"God doesn't believe in atheists"

Not all of us are. I have a hard enough time convincing myself without having to worry about convincing others. I'm convinced that Jesus is my guy because he loves losers and looks out for outcasts. Christianity, loosely interpreted, also helps me to make sense of reality in a way that gives my life a sense of meaning and direction. I think of faith as intuitive risk-taking, or an educated bet based on substantial evidence or reasonable suspicion rather than scientific or courtroom proof, which means I'd have to acknowledge that reasonable people could bet on a different horse.

 

man i guess everyone is going around this old track again.

i believe in god.
you dont.

debate is over.

 

god doesn't believe in people who think they know what god believes in.

(this is a little like death to all fanatics, but if you don't get the one you probably won't get the other either, it's also not something i'm claiming to know, but rather appears to need saying in the context)

but does love and hugs all equally, while leaving it entirely up to them, to avoid screwing everything up, for each other, whatever they believe or disbelieve in all cases.

yes "it" could be/is/ seperate from us, though/ logically from the story, itself is where it got what it made us out of. but it isn't something we have to pretend to know anything about to feel and experience. the name, all of the names, as far as i can tell, those we've made up ourselves.

however its not neccessarilly a mater of us personally, but more of what we think we know, having been made out of, and possibly to some unknown degree by, what we know we do not.

=^^=
.../\...

 

If you are really that much against discussing your views, then yes.

To the OP - That is hardly an argument. You are begging the question.

I am an atheist. I will not claim I know that god doesn't exist. I will say I don't believe he does. I may even say I believe he doesn't. I will not say I know he doesn't, just as you should not say you know he does.

 

This is another issue that depends on definition.

If "God" is defined as a superhuman entity, a stern, jealous but loving father figure who sits in heaven watching us, then I can say I don't believe in this "God." One of my objections is the fact this God is only described in human terms. Why would we limit "God" in this way? If this God is infinite, then I find the Christian definition cannot be reconciled w/ an infinite God-being. I "know" this God is false just as I "know" Greek mythology is false; I will never be able to 100% disprove the existence, but it is a widely accepted "fact" that Greek mythology does not exist.

Now, to a different definition: God as a force rather than a being. I would rather call it a God-force b/c of the connotations of "God" = entity. You can call it what you want, the Tao, etc. b/c this force cannot be known and cannot be named. Words will never have the capacity to capture the true essence of it. The mind cannot intellectually understand it. It is in everything and everywhere. It is you, me, this computer, my tv, even the air we breathe. It's like the blanket theory on "I heart Huckabee" (before the candidate). The detective held up a blanket and said that it represented everything, you, me, the Eiffel Tower, an orgasm, and a hammer. The blanket can be seen as the "force" that exists in everything, as everything. This is the "God" I believe in and I have the comfort of knowing the unknowable, not through thoughts or concepts, but feeling the spiritual connection we all have w/ it. It IS us; in the vast majority our egos have taken over completely. I find that living in apparent paradoxes as a way to reconnect w/ the "God-force" that is everywhere.

As I have said, words are mere shadows of the unknowable, so I apologize if the second part of my answer is confusing. It is kind of like space; how can we understand infinite space?

Peace and love

 

I love this. haha

Ditto.

 

i repeat: people who claim to know what god believes in, or even what god is, are basicly lying to themselves. the only thing we can know, is that there are things we don't have to pretend to know, in order to experience. (we can say that god is whatever the biggest of these are, but we can't even really know that, unless we use that as our deffinician of how we are using the word, and then we get into other difficulties as well)

inventing names for them, and then forgetting it was ourselves (collectively) who invented those names,
is not the same as knowing,

anything.

=^^=
.../\...

 

*yawn* same old preachy preachy. Bring me the God man, he's got some splainin to do. Richard Dawkins >'s 'God'

It's all a fairytale illusion, it's illogical. Faith is the complete opposite of evidence, thus fact, thus knowledge. Don't rely on an afterlife, live now because this is the only life we have. No one's coming back, no one ever did. Open your mind, really think logically and rationally about this imaingary person in the sky who can do anything, except obviously create a peaceful world. We are absolutely free and must draw the consequences of Gods absence to the end. I don't need God to be 'good' that's a subjective term, what is good? I don't need god to be moral, i'm a rational progressive, intelligent being. I'd rather base my beliefs in facts and evidence and actual experiance. I've never experianced God so i have no empirical knowledge of him. I was born an Athiest as was everyone, we choose our beliefs, god is not innate. Think about it. Why don't you believe in Allah or Budha, or Zeus or Thor? It's all the same idea and it's all made up. Sorry to break it to ya, i'm just being honest and truthful.

 

misfire

 

The "facts","knowledge", and "evidence" you talk about rest on a heap of faith. Faith is the foundation of any search for evidence, not its opposite. Kant made us aware long ago that the world we perceive with our senses and reality are two different things; mathematician Kurt Godel proved that any mathematical system of sufficient power contains statements that cannot be proven true; Einstein showed us that even time is relative; quantum mechanics tells us that subatomic reality is incomprehensible; the inflationary version of the big bang theory supports the notion that 99% of the universe is made up of dark matter that we've never detected; we're aware of only a tiny part of the electromagnetic spectrum; human consciousness is still a mystery, with several competing theories in search of proof; and string theorists posit a set of resonating ten dimensional loops that are the source of all matter, energy, time, and space, but which no one has and may never be able to detect. Despite the huge databases we are developing we actually haven't answered the big questions about existence. Nor are we likely to do so in the near future. You might keep this in mind before getting on your high horse to preach to us about empirical validation and fairy tales. A little humility might be in order, because science doesn't know it all and has never refuted God. And when you tell people "Don't rely on an afterlife, live now because this is the only life we have" you and they should be aware that you' re placing a bet (as we all are).

I doubt that you were "born" an atheist, since babies don't have ideas about God one way or another. I assume you mean you weren't raised in a religious tradition, or that you were raised an atheist. Only some evolutionary biologists think that religion is an innate trait, so you seem to be arguing against a postion none of us has taken. Since you have no religious upbringing, you might find it difficult to understand why some people find religion meaningful, but please don't reduce religious people to caricatures, as you seem to do. As for Buddah, Allah, etc., I think that all religious traditions (and atheists, too) have something worthwhile to say, and I respect them all. I consider myself a Christian because I think Jesus said it better, but I recognize that my upbrining and culture have inclined me in that direction.

 

Well said. When i say everyone is born an atheist, this is by definition, i am born not believing in a god or gods, it is humans who create god, not the other way around. Being a Christian for a time in my life only strengthened my atheist beliefs due to the absolute hypocrisy of the religion and religion in general. No one is better then anyone, we are all equal, no one is going to hell, hell is other people. Christians cherry pick from their bible, they choose to believe the 'good' bits but reject others. How can such a loving God say everyone is born sinners, we are all born free. Homosexuals are not bad people, they are human and therefore equal. Religion creates divides among people. It only seperates others from others and keeps people with the same people. Most Christians refuse to accept they may be wrong, which is fine, that's their choice. I'm simply stating what i believe and why i do so. Accept everything or nothing. So i accept nothing. I refuse to believe in a super divine creator, who by definition is benevolant, therefore he who would be unable to create evil, whoops, looks like there's a lot of evil in the world. Oh yeah this guy can do anything. It must be his master plan. Too bad there's no one set path for everyone like God would intend for his creations, there is no set human nature, we create our own. My existence preceded my essence, as the artisan first thinks about what his paper knife is to be created for, there is no one purpose for humans. I don't need faith at all to believe in knowledge or truth, faith is a lack of evidence. Man may have been made in god's image but it is the concept of god that was made in mans own image. I am not placing a bet as you suggest which i presume you're referring to pascals wager. If i were i would 'win nothing and not get to reap my rewards because i'd be dead and wouldn't know' i choose to live my life without fear of an 'almighty' i don't feel the need to obey anyone or anything. No gods or masters.

 

I agree with a qualified version of what you say. A lot of Christians, and especially clergy, are hypocritical; no one is better than anyone else, we are all equal (but that's what Jesus said); hell can be other people, but it's always a bad attitude; Christians like me interpret the Bible to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative; etc. A lot of what you object too is a bunch of doctrines that have become associated with Christianity as a result of twisted thinkers, like original sin, total depravity, etc. Reconciling a benevolent God and an evil world is usually done by the doctrine of free will, but process theologians like Hartshorne provide what to me is a more plausible explanation in a God who is not omnipotent and omniscient, at least in the ways envisioned by traditional Christian doctrine. As for the wager, No, it was not Pascal; I don't like his conceptualization, because it provides justification for passing along every chain letter that comes by with promises of great rewards if you pass it on and dire penalties if you don't. I was referring more generally to the fact that you've placed a bet, whether you're aware of it or not, in opting for a view of reality and a course of life which could be wrong.

 

i don't beleive in atheists either

because i am god

[how do you know i am not?]

 

It's nice debating with you somewhat, you obviously have very strong faith in your beliefs and i admire you for it. Sorry if i was too harsh in my previous posts.

 

No problem. Namaste.

 

LOL Yet another heaping load of creationist bullshit to clean up!

"I'm a stark raving idiotic creationists and I'll prove that my god theory is true by explaining first that man does not possess knowledge of 1% of this universe"

Let's review this again:
Creationists claim to have the answers through magical divine text of war mongering racist intolerance that had been proven by science and logic to be fiction and fantasy.

Atheists claim there is no God answer because there is not one shred of logical or factual evidence to suggest there is a God but plenty to suggest there is not.

And again, creationist rebuttal to this logical conclusion is that we don't have enough knowledge to claim this while still believing it is perfectly fine to continue believing in a logical and factual falsehood!!

I refuse to believe people are that fucking stupid!! I do not believe creationists really exist. I know people say they are creationists but deep down they know it is just a big elaborate excuse to be bad, greedy, ignorant people under the pretense of looking like a "Good" person!

 

Who, exactly, are you arguing with? Ozone? And what do you mean by "Creationist"? Somebody who doesn't believe in natural selection?

 

who cares what the god of israel thinks

i do not live there

 

Okiefreak,

Yes and yes.
Sorry, thought that was obvious.