Posts by cofty

The psychological reasons for belief in an invisible deity are not mysterious. One of the most obvious is our tendency to assign agency to random events. At one time humans believed that thunder and rainbows were acts of god. Famines are storms were assumed to be signs of his displeasure and of course having made the right sacrifices the storms passed.

We evolved from a long line of ancestors who assumed agency. Those who dismissed the noise in the grass as 'just the wind' tended to get eaten on the odd occasion that the noise was in fact caused by a hungry tiger. False positives are less costly than false negatives.

Then there is the understandable assumption that design requires an intelligent designer. Natural selection has made that belief redundant.

Worship of a particular deity also served important social functions. The 'hive instinct' that is triggered by religious rituals increases group cohesion. Belief in an invisible but all-seeing judge also provided a powerful incentive for good behaviour when other members of the group are not around.

Finally, and most obviously, is the desire to avoid death and the wish that the injustices of life will be put right in the next.

As an atheist that is a very brief explanation of how I account for belief in the supernatural.

P.S. - Brazil were very disappointing yesterday. 'Football's coming home...'

88

Favourite female heroes in film ...

by LoveUniHateExams in

... well, obviously not rey (daisy ridley) from the latest star wars films.

she's a complete mary sue.

but, before hollywood tried to force sjw propaganda down our throats, there were lots of powerful, legit female characters in film.. here are some of my favourites .... ripley (sigourney weaver): i though this character was great.

cofty

Some people getting really wound up about children's cartoons here.

7

John 3:16 "For God loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten Son" ...Really ?

by smiddy3 in

for four thousand years god never gave two hoots about the world of mankind that is suggested by john 3;16 and how do we know that ?

simply by looking at his dealings with mankind for the first 4000 years of his dealings with humans as shown by the "old testament".

1. god only dealt with a couple or a few individuals early on in the o.t.. 2.god only dealt with one family line whom he chose above anybody else .. 3.this family line the israelites became a nation whom god dealt with exclusively.. 4.to the exclusion of every other peoples on earth ,he favoured who became the israelites and he obviously had a hatred for any other people and was instrumental in trying to get the israelites to commit genocide on many occasions against these people who god had never taken an interest in .. 5.jehovah god on numerous occasions instructed the israelite`s/jews wipe out the amorite`s , the hittites ,the jebusite`s ,etc ,etc, and with the blessing of him not to feel sorry for them kill old man woman and child and do not feel sorry for them.. jehovah god actually gave the israelites /jews sanctions to commit genocide amongst these nations in the "old testament ".

cofty

For four thousand years God never gave two hoots about the world of mankind

For 200,000 years god ignored the suffering of humanity.

42

What's the difference between a Christian and a JW?

by nowwhat? in

christians look to jesus as the redeeemer of mankind.. jw's look to jesus as the executioner of mankind!.

cofty

SBF - Pacifism is moral cowardice. Sometimes it is necessary to fight and kill for peace.

Back to the topic - The difference between xtians and JWs is soteriology. JWs believe Jesus died for the sins of Adam; xtians believe Jesus died for their own personal sins. The difference is massive.

91

Proof of God

by MrDantastic in

i'm an atheist as i do not see any evidence for the existance of a god.

i encourage critical thinking in everyone and am ready to debate anyone on whether or not there is a god and what that god might be like.

hmu..

cofty

You are confusing evidence of absence with absence of evidence - blownaway

No I'm not doing that at all.

Proving that the god of Jesus does not exist is not difficult. It does not depend on an absence of evidence.

You are pedantically using the word 'poof' in a way that is inappropriate outside of the fields of formal logic and mathematics. You are also equivocating about the meaning of the word 'god'.

Actually a good case can be made that the god of xtian theism is also logically impossible.

91

Proof of God

by MrDantastic in

i'm an atheist as i do not see any evidence for the existance of a god.

i encourage critical thinking in everyone and am ready to debate anyone on whether or not there is a god and what that god might be like.

hmu..

cofty

I have not heard of a serious alternative explanation involving unicorns

Just shows how narrow-minded you are.

91

Proof of God

by MrDantastic in

i'm an atheist as i do not see any evidence for the existance of a god.

i encourage critical thinking in everyone and am ready to debate anyone on whether or not there is a god and what that god might be like.

hmu..

cofty

The idea of 'god' explains nothing. It tries to replace one mystery with an even bigger one.

As soon as you compare the claims made about 'god' with reality, you run up against impossible contradictions at every turn.

On the other hand pink unicorn farts explain rainbows.

91

Proof of God

by MrDantastic in

i'm an atheist as i do not see any evidence for the existance of a god.

i encourage critical thinking in everyone and am ready to debate anyone on whether or not there is a god and what that god might be like.

hmu..

cofty

blownaway - As I said you are being a pedant.

Pink unicorns don't exist. God doesn't exist. These two statements are equally certain.

'Proof' in the sense you are using it belongs only to mathematicians where is equates to tautology.

When asked whether they believe that pink unicorns exist nobody witters on about proving a negative and claims to be an agnostic about pink unicorns. So why is the god question any different?