Something For Atheists to Consider

Try dealing with the Easter Bunny analogy. Is it more logical to believe the Easter Bunny doesn't exist or to believe we just don't know. And no, there is no difference whatsoever between the Easter Bunny and God except perhaps that the Easter Bunny does actually have proof of existance at least for children.

 

why should atheists 'like' one particular prophet/god/whatever superhero? and what do you mean by 'like' anyway? like the way the character was drawn by the authors of the book? or like his beard? or what? how do you approach Vishnu, or Odin? Do you 'like' them?

 

Then you should be able to provide the evidence from the Max Planck institute in it's original form instead of obviously abbreviated and slanted excerpts.

Oh and just for fun here is a link to another scholarly article from the Sun about paople who f..k trees

https://www.thesun.co.uk/living/212...ng-sex-with-the-earth-could-actually-save-it/

 

Good.

We are talking about a very suspect concept here...and walking away from the conversation is not the way to act.

Bottom line: Hard (strong) atheists cannot come to their position via logic, reason, or science. It just cannot be done.

But the same thing holds for theist who assert there IS a god...or IS an afterlife.

That also cannot be obtained via logic, reason, or science.

Both of those extreme positions are a result of "faith" for want of a better word.

 

I said your argument wasn't logical and was based on a logical fallacy. Not that belief in a god is illogical.

Of course there is. You are making several wild and unsupportable assumptions in your premise. You first need to prove that a god or gods exist before you can begin to assert that said god created the universe.

Im not having any trouble at all.

 

"Believe" (or blindly guess) whatever you want.

BOTTOM LINE, though, is that with regard to whether or not gods exist in the REALITY...WE DO NOT KNOW.

All we can do is to guess.

And there is no way to make a guess based on logic, reason, or science.

A MUCH BETTER analogy has to be: Are there any sentient beings living on any of the planets circling the nearest 10 stars to Sol?

The only answer that can be derived from logic, reason, or science is; I do not know.

"Yes, there are"...or "No there aren't"...cannot be anything but guesses.

 

actually use Santa

Santa is a myth for children, God is a myth for adults

I do though think the Santa myth is a good experience for a child to learn to seek the truth on their own - without Santa, there would be no Christmas (without Jesus their would be no Heaven)

.

 

Well, you can take the logical approach and review all the evidence, make predictions and test them, in the scientific way. What evidence is there for any god? Anecdotal evidence (bible, koran etc) and nothing much else. Prayer has been tested with both sides claiming victory. The world hasn't ended yet despite predictions. As someone said, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, so anyone claiming a god exists needs extraordinary proof. And before anyone says the obvious, making the conclusion that there is no god is not extraordinary, it's just the default position.

As for the aliens, that's nothng to do with supernatural beings.

 

Among other things, the existence of conscience. You're welcome.

 

None!

What evidence is there for any sentient life on any planet circling the nearest 10 stars to Sol?

Also none!

Correct...and for life on any planet mentioned...we have lots of science fiction books and nothing much else.

Indecisive.

SETI has been listening and heard some stuff, but nothing conclusive.

Indecisive.

Correct. And nobody has contacted us from any other worlds that we know of.

Indecisive.

Exactly.

As would any claim made that there are no gods.

Push!

(Same would hold that there IS sentient life on at least one of the planets circling the nearest 10 stars to Sol...and there IS NO sentient life on any of those planets.)

NO, NO, NO. That would be as self-serving as saying the default position on the question of the sentient life would be: There is no life on any planet circling the nearest 10 stars to Sol.


The default position is that we do not know what the REALITY holds. It may have things we do not know about that would make the concept of gods seem like tame stuff.

THE DEFAULT POSITION IS: WE DO NOT KNOW THE TRUE NATURE OF THE REALITY...and we cannot include or exclude things like gods.

IF there are gods...that would have nothing to do with supernatural beings either.

IF gods exist...they exist.

They may not exist in what we humans consider "nature"...but we humans may have almost no idea of what NATURE is or contains.

 

That's interesting. Can you clarify?

 

What am I defending, please?

 

The assumption that finding out we're immortal will make us angry reveals that they're not remotely open to belief themselves. They are merely cultists, who've limited their own potential eternity to a single very specific dogma. It's this that they're accusing us of being angry about, not the concept of immortality itself. It's hilarious when you think about it for more than 30 seconds.

 

The Big Bang Theory is trash. Anyone with an IQ of 10 knows it's silly. Think about it.

 

I'm glad you agree with me in general. However, I'm at a loss as to why the existence of aliens in our near proximity has any relevance to whether or not there is a god. Maybe you could explain?

Just on a general note, you don't have to shout, it devalues your message.

We actually have a very good idea of reality. We manipulate it every day. We communicate over distances, and travel by road and sea and air, and understand a lot about how the universe works. By posting here you understand that.

Perhaps you'd like to provide that extraordinary proof?

 

Ok...whatever!
You're not defending (*)(*)(*)(*)! Can you tell I find all this stupid! But keep the passion if it makes you sleep better!

Help me Lord!
(fyi: My last statement was definitely meant for annoyance)

 

the possibility of immortality (in one form or another) says nothing about deities. At ALL.

and the 'brilliant minds of humanity' also used reason and logic to conclude that the earth was flat. when we lack information, we can 'conclude' anything that suits us. we did just that, for millennia.

 

Then so should you be able to. I don't owe you any special favors. If you think The Sun has slanted the piece prove it.
That's not the purpose of this thread.

 

Anyone with an IQ of more than 10 knows it's not.

 

Logic doesn't actually fail.

There just happen to be cases where there is insufficient information, so the logical answer is, "I don't know".

And, that doesn't mean we have to concoct some other irrational answer. There are plenty of ways to procede rationally when we don't know something.

We are humans. We face this all the time. We're well experienced in what to do when we don't know.

 

It is a religious tenant, after all.
In any event I don't recall making any references to deities in the OP and neither do you.

They obviously did not or would have reached the correct conclusion.

 

I don't have a personal "pet deity" and no, I'm not encouraging people to believe all Gods and forms of afterlife (whatever that is) exist.

That's utter garbage, unsurprisingly.

 

So what caused your preferred god? (my bold).

To assume that your preferred god just happens to be here for no reason at all, is like thinking a that a pocket watch on the surface of Mars is just some odd coincidence.

 

Do you mean tenant or tenet?

 

Neither is childishly insulting people but that doesn't seem to stop you.

I've already laid out a logical case for God.