There is no way of knowing the truth. Even in science, you never reach THE truth. To believe in something won't necessarily change your lifestyle. I believe in something you could call God, but you could also say that I "live" like an atheist.
That highly depends on the god. Most here are christians, protestants whatever. Believing in that kind of god would mean that I have to obey that gods rules. You are right if we talk about a Deistic god, which is equivalent to saying you believe that the laws that hold together our universe have some kind of conscience.... Which is not a "religion" per se. Explain!
I believe in a god that created the universe, created in a "Big Bang" sense, not a creationist way, but he has no intervention in our world. You could say Im a deist, but I also believe that the universe and God are the same thing, so you could argue that I'm also a pandeist (I think that was the name if I recall). Of course, I'm not religious in the way "I always go to church on Sundays", it's more a philosophy of life, but I believe in a deity nonetheless. Edit: On the other hand, I've never read any book about Deism and such, I reached this conclusions on my own, so I'm not THAT informed.
Hmm.... So i dont get what the point of this god is then. I'm not a physicist (I so sucked at it in school xD), but from my knowledge, the actual theory does not need an external catalyst, like your god. If you mean that he is the internal catalyst, meaning he is just the mass and energy that forms the universe, than I can understand that. I wouldnt call it a bleive or anything else though. It seems to be more like admiration for natural laws, the universe as a whole....maybe? oO
The Big Bang theory is a veeeery complex theory, what we learn at highschool it must be like the 3% of it Although, it's still a theory, it could be wrong. Back to the topic, what I meant was that I believe God created the universe, but not in the way of him making humans, animals and etc. And yep, you are right, it's a very pointless god, because basically he doesn't do anything. Long story short, I'm deist just because I believe in a higher being, but without superpowers.
i think believing in a sun god makes more sense. if there is an eclipse just sacrefice a few virgins and its all going to be fine.
I don't think I have to explain the hypocrisy? As for where deities came from, I'd say it's the human mind. Man did not understand a lot of natural phenomena thousands of years ago, but still wanted to come up with an explanation, so they attributed those concepts they had no knowledge of to deities. Later on, especially around the time of the Enlightenment, man became aware that deties weren't needed to explain a lot of things, and claims made in religious texts were false. And now we know the Earth revolves around the Sun, the Earth is a globe, and a lot of other good stuff. Recently, though, this process has stopped for a lot of people. To live your life without worrying what comes next. To help people for the sake of helping people instead of having the thought of the afterlife in the back of your head. To be able to sleep on Sunday. I can go on. You'd be surprised how much atheists know about religions compared to religious people.
Thank you for an actual intelligent sentence in this whole mess. @Mustachio I can't prove Jupiter, Juno, Vishnu, et al. because it is not part of my faith: to me, they do not exist. Try to understand, for all modern religions, more or less, the Gods of another faith are not real. So, I cannot prove they exist because to me, they do not.
He said "necessarily". What part of the word don't you understand? And a religion is just a belief. Definition: "A set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs." So, you don't necessarily need to follow a main stream religion to be religious. Uhuh. As an outsider I can confirm that. Many atheists know more about religions overall, while most theists only interest themselves for their own religion.
Wouldn't this argument apply if we assume that a god created the universe, including atoms, so that existence itself is proof of its existence. There really is no way to prove or disprove their existence, so we must assume they both exist and do not exist at the same time. That, and I do not believe that I have ever mentioned a Christian God in all this, but have been just talking about deities in general. While I understand this argument, where else would you expect it to say that the Bible was divinely inspire?
1. Existence itself is proof that 1-infinity possible things could have happened . Wow good evidence. 2. No, you must assume nothing. You just don't take a side. There is no reason to assume anything when we have no reason to believe it. 3. OH, IDK, GOD HIMSELF TO GIVE US SOME PERSPECTIVE HERE? The entire concept of gods goals in general is ridiculous. He created everyone, and then sends them to hell for not believing in him even though he would know every single part of their life leading up to their decision and their reasons for everything and he would know this BEFORE he even created them. It's a pointless errand to even create this universe when you all ready know whats going to happen!
You haven't given squat as evidence, so why should we believe your claims? Don't you even go there. I was raised around a catholic grandmother that shoved the idea of hardcore catholicism down my throat. Every time she spoke she was talking about all this stuff from the bible and about God. I came to the conclusion it was complete bullshit because I knew all this stuff about the Catholic religion. You should't be thinking about what would happen after death anyway. And anyway, you don't need to believe in a God to believe life does not end after death. You can believe in reincarnation and not believe in a God. Are you seriously gonna try and use this argument? That is like me saying life itself on this planet proves that aliens exist. That is complete bullshit.
Religious people always have the same tired excuses none of which are justified. Existence does not prove god exists(ESPECIALLY if your talking about a particular god, in which your odds are still 1-infinity) .
Please, spare me my time. You're trying to convince people of something you can't convince them of. It's the same as if I'd want you to convert to a theist.
You know why people DO in fact convert every day however? By expressing our beliefs we knowingly influence other peoples psyche . Everything we do has an effect on those around us and the world at large in a small way. Atheism grows because we live in a society that allows the free trade of thought among both intellectuals AND common rabble for the first time in history. I express my beliefs because the act of doing that influences people beyond those participating in this conversation. Having no opinion diminishs your worth in this universe.
In part, that's true. But I know a lot of people that are atheists just because "it's cool" or because "they fight the system maaan". And on the other hand, my ideas are in constant evolution, meaning that maybe when I'm 30 I will believe in another things; I think this applies to other people.
I would recommend you reevaluate your friends then. It's not so much that their atheist but that they are NOT religious .What system is there to fight? One that in all probability doesn't exist? Perhaps we're fighting the system of your stupid.
