[Thor]

Originally Posted by Chill Cosby

To touch on just what's been mentioned in the last page or so, they mostly argue God-as-written based on particular religion, vs. God the concept.

Oh this is absolutely common among apologists for "God" biblical or this less defined term of God which plays on the idea that religions have defined what really can't be defined, that is beyond our understanding..

At its core, what we argue is there is no evidence for either, we are not trying to disprove these things, we are arguing there is no evidence for it, that believing in them is only in the realm of faith and science shows us natural explanations which is what I base my life on, evidence and reasoning whether a God concept or religious based dogma version exist.

I think a non-intervening, mysterious force, outside our realm of understanding God (deism) has more validity than a human based religious personal God which I think is rather easy to dismiss. This is NOT to say for that this is at all convincing, but rather another attempt by those who have a hard time imaging a universe without some outside intelligence seek out when they see the failings of organized personal Religions.

For instance, the "strong" argument atheists have against the belief of god based on the the rejection of Norse Mythology: It's no argument at all. It may be an argument against Christianity, but not god. The version of what God is, it's attributes or whatever, vary from text to text.

Well the vast majority of religion and believers follow an intervening God, so that is where most of the debate exists. Again because you define some ethereal outside of our understanding God as God, does not mean it has any more legitimacy to people who base their worldview on evidence and naturalism.

These attributes go towards creating an understanding and give rule and structure to whatever community abides by that text. Concerning the concept of God: the Christian God, Thor/Odin/Zeus, Buddha, Vishnu/Brahma, Mother Nature, it's all human understandings of the exact same thing. So to say "Well you're an atheist because you don't believe in Odin" shows a lack of understanding that there is no difference between Odin and the Christian God. Regardless of religion, belief in any God is belief in "God".

They are supernatural claims, which we have the problem with, I would find religion much less of a problem if we threw away dogmatic religious texts, and the baggage that they bring to our world, but the vast majority believe and live their lives by these God's being very much real, intervening beings that judge, give us rules&laws and cause a lot of harm in this world when it comes to following this.

Plus you have a couple guys making specific reference to Christianity and treating that like "God", while inferring that the Christian God or Islamic God are different, when in fact those two understandings are quite literally the exact same.

I'm a bit confused by what you mean here, Islam and God are Abrahamic religons and share the same God, even Jesus is a prophet to Islam, they just disagree on key things, as with the Jews who see Jesus as a man. I dismiss the Abrahamic God outright, its an intervening God.