Believer or Atheist?

[levenshulme31]

deleted - posted twice.

 

[levenshulme31]

I would argue that it does. The more we learn about evolution (biological, geological and cosmological), the less plausible the assertion that "God did it" becomes. The concept of gods gave an easy and, in the absence of the knowledge gained over the last 200 or so years, irrefutable answer to awkward questions about the nature of the world. Add to that the indoctrination of the notion that if you don't believe what the local holy man says, you are evil and will suffer eternal punishment after death (possibly with a bit of torture before death thrown in for good measure) then it is easy to see how religion gained so much hold over people. What we now have is the powerful churches desperately clinging onto their power base by playing to the basest interests of their audiences.

Unless, of course we were created by God. By the way, I believe there's only 1.

So the people who believe/believed in Allah, Vishnu, Ra, Zeus, Mars, Thor etc, etc ad infinitum, despite having the same amount of faith in their deities as you seem to have in yours, must be wrong? (they are, in my opinion, but so are you).

Going back to proof, the Bible provides plenty of proof. Have you read it? For example, it says there is no "life" (as in human life) in any of the stars, sun, moon or planets. So far, we have not found any life anywhere except Earth. Keep trying.

WOW. I mean, really, WOW. Firstly, humans may be the dominant species on Earth but in terms of numbers, we are way down the list. Doesn't that make the idea that 'life' doesn't count unless it is humans seem a tad arrogant? It may have escaped your notice but the other planets and moons in our solar system are a really, really long way away which makes it quite hard to go and have a look for any signs of life. despite that, it is thought that there may be life on one or two moons around other planets (Europa and Enceladus for example are being looked at as possibly having life). Beyond that, it is estimated that our galaxy could have 100,000 plus Earth-like planets. And there are billions of other galaxies out there.

Maybe, your bible lacks the scientific rigour to be considered an authority on the subject.

 

[blackbeltninja]

Alright, Guy, I got one for you:

If this is the only place in the entire gajillion miles worth of universe which has any life on it, why build a gajillion-mile wide universe?

And another thing, just because it's in the Bible doesn't make it true. I could also write some stuff and make it available for purchase in hardcover format, but that would hardly be the definitive criterion for it to be considered fact.

And how do dinosaurs fit into your way of thinking? We can't find dinosaur fossils newer than a certain age, and we can't find human fossils older than a certain age. If Man was supposed to name all the animals, how come some of them were long gone before he got there?

-d-

 

[geloge]

^^^God and aliens

BTW I've read the Bible and I'm Atheist. Bible can be use to probe nothing, it's not more accurate than greek myths.

 

[levenshulme31]

Why don't you produce some aliens or something? Then we can talk without me rolling my eyes.

Really? Is that the best you can offer to dispute my post? You do know you have to be 18 years old to post on JUB?

Why don't you crawl back to Rapture Ready, pop on your tinfoil hat and wait for Jeebus to come get you?

 

[geloge]

And how do dinosaurs fit into your way of thinking? We can't find dinosaur fossils newer than a certain age, and we can't find human fossils older than a certain age. If Man was supposed to name all the animals, how come some of them were long gone before he got there?

-d-

The Universal deluge, it's all in the Bible, Science is only a bunch of lies made by the devil

 

[geloge]

Serious scholars? Does that mean scientists? I don't belive in that devil worshipers. *sarcasm*

 

[Negasta]

6.9 on the Dawkins Scale Atheist

 

[DonQuixote]

Remember, what you read in the Bible and other religious texts is NOT the actual Word of God but, rather, the HUMAN interpretation/filtered version of God, including the stories of creation.

We poor humans have tried to explain the inexplicable throughout history. Our Religious texts were written in a simpler era. Indeed, they started out a spoken text, handed down VERBALLY from generation to generation.

Ever play the whisper game in a class at school - what the first person said versus what the last person heard?

I ask you to try and step out of the human element or "religions" to the core underneath that is God.

 

[Tbot91]

Thanks for the deflection. Solid argument there.

The universe is a very, very big place. Yes, we don't know much about it. But theists still claim that they know how it all began and its true "purpose" (presuming of course that it has to have a purpose). How can you claim that we don't know much about the universe and then quickly turn back and say something like, "I know how the Universe began. God did it!"

Do you really understand evolution? What does evolution say about current knowledge changing? I challenge you to raise your consciousness and actually understand the elegance of evolution.

Just as the theories of electromagnetism by James Maxwell published in the 1800s are completely irrelevant today (THEY'RE NOT). Science doesn't come up with new theories and throw away the old ones. Even unintuitive things like quantum mechanics were derived from principles of physics, they weren't just pulled out of some scientist's behind and deemed "the newer, better theory." Theories also have to agree with observation and experiment.


"Someone" had to make the big bang? Since you really don't care about scientific details, I'm just going to go straight to the conclusions. We know from observation that the universe is flat (in a four dimensional sense) and its total energy including all dark matter, dark energy, and visible matter is ZERO. Essentially, all the energy cancels out. Such a Universe would HAVE to come from NOTHING. It started with zero energy and it has zero energy. Energy cannot be created nor destroyed. This doesn't really "disprove" god, but it shows that the universe didn't need to be "sparked."

 

[Fire]

Fellahs, as admirable as it is, you're wasting your time--he will rationalize or deny any evidence to the contrary. My suggestion is to simply appreciate this for what it is: a brilliant example of how religious indoctrination can utterly arrest the development of critical faculties in the human animal.

 

[bankside]

Zeus invented the first atom, of course.

Christianity was just invented by Hera to undermine Zeus and depose him. It is a well-known fact that the gods can shape-shift, so we than therefor deduce that Jesus is really Hera in disguise, up to her old "jealous wife" tricks again.

Eve was actually real, but she was a fall-girl to discredit women in the popular imagination; it was a set-up by Hera to create the false notion that women could never pull off a scheme like that. Hera has the perfect cover to go after the real prize, Zeus' balls on a pike.

Hera had this on-again off-again thing with Hercules. Kinda goofy, but they were good in the sack together, kept it discrete. Anyway, Hera dresses Hercules up as "Adam," throws him into the Mount Olympus Botanical Garden, gives Eve a free day pass, and the rest is history.

Hey, I know I'd do pretty much anything to get under his toga, including pinching the apple I knew I wasn't supposed to take. Who can blame the girl? Have you seen the thighs on that guy?

It has worked brilliantly. Bravo, Hera!

 

[zoltanspawn]

Fellahs, as admirable as it is, you're wasting your time--he will rationalize or deny any evidence to the contrary. My suggestion is to simply appreciate this for what it is: a brilliant example of how religious indoctrination can utterly arrest the development of critical faculties in the human animal.

Aw, don't be such a wet blanket. Some of the arguments presented here are dazzling.

 

[Lube]

Lube,
I'm playing "Remember the Question ~ Don't expand/reinterpret it" again.
The Question was "Do you believe in (a) God?"

It was NOT "What RELIGION are you/do you believe in?"

As I've mentioned before, these are VASTLY different things.

Religion is humanity's interpretation/politicization of "God".
Some do a better job of trying to stay "on topic" and "off politics", but they are still human constructs.

Belief in a GOD is a whole other endhilada, mi amigo. You do NOT have to "belong" to an "organized religion" to have a faith/belief in a God.

You are absolutely right, by the way -- most religious leaders have their own agenda, and cloak it as though it was God's mandate as spoken to them to enlighten the world. Please don't take that as condemnation of people of the cloth - many try their best to bring what they truly believe the True God of all of us is about -- they don't necessarily consciously try to push a personal agenda but, we are all human and subject to our foibles to some extent.

Oh, I see. Sure, religion and faith are not the same thing.

I have no problem with people of faith. Just keep that faith out of our laws/politics.

 

[mydrew1]

Atheist over hear, and a Marxist

 

[Aaron]

At least one, actually. This one.