote. The important thing is we have free will, choice, so if you choose to be an atheist, fine but do not insult those who do not share your view, especially if they are not trying to enforce their views on you. Live and let live.

You obviously do not understand what a theory is in the scientific context. Wikipedia may be able to give you an idea of why I say that.

Your argument is just manipulating language as often occurs when a theist poses an argument to a non-theist. Sorry but it's not the same leap of faith. Science doesn't say anything is 100%. It says that certain things are predictable to a great enough degree that they are considered fact. Supernatural ideas are not testable and therefor cannot exhibit any predictability and are therefore not nearly of equivalent epistemological value.

[yerazhishda]

Re: God

We all make a leap of faith when we expect not to float off or our juice to pour into a glass and not float away. As you know gravity is described using the general theory of relativity. Theory being the keyword, notice how it is not a law.

But at the end of the day, we do make a leap of faith when we choose to believe in God, as Kierkegaard so eloquantly wrote. The important thing is we have free will, choice, so if you choose to be an atheist, fine but do not insult those who do not share your view, especially if they are not trying to enforce their views on you. Live and let live.

I agree. I think that there are equally valid reasons for being an atheist and being a theist. The atheist puts fundamental trust in his own reason while the theist puts fundamental trust in God. Both the ideas of Reason and God have truth, but are simultaneously fallible. One takes a leap of faith when believing in God, but it does not have to be totally unreasonable.

[yerazhishda]

Re: God

I'll ignore the fact that this is a false dichotomy and just say that religion is a disgusting festering disease and a mockery of the potential of the human mind.

The potential of the human mind to do what? Sure you have your innovators and geniuses but they are far outweighed by mass murderers, rapists, dictators and other sorts of evils. The human mind could be equally called a "disgusting, festering disease".

There isn't even a higher order of organism above humans on this planet and I'm still embarrassed by these things I need to call my fellow man walking about imagining crap because someone told them to or because they think it'll make them feel better. It's delusion at it's most disturbing. There are no gods, no fairies, no souls, no ghost, no demons, no chakras, no astrological systems... Nobody is watching you. Nobody is protecting you. Nobody is judging you. Nobody is creating stupid little rules for you to follow so you can reap some reward. Quasars and quarks and dark matter and brown dwarfs and black holes and nebulae and neutrinos and gamma rays could not care less about how you live your infinitely short life.

Life is depressing. If you follow a religion life is depressing but if you are an atheist life means nothing - no matter how great of an innovator you may be it will have been in vain as the world will turn to dust. Without God we cannot put a "fundamental trust" in either our senses or our reason. Without a God, life is essentially meaningless; we cannot give Ultimate Meaning to a world which is bound to disappear.

It's pathetic and childish to believe in things that are not there. Things that manifest themselves in your pathetic, flawed, vague little "feelings." Religion's connection to human fears and egotism is incredible transparent and ridiculous. Choose to evolve to a higher being and drop this supernatural nonsense. Read a real book. Grow up and let go of your imaginary friends so I no longer have to classify you as mentally diseased.

Regardless of what your view on religion is, it is not childish. There are very real reasons to believe in God such as the fact that logically the universe couldn't have just existed "without a beginning". There had to be a first cause, a Prime Mover, if you will.

Christianity helped many victims and survivors of the Genocide cope with the atrocities around them. Is that childish to you? Are you going to call Genocide survivors childish for believing in an Ultimate Reality that they found in Jesus Christ?

[Armanen]

Re: God

We all make a leap of faith when we expect not to float off or our juice to pour into a glass and not float away. As you know gravity is described using the general theory of relativity. Theory being the keyword, notice how it is not a law.

But at the end of the day, we do make a leap of faith when we choose to believe in God, as Kierkegaard so eloquantly wrote. The important thing is we have free will, choice, so if you choose to be an atheist, fine but do not insult those who do not share your view, especially if they are not trying to enforce their views on you. Live and let live.

[Stark Evade]

Re: God

"For every action there is an equal, but opposite, reaction"

This also applies to what ara was trying to say.

No, it doesn't. There is a leap of faith being made that you apparently are not seeing.

[Armanen]

Re: God

"For every action there is an equal, but opposite, reaction"

This also applies to what ara was trying to say.

[Stark Evade]

Re: God

Well i didn't say we should be good b/c there might be heaven, or at least that's not how i meant it. I just said we should be good to be good, and that if their is a heaven, all the good might help in that department.

My response was to your opinion that a God must have existed at some point. I did not address your comments on morality.

[ara87]

Re: God

This just not true. Things just are. Filling gaps in knowledge with supernatural ideas is not very agnostic. Agnosticism is very much a product of the logic of the scientific method. It is not mere fence-sitting as some mistakenly believe.

Well i didn't say we should be good b/c there might be heaven, or at least that's not how i meant it. I just said we should be good to be good, and that if their is a heaven, all the good might help in that department.

[Stark Evade]

Re: God

I'm not sure a heaven or hell exists, (I’m agnostic) but I know that somehow at currently or at one point in time, some higher power must have existed, because, logically speaking( although it sounds illogical) something must have always existed, in order to create everything else that did/does exist.

This just not true. Things just are. Filling gaps in knowledge with supernatural ideas is not very agnostic. Agnosticism is very much a product of the logic of the scientific method. It is not mere fence-sitting as some mistakenly believe.

[ara87]

Re: God

All the dictators round the globe(Bush a good example), they're pretty much on par with criminals or pimps(whose only motivation is to get as many girls/guys psychologically under their control and dependency.

please don't insult former and currently living dictators, criminals, and pimps, by putting our dear Georgie in the same league as them.


Anyways my own personal belief is that even without religion, people generally all still have a knowledge of good and evil, and usually choose good over bad, and while they may do bad things, i.e. lying, they're generally not going to go around killing people just b/c they don't believe in a heaven or hell.

I'm not sure a heaven or hell exists, (I’m agnostic) but I know that somehow at currently or at one point in time, some higher power must have existed, because, logically speaking( although it sounds illogical) something must have always existed, in order to create everything else that did/does exist. And so while I don’t believe particularly in the God of the Abrahamic religions, or if there is a heaven or hell, I still believe that people should live by general philosophies religions share, i.e. don’t kill, don’t steal, treat others how you would like to be treated/ love you neighbors as yourself, charity, respect your elders, etc.
That way even if we all are of different religions at least we have similar values that we share that can bridge the gaps that divide us, and also if there is a heaven/hell/ all supreme being that judges us in the end, maybe the judgment will go less harsh since we lived a good life, and if not, oh well