Posts by John_Mann

posted

496
This is What I Would Need in Order to Believe
by cofty in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
sometimes theists challenge atheists about what evidence would be required before they would believe.

various unlikely scenarios are offered in reply.

i have taken the bait myself in the past.. i think the correct answer is much more ordinary.
John_Mann

Why do you worship a god who cares nothing for physical suffering?
I worship the God who cares for physical suffering.
496
This is What I Would Need in Order to Believe
by cofty in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
sometimes theists challenge atheists about what evidence would be required before they would believe.

various unlikely scenarios are offered in reply.

i have taken the bait myself in the past.. i think the correct answer is much more ordinary.
John_Mann

Jesus claimed that his god cared passionately about the physical suffering of humans.
He cares in the sense of an afterlife reward.
This cannot be grasped to those who only believe in a physical life.
496
This is What I Would Need in Order to Believe
by cofty in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
sometimes theists challenge atheists about what evidence would be required before they would believe.

various unlikely scenarios are offered in reply.

i have taken the bait myself in the past.. i think the correct answer is much more ordinary.
John_Mann

Everyone is a believer.
Believing in nihil or oblivion is absurd IMHO.
496
This is What I Would Need in Order to Believe
by cofty in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
sometimes theists challenge atheists about what evidence would be required before they would believe.

various unlikely scenarios are offered in reply.

i have taken the bait myself in the past.. i think the correct answer is much more ordinary.
John_Mann

Those are concepts that wholly absent from the early christian writings, including the gospels.Your philosophical speculation is as good as anyone else's.

The Catholic faith it's not based only in early Christian writings.
And it doesn't meet the challenge anyway: Since you claim that god creates every soul at the moment of conception, then the destiny of each soul rests under his wing.

No. Every soul has free-will.
Including abandoning such soul to a supposed hell of nihlism.
It's a personal free choice. The first requirement is to accept the existence of God. This requires the same faith applied to the axioms of the scientific method. Is it that hard?
Again, why would a god of love and justice do that? After all, that soul didn't ask god to come to existence.
This is a ridiculous teenager whining. The human nature is designed to pursue perfection (you need to exist to do that). You need a great amount of will to fight against this default feature of human nature.
496
This is What I Would Need in Order to Believe
by cofty in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
sometimes theists challenge atheists about what evidence would be required before they would believe.

various unlikely scenarios are offered in reply.

i have taken the bait myself in the past.. i think the correct answer is much more ordinary.
John_Mann

Why would a good of love and justice subject anyone to an eternity of punishment for wrongful deeds that were practiced during a few decades in the material life? Such god would lack basic decency.
There's only two options: God or nihil.
The highest level of your will, the center of your intentions, will be fixed at the time of your death. There's no free-will after death.
The Christian eternity is not an infinite amount of time but the absence of physical time.
The pursue of nihil is Hell.
496
This is What I Would Need in Order to Believe
by cofty in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
sometimes theists challenge atheists about what evidence would be required before they would believe.

various unlikely scenarios are offered in reply.

i have taken the bait myself in the past.. i think the correct answer is much more ordinary.
John_Mann

According to christians these natural laws were designed by god.
Outside the physical universe in a metaphysical way.
Free-will has nothing to do with it.
Free-will needs natural laws.
If you affirm that god acts in the world you have no way out of this dilemma. If you don't affirm that god acts in the world then you are not a christian.
God acts in the world continually in a metaphysical way. Every soul is created by him at conception. Sometimes there's a special act against natural laws that's called a miracle. But a miracle primarily has the purpose of something about salvation of souls.
Why God does nothing about natural evil? Actually he already did.
There's a Buddhist saying that if you want all the ways padded you just need to pad your feet.
God has padded us with immortality. Your consciousness, the higher levels of your intellect and will are not destroyed by a tsunami.
A tsunami can only give you some few minutes of pain and agony but can't damage your immortal soul. But your soul can be subject to an eternal dreadful state.
496
This is What I Would Need in Order to Believe
by cofty in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
sometimes theists challenge atheists about what evidence would be required before they would believe.

various unlikely scenarios are offered in reply.

i have taken the bait myself in the past.. i think the correct answer is much more ordinary.
John_Mann

Designing a world with all the benefits of plate tectonics but without the earthquakes would be child's-play.
Are you saying this physical universe is ruled or guided by direct intelligent design?
I think the physical universe is ruled by impersonal natural laws. Only these natural laws were designed metaphysically outside the physical universe.
And these natural laws probably are necessary for the best world to harbor free-willed agents.
496
This is What I Would Need in Order to Believe
by cofty in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
sometimes theists challenge atheists about what evidence would be required before they would believe.

various unlikely scenarios are offered in reply.

i have taken the bait myself in the past.. i think the correct answer is much more ordinary.
John_Mann

Any intelligent deity could design a world without tsunamis.
How do you know that???
496
This is What I Would Need in Order to Believe
by cofty in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
sometimes theists challenge atheists about what evidence would be required before they would believe.

various unlikely scenarios are offered in reply.

i have taken the bait myself in the past.. i think the correct answer is much more ordinary.
John_Mann

Hell is the lack of God. Hell is the nihil (read about the Jewish concept of TzimTzum).
The human nature was created to pursue the truth and submit the human will to it. Jesus is the truth. If you don't want to follow the truth you can't be with God. So God respect your will and leaves you to pursue the nihil. That's Hell.
496
This is What I Would Need in Order to Believe
by cofty in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
sometimes theists challenge atheists about what evidence would be required before they would believe.

various unlikely scenarios are offered in reply.

i have taken the bait myself in the past.. i think the correct answer is much more ordinary.
John_Mann

I would would rate all of them above 5 and I would put natural evil at the top of the chart with a 9 out of 10.
You're right about this rating. The problem of natural evil is the hardest in theology.
But natural evil is a by-product of natural laws. And natural laws probably are a necessity in a world suited to free-willed agents.
Necessity truths are universal in all possible worlds and come directly from God's nature and not God's will.
IMHO natural evil is a necessity in a world of free-willed agents. But they are temporary in the lifetime of people and I believe the ultimate God's will is to achieve a greater good. Just like parents submitting their children to painful medical procedures.