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Wrong again. I have not made up my mind. god may exist. I am just waiting for someone to provide more evidence. However the more I study it, the more evidence there is that suggests religiosity and spirituality are psychological states of mind. Meaning, there are a lot of valid reasons and arguments for why people believe in god. Many of these reasons are related to how the brain works, how we protect ourselves, how we cope, how we control and want to be controlled, how we socialize, why we socialize, how we desire to be part of a group and how we manage risk.
That may be why there are different religions and languages in different parts of the world. It is probably no coincidence. People have historically banded together for protection and to live more efficiently. Religion and government have served to bind people.
Mind over matter. The mind actually has a very strong effect on the physical world. Consider the effect on a positive outlook on physical health. I don't think myself sick, and I don't go to doctors. I find myself not getting sick, because I think myself healthy.
By the way--I'm not a social animal. I won't deny that most people are, but I have no interest in anyone but myself.
There's no doubt in HIS mind--doesn't matter if you doubt it.
Just because you've never been skydiving, doesn't mean other people haven't done it.
and
Originally Posted by Konraden Wrong objectivity, DA. Can your god be studied independent of personal bias.
Quote:
NOTHING can be studied independent of personal bias. Sorry.
Two examples of the special pleading that Theists need to do to prop up Faith.
Skydiving is well attested, we know the mechanisms, the procedure, and it would be foolish to deny that it exists and we know what it is. The evidence is there.
Perceptions of something in the mind is one thing, but there is not a shred of evidence that it is anything outside the mind and evidence that it is inside and a product of the mind, because it is interpreted differently. The evidence is not for it being what the percipient takes it to be. Many people doubt the claim made so it is not without doubt. What an individual believes really carried no empirical weight that anyone else ought to accept. Therefore the doubt is valid, we should all be agnostic about the claim and the logical belief position on doubt is not to believe.
Slam - dunk.
The other is to play the Bias card. The tendency of individuals to be biased to their own view is undeniable. But that does not justify the dismissal of all question and doubt based on the corpus of verified knowledge, nor the dismissal of the methods used to check and verify that knowledge by having built in checks and controls to eliminate biased conclusions.
Theist apologetics is massively based on fallacy, special pleading and sheer dishonesty in argument. It's a great shame because these are decent people who are made intellectually dishonest by trying to justify Blind faith.
And i suppose I'm now way off topic, but it had to be said.
Do you like rollercoasters? If so, why? Because I don't. You cannot explain to me why it feels good to you, but I hate it.
Skydiving, on the other hand, is something I've never experienced, and there's no way for me to get that experience unless and until I've done it for myself. It doesn't matter if you and every one of your friends has done it, I won't get it--until it happens to me. Same thing with God, or religious experiences in general. I can have one, but it doesn't mean that you would understand it. My experience does not inform yours--just as you skydiving does nothing for me.
I guess what I was trying to say, in the earlier post, was that there are experiences involved in skydiving that you cannot have unless you actually do it. Your experience--if and when you do it--may certainly be different from the next person's, but if you've never done it, you wouldn't have any experience with it. You could not form an opinion on it, because you have no basis to form such an opinion.
And if you don't want to go skydiving, then don't, but don't claim that others cannot have positive experiences with it.
I think if a God/Creator didn't exist, then neither would I or the "evolving" world around me.
You can think whatever you want to think. It doesn't necessarily mean it makes sense or is valid.
Also, had you been raised in Pakistan or India or China, your view of god would be completely different. Who knows, if you were raised in the middle east, you might be strapping bombs on your waist right now instead of posting on City-Data forum.
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