If you could have chosen your religion ?
- Thread starter Francis2004
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Atheists and people who have a religion aren't that different. Both have to make a leap of faith. In the case of Jews, Christians and Muslims, they believe there is a god, even though they can't prove it. Atheists believe there is no god, even though they can't prove it either.
That's why I'm agnostic. Until I see proof one way or the other, I refuse to commit myself. In the meantime, I try others as I'd have them treat me. We are all brothers and sisters of a very large extended family. Which is why I see the earth_as_one.
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What leap of faith do I have concerning this issue? Why would I need a leap of faith? If I can't see an apple growing on the end of one of my fingers, why would I need a leap of faith deciding that there isn't one there? Leaps of faith require assumptions.
Just because you cannot detect an apple growing on the end of one of your fingers, doesn't prove its non-existance. Maybe one is there, but you lack the ability to detect it. I admit the chances are unlikely or even beyond a reasonable doubt, but they aren't zero. Proving the non-existance of something, is a logical impossibility. Just like you can't prove the non-existance of leprechauns, bigfoot and Saddam Hussein's WMD stockpiles.
For the same reason, you can't prove God's non-existance. Therefore atheists have to believe there is no god. Atheism is a belief based system.
In your opinion, that there is no God, may be beyond a reasonable doubt. Human beings have a primitive understanding of the Universe. God could be a reasonable approximation of the truth about the nature of the universe and its creation and you can't prove I'm wrong...
For the same reason, you can't prove God's non-existance. Therefore atheists have to believe there is no god. Atheism is a belief based system.
In your opinion, that there is no God, may be beyond a reasonable doubt. Human beings have a primitive understanding of the Universe. God could be a reasonable approximation of the truth about the nature of the universe and its creation and you can't prove I'm wrong...
I don't like delving into these kind of threads because they end up being dominated by extremists, however, I will add this; you and I seem to have experienced an extreme difference in aboriginal beliefs. My experince has been with those whose are very close to the beliefs of the the OT; mainly, there is one deity, the Creator, the Great Spirit, and as it was put to me, the Bible was written for those who had fallen out of favour with Him. The native tribes had not yet suffered this fate, but soon would, as we all would or did. The use of the masculine in written or oral history is used the same as it is in contracts, but male and female is a mortal experience, it is non existant in the spirit world, for that reason God cannot be a "she" either.
I don't have to. I am atheist because I simply accept that there are no gods because I accept there is not a shred of evidence for them. I don't even have to prove anything to myself, let alone anyone else. It isn't a matter of belief or disbelief with me anymore.
Like I said, I don't need a leap of faith to tell me there's no apple there. If you want me to prove there's no apple there, I will call 911 for the guys with extra long arms on their white PJs and direct them to you.
Simple, neh? IOW, just because I cannot prove there are no gods doesn't mean there are gods nor does it mean that you can prove there are.
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Its a philosophical dilema Les. The question of God's existance is non-sensical or not a logical question, since it can't be disproven. It could be proven, but it hasn't. So it remains an unanswered question. Both atheists and theist believe they know the answer but they can't support their believe with conclusive evidence.
That's why Agnosticism is the only logical position regarding this question:
ag·nos·tic (
g-n
s
t
k)n.1. a. One who believes that it is impossible to know whether there is a God.
b. One who is skeptical about the existence of God but does not profess true atheism.
That's why Agnosticism is the only logical position regarding this question:
ag·nos·tic (
b. One who is skeptical about the existence of God but does not profess true atheism.
There isn't one religion that's been able to use logic to point out that gods exist in the parameters they have described for themselves and logic has been used to wind these religions into knots. That's close enough for me.Its a philosophical dilema Les. The question of God's existance is non-sensical or not a logical question, since it can't be disproven. It could be proven, but it hasn't. So it remains an unanswered question. Both atheists and theist believe they know the answer but they can't support their believe with conclusive evidence.
That's why Agnosticism is the only logical position regarding this question:
ag·nos·tic (g-nstk)n.1. a. One who believes that it is impossible to know whether there is a God.
b. One who is skeptical about the existence of God but does not profess true atheism.
BTW, there is more than one definition for "agnosticism". For instance, my wife's brand of agnosticism: she doesn't care whether there are gods or not because they have no bearing on how she conducts her life. They are irrelevant.
I don't have to. I am atheist because I simply accept that there are no gods because I accept there is not a shred of evidence for them. I don't even have to prove anything to myself, let alone anyone else. It isn't a matter of belief or disbelief with me anymore.
Like I said, I don't need a leap of faith to tell me there's no apple there. If you want me to prove there's no apple there, I will call 911 for the guys with extra long arms on their white PJs and direct them to you.
An atheist doesn't have to prove 'anything'.No one has
ever seen any god, but the believers say there are gods,
so it is they who need to prove it, if they want to, I
really don't care if they do or not, I don't decide there
are gods when one has never been seen, in many thousands
of years, I will put my energy in reality and what we
know, here on our earth.
Things that a flitting around, but are invisible, are just
that, invisible, so no one has ever seen them, I don't
relate to things like that, they are only in the heads of
those who believe something invisible is there, so it
really has nothing to do with atheists, we just don't
think the same.
The aboriginal people believe in an anthropomorphous creator but they alsobelieve the Earth is our mother, that she is the origin of life and the provider of all they need. In that way they view her as a goddess and cohort of the Creator as symbolized by the sun.They also recognized the influence of the moon on the cycles of life, referring to her as Grandmother Moon. So although they believed in the one creator, they also had lesser deities.
They also believed in the power of animal and plant spirits to help them navigate through life. Every animal has a set of characteristics that correspond to various human traits and virtues. Thus a bear represent inner strength, coyote is cunning, deer is beauty and innocence, wolf is wisdom, etc. Animals can help a person know themselves better and help through trying times.
I don't think your understanding is different than mine but you may not have delved into it to the extent that I have.
Which is fine until we found out that the building blocks for the beginning of life might have come from off-planet. lol
Still, it all seems more natural than having some god invent itself in order to invent a universe, etc. That's just stretching the rubber band of reason til it breaks.
Kinda like the Genesis bomb on Startrek. But the qualifier is the "might" have.
gods tend to get in the way of reasonable thought and personal responsibility.
I have no doubt we will find a reasonable description eventually. And it won't be that something created itself from nothing in order to create a universe containing a pretty screwed up experiment like a human being.
That they do.
either way, responsibility is not needed when you can blame gods and demons for your actions.
The beauty in never saying it's my fault.. Us humans have a great way to wash away "sin"..
A prime example of 3 men that don't have a clue what they are talking about.
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