There is no evidence for God

I don't agree with you that selfishness is human. Quite the contrary. Humans are able to have empathy. This is how a 4 years old who beets up his friend, learns after he was beaten up himself, that it hurts and that is unfair to do to others. Animals are not like that I think (even though there is still some debates arround this). Animals are selfish.

Ok,

1) Omnipotence as a concept is self-contradictory. Just think "can God create a stone so heavy that he cannot lift it?" Whether he can or cannot, leads to a contradiction.

2) Evil is contradictory with other elements of his nature- Omnipotence and omnibenevolence. As Epicurus said:

"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"

Essentially, evil is incompatible with the existence of God. Many theologians have attempted to "justify the ways of God to man", but are largely unsuccessful and require many dogmatic Christian beliefs to make them work.

3) You say that you have free will but that is simply an arbitrary belief based on very little evidence.

It is contradictory with the nature of God because if God is the creator of everything and he knows everything then how can he create you with free will. It's like God has written a book where he knows everything that will happen for certain but somehow the characters in the book are free to do anything they want. It's very hard to make sense of it without claiming that "God can just do it... just cus".

Hope this helps. Faith is the only way to believe in God. Unfortunately, there is very little reason involved.

I think atheist who are convinced that no God exists, are as naïve as religious folks. I think we need to redefine what God is. I believe, if there is no God, then, there is only determination and Darwinism that rules the world. That means if you decide something is GOOD or something is BAD, it is only because either you got it taught this way (a lot of people don't question the fact that laws are good, never bad); or it comes from own experiences, through empathy (It hurted me, so I won't do it to you), empathy which, with other things in your brain where developed for the Human kind to survive as a population (Darwin). I believe, if you believe in God, you believe that there is something else, other than these concepts, that tells you what is right and what is wrong.

You hope this helps??? Did I ask for help?

All three of your responses are illogical circle jerks sort of and don't really show a lot of thought. God is not a construct of your mind. He's not bound by your logic.


#1. I heard this when I was a child and it sounds even sillier now. God can do want he wants. The universe is his to do what he wants with it. Little and big rocks included.

#2. Behold!! A man who knows the heart and mind of God. You cannot begin to know God or his plans for man and this planet. Your faith is only,(for now anyway), only in what you can see and that accounts for only a small amount of what the universe and this world contain. Most of the things that affect you can't be seen. If God created evil I have to think it indeed has a place in His plan.

#3.What's difficult about the concept that I am free to do as I please and a God who knows the future and every choice that I will make in my lifetime. I think your just reluctant to admit there is a conscious being that is greater than you and you can't begin to understand him.

Ah but is selfishness = lack of empathy?

I would have thought the two are different?

Lack of empathy = I do not care what happens to others.
Selfishness = I do what i want (but not necessarily hurting others).

I would agree that selfishness does not equal the lack of empathy.

But I would not agree with your definition of empathy. Isn't empathy the understanding of other emotions? Perhaps we should use the word sympathy instead. Sorry for being pedantic.

I don't agree with you that selfishness is human. Quite the contrary. Humans are able to have empathy. This is how a 4 years old who beets up his friend, learns after he was beaten up himself, that it hurts and that is unfair to do to others. Animals are not like that I think (even though there is still some debates arround this). Animals are selfish.

Ah but is selfishness = lack of empathy?

I would have thought the two are different?

Lack of empathy = I do not care what happens to others.
Selfishness = I do what i want (but not necessarily hurting others).

Ok you tell me there is no evidence for God. Well how are we all living right now? What is your answer to that if you believe that there is no evidence for God existing. Why do people die? What is the point of us living and dying at a certain time?

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Well yes empathy is the ability to feel the emotions of others. If you can't do that, it means you don't feel bad if they are hurt. You don't care about them in that sense.

Haha it's ok, it's good to be clear about these things. I do not know about sympathy, in German we use it differently that one does in English.

I understand what you mean. Sociopaths often act recklessly because they lack empathy. However, one can possess empathy (i.e. understand someone else's emotion) but still lack the sympathy to act upon it.

Well, the sensible position to hold is to claim that we cannot know. I do not know the exact position of the person that you were replying to, but most sensible atheists would not say that God does not exist for certain. Simply that there is no reason to believe in a God.

However, there is good reason to believe that there is no Christian God as that particular God is self-contradictory making his existence an extreme improbability.

The only good evidence for the Christian God is probably eye-witness testimony of the miracles of Jesus Christ and his resurrection. However, these are obviously very old, there are possible rational explanations and there is also eye-witness testimony from other conflicting religion.

The earthly origins of God can be traced in literature, too.

And forget "creatures" then. How about we all live in a computer simulation?

And anyway, I myself do not discount that there is an entity out there that created the universe. I find it unlikely, but yes, I would not wholly discount it.

But what I do discount, and anyone capable of rational thought should discount, is a so-called God, that is benevolent, among other things, and displays all of the characteristics as described in holy texts.

What you are talking about, that entity, that is far removed from the God we are talking about here.

If you believe that God is not bound by logic then there is no point in taking this argument further, considering that arguments are built on logic.

I wish you well and I look forward to burning in hell.

I also wish you well. BTW, I think the only person who will burn in hell is Satan.

Humans are still built around selfishness. There may be glimmers of altruism as evolution can favor certain altruistic organisms to further the entire human race as a whole. But for the most part, humans are selfish.

I doubt that the 4 year old will stop beating people up because he is beaten up himself. He will probably stop beating people up if his parents tell him off or if he is punished. The whole reason why capitalism works is that people are selfish and greedy.

Do you mean "determinism" instead of "determination"?

You cannot base an argument regarding God's existence around something like "it would be really bad if God didn't exist". Arguments regarding God's existence must appeal to reason, logic and evidence.

The argument that you just made would be more suited to an argument about whether the world is better off with or without religion.

Furthermore, I do not believe that atheists are as naive as religious people. There are of course exceptions, but most atheists would likely believe in God if a reasoned argument were to be made. However, Christians still believe in God in spite of many good arguments which suggest his non-existence.

I don't believe so, there is a lot you would not do because you know how badly it hurts. The same way around, I think sometimes, if you have never experienced something (like lets say a really bad illness), it is hart for you to feel true empathy for someone who experiences this (lets say someone who has cancer). You kind off feel that you can't quite have empathy for this person because you've never lived anything near this. This is why, I would say, the laws and your parents are here to fill in the gaps of the things you have not felt (so you don't punch someone just because you have not been punched), but for the gran majority, what you do because it is right, and don't do because it is wrong, is mostly directed by your empathy.
Capitalism works because the Rich never felt what it is like to be poor; don't even look or read about it and are told that the poors wanted to be in this situation to start with. I think the people who are the least selfish are the people who suffered, and therefore, are pushed by their empathy.