Hello everyone. Recently I have been getting into a little bible reading. I was raised christian. But as I learned more and more about my religion, the less I understood. I find a lot of flaws in the bible. Social and ethical contradictions. Then, I learned about the world from a scientific perspective. And that pushed me over the edge to becoming a full fledged atheist. However, I have always tried to keep an open mind. The thing with me, is that I am a realist. Unless you can show my physical evidence of something, I cannot bring myself to believe it. And at the current point in time, I have never been shown any physical evidence of God's existence. That is why I am here. I want to learn more about this. I don't want to be atheist and just be atheist. I don't want to be christian and just be christian. I want to know why I am what I am. I have been in many arguments over religion. I always as the same thing,"How do you know god exists?" I either get them so upset that they leave, punch me, or change the subject. Or on occasion, I have gotten the response, "You dont. You just have to believe." I was hoping you guys could give me some hard evidence. I don't want any "believe" speeches. I don't want any debates or fights here. All I want is some hard evidence for me to take into consideration.
I'd say you your skepticism came before you're atheism. Personally I'm happy to settle that the existence of a completely invisible undetectable omniscient omnipotent all-encompassing sentient being can't be proven or dis-proven at this point However the burden of proof, however impossible, resides with them. they can't prove it. I don't know if you were expecting a few lines of text to change your mind? funnily enough, text was all it took to convince them...
this thread reminds me of a history channel show that tried to give real life proof of christianity, like they found some jesus spear or something
I watch the history channel from time to time and I cant count how many times I've heard: "This leaves scientists with only one explanation. Aliens did it." Then they usually go on to talk about how the aliens could be angels and whatnot. At the end of the day, television is all business. A quick think about who they are selling to couldn't make things any more clear.
Oh these channels that sound like they are supposed to be scientific and educational embellish so much fantasy and faith. It just burns my balls when I see absolute bull crap like Discovery channel's "A Haunting". You're never going to find anything close to proof let alone a few sentences of reason. The more arguments I read from theists, the stronger my atheism becomes. Seriously speaking, the only way I can see myself ever becoming a believer is if I suffered a severe mental breakdown or brain damage.
Believing in religion CAUSES brain damage. Read Ayn Rand to see how. Once you let that rot get started in your mind, there's no way to stop it.
I haven't read Ayn Rand ...I may do so one day I do believe 'the rot' is curable. It can be a difficult struggle and requires a lot of thinking, but there are people who are have been hugely invested into religion that have left and now denounce it. When I was younger I harbored some religious Ideas, which I believe caused me alot more harm than good. These ideas I am now rid off, thankfully. I feel sorry for many believers, they have to deal with such fears and such cognitive dissidence.
After thousands of years of speculation and earnest thought from sage thinkers: the best thing to do is grasp a hold of a belief or no belief and stick with it. I'm atheist because that's what I believe to be true. It won't hurt anybody either way unless you decide to get all fundamental about it and kill people or thrust your opinion on others or use your belief as an excuse to do harm.
that's cognitive dissonance me, i'd lump religious believers and ayn rand believers in the same dissonant tub, except for the fact that at least some of the religious folks make moral and/or ethical sense . . .
lol thanks xD I'm curios to know what it is you oppose about Ayn Rand..if there's something in particular.. Admittedly I don't know a great deal on the topic, however the introduction to her 'objectivism' philosophy certainly didn't strike me as anything too far off the wall. Though these ideas aren't particularly jarring to world my view, though they are no more or less 'true' to me than solipsism or hard determinism.
i just don't think everyone lives only for their own interests, nor do i think the world would be a better place if they did - rather the opposite call me a "bottom-up collectivist" my wife, who is better read in philosophy than i [her father was a nietzschean scholar and conservative philosopher/professor] would give you a detailed critique if she posted here i also think her books are nearly unreadable, but in that she has plenty of company - mostly in the vanity press market . . .
I agree. That's a fairly sound statement. I'd still assume the word 'rational' in 'rational self interest' would pertain to some form of altruism, though it may not, I don't know.
Well it is a sound statement of belief. I would assume that a person had examined their beliefs to comment upon them. All life shares a similar intent and that is to have our good based on the model of what that good looks like. Whether that image of good be sensational or altruistic, the motive is always good for self. If we generally understood this we can address problems much more effectively. We spend far too much time as it is on defending ourselves against imaginary malicious intents. It would seem to me that to assume good intent would better enable us to recognize the need that needs to be filled when confronted with an anxious situation as every complaint or attack is a veiled request for goodness.
one of her books is called the virtue of selfishness i admit that i have not been able to bring myself to crack that one open mrs wica says in brief that her books are more psychological revelation than philosophical insight
