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Topic: Respect my ass (Read 46318 times)
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Simon K
Frungy champion
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Because there is no argument in the first place because there is no conclusive evidence of God not existing or existing, like I said, no amount of discussion on these boards will ever change that.
You're absolutely right. However, there's also no conclusive evidence that Santa Claus doesn't run a secret underground toy and thermonuclear weapon construction facility, manned by elven slave labour, hidden under the icy wastes of the North Pole. There's also no conclusive evidence against roaming gangs of tooth fairies running an underworld black market economy of children's teeth, or that the British Parliament is in fact being mind-controlled by an all-seeing tin of baked beans in orbit around Saturn.
No sane person believes in either of these, not because of evidence that they don't exist, but because of the absence of evidence that they do exist. Why should we believe in Yahweh, the deity of middle-eastern bronze age shepherds, any more than we should believe in Odin, Athena, Quetzalcoatl or Ba'al?
The major reason why I personally believe that the concept of God is beneficial, is that Humans have something to humble themselves to.
Humbling oneself before a fiction is not humility, it is humiliation.
I personally feel humble when reflecting on that when all comes to all, I am nothing more than a carbon-based lifeform living on a pale blue dot in orbit around an insignificant little yellow star, in a nondescript spiral arm of one of billions of galaxies -- a simple descendant of plains hunter-gatherers, pondering his place in an unimaginably vast universe. It seems to me that when my own spot in the universe is so tiny, it is entirely up to me to give my brief stay in existence meaning, and to make it as good as I possibly can.
Without the concept of a being that is higher than you, power would be the alternative "religion" anyone who had power would as such have no consequence to use it for his own will. With the ideas of a God that will punish you for your sins, people who might behave like this won't due to said force.
In that case, religion has failed miserably. The abuses of power conducted by the Catholic Church in medieval times are well-documented, and modern-day powerful believers frequently engage in quite immoral acts. Much more so than the relatively individualist Christianity, Islam is founded on the premise that humans should humble themselves before God -- even the word "Islam" literally translates to "Submission". One look at the Middle East, with Shi'ites and Sunnites horrifically slaughtering and torturing each other, should show that religion does not stop people from immoral behaviour.
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Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
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Neonlare
*Smell* controller
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Posts: 277
Nut Case for Star Control
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Because there is no argument in the first place because there is no conclusive evidence of God not existing or existing, like I said, no amount of discussion on these boards will ever change that.
But there's no need for evidence of God not existing, for the same reason there's no need for evidence that flying tomatoes or Remultap the Fashionably Excellent Djinn do not exist: because there's no reason to believe they do exist in the first place. Also, how do you disprove God's existence? I think a true believer would argue it's impossible to do so (which brings us back to the last point of my last message). The major reason why I personally believe that the concept of God is beneficial, is that Humans have something to humble themselves to. Without the concept of a being that is higher than you, power would be the alternative "religion" anyone who had power would as such have no consequence to use it for his own will. With the ideas of a God that will punish you for your sins, people who might behave like this won't due to said force.
That didn't prevent priests from molesting children. And what about Islamists who think their purpose in life is killing people? My point is, there are moral and immoral people on both sides. There's no proof that religious people behave better than secular ones.
You have a good point with the first statement, although the theory of a supernatural being or somesuch goes so far back in our evolution, it's been entwined in most of our cultures.
Indeed. The thing is that Main stream religion is corrupt, simply because it's written by man, and it's run by man. Corruption amongst humanity is ever present, on both sides of the coin. Scientists aren't flawless themselves, and neither were Priests and so on. The thing is, to have something that puts you in an unrivaled amount of power (Such as being that one person who has "connections" with a God, or being the Scientist with too much praise) will most likely cause some people to become corrupt in their roles. Personaly, I disagree with the ideas of a Priest or the certain person you "need" to get in touch with in order to become closer to God (if in existance), there aren't any quick fixes in life, you have to guide yourself most of time, so the idea of that someone who can instantly forgive your sins seems fishy to me.
One question though for the Atheists here, even though you do not believe in a supernatural being (unless it can be proven), do some of you still believe in some form of Afterlife, be it off of this world, or reincarnation?
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"would newton's law theory actually work if a Chmmr Avatar did a backwards pelvic thrust towards a planet and would this constitute an X=Y-0 in the part it ran straight into a Supox Blade and lasted long enough to survive?" - Elerium (as Valaggar)
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meep-eep
Forum Admin
Enlightened
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Consider the following, which I shall call Serge's Salvation through Satan:
- a good god, being good, might forgive you for the evil things you did
- an evil god, being evil, is unlikely to tolerate your good acts
So if you assume that there is a god, and that it's either good or evil, your best chance is doing evil things.
Fortunately, I don't take this whole god thing very seriously, nor do I recognise the existance of such a thing as absolute good and evil.
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« Last Edit: August 08, 2007, 01:16:24 pm by meep-eep »
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“When Juffo-Wup is complete
when at last there is no Void, no Non
when the Creators return
then we can finally rest.”
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I dislike this fragmentation of agnosticism. It's like the crazy amount of Linux distributions. One cannot see the wood for the trees.