Why Should I Believe in God?

[Sternwallow]

josephpalazzo wrote

If there is no free will, how can anyone sin???

Pretty simple, they or people around them can convince them that they commit sins and they will believe it just like they must believe that they have free will.

[Sternwallow]

happywarrior wrote

That is absolutely correct. If there is no free will then you are not missing the intended results. If there is no free will, there is no sin. If there is no sin you don't need a conscience. Anarchy would be the norm.

Except that anarchy is not the happiest nor the least suffering way to live, totally unrelated to morality or God's great plan.

To non-sociopaths, it feels good to do nice things and to prevent unnecessary suffering so that is probably what a community of non-sociopaths would do.

[Sternwallow]

happywarrior wrote

Not sure, verrrrry interrestink.

Arte Johnson in "Laugh-In" in Nazi costume. "... but stupid!"

[Sternwallow]

Rhinoqulous wrote

I've never liked the free will question, the end result seems to be the same regardless of the answer. Either we have free will, and everything is fine and dandy, or we don't have free will, but it just appears we do by the way our brains operate, and everything is fine and dandy.

You got, perhaps, something against fine and dandy?

Gnosital wrote

Can you engage in a behavior of which your brain is not capable? If so, please submit yourself to the nearest fMRI for further study, and you may be able to "prove" the existence of free will.

Long time since I posted, but I'd like to pose a question to anyone who is interested in weighing in:

Who here believes the previous quote qualifies as flaming?

Context:

Happy warrior started this discourse with the following post:

Happy warrior wrote

I think the issue then becomes, which conditions are true vs which conditions are scientifically provable.

If we do not have free will, then. . . . are you saying that all our decisions are based on chemical reactions in the brain etc. ?

[Rhinoqulous]

I'd call it flaming.

[Rhinoqulous]

Good to see you btw RevB. Long time no post.

Sternwallow wrote

Arte Johnson in "Laugh-In" in Nazi costume. "... but stupid!"

but shtuupid!

Good to see you too, Rhino.

Just to clarify, here is the definition of flaming (per forum rules by Chris):

Flaming - Material that is knowingly defamatory, illegal, abusive, racist, threatening or harassing, is strictly prohibited. You, as a registered member, should use common sense when posting. Any posts or threads containing personal attacks on other persons, may be edited/closed/deleted at the forum Moderators’ discretion. Attack the content, not the contributor.

[Rhinoqulous]

I see it as Happy asking a legitimate question, and Gnos responded in an abusive matter, but hey, that happens here all the time. I'd say Gnos took Happy for a Sevens or Francis and responded accordingly. Not a big deal, no harm no foul I say.

Why do you ask?

I think that we all have a sence of right and wrong. I'll just add this defintion to the thread. To sin is to miss the mark. We all have a sence of what the mark should be and most of us have a conscience pertaining to that set of morals. Everybody can be moral. We all have different targets that we hit or miss accordingly. I offer this because the word "sin" carries such baggage with it.

societies can not long exist without a standard that people agree to live by. This gives us at least the illusion of free will. If we do not like the standards of one country we have the option of moving to one that is more to our liking.

Gosh, I thought gnos was asking a real question. lol

[Professor Chaos]

Rhinoqulous wrote

I see it as Happy asking a legitimate question, and Gnos responded in an abusive matter, but hey, that happens here all the time. I'd say Gnos took Happy for a Sevens or Francis and responded accordingly. Not a big deal, no harm no foul I say.

Why do you ask?

She's acting on behalf of Gnosital.

Gnosital thought she would be cute and report posts by Smellyoldgit and myself as "flaming." (The posts she reported were from the Top Ten list I created about "ubsian conspiracy theories.)

To point out the absurdity of that (since the "reports" go to me, smelly, and Eva) I randomly gave her a meaningless "infraction" for one of her posts, in which she flamed happy (albeit ever-so-slightly).

If you wanted to follow a strict interpretation of the rules listed on this site, (and I can't imagine who would) I would think that well over 50% of her posts qualify as flaming. Probably a good percentage of mine, yours, and everybody elses, too.

Apparently ubs and Gnosi are recruiting others in their psychotic quest to get me out of here. I know RevB and Gnosi are tight, but I'm sad to see her join this mission. She hasn't been around much, so she's probably just listening to Gnosi. Everyone else who has been around realizes that I've done nothing wrong.

Professor Chaos wrote

She's acting on behalf of Gnosital.

Gnosital thought she would be cute and report posts by Smellyoldgit and myself as "flaming." (The posts she reported were from the Top Ten list I created about "ubsian conspiracy theories.)

To point out the absurdity of that (since the "reports" go to me, smelly, and Eva) I randomly gave her a meaningless "infraction" for one of her posts, in which she flamed happy (albeit ever-so-slightly).

If you wanted to follow a strict interpretation of the rules listed on this site, (and I can't imagine who would) I would think that well over 50% of her posts qualify as flaming. Probably a good percentage of mine, yours, and everybody elses, too.

Apparently ubs and Gnosi are recruiting others in their psychotic quest to get me out of here. I know RevB and Gnosi are tight, but I'm sad to see her join this mission. She hasn't been around much, so she's probably just listening to Gnosi. Everyone else who has been around realizes that I've done nothing wrong.

I'm not acting on behalf of Gnosi. I'm not joining a mission. No one's recruiting. I'm formulating an opinion. I've always thought you were a good mod. Eva and Smelly too, although Eva is the best eye candy out of you three.

I've been lurking, and when this shit came to my attention, I thought I'd do an informal poll and ask what the forum members think. My first instinct was to rise to the defense of my friend. I realized that I lacked objectivity, so I wanted to see what others thought.

[Professor Chaos]

Fair enough, RevB, thanks for clarifying. I hope you can see that it was a reasonable assumption to make, considering your recent absence, friendship with Gnosi, and the content of your post (your first here in awhile.)

My apologies for assuming.

And I agree about Eva.

And no, I haven't been around. But there are a great many of us who lurk on a frequent basis. I travel for work a huge amount of time and I can access the RA Forum via my laptop but I cannot post. It's a net nanny thing of some sort. Anyhoo, I still have much love for these fair threads!