G.o.d (((((((((athiest))))))))))

[lynx]

Originally posted by fugley@20 August 2003 - 22:20
or like mass production cars and stuff like the Foc..

Oh dear, I do believe that was almost ugly, fugley.

Edit: this is probably enough for another round of musical posts.

[Spider_dude]

this is totally/almost unrelated,

has anyone read a book called the bible code?
its a book about the bible, infact they added all the letters from the pages of the bible together ommitted all spaces and done a sort of magical word search on it.
the results showed important passages in time crosing over each other. i.e that israeli dude who was assassinated(the prime minister) searching for his name there was a joining link saying assassinated and shot for example. the only problem being that the event had to happen in time for them to search for it, in a way the bible could predict the past but not the future. it would however be interesting to search for your own name and cross reference with lots of words like death/murder/when/kazaa. and just see if its true or shite.

anyway here is a link to a review
bible code review - interesting really.

[MagicNakor]

Indeed, it's much like playing Jumbles. And there is always more than one answer when you play that.

[RGX]

Im bored, So I thought i'd write some stuff

Ive always looked at evoloution as an adatability to an environment, over a period of time, rather than the creation of everything. If you think about it, it would be kind of stupid to create an animal or being which couldnt adapt to its conditions, as I doubt it would last very long. Therefore, its creator, whoever you beleive it to be, would enable it to adapt to climate change, terrain growth over time, etc. etc.

just a thought

(btw, these arn't supposed to stand up in arguments im just posting my thoughts on the whole God thing)

People often ask for proof that god exists. I often ask back "prove to me Jamaica exists" (I chose jamaica because not many people have been there). We hear about it, we read about it ,we see pictures of it on tv, but how do we know it exists? How do we know the location where Jamaica is supposed to be isnt a military base? Random iknow, but it brings me to the conclusion that we cant really prove much at all. (I take proof as un-deniable physical evidence). I cant prove to you I truly exist. For all you know your in a coma, in a dream world of your own.

This also makes me think about proof of God. In my opinion, the fact that I am sitting here is a sort of proof there is a higher power. The fact that there are millions of people out there living complex lives, out of supposedly knowhere, suggests thaere is a creator, a being or entity which started the process of life. For the universe to appeaar randomly, and advance to his level, with no outside interference, is, to my mind at least, very improbable

Will post more later, tired and bored, but those are just my views, and I have no problem with other peoples.

[MagicNakor]

Em..what would you consider undeniable proof that Jamacia exists then? Would you have to sail there yourself? Obviously you cannot trust someone else to do the transporting for you; they might be in on the conspiracy.

[RGX]

my point is,that nothing is really provable....not truly anyway, forgive me for sounding paranoid, but its true, can I even trust my senses?

As I said, these were just thoughts in my head I needed to air, they arnt fully thought through, although I stand by them as my viewpoint

[Biggles]

This would appear to be getting philosophical. Does that tree falling make a sound if there is no one there to hear it? Or, a version my daughter passed on to me, if a man is in a forest by himself is he still wrong?

Religion is faith - faith is believing in that which you cannot see or discern. Allowing someone to attach you to a bungee rope is a form of faith. You believe the rope is ok, you believe the person is trustworthy and you believe in the mathematics (even if the very mention of quadratic equations gives you a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach).

Not believing can be based on a number of things. The guy who ended up embeded two feet into the ground last week, the fact that the organiser appears deranged, the fact that last guy on looked 300 pounds if he was an ounce.

Likewise, people aproach religion. Life experiences result in emotional reactions which may or may not have a grounding in objective logic. Consequently, some will hold onto a belief whilst others will reject it. It is interesting that post war Europe has an extremely low adherence to religious beliefs - something like 14% rate it as important to them whereas the US and Australia have figures nearer 50%. I would suggest that the horrors of two world wars and the enormous number of atrocities played out in that arena have created a degree of scepticism yet to permeate elsewhere. Perhaps the trends will reverse - who knows?

Ultimately faith is your choice - you cannot force someone to believe (you can only force them to look as though they believe). Religious tolerance should therefore accept that people will have different faiths or none because ultimately (I believe) no creed can contain an emotional commitment to a belief.

If a person has a faith then his walk is with his God not with a rule book. In my view the latter is simply a deep seated love of traffic wardens expressed as a religion to make it sound more acceptable.

[J'Pol]

Fine post sir.

Excellent points well presented.

One thing tho', the tree falling in the wood thing - it definitely makes a noise.

I believe I have proven this elsewhere, using a series of audio visual aids.

[Neil__]

[quote]Originally posted by imnotanaddict@20 August 2003 - 13:41
titey
Posted: 19 August 2003 - 21:45
QUOTE (imnotanaddict @ 19 August 2003 - 16:16)
My point is if we were perfect:
What would be our purpose?

But isn't your god perfect?
Does he have no purpose then?

If we were perfect, would there be the question of "free will"?
How could there be. We would incapable of making wrong choices.
I surely don't have the answers. I can only ask questions and use what
little deductive reasoning I have. I make no claims as to whether I'm right
or wrong.

If God is the creator of all things, how could he not be perfect on what can
we base imperfect?

As far as purpose?


I did find this :
God's Plan for mankind covers ALL aspects of human history, good and evil, as well as providing for "free choice" in order to achieve His greatest creation of all. . . a family of beings that are God's very offspring, with the very nature of God Himself!

John 3:16 says: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."

His purpose, to offer a home in heaven?

I think there's something we have to agree on, religion asks more questions than it answers and these questions definately need thought.

Neil

[ilw]

How do u decide which religion to follow? For many people it seems to be solely based on the religion they were exposed to as a child? This seems to me to be a strange way of choosing the philosophy by which u live your life and as far as i can see, apart from indoctrination, there doesn't seem to be any logical way of choosing a religion, a brief glance at history will show that no religion or monotheistic country seems to have been overtly favoured by the almighty and the claims and promises of each are fairly comparable.

"When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
Stephen Roberts

"We find now that the prosperity of nations has depended, not upon their religion, not upon the goodness or providence of some god, but on soil and climate and commerce, upon the ingenuity, industry, and courage of the people, upon the development of the mind, on the spread of education, on the liberty of thought and action; and that in this mighty panorama of national life, reason has built and superstition has destroyed."
Robert ingersoll

Also if u accept the premise that parts of a religion's holy book are just stories meant to educate, then how can u choose which parts are 'gospel' and which are fictional, or is it that u do not find it important to know which parts are true?

I'm personally agnostic (i have no faith either way) and regard the big bang and evolution as the best 2 creation theories around. To anyone who expressed disbelief that evolution could create life, I would recommend Richard Dawkin's books he's the writer of 'The selfish gene' and 'The blind watchmaker'. I was surprised by the amount I learned about evolution. My big bang knowledge is a lot more shaky, but in regard to lynx's discrepancies i'll add my vague understanding that the nuclear strong and weak forces probably had a much greater effect in the early universe creation than gravity (as gravity is only inverse square), also I was under the impression that at the sort of energies and distances that existed in the early microseconds of the universe, physical laws and constants were grossly mutated.