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Do You Believe In God?

Yes 0.46732149603325 46.7% [ 2474 ]
No 0.27880619569324 27.9% [ 1476 ]
Undecided 0.25387230827352 25.4% [ 1344 ]
Total Votes:[ 5294 ]
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I recently discovered that once a post contains so many characters is gets pretty screwy. Unfortunately (thanks to my own stupidity xp ) I only posted in one post, not considering that I'd be making many large changes (namely large additions) to this topic. So sometime within the next week I will re-do the topic (hoping it won't get removed for duplication), and post the link on here. I will be able to add more information to the upcoming new thread, so check back for the link.


Of course not. But sadly people are blindly led into believing such a thing. It really is quite a shame. I once followed this belief (I am technically a baptized Catholic), and then realized what I fool I was. My explanations and opinions are odd and complicated, but I hope you can understand them, and that they will open your eyes to the truth.


Let me start off by saying that I do not hate Christians, Catholics, Protestants, Lutherans, etc. I merely do not believe in 'god.' I do, however, support the charities that churches run. Help the world, but not because some supposed 'Holy Bible' tells you to, do it because you are human (Although in many situations there is this little catch where these misfortunate people are taught to believe in 'god').

(Note: I am NOT trying to pressure people into believing me. I am expressing my opinion and trying to get others feedback. Please no more insult PM's xp )

1. Gods 'Great Plan'

Uhm...Hello...This is the 'almighty god' we're talking about here, alleged creator of all existance. If he wanted to world to be a certain way, he'd make it that way. Unless he's some sick little creep who likes toying with the lives of his creations, in which case I really wouldn't want to follow his teachings.

2. The Afterlife

Sorry folks, no such thing. You see, many humans are cowardly, many are pompous...Most are both. Separate these things are fine, but together they create delusional and pathetic thoughts. Humans generally fear death. They can't comprehend, or cope with, the fact that at some point or another their existance will end. They cringe at the thought of it. So they think..."Maybe after death we can live on in some realm where everything we want will be given to us..." Quite sad. They use this thought to give them hope, to make themselves feel as though they have some purpose, some goal to work towards. This is one of many reasons why Christianity and its branches are so popular, they promise an afterlife where you will walk alongside 'god' in his kingdom, where your wildest fantasies will come true. Quite a good way to get followers if you ask me. Take someones fear and use it to your advantage.

3. The Bible

In my opinion it is merely a storybook written to teach good morals and explain the unknown. That what every religion does. It explains the unknown. (As 'Jane The Bane' puts it, the bible is "Man's desperate attempt to provide easily digestible, simplistic answers to questions that are so complicated that no one is ever going to answer them sufficiently." wink Thats why Greek Mythology had multiple gods. One for each phenomenon that they couldn't explain. Thats what Christianity does, except with one god. It gave and explanation of where we go when we die, why we are here, who created us, and so on. And if the bible was believed to be nothing but a storybook I would be fine with it, but people insist on actually believing what it says. They might as well be saying 'Hey, look at me! I just read LOTR and now i'm going to run around the world looking for the one ring of power!' We all know that LOTR is fictional, why should the bible be treated any differently?

Anyone can write a book. But when you start following like a religion you've gone too far. But why would someone just write the Bible then? Hmm...Power maybe? Fame? For example, the Roman Catholic Church in the middle ages at one time was the most powerful organization. They had tons of money, and owned a majority of the land. What greedy human wouldn't preach about a false god to be at the head of the church?

3a. It's Pretty Easy To Decieve

Below are a couple examples of religions that are obviously false, but it shows how the incompetence of humans allows them to be fooled and how people WILL exploit it.

A. Scientology-

Scientology is based off of a book by the author L. Ron Hubbard. In this book the intergalactic ruler, Xenu, of the Galactic Confederacy launched billions of people to earth 75 billion years ago in ships resembling B-52 bombers. He hoarded them around volcanoes, and then obliterated them with hydrogen bombs. The souls of these people then attached themselves to modern day humans and cause us problems in our daily lives. Ok...pretty messed up, but it gets worse. To be cleansed of these souls, you must be taught the doctrines of Scientology's 'Advanced Technologies.' Only problem is that to do such a thing you must pay a large some of money to the church...Somewhere around $300,000 I think. Now if that's not personal gain for the leader of the church then im insane.

B. Mormonism

Quote:

Where to start...Geez...Mormonism. Mormonism was founded by a man named Joseph Smith in the 1830's. Joseph supposedly talked to god and jesus while praying in the forest. That night a Native American angel came to him and told him a few interesting things. Now this angel was white...A white Native American...odd...According to the angel there were two N.A. tribes. One of the tribes killed the others and as punishment jesus turned their skin red. (At this time jesus was supposedly living in america during a 'second coming'.) He said that they left four gold plates buried on top of a hill. So Joseph went to this hill and dug, where he found the gold plates in an odd language along with two Seer Stones, which allowed ONLY him to translate these plates. (Mind you no one was allowed to see these plates or the stones, because the angel said so.) He translated the plates into the Book Of Mormon and let his friend borrow them. This mans wife did not believe that Joseph was telling the truth, so she took them and told her husband to tell Joseph that he lost them and that they would have to be translated again. Well supposedly Joseph was not supposed to do this and that because of this the second translation would send the same message but in different words. Uhh huh...yeah...ok..sure...Oh yeah, and according to the B.O.M. Adam and Eve lived in Jackson County, Missouri.


It has been brought to my attention that my depiction of the history of the book of mormon is not entirely correct, so I will provide for you the 'accurate' portrayal. Alas, I will keep mine here for comparison (you will see that there really isn't much of a difference, nonetheless i'd hate to knowingly provide obviously false information).

Quote:

Ok seriously, don't try talking about stuff you have no idea about. The "Native American's" name was Moroni. He was light skinned because there were two large groups living in the America's during the time of Christ. One was rightious at first and the other lived in unbelief. As a result, the second group, the Lamanites, was cursed with dark skin. Eventually, the first group, the Nephites, fell into iniquity as well (except for a few including Moroni) and were destroyed by the Lamanites. Moroni was the last of the Nephites. The Lamanites are the ancestors of what we now know as the Native Americans. His visit wasn't that night, it was several years later. There were more than four plates.

The stones didn't ONLY allow him to translate it. Any seer with the spirit could have translated it. The language was a form of Egyptian. He even took a section of the lettering to a translator and showed him his translation. The translator agreed with the translation until Joseph told him how he had done it (by the spirit). The translator then changed his mind and told him he wouldn't support the translation.

One of the writers who was helping Joseph translate was having a difficult time his family accepting him helping Joseph. He asked Joseph if he could take a part of the translation to his family to show them what he was doing. Joseph prayed and was told not to. The writer continued to bother Joseph about it, he prayed two more times and was finally told that he could do as he chose. Joseph gave the writer the section, the section disappeared. Enemies of the church had gotten ahold of it. Joseph was told not to retranslate the same text because if he did, the enemies of the church would come out with the original (which they had altered) and say that Joseph couldn't have been doing it by the spirit if their copy was different. God had planned on this happening and had told one of the prophets of the Book of Mormon to create a separate set of plates. As a result, Joseph was told to use this other section of plates to replace what was lost.


See, really not all that different. This one's just a bit more descriptive. Doesn't really add much proof to back the religion up, but hey, whatever.

So yeah, pretty much what i'm saying is that...

The Book Of Mormon = The Holy Bible

(By that I mean that the obviously false Book Of Mormon is like the obviously false Holy Bible.)

Also, refer to lethal7's statements about the Mormon religion in the Memorable Posts section. It points out many flaws of Mormonism.

3b. Why Is Christianity So Widespread?

Well there are a few reasons, but the main one is a little thing called conquest. The Roman Empire was very powerful, and the primary religion was Catholicism, so of course they dominated everything in sight and conquered lands were forced into following that religion...That or be executed of course.

And then of course the ever popular Crusades. War for religion, very common. Another 'follow my religion or else' mindset that is followed today.

I've seen posts in topic where people say that the Crusades were 'not ethical' but were good ideas...So...you're saying that killing in the name of god is okay...even though the sixth of the ten commandments (The must-follow top ten rules of the religion) says 'thou shalt not kill.' Huh, funny.

3c. But There's Proof

People have found several pieces of 'evidence' that prove the bible. Alas this is all easily explained through science. Below are a few examples.

1. - Fish fossil's have been found on the tops of mountains. Religious fanatics claim that these are due to the 'Great Flood.' But the explanation is simple. When Tectonic Plates (large slabs of rock that float on the earths molten core) collide, the push up the earth above them. This is essentially how mountains are formed. Who's to say that the mountains with the fossils on them weren't once below sea level? Its very likely that this is true.

1a. - Anyone who has taken Chemistry has heard of the 'Law Of Conservation Of Matter,' which states that matter cannot be created or destroyed, only altered. This has been proven through experiments which show that during a chemical reaction the mass of the reactants are always equal to that of the product. But then how did all that water come to be? I guess god had to magically create enough water to cover every land mass on the planet, and then make it dissapear. And i'm sure you all know what erosion is. Well...If it rained for 40 days and 40 nights, then there would be signifigant current movement under the ocean surface. With this in mind, would the flood not have signifigantly altered the landscape by slowly flattening it out? Some of you may say "It takes thousands of years for erosion to take place!" Yeah, because it only rains every so many days. This is hundreds of millions of gallons of water swirling around the surface for 40 straight days. I think that would far surpass a few thousand years of small, farspread rainstorms.

(I've seen people in the topic say that 'some parts of the bible aren't meant to be taken literally, using the 40 day and 40 night flood as an example. Okay...if only some parts of the bible are true, then how do you know which ones are? And if we're only supposed to take certain parts literally, which are they? Why even take the bible as a whole literally if it is essentially flawed?)

2. - Archaeological finds have discovered horse skeletons and chariots in the Red Sea the Moses supposedly parted. This one leads back to conquest. Dominating neighboring lands and taking their resources was a popular thing to do way back when, so i'd assume that quite a few war transport ships would travel across the Red Sea. Well, when winds were weak the ships had to lose weight or be stranded at sea for days on end. So what did they do? They dropped chariots. As for the horse carcasses, well if the horses died they had to dump them overboard to. Why? Because a pile of dead bodies it a breeding ground for bacteria and disease.

2a. - Some people have told me that during the time that Moses parted the Red Sea the body of water itself was only about a foot deep. Ok...So some guy parted a foot of water. Rock on man, you rule. As for chariots and horse skeletons, maybe a few brilliant minds tried to walk throught moderately moist sand (remember, water + sand = quicksand). And in quick sand you, well, sink. So it is probable that the artifacts could be kept in tact.

These next few don't really deal with proof, but the have a point.

3. - I know you've all heard of the ever popular 'Ten Commandments' right? Well ya know, there's a funny story behind that. For those of you who dont know the situation, Moses was trying to lead his people out of Egypt. Alas, things weren't going too well for them and they started to turn away from god. I think they actually started making a golden cow to worship. No one would listen to Moses. So ya know what that sly little devil did? He went to the top of a mountian, by himself, where god miraculously spoke to him. And a few hours later he came down with the Ten Commantments. Kinda funny how that works out. People are disorderly and disobedient, and then all of a sudden the leader comes down with a message from god to get them to straighten up.

And dont give me that 'free will' crap people have been rambling on about. You can use it when you can prove it. Until then I am pretty damn sure that since the dawn of existance organisms have always been able to act on their own without the permission of some god.

4. - If there was really only one true god, and only one true religion was right (they all say that their religion is the only right religion), then wouldnt you think that we would only have one religion and only believe in one god? Alas there are at least 4 branches of christianity, multiple polytheistic religions, and then atheism. But seriously, you'd imagine that god would get a little pissed that people werent following his orders and set us straight. It happened in the bible, didnt it? Why isnt he doing it now? Is he on break? Is that why so many innocent people die every day? You cant blame it on us. Supposedly he created us so he should make sure we do things the right way. But, obviously, he's not.

5. - I dont see why people would want to believe in this religion anyway! (Aside from the promise of and afterlife and eternal salvation of course.) Especially women. I mean, do you know how sexist chistianity is? Women were created from a mans rib, women are responsible for the original sin (the sin that we are all supposedly born with). But I have an explanation for why the bible is so sexist. You see, when the bible was written women were still considered (I know im going to sound sexist for saying all of this, but I assure you im not) to be below men. So why not pin it on women? I mean if you go to the middle east today women cant go outside without a man. You think it was any better thousands of years ago?

6. - War. What a horrible thing. War is caused by the intolerance of man. The innability to accept/consider another persons beliefs, to even respect the fact that they have beliefs. And what is the hot topic of modern day society? Why religion of course. The Crusades, a war for religion. The War On Terrorism was started due to 9/11. The suicide bombers drove themselves into the Twin Towers because it was a 'quick-pass' into heaven according to their religion. We were also a target for our involvement in some other middle eastern holy war.

Such hatred acts on a much smaller level as well. For example, I guarantee that i'll be flamed like crazy for this post.

7. - The world as depicted in the bible is quite tiny if you ask me. I mean, the bible was created out of divine inspiration from god, correct? Then you'd think he'd mention the continents known today as north and south america, right? I mean, he created them. And since he created the entire universe, you'd think he'd mention the 8 other planets in our solar system. But he didn't. Why? Because the writer of this false book knew not of such things. If it were truely written through inspiration by god the world would be much more accurately depicted than it is by the bible.

7a. - Speaking of the solar system, I'd like to tell (or remind you, depending on what you know) you about a little man named Galileo Galilei. Some time between the 1500's and the 1600's this man made a scientific observation. This man studied the stars. And after years of studying their paths and patterns he realized something, the solar system is heliocentric (centered around the sun), and not geocentric (centered around the earth) like the church said. And why did the church say that the earth was the center of all existance, because they were pompous. They believed that they were so important because god created them that he would make them the center of all existance. They believed this so greatly that they brought Galileo in front of the pope and make him refute his findings. A couple hundred years later, however, the church agreed that the universe was in fact heliocentric and that what had been done to Galileo was wrong. So the church has been proven wrong...But that can't be! Why not? Because geocentrism was supposedly the word of the infallible (without flaw, never wrong) god. But we just proved him wrong, and therefore he cannot exist.

3d. Biblical Prophecies

I've heard alot of this talk going around about how 'the prophecies prove that god exists!'...But remember this...The prophecies are foretold in the bible, and come true in the bible. I have yet to see a modern day miracle that has been foretold in the bible.

4. Faith Not Factual

Faith is having no doubt whatsoever that something is true. No matter how much proof is pitted against you, you will not budge to believe anything else. This faith is what many people have. But remember, faith is all in your head. You create your faith and find your reasons to believe. Remember though, a crazy person doesn't know they're crazy, and the mind can create dillusions that seem real to you and only you. Keep this in mind when using faith as your belief in god...Its not really a good excuse.

5. An Alternative Thought

Could this 'god' be nothing more than the collective beliefs of multiple individuals? Quite possible if you ask me. God has been created and accepted as fact because so many believe it to be true, but belief is not proof. God could in theory exist, but as nothing more that a being created by the imagination of the populus. Funny eh?

6. Evolution

I had to put this in here, because after reading your posts i've found so many people to be confused about the evolutionary process.

First off, god does not assist in evolution, and evolution does not explain how we exist. Believing in evolution does not make you self-absorbed nor pompous.

6a. What Is Evolution?

Evolution is the process by which parent organisms pass on traits to their offspring. Over a long period of time some of these traits may assist in the adaptation to ones environment, which would explain why there are so many species of animals. Why a domesticated house cat is smaller than a lion, why our physical features match up with those of monkeys (Placement of the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, having 5 fingers and toes, similiar organs, etc.), or why some animals can only live on water, some only on land, and some on both.

6b. Natural Selection

The modern day theory of evolution is based off of Darwins theory of Natural Selection, which states that organisms with more advantageous traits are more likely to survive and reproduce, therefore increasing the likelyness of finding such traits. Because of this passing on of traits, some species will be more capable of surviving in the same environment than another. Lack of such traits may make it harder to obtain food or survive in harsh conditions, causing a large number of deaths for a species. With a low population of a specie's spread over a large area, that species extinction is almost inevitable.

Such changes however can take up to millions of years.

6c. Evidence

Morphological - Simply put, fossils. By comparing the anatomy of fossils of older organisms with the anatomy of organisms living today many similairities can be found. By the use of anatomical comparison an evolutionary connection has already been made between certain dinosaurs and modern day birds.

Genetic - Although we are unable to obtain the DNA of many extinct species, we are able to compare the DNA of those alive today. It is by this that we have determined the 95% similairity between humans and chimpanzees.

My Evidence - Its just plain obvious people! You cant tell me that a dog and a wolf dont look alike, nor can you tell me that all birds (flying or not) do not have wings. Plus there are all the things related to our bodily systems. All living creatures have some sort of digestive, resperatory, nervous, or skeletal system. These are advantageous traits that formed billions of years ago, which is why they are so very common today.

But back in the biblical days people did not have the technology to discover such things, and to answer the question "Where did these animals come from?" they simply say 'God made them.'

6d. The First Lifeform

Many people wonder how the first organism came to be, but sadly sit and ponder instead of researching. Now instead of putting my jumbled theory on this subject, i'll take an excerpt from and article I read on the web. This article explains how the spontaneous generation of an organism IS POSSIBLE contrary to popular belief.

"In 1953, Stanley Miller was the first to show that complex organic molecules could be made from simpler components. In his experiments, he used methane (CH4), ammonia (NH3), H2) and H2 as substrates in a glass apparatus. Miller boiled the system over time, and also used electric discharges as an energy source. Over time the mixture changed color. So, Miller used a chromatograph to analyze the mixture for it's constituents. He discovered that certain amino acids had been formed. Amino acids are the building blocks for proteins, so this discovery that amino acids could be made from much simpler molecules (and within a relatively short time period) pointed to a chemical evolution before life could arise. Later, Miller and Urey used UV light as an energy source with a similar system, and they found that hydrogen cyanide (HCN) could be formed from simpler molecules under reducing conditions. Now, why is the generation of hydrogen cyanide important? Isn't it a toxic material? Yes it is, but conditions in prebiotic times were much different than now. Hydrogen cyanide has been found to react with other HCN molecules and can eventually form adenine -- one of the bases in the genetic code (overall, it takes five molecules of HCN to form one molecule of adenine under UV light). Many other experiments have been since carried out, under slightly different conditions, and the final reaction products end up being various amino acids and sugars, as well as nucleotides. These experiments are significant, in that they demonstrate possible reactions that could have been present during pre-biotic times.

Chemical evolution (during pre-biotic times) began with simple molecules reacting with others, eventually forming more and more complex molecules. Simple chemical reactions can only go so far by themselves. Some form of energy is needed to drive unfavorable reactions, or to aid in driving favorable reactions. There are many possible energy sources that could have been available on early Earth. Solar energy (UV light) is the most obvious source, but isn't UV light damaging to cells? On early Earth, there would have been no ozone layer to protect cells. UV splits an O2 molecule (photolysis), which forms oxygen radicals that can react with other O2 molecules to form ozone (O3). There wouldn't have been enough O2 early on to provide a protective ozone layer. However, an ozone layer would not have been needed in prebiotic times. UV light not only splits oxygen gas molecules, but can split other molecules as well, and so can drive unfavorable chemical reactions. UV would have been quite abundant early on, providing an energy source during chemical evolution. There are other sources of energy, such as electric discharge (i.e. lightening) and nuclear energy (e.g. uranium-23 cool . Today we know that lightening can fix nitrogen gas into a solid form. In Africa, there have been found six natural nuclear reactors -- i.e. deposits of uranium-238. Remember that man-made nuclear reactors (or bombs) generate enormous amounts of energy. Natural reactors would not have been as powerful in the short term, but could have provided sufficient energy over time to drive chemical reactions. One thing to note about nuclear reactions, is that they require water (a nuclear reaction then, is a "fire" that needs water to drive the reaction). This is significant, in that a water medium can bring in new materials to the reaction. As with UV radiation, nuclear radiation ionizes molecules -- H2O and other molecules would be ionized by a natural nuclear reactor, which could then go on to react with other molecules. Nuclear radiation is also mutagenic, so it would have generated variation in an early genetic system.


There is another source that can generate organic molecules on Earth -- metorites and dust particles from space. Interplanetary Dust Particles (IDPs) are constantly bombarding the planet, and bring in about 3.2x10^5 kg of organics per year in modern times. Meteors large enough survive atmospheric entry to the planet can carry in organic molecules. In some cases, a meteor may heat up internally upon entry to such a high degree that they explode as an airburst, creating a shock wave. A relatively new field, "Shock Chemistry", has shown that organic molecules (e.g. amino acids) can be generated from such shock waves. Large bolloid impacts, such as the one responsible for the K/T boundary, can generate vast amounts of organics in the short term. "

7. Big Bang Theory

I swear, the american school system is a total piece of s**t. I've read so many completely wrong posts about the Big Bang theory. Well this section is here to clear it up.

The big bang theory DOES NOT explain how the universe came into existance, it explains the behavior of the unviverse, a contracting and expanding sphere of space and time.

According to the big bang theory, at one point in time billions upon billions of years ago, all of existance was in a hot, condensed form, with no definate mass or volume. It is believed that at some point this ball of hot matter became so unstable it expanded at an enormous rate and launched everything into space. This material formed rock, dust, gas, etc. Which formed together to make stars, nebulas, and asteroids. According to several studies everything in the universe is moving further away at a faster rate from a central point. This would make sense, considering everything was just spewed out of a big ball of matter.

7a. My Mini-Thoery

Now i'm not really sure whether or not something like this is already considered a part of the big bang theory, but here is my mini-theory.

All over the universe are these things known as black holes. Now the common misconception about black holes is that they are actually holes in time and space. No, this is not true. A black hole is what is left over from the collapse of a supergiant star. You see, when a star starts to die out, it expands and glows bright red (It is believed that this will be the end of our planet when the sun starts to die out). When the star runs out of energy and no longer support its own weight, it collapses on itself (known as a supernova or nova, depending on the stars size). It will either turn into a dwarf star, a neutron star, or if it is big enough it will collapse into a black hole. A black hole is all of the matter of a massive star (a star which must be much bigger than our sun), condensed into a tiny ball of matter about 30 times smaller than our sun. This would create an imensly dense object. So dense that not even light can escape its gravitational pull, and any light it emits is immediately sucked back in (And yes, light can be affected by gravity, according to Einsteins Theory Of General Relativity). Yes, I know it sounds like blind faith, but there is proof! On a regular photograph of a sector of stars there would appear to be nothing. But if you were to photograph the x-rays of that sector, you would see a massive amount them coming from what seems to be a black void in space. Where do they come from? The black hole. You see, when a black hole sucks in matter it condenses it so rapidly that it heats up and releases a massive amount of energy in the form of x-rays. Not only that, but the orbital pattern of stars and other satellites (objects floating throught space) are affected by what seems to be a black spot on a picture. This orbital change is accounted for by a black hole.

Now that we've gotten all that out of the way, I can get to the true heart of the theory. You see, a black hole has the equal distance all the way around it, a boundary, a point of no return. Once an object enters this area there is no escape (mind you the gravitational pull of a black hole reaches beyond this point of no return). And theoretically as a black hole continuously sucks in matter, it will keep the same size but achieve a much higher density, which would therefore increase the distance of its gravitational pull. I believe that slowly black holes (like the one believed to be at the center of our galaxy) will get larger, eventually sucking in another black hole, which would give it a massive boost in gravitational power. Slowly but surely all matter will be sucked into this one point of unison, back into the singular point of material unity at the beginning of the big bang. But then how did all that matter come back out if a black hole has such a high density? Well, you see, when something has such a massive density and such a low volume it is bound be very unstable. An atom for example. All elements on the periodic table from the atomic number of 83 and beyond are radioactive, meaning that the neutrons can no longer sustain the protons and the atom will slowly decay (i.e. Uraniam, with an atomic number of 92, would lose two protons and two neutrons (one helium atom) through alpha decay and become Thorium, with an atomic number of 90). This would happen on a much larger scale seeing as how this object has all (or approximately all) matter in existance within it. Not only that but black holes, like almost all celestial bodies, spin. Which would increase the instability within it.

8. Time

Now I speak not of the existance of time, that has absolutely nothing to do with this arguement, I speak more of a timeframe. You see according to the bible, some 4000 or so years ago all of earth was created by god. But then how is it, through carbon and radiometric dating, that we have determined the oldest rock on this planet is near some 4 and a half billion years old. It is a tiny piece of Zircon, no larger than two human hairs in diameter.

So how can the oldest known rock pre-date the dawn of existance? Well one of them has to be wrong. And i'd honestly rather believe in a solid object that I can see, hold, and know there is proof behind, than a few hundred pieces of paper written by man with little valid and no undeniable proof whatsoever.

9. Opinionated Quote

'You could be the kindest, most charitable, and simply most amazing person alive...But if you dont believe in god you're going to hell.'


An example of the above quote is a teacher in my school who committed suicide in February of 2006. This man, as I am told, was a very kind and very intelligent man. He was an art teacher, he had an art show on a public TV channel, and he had a child and wife. But this man, no matter how kind he was, had alzheimers. He didn't want to forget his family or friends, he didn't want to have the disease, so he shot himself in the storage closet of his classroom. Why would a loving god strike a man down with such a disease? Why would he allow him to commit a cardinal sin (suicide is a one-way ticket to hell) in his attempted escape of the uncontrollable and simply horrible situation that the almighty god put him in? Because your god allowed such a thing to happen, many of my friends were grief-stricken for weeks. And I again ask, why would god do it?

Memorable Posts

Below are any posts I have found that I think deserve to be put on the spotlight.

Crack Rock Steady
...

2: Christians are afraid; thats the thing. They are ignorant; so they make up stories for things they dont know or dont understand. That is what makes the life and death of religions.

3: OK; so there is proof it happened? Thats true; all the prophecies are fullfilled.. IN THE BIBLE. Its like me writing a book and in the begining i write: "In this year; 1111 i have prophesized that a man; John Doe, will die in the year 1555 on Tuesday 14 on the hour of 11:11.

Later in the Book: And the man; John Doe, died at 11:11, Tuesday 14 of the year 1555.

As far as morals go; the bible is full of things that are immoral such as killing people for believing in something different from you. It also promotes sexism, promotes homophobia, promotes rascism, and promotes plenty of other immoral things.


Someone who actually gets it!

Dande_Lion
Let's suppose for a moment that Christianity, while untrue, makes people happy. Does this make it worthwhile? Actually, no. To paraphrase Mark Twain, just because a religion makes a believer happy, it doesn't mean that you ought to join the religion any more than alcohol making a drunk happy means you ought to become an alcoholic.

And does Christianity make people happy? Well, some people. Other people it makes seriously depressed. I personally don't see what's so uplifting about believing that one is a most vile, sinful, wretched worm that is completely undeserving of god's love.

If Christianity made people more moral, despite being untrue, would this be a good reason to embrace it? No, because the morality would still be based on a lie.

And does Christianity make everyone more moral? As a matter of fact, no. Or else you wouldn't have child molesting priests or people like Hitler killing Jews for god. (If you don't believe that he did it for god, read his books. Or better yet, read Constantine's Sword by James Carroll.) And if Christianity made people more moral, you wouldn't have Christians in this thread defending god doing nothing while babies die as actually a good thing! That is monsterous, and it always turns my stomach to see Christians arguing that the death of babies is ever a good thing.

The only reason to believe in Christianity is if you believe that it's true, which I am not persuaded that it is. For example, you have things like the Bible talking about knocking Jericho down, only archeologically, it was there hundreds of years later.

Secondly, on the topic of free will, yes we humans have free will, right? We can decide to do anything we want, right?

Well, actually, no. We cannot decide to instantly leap up and go soaring into the air without an airplane, can we? We can't turn to jelly and shapechange into some other form. We can't read other people's minds? So this means, assuming god created the universe and the laws of physics, that god specifically denied us the freewill to fly, to shapechange, to read minds, but chose to grant us the free will to kill and maim each other. Why would a good god do that?

And considering that we don't have the free will to fly, shapechange, or read minds, then can we really say that we have free will at all?

Suppose there were an all-powerful god who created the universe. He created beings with free will. They could do absolutely anything that they dreamed of-- except hurt another being. They could build a gun, and it would shoot. But if they shot it at another being, it would do no harm to them. They could punch someone, and their hand would gently rebound. They could try to slice them up, and the person would instantly reform without pain. Do these people not have freewill?

I rather suspect that they do. They would find the idea that just because hitting another person doesn't hurt anyone they don't have freewill to be preposterous and might well find the idea that we can't lift off and go soaring above the clouds to be a sign that we, in fact, don't have freewill.

So why is the ability to kill and maim others the marker of freewill?

As for whether the Bible says to be nice to people, consider what Jesus said in Luke 12:51 Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division.

Where is the good in that?

As for Lee Strobel's books, if he were actually a questioning atheist at the time he wrote them, then he wrote them in the wrong order. He wrote The Case For Christ first. Then The Case for Faith. And lastly the Case for a Creator. Anyone who was actually trying to come up with real answers and being persuaded would start with the question of a creator first and Christ second. Not the other way around. Plus, if he's being so open-minded why are all the people he quotes in his book Protestant Christians?

I spent years of my life praying and trying to get god to answer me. Then it occured to me that there didn't have to be one, and the whole thing popped into focus. He wasn't answering me, not because I had done something wrong, but because he wasn't there to answer. This is not a belief that makes me "bitter" as paperchild accused above. This is a realization that makes my life better because now, instead of sitting back and hoping things get better, I get to actually work for things. Instead of agonizing about imaginary flaws in myself, I get to actually work on improving myself. Instead of spending my time with my opinions made for me, I get to try things and form my own. It's marvelously liberating, not because this means I'm free to kill and rape and plunder, but because I'm now free to make my life into any pattern that I think is beautiful. I'm free to make things better.

I am much happier now. I'm not afraid of making some misstep and going to hell for, say, eating pork or something. And I think that if there were a god, he'd be proud of me. I've grown up so much from the cringing, groveling thing I used to be.

And when I see others still cringing, I want to tell them, "If there is a god, then he wants you to make him proud, not limit yourself to orthodoxy and talk about how great he is all the time."


A truely intellectual person 3nodding

Dande_Lion
Tonic Angel
Science? Whats this whole thing about science in your post? Science hasnt discovered anything about God in society and it hasnt made the world a better place in general.

In my opinion, you can NEVER prove who is right and wrong. This is stupid because there is no wrong or right answer


If science is so useless, I recommend you get rid of your computer and start praying your replies to us. I will be convinced when I get your answer directly in my mind via prayer. Hell, I was going to get a new computer, but if you can pray your responses to my topics into my head, I'll go with that, seeing as how it's cheaper than a new computer.

It is possible that you can't prove who's right or wrong. I don't believe that, but it is possible. But it is an idiotic lie to say that there's no right or wrong answer. Either there is a god or there isn't one. And if there is one, it's there for everyone. And if there isn't one, there isn't one for anyone. I do believe in an objective reality. To believe that there is no right or wrong answer to any question is to say that the world of your senses is all a lie, and all the things you think are humans are merely figments of your imagination. I think that this is a slippery slope to madness.

Which is not to say that some people don't seriously hold this opinion.


Lmao, I found this one quite amusing. Just that one paragraph, but still.

Dathu
I think the first step to understanding atheism is to understand the history of religion. The first forms of religion began in hunter-gather societies. At that time it was simply a creative appreciation of nature. The people, having minds and thoughts, placed similar minds and thoughts into the earth around them, anthropomorphizing them. They believed all things had spirits; rocks, trees, water, whatever. Originally just an abstract thought, it changed dramatically when they found themselves in need of certain things from the spirits. They would pray to the trees when they needed fruit, beg the river to overflow with fish when they were short on game to hunt, or they even asked the sky to rain when the lands became dry. Overtime, "official" people were selected to talk to these sprits. They were chosen because they were very wise, very old, or had luck in making favorable decisions. These people became the first shamans.

Now, so far it was still nature being worshiped, but what happened to change that was favoritism. People who lived in dry lands began to view the spirits of rain as being the most important. Or people who had unfertile crop lands would pray more to the god or gods of harvest (notice how abstract and specific to their needs the spirits are becoming). As their relationship with the spirits became more personal and close, the spirits began to take human form so as to appear easier to approach. As certain gods became more and more favored, a hierarchy appeared in the spiritually realm, and the first seeds of monotheism were sown. Not only were some gods higher in rank, but some actually became gods of gods, though more often than not, they were viewed as parents. An example of this would be the Greek gods with Kronos as the lord of lords. Through time smaller gods simply became fazed out, and new religions began to only offer one all powerful god for worship.

But aside from the role of the gods, the role that these beliefs had in society began to change as well. In its early days religion was a simple way to beg nature for favors, but it eventually became a way to bring about unity. At first it only united small groups such as families, but later it unified entire communities. Now we can see large groups of people being bound by a common belief, and they began to identify themselves through their religion. As their numbers grew, the power of the shaman grew as well, and the first "officials" were born. With this power came a way to control, and the ways of living were the first to be controlled. Lifestyles and philosophies on morals were created to "please the gods." Over time these rules became more and more complicated and needed to be written down (the first bibles). As the number of followers grew more officials were needed (the first orders). And now we have an organized religion and a religion based society. Only at this point religion is primarily a form of order and control where people of power wield the word of the gods like whips. You can see where it goes from there.

"Why is this important?"

Because it shows that man didn't just wake up and say ?You know what, I think there is one god out there that created everything.? Many people would like to argue that man always knew something was out there that created him, and that religion is the realization of that. Not true. There are countless artifacts and archeological finds to support this notion of "religious evolution." Furthermore, it also shows that religion is man made, and it is still under construction, such as the way that the simple belief in Christ has spawned Lutherans, Catholic, Baptists, and so on and so on. MAN MADE! There is evidence.

Here's how I see it, "Innocent until proven guilty." This ideology has nearly become a world wide accepted way of dealing with an acusation. We say innocent until proven guilty because we go by the situation before the accusation. The accuser has to produce evidence that a change has occurred. Before man made religion, there was no god. That is how it was. Now people claim there is one. Prove it. Otherwise we are innocent. No court would convict a man because he couldn't produce evidence to prove his innocence against a prosecutor who couldn't produce evidence that he's guilty. Therefore I don't believe in god.


This one definately deserves a place in here. I applaud Dathu for his post.

ibrokeyahootoo
Since this is soooo much better than some stuff I am going to try to keep this one alive and kicking for a while.

As I have dedicated my gaian account to stopping the general yes men ideal and the general concensus on blindly agreeing with people just because a majority of the posters on the thread concede-- even if that means me fighting for something on which I have conflicting issues with anyway.

First mad props Dark Carbunkle you have made not only a noteworthy argument for gaia, but for the college level and above as well. Here is your cookie (O). However I would like to bring up some points you might find interesting (Note Points! not to be confused with actual arguments...)

1. Does anybody really know what the hell happens when we die? Seriously? No. You can use as much science and epistimology combined with philosophy as you want but tou will never be able to tell us what the hell happens when we die because you would have to die in order to tell us. This is because one could only know what happens after a person dies when they die. It's a really tricky b*****d aint it?

2. Ahh good old Christian Predictions. Using this and good old Nosty you can make a zillion predictions based off of what was in your breakfast this morning. The onyl thing is when it actually happens people will automatically point at it and say "SEE SEE PROOF! PROOOOOOOOOOOOF!!! NYAH!" well actually they probably wont say "Nyah!" I only really say that.. ahem... sorry... When s**t starts hitting the fan in the middle east it's always easy to point out stuff. Why do you think people spend millions on rebuilding Solomons Temple? Because revalations said so. Once the crazy s**t from there starts happening you better believe Christainity in General will go apeshit. Unless of course the "Rapture" is true, then the educated about religion like us will know what the hell is up and get to gettin.

Now that those points are out of the way, I would like don't forget the old christian argument of "You cannot prove anything thorugh epistimology (Eeep that is spelled wrong) because you can't prove anything, then at this point they go straight to the allegory of the cave and yaddy yaddy yadda presto they can theoretically prove that a sphagetti monster created the planet...

While these are just mere points and I plan to bring up more later, the thing is do not just blindly agree because that would sort of be going against the spirit of the thread. You got to come up with your own answers and arrive at your own explainations.


I know that no one actually KNOWS what happens when we die, that is obvious. But we have done thousands of experiments and searched all over for a 'soul,' alas no proof of such thing has been found. The idea of a soul comes not only from the belief that we must go somewhere when we die, but that our personality, our thought, our mental being is separate from that of our physical, and that when we die the two will diverge. The physical goes into the ground to rot, whilst the mental rises to the heavens. But wait a sec, our 'soul' is really just a misconstrued view of our conciousness and mental being, right? Well, last time I checked all of that was controlled by chemical reactions and electric signals in our brain.

Proof of such things are:
1) Any Drug - There are thousands of drugs out there, and each one can alter your mental perception if a vast array of ways. Im not just talking about opiates and psychoactives, Dayquill can even alter such things. For example, Dayquill once gave me some pretty funky side effects even though I was using it for its intended purpose (distorted perception of time, peculiar appreciation to lights, colors, and my hands, and it made walking down the stair a pretty interesting experience). No, nor am I a drug abuser or addict, I was not under the influence of any other drugs, I was sick, and took the recommended 2 Tbsp dose of Dayquill.

2) Lobotomy - A lobotomy (which is now rarely done) is a surgical operation on the frontal lobe of the brain. The removal/alteration of this part of the brain is used to treat emotional disorders (primarily depression and anger problems). After the surgery the patient is left happy, for the rest of their lives. Now unless you decide to try and convince me that some little demon lives in the front part of our brain then i'm pretty sure that's proof that chemical and electrical signals controls thougths and emotion (not the little angels and demons that people keept bitching at me about).

Now that we have proof that these things exist, I must point out that they are (obvioulsy and ultimately) parts of our body. And when we die our brain shuts down, henceforth the chemicals stop reacting and the electrical signals vanish. Then all that we are or were slowly decays back into the earth from which we came. So if our mentality (a.k.a. soul) is gone, then our soul cannot exist.

Not only that, but just think about it for a minute people. A bunch of people 2000 years ago, who had no scientific knowledge whatsoever, conceived the thought of a soul. Somehow most of us still believe it.
Yes, i belive there is a God. no one can prove that there is, and no one can prove that there isnt...until we die. But i belive that there is a God, and that whole entire post was interesting...but no, it wont change my beliefs. I might seem blind...but there are so many lost people out there with vails over their eyes. v.v it is sad.

and try not tho bump in ED. mods might report you.
6wingedskull
Yes, i belive there is a God. no one can prove that there is, and no one can prove that there isnt...until we die. But i belive that there is a God, and that whole entire post was interesting...but no, it wont change my beliefs. I might seem blind...but there are so many lost people out there with vails over their eyes. v.v it is sad.

and try not tho bump in ED. mods might report you.


Well Im glad you at least took the time to read it then.

But I have one thing to say, if you cannot prove that there is a god, he therefore cannot exist. In comparison, if you cannot prove that there is a giant elephant in the room, in obviously cannot be there.
That was long... @w@ But I totally agree with all of that. Although I was raised in a Catholic family, (for the last 5 years, we haven't gone to church, and only occasionally pray before dinner now.) the Bible dosen't really make much sense. You made some pretty good points.
1) don't bump in ED, it's against the rule, but because your argument is well written I hope that no one will report it

2) Your proves could be rather easily refuted....The fish fossiles on mountain tops? Who's to say that those fishes didn't die before the flood and was therefore pushed up the mountains beforehand? Even without the flood, fishes will die anyhow, and still could be pushed to the top...so that one is rather senseless...or i'm just rambling cuz I'm tired ~_~||

Also, about the wars: Christians nowadays do not do them anymore. Also, I don't think Christians nowadays should be blamed for what happened BEFORE their birth time that they could not help with. Personally, if I was born during the Crusades time, I will not help in it in any way.

Somewhere in the Talmud it mentioned that women can refuse sex from her husband, but that's the least her husband could offer to her as a spouse.
Also, who is more sinful than the other does not matter in the eye of God. We're all born sinful anyhow, it's useless to blame it back to the original creator of it. It sounds a LOT more sexist if you look for who the BLAME instead of HOW you can repent.

I'm not going to refute all your points today since I have work to do that I haven't go to...I'll refute them some other time if no one else has already ^^||
britt-chan
That was long... @w@ But I totally agree with all of that. Although I was raised in a Catholic family, (for the last 5 years, we haven't gone to church, and only occasionally pray before dinner now.) the Bible dosen't really make much sense. You made some pretty good points.
Yeah...sorry about that. Glad to see that someone else agree's with me.
You sir, are a douche, for trying to push beliefs on people. You can't tell people what to belive in. I do belive in God. I read the post,and belive, and always have, there are some things you CAN NOT explain. This is just about the only one of those things. Even if I cannot prove God exists, why should I? I belive he needs no proving.There are PLENTY of miricles "Proving" the existance of God. Try looking into some of those. I strongly disafgree with your opinions, but you have your choices and I have mine.
I have similiar thoughts about the whole religion and god theories. I did enjoy reading this though, it had some real funny points and I liked the points on how closed minded the followers are.
Elenoa
1) don't bump in ED, it's against the rule, but because your argument is well written I hope that no one will report it

2) Your proves could be rather easily refuted....The fish fossiles on mountain tops? Who's to say that those fishes didn't die before the flood and was therefore pushed up the mountains beforehand? Even without the flood, fishes will die anyhow, and still could be pushed to the top...so that one is rather senseless...or i'm just rambling cuz I'm tired ~_~||

Also, about the wars: Christians nowadays do not do them anymore. Also, I don't think Christians nowadays should be blamed for what happened BEFORE their birth time that they could not help with. Personally, if I was born during the Crusades time, I will not help in it in any way.

Somewhere in the Talmud it mentioned that women can refuse sex from her husband, but that's the least her husband could offer to her as a spouse.
Also, who is more sinful than the other does not matter in the eye of God. We're all born sinful anyhow, it's useless to blame it back to the original creator of it. It sounds a LOT more sexist if you look for who the BLAME instead of HOW you can repent.

I'm not going to refute all your points today since I have work to do that I haven't go to...I'll refute them some other time if no one else has already ^^||


About the fish - Err...yeah...thats exactly what I said...

I dont blame christians today for the faults of those before them, thats pretty stupid. Im just saying it is because of them that christianity is the largest religion in the world.

And I never placed the blame on women, I am merely repeating what was said in the bible.
Lil-Jo
I have similiar thoughts about the whole religion and god theories. I did enjoy reading this though, it had some real funny points and I liked the points on how closed minded the followers are.
Lol, thanks. Im glad you enjoyed it.

Rainbow Smoker

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SupahFly856
There are PLENTY of miricles "Proving" the existance of God.


Such as?
Dark Carbunkle
Elenoa
1) don't bump in ED, it's against the rule, but because your argument is well written I hope that no one will report it

2) Your proves could be rather easily refuted....The fish fossiles on mountain tops? Who's to say that those fishes didn't die before the flood and was therefore pushed up the mountains beforehand? Even without the flood, fishes will die anyhow, and still could be pushed to the top...so that one is rather senseless...or i'm just rambling cuz I'm tired ~_~||

Also, about the wars: Christians nowadays do not do them anymore. Also, I don't think Christians nowadays should be blamed for what happened BEFORE their birth time that they could not help with. Personally, if I was born during the Crusades time, I will not help in it in any way.

Somewhere in the Talmud it mentioned that women can refuse sex from her husband, but that's the least her husband could offer to her as a spouse.
Also, who is more sinful than the other does not matter in the eye of God. We're all born sinful anyhow, it's useless to blame it back to the original creator of it. It sounds a LOT more sexist if you look for who the BLAME instead of HOW you can repent.

I'm not going to refute all your points today since I have work to do that I haven't go to...I'll refute them some other time if no one else has already ^^||


About the fish - Err...yeah...thats exactly what I said...

I dont blame christians today for the faults of those before them, thats pretty stupid. Im just saying it is because of them that christianity is the largest religion in the world.

And I never placed the blame on women, I am merely repeating what was said in the bible.


1) what I was trying to prove there was that just because the fishes are on the mountain tops doesn't mean that God can't exist and the Flood didn't happen

2) Because of "them"..."them" as in who? The Crusaders?

3) Um, can you point out a passage where it is said that "Women are sinful...even more so than _____ because of the Apple"? Cuz THAT would be sexist.

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