by BucketShopBill 30 Replies latest social humour
Rational secular humanism can account for beauty and love and sacrifice as well as suffering, disasters and attrocities.
Theism can only explain the former, while indulging in special pleading and trite platitudes to dismiss the latter.
The world looks exactly as we might expect it to in the absence of a god.
I get tired of using the argument of "The Mystery of Evil" to attack God but where are we when we see heroic acts of godly courage from great humans...
Ironically, if the Christian god was actually doing what Christians claim he's doing ( a loving father who's helping his children), these doctors wouldn't be necessary, would they?
I get tired of anything good being attributed to god by the religious while all evil is conveniently shelved under the nauseatingly generic "bad things just happen, why blame god?" category...
I dont know if God exists or doesnt.
No one does.
I do know this much: The answer does not lie in the direction of trying to prove exixtance by goodness
or prove non existance by evil.
And yet, that is what most humans do.
"Oh there most be a God because __________________________ happened"
or
"There cant be a God because __________________________ happened.
Both are way too subjective and emotional to decide such an important question.
So if healings "prove" there is a god, wouldn't complete lack of healing prove there isn't a god?
Oops, Christians don't like to consider the other side of that coin.
So if healings "prove" there is a god, wouldn't complete lack of healing prove there isn't a god?
Nope.
Too simplistic.
Still too cause and effect.
Developmentalists tell us that when a baby is born it thinks it is the center of the universe.
The goal is to at some point grow out of that way of thinking.
Should we forgive the mosquito for drinking our blood?
Sure, go ahead.
Should we forgive the dog for chasing our car?
Yep.
Behavior is not always a choice, but the consequence of behavior is real.
You can put a tuxedo on a cannibal and have a nicely dressed cannibal.
The Darwinian struggle is that of SURVIVAL in the face of threatening circumstance (enviornment.)
Humans made it to the top of the food chain by outsmarting threats.
The threats did NOT go away.
When we start outsmarting ourselves with forgiveness and compassion, that's when it will get very interesting for our species.
Crofty, I was making a silly argument that a act of good from two people prove's God existence, kinda of the same way God not stopping ISIS from killing the journalist proves he does not exist. It was poor parody on my part, I did not mean to insult anyone or use Hitler to describe either group.
I don't understand why, the journalist did not deserve his unjust death, he was in the Middle East and knew the risks associated being there. The same with Anderson Cooper and how he made a name for himself in Bosnia during the Balkan Wars in the 1990s. AC knew he could be killed but I think he was fearless because the death of his brother left a giant void inside. Read the book by Anderson Cooper, he speaks of "Snipers" shooting, hearing bullets fly over in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia. AC is now a giant Star because of his fearlessness or recklessness still he had a choice the folks in the former Yugo had no place to run. AC went their on his own expense with his own camera, he seized fame by standing in the midst of a full scale war, that's how reckless he was! Nobody paid his way, he paved his own fame and now look, that's what is their goal and it's sad this journalist died but it's a risk AC describes in his book.
Saying God does not exist because a professional reporter was executed, what about the families in Iran who are on Death Row for preaching Christianity? What about the Kurds, the Iraqis, Christians now being exterminated and all their churches in Syria and Iraq are destroyed. It's a terrible thing this man got his head cut off with a pearing knife like a chicken, it was pure wickedness. Bad actions by bad people don't prove God exist or does not exist.
millie: The goal is to at some point grow out of that way of thinking.
Read what I actually said. My comments are based on what religious people claim. I didn't say it had to make any sense.
Something good happens: god did it
Something bad happens: Satan did it (or bad luck...whatever).
BTW, religious people do think they are the center of the universe. Everytime they pray for something they expect god to bend the laws of nature just for them...because they are so special.
Bad actions by bad people don't prove God exist or does not exist.
No, but it does prove god isn't intervening, and since answering prayers is intervention, god clearly isn't answering any prayers whatsoever, period!
Therefore, a totally non-intervening God is irrelevant. Such a being may as well not exist at all. So stop wasting your time praying to this aloof, non-intervening, hidden god or defending it or vainly trying to prove if it event exists or not. Clearly, this god is not listening.
The answers lie within, in our own conscience and mind and hearts. We've got to help ourselves and stop suffering and evil as best as we can.
This is basically the buddhist and humanist position.
It is somewhat offensive that you take away from these Doctors the recognition that they have done a wonderful work, by trying to attribute it to evidence of God. God does not take away the suffering, even though he could end it all in an instance, it is left up to both believers and non-believers out of the goodness of their own hearts to have to do what little they can.
