I don't care if God exists, if it does then it will have no interest in me at all, I am as irrelevant to a God as a bacteria is to me, we live and die without God's intervention, sinners prosper and end up president while the most profoundly moral die of cancer, there is no rhyme and reason, no plan to this, if God created earth he has left us to our own devices.
There may well be a being so profoundly advanced that it created the earth and is to us a God, but if so it isn't 'our' God, not Yahweh or Allah, it's just some massively advanced creature as beyond our understanding is as I am to a bacteria.
The argument is always 'does God exist?' presupposing if God exists he is the God of some religion, to me it should be 'if God exists what are the chances it gives a tinkers or is even aware of our existence, what if God exists but isn't God?'
I'll be honest about it. It is not atheists who get stuck in my craw, but agnostics. Doubt is useful for a while. We must all pass through the garden of Gethsemane. If Christ played with doubt, so must we. If Christ spent an anguished night in prayer, if He burst out from the Cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" then surely we are also permitted doubt. But we must move on. To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.
From Life of Pi by Yann Martel.
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The masses of humanity have always had to surf.
I love Life of Pi, but this is nonsense. Martel is trivializing scepticism here, and clearly he is ignoring the exceptional ontological and epistemological nuances behind asserting beliefs one way or the other.
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Dealing with Everything from Dead Sea Scrolls to Red C Trolls
Quote:
Originally Posted by woob
"...harem warfare? like all your wives dressup and go paintballing?"
I am actually quite certain I would still be practicing if I had been raised a type of Catholic or Eastern Orthodox.
I've thought the same thing, I'm pretty sure the fervor and extremeness of the groups I was in and my own beliefs throughout my teens to early 30's had something to do with my ability to change. Casual or social evangelicals weren't a thing at least in the groups I was in.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
But like I told my mother, I can't choose what I believe, and I am not going to lie about it.
This. As much as sometimes I wish I could choose what to believe based on what made me happier it isn't an option for me.
__________________ Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
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For those who've switched, was there a point where you really internalized the belief that there was no afterlife waiting for you?
For me there seemed to be a very substantial lag between superficial brain belief "hey there's no heaven" to "holy crap there'll be a point where I'm not going to be existing" deep down belief. I'd been conditioned to believe in an afterlife for so long I think it took a decade to really REALLY believe there probably isn't.
Or maybe it's just because I'm older and everyone goes through that transition?
__________________ Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
It’s not a matter of professionalism and ability (I would like to think that I have been operating with a healthy understanding of my own biases and blind spots for a while now; and I don't think "being religious" would undercut my ability to be critical about it any more than being non-religious. Most scholars of religion are religious). The problem is the nature of my field. The vast majority of positions are at Christian or Jewish schools which require a specific confessional declaration. My own contract at TWU ends today, and even in the event that they chose to renew my contract, I could no longer sign one on account of my rejection of the community standards agreement.
They won't allow you to go the Bart Ehrman route? He's a pretty prominent agnostic biblical scholar no?
Location: A simple man leading a complicated life....
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My beliefs haven't switched. I still believe there is something bigger than us out there. What or who it is, I don't know. I stopped going to church years ago and I no longer pray. If anything this higher power is an "absentee landlord" and has no interactions in our lives. Life is what we make of it.
Organised religion ticks me off to no end. They all point fingers at each others faith claiming their way is the only way and everyone else is going to Hell. I can remember my minister telling the congregation that Mormonism is a cult and me laughing on the inside. How does my former minister or any one for that fact know they have the right beliefs? Truth is they don't and their lying if they say otherwise.
One thing I know for sure. When I die i'll be too busy shaking hands with friends to know where I am. How is that such a bad thing?
I'm a third generation atheist, so I have way more atheist points than you do, and I say you can be an atheist without needing to be a d*ck about it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GGG
The Gnostic atheist is as wrong as the Gnostic theist. One is more likely to be correct but the Gnostic position is not backed by science.
Quote:
Originally Posted by peter12
Honestly, this dead-set certainty of most atheists is so incredibly dumb to me.
lolzers,
what I am saying for the first 3 comments is that someone standing there trying to convince me God exists makes as much sense as if they were standing there trying to convince me unicorns existed because, for Peter, both have the same amount of proof. zero
what I am saying for the first 3 comments is that someone standing there trying to convince me God exists makes as much sense as if they were standing there trying to convince me unicorns existed because, for Peter, both have the same amount of proof. zero
It sounded like you were saying their is no possibility that God could exist rather than their is no evidence that God exists. The positions are fundamentally different.
Sorry if I misinterpreted
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To us long term atheists, you might as well just say you are open to the possibility of unicorns or Easter Bunnies.
A gnarwhal evolving into a quadriped would be god damn great. Or, maybe the gnarwhal evolved from a unicorn...
Easter bunnies do exist. As long as people hide eggs/jelly beans for their kids to find, they exist. As long as people wear mascot bunny costumes, they exist. As long as the playboy mansion isn't vacant on a particular weekend each spring, they exist (even if they are more artificial than real)...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
The is a constant pet-peeve of mine that drives me crazy.
Saying "God," "Jesus," "Christ," "Lord," in an expletive manner is not in breach of the third commandment. "Taking the name of YHWH in vain" is precisely that. It's using the revealed name of the tribal god of ancient Israel callously or out of an appropriate sacral context. So, in other words, NO ONE for thousands of years has ever been guilty of this silly infraction.
Well, I'll be god damned.
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I feel like I've gone from pretty militant after 9/11 to being what I am today, anti organized religion where it or those followers seek to put their beliefs into laws or push down the rights or attack others because of their beliefs.
I think my joining the Humanist group in Iceland and becoming involved in its efforts to legalize euthanasia, separate church from state, and the long list of humanist ideals and battles we wage. Its for me now an issue thing, not a big problem that I would have with anyone choosing to worship any diety, its when that worship conflicts with freedom "from" religion and those seeking to impose their beliefs onto society as a greater whole that I get bothered.
Hell, I'm even dating a woman who is a self described African deities worshiper who has tarrot cards, believes in Astrology and has lots of very woo beliefs. At least she hates organized religion, so that helps
__________________ Allskonar fyrir Aumingja!!
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Martel is trivializing scepticism here, and clearly he is ignoring the exceptional ontological and epistemological nuances behind asserting beliefs one way or the other.
Ah, yes, my thoughts exactly...
Last edited by Textcritic; 11-30-2019 at 10:33 AM.
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I feel like I've gone from pretty militant after 9/11 to being what I am today, anti organized religion where it or those followers seek to put their beliefs into laws or push down the rights or attack others because of their beliefs.
