There is no god

[OldKingCole]

Inspired by another thread … I was surprised by the level of atheism professed … as I always though I was in a tiny, tiny minority.
would be interested to see the MN response.

IABU - there is a god
IANBU - there is no god

@ValK I am sorry your experience of humanity has been so poor. Mine, on the whole, hasn't. And when I describe humanity as largely good, of course I do not mean perfect. Perfection is an unhealthy thing to strive for though.

I do not require a deity to live a good life and be a good person. If you do, fine - whatever works for you. But once again the arrogance of the believer stating that a god is necessary for humanity to be good shines through.

So you’re trying to forbid religious people from having freedom of speech? I don’t agree with everything you have said and neither do most Christians. But I respect everyone’s right to freedom of speech

There is nothing about secularism that restricts anyone's 'freedom of speech', but that is invariably the claim that comes from the religious and religious organisations, because they've had eons of completely unmerited privilege and exception, so anything that redresses the balance and subjects them to the same conditions as everyone else is invariably regarded as 'forbidding religious people form having freedom of speech'.

Complete nonsense. Removal of privilege is not repression.

‘So you’re trying to forbid religious people from having freedom of speech?’

I didn’t say that at all, did I? If you want to ‘preach’ homophobia you have the freedoms to do so, and many religious ‘believers’ do. I have the freedom to think that makes you a bigot and not very right. I have the freedom to say and think that too.
As I’ve said before, I don’t care what people who believe in god think, or do except if it encroaches on the well-boing, safety or civil rights of other people.

And the Catholic Church is hardly a bastion of morality is it? Too many scandals, immoral priests /popes, inquisitions/deciding which countries can land grab from indigenous peoples, and that's just for starters.

The older I get the more I think there may be something bigger than us. I find myself I wondering about this a lot and questioning how the universe works. However I can't get on board with organised religion.

‘Why does God have to be a "hin". Why not a they/them or a She/ her?
Well because in scripture He is referred to as a male figure - a father, a ‘He’, a ‘Him’. Does it matter? If He was referred to as ‘mother’ people would be complaining about that too__’

Because churches and religions are patriarchy’s set up by men. Therefore god has to be a bloke. Men wrote the bible - well, the bits that made it to the final cut of ‘the bible’ anyway - which means it’s all about men.
you should read up on the Coptic Gospels -and about Mary Magdalene’s gospel too. Shows how things get ‘edited’ throughout history - usually to rule out womens voices…

I bet you or your Islamic/Jewish friends wouldn't tell your faith leaders you don't belive in an actual deity though!

Until science can explain everything in terms that everyone can understand people will try to find a system of reasoning that works for them.

Humans dislike uncertainty. Nothing is more uncertain than the origin of the universe because our minds cannot comprehend the infinite (our perception of the infinite is bounded by our mortality), nor the idea that the universe was created from nothing. How can something be created from nothing? And if "something" always existed, how can this be? Our experience tells us that everything has a beginning and an end but at the same time a beginning is always the product of something that preceded it. Nothing can be created from nothing unless (arguably) created in the mind (arguably because creations of our minds are at least partly a product of our organic matter, because as we understand it our minds cannot exist outside of this matter).

So if something created our universe from nothing, there must be a greater force at play that we can't scientifically prove. Any theories about the origin of the universe are no more credible than those raised in the more well-known religious texts.

An earlier version of the Bible had Jesus slaying dragons. I guess they had to take that out as people were starting to ask difficult questions.

So what does he 'do'?
How have you actually 'experienced God'?

‘An earlier version of the Bible had Jesus slaying dragons. I guess they had to take that out as people were starting to ask difficult questions.’

Logically though, an all powerful and omniscient being who can create a world in 6 days can certainly have a dragon slaying kid though. No?
Some of DPs evangelical cousins, believe that dinosaurs and people co-existed on earth together and that evolution is a hoax.

Maybe God made the world and then just fucked off...[Kevin Bridges]

YANBU

So if something created our universe from nothing, there must be a greater force at play that we can't scientifically prove. Any theories about the origin of the universe are no more credible than those raised in the more well-known religious texts.

How often is this nonsense going to be repeated in one single thread?

He also killed some kids just because they pissed him off and blinded everyone that told on him.

@ValK your comments are really the mad ramblings of a bigot, and quite frankly dangerous in many ways. Telling people NOT to use protection to prevent getting HIV is insane.
I’ve never understood why some Christian’s feel the need to try to put others down to experience their religion.

No I don't celebrate Christmas, I just ignore it.

Agnostic atheist here.

@ValK I have just read the link you referred to re condoms and HIV. It is by no means as black and white as you imply and does not in fact say what you think it says. You've distorted it completely.

Surprise, surprise.

These comments are disgusting and ridiculous. There is no sin in having sex before marriage - sex isn’t just about having children. What if you didn’t want children - can you not have sex for fun?

Being gay is not a sin - churches need to get their act together and start having same sex marriages.

If churches follow the Bible then.😶
Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men[a] 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Religion is set apart from GOD. People are conflating the two. GOD as a concept is well argued with logical inferences. The problem is most people do not understand the concept of logic.

Children are a blessing from God and it’s a sin not to want them, according to the Catholic Church. What does that say about infertile couples - that they are cursed by God?

So why does “God” and the Church say that being gay is sinful?

Religion is set apart from GOD. People are conflating the two. GOD as a concept is well argued with logical inferences. The problem is most people do not understand the concept of logic.

Lots of concepts are well argued. You can use logic to twist anything you want. Doesn't make any of it real.

BTW why is it that there is this massive prohibition against gay men having sex (though its provenance is based on a debatable translation) but nothing about lesbians?

@Inspecto

Another wording of the same is ‘I am as my servant thinks I am.’

Yes you’re right. I think it’s trying to illustrate that belief/non belief springs from the heart/mind/deep down somewhere. In other words if you believe internally in your heart of hearts that there may be a God you’ll see a lot of evidence externally out there in the world. But if you categorically don’t believe then that same piece of evidence for you is proof of your convictions.

In other words God appears to us how we already think Him to be. A lot of posters here believe God to be vengeful, uncaring, etc so that’s all the proof of God they see in the world.

Of course humans beings are capable of change in all things so this is not a fixed situation but the important thing is that the change has to start within. For instance if an atheist slowly finds themselves considering the possibility of God, they might look on the same world with different eyes.

Again a disclaimer I’m not trying to convert anyone here just offering a different perspective. With all due respect I think too often Islam gets lumped together with Christianity and Judaism when it comes to how Muslims view God when there are very significant nuances which are worth looking into in my opinion. For instance the notion of a man with a white beard in the sky is totally alien to Muslims.

And it's quite possible to enjoy having a bit of pleasure during the winter when the days are short without thinking that it is tied to any religion. Quite clearly our ancestors wanted to appease their own gods and have a bit of a knees up when all about was bloody miserable. The early Christians just took it over, the way they did with lots of festivals/pagan beliefs.