God


No. It simply means that either no or insufficient evidence for the existence of their deity has been provided by theists. There have been 10000 gods worshipped by humans throughout history and Christians don't believe in 9999 of them so they are virtually atheists themselves.

"....but it would be silly to believe in any of the other gods...."
 
Remember when the SMB was obsessed with this topic?

I'm atheist but apparently not atheist enough during the Halcion days of Dawkins and St Christopher. I wonder if that's changed now?
I used to have furious arguments over this back in the glory days of 05-08 :lol:
 
Archaic belief motivated by fear of death.
I recently watched a video about Auschwitz and one comment was "imagine how he will be punished in hell" completely overlooking the fact that "god " apparently watched with folded arms while millions of people were murdered and did nothing to stop it.
On vacation mate...he got more time off than teachers :D
“After death there is NOTHING”
Before death there was? Human existence is but a part of a journey, we'll all return to our digital roots, unless of course we've taken more than we've given because that makes us bad maths, and that's poltergeist territory.

It's just science.
 
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A start point, it gets too mental so don't even bother even thinking about it. You'll just end up with a headache 😊
It doesn't do my head in, but then again my head, or rather it's content is not of the norm. Ask yourself why there can't be nothing, then realise that you need a reference point to prove nothing, and there you have it, you cannot have nothing. As for the universe, well it's nuts to believe that matter exists when we're told to put away our logic and believe the universe never ends. We are but spiritual maths, programmed from before the big bang. We are essentially all part of the same computer. Today you are in the graphics section, when you die you'll go to the recycle bin. If your individual programme is mostly as pure as when you were born, you might just get another shot at the mortal thingy.
 
Lost my mam a few weeks ago, she was a practising catholic and lived her life by her catholic faith. I too am catholic but not practising.
My mam never hurt a fly, she put others 1st her entire life, she was a good beautiful human being, she was a well liked lady with good values.
No god would put my mam through what she went through the last 6 months of her life, in particular the last 2 weeks of pain and suffering and fighting for breath.
I did believe that there must be a point to our existence on earth but after watching my poor mam suffer the way she did I now think that if that was meant to be a test of her faith in god then why did god make her suffer so cruelly. We were taught that god loves everyone, I could not love someone and put them through what my mam suffered. I prayed to god, our lady, even family members that had already passed to ease her pain. Nothing happened except my mam suffered more, it would hurt her to hear me say this but I dont believe there is a god, once we are dead we are gone for ever. Kills me to say that because I hate to think that I will never see my mam again.
 
The concept of modern religions were created at a time when science couldn’t explain things like day and night, or other planets.

Religion has always been used as a means to subjugate the masses to stop mass revolt.

Heaven and hell are great examples of creativity of the human mind. A concept that has kept people from being utter scum on the whole for thousands of years.
Heaven and hell must exist in some from by what I've witnessed of the world.
 
Good point and Hinduism, which simply means the religions of the Hindu people, has several schools some of which are theist and others atheist, does have many different perspectives.

The Astika (theist/orthodox) schools include Samkhya (Ancient Yoga), Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa and Vedanta (Upanishads). It is interesting that Samkhya has always held a theory of evolution. Not exactly Darwinism but nevertheless a theory older than the Gita (events dated to around 900 BCE). The Vaisheshika school is known for its insights in naturalism.

The Nastika (atheist/heterodox) schools include Buddhism, Jainism, Charvaka and Ajivika. Both Charvaka and Ajivika are materialism schools but the former believes in free will whereas the latter denies the existence of free will.

Generally speaking the astika are dualistic (dvaita) belief systems that believe in a separate God and Soul whereas the latter are non-dualistic (advaita) and deny such concepts. Over the millennia both perspectives of dualism and non-dualism have exchanged ideas and so Advaita Vedanta emerged which is non-dualistic Vedanta. In the West such a discussion and interchange of ideas hasn't really happened and most religious schools are trapped in dogma which to me indicates they are dead religions.

I'll probably be criticised for being typically verbose as I attempt to sum up thousands of years of philosophical development in a few sentences but who gives a fuck ;)
Nah it's all interesting. This thread is about God, doesn't dictate it being a Christian god for example so makes it more interesting to explore others.

Can't say I have a huge amount of knowledge on the religion but I have read bits and bobs about it here and there and know a couple of people who are Hindus (though no idea which part they follow).

I was watching a history documentary, think it was about India and they went into a bit of depth about it on there and was pretty interesting.
 
Social control framed as a story to play on our inherent fear of uncertainty, ignorance and desire to be part of the tribe.

I can understand people falling for it hundreds of years ago, but the fact that so many people still believe in something so ridiculous with all we know now is truly baffling to me.

I'm inclined to think we are the product of entirely natural forces and beneficiaries of being in an extremely fortunate place and time in the history of the universe, or we are in some sort of simulation that only appears real to us because the simulation has been designed that way.
You put it better than I could :D
 
It doesn't do my head in, but then again my head, or rather it's content is not of the norm. Ask yourself why there can't be nothing, then realise that you need a reference point to prove nothing, and there you have it, you cannot have nothing. As for the universe, well it's nuts to believe that matter exists when we're told to put away our logic and believe the universe never ends. We are but spiritual maths, programmed from before the big bang. We are essentially all part of the same computer. Today you are in the graphics section, when you die you'll go to the recycle bin. If your individual programme is mostly as pure as when you were born, you might just get another shot at the mortal thingy.

I think I just have a personal issue with laziness. It is lazy to accept an elder (whether a priest, teacher or parent) telling you that "God made all of this" because it then doesn't require any further thinking effort.

The challenge of being a scientist is to try to find answers by studying, experimenting and thinking. That requires effort.

There is no physical evidence to suggest any of the gods exist. Therefore the default position, until evidence is provided, is that they don't.

When we die I don't see how it will be any different at all to before we were born. Since there are billions of years either side of our, say, 80 year lifespan then my attitude is to crack on and make a good job of it. Enjoy it, be nice to people, make a difference to people and do something with your life.

If believing in supernatural stuff helps you get through life then fantastic. Just don't indoctrinate or mutilate children in the name of those beliefs.
 
There are probably four concepts of "God" all rolled into one thing.

There is God the creator, who created the whole Universe for reasons we can't fathom. Hard to prove either way, but I don't believe.

Then we have God the watcher, looking down on us and shaping our lives. Again hard to prove and that I don't believe.

Then we have the God people worship, the religious control that in some cases tells people what to wear or what to eat, in others governs what relationships people have and the permissible genders they share that relationship with, or what scientific discoveries are allowed and what are not. Documented history shows that has changed drastically over the years and is a clear example of the church (or other religious institute) controlling people. This also leads to the question about which one is right. Add in the aspect of eternal damnation to those who are good at heart, do their bit to love and help others, but were brought up in either the wrong religion or the wrong branch of the right religion and it is hell for them. Sorry, I struggle to believe that if I don't pray before my tea or sing hymns on the right day of the week, then that makes me a really bad person.

Then the last aspect is the god you join after death and relates to the above about if that will be a happy experience or not. It is a lovely though to think that when I die on this earth, the people I have known and loved will be waiting to see me again, along with a pack of all the dogs who have been in my life and passed on. Shame it is most likely a load of rubbish.

If there was a creator of this universe, then it doesn't automatically make the other three bits true. I generally chose to ignore religion and don't let it bother me. Some people get a lot of hope and joy out of it, good for them, leave them to get on with it as far as I'm concerned.
 
I think it’s easier to assume there’s always been a universe and before the Big Bang another universe before it.
Perhaps a universe that’s recycles itself and one where it all breaks down into nothing and then to start again
You're very warm.
 
Cease with the bafflementness. Childhood indoctrination. With out that, i suspect organised Religion would die out rapidly

God. Fantasy.

Some organised religion. In it for their own preservation and power. Evil, corrupt and hypocritical Paedophile protectors.

The bible. Written by people who didn't know where the Sun went at night. Think i first heard Bill Maher say that.
Didn't you know that all the people that had a hand in writing the bible were perfect in every way, though confusingly the bible highlights a whole lot of whopper telling.
 
I'm a card carrying atheist but I can see many benefits from having a community that you belong to that is supportive and has a fairly decent moral code to live by. If people are happier and more content and society is calmer and more ordered then God would be a good thing. It's almost as if he needed to be invented.
I was at my brothers baptism last weekend he found god about a year ago after 3 or 4 years of struggling just to get out of bed. He’s a changed bloke for the better so I agree in full with you.
 
I think it’s easier to assume there’s always been a universe and before the Big Bang another universe before it.
Perhaps a universe that’s recycles itself and one where it all breaks down into nothing and then to start again

It's called the Big Crunch theory.
 
I think I just have a personal issue with laziness. It is lazy to accept an elder (whether a priest, teacher or parent) telling you that "God made all of this" because it then doesn't require any further thinking effort.

The challenge of being a scientist is to try to find answers by studying, experimenting and thinking. That requires effort.

There is no physical evidence to suggest any of the gods exist. Therefore the default position, until evidence is provided, is that they don't.

When we die I don't see how it will be any different at all to before we were born. Since there are billions of years either side of our, say, 80 year lifespan then my attitude is to crack on and make a good job of it. Enjoy it, be nice to people, make a difference to people and do something with your life.

If believing in supernatural stuff helps you get through life then fantastic. Just don't indoctrinate or mutilate children in the name of those beliefs.
That's a real nice post marra 👍
There are almost 5000 gods being worshipped by humanity. Which one is the real one?
You can't have a real one, otherwise we'd all get on.
Not for me. Unless energy, density and heat are the creator.
Nice one mate 👍
 
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