Does God Exist?

[Sava]

I think I've finally figured out why these stupid trolls are so popular. They just work too damn well.

And they force fundies to use their brains... something foreign to most...

[Japher]

Why would you create a following that stand for something you believe is not true? It's like the Anarchy Party...

Choosing to believe the Easter bunny doesn't exist, is not the same as choosing to believe god does not exist... I can prove the Easter bunny doesn't exist, I know this, because now I hide the eggs for my neices and nephews... First, I thought that was the Easter Bunny's job, but after the third very diappointing year of the damn rabbit not coming by my parents finally told me that he didn't exist and that they had always hid the eggs...

Knowing and believing... two different things.

[Pekka]

God speaks Finnish only.





And atheists should check out Training Day. Denzel Washington is a crooked narcotics cop and all he says is 'it's not what you know, it's what you can prove!'.. but he got his ass handed to him at the end. The point? THere is no point

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Pekka
Boris, I'll argue that one though. If God saved us all the time, then would we ever learn anything? If God saved us all the time, would we deserve it, if we started the whole mess? Maybe God just makes us to face the consequences, like there are to every action.

This isn't relating to any issue I have. I didn't say God should interfere in every case, if he exists. I just pointed out the logical inconsistency of claiming to believe in an all-powerful God who then is subject to limitations such as time.

Also in many cases, someones screwing up does good to someone else. And even if the person who has to face the music is good God fearing person, something good and valuable can come out of the situation that would have never come if the person didn't have to go through the difficulties.

This relies on a completely arbitrary look at why things occur. One can potentially rationalize anything as being ultimately good or bad. But again, that's not the issue--the issue is do people who believe different things get treated differently in a cosmic fashion? There is no evidence they do.

Also, I remember God promised to save people when they are dead and can join his kindom for afterlife.
I'm not sure if he made any promises for the short waiting period were here on the face of earth?

Don't you think it's a little too convenient that you have to wait until you die to find out if all the stuff is true and get the reward for being obedient? Since we have no way of knowing what, if anything, happens after death, this is pure conjecture. I think it is evidence that claims of reward were fabricated by men in order to convince people to join their ranks. Such a belief is certainly not evidence of anything being divinely wrought.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by reds4ever
Exactly, find a thread with God/Creationist or Evolution in the title and I'll guarantee it runs to at least 4 pages

But this one was even more insipid than most. For the love of God, it started off with the smilie. Have we no standards anymore!

[Pekka]

Boris, convinient? We all have a free will. We can believe in what we want to, and according to bible God gave that to us. It's a true tester of belief. We just have to endure bad times sometimes...

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Japher


Why would you create a following that stand for something you believe is not true? It's like the Anarchy Party...

Choosing to believe the Easter bunny doesn't exist, is not the same as choosing to believe god does not exist... I can prove the Easter bunny doesn't exist, I know this, because now I hide the eggs for my neices and nephews... First, I thought that was the Easter Bunny's job, but after the third very diappointing year of the damn rabbit not coming by my parents finally told me that he didn't exist and that they had always hid the eggs...

Knowing and believing... two different things.

On the other hand, you may have, by putting the eggs out yourself, tipped the bunny off to your being a doubter of his existence, so now he refuses to visit your family. Isn't anything possible for a supernatural being?

"Creating a following" is a misnomer. Atheists don't attend atheist churches or the like. Until recently, they didn't gather together at all. Now they do, but it is in response to being hassled for their beliefs by religiouscists. Safety and power in numbers. However, it is still nonsensical to claim that by stating a believe that God doesn't exist, someone is somehow secretly thinking God exists. To put it another way, is a Christian secretly acknowleding Osiris exists when he states he doesn't believe Osiris exists?

[Wernazuma III]

People feel pretty sure and safe in giving a decisive answer to a question that is not logically answerable. Personally I can't say it, but I ask myself. Definitely I do not believe in that pathetic bible God.

[Wernazuma III]

Originally posted by FrustratedPoet
The only thing worse than a religious zealot is an atheist zealot.

Some people have become so fixated on their non-belief in God that they've actually turned it into some kind of bizarro-religion.

Welll, not so bizarro, but still for some it has become a belief, although not an organized religion with a certain set of truths written in a book or revealed by some loony.Atheist zealots are not more fixated on their belief than are religious zealots. Zealots are zealots and I don't like them, whether religious or atheist. I don't see a reason for considering the latter worse. And what's so bizarro: To me, it's bizarre that catholics think that at the eucharisty, wine and bread are somehow in a holy way converted to Christ's blood and flesh by the priest. THAT's weird. I could come up with much more for all faiths. Atheism has rarely become bizarre. Maybe the "cult of Reason" during the French Revolution or some social darwinist atheist pseudo-religions or Hitler's "Vorsehung" cult. But essentially, both these phenomena weren't atheist, because "reason" and "vorsehung" were higher powers, i.e. similar to a God concept. So, what's so bizarro-religious about atheist zealots?

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Pekka
Boris, convinient? We all have a free will. We can believe in what we want to, and according to bible God gave that to us. It's a true tester of belief. We just have to endure bad times sometimes...

According to the Bible, pi is 3, women should be subserviant to their husbands, it's okay to massacre women and children, bats are birds, etc. How does something in the Bible, a religious text, say anything about the veracity of said religion?

The "convenience" comes because it is in the best interest of those who wish to control populations to keep them in line by any means most efficient. Promising eternal paradise after one dies, a promise that requires no evidence, or eternal flames based on what one says or does is very convenient to such people.

[Sava]

We can believe in what we want to, and according to bible God gave that to us.

the Bible MAN wrote.

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
Have we no standards anymore!

You mean the kind of standards that cause people to post in threads they claim to have no interest in?

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by FrustratedPoet
You mean the kind of standards that cause people to post in threads they claim to have no interest in?

Exactly. Bunch of spammers! The lot of you!

[Japher]

Hi pot, I'm Kettle, and you going to hell!!!!

I would like to know that if you are religious do you believe in hell, pergitory, or the like?

What's the deal? If I am bad am I just going to go to detention or am I going to spend the rest of eternity in a very warm place? Or do they wipe out my memory and reincarnate me as fungus?

[Pekka]

Boris, sure. Religion can be and sometimes is used in wrong ways to control people I think.

and I don't take bible literally. But I don't think every word is a lie either.
And I accept that God is different that I think or what I've been told.