326 Reply by avogadro (edited by avogadro 27-Jan-2010 03:53:27)

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Re: Tell us why we don't believe in God

> Ehawk wrote:

>

@ avo
sorry for being too defensive. anyways, i have a question for you:
Have you ever considered the posability that God is an atheist?


i try to keep my hypotheticals constructive. lets look at this theory. If i chose to beleive God is an atheist, how would this effect the way i act? it wouldnt. What if God calls black white and white black? so what if he does?

i think if God exists, some type of all knowing, all powerful being; it would be totally unlike anything humans have experienced. the images of God, the descriptions of God, the assigning of human attributes to God, ect.. shouldnt be taken literally. they are there to try to help us relate to him, they are not scientific descriptions of the being...

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Re: Tell us why we don't believe in God

good explanation.

I dont smoke cigarettes because i like them.  I smoke because it hides the smell of marijuana thats seeping into the hallway atm.

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Re: Tell us why we don't believe in God

There's no actual description of the christian god. They just have Jesus.

This forum is stupid.

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329 Reply by avogadro (edited by avogadro 27-Jan-2010 14:44:22)

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Re: Tell us why we don't believe in God

theres no physical description, but in the bible they'll occasionally say something about the wrath of God, or that God was pleaseed or that God was angry, ect. and it is humans giving God human-like traits to make him relate able...

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Re: Tell us why we don't believe in God

Agreed... I do too think an omnipotent being would stand above things as feelings.

This forum is stupid.

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Re: Tell us why we don't believe in God

Now I haven't read too far back, but I have a question which seems to be unanswered as far as I can see, and that is why people who 'beleive,' or in fact people in general, seem so afraid of having no purpose in life? That the universe, life, everything has no meaning and is in fact only a series of 'random' events and that when our lives end, they in fact end?

As far as I am concerned, there is no reason to beleive in some higher purpose (and thus a higher being) without being afraid of death or that we have no reason for being, a fear of entropy and randomness.

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but i am Jesus"
"Nothing is worse than a fully prepared fool"

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Re: Tell us why we don't believe in God

i believe that the universe is a cosmic occurance based on the "Law of Conservation of Matter". Recycling matter over aeons, but it doesn't repeat the same order of matter. The rules of evolution apply in this, as even in places without life, are always going to be the image of what its past was.  This means, humans and anyone other life is NOT rare.  Since there is an uncountable amount of possabilities, Individual life is not as important as humans would like it to be.

since i believe this to be true, i can understand the fear of doom humans would have to deal with this mentally.  So i can understand WHY humans(and all orther sentient lifeforms) would find comfort and meaning in religions.

come to think of it, the neanderthal man buried there dead. cerimonial burial is a very strong clue to proove spiritual creativity is not unique to only humans.  i bet when humans meet another alien race(i'm guessing 25k years) they would argue with our religion.  the reason for this is that if there is ANY doubt, it can cause a liability of belief in other aspects the ideal. which can be dangerous for any belief structure...

I dont smoke cigarettes because i like them.  I smoke because it hides the smell of marijuana thats seeping into the hallway atm.

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Re: Tell us why we don't believe in God

You_Poop, I'm just worried about the fact that without reason we have no actual reason to survive. We have this genetic code that tells us we need to survive, but there's no just reason to.
So why do we want to survive, and do we have these disgusting cognitive brains?

We built a car for transportation. To spend less time and effort in travelling.

But why do we have this urge to discover? There's no just reason to it. If our lives are limited and so is this planet: we add nothing. Therefore there is no reason for us to have cognition. And no reason for me to be thinking about this.

And Ehawk's theory is nice and all. But it just says we'd have been much more useful not having cognitive thoughts.

Sooo, without purpose... we'd have been better off being mentally handicapped. Heh?

This forum is stupid.

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Re: Tell us why we don't believe in God

What are you talking about, monkeys are cognitive. If a monkey steals your banana, you hit it. Monkey learns not to steal your banana. Cognition is an advanced response to stimulus, just like a reaction to pain. We survive because we can use cognition to plan ahead and avoid getting slapped. Throw a man in a cage with a lion, and you can see how primal he can get. What you have alluded to is pretty much related to survival.

Certainly religion may be a survival mechanism. There is no reason to believe in George Michael's penis, but people still do. All these contentions are theories, just like George Michael's penis. Yes he may wear a skirt and lipstick. But really noone knows for sure.

Destiny is only for those too own to make their fate weak.

~ Geese

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Re: Tell us why we don't believe in God

Cheers... I stand corrected. But that doesn't answer my question, does it?

There's still no reason for us to be here. Except for George Michael's penis... our saviour.

This forum is stupid.

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336 Reply by SOL

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Re: Tell us why we don't believe in God

No (waterproof) reason known to man ... it doesn't automatically mean there is/isn't one.

Only the dead have seen the end of war. - Plato

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Re: Tell us why we don't believe in God

@Ehawk

this is my response

Insane Lemming of Drama Queens and Other Hyperbolical People

1431 ftw

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Re: Tell us why we don't believe in God

pwned

Insane Lemming of Drama Queens and Other Hyperbolical People

1431 ftw

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Re: Tell us why we don't believe in God

Dumbass...d.

This forum is stupid.

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340 Reply by Ehawk (edited by Ehawk 30-Jan-2010 09:42:32)

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Re: Tell us why we don't believe in God

@ death,

the answer is "yes" big_smile lol

@everyone else,

i will try too responded when i'm sober.

I dont smoke cigarettes because i like them.  I smoke because it hides the smell of marijuana thats seeping into the hallway atm.

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Re: Tell us why we don't believe in God

Mrpoop, err i mean Mrblonde...

Why does there need to be a purpose? Who must there be a reason for anything to exisit? Can it just not simply be? Why does man have higher thought processes? Because of evolution and the way we grew as a species. You could say we became who we are because of our ability to reason, whihc is what the thought that there must be a higer purpose comes from, if we can think then why? But maybe we developed that ability simply because it helped us to survive, not that we survived because of that ability. It is a fundamental shiuft in thought and destroys any basis for needing a "why."

It is of course a bad argument, but I find that it is in fact the best one. It is like "why did the universe develop just so, with so many variables coming out jsut right for it to grow in the way it did?" A bad answer, but possibly the right one, is because it did, and if it didn't we wouldn't be here to ask why it did. The only reason there is a purpose is because we have existed, grew, eveolved and developed a skill that has been fundamental to our development.

So in summary; There is no reason why, it just is...

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but i am Jesus"
"Nothing is worse than a fully prepared fool"

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Re: Tell us why we don't believe in God

Yeah, well... if it just is, we'd have been better even mentally handicapped? If we're not adding anything to the whole, our actions are futile.

If the only reason for us to remain alive is the genetic coding we have, then there is no reason for us to advance. If we are only here to reproduce, we should all go back to the stone age and reprode.
Not very Freudian, but meh.

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Re: Tell us why we don't believe in God

has anyone really noticed most of my posts here are just my way of agreeing with Mrblonde?

kinda like a allegory or w/e the term was

Insane Lemming of Drama Queens and Other Hyperbolical People

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344 Reply by You_Fool (edited by You_Fool 30-Jan-2010 20:56:29)

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Re: Tell us why we don't believe in God

Mrblonde: except that reason why we have survived is that we have developed a desire to advance, so now we advance and grow because we desire too. There is no greater purpose, no divine hand guiding us, there is just us...

If you need example of creatures that don't have this desire to advance, look at any other animal, they all keep to their base instincts, which does go to show that the desire to advance is resonably unique.

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but i am Jesus"
"Nothing is worse than a fully prepared fool"

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Re: Tell us why we don't believe in God

Yeah, but why do we desire to advance? If there's no actual reason for it... we'd have been better off joining our other animal friends. No?

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Re: Tell us why we don't believe in God

we humans dont allow other creature to advance more than their current capabilities.  since the dawn of man, we have had conflict with other lifeforms, as a result, we have advanced and also stunned the advancement of other lifeforms. our main strategies for this is extermination and domestication.  if we encounter a species with potential danger toward us, we would address the problem.  we would either kill them, or control them.  the phrase "Man over Beast is the order of Nature" is a symbol of the ideology of mans' influence over nature.

It is my opinion that the desire to advance is not unique, but when one species gains the momentum of growth, power and sentience, the species would be advanced enough to prevent another species to be stronger.

I dont smoke cigarettes because i like them.  I smoke because it hides the smell of marijuana thats seeping into the hallway atm.

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Re: Tell us why we don't believe in God

There is no reason for it Mrblonde, pure and simple. And if we were like the other animals we would be animals, but we developed the desire to grow and advance, so we are humans and not apes.

Why does there need to be a reason for it? Why can it not just be?


Ehawk, in my oppinion you are wrong, it is our desire to advance which makes us unique... we were the 'thinking monkey,' the 'monkey of the plains' and we developed this ability to learn and advance ourselves mostly as a survival tool. We didn't have tress to climb to hide from predators, we only had our ability to think and learn, and think and learn we did until we have become what we are today...

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but i am Jesus"
"Nothing is worse than a fully prepared fool"

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Re: Tell us why we don't believe in God

Without reason there is no need for it? Simple as that.

Why do we go to work? To earn money. To buy food. To eat food. Survive.
But why do we want to survive? To discover? Doesn't add up.

This forum is stupid.

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Re: Tell us why we don't believe in God

@ fool,

i'm not wrong, i was most likely mis-understood.  what i'm saying is that ALL life has the desire for survival which leads to advancement.  in the animalia world, the only advancments are physical slow developments.  Once intelligent life evolves, the pattern of animal advancment is detered by the dawn of intelligent life.  intelligence is a super charged survival tactics that has the ability to advance.

@mrblonde,
i think the human reason for being is shared by to worlds, animal and civilized.  Our instincts tell us simply to survive, to exist.  our civilized brains tell us to prosper, not just for ourselves, but for out social connections as well.
_______
note: IMO, humans are an intellligent species, BUT, there is a strong possability that there is other life, lightyears away, that though are not human, still share baseline attributes that intelligent life should have(i.e. religion, beliefs, social glue, war, etc.).

I dont smoke cigarettes because i like them.  I smoke because it hides the smell of marijuana thats seeping into the hallway atm.

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350 Reply by DPS

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Re: Tell us why we don't believe in God

"Without reason there is no need for it? Simple as that.

Why do we go to work? To earn money. To buy food. To eat food. Survive.
But why do we want to survive? To discover? Doesn't add up."

Genetic predisposition.  Life that does not seek to survive died out a long time ago; even bacteria, mold, and other simple forms of life actively work to survive and reproduce.  Asking what our motivation is to survive is like asking what fire's motivation is to burn, you're seeking a philosophic explanation to explain the nature of reality.  We seek to survive because survival is beneficial.  Humans also need to deal with the fact that we can comprehend our own mortality which adds fear of death to drive survival.

There are 10 kinds of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

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