Atheism

by Jonathan Drake 43 Replies latest jw friends

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  Jonathan Drake

  @enigma haha no I didn't even realize it was April fools. I'm not accustomed to remembering it's a holiday. Except Christmas, because it's always so in your face.

  @marvin I guess I should say, logical to me. i can't believe I ever accepted faith in God TBH. It no longer makes sense to me for the reason I posted.
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  cofty

  Lack of evidence there is a god does not mean there is no god - Marvin Shilmer

  This is only true if you define god so vaguely as to say nothing at all about her.

  Specify any god that is worshipped today, or ever has been worshipped, and we can prove beyond all reasonable doubt that it does not exist.
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  cantleave

  Lack of evidence there is a god does not mean there is no god

  Lack of evidence there are Unicorns does not mean there are no Unicorns
  
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  yodastar

  I have to agree that where is the proof of God? I think that the Bible was a bunch of short stories written by men in a time they thought the world was flat. To me its just a story, a fantasy so then you have to start looking at other options. The universe is so large I struggle to accept that as human ants running around on a small planet in a small solar system that we are that important in the big scheme of things? Really it just blows your mind when you think of the brainwashing that we are so important in the universe! Just off topic but I remember when I was struggling along with two young kids this bro said to me - just relax a bit on yourself, why should we give ourselves such a hard time trying to live up to these standards when God could not even control his children when half of them gave him the finger and reckoned they could do it better. Perfect! Gave me the power to leave, like a said it's just a story
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  opusdei1972

  I don't know if Marvin remembers our last discussion in Channel C (now offline). In our last discussion I still believed that the story of Adam and Eve was true history. Marvin wrote me that some OT passages can't be taken literally because they would lead us to absurdities. And yes, I admit now that Marvin was right. Currently I no longer believe in those OT myths, however I still believe that if you don't believe in those stories in the same way as the NT writers did, you have to admit that no holy spirit was inspiring them. So, the god of the NT is as false as that of OT.
  
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  Marvin Shilmer

  Lack of evidence there are Unicorns does not mean there are no Unicorns

  From a strictly logical perspective that statement is 100 percent correct.

  From a logical perspective lack of evidence means no more than lack of evidence. To say that lack of evidence means anything more is fallacy.
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  Marvin Shilmer

  Specify any god that is worshipped today, or ever has been worshipped, and we can prove beyond all reasonable doubt that it does not exist.

  From a strictly logical perspective, and if we assume what you write above is true (and I'm not suggesting otherwise), it does not amount to evidence there is no god.

  For all we know our known universe is a speck of infection under the fingernail of some god.
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  Village Idiot

  @ Cofty,

  "Specify any god that is worshipped today, or ever has been worshipped, and we can prove beyond all reasonable doubt that it does not exist."

  One can conceive of a Deistic god who created the Universe in the way a scientist would run an experiment just to see what happens. No Bible, no immortality or judgment, no communicating with us Earthlings. Proving or disproving such a 'god' might not be possible but he could still be there.
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  never a jw

  I don't think any book out there can prove the existence or non existence of some sort of force that has given birth to the universe as we know it. Especially if this force is indifferent, as it seems to be, to humans desires, and remains reluctant to make a demonstration of his existence and his will. It's a lot easier however, to debunk the existence of the God of the Jewish people or of the Christian, or for that matter the existence of any personal God who gives a rip about little humans. Debunking him is a piece of cake, that is, for the open and curious mind. Not so for the people with the "faith" gene.
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  Marvin Shilmer

  • It's a lot easier however, to debunk the existence of the God of the Jewish people or of the Christian, or for that matter the existence of any personal God who gives a rip about little humans. Debunking him is a piece of cake, that is, for the open and curious mind. Not so for the people with the "faith" gene.

    I'd hesitate to characterize it as easy to debunk the existence of a personal god who gives a rip about little humans. Lots of careful definitions would have to be established, like what it means for god to "give a rip" and what exactly is a "personal god".
    
    When I look at the world around me I see things like bacteria that likely have no idea I exist as a person interested in them. But I exist. Those puny little bacteria are just too ignorant about the world they live in to comprehend something like me, or at least that's my assumption for sake of this little piece of writing. Take, for instance, those little microbes living in my gut. If they were able to see the edge of the universe they live in they'd likely have no idea that edge was the inside of my gut, or that what I did from day to day so much affected them. I'm sure I've initiated a few microbial genocides in my life, at least that what it seems like when I overdo antibiotics. Does that make me a god in relation to those microbial critters? Those little microbes likely have no clue of my existence, or that I care about whether they're healthy.