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Atheists don't "hate" God, nor see ourselves as gods, nor do we deny authority (or any of the other things we're accused of). We don't believe because of one simple reason: It doesn't make any sense.
Exactly. No one can force a belief on themselves if their brain is simply unable to accept the underlying premise of that belief as plausible.
I mean love makes no sense unless you believe in it. If you choose not to believe in love, love will indeed make no sense.
I think love is different, because there's some argument that there's a physiological component to what humans perceive as "love". In other words love may not be entirely 100% an emotional thing (even though we categorize it as such). Look at how many people confuse love with lust, or how the line between the two is so often blurred. Do people likewise confuse or blur the line between belief in God (emotional) and a physical reaction (like pleasure or pain)?
I do believe that not all people are emotionally capable of feeling what we call love though....sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently.
And I most certainly do believe that many people say and do many things that make NO sense at all, as a result of the emotion that we call love! And some of those things can be very unpleasant and irrational indeed.
Come to think of it, religious belief has inspired just as many senseless and unpleasant acts (as well as noble and altrustic and caring ones) as love has.
First of all, how was it a sacrifice when jesus was only subjected to a few days of pain, and then immediately zipped back up to heaven to be with god? He 'gave his only begotten son'... oh really? It seems he sent him off for a short while, and what is that time to a being who is supposedly eternal?
The hours jesus spent (or who knows, maybe didn't spend) on the cross are a mere SHADOW of the pain going on all over the earth. A burn victim, a machete amputee, a molested child - may suffer a lifetime of anguish, and yet we're supposed to be impressed by a few days of torture?
The ideology behind this really confuses me... it assumes all sorts of ideas, all of which seems to be fallacious.
Do you have kids? I ask because if you did even a minute of pain is too much to willingly subject your own child to, even if you know you will have them back.
Come to think of it, religious belief has inspired just as many senseless and unpleasant acts (as well as noble and altrustic and caring ones) as love has.
That is because there are 2 types of love:
1. Selfish love = you love no one else but yourself. You will help others if helping others makes you feel better. As soon as it stops making you feel good about yourself you stop helping (others). You only look out for no.1 (yourself).
2 Unselfish Love = you love others as much as you love yourself. You help others because they need help. When the going gets tough you become tougher. You would even sacrifice yourself if it means that the people you love will survive.
Hitler for example falls in category number 1 but not in category number 2.
And Jesus and Ghandi fall in category number 2.
Maternal instinct is strong. It is a survival instinct as well. Here, it is the species, not the individual, that this instinct serves to protect.
Surely you don't claim that God suffers out of a need for survival?
For the record, I don't fish...no bait intended.
Perhaps in some big book of educated guesses, maternal instinct is defined as a need to keep our race intact. I don't see it that way. I also don't see the willingness to die for my child as a maternal instinct. I am sure that any Father would also so the same. This is a parental instinct! And there are many feelings/experiences that only a person who is also a parent can even try to comprehend. This was my reasoning when asking if you were a parent. There is never any underlying meaning in my words.
As a Christian and as a parent, I see a parallel between my relationship with my children and my relationship with my heavenly Father. Similarities that are hard to deny.
If you would feel more comfortable answering my questing by DM, I am still curious to know the answer. I see it only as a way of understanding you better.
Originally Posted by Astrantia That is because there are 2 types of love:
1. Selfish love = you love no one else but yourself. You will help others if helping others makes you feel better. As soon as it stops making you feel good about yourself you stop helping (others). You only look out for no.1 (yourself).
2 Unselfish Love = you love others as much as you love yourself. You help others because they need help. When the going gets tough you become tougher. You would sacrifice yourself if it means that the people you love survive.
Hitler for example falls in category number 1 but not in category number 2.
Ok I like your definitions...but can you please fill me in on who Hitler helped? I'm not picking on you, I really don't know.
Do you have kids? I ask because if you did even a minute of pain is too much to willingly subject your own child to, even if you know you will have them back.
Ok I like your definitions...but can you please fill me in on who Hitler helped? I'm not picking on you, I really don't know.
Simple, Hitler might be totally evil but he isn't stupid. He knows that he can't conquer the world on his own. Germany was stuck in an economic depression (think 1930; the great crash). So Hitler only helped the Germans by getting their economy on track so they would obey him. So basically by helping the Germans he helped himself into power.
Originally Posted by irishmomSimple, Hitler might be totally evil but he isn't stupid. He knows that he can't conquer the world on his own. Germany was stuck in an economic depression (think 1930; the great crash). So Hitler only helped the Germans by getting their economy on track so they would obey him. So basically by helping the Germans he helped himself into power.
Don't worry I'm hard to be picked on.
Ok got it.
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If you choose not to believe in love, love will indeed make no sense.
That is because there are 2 types of love:
Hitler for example falls in category number 1 but not in category number 2.
I'm not picking on you, I really don't know.
