God does exist

[GodLoves]

There Is A God....have Faith

[Bighead]

There is no god. :P
I killed him :lol:

[Nicole]

There is a tooth fairy...have faith.

[Evil_Mage_Ra]

There Is A God....have Faith
How many years off of Purgatory do you think you'll get by posting that here?

[Amazonis]

There Is A God....have Faith
Oh my giddy aunt! I have seen the light! The lord god almighty has shown me the way!

And thankyou, GodLoves, for your help in my time of nead. Never before have i seen such conclusive, undeniable scientific proof of gods existance than in the words..."there is a god...have faith". What sort of a fool could argue against this mighty proof!

Now i must get to work for my lord, by ridding the world of homosexuals and their filthy evil sexual habits which have such a great effect on my personal life!

Praise you and our lord Muhamad!

DAMN MUTHUFUCKU! THATS SOME MIGHTY FINE WEED BEEEEEEEARTCH!!!

[WITHTEETH]

yo, Pass it Amazonis!

This shits Fadayeeen maun.

[calpurnpiso]

There Is A God....have Faith
ROTFLMAO....the concept god as a reality ONLY exists in those brains affected with the devastating HIBV ( Human Immunodeficiency Brain Virus). This "God Concept' is not unlike the acceptance of Santa/ToothFairy as REALITY in the minds of ALL 5 year old children of the world. The acceptance of: Allah, Jeowah, Odin, Ahuramazda, UFO Aliens, Vishnu, Ganesha, Viracocha, Manitu, Great Spirit, et al as REALITY is plainly a form of mental illness, perhaps a form of temporal lobe epylepsy where those part of the brain are infected. We must realize the VAST majority of brain disorders are IDIOPATHIC which means the CAUSE is unknown...so, why could not religious beliefs be one of them? People act very CRAZY under religion.!

The HUMAN BRAIN, creates the GODS, DEMONS and all kinds of ideas....the SCIENTIFIC PROVEN FACT is, one can ALTER the thoughts of the brain with electromagnetism, psychoactive drugs...and also DISEASE!

The brains of schizophrenics, alzheimer sufferers, temporal lobe epylepsy SHOW almost IDENTICAL symptoms as those exhibited by the deeply religious...ergo...religion is nothing more than a form of mental illness where DELUSIONS produced by a SICK brain are accepted as REALITY....The ONLY true 'salvation" for the Christ-psychotics is a visit to a mental health care center, where their HIBV can be addressed.

Since you believe their is a god who "love us all". Here it is my JET-Drastic#1 (Jesus Existence test). I have created several JETs. Please take it and show us all, we are wrong and there is a Jesus/god that "saves" and "loves"...but remember, "thou shall not tempt the lord thy god" fantasy, will not be accepted here since it is part of the delusion that the JET is aim at disproving. Enjoy:

JESUS EXISTENCE TEST- Drastic #1

Go a top of a twenty story building bring your Babble( my spelling) and start praying and quoting and praying and still quoting and pray to your "Lord and Saviour" to assist you and save you when you Jump from the top floor. Pray that "Saviour Jesus" make someone place matresses below, or make some truck driver carrying soft stuff material park his truck full of sponge rubber below to soften your landing. This should be very easy for this "saviour" since he has the ability to get into people's minds, and produce warning visions/dreams no?

Well, you'll find out, the Jesus 'Saviour" will NOT show up. He NEVER does ; and you'll find yourself splatered on the pavement below !. Jesus is plainly a mental aberration caused by a neurological disorder that exists ONLY on brains that are infected with a type of schizophrenic disorder or temporal lobe epylepsy( Christ-psychosis). Jesus is as real as the Tooth Fairy, Apollo, Vishnu, Satan, or Allah..and besides, not matter how much you praise his "name" he will be UNABLE to save you, since he doesn't exist. We created gods, demons, souls, and absurd dreams with our brains. Same delusion different millennia. Can you put your BELIEF with your mouths is?

We are eagerly waiting.....jesus, will no doubt 'save you", no?..or are you afraid I'm correct and you're under Christ-psychosis infection which makes you embrace such delusions? Remember, FAITH is always inverselly proprotional to KNOWLEDGE and INFORMATION. The more faith, the more ignorance..so..having faith is to have IGNORANCE, rejecting a knowledge that could truly SAVE us....:)

[PissBoner]

There Is A God....have Faith
Don't worry, you of faith will triumph in the end I fear.

Except it won't be you, it will be the sons of Allah who will out breed us and wash away the
folly of western Liberalism.

For as much as I do not believe in your faith, it does seem, unfortunately, only those of faith, have
the will to FIGHT.

[calpurnpiso]

GodLoves

If my JET Drastic #1 is too drastic for you and you may not survive try this one. It is mild and easy to do:

JESUS EXISTENCE TEST Mild.

Go to a hospice and find a terminally ill patient suffering from cancer. It is important to visit a devoted Christian patient and not an atheist to make this test more effective. Read the Bable with him/her and "rebuke" all of the demons possible, keep reading, quoting and praying for one hour each day for a week so the patient be "saved" by the saviour from such disease. You'll find out that not matter how much you pray, the "saviour" could NOT save anybody from anything so the patient WILL die. So, why bother and believe in such fantasies? It is actually counter productive since it gives people FALSE hopes and when REALITY sets in; landing in the world of reality could be devastating. Remember PRAYERS are USELESS and the utterances of FOOLS.

A doctor WILL cure you ( no thanks to the stupid Christian drag on science and the itellect those crazy folks have been doing for millennia) Jesus NEVER will, but it is assured to make your brain WORSE, infecting it with more delusions, remember what happen to: Jones, Koresh, Doe, Andrea yates, Paul Hill, and Eric Rudolph whose HIBV
( Human Immunodeficiency brain Virus) developed into full blown AIDBS ( Acquired Immuno Deficiency Brain Syndrome).

Christ-psychotics are walking time bombs! There is no telling when their brains are going to, overwhelmed by this virus, explode into an INSANE action. Full blown Islam-psychosis can clearly be seen in the suicide bombers. One must realize that Islam-psychosis, as is Christ-psychosis, is a strain of Abrahamic Psychosis which started with the delusions engendered by Judaism. If one reads ancient History we can see that CHRISTIANS also had their suicide "bombers" in the 4th Century. Their name?..Donatist Circumcellions!. One must realize that Crazy is as Crazy does..regardless of century!
The called themselves 'Soldiers of Christ"..sound familiar? There is no excuse for those lunatics (Christ-psychotics) to roam free in the USA when schizophrenia, temporal lobe epylepsy sufferers and the mentally retarded are committed to asylums!..Why the discrimination? Let's place those poor delusions-suffering people in the mental health care centers they belong and their brains truly "saved" from the disorder.......they are a danger to mentally healthy societies anywhere in the world.

http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/heresy05.htm

[calpurnpiso]

PissBoner wrote:

"For as much as I do not believe in your faith, it does seem, unfortunately, only those of faith, have the will to FIGHT."

Of course, the neurological disorder that induces DELUSIONS via faith-triggers, will make the affected ACT UP those, dopamine enhanced, delusions! It is not unlike a 5 year old boy after watching a Superman's movie, to put on a red towel and jump to his death from a balcony! The excitement of the superman fantasy, made him act irrationally...but this is understandable at his age, where the immune system that protects the brain from accepting irrational fantasies as reality had not yet fully formed!. In the religious, FAITH -TRIGGERS, due perhaps to a viral pathogens releases dopamine, enhancing the religious-delusions, accepting it as real creating an euphoria (without drugs) when enacting a religious BELIEF.

Thus, the Christ-pychotics feel AWESOME when praying to their "saviour" and attending churches where the Christian delusional fairy tales are "studied" and narrated. The schizophrenia sufferer also feels GOOD when his/her delusions are discussed and narrated as if they were REAL.

This is the reason as you accuratelly said " only those of faith, have the will to FIGHT." This can be clearly understood at the 'dopamine seeking" ( faith urges) entrerprises of the Christian Crusaders (1095-1270s) when they went to Nutty land ( holy land) to rid the 'sacred places" of Jews ( their land), Muslims and Orthodox Christians ( Greeks). One must realize the Crusaders got excited releasing dopamine when he plunged his sword (cross tool) into the body of an infidel (men, woman,child even pets) for by spilling their blood they would be 'saved" and go to Christ-heaven. The Crusader killer, would gain IMMENSE prestige in the eyes of God/Christ, automatically gaining a place in Heaven and becoming a good Pious Christian in the eyes of his fellow Crusaders. This feeling of joy was due to his Christ-psychosis aiding at the release of dopamine.

The reason an atheist will study the situation and flee instead of fighting, if the odds are not in his favor. Salvation is of THIS world and not of the one infecting the mind of others. :)

[ghoulslime]

There Is A God....have Faith
There is beer...have another.

[Blindwatchmaker]

There Is A God....have Faith

C:\My Documents\My Pictures\dumb-Neanderthal.jpg

[ghoulslime]

There Is A God....have Faith

C:\My Documents\My Pictures\dumb-Neanderthal.jpg
Upload your image to the Raving Atheist, then cut and paste the absolute path between IMG tags like this:

http://ravingatheist.com/forum/img/uploads/howto.JPG

It will look like this:


http://ravingatheist.com/forum/img/uploads/god_pic.jpg


Try not to link to images on other sites unless the site belongs to you. That's a big NO NO.

Try to keep your images very small to keep the generous Raving Atheist happy.

:D

[DMofD&D]

There is a God...Have faith.
You are THE most unimaginative theist so far. Your also not replying to any of the posts in this topic. Are you one of those "Drive By" theists who says one post and hightails it out of "there" thinking the have done a good deed?

[calpurnpiso]

Faith will always be inversely proportional to the knowledge and information of those infected by it!....5 year olds have faith the Tooth Fairy and Santa are real, when they become adults knowledge/information has told them they are imaginary.....unless they suffer from a neurological disorder where delusions are accepted as reality, a condition exhibited by people of faith...:)

[selah]

You guys are so freaking smart! I want to be as sure of my own worthless place in life, and that the lights turn off when I die, and that this is as good as it gets! :)

Seriously, what keeps you from killing yourselves? I mean really, I would be so depressed if I didn't know Jesus, anyways, I know that just faith as an answer is not going to cut it for you guys. So, just as a hypothetical situation, what do you think it would take on your part?

[Metman07]

You guys are so freaking smart! I want to be as sure of my own worthless place in life, and that the lights turn off when I die, and that this is as good as it gets! :)

1 Seriously, what keeps you from killing yourselves? 2 I mean really, I would be so depressed if I didn't know Jesus, anyways, 3I know that just faith as an answer is not going to cut it for you guys. So, just as a hypothetical situation, what do you think it would take on your part?
1) You answered your own question earlier. What stops us from killing ourselves is the knowledge that after life, there is nothing. What stops you from purusing a more dangerous lifestyle? I know that suicide is wrong in your faith, but surely it is not wrong to risk your life in the service of God (who you are so sure exists). After all this life is just pitiful and worthless compared to the wonderful eternity you will be spending in heaven. So why not sign up to be on the front lines in Iraq? Or how about you go to Afghanistan or some other war torn region of the world and work at ridding it of landmines, whilst simultaneously spreading the word of your lord Jesus Christ? You should be excited about your death and be eagerly looking forward to it.

2) Well then you must have had a very empty life. Believe it or not, people can be happy without Christianity or any religion for that matter. Is it your opinion that all non-Christians are unhappy people? If it is, then I pity you for your ignorance.

3) It would require a sufficient amount of evidence to support the existence of god(s).

[Mog]

Selah, your place in life is not worthless. Nothing is worthless. Everything is interconnected so we all have our purpose whether we chose that purpose or not. This isn't mysticism in any way, its how the world works. Any interaction I have with people is bound to affect them in some degree, hopefully positively. I'd like to think my existence benefits humanity as a whole in some way.
There's a zillion different reasons to why we aren't killing ourselves. Maybe we just want to see what happens next. I don't think I want to die without seeing the A Scanner Darkly movie coming out this fall.

[Tenspace]

You guys are so freaking smart! I want to be as sure of my own worthless place in life, and that the lights turn off when I die, and that this is as good as it gets! :)

Seriously, what keeps you from killing yourselves? I mean really, I would be so depressed if I didn't know Jesus, anyways, I know that just faith as an answer is not going to cut it for you guys. So, just as a hypothetical situation, what do you think it would take on your part?
First, what makes you think that our lives are worthless because we don't worship any god? That's pretty presumptuous on your part, don't you think?

Second, why would we want to kill ourselves? Are you so dependent on Jesus that you would want to die without him? I'm very, very happy in life. Moreso than you can imagine.

Finally, and this is not a personal attack, but your initial comment makes it sound bad to be smart. Is that why God doesn't want you to eat from the Tree of Knowledge? You believe in a book that ends with the destruction of the world. Millions, nee billions of humans disagree with you, and are not prepared to help you write that final chapter.

Oh.. most of us Evil Atheists were once religious. Personally, I teeter between wishing all religion was abandoned, so humanity can have a chance at sidestepping extinction, and respecting the personal and private side of someone's beliefs, so long as their worldview is not forced upon others.

Selah, if you would like to hang around and have some great discussions, be our guest. We can both learn something. :)

Tenspace

[WITHTEETH]

You guys are so freaking smart! I want to be as sure of my own worthless place in life, and that the lights turn off when I die, and that this is as good as it gets! :)

Seriously, what keeps you from killing yourselves? I mean really, I would be so depressed if I didn't know Jesus, anyways, I know that just faith as an answer is not going to cut it for you guys. So, just as a hypothetical situation, what do you think it would take on your part?
Reason Why I don't Kill Myself By Stephen AKA WITHTEETH

1. It would Hurt, are you crazy?!
2. It wouldn't make me happy
3. I haven't written my biography yet
4. I love my girlfriend too much :)
5. I have self esteem.

Reasons why Selah should kill Himself

1. No Jesus
2. depression
3. Annoying
4. he just told me to kill myself
5. No jesus!

[selah]

Hey,
Sorry about the suicide comment, I was being a bit "smart" (right?). Anyways, the suicide thing was toung in cheek (but not a funny subject - bad taste really). Well, I am not here to try and convince you all of anything, because I know that I can't do that. I was just wondering, what turns you guys off from it, you know not the Christians themselves (I can get turned off myself, like GW and all that Christian war and GATT/WTO stuff), but the actual gospel. So here is how I see it, from reading the Bible: (Wo)Man is lost and spiritually alone, God (here's a mental leap- but go arguendo if you will) sends His Son to make a way, then (wo)man spends eternity with God. Nice, right?

Oh yeah, I really do like smart people, Sorry if I was an ass...

[WITHTEETH]

Why did i leave christianity... It simply didn't quench my thirst for answers, i wanted something that didn't take a leap of faith(illogical leap of belief to believe). Can you prove that christianity is any truer then the next religion? nah.
Even common sense is against you i would say. You don't go around beleiveing in unicorns just because you cant disprove them, right? Common sense isn't common.
But i still read mythology, i just don't live it.

[selah]

Well,

I left it for quite a while as well, it was God (okay, another assumption I plead arguendo) that brought me back, so I know that nothing I say is going to do it. But I can tell you that God is better than anything I have ever experienced (even sex, drugs and rock and roll).
You are right, failure of disproof is no proof at all. And experience cannot be empirically tested. But isn't science sort of its own religion anyways? Oh yeah, I accept evolution and the bible, just to skirt that whole thing. But isn't science like that?

[Little Earth Stamper]

Why did i leave christianity... It simply didn't quench my thirst for answers, i wanted something that didn't take a leap of faith(illogical leap of belief to believe). Can you prove that christianity is any truer then the next religion? nah.
Even common sense is against you i would say. You don't go around beleiveing in unicorns just because you cant disprove them, right? Common sense isn't common.
But i still read mythology, i just don't live it.
I'm the same, in that christianity has never really answered my questions about the universe satisfactorally.

Christian theology poorly adresses things such as:

*The vastness of the universe. Why would a Christocentric universe be so vast?

*The existence of the Americas. What was god's purpose in cutting off a large bunch of humanity from his son?

*The existence of other religions. What's the point, and where do they come from?

*Why is there so much misery? The general answer is "free will" but I've come up with ideas for a universe where there is much less misery but as much or more opportunity to excercise free will.

*Do those whose faith causes them to commit evil acts get into heaven or are they stuck in hell? And why didn't god mention to, say, the Aztecs that he didn't like human sacrifice?

*Why are human beings so much like the other primates?

There are a couple of other things that I wish I had answers for, but which I haven't found in Christianity.

Moral reletivism. Most people see this idea as a great evil, but I see it as inevitable. If morals are objective, there must be a way to prove that something is moral, with objective evidence.

For example, in science, I can imagine a piece of evidence that would convince me that, say, dowsing works. In the same way, I should be able to envision a piece of evidence which would convince me that, say, Hitler's final solution was moral.

And honestly, I can't think of anything. God's only claim for being able to dictate morality is that he's tough enough to smash anybody who disagrees with him. This was also Hitler's method of dictating morality.

Even worse, god's representatives are all nowadays ordinary men. So all we have is ordinary men arguing about morality, whether we like it or not.

I have a similar question about "meaning". Christians often say that in a godless universe, our lives have no meaning. This implies that God has authority to assign meaning to various beings, but humans do not. Why, precisely, is god's purpose for us more satisfying then our own purposes for oursselves? What quality does he possess that allows him to dictate meaning, but not us? Power? That's obviously not it? Creation? If creating something means you give it purpose then in a godless universe I can get a valid purpose from my parents. I have a creator of some sort whether god exists or not.

Anyway, that's what I find unsatisfying about Christian theology.

[selah]

Wow, now tell me what you really think!
I can't answer all that, but there are some huge issues in there. Okay, I could direct you to C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity, but I am sure you've heard that one. It adresses some of those fairness issues.
What do you mean the Christian afterlife is inadequate to adress human behavior? In that you can do what ever you want here and then be rewarded later?

[Little Earth Stamper]

Well,

I left it for quite a while as well, it was God (okay, another assumption I plead arguendo) that brought me back, so I know that nothing I say is going to do it. But I can tell you that God is better than anything I have ever experienced (even sex, drugs and rock and roll).
You are right, failure of disproof is no proof at all. And experience cannot be empirically tested. But isn't science sort of its own religion anyways? Oh yeah, I accept evolution and the bible, just to skirt that whole thing. But isn't science like that?
To some extent, yes. In most cases we must take science on faith as it is the results of other's experiences. For example, I never have copied Einstein's work on reletivity, but I trust that it's true because others have experienced it as correct.

The essential difference between science and religion is that with science, if I wanted to, I could copy all of Einstein's work and get the same results.

With religion, copying your work is likely to get me variant results; Some people experience the Christian god, some the Hindu pantheon, some new-age Ultraterrestrials, and some nothing at all. The christian hypothesis fails to account well for these varying results, and thus I do not accpet it.

EDIT: As for the afterlife, there are actually many different Christian views on that, I tend to have trouble with the traditional "eternal hell or eternal heaven" view. Others are less problematic.

[WITHTEETH]

Well,

I left it for quite a while as well, it was God (okay, another assumption I plead arguendo) that brought me back, so I know that nothing I say is going to do it. But I can tell you that God is better than anything I have ever experienced (even sex, drugs and rock and roll).
You are right, failure of disproof is no proof at all. And experience cannot be empirically tested. But isn't science sort of its own religion anyways? Oh yeah, I accept evolution and the bible, just to skirt that whole thing. But isn't science like that?
Yes science is related to religion, it is its cousin a "belief". Can you believe that the same laws that are here today will be here tomarrow? All science is is a few steps and math. Since we can observe it and repeat it, it is a "BETTER" means to understanding truth. Religion is now outdated, it should be obsolete in my own opinion but apparently it still has a need, that need is the dependancy that the followers already have on it, similar to a drug.

[snap crafter]

Selah... Your post about science being a religion is not only insulting to me, but as of late, it reminds me of that antithesis Kent hovind. Science isn't a religion because it can CHANGE. Christianity can only change when older members die and they can incorporate science into religion by finding other vague quotes to support science saying: Here the bible knew that!

Mere christianity was well written, but the arguements weren't really supported by any facts.

You ask me why I stopped believing... To quote the brilliant comedian Bill Maher, "I graduated the 6th grade". But to be more thorough, christianity has no real control over it's members, 'specailly down in the bible belt. They go around and BEAT UP/KILL ANYONE THAT DOESN'T AGREE WITH THEM. Sounds christian doesn't it? They get drunk everynight, they have illegitimate children, they have sex with farm animals (I'm not kidding...) In short their A holes. I refuse to endorse any religion that has no better control over their members than: All ye gots to do is believith.

[selah]

True, you can't repeat that experience, and in fact what may seem like a spiritual experience to one may be a result of chemical rxns in their neurons, or some trance induced through music and what not.
But, I am sure of my experiences, and I wish that I could point to why in the physical world, but then it wouldn't be spiritual anymore. But it is so undeniable, so amazing, so real. I mean more real to me than the keys I am typing on.
Any inquisitive mind will have to reject (or at least subject to scrutiny) what I am saying. I think it literally takes God (arguendo, pour favor) to prove it.

But at that point you’re in with the rest of the fools, and no one else can believe it. What does it look like to you?

[snap crafter]

Did you just insult your opponents selah? I mean fool, really.

[selah]

Yo Snap,

What’s wrong with banging a farm animal every now and again anyways? But I don't know about that drinking thing, I mean you don't drink, do you? I don't. Well, at least not when I'm pounding sheep. I like to keep my edge.

So, if Christianity is just about control, why don't they have jails instead of basilicas?

Baaaaaaaaaaa! ;)

[selah]

Snap,

Opponents? I hope not.

[WITHTEETH]

Good versus Evil- what a load of shit, its smart versus stupid, which team do you want to be on?

[selah]

Snap,

What I meant was, I look like a fool, Christians look like fools. You see? No insult, I promise

[Amazonis]

They also feal, hear, small and taste like fools. :rolleyes:

[selah]

Teeth,

Are there no boundaries then? Would you consider say, raping a child neither good nor bad, just a question of intelligence?

[WITHTEETH]

Should people be divided up as good here, and evil there?

What happened to the cat? he was killed. why was the cat killed? curiosity. is that enough of a reason to damn people from then on, over curiosity and fruit? The cat didn't know it was going to kill him!

What kind of programming do you think a person has when he lives in a perfect world, with everything given to him. without right and wrong a person can't learn a view of good and bad. why would a god not program right and wrong into humans head better if he was so serious? why didn't he do it right the first time if hes so omnipotent and all powerful .... maybe he isn't that powerful.

Are we really fundementally flawed?

I do not beleive us to be fundmentally flawed, if we were then why wouldn't a god fix that flaw? I believe we are perfected as the human race lives on.

Man is the greatest enemy of man, we torment eachother.

Then again, I think evil is an illusion, it doesnt exist, it only exist in your minds. You think im evil because i don't believe what you beleive, thats a typical viewpoint of one belief to another. so im going to "hell".

Maybe there is no evil but rather the consequences of the species developing adaptive strategies that tend to be accompanied by pain, suffereing, unhappiness, and conflicts of intrests, all part of evolving and growing up.

[WITHTEETH]

Humans justify just about everything they do, sometimes it can be very poor justification sadly.

Damning more then 2/3 of the planets population to eternal suffereing in hell is a good example of a poor justification for an alternative belief.

[Amazonis]

Teeth,

Are there no boundaries then? Would you consider say, raping a child neither good nor bad, just a question of intelligence?
There are boundaries of inteligence. Most of the people which you would consider 'evil' are not evil, simply ignorant. Do you think if you walked up to Hitler and asked him if he thought he was 'evil' he would have said 'yes'? He would say he was a good man doing the good thing by god for his people. He was not evil, just ignorant.

[Tenspace]

True, you can't repeat that experience, and in fact what may seem like a spiritual experience to one may be a result of chemical rxns in their neurons, or some trance induced through music and what not.
But, I am sure of my experiences, and I wish that I could point to why in the physical world, but then it wouldn't be spiritual anymore.
Why do you think that you'll lose your spirituality if you attempt to learn about it or identify it? Interesting statement. You are right that no one can feel what you've experienced, but experiences are by nature, subjective. "Science" (I use this term very generically, as one might when they say "religion") attempts to group together knowledge for the benefit of mankind. It is as much competitive sport as strict discipline. We absolutely cannot continue ignoring scientific truths in front of us, truths we ignore because they conflict with our religious belief.

But it is so undeniable, so amazing, so real. I mean more real to me than the keys I am typing on.
Any inquisitive mind will have to reject (or at least subject to scrutiny) what I am saying. I think it literally takes God (arguendo, pour favor) to prove it.
You seem pretty open minded. I can empathize with how you feel; but I have explanations for those feelings that don't require God. My struggle to understand the reality around us, including Homo Sapiens and his Brain, answers new questions every day. I am learning from the vast brain that is the biomass of Earth, and I do not frame my worldview with the writings of a popular religion. One thing that the bible did get right... we are sheep. :D

But at that point you’re in with the rest of the fools, and no one else can believe it. What does it look like to you?
I think fools is meant in the biblical sense. I did sniff a bit of hardcore southern protestant in your initial post. If you could answer me this - among you, your friends, your church - is Atheist a dirty word? Are you taught (and do you reinforce through conversation) the concept that atheists are inherently immoral? This just baffles me.

Tenspace

[snap crafter]

Yo Snap,

What’s wrong with banging a farm animal every now and again anyways? But I don't know about that drinking thing, I mean you don't drink, do you? I don't. Well, at least not when I'm pounding sheep. I like to keep my edge.

So, if Christianity is just about control, why don't they have jails instead of basilicas?

Baaaaaaaaaaa! ;)
And I am again reminded why I hate, not only christians, but women which I am assuming you are. If christianity does not give any control like all other religions, what good is it in society? False hopes? And thank you for downplaying my arguement with your childish comment, your a testament to your faith.

[Tenspace]

Yo Snap,

What’s wrong with banging a farm animal every now and again anyways? But I don't know about that drinking thing, I mean you don't drink, do you? I don't. Well, at least not when I'm pounding sheep. I like to keep my edge.

So, if Christianity is just about control, why don't they have jails instead of basilicas?

Baaaaaaaaaaa! ;)
That made me laugh. :D:D:D

...its smart versus stupid, which team do you want to be on"
:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D. :P

[Tenspace]

Teeth,

Are there no boundaries then? Would you consider say, raping a child neither good nor bad, just a question of intelligence?
You could take a week and not finish reading the posts on morality, a subject this thread is perched on the edge of diving into. :)

Use the search feature; there's some great stuff.

Ten

[peepnklown]

Just remember this little tidbit.
If God sends down a couple of angels into your neighborhood and your neighbors want a piece of them sexuality don’t worry, just send your virgin daughters to the neighbors and thank God.

[Rhinoqulous]

Cool, looks like we have a new thick-skinned theist. Maybe thomas and lurker won't be bogged down by multitudes of posts with one more on their side. :)

Welcome Selah, you seem to be an intelligent and humorous individual.

Rhinoq

[Nicole]

Well,

I left it for quite a while as well, it was God (okay, another assumption I plead arguendo) that brought me back, so I know that nothing I say is going to do it. But I can tell you that God is better than anything I have ever experienced (even sex, drugs and rock and roll).
You are right, failure of disproof is no proof at all. And experience cannot be empirically tested. But isn't science sort of its own religion anyways? Oh yeah, I accept evolution and the bible, just to skirt that whole thing. But isn't science like that?
First of all, cudos to you for coming back after getting slammed so hard on your initial post and apologizing to those that were offended.

As for God being better than sex, drugs and rock and roll; you've been doing it wrong....just kidding. Actually there's alot of new data out there that is suggesting a gene which might be responsible for some people feeling a stronger sense of connectiveness to the world and an element of spirituality. Apparently the more that these people pray/meditate or concentrate the more a drug is released into their system allowing them to feel this euphoria.

Now, maybe this is just 'gods' way of helping humans achieve spirituality but I'm leaning towards a mental tool to help us form social groups for better survival chances.


Your question about why people are atheist gets asked a lot here. My answer is that I could never believe the answers they gave me at church. It seemed like made up stuff even when I was a little kid.

Welcome to the site. Hope you stay and help Thomas and Lurker fend off us raving atheists.

[ocmpoma]

"But isn't science sort of its own religion anyways?"
Absolutely not. Although you can easily argue that science is grounded on faith (i.e. faith that the laws, theories, etc. will hold true tomorrow), this faith is really an assumption of uniformitarianism, which we all must hold to or forsake faith that we exist. A religion is a philosophy of life which is grounded by a belief in some sort of supernatural guiding force, be it a deity, or karma, or the tao. Science is not only not grounded in a belief in the supernatural (which is actually the opposite of it's grounding); it is not a philosophy of life. The same holds true for atheism, which is why it is not, never has been, and never could be a religion.

Why basilicas instead of prisons? There's more than one way to control people - and some are more effective and pervasive than others. Boxing people up in a jail controls their freedom of movement, but not the freedom of their minds. Control their thought, and you have more control over them than any warden eer could hope to. After all, doesn't religious belief control the movement of millions of theists every day?

Why I am an atheist.
I subscribe to uniformitarianism.
But even if I were not an atheist, or believed in the supernatural, I could not hate myself enough to be a Christian. Your little summation (humans are fallen, god saves) misses a tiny, yet vastly important detail: in the Christian mythos, the flawed nature of man, the exile from Eden, everything is God's fault as the creator. If I build something, and it doesn't work properly, is it the creation's fault? Christianity is one of the most self-loathing philosophies I have ever come across, and I find the underlying base of its structure disgusting.

[soulstice]

There Is A God....have Faith
This 'God' that you talk of doesn't exist. There's no evidence to support that claim. Period.

[Sir Sin-O-Lot]

There is no god. :P
I killed him :lol:
No you didn't, I did.

[snap crafter]

Oh yeah? Well I ate Allah, and boy was he stringy.

[WITHTEETH]

Selah, can you really prove God does exist, or is it just a funny feeling in your body that helps you fall asleep, makes the stars brighter, sky bluer? its a chemical reaction your body produces that you are addicted to, i know this feeling too, whenever i gaze at my girlfriend, its love. Enchanting isn't it?
The mind is a wonderful thing, each one creates a unique reality. Some minds beleive in islam, christianity, Judiaism, Buddism ect.. Which one to pick, is any more valid then the other? No, you can't prove one truer then the next.
Is "faith" a healthy way to think, I say its time to put faith asside already, We don't need religion to control us now that we have these goverments. We dont need religion for answers now that we have better means for answers than religions traditional outdated methods. Mans greatest tool is his mind, its gotten us this far, think how far it will take us, lets not abandon minds with illogical leaps of belief. Lets use it to find the next age.

[Kamikaze189]

Evolution has been observed....Open your eyes

[Striver]

GodLoves

http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/heresy05.htm
That article is a little long. Can you paraphrase the story?

[calpurnpiso]

Salve Striver salutem pluribam dicit (Hi)

Sorry this is so long. Basically what I was trying to do is connecting the dots and make comparisons on the many "god's love" they were. How the religious-psychosis aberration made the affected express their love for a delusion. (god) Here is a quote from the site:

'The date of the first appearance of the Circumcellions is uncertain, but probably they began before the death of Constantine. They were mostly rustic enthusiasts, who knew no Latin, but spoke Punic; it has been suggested that they may have been of Berber blood. They joined the ranks of the Donatists, and were called by them agnostici and "soldiers of Christ", but in fact were brigands. Troops of them were to be met in all parts of Africa.

They had no regular occupation, but ran about armed, like madmen. They used no swords, on the ground that Saint Peter had been told to put his sword into its sheath; but they did continual acts of violence with clubs, which they called "Israelites". They bruised their victims without killing them, and left them to die. In Saint Augustine's time, however, they took to swords and all sorts of weapons; they rushed about accompanied by unmarried women, played, and drank. They battle-cry was Deo laudes, and no bandits were more terrible to meet.

They frequently sought death, counting suicide as martyrdom. They were especially fond of flinging themselves from precipices; more rarely they sprang into the water or fire. Even women caught the infection, and those who had sinned would cast themselves from the cliffs, to atone for their fault. Sometimes the Circumcellions sought death at the hands of others, either by paying men to kill them, by threatening to kill a passer-by if he would not kill them, or by their violence inducing magistrates to have them executed.

While paganism still flourished, they would come in vast crowds to any great sacrifice, not to destroy the idols, but to be martyred. Theodoret says a Circumcellion was accustomed to announce his intention of becoming a martyr long before the time, in order to be well treated and fed like a beast for slaughter. He relates an amusing story (Haer. Fab., IV, vi) to which Saint Augustine also refers. A number of these fanatics, fattened like pheasants, met a young man and offered him a drawn sword to smite them with, threatening to murder him if he refused. He pretended to fear that when he had killed a few, the rest might change their minds and avenge the deaths of their fellows; and he insisted that they must all be bound. They agreed to this; when they were defenceless, the young man gave each of them a beating and went his way. "

Augustinus the father of the Church was obviously a sexually frustrated man and suffered from temporal lobe epylepsy. This man almost expressed the "love of god' by castration like did the insane Origen.

love of god, is simple a manifestation of a deep schizoaffective disorder with touches of (perhaps drug induced) schizophrenia where delusions blend with reality, corrupting the neural transmitters/ receptors releasing a dopamine distorting reality, for the sake of the pleasure engendering delusions. This religious psychosis induced delirium can be clearly seeing today in the overwhelming amount of suicide bombers dying for the "love of god" in Iraq, where the nouveau Christian Crusader must be expelled from a land where 'god" dwells. Religious beliefs are clearly an anthisesis to mental health...:)

[Sir Sin-O-Lot]

Oh yeah? Well I ate Allah, and boy was he stringy.
You bastard, he owed me $10.00!

[JP]

There Is A God....have Faith
Um hmm, and his name is Zeus, I mean Odin, ok Mithra. Ah what the hell.

[calpurnpiso]

Of course "god" exists as well as: Heaven, after life, ghosts, angels, demons, grace, sin, hell, souls inside our bodies, UFOs, Boogy Men, Tooth Fairies, centaurs, minotaurs, Milk drinking stone deities, two headed spirits, ad nauseam.

What people do not realize is something extremely OBVIOUS. The products (neural activity) created by the brain that can be TESTED (MRI et al).
Give me a Borna virus, a hammer to hit the brain with, and some psychoactive drugs. I'll make the brain REACT and created irrational concepts!.
The HUMAN BRAIN is the true creator of ALL that we could imagine for the imagination has no lilmits...and the tools to create with?

They are: Chemical reactions and eloctromagetism brought together, after 1/2 billion years of trail-error and natural selection (including bacteria and viruses), by the evolutionary process.....aided of course by the velocity of time passing.

Let's worship the TRUE CREATOR and GOD; ourselves!......:) Hmm. I think I'll write a Babble
* ingesting amanita muscaria sautee to perfection sprinkled with harmine and a pinch of claviceps purpurea (ergot) *......now that I have ingested the 'sacraments", let's wait few minutes for the "spirit of god" to appear and start dictating his word.......:)

[Tenspace]

]
Let's worship the TRUE CREATOR and GOD; ourselves!......:) Hmm. I think I'll write a Babble
* ingesting amanita muscaria sautee to perfection sprinkled with harmine and a pinch of claviceps purpurea (ergot) *......now that I have ingested the 'sacraments", let's wait few minutes for the "spirit of god" to appear and start dictating his word.......:)
What? No Rosemary? Sage? A dash of a lightly pressed olive oil? Fresh creamery butter? Cracked black pepper?

At least you can hallucinate the taste. :D