What kind of atheist are you?

by Narkissos 105 Replies latest jw experiences

• 

  LittleToe

  Is it possible for a believer to agree to either of those statements?
  It's probably unlikely in the catagoric sense, but following on from what some have posted here I'd have to say that I don't believe in any of the God(s) that are generally presented. It's a little bit like hearing two thousand biographies of someone (and why don't we throw in an autobiography, for good measure). You still don't know that person unless you've actually met them, IMHO.

  Brenda:
  Your comment was delicious!

  HS:
  You, my friend, are a wag of the highest order! You made me laugh with each one of your posts on this thread

  I will pay the first person who provides me with irrefutable evidence of the existence of God or an afterlife $20,000 via bankers draft.
  Are you up to earning a few bob Little Toe?

  Now the first difficulty with this is that I'd actually have to precede you in death. I'd quite happily give you a tap on the shoulder, but by that point the money would be much use to me, being incorporeal and all...

  ...I tell ya what, if it works out that way, just give the money to some worthwhile charity

  But in all honesty, no, I can't give you the evidence that you seek. Nor would "I" have accepted anyone else's evidence.

  I should also throw into the ring the fact that I genuinely would just love to have everything in life explained away scientifically. Life might lose a little of it's mystery, in the process, but I like objective answers as much as the next person.
• 

  Dustin

  "I'm not a slave to a God that doesn't exist" to quote Marilyn Manson. Even if God does exist, I don't believe in his way of doing things. So he's dead to me one way or another.

  Dustin
• 

  frankiespeakin

  LT,

  Now the first difficulty with this is that I'd actually have to precede you in death. I'd quite happily give you a tap on the shoulder, but by that point the money would be much use to me, being incorporeal and all...

  If you become an immortal spirit creature you are no longer bound by time and their fore you should beable to go back to the time of what we call now and tap HS on the shoulder and apear before him. I think that would be very easy.
• 

  LittleToe

  Frankie:
  That's not the problem. Potentially I could do that now
  My issue is with not being able to collect the money...
  LOL

  Besides, I'm not a charlatan.

  On another point of note, since when did becoming immortal mean "eternal"?
  And what do you mean "if you become..."?
• 

  seattleniceguy

  Hey HS,

  :: :: On the other hand, I believe that the Christian conception of God does not exist, because if he did, he would collapse under the weight of his own illogicity.

  ...

  :: No, merely that it has not in two thousand years collapsed under the weight of its 'illogicity' as you suggest, and does not look like it is about to happen either. A lack of logic has seldom caused the collapse of any belief system.

  I didn't say the belief system would collapse. As you observe, people can believe illogical things all they want. I just said that if a God existed in the Christian conception, that God himself would collapse.

  Kind of like in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, where God gets trapped in a paradox that proves he doesn't exist. His final words are, "Oh, dear, I hadn't thought of that." Then he disappears in a poof of logic.

  SNG
• 

  hillary_step

  LT,

  You, my friend, are a wag of the highest order! You made me laugh with each one of your posts on this thread

  We had our wedding anniversary last week and in a contemplative moment I asked my wife why she had married me all those years ago. She said, "You are the most unsual man that I have ever met, and I knew that I would not be bored". I asked, "What do you mean unusual, that could mean anything?" Now, you must understand that at that moment I was trying to balance the cat on my head with her paws either side of my head so that I could pretend that she was a hat. She was having none of it and was struggling like an hairy crab. My wife looked up from her book and just rolled her eyes ( again ) .....lol

  But in all honesty, no, I can't give you the evidence that you seek. Nor would "I" have accepted anyone else's evidence. I should also throw into the ring the fact that I genuinely would just love to have everything in life explained away scientifically. Life might lose a little of it's mystery, in the process, but I like objective answers as much as the next person.

  I understand from your past posts that your experience of Christ and religion is a visceral rather than an intellectual one, hence the improbability of being able to explain it in scientific terms. I hope that I have not misrepresented your views.

  Now, I can very much sympathize with this as I have many times experienced a mysterious creative imperative when I compose music for example that does not seem to belong to me. The problem is how do you seperate what is fact from what is felt? It seems to me to be an essential part of the equation to find the answer to such a question *before* one can confidently talk God talk.

  Best regards - HS
• 

  frankiespeakin

  LT,

  My issue is with not being able to collect the money...
  LOL

  If your no longer controlled by time and space then you can be in an infinite number of places all at once.
• 

  Satanus

  SNG

  Kind of like in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, where God gets trapped in a paradox that proves he doesn't exist. His final words are, "Oh, dear, I hadn't thought of that." Then he disappears in a poof of logic.

  If only it was like that in real life. People would be dissappearing all the time. News headlines would have a daily report on how many people ceased to exist each day. 'Course, that would never happen to me.

  S
• 

  hillary_step

  Green,

  So far as "you" can see. And how far do you see? Does your vision go beyond the universe? Can you even see what some insects can see?

  No, but I am sure that Alan *has* seen the spider imobilizing its prey and then sucking its innards from it while it is paralysed, or a Praying Mantis capturing its prey and eating it head-first while it is still alive, or a parasitic bug inside a caterpillar eating it from the inside out while it yet lives. Just because insects are small, they are no less alive than lions and sheep.

  Perhaps Alan is alluding to the fact that if God created the earth he seems to have designed it so that every living creature has to capture and kill other creatures in order to stay alive, and that includes you. Do you not see a disparity with the Biblical God of love and this 'design' feature?

  Best regards - HS
• 

  kaykay_mp

  I'd have to go with

  "I believe that God does not exist."

  That's telling me that that person has his or her mind made up about that particular sort of thing, or that they may believe in another omnipresent force.

  and something else got me to thinkin'--isn't atheist Christian or atheist Jew kind of an oxymoron?

  laters

  kaykay_mp