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But why would anyone think that these more intelligent gods exist?
Because they go outside and look at this amazingly beautiful world around us, and they conclude all of this could not have happened by accident. They believe there had to be a creator.
People who believe in a god are not stupid. They just have a different idea of the world than we do.
I can't imagine why the bible would have anything to do with you being an Atheist.
If you believed in a god, then you could either find an organized religion that appealed to you or you could form your own religious beliefs.
Notice that I said that it is ONE of the reasons. It is one of many that leads me to my atheism. I would add that the Quran (Koran) is also a book that I see no reason to believe in based on the idea that I don't see any evidence of it being a supernatural book. The Bible and the Koran may contain nuggets of things about ways to live which are noble or admirable but that's it for me.
The Greek,Roman,Egyptian and other "deities" that humans have constructed over the millenia would be added to my list of supernatural things which have no substantial credible evidence for their existence.
Because they go outside and look at this amazingly beautiful world around us, and they conclude all of this could not have happened by accident. They believe there had to be a creator.
People who believe in a god are not stupid. They just have a different idea of the world than we do.
It pretty much demonstrates how effective programming from birth can be. How many theists have really never challenged or questioned what they were programed to believe by parents and organized religion throughout thier formative years. Reason certianly didn't create the theist, but programming from the crib in many cases did.
We see it in the news all the time where a cult can very quickly "program" a subject to their views, and it takes an intervention and mental health professionals to deprogram the subject. Religion differs very little from a cult, primarily it's just size and tax exempt status.
Scripture is the creation of people seeking answers to other question. The belief in god does not come from scripture. Scripture comes from either trying to explain the unexplained (for example in the case of Greek and Roman mythology and christianity) or to make money as with Scientology and probably Mormonism.
LOL! Christianity has been the biggest money maker of all time.
With me being an Atheist and my wife being a lapsed Catholic, our son was not raised with any religious beliefs. However, as an adult, he has embraced Christianity and got baptized recently at the age of 34, which was fine with me.
We never discuss religion, except once he said that he did not believe the universe around us would have happened without a divine force, or something like that.
With me being an Atheist and my wife being a lapsed Catholic, our son was not raised with any religious beliefs. However, as an adult, he has embraced Christianity and got baptized recently at the age of 34, which was fine with me.
We never discuss religion, except once he said that he did not believe the universe around us would have happened without a divine force, or something like that.
That is just "explaining away" things that are beyond our current knowledge, that may be "the reason", but it is not rational reasoning. Really falls in the catagory of "we don't know, so it must be gods work"
After all gods and the supsequent religions were all invented to explain away the lack of knowledge. Several thousand years ago, the complete lack of understanding why the sun cross the sky every day was scary enough to explain it away with gods.
With me being an Atheist and my wife being a lapsed Catholic, our son was not raised with any religious beliefs. However, as an adult, he has embraced Christianity and got baptized recently at the age of 34, which was fine with me.
We never discuss religion, except once he said that he did not believe the universe around us would have happened without a divine force, or something like that.
Where was he raised? In the United States? Then he was raised in a society where God is, by a large, an accepted fact.
He probably said the pledge of allegiance, probably uttering "under God".
He had friends who went to church, to Sunday school, who got confirmed.
He witnessed the accepted fact of God on television, in dramas and sitcoms and in movies.
He heard about God in popular music, and in the news.
He heard one President after another speak of God.
He saw it on coins and currency, in the marking of our years A.D..
Literally, even if there wasn't a shred of religion given to him by his parents, he grew up in a world permeated by the Judeo-Christian deity.
After all, there's a reason he has decided God -- not Zeus, not Ra, not Quetzalcoatl, but God -- exists.
I watch my own children. My wife and I are atheists, yet I see how much the presumed existence of God manifests itself in things my children see and hear. It is everywhere.
But why would anyone think that these more intelligent gods exist? The only reason we have the idea of a god is because of scripture. If that scripture and its god is absurd, why would we even entertain the concept of a deity? There's nothing about the natural world that demands its existence.
Exactly BIMBAM. The near-frantic need of the greater majority of bleeter-sheeple to have all their questions explained and covered off, even if there really is no credible explanation, has been rampant in all societies, from the earliest frightened Neanderthals and possibly even earlier. As long as there was any form of communication, the stories evolved as dance, cave art or carved or written tablets.
And now, we have the 'net, which unfortunately is proving to be the undoing of contradiction- and error-filled stories. When the earliest minsters of these fabrications saw how powerful they were, a delivery "paradigm" was born! But now, the ready availability of fact and reproducible research results is eroding the arrogant and greed-driven lifestyles of the church high-lifers. Must be very nerve-wracking, eh?
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Originally Posted by MrBlueSky_
Because if there is a Creator or Creators, they/it are obviously more intelligent than the men who cobbled together the Bible and its god from earlier mythologies.
Uhm no, actually the idea of God(s), even a monotheistic God predates "scripture" by millenia.
Perhaps because some of us believe in a Creator and your primitive scriptures do not own the rights to God?
It neither demands nor disproves it. However, if we assume there IS such a Creator we can use logic and reason to rule out the possible candidates. The Biblical god fails the test and multiple levels.
The requirement for some ever-more intelligent "Creator" of a "Creator" of a "Creator", an entity to be the final-final-final^ ∞ progenitor in an endless lineup, yet somehow responsible for all of what we see is so obviously illogical, since it's never-ending, and yet the sheeple are also stridently reminded (on pain of going to hell!) to limit their questioning. And to chant "God works in mysterious ways!" on command. As I and others here have been told to do in our past.
And so we of needs began to think for ourselves, which is the scourge of religion. A no-no! Bad!
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Originally Posted by hiker45
Because they go outside and look at this amazingly beautiful world around us, and they conclude all of this could not have happened by accident. They believe there had to be a creator.
People who believe in a god are not stupid. They just have a different idea of the world than we do.
Well, you generously provide a kindly suggestion, hiker, but frankly, by the precise definition of "stupid", it can be either physiological (brain damage, genetic or drug-induced) or it can be willful or via brainwashing (aká: the bible and Sunday School, private schools or mandatory school or home prayers.) Meantime, other versions of the various invented Gods of history have manifested themselves in so many ways, but have been very selectively eliminated or demonized by The One True Church of Christ & God.
I watch my own children. My wife and I are atheists, yet I see how much the presumed existence of God manifests itself in things my children see and hear. It is everywhere.
Yes, for sure it is exactly like a highly contagious virus if left to itself. Which is why we must always offer the truth as an alternative, and by golly, durned if we aren't making headway! Praise The Truth!
That is just "explaining away" things that are beyond our current knowledge, that may be "the reason", but it is not rational reasoning. Really falls in the catagory of "we don't know, so it must be gods work"
After all gods and the supsequent religions were all invented to explain away the lack of knowledge. Several thousand years ago, the complete lack of understanding why the sun cross the sky every day was scary enough to explain it away with gods.
We have the power and ability to create. That is an observable fact. As we speak, scientists in fields from robotics to genetics are working on creating. I came across this article a while back that made me really think about how far we have come in a very short time.
Rational thought tells me that given enough time, mankind will find a way to take the resources around us and create something indistinguishable from another human being. Logic and reasoning also tells me that if WE can be so creative, and we create something to resemble/mimic us, then that which we create will be creative and want to create as well. With the size of our universe being what it is, the thought that there is no other creative life out there seems pretty unreasonable.
If we ever reach the point where we can take the natural resources around us and create life, then will reason and logic admit that we could have been created?
And so we of needs began to think for ourselves, which is the scourge of religion. A no-no! Bad!
Last time I studied history it was the religious men of the Protestant reformation that fought the battle for freedom of thought and conscience. Without that movement, the "age of reason" never would have happened.
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"And yee shall know the truth by it's evidence!"
