The evidence is unnecessary

I admit that yes, we are indeed obsessed with finding the truth.

 

Yes it is.

 

What about people who sincerely do not see any reason to believe that God exists? What you view as a sign of God may be perceived entirely differently by someone else.

 

The atheist needs to equate God with uncritical thinking. It gives them the ability to never seriously consider the prospects of God's existence. In short, it is a defense mechanism.

 

....well, that, and internal inconsistencies in the religious texts, and immoral texts like the Abrahamic faiths approving of slavery, and the hatred of women in those texts (Jesus for one never spoke up for women's rights even though women were treated like dirt in those days), etc., and those texts saying the earth is about 6000 years old, etc.

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Dude, when one ACCEPTS the fact that "jinns" could be living in their nose, that Mohammad "split the moon", and that flying winged horses are actually real, that's the most uncritical thinking I can imagine!

 

How? I'm not really choosing anything if I'm merely acting in accordance with predetermined circumstances. It's the same as building a robot that performs actions limited by its programming.

What I'm getting at is that the problem with the God concept is this: infinite power and infinite knowledge equal infinite responsibility. Under circumstances like those, literally everything that happens is God's will, not anyone else's.

 

"Burn 'em, burn 'em alive in my lake of fire!" - Jesus Christ**


**From a reasonable interpretation of the Bible....which would make Jesus one of the most sadistic people to have ever (not) lived.

 

Then God is most merciful and knowledgeable. One could be worshipping God and not even know it. I don't know the ins and outs of everybody's hearts.

 

That sounds more merciful than most interpretations of Christianity or Islam. Neither has a holy text that suggests that individuals in this situation are spared damnation.

 

Dude, the magic man promised to let them survive their own deaths - that's all that matters to them, so reason isn't something that most of them look at.....they are ruled by fear, fear of their eventual natural death.

 

The New Testament seems to steer clear of damnation up until Revelation. Granted, Revelation was written by a guy who was most likely high on opium. It doesn't fit very well with the rest of the New Testament.

 

Hogwash! He doesn't know the cure for AIDS. Doesn't know the cure for cancer. Doesn't know how to warn the 240,000 innocent people killed in the Aceh Tsunami. Doesn't know the cure for the common cold. Doesn't know how to the the people in the Middle East who is the one, true, correct god, so they will largely stop killing each other for their particular god.
God is kinda dumb, actually. For some strange reason he always seems exactly as smart as the people were in the century that that particular god was "revealed". What a coincidence!

 

You'll have to read up on the happenings of Judgement Day according to Islam. Many will be forgiven. God is, after all, the most forgiving. He knows His creation, and His mercy will prevail over His wrath.

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What on earth are you talking about? There isn't a disease that God has created that He hasn't created a cure for it.

 

The all-powerful Jesus could have spoken up and said something, to help us all out, but he's fine today with Revelation being in the Bible (as he watches over us and answers our prayers, etc.)

 

Christianity has a similar concept with regard to the end of the world. The idea is that people will be given a chance to convert after Christ shows up.

I suppose that's merciful, but it also seems rather.... late. I find it difficult to understand what the point of remaining vague and ambiguous is, when the consequences of said vagueness results in things like holy wars.

Basically, faith wouldn't be a problem if differences in faith didn't cause so much death and destruction.

 

EXCELLENT NEWS! Fantastic! So when will he become as compassionate as Modern Secular Humanists are and finally stop selfishly keeping the cure to himself? Until he gives it to us he's no better than if Hitler discovered those cures but sat on his hands and didn't give out said cures, because he's just a real prick.
Actually, correct that, I think HITLER WOULD give the cures to humanity.....so I guess I have more respect for Hitler than for this particular unique invisible friend you keep talking about.
Said invisible friend COULD explain to ISIS that they got it all wrong....buuuuuuuut I'm kinda thinking that he expressely APPROVES of ISIS, and that's why he hasn't simply educated them enough so that they realize they are wrong. I would, but then again I'm a nice person, unlike the invisible friend.

Have a great day.

 

When the Church decided what was apocrypha and what wasn't, it was a pivotal process for the future of Christianity. If Revelation had been left out, we'd probably have had a lot fewer holy wars later.

 

I don't see how faith itself is a problem in that case. It's not a problem for one who chooses to focus on himself, especially considering we'll all be alone in the end.

 

Jesus was not actually a man of peace, so he didn't educate them enough for them to do that. He's a pretty lousy educator. Especially seeing how, even though he's "all-powerful" billions and billions of people throughout history haven't really even heard his message, so are hell-bound. John 14:6 says the only way to the father is through him, so those poor saps who don't hear about him are doomed. Jesus is the epitome of unfairness.

 

Well yeah, it's the conflict of faiths that is the problem.

When people believe so strongly that they have the one correct faith, they can often act in violent ways. I'm not saying all religious people are violent, but there are definitely certain interpretations of religion that strongly encourage it.

 

Better to focus on something that is provably real rather than on something that, from an evidence-based point of view, is no more real than Gandelf or Harry Potter.

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Wait, doesn't god love us enough to tell us what is actually true and what is not true, himself? How do we know those fallible mortal men got it right?

 

His message in most places seems to be about forgiveness. The Old Testament is where most of the violent stuff is. The problem is that a lot of fundamentalist Christians almost seem to focus more on the Old Testament than the New one. For example, Christ never said anything about homosexuality. Most of the anti-gay stuff that a lot of Christians focus on is from Leviticus.

 

What kind of editors include a chapter from a guy on drugs?
"Sir, we have one chapter that's written by a guy on drugs, should we include it in the book?"
"Yes, I'll allow it. Let's mess with their heads."

 

Well, that's the thing. For the people who take the Bible literally, they're essentially putting more faith in its writers than in God. The same could be said for the Quran or any other holy text.

Ultimately, faith should be about the personal relationship you have with whatever deity or deities you believe in. I don't believe in any myself, but if I did decide to convert to something, I wouldn't take the corresponding text that literally. Sometimes, it seems like you have to add your own judgment to the mix.

 

lol Well, there are parts of the Old Testament that seem like that as well.