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It didn't change my life one bit other than I have an extra hour and 45 minutes of life (time to get ready, go to church, come back) and an extra morning to sleep in. Othwerise nothing has changed.
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Originally Posted by chielgirl
Boy are you looking at this through your own filter.
Atheists, for the most part, don't care what you believe.
We just want you to keep your beliefs to yourself and out of the laws of the land.
Do not tell me that this country is christian and push your beliefs on me.
Stay away from my home where I have a sign clearly stating no door christians. Respect me and I'll respect you back.
Amen, as a figure of speech. I feel the exact same way. IMO that's the greatest thing about catholics (and by association PA, since it's 50% catholic) is that the chance of anyone bothering me about religion is minimal. Only people that even talk about their religion are the jehovah's in this area.
Yes, I know. Trouble is my middle name. This is actually in response to the question that was posed awhile back asking how we would respond to the obvious return of Jesus so it's just the same thing in reverse. Obviously this wouldn't change my life at all because it's what I already think. But for those of you who do believe, if somehow you were suddenly made aware with absolute certainty that God was not real how would that knowledge change your life?
What a silly question. You can no better prove God doesn't exist than I can prove that he does. How would one prove that God exists or doesn't exist?
My first reaction would be "damn." Because that's a WHOLE LOT of physical life built up on earth which looks designed, for there not to be a higher power.
I think they would refuse to believe it. Which is kind of illustrated by some of the responses that I have seen. I believe that is evidence that some people out there would not know where to turn without religion to prop them up. Some people NEED to have an institution tell them what to do.
I think they would refuse to believe it. Which is kind of illustrated by some of the responses that I have seen. I believe that is evidence that some people out there would not know where to turn without religion to prop them up. Some people NEED to have an institution tell them what to do.
That's an interesting point. Something got me thinking about this a little while ago...
The other night, my wife and I were watching TV. They had this show come on where this magician in a mask showed how all of these famous magic tricks were done. Everything from tanks disappearing to catching a bullet in one's teeth was shown. It's funny, because there's a part of you deep down that really wants to believe that some guy is catching a bullet with his teeth or actually making a tank disappear. It seems miraculous and out of the bounds of what we naturally know. In all sincerity, I sat there watching all of these exposed tricks and I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. It seemed to take all the fun out of it. I'll never be able to quite look at a magic trick and say "That was neat. How'd he do that?!" I suppose the same can be said for belief.
Let's face it. Deep down we all realize that when we watch a magician we're being had. We all know that. We know there's some other lady with her feet sticking out of the box, or we know that things are just illusory in our imaginations or the guy already has a bullet in his mouth. Yet, unless we know how the trick is done, we seemingly love to tease ourselves. It's like my dog with his squeaky toy. He loves to just bite it so it makes noise. It's his favorite toy, and magic, like deities seem to be this toy that people love to play with. People just can't seem to get away from it. As long as it's not exposed for what it is, people are blissfully happy with it. It's their favorite playtoy.
Deep down, I think people want to remain a little bit ignorant to facts just as I now would have preferred remaining ignorant to the magic tricks. Like I said, deep down, I knew it wasn't magic, but why should I take away the luxury in being ignorant? Ignorance IS bliss, right?
That's an interesting point. Something got me thinking about this a little while ago...
The other night, my wife and I were watching TV. They had this show come on where this magician in a mask showed how all of these famous magic tricks were done. Everything from tanks disappearing to catching a bullet in one's teeth was shown. It's funny, because there's a part of you deep down that really wants to believe that some guy is catching a bullet with his teeth or actually making a tank disappear. It seems miraculous and out of the bounds of what we naturally know. In all sincerity, I sat there watching all of these exposed tricks and I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. It seemed to take all the fun out of it. I'll never be able to quite look at a magic trick and say "That was neat. How'd he do that?!" I suppose the same can be said for belief.
Let's face it. Deep down we all realize that when we watch a magician we're being had. We all know that. We know there's some other lady with her feet sticking out of the box, or we know that things are just illusory in our imaginations or the guy already has a bullet in his mouth. Yet, unless we know how the trick is done, we seemingly love to tease ourselves. It's like my dog with his squeaky toy. He loves to just bite it so it makes noise. It's his favorite toy, and magic, like deities seem to be this toy that people love to play with. People just can't seem to get away from it. As long as it's not exposed for what it is, people are blissfully happy with it. It's their favorite playtoy.
Deep down, I think people want to remain a little bit ignorant to facts just as I now would have preferred remaining ignorant to the magic tricks. Like I said, deep down, I knew it wasn't magic, but why should I take away the luxury in being ignorant? Ignorance IS bliss, right?
Unless you realize it's just a change in point of view and trickery, thus trying to deduce how they do it. That's what I do whenever I watch magic shows.
It's a moot question because the only place you can prove the existence, or for that matter the lack thereof, of a theoretical higher power (henceforth "God") is within your own head. We can point to evidence to one end or another, and we can either back it up with logic or dogma but in the end nobody has proven anything, and it's unlikely anybody changed their minds before they laid down for the night.
For various reasons I do not like the terms "morals" and "morality" the way they have been loaded with lopsided undertones that invariably places "morality" with Christians and Christianity. I prefer "ethics." Morals is loud and empty. It's nothing but a belief. Ethics is where it counts - what you're really going to do when you don't think anyone else is around. I could claim "morality" preaching the Gospel from a fundamentalist viewpoint on Sunday morning just hours after a crystal meth-fueled tryst with a male prostitute, because I can still believe what I'm doing is wrong. A lot of people do things that are wrong and they know it. But in doing so I have forfeited any claim to being ethical, no matter what I tell people.
We can allow ourselves to say we're "pro-life" and "pro-capital punishment." We can allow ourselves to contribute actively in the destruction of society by banning sex education in public schools, banning contraceptives and then insisting on every fertilized egg cell becomes a live baby. Then we can rail sanctimoniously against any kind of public aid for the mothers to feed those babies or give them medical treatment. All in the name of "morality" and our belief that we should all be like Adam and Eve and be fruitful and multiply. Quantity over quality. We can assert "morality" while doing the harm to mankind that is hypocritically blamed on secularism. We can lay blame for straying from the church and pursuing sins of the flesh against 16-year-old mothers, who were never correctly warned about the true consequences of her actions other than "God will be angry" or "the Church would not approve" or "you'll go to hell." None of that was going through her head when the kid next door was blowing in her ear.
I could explain about how I came to question what I heard in church when I was a kid, but I think I've pretty much covered everything already.
Unless you realize it's just a change in point of view and trickery, thus trying to deduce how they do it. That's what I do whenever I watch magic shows.
What I was getting at is that the answers to all of these "tricks" were so simple that it really made you feel kind of foolish in the end. Sure, we can attribute David Blain to "floating" and we can explain it away with complex math like trigonometric parallax but the simple answer is that he just uses a shadow and angles to appear as if he's floating. Again, deep down, you know he's not floating, and you know you're being perceived, it's only until you realize how simple it is do you really kind of sit there and go "DOH!"
As you said, you can look at it, as I often do, and try to figure out how they did it, but Occam's Razor is true in all of this. The simplest answer is usually the right answer and whether we're talking about deities or magic, the simplest answer is what the natural world tells us. We can use highly sophisticated terminoligies and sciences to explain it making it seem so advanced, but in the end, that is entirely much simpler than an extremely complex deity is, or for that matter, someone who performs "magic".
That's an interesting point. Something got me thinking about this a little while ago...
The other night, my wife and I were watching TV. They had this show come on where this magician in a mask showed how all of these famous magic tricks were done. Everything from tanks disappearing to catching a bullet in one's teeth was shown. It's funny, because there's a part of you deep down that really wants to believe that some guy is catching a bullet with his teeth or actually making a tank disappear. It seems miraculous and out of the bounds of what we naturally know. In all sincerity, I sat there watching all of these exposed tricks and I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. It seemed to take all the fun out of it. I'll never be able to quite look at a magic trick and say "That was neat. How'd he do that?!" I suppose the same can be said for belief.
Let's face it. Deep down we all realize that when we watch a magician we're being had. We all know that. We know there's some other lady with her feet sticking out of the box, or we know that things are just illusory in our imaginations or the guy already has a bullet in his mouth. Yet, unless we know how the trick is done, we seemingly love to tease ourselves. It's like my dog with his squeaky toy. He loves to just bite it so it makes noise. It's his favorite toy, and magic, like deities seem to be this toy that people love to play with. People just can't seem to get away from it. As long as it's not exposed for what it is, people are blissfully happy with it. It's their favorite playtoy.
Deep down, I think people want to remain a little bit ignorant to facts just as I now would have preferred remaining ignorant to the magic tricks. Like I said, deep down, I knew it wasn't magic, but why should I take away the luxury in being ignorant? Ignorance IS bliss, right?
Thats an interesting illustration because I have never cared for magic, in fact you couldn't pay me to sit through it because I know its fake. I am just a born skeptic.
I was a YOUNG child when my parents were telling me different things about religion and I thought way back then it seemed all very unbelievable. I would laugh outright at times when they would tell me some thing. Then when I would ask about something like Faireys in the garden or Santa, I didn't understand why that couldn't be true. Then I realized that my parents picked and choose which fantasies they believed which made it all even more unlikely.
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This is actually in response to the question that was posed awhile back asking how we would respond to the obvious return of Jesus so it's just the same thing in reverse. Obviously this wouldn't change my life at all because it's what I already think. But for those of you who do believe, if somehow you were suddenly made aware with absolute certainty that God was not real how would that knowledge change your life?
