Do you believe in God?

[mistersafeway]

Why else would I be here debating? I don't want anyone to go to hell, especially car guys.

Then why were you trying to stop debating? None of what you've said is even close to convincing, especially for a thoughtful atheist (bearing in mind that we're still at the part about why your god is moral, we haven't even reached the subject of existence yet). See my reference to your god killing way more people than your anti-god, how would you explain that?

Edit: RESHIRAM5, more evidence for the devil being nice, see the forbidden fruit. The god was the one who wanted us to remain ignorant, doesn't sound nice to me.

 

[Jet Badger]

Hell

You're doing a very poor job of convincing then. If your evangelism ends with simple threats of eternal torture for not holding a mind position favouring the unproven existence of a divine being, despite whether or not the person lives by the "good" morals that the divine being preaches (and for some reason the other ones that simple mortals have rejected as immoral), then nope, sorry, I pass.

 

[TheCracker]

Hell, for atheists or non-theists, isn't something we fear. If God and heaven don't exist, then hell doesn't either. No god. No afterlife. No fear of hell.

 

[Famine]

I'm not brainwashing you, I'm trying to convince you God is real so you can be saved!

You can only do that with sound reasoning, good logic and rational argument.

Referring everyone to a contradictory tome of questionable veracity and subjective anthologisation that states itself to be true in order to bolster your position that it is true is none of those things. Nor is your rejection of Hinduism because there's "too many gods" - you have not established a rational position that sets a maximum limit on the reasonable quantity of deities.

 

[TenEightyOne]

"A man whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off may never join the assembly of the Lord."

I always presumed that was to add eunuchs (crushed/emasculated at birth) to the category of women, ie not allowed to worship.

Still, I don't think I'd feel like joining any assembly were it the result of a more recent accident...

 

[TenEightyOne]

Why? It's exactly what I'm doing.

I read the foreword of a Dawkins book, out loud, on the toilet earlier today. That was just for you, making amends etc. etc.

 

[Carbonox]

Why else would I be here debating? I don't want anyone to go to hell, especially car guys.

Look, man, I'll put it bluntly - regardless of what happens after death, you should be aware by now that the various agnostics/atheists here are, me included, completely disinterested in following the petty rules your god laid out to make his followers' lives more inconvenient.

Also, on that matter, since you just confessed you were evangelizing, don't try to dress it up as debate. That's just blatant preaching, which isn't welcome around here. 👎

 

[JockeP22]

Do you believe in God?

Dunno.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Dunno.

Interesting... so you think there might be a "god"? What are the things that make you doubtful?

 

[sammy neuman]

It isn't always, but it can be.

If someone believes that they'll burn in the eternal fires of hell unless they sacrifice enough goats, then they may find that gives them hope. The rest of us would probably consider them to be a looney, or if we were being kind we might say that they had been brainwashed into it.

Other beliefs can be just different shades of the same thing. The only thing turning you off is that "brainwashing" has a distinctly negative connotation, whereas you're seeing "hope" as a positive. But you can brainwash people into believing positive things just as well as negative, that's what product marketing relies on.

I suppose you are right...belief in the existence of a higher power does not in itself give reason for "hope". I can either find those reasons for myself, or import them from somewhere else.

An open question to any atheists or agnostics: What do you believe is the origin of Pentateuch? (The first five books of the Bible, which Christians and Jews believe were written by Moses through God's guidance). In other words, where did the belief in the God of Abraham come from?

While being neither an atheist nor an agnostic, I do have an opinion: As the story of Abraham begins in Mesopotamia, that would be a reasonable source region, probably as oral tradition, informed and modified by other traditions, and finally edited and written down at some point. Judaism and Zoroastrianism influenced and informed each other during the Babylonian exile, if not at other times also. When it finally reached its present form is not known with certainty. As the Pentateuch includes a narration of Moses death, if he wrote that then he truly is an inspired prophet.

 

[LeMansAid]

Dunno.

Interesting... so you think there might be a "god"? What are the things that make you doubtful?

No indication of "might" or "doubt" at all really. More and more we may have the question go completely un-addressed with current and future generations.

 

[sammy neuman]

No indication of "might" or "doubt" at all really. More and more we may have the question go completely un-addressed with current and future generations.

I hope not. Everything needs an opposite.

 

[squadops]

No indication of "might" or "doubt" at all really. More and more we may have the question go completely un-addressed with current and future generations.

A general indifference also seen towards politics, race, and wealth.

 

[Imari]

I hope not. Everything needs an opposite.

Does it?

Or is that simply a side effect of humans being particularly prone to binary thinking? A lot of things have opposites, does that mean that they all do?

I don't see any particular reason why some things shouldn't be singular, and others tertiary or higher orders of groupings. Things are what they are, and trying to shoehorn everything into a worldview that dictates that every thing must have it's opposite is going to leave you completely incapable of accurately comprehending anything that does not conform.

Which is ironically very relevant to this thread, what with certain groups of people deciding arbitrarily that the world is a certain way and then having real trouble accepting anything that doesn't fall within that.

 

[FoRiZon]

I think we reach the conclusion here.

People join religion because they afraid of death.

 

[Sureboss]

Talking burning bush.

You can probably get a cream for that.

 

[Ranman20]

God is an atheist... he doesn't think anyone created him.

 

[huskeR32]

I think we reach the conclusion here.

People join religion because they afraid of death.

I think that's an oversimplification. Religion provides comforting answers to all sorts of uncomfortable questions, not just about death, but also about suffering, human behavior, our existence in general, etc.

 

[FoRiZon]

I think that's an oversimplification. Religion provides comforting answers to all sorts of uncomfortable questions, not just about death, but also about suffering, human behavior, our existence in general, etc.

Well that depends on whatever your theistic or not. Im not supposed to go really deep into that (im theistic but moderate btw )

What im talking about is the human nature in, well lets say, most of it. People would like to have a good "afterlife". No one told what is like to be there.

 

[Scaff]

I think most people follow a religion because their parents did/do.

Most of it seems to me to start as mainly cultural conditioning.

 

[Brett]

I think most people follow a religion because their parents did/do.

Most of it seems to me to start as mainly cultural conditioning.

I know it certainly did for me.

 

[Dan]

I think most people follow a religion because their parents did/do.

That's basically what happened for me, but I'm an atheist now.

 

[sammy neuman]

Does it?

Or is that simply a side effect of humans being particularly prone to binary thinking? A lot of things have opposites, does that mean that they all do?

I don't see any particular reason why some things shouldn't be singular, and others tertiary or higher orders of groupings. Things are what they are, and trying to shoehorn everything into a worldview that dictates that every thing must have it's opposite is going to leave you completely incapable of accurately comprehending anything that does not conform.

Which is ironically very relevant to this thread, what with certain groups of people deciding arbitrarily that the world is a certain way and then having real trouble accepting anything that doesn't fall within that.

I was a little vague, wasn't I? Serial killers are not required for any reason. I was thinking more in terms of a variety of viewpoints serving to curb excessive zeal, which speaks directly to your comment regarding "certain groups". I am not as concerned with "certain groups" comprehension problems as I am with the possibility of enough authority being acquired by such groups as to enable them to force their dogma on others.
As a commentary; I do not construe "certain groups" to mean only those with religion inspired notions.

God is an atheist... he doesn't think anyone created him.

Not quite true. By the internal logic of standard Christian theology, Jesus is God, therefore Mary is unarguably the Mother of God. If Scripture is inspired by God and infallible, God cannot dispute this. Have fun.

Edited to improve clarity.

 

[nascarfan1400]

Used to. Not anymore, no.

 

[Dan]

Used to. Not anymore, no.

Would you elaborate more on this? Like, when you made your decision, why you made it, and if there were people/other things that caused you to change your beliefs. I am atheist as well, but I would just like to get a better understanding.

EDIT: Hopefully more people include this when they make their first post in this thread in the future.

 

[nascarfan1400]

Discovering all the horrible things in the bible, putting two and two together, never getting a response from God, being let down. At this point I don't even want him to be real. Because if he is, he's an awful person for allowing all of the hate and suffering to people.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Discovering all the horrible things in the bible, putting two and two together, never getting a response from God, being let down. At this point I don't even want him to be real. Because if he is, he's an awful person for allowing all of the hate and suffering to people.

Did you consider other religions, or perhaps that a "god" does exist, just not as described in a book? Or was it just that the god that your peers, parents and friends (may have) believed in, didn't seem to be there?

 

[dddsprayshop]

Every time i see this topic appear in the "recent posts" section, i want to click and type "NO".
Then i click, i read, and think: "Why?"
Endless discussion, have fun with it, untill next time.

@dddsprayshop "clicks FORUMS and is gone"

 

[nascarfan1400]

I think it's possible there is a god. Anything is possible. I just don't believe in any and like you said, he/she/it was never there

 

[DCP]

Yes definately.
My Jesus is Lord. He told me why we were created, why we rebelled, why we brought sin, death and suffering to this world, and most importantly, how we can end this suffering when Jesus comes again.