101 replies to this topic

[Oleg Bach]

so two million men women children and babies get crushed in Haiti even though this all powerful god with of a twitch of his eyebrow could prevent it...your god sounds like a psychopath, or more likely there is no god...

NUMBER ONE_ PUT A CAPITAL LETTER ON gOD..show some respect...you do not understand - God created good as well as evil..both are part of nature - it is man kind that crushed Haitians under inferiour buildings because some rich white bastards are still pissed off a hundred years later for the armed rebelion of slaves...who killed their WHITE masters - Haiti is not being punished by God but punished by mankind...


Of course there is an intelligent life in the universe - and it is called God...it is US that reject intelligence hence we reject God as YOU do - your statement is typical - of a person who does not give a damn for his fellow man and wants to blame God for his own failings...so shut up and be good...or God if you wish - just don't sit there and expect a hand to come form the sky to assist you when you have two of your own.

[Michael Hardner]

philosophers thought's of the past were based the lack of scientific information of the time and an assumtion there was a god...today a belief in god requires a suspension of logic and reality and a great deal of self delusion...

Well, Nietzsche wrote 'God is dead' in the late 19th century - before relativity, and maybe just as Darwinism became known. His philosophy was driven by pure thought.

Belief in God requires all it ever required - faith. There has never been evidence, for nor against, nor will there be. There's nothing new under the sun, in this respect.

[wyly]

NUMBER ONE_ PUT A CAPITAL LETTER ON gOD..show some respect...

have respect for nothing? do you want me to capitalize Nothing as well, how about the tooth fairy or easter bunny...abstract concepts don't deserve capitalization...

you do not understand - God created good as well as evil..you do not understand - God created good as well as evil..both are part of nature -

man created god because he didn't understand nature the good and evil reflects man's psychotic paranoia

it is man kind that crushed Haitians under inferiour buildings because some rich white bastards are still pissed off a hundred years later for the armed rebelion of slaves...who killed their WHITE masters - Haiti is not being punished by God but punished by mankind...

wow....black Haitians built the buildings...and what white bastards produced the rain/floods to punish millions of Pakistani's and for what crime?...and the 300,000 who died in the tsunami's a few years back what was their crime that the white masters conspired in their deaths?

Of course there is an intelligent life in the universe - and it is called God...it is US that reject intelligence hence we reject God as YOU do - your statement is typical - of a person who does not give a damn for his fellow man and wants to blame God for his own failings...so shut up and be good...or God if you wish - just don't sit there and expect a hand to come form the sky to assist you when you have two of your own.

a liftime of witnessing millions of innocent people die from natural and man made causes have taught me not to expect any help other than from my fellow man...

[bloodyminded]

NUMBER ONE_ PUT A CAPITAL LETTER ON gOD..show some respect...

[bold mine]


I'm trying to decide if this is perfectly-timed and poetic error thanks to the "caps lock" function, or if it was intentional.

Edited by bloodyminded, 18 September 2010 - 12:59 PM.

[ToadBrother]

Why did I get cancer? Why do innocent babies die? Why is there so much suffering? Why? Why? Why?....all the usual why-nings.

God is...G O D. HE doesn't have to answer or explain HIMSELF to mere mortals that HE created! To demand an explanation from God is to show that one doesn't truly comprehend the meaning/concept of a God.

HE said: "Your ways are not MY ways. Your thoughts are not MY thoughts."

That's my favorite of the explanations for evil. "God does what He wants, so f*** off!"

There are numerous reasons why people do not believe....or turn away from their belief in God (apostasy). The most obvious reason so far that I read in this forum is that....God does not conform to their idea of what a god should be like. They refuse to believe because God did not do....or did not behave in such a way that they think God should.

And how exactly did you arrive at this conclusion? How many ex-believers did you poll? What percentage didn't like that God didn't conform to their views of what He should act like? What percentage didn't have any expectations as to His behavior but just don't believe in such an entity anyways? What percentage are perfectly happy to accept whatever you or whoever your religious authority says God's nature to be, but simply don't think there's evidence for such a being?

You do have these answers, don't you? You wouldn't just be making this kind of stuff up?

For instance, why do you think I'm an atheist? Go on, take your best shot.

[MightyAC]

Why are you an atheist? Hmmm maybe you're rational or reasonable. Maybe you didn't have religion forced on you as a child and were able to think freely. Maybe you grew up Catholic and were sick of all the guilt and hypocrisy which led you to examine your beliefs which almost always leads to atheism. No...my guess is god didn't conform to your wishes and to punish him you tell people that you do not believe.

That's what I am doing to Santa. That fat SOB didn't bring me the light sabre I wanted when I was 6 so I punished him with intense non-belief. I know that mother culture tells us that santa died on a cross so kids could have presents, but I suspect most of those presents are just manufactured in third world countries for large multinational corps who sell them to parents.

[MightyAC]

Belief in God requires all it ever required - faith. There has never been evidence, for nor against, nor will there be. There's nothing new under the sun, in this respect.

Very true but the same goes for Santa, a flat earth supported by a giant turtle or your favourite, the flying spaghetti monster.

"Faith is a cop-out. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can’t be taken on its own merits." - Dan Barker

[ToadBrother]

Why are you an atheist? Hmmm maybe you're rational or reasonable. Maybe you didn't have religion forced on you as a child and were able to think freely. Maybe you grew up Catholic and were sick of all the guilt and hypocrisy which led you to examine your beliefs which almost always leads to atheism. No...my guess is god didn't conform to your wishes and to punish him you tell people that you do not believe.

That's what I am doing to Santa. That fat SOB didn't bring me the light sabre I wanted when I was 6 so I punished him with intense non-belief. I know that mother culture tells us that santa died on a cross so kids could have presents, but I suspect most of those presents are just manufactured in third world countries for large multinational corps who sell them to parents.

I'm an atheist because I simply don't see a need for a god. I admit that viewing the kind of monster that some Christians worship, I have to wonder why an infinite being would give a crap about whether I believed in him or not. But that's not the reason I don't believe, it's just an odd irony. At any rate, if someone can demonstrate why God is necessary, I'll gladly listen and consider.

[MightyAC]

Hard to reason with the faithful when their philosophy is "I believe therefor my god exists". The only solution to combating these dangerous delusions is to get people to examine their own beliefs. I love the work that academics like Dawkins, Hitchens and Harris are doing to combat delusional beliefs but I think we need more John Stewart, Bill Maher and George Carlin types. I think comedians can get people to examine absurd practices in a light hearted manner that academics cannot.

[ToadBrother]

Hard to reason with the faithful when their philosophy is "I believe therefor my god exists". The only solution to combating these dangerous delusions is to get people to examine their own beliefs. I love the work that academics like Dawkins, Hitchens and Harris are doing to combat delusional beliefs but I think we need more John Stewart, Bill Maher and George Carlin types. I think comedians can get people to examine absurd practices in a light hearted manner that academics cannot.

I'm no fan of any of them. I don't really see the point in picking fights, or in pissing contests. I'm not an atheist to get back at anyone. My wife is a Catholic, so I've learned that you have to find some degree of accommodation. I think some folks on both sides of the debate are simply using it as a reason to be rude.

I, of course, am sufficiently arrogant, that I need no particular reason to be rude!

Edited by ToadBrother, 18 September 2010 - 10:31 PM.

[bloodyminded]

I'm no fan of any of them. I don't really see the point in picking fights, or in pissing contests. I'm not an atheist to get back at anyone. My wife is a Catholic, so I've learned that you have to find some degree of accommodation. I think some folks on both sides of the debate are simply using it as a reason to be rude.

I, of course, am sufficiently arrogant, that I need no particular reason to be rude!

Yes, I get the feeling that Hitchens, for example, has an almost neurotic loathing for religion that is more a product of his polemical political beliefs than his expressed love for rationality. While I can roughly agree with many of his points, I don't much care for his style.

He's like an anti-abortionist screaming "baby-killers!" This is a guaranteed method to alienate people from your point of view. I don't even believe that people who use such rhetoric are genuinely in the business of persuasion: they love the battle too much to ever want it to end.

If the Pope renounced God, I think Hitchens would be disappointed; if the extremist Islamists changed their ways and made efforts for religious reform, I think he'd throw an outraged tantrum.

Edited by bloodyminded, 19 September 2010 - 03:56 AM.

[betsy]

Bumped.