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Reply 320
innerhollow
Your reasoning is nothing short of flawed. Just because someone writes something as a non-fiction book doesn't make it magically factual :rolleyes: I will dimiss a non-fiction book as lies if I find it to be lies. I am suspicious of what I read in non-fiction books, and I often corroborate it with other sources, usually the internet, but it always checks out, because thesedays we have publishing standards. I do not have faith in the authors or anything like that, and I don't know where you got that ridiculous idea from.


Whatever, point is you have faith in the authorities, no? That's faith too. You have no idea whether they are doing their job right or wrong. With realizing it you have faith in many other things; your friends (?), your lectures....etc

As a Catholic I have faith in the Bible and it's authors and it's preachers.
morecambebay
why are you smiling at the fact that you're an evil sadistic **** who would kill and skin babies if you weren't afraid of 'god'.


+ you only don't kill and skin (a personal preference- your thing might be rape) babies because you are afraid of society.
IQ Test
Main reasons:
1. If there was one true god/ group of gods, then why are there so many religions? Religions can't all be right in saying "our religion is the right one" if there are so many to choose from.

The same reason why there are so many languages and cultures. The source is all from God since he is the only constant.

2. If God is all compassionate, then why are there innocent babies and children, without "sin", dying around the world?

Everone is born and everyone dies, it's a part of the natural cycle. Being present on earth means we are subject to all natural causes in the universe
theBOON
Whatever, point is you have faith in the authorities, no? That's faith too. You have no idea whether they are doing their job right or wrong. With realizing it you have faith in many other things; your friends (?), your lectures....etc

As a Catholic I have faith in the Bible and it's authors and it's preachers.


You can't just jump ship like that. I have made no other point other than that a book CLAIMING to be factual cannot be said to be factual solely on the basis of the claim as you suggested. I don't recall saying anything else.

And please don't put a question mark after "friends". That's just mean.
flowerness
What are your reasons for not believing in a God or religion?!


Same reasons for not believing in Santa/Easter Bunny/Tooth Fairy.
Reply 325
innerhollow
You can't just jump ship like that. I have made no other point other than that a book CLAIMING to be factual cannot be said to be factual solely on the basis of the claim as you suggested. I don't recall saying anything else.

And please don't put a question mark after "friends". That's just mean.

I thought you didn't understand the rest of my post. Misunderstanding sorry.

About the claiming bit, there are also, the word of the authors, the testimony of thousands, personal experiences, related supernatural happenings, historical correlations....etc

I meant if you had faith in them. You know not all friends are true friends.

Sorry about the misunderstandings, though. :p:
Reply 326
I don´t believe in a god or religion because I believe in ME. And, as many people here already posted, there is no prove.
flowerness
Expand....


That's it. No valid evidence supports the existence of god.
Religion has always been the ultimate answer, explaining what science could not, giving meaning to life, a strong bind between members of a culture, order in ancient societies, hope for an afterlife, and much more. Basically I believe Religion to be a powerfull crutch humans created to help get through everyday chaos, and a good one at that. Why is it we find it so incredibly easy to chuckle at ancient greeks, believing in a family of Gods living on mount Olympus, yet take such offence when someone says the God some of us believe in today doesn't exist? At the end of the day it doesn't MATTER!!! It is irrelevant whether or not he/she/it/they exist/s, it is more about the psychological benefits of believing that there may be a divine and just creature. I fully respect anyone who believes in God, who is lucky enough to truly believe that there IS a benevolent being, an ultimate reason for everything. I envy you. However i do not understand why people cannot just live for the sake of LIFE, not for the promises of an afterlife that may not exist. With that I by no means am implying that one should live a selfish life, not following the ten commandments or whatever you live by. I think we should be good and social and attempt our best for the sake of it, not out of fear of God, or because it is Gods will or anything of the sorts, simply because it is the right thing to do. But as i said, I would never try to go down the path of convincing someone with any faith that their faith is empirically ungrounded, just because this is my view of things. What for? Live and let live for everyones sake, and stop trying to convince believers that God doesn't exist and stop telling us people who DON'T believe in God that we are missing out and that our lives are unfullfilled or whatnot, as i have been told soooooo many times, we are FINE as we are. You are not going to convince us, just as little as we are going to deter you from your beliefs. I hate long posts, especially when they're mine, sorry :smile:
enlightened
Athiests are illogical, hence they make up 2.5% of the worlds population.

:rolleyes:


People with tertiary education nowadays make up roughly 13% of the world's population. Would you argue that their being a minority makes them less credible or capable of logical thought? are the majority of those 2.5% not within that group of literate people with a higher education? I am not calling people of faith stupid, do NOT twist my words! I just find your argument a bit weak....

Source for 13%: World Population Monitoring, 2003: Population Education and
Development, Table 15(pages 40 ff) http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/2003monitoring/WorldPopMonitoring_2003.pdf
Reply 330
I don't have 'The Belief' that others seem to have. Yes, God is a lovely idea but it doesn't make sense to me!
CharlieDon'tSurf
+ you only don't kill and skin (a personal preference- your thing might be rape) babies because you are afraid of society.


I anticipate that he's moral due to a sense of morality and not just fear of the consequences.
Science, the fact no other animals have a god (why should we), hasn't been proven, and i don't wanna waste the one life i do have praying etc to get to heaven.
Kolya
Do you believe that the approach adopted by many people is an acceptable approach?


I think it's acceptable to the point where we understand that it leads to a view of the world which is so far consistent with itself, and is a useful premise to accept when going about our day to day lives. The existence of other minds intuitively seems to be the case. If we assume it to be the case, it doesn't cause any logical problems as such, so as far as we're concerned, it may as well be true.
I can't be bothered to go into all my underlying reasons, but to be frank, I think it's a waste to spend our lives working for "a place in heaven".
Even if heaven and God do exist, I know for sure, I value my life down here on Earth with the people and things that I love (despite their many flaws), far more than any fantastical place of wholesome-goodness-peace and serenity and what-not...
How could anything be better than this, I have often found myself wondering. And what is the point in this life if we do not seize it as ... well, the opportunity of a lifetime >.<
I appreciate the life I already have. I do not feel the need to sacrifice my simple but happy human life for the possibility of something even better beyond the grave. :confused:
Reply 335
I'm not an athiest because I am of the idea that there is some kind of master lifeform - a god if you would prefer. However I don't subscribe to the idea of religion, maybe this particular god doesn't want us to constantly thank him and apologise for being human, restricting ourselves and live by a book which could've been written by anyone. The Bible may contain some 'amazing' stories for some, but so did Lord of the Rings, which was written by a human. The Ten Commandments can be diluted into generic moral values which any human being with common sense would understand, and don't necessarily have to be religious. I also don't believe in the concept of an afterlife. I think when you die, that's it. Lights out. It's like sleeping - you don't realise it and it's not something that should be feared.

I also don't think there is one meaning of life, but one for each person, and they're all different. Well there is, but basically it's you who decides what your meaning to live is. You go out and strive to achieve whatever, fail, try to resolve problems and keep going on. There's so many religions with many different views on what to do and not to do, they're all shaped by different people who wanted to create different meanings for their own lives. That's why I don't believe in Heaven and Hell. The phrase "damned to Hell for eternity" to me is just a silly scare phrase to get people to follow you and have them under your control. It's just fear and intimidation, and if anyone tries to use it against you, you really should just brush it off and laugh. Right, that's enough pseudo-intellectual bull from me.
I used to believe in God and all that stuff but I lost my faith. I wouldn't have even had it in the first place if it weren't for my mother: she made me read the Bible every evening, took me to church, so on so forth.

Now it just seems to me that the idea of 'God' is just ridiculous, like a fairy tale someone made up to make themselves feel better about the world.

I don't care about heaven, or a better 'life' after I die. I care about the life I have NOW, the friends and the experiences and times I KNOW exist, instead of trying to impress some giant man looking down at us all.
Reply 337
My parents never forced it into me.
Wolfos
I'm not an athiest because I am of the idea that there is some kind of master lifeform - a god if you would prefer. However I don't subscribe to the idea of religion, maybe this particular god doesn't want us to constantly thank him and apologise for being human, restricting ourselves and live by a book which could've been written by anyone. The Bible may contain some 'amazing' stories for some, but so did Lord of the Rings, which was written by a human. The Ten Commandments can be diluted into generic moral values which any human being with common sense would understand, and don't necessarily have to be religious. I also don't believe in the concept of an afterlife. I think when you die, that's it. Lights out. It's like sleeping - you don't realise it and it's not something that should be feared.

I also don't think there is one meaning of life, but one for each person, and they're all different. Well there is, but basically it's you who decides what your meaning to live is. You go out and strive to achieve whatever, fail, try to resolve problems and keep going on. There's so many religions with many different views on what to do and not to do, they're all shaped by different people who wanted to create different meanings for their own lives. That's why I don't believe in Heaven and Hell. The phrase "damned to Hell for eternity" to me is just a silly scare phrase to get people to follow you and have them under your control. It's just fear and intimidation, and if anyone tries to use it against you, you really should just brush it off and laugh. Right, that's enough pseudo-intellectual bull from me.


Your sensibleness makes me curious. Why do you believe in that master lifeform?
Wolfos may be a deist.

I am an atheist for so many reasons. But it does come down to one thing: the lack of evidence.

I am not a militant atheist: each to their own. But I do think that, as a theist, you are ignorant. It is even worse when people just pay lip service to their spirituality to appear "wholesome" IYKWIM. I'm not trying to be purposefully dogmatic or "sure" of myself, but I am so so so so so sure I'm right, I don't really care.

As I said though, each to their own, but religion doesn't impress me. If anything, it shows ignorance and a lack of understanding.

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