God

I thought this was an interesting topic which I might bump.

I wanted to do another about the persecution of atheists (discrimination against atheists around the world) and special privileges that the religious get, but currently lack the brain power to come up with what I would hope to be an interesting and thought-provoking opening post

By the way, while I am an atheist (I don't claim God that does not exist, but I don't believe a God or Gods exist -- I needn't have certainty), I still feel uncomfortable telling people that I am an atheist.

Edited by Logan - November 01 2019 at 16:13

When I saw the title of this thread, I thought you might be talking about Eric Clapton, the only living guitar god.

Edited by Psychedelic Paul - November 01 2019 at 17:38

Gods (or sometimes God) was originally a concept that humans created due to their natural fear of the unknown, soon evolved into a disaster of unreal violence and an excuse for them to oppress other humans.  

Edited by tamijo_II - November 02 2019 at 00:47

ExittheLemming wrote: Logan wrote: I expect that various atheists and theists also have fairly vague conceptions of God. Some would be thinking of an Abrahamic God with a white beard, booming voice, and some anger issues. PA has made me laugh out loud twice in one day On a more serious note, the problem most staunch atheists are forced to confront is that it is impossible to prove a negative i.e. absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. I would consider myself as someone who believes that any human interaction with what might be deemed a transcendental agent is unattainable or simply unknowable. This pussy agnostic is hoping that even Hell has a door policy

Not only made up, but also to blame for all that darn Neal Morse music!

BaldJean wrote: no, Logan. this is why I made the example with the tiger. saying that you don't belief in the existence of something only makes sense if you have a clear concept of what that something is supposed to be. if someone says "I don't believe in the existence of tigers" he means "I don't believe in the existence of catlike predatory animals with dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with a lighter underside, with a length of 250-390 cm and a weight of 90-306 kg for males and a length of 200-270 cm and a weight of 65-167 kg for females, depending on subspecies". this is a concept of a tiger most people have. there are, however, so many different concepts and definitions of "God" that saying "I don't believe in God" is meaningless unless you give a clear definition of what you mean when you speak of "God". saying you don't believe in the existence of something that you have no idea of what it is supposed to be in the first place is simply meaningless, and I consider you to be too intelligent for that

Wrong BaldJean. Believing in something is a cognitive act. Disbelieving in something is a cognitive act. Not believing in something is not an act at all. I don't believe in God, and I disbelieve in several concepts of God as well.

BaldJean wrote: I actually don't believe there are any real atheists. atheists don't deny God, they deny a certain concept of God (usually the concept of the Christian, Islamic or Jewish faith). that's why my first question to an atheist is always what his concept of God is. I have actually even heard stupid answers like "I don't need a concept; he doesn't exist". that's about the same as denying the existence of, for example, tigers. if you don't have a concept of what a tiger is it might be a nice fluffy rodent fitting into your hand, and the statement "tigers don't exist" becomes absolutely meaningless

. My first question to a theist is always what sort of concept of Demiurge are you trying to convince me of? Your tiger analogy breaks down, because, unlike belief in tigers, belief in God/Goddess does not end with the question of whether he/she exists. Even if one comes to believe in the existence of a "Deity", it does not answer the question whether one should rightly worship that deity as "God" (and 'worship' is the sense in which we use the word 'belief', btw). This is the difference between Agnostics and Atheists. So if I deny the existence of tigers because I have no concept of a tiger, that is meaningless, irrespective of what furry creature I may be holding, true. However, it is not meaningless to say that I see no reason to worship it, because there is no implication that one should even consider it. With "God", the implication that one might worship him/her/it is there, but is not a foregone conclusion from a philosophical standpoint (for an Atheist) and therefore not meaningless. Agnostics are misguided because the existence of a Creator may be debatable, but the existence of God is wholly opinion driven. Agnostics ignore the 'worship' sense of the meaning of '(religious) belief' and treat the issue solely as a matter of existence/non-existence.





Edited by HackettFan - November 24 2019 at 13:47

For me it's:

Seems strange to me God would choose a time when most people were illerate and superstitious to have contact with humans.

If she made contact now it would be videoed and streaming for all to see and the discussion would end.

Logan wrote: I'm also an atheist when it comes to "Clapton is God". ;)