Judgement

[Erinome]

Do you think that, unless we convert to your religion/believe what you believe, the atheists here will be punished by god/sent hell?

I don't personally believe in hell, or gods, or smiting. I'm just curious. It was supposed to be a poll, but I'm lazy, so just tell me what you believe.

[Minimalist]

[Rayaan]

(26th March 2012 03:23)aleialoura Wrote:  Do you think that, unless we convert to your religion/believe what you believe, the atheists here will be punished by god/sent hell?

Yeah, I think so. =(

But of course, you know that my beliefs doesn't necessarily have to be a correct statement about reality.

[Moros Synackaon]

(26th March 2012 04:39)Rayaan Wrote:  But of course, you know that my beliefs doesn't necessarily have to be a correct statement about reality.

That admission is one of the better definitions of 'faith' that I've heard yet.

[Creed of Heresy]

Nope. I am a "strong" atheist. The evidence for hell or heaven is zero. Worse, it CANNOT be DISproven. As we all know, any information that can neither be proven nor disproven is as absolutely false as it can get.

[NoMoreFaith]

I think it's highly improbable.

First of all, I need not list my reasons why religion is as pointless as listing my reasons why I dismiss faeries. Therefore no hell, no heaven too.

Secondly, if we were to claim the acceptance of a moral absolute, in that our instinctual reaction towards what is "good" is our proximity to God, then our natural instinct generally it seems, is that it would be immoral to send good people to hell for the crime of not believing, despite the rational basis for doing so.
Therefore, if a god did exist, and our moral instincts were a reflection of his will, then our moral instincts tell us that we do not go to hell, as long as we're basically pretty decent people.

To coin it as the anti-pascals wager, it is safer to not believe, and just try to be a kind, loving person anyway in accordance with our moral instincts, than it is to take a doctrine of morality from other people out of a choice of hundreds, which in many cases promotes hatred and prejudice, things many of us feel to be instinctively immoral.

[Norfolk And Chance]

(26th March 2012 07:29)Creed of Heresy Wrote:  Nope. I am a "strong" atheist. The evidence for hell or heaven is zero. Worse, it CANNOT be DISproven. As we all know, any information that can neither be proven nor disproven is as absolutely false as it can get.

Can you disprove any imaginary being though? You can't disprove fairies are real, really, other than to say there is no evidence to prove their existence, and point to the fact that they are only mentioned in known fictional books.

So you can't really disprove the existence of a fictional being, but you should always be able to conclusively prove the existence of a factual, real, being!

Not being able to prove god is real therefore is a massive clue, if you ask me.

Whoever coined the phrase "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" wants a slap, because quite often absence of evidence is evidence of absence.