Quote:
Originally Posted by cpsTN
For someone who - for all intents and purposes - says there is no God, for your sake, you had better by right!
Charles
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This is a tiresome and baseless threat, and it would serve you better if you didn't have to revert to it as in any way a convincing strategy. Striking fear in the illiterate is hardly ethical. If you are that fearful, it's your choice to believe. Others of us don't necessarily succumb.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cpsTN
I did not take offense, but thank you for considering that. Faith is based on things unproven, yes, but I contend these things are NOT unseen!
Charles
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No, but the obvious difference is in how we each choose to interpret what we see or think we see. I've often heard Christians confidently intone that, after
such and such has been seen (Like a tidal wave or lightning bolt..) "There! Absolute proof of God!"
Really? Or merely proof as you sincerely hope it to be?
Quote:
Originally Posted by cpsTN
The more inteligent we become, the more we become like fools. It is truly a case of not seeing the forest for the trees.
Charles
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I take an alternate perspective, frankly. and it's not a case of growing intelligence, but rather in growing understanding, exposure to the real world and means of critical thinking, and of an open-minded interest in learning new things. For which, of course, there's an infinite menu!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Waianaegirl
Look at nature. You'll see God. He wants us to believe in him through faith, not by sight. We can't see him now, but we can see what he's done.
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Alternately, I've had significant opportunities to view nature, unaltered by the hand of man, and I've come to an alternate conclusion after much meditation and honest comparison of various alternatives, both realistically and spiritually based.. What I've seen is clearly NOT the result of God's hand.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MysticPhD
This suggests to me you have mastered nothing . . . just going through the motions.
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Now now,
Mystic. You're overlaying your own no-doubt lengthy meditative but nonetheless
personal and speculative experiences and conclusions on those of others. No-one can have the same experiences nor reasoning and perspective of anyone else, unless you claim omnipotence yourself. No-one's thought processes will mimic those of others, nor be influenced by their past. No matter how mny years it may have taken you. Some have come to the truth, as they see it, in a remarkably short period of time, in fact!
Quote:
Originally Posted by MysticPhD
Been there done that . . . the physical existence has many enticements and enjoyments that are rendered even more enjoyable by disciplined physical development and control. But you are missing a much wider world available to those with the discipline to seek it.
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Again, perhaps
my physical and mental discipline and contemplation, and those of other atheists here, is in some perceivable way, more complete than what you've achieved. Or are you perhaps stating here, absolutely, that
your experiences completely outdistance those with which you disagree?
Surely not...
___________________________
Quick sensible answer to the OP: given the absolute
lack of provable and, more importantly,
incontrovertible evidence (as in no other
possible alternate explanation...) of God's existence or involvement, other than obviously personal or wishful conclusions, I must come to the obvious conclusion. Especially when much of what has historically been attributed to God's Holy Hand has since been shown by simple experimentation or observation to have quite rational and logical
alternate explanations.
Thus: to me, absent some evidence besides the fervent hopes or threats of believers, there obviously is no God. and I've lived completely absent any Holy input or assistance for well over 45 years since I left Christianity.
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Contemplations
