Will The Real God Please Step Forward

[SirPhoenix]

Ok if an atheist is one that doesn't see any evidence for the existance of God, then, I'm an atheist. Any other definition really doesn't fit me because I can conceive that a God exists, but that's really as far as I'm willing to go.

 

There is so much we do not understand about our universe. I have personally replaced my blind belief christianity with searching out the mysteries of the universe. Darwin died in 1882, just a short 129 years ago. Considering the amount of human knowlege likely to be gained in the next 129 years, what we know today is a drop in the bucket. The big bang theory is like a child's crayon drawing compared to the details and depth of what actually happened.

 

If you have not read the book Flatland by Edwin A. Abbot, I highly reccommend it. It is a story told from the point of view of a pentagon living in a 2D universe. He ecounters a sphere who lives in a 3D universe. Basically, it illustrates how our perception of reality and our concept of the nature of our universe is limited to the dimensions in which we exist. In our case, that would be four, length, width, height, and time. Although in our case, we experience time moving in only one direction.

 

Is there a God. I have no idea. If there is, I don't really know who he is, but I'm pretty sure I know who he isn't.

[dB-Paradox]

My father-in-law, in trying to explain that we can't know everything about God (that some things are just God's mysteries), said "Can the worm know the man?" I know what he was getting at with the quotation, but perhaps unbeknownst to him, he acknowledged that there's no way of knowing Yahweh any more than there is knowing Zeus.

[cw89]

I am an atheist. Using your thought path you should consider yourself more along the lines of being agnostic.

Agnostic–noun a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause, as god, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience.

From http://dictionary.reference.com. As an atheist i have no doubt that there is no god. We have only a drop in the bucket of knowledge, but I think we have enough brain power to contemplate the existence of god. I could be completely wrong to you, but that is my opinion.

 

[LivingLife]

I am an atheist. Using your thought path you should consider yourself more along the lines of being agnostic.

Agnostic–noun a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause, as god, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience.

From http://dictionary.reference.com. As an atheist i have no doubt that there is no god. We have only a drop in the bucket of knowledge, but I think we have enough brain power to contemplate the existence of god. I could be completely wrong to you, but that is my opinion.

 

This "difference" between Atheist and Agnostic is a moot point anyway. If xians are held to the same standard of knowing then there should be an equal opposite for both definitions.

 

In a nutshell an Agnostic is "not sure" and an Atheist has weighed up all the evidence and come to the conclusion there is no god.

 

The xians all believe solely on faith and the belief that the bubble is inerrant, some ascribe emotional experiences as "proof"

[Guest I Love Dog]

Is there a God. I have no idea. If there is, I don't really know who he is, but I'm pretty sure I know who he isn't.

 

 

If we look back at humans, we'll see that they have invented gods/spirits for a long, long time. Gods filled their ignorance and this thinking continued for many thousands of years. The Egyptians had many gods, the Hindus, the Romans, the Greeks and the nomadic dwellers of the deserts, the Canaanites, The Hebrews, etc.

 

One thing they all had in common was their gods were all invented, Figments of their imagination.

 

One of the many gods that the Hebrews worshiped was old Yahweh. He was invented, as were all of the others that they worshiped. He was special in that the Hebrews believed that he got them out of Egypt, away from the persecution of the Egyptians. They were probably persecuted because they were ignorant and trouble making nomads, tiny bunch of people always wanting something for nothing butting in where they weren't wanted.

 

So they had some scribes(not sure where they were from) who wrote all these fantastic stories about how great the Hebrews were, conquering, destroying, killing, all done with the help of their god Yahweh. Did it happen? Nah!

 

So, the OT is a load of nonsense, basically. Like something written by a football coach to make his really bad team look good in their own eyes.

 

The Hebrews were so amazed that they looked so good and powerful in the writings of the OT that they decided they only needed one god. Good old Yahweh/Jehovah. They became a legend in their own lunch box.

 

They got a bit big for their boots and built a temple to their Yahweh god.

The Romans said, can't have this happening and destroyed the temple, kicked the Hebrews out.

 

They spread out and infiltrated Greek and Roman businesses.

 

Meantime, there was a minor prophet named Jesus, who was getting a bit of a following by various sects. No one was really sure what/who he was and the various sects had different ideas about whether he was human, spiritual or a mix.

 

An important Roman, Augustine, who was a Pagan, had a wife who became a Jesus follower.

 

Augustine is thinking, we need the Jewish know-how about import/export, but they want a Messiah and a new temple to keep them quiet.

 

Augustine is thinking, gotta keep the wife happy, gotta keep the Jews happy, gotta control the people of the Empire. We'll have an Official religion, an official god, we'll invent a story. We'll borrow from lots of older religions and he came up with Christianity. Give the Jews a Messiah. They're dumb, they'll believe it. Of course, they didn't and are still waiting for their Messiah to come.

 

The he enforced it with an iron fist. Non believers were forced on pain of death to believe in the official religion and one true god.

 

Through fear, Christianity became entrenched in the psyche of all those whom the Romans came near and this continued for 1500 years.

 

Power, wealth, control, the elements that have sustained Christianity. What a travesty for humankind!

 

That's my take, anyway.

[Guest I Love Dog]

 

In a nutshell an Agnostic is "not sure" and an Atheist has weighed up all the evidence and come to the conclusion there is no god.

 

The xians all believe solely on faith and the belief that the bubble is inerrant, some ascribe emotional experiences as "proof"

 

An atheist cannot state that there is no god! It's like stating that there is no life on other planets. We don't know.

 

It's like some Christians saying that they KNOW there is a god. They don't KNOW, period. They may believe that there is, but that's all they can do is believe.

 

An atheist is someone who does not believe that there is a god or gods or denies the existence of a god or gods.

 

As sure as I am that there is no god or gods, I cannot be 100% sure that there isn't, but I'm not an agnostic.

 

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825 - 1895) came up with the word "˜agnostic' while searching for a term to describe his own beliefs. He did not consider himself "an atheist, a theist, a pantheist; a materialist or an idealist; [nor] a Christian"¦" and while he had much in common with freethinkers, he wanted a term to describe himself more accurately. His difference with the people who gave themselves the above labels was that he did not feel certain of his knowledge- or "˜gnosis'- that he "had successfully solved the problem of existence."

 

It's a complicated difference to me! Atheist versus agnostic.

[LivingLife]

An atheist cannot state that there is no god! It's like stating that there is no life on other planets. We don't know.

 

It's like some Christians saying that they KNOW there is a god. They don't KNOW, period. They may believe that there is, but that's all they can do is believe.

 

An atheist is someone who does not believe that there is a god or gods or denies the existence of a god or gods.

 

As sure as I am that there is no god or gods, I cannot be 100% sure that there isn't, but I'm not an agnostic.

 

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825 - 1895) came up with the word "˜agnostic' while searching for a term to describe his own beliefs. He did not consider himself "an atheist, a theist, a pantheist; a materialist or an idealist; [nor] a Christian"¦" and while he had much in common with freethinkers, he wanted a term to describe himself more accurately. His difference with the people who gave themselves the above labels was that he did not feel certain of his knowledge- or "˜gnosis'- that he "had successfully solved the problem of existence."

 

It's a complicated difference to me! Atheist versus agnostic.

That was what I was saying "..has come to the conclusion by weighing up the evidence that there is (likely) no god."

 

But you nailed it on the head that no one really knows. Personally I do not believe there is any god nor evil beings like satan. For this belief in god to have any traction, one must deny a fair amount of logic and dumb down the quality of evidence. Religion anyway preys on emotions rather than logic.