Why did you pick atheism?

[Middleground]

Same path I took to theism.

So you were not born a Christian?

 

[Middleground]

Didn't get that pony for Christmas?

Huh? You post makes zero sense.

 

[Loulit01]

Ok. Whether or not you agree or disagree with what a god has or has not done….whether or not a god can be characterized as good or evil, or should or should not be worshipped…is completely irrelevant as to whether or not that god exists.

Okay, I get that.

Also, our evaluation of good or evil does not and cannot have the same context as any being that could be called a god. We’re talking completely different levels of reality and cannot know if the actions are good or evil from the perspective of gods. Maybe they’re good, maybe evil, maybe neutral: no way to know from any perspective other than our own.

True. So using my own perspective I find there cannot be a God because I cannot believe a God could be this god awful at godding.

Your atheism seems to be monotheistic: you’re only rejecting one god concept, as if that were the only one and to reject it is to reject all.

Nope. It seems that way because this forum is focused on the Judeo Christian God. But I reject that there is any all powerful being out there whom we should worship.

 

[HonestJoe]

I've heard this old song and dance. There is no free will. Everything we do and everything we are, is a result of everything that happened to us and everything that influenced us, before we make any involuntary "decision". Good luck selling that.

I didn't say everything, we were only talking about beliefs, and beliefs in relation to the existence of gods at that. There are plenty of things we do have agency in choosing (practicing a religion for example), it's just that fundamental beliefs aren't one of them.

 

[reinaert]

Okay, I get that.

True. So using my own perspective I find there cannot be a God because I cannot believe a God could be this god awful at godding.

Nope. It seems that way because this forum is focused on the Judeo Christian God. But I reject that there is any all powerful being out there whom we should worship.

Unless Blake is right and the Nobodaddy - or its modern version, Roko's Basilisk - rules the fate of all.

 

[Loulit01]

Unless Blake is right and the Nobodaddy - or its modern version, Roko's Basilisk - rules the fate of all.

Tiger, Tiger, my mistake,
I thought that you were William Blake.

 

[watsup]

So, do you think that a theoretical scientist should not speculate about something if there is no evidence the thing could exist?

Depends on what “thing” is? By definition, scientists work in the NATURAL world and many of them do indeed “speculate”, just as Einstein did with his theory of relativity, after which they go to work to try to confirm the evidence for their theory, like Einstein did.. Again, by definition, a “god” is an EXTRA-NATURAL entity and there is thus no reason why a scientist should waste time on it. As such, any “speculation” comes from theologian apologists.

 

[watsup]

We looked for wood fairies and did not find any so we have concluded that no wood fairies exist. It is possible wood fairies exist on other planets though.
The problem that you are encountering is that our search for God is not over. If it was, this thread would not be so popular. A thread about wood fairies wouldn't go anywhere.

If more people “believe” in an imaginary entity, how does that in any way make it real? And who are you to declare that the search for wood fairies is over? Says who?

 

[The Baron]

History.

Yea. I really didn't think you had anything. Thanks for confirming that.

 

[Roger Duke]

Nope. It seems that way because this forum is focused on the Judeo Christian God.

The forum is not based on the Judeo Christian God and neither is this thread. The thread has been hijacked by atheists who have a weak stance and see Christianity as an easy target.....likely because most of them know more about Christianity than other religions.
Plus they know a religious person who did something bad so that is all the proof they need to be convinced that a God or gods can't exist.

 

[Logicman]

If more people “believe” in an imaginary entity, how does that in any way make it real?

Show me your evidence that Jesus in the Gospels is an imaginary entity.

You keep coming up with this liberal bs and you can never support your claims. All you do is fulminate and then you believe your own nonsense.

So where's your evidence Jesus is imaginary??

 

[Airyaman]

You could be a theist and have hope that something is out there besides a cold dark eternal death.
You could be an agnostic and admit the truth; that neither theism nor atheism can be shown to be correct with our current knowledge.
But you made the bold choice of atheism and used the evidence (and lack of evidence) available to you, to Iive out the rest of your days, confident that when your life is over it's over, and it didn't matter that you didn't matter.....and it didn't matter that the Universe itself didn't matter. Why is that more appealing to you than the other two choices?

I didn't choose atheism, I simply found no reason to believe in imaginary deities. Belief has to be maintained, non belief requires zero effort.

 

[Goshin]

If there is a God, He allows little girls to get raped. He allows priests to molest little boys, famine, fires, tsunamis, earthquakes, genocides, war after war after war after war. God has destroyed the world by flood, cities by fire, there's the book of Job. If there is a God He's an evil, childish, sadistic failure.

So I choose to believe there's no God. I'm an atheist.

Animals simply live according to their programming. They can't imagine or attempt to do anything but be what they are.

Humans have free will, intelligence, and self-awareness. We have the freedom to choose, and sometimes we choose evil. Blame that on humanity, not God.

Would you rather be a finger puppet who was incapable of doing anything but God's will? I doubt it.

 

[devildavid]

We don't know that.

We don't know that there should be verifiable evidence of something? Why don't we know that?

 

[CaughtInThe]

maybe people knew of stuff like this...

 

[devildavid]

Animals simply live according to their programming. They can't imagine or attempt to do anything but be what they are.

Humans have free will, intelligence, and self-awareness. We have the freedom to choose, and sometimes we choose evil. Blame that on humanity, not God.

Would you rather be a finger puppet who was incapable of doing anything but God's will? I doubt it.

Animals are not programmed. Human beings are not as free as you claim. The reality is somewhere in between this over simplified view.

There is another choice than being controlled by god. We could have been created to live with god and have a non stop party with god. God did not need to create beings only to test them. After all, no one tested god. Why would a god want to do that? Why wouldn't an all powerful god want to create companions to have fun with?

 

[Goshin]

Animals are not programmed. Human beings are not as free as you claim. The reality is somewhere in between this over simplified view.

There is another choice than being controlled by god. We could have been created to live with god and have a non stop party with god. God did not need to create beings only to test them. After all, no one tested god. Why would a god want to do that? Why wouldn't an all powerful god want to create companions to have fun with?

Per Genesis, we were in fact created to know God directly and live with him. We broke that fellowship ourselves.

 

[devildavid]

Per Genesis, we were in fact created to know God directly and live with him. We broke that fellowship ourselves.

Genesis is not objective fact. It is a religious fable. Human behavior has natural reasons and causes.

 

[Roger Duke]

I didn't choose atheism, I simply found no reason to believe in imaginary deities. Belief has to be maintained, non belief requires zero effort.

I wouldn't say that non belief requires no effort. Facing death as they get older, a lot of atheists have to put a lot of effort in to maintain their atheism. Many of them fail. I've heard it can also be tough to maintain your atheism in a foxhole with bullets flying over your head and bombs exploding all around.

 

[Noodlegawd]

Wouldn't atheists be theists if they thought God existed?

Not believing that X exists, and believing that X does not exist, are two very different things.

 

[watsup]

Show me your evidence that Jesus in the Gospels is an imaginary entity.

You keep coming up with this liberal bs and you can never support your claims. All you do is fulminate and then you believe your own nonsense.

So where's your evidence Jesus is imaginary??

I did not say that. I said that “God” is imaginary. There is not an iota of objective, reality-based evidence for such an entity.

 

[watsup]

Animals simply live according to their programming. They can't imagine or attempt to do anything but be what they are.

Humans have free will, intelligence, and self-awareness. We have the freedom to choose, and sometimes we choose evil. Blame that on humanity, not God.

Would you rather be a finger puppet who was incapable of doing anything but God's will? I doubt it.

We do indeed have free will, but it has nothing to do with “God”. It is the result of evolution and our “brain”.

 

[watsup]

Not believing that X exists, and believing that X does not exist, are two very different things.

I believe that there is no such entity as “God”.

 

[Goshin]

I believe that there is no such entity as “God”.

I think everyone knows that by now. No need to belabor the point.

 

[watsup]

I think everyone knows that by now. No need to belabor the point.

But it’s okay for you and the others to belabor the point that there is indeed a Christian God as described in the Bible?