You Believe in God? Who cares? (page 3)

Open mind

Hope I can finish this off before proplog2 replies:

Marx said "religion is the opium of the masses" or something like that. I agree. I wish there was a benevolent Sky God just waiting to whisk me into some state of bliss. Problem is, I just don't believe it. But, that's why I chose the username Open Mind and it's part of why I try to keep the animosity and/or egoes out of these kind of discussions. If a theist can calmly, rationally, convince me to believe in god, I'm all ears. I'd love to have that nice, comfortable, security blanket of God back. Problem is, once it goes through the ears, my brain rejects it.

Open Mind

p.s. Does anyone else have trouble turning off their highlighter once they've turned it on? It's kind of like atheism. I think once you go there, there's no turning back. Cheesy analogy, I know. Couldn't help myself.

jgnat

Proplog2, on both sides of the debate I prefer to see intellectual honesty, a willingness to review our own preconceptions, and a leap beyond black/white us/them either/or thinking. Open Mind, I have no idea what you are talking about.

The wanderer

Dear Proplog2:

Did you ever stop to think that for some
individuals having a belief in God is a
good thing?

For some people, having a belief in God
teaches respect, morals, a stronger bond
of family or sense of community.

There are other aspects such as emotional,
psychological, and spiritual comforts that
come from a belief in a Creator or Higher
being as well.

I am not talking about the Watchtower here.

... Just my opinion on such matters.

Respectfully,

The Wanderer

Poztate

In other words, Terry, you like to put people in a box. (Just my observation...not meant to criticize your way of sizing people u

People put themselves into their own little boxes of reasoning. Terry just pointed that out to everyone. He was not criticising but analysing how thought processes work.

lv4fer

You don't believe in God.... so Who cares. Honestly, you are entitle to your own opinion. However, Science has never been able to prove how life began. All they have is theories. Theories are educated guesses at best. Evolution is a theory and I don't care if it is taught in school as long as it is taught as a THEORY because that is what it is. I hate it when then present it as if it is a fact. As long as they are teaching the THEORY of Evolution they can also teach the THEORY of Creation. That way kids can be presented with all the facts and make an informed decision.

Terry

******In other words, Terry, you like to put people in a box. (Just my observation...not meant to criticize your way of sizing people up.)*** ************************************************************************************** I'd state it this way: without a context all things lose meaning. By framing the context of another person's world view it narrows the possibilities down to a manageable assessment. Rational thinking applies a filter to eliminate dead ends. If you go fishing or panning for gold you end up putting what you find in some kind of box or else you can't use it.

Inquisitor

the THEORY of Creation - lv4fer

ROFL!!!!! Me thinks "Creation" needs to do a basic course in scientific methodology before deigning to breathe in the same sentence as "Theory".

lv4fer, it may interest you to pick up a dictionary and look for "theory".

Here is a sample of what you might find:

the·o·ry alt / '?i alt ? alt ri, '???r alt i / Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation [ thee-uh-ree, theer-ee ] –noun, plural -ries.

1.	a coherent group of general propositions used as principles of explanation for a class of phenomena: Einstein's theory of relativity.

2.	a proposed explanation whose status is still conjectural, in contrast to well-established propositions that are regarded as reporting matters of actual fact.

3.	Mathematics . a body of principles, theorems, or the like, belonging to one subject: number theory.

4.	the branch of a science or art that deals with its principles or methods, as distinguished from its practice: music theory.

5.	a particular conception or view of something to be done or of the method of doing it; a system of rules or principles.

6.	contemplation or speculation.

7.	guess or conjecture.

[Origin: 1590–1600; < LL theoria < Gk theoría a viewing, contemplating, equiv. to theor(ein) to view + -ia -y 3 alt

]
—Synonyms 1 .Theory, hypothesis are used in non-technical contexts to mean an untested idea or opinion. A theory in technical use is a more or less verified or established explanation accounting for known facts or phenomena: the theory of relativity. A hypothesis is a conjecture put forth as a possible explanation of phenomena or relations, which serves as a basis of argument or experimentation to reach the truth: This idea is only a hypothesis.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It may surprise you to realize that most scientists (even the theists), when talking about the THEORY of evolution, do not refer to it as untested, wishy-washy information dreamt up by stuffy arm-chair academics. They may disagree on how the process works, but not on whether or not evolution occurs.

The "theory" of Creation on the other hand....

INQ

proplog2

lv4fer:

It is fair to say "You don't believe in God? Who Cares?

This is not a thread about fact. I didn't intend it to be another branch of the endless arguments about atheism and theism.

I would like to think atheists have more important things to do than argue with theists.

As atheists we are not stupid. If some real evidence is produced that there is God it will certainly get banner headlines.

In the mean time its irrelevant.

tetrapod.sapien

francis collins is the director of the human genome project. he is basically a deist with a little arm chair xianity thrown in for good measure. known recently for the debate he had with dawkins in TIME magazine.

and yet, proplog, i understand what you are getting at. you would think that someone who works that closely with genomes on a technical level would understand the philosophical implications of genomes.

of course it was crick and watson, the co-discoverers of the double helix who were the raging atheists. sort of makes collins seem like a glorified database administrator who insists on inserting a little "mystery" between the A's, C's, G's and T's. lol.

tetra

tetrapod.sapien

proplog,

i was just, JUST starting to question the WTS when this NG arrived in my mailbox. i think it was a catalyst for me. i remember reading it, and having the implications wash over me in about 5 minutes of reflection. what a day. later that night, there were people from the hall that came over to drink. i left the NG laying on the coffee table because i was curiouus to see what people would think when they opened the feature article up. sorry for the diversion in topic. :)

tetra

You Believe in God? Who cares?

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