Stratos wrote on Mar 14^th, 2015 at 6:24pm:


People's lives are the evidence god's existence.

Postmodern Trendoid III wrote on Mar 14^th, 2015 at 6:55am:


Raven is not passing it off as his own work

DNA research is constantly working to push back the barriers.  Researchers are intent upon finding 'original man'

No surprise that religions through the ages have attempted to do likewise with whatever resources they had to hand

Dig beneath any religion and you'll find an older one, then another older one, etc. until there's a blank screen beyond which they cannot go

Some people today believe, or want to believe, that we were seeded by those from distant worlds, planets, dimensions

Taking what exists today, science claims it will soon be able to 'create humans'.  But of course, they have to work with whatever exists

Doesn't matter whether or not we were seeded by people from outer space -- where did the people from 'outer space' originate ? 

Let's say we find these space-people.  From what did they originate?  And if we one day learn that, we would have to ask, Where did they originate ?

Back, back, back, getting closer to the source -- and what's at the end of the search?  Gods - multiple gods?  Ok.  So where did they originate ?

Sooner or later, we might get back to the original source of All.  There has to be a 'start', a 'beginning', a 'source'

Call it God, call it Marmalade, doesn't matter what name we give it

Call it the Source, why not

Anyone who posts ' God Does Not Exist - End of Story' is simply advertising their sad lack of intelligence and imagination imo

We Are All Atheists

Everybody is An Atheist

The deep and terrible irony of this global persecution of atheists is that all of us are in fact atheists, even the most devout, undoubting, dedicated priest, rabbi or mullah.

The word atheist derives from Greek, originally from the adjective atheos, meaning "without god." The term was later invoked by Greek writers to mean "denying the gods." All of us are without or deny the existence of at least some gods, and therefore all of us are atheists. This is undeniable: all monotheistic believers reject all gods, except one. They reject all the Greek elder gods Cronus, Gaea, Uranus, Rhea, Oceanus, Tethys, Hyperion, Mnemosyne, Themis, Iapetus, Coeus, Crius, Phoebe, Thea, Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas, Metis and Dione.

Muslims, Jews and Christians all deny the existence of the Greek Olympic gods Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Hera, Ares, Athena, Apollo, Aphrodite, Hermes, Artemis and Hephaestus. All major religions today dismiss as nothing but myth the Roman gods Jupiter, Juno, Neptune, Pluto, Apollo, Diana, Mars, Venus, Cupid, Mercury, Minerva, Ceres, Proserpine, Vulcan, Bacchus, Saturn, Vesta, Janus, Uranus and Maia.

Yet this roster of gods was real to multiple thousands of people for thousands of years, every bit as real as the one god worshipped by Christians, Muslims and Jews today. These Greek and Roman gods were the subject of daily pleas, prayers and sacrifice and the guiding force for much daily ritual. These mighty powers stood for millennia, ruling over their followers for a period of time that greatly exceeds all of Christianity. These gods are now demoted to nothing more glorious than a good story. What would convey upon these gods more or less legitimacy than the god of John, Matthew, Mark and Luke? Nothing.

If asked, Christians, Jews and Muslims today would use numerous and diverse reasons to deny the existence of Greek and Roman gods, who were so important to so many people for so long. Religious folks today are quite convinced that Greek and Roman gods are nothing but myth. I simply extend that reasoning to include the one remaining god. Everybody is an atheist; I merely exclude the existence of one more god than those who consider themselves religious. You deny the existence of Zeus and Jupiter; I deny the existence of Zeus, Jupiter and your one god. Whatever logic and reasoning, or faith, you apply to deny that Zeus and Jupiter are real, I agree, and apply that to your god as well.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-schweitzer/we-are-all-atheists_b_6890056.html

Stratos wrote on Mar 14^th, 2015 at 10:05pm:

I am sorry but this is as stupid as a Brain post.


You must be a total and complete iudiot if you want/expect everything - god, love, bad hair days, cancer, flue, blue eyes, pigmentation, whatever - toi occur in a uniform fashion and if they do not, dismiss the whole thing as therefore invalid.

I know you are an atheist and you are not sympathetic to notions of god and all that but that doesn't mean you have to act and think and talk like a total prat with no insight beyond that of a 3 year old's.

Soren, perhaps explain what you mean then by

Soren wrote on Mar 18^th, 2015 at 8:31pm:


and why this excludes the worst that humanity has to offer?

Please explain this evidence, and why you think it is compelling evidence for the divine.

Laughing Heathens

Atheism doesn’t have to be so angry. Look at Democritius and Santayana.

“Why do the heathen rage?” The quote from Psalm 2:1 used to appear in ads by Protestant fundamentalists placed in the University of Texas student newspaper. Madalyn Murray O’Hair was one raging heathen.

Like O’Hair’s creed, the evangelical atheism of Richard Dawkins, the late Christopher Hitchens and others is best understood as a counter-Christianity or counter-Abrahamism. It is defined by what it is against, Abrahamic monotheism, and it fights the enemy by adopting its tactics (and, in the case of O’Hair’s atheist church, its very organization). The very term “atheist” defines the belief system in terms of what it opposes. The philosopher John Gray has even described “evangelical atheism” as a new form of fundamentalism.

At the risk of using the “no true Scotsman” fallacy (no true Scotsman generalizes about Scotsmen!), I would suggest that

no true atheist — make that ethical naturalist — lives in a state of perpetual smoldering outrage at the silly beliefs of other people

.

I call as my first witness Democritus, the ancient Greek philosopher who with Leucippus introduced the idea that the universe is made up of atomic particles. Democritus was known as “the laughing philosopher.” What little is known about him consists largely of humorous anecdotes. Here is the entry from L’Empriere’s Classical Dictionary:

He continually laughed at the follies and vanity of mankind, who distract themselves with care, and are at once a prey to hope and anxiety….He taught his disciples that the soul died with the body; and therefore, as he gave no credit to the existence of ghosts, some youths, to try his fortitude, disguised themselves in a hideous habit, and approached his cave in the dead of night, with whatever noises could create astonishment and terror. The philosopher received them unmoved; and, without even looking at them, desired them to cease making themselves such objects of ridicule and folly.

The same vein of good humor can be found in Epicurus, and, in modern times, in Hume and Voltaire.

http://www.thesmartset.com/article/article03161501.aspx

Thanks for your reply Soren.

Soren wrote on Mar 19^th, 2015 at 5:51pm:


If you look into this, many animals can do these.  None to the ability of humans I admit.

Soren wrote on Mar 19^th, 2015 at 5:51pm:


I'm not quite sure about this reasoning to be honest.  I mean, if we could all shape-change and hide like octopi, it is a very obviously beneficial evolutionary trait, but one pretty much specific to certain species.  Ditto even mundane things like rodents ability to keep growing teeth, or a kangaroos ability to maintain a pregnancy until convenient to give birth.  Evolution doesn't have a goal, the ones who reproduce pass on their genetic material.  At some point in the evolution of man, it was the smartest who would survive, when at another time and another place it may have been the ones who could hide the best, or live in the coldest climate.

Soren wrote on Mar 19^th, 2015 at 5:51pm:


I agree 100%, which is why we have philosophy.  I also feel I should ask then:  Do you believe God intervenes in the universe, or is outside it?  Because if one does interact in the universe then there should be some kind of evidence for that.

Soren wrote on Mar 19^th, 2015 at 5:51pm:


Again, this is the God of the gaps.  We do not know, therefore God.  I'd rather just be honest and say I don't know.  Also of note is that not all humans posses those traits.  There are insane people who cannot reason, sociopaths who cannot tell right from wrong etc.

Soren wrote on Mar 19^th, 2015 at 5:51pm:


Neither do I, but I will withhold my judgement from the matter until I know more.  I'm comfortable with the possibility that may be never.