(August 30, 2015 at 4:29 pm)Shuffle Wrote: Does anyone agree that the existence of god is a 50/50 chance? [...]

I think most believers consider the existence of god a 100% certainty. They don't perceive their faith in terms of probability. One of the main reasons why people choose to believe in fairy-tales is so that they don't have to learn math, or logic.

They also seem to want him to be someone with really limited imagination and purpose for someone with such power. I mean, what is all this shit? What the hell could any of it accomplish for a god?

(August 31, 2015 at 11:19 am)pool Wrote:

(August 31, 2015 at 10:37 am)Shuffle Wrote: So it was a joke? Please tell me it was a joke.

I would imagine an Omnieverything to defy logic as well

Psssssssst. I am an atheist.

Not me.  There is no god and no 50/50 chance.  In fact, "There ain't a snowball's chance in hell that there is a god".

There is no 50/50 chance of a god. There either is a god or there is not a god. One may consider that they have a 50/50 chance of being correct (or incorrect).

I have a nickle in one hand. Which hand is it in? A 50/50 chance of picking the correct hand, but there is a nickel.

(August 31, 2015 at 7:38 pm)IATIA Wrote: There is no 50/50 chance of a god.  There either is a god or there is not a god.  One may consider that they have a 50/50 chance of being correct (or incorrect).

I have a nickle in one hand.  Which hand is it in?  A 50/50 chance of picking the correct hand, but there is a nickel.

Not quite how it works. Sure, the first coin toss you ever make might be a 50/50 split, but every toss after that is something other than an even split. Likewise, the first god proposition might have been an even split as far as correctness, but every god invented after that was not an even split.

(August 31, 2015 at 9:31 pm)thehedglin Wrote: Not quite how it works. Sure, the first coin toss you ever make might be a 50/50 split, but every toss after that is something other than an even split. Likewise, the first god proposition might have been an even split as far as correctness, but every god invented after that was not an even split.

That goes back to my equation. Do you agree with it?

(August 31, 2015 at 2:40 am)Wyrd of Gawd Wrote:

(August 31, 2015 at 1:53 am)SnakeOilWarrior Wrote: Wyrd, where do you get this shit from?!?

Haven't you ever read the fairy tale?  Or do you seriously think that some invisible sky deity who lived on a Middle Eastern desert mountain went around talking to people and giving them a long list of rules to follow?  

The "God" character was simply the series of real men who ruled the Middle Eastern area from Egypt to Persia to Turkey and Greece at various times and controlled the superstitious Israelites/Hebrews/Jews.  In ancient times everyone and his brother was called a god.  Remember the Roman Emperors?  The word "God" was simply the colloquial title given to the Big Wig.  

Have you forgotten the story in Daniel chapter 6 how people had to pray to the Persian King Darius for thirty days under penalty of death?

And there was the Macedonian Antiochus Epiphanes who ruled Persia and beat the crap out of Egypt.  He made people worship him as a god and screwed over the Jews.  His story is in the books of the Maccabees.  Don't forget that the Egyptian Pharaohs were also gods, as well as the emperors of Japan.  

Now get it through your head:  there is no celestial god character in this solar system.  There has never been one.  There will never be one.

Get bent fuck rod. I've never claimed there are any gawds. Reading comprehension is your strong suit is it?!?

This is what I was curious about:

(August 31, 2015 at 1:22 am)Wyrd of Gawd Wrote: In ancient times gods were simply men who forced their buddies to obey the political and religious rules that they issued under penalty of death.

Again, where do you get this shit?!?

(August 30, 2015 at 4:29 pm)Shuffle Wrote: Does anyone agree that the existence of god is a 50/50 chance? I have heard atheists say that theists have said this in the past, but I have never heard it. I just want to make sure it isn't a straw man that atheists have come up with, so I can avoid using it in the future.

Thanks!

There's a guy that posts a lot over at ravingatheists forum that makes this claim. He goes by the name of JerryJohn now. The atheists there have tried, in so many ways, so many examples, so many metaphors, so many analogies, to get him to understand why he is so far from understanding, that he is not even wrong. 

But one would need to have absolutely no understanding of even the most basic probabilities to make the 50/50 claim.

(August 31, 2015 at 9:47 pm)Shuffle Wrote:

(August 31, 2015 at 9:31 pm)thehedglin Wrote: Not quite how it works. Sure, the first coin toss you ever make might be a 50/50 split, but every toss after that is something other than an even split. Likewise, the first god proposition might have been an even split as far as correctness, but every god invented after that was not an even split.

That goes back to my equation. Do you agree with it?

It has a problem. There are more kinds of spoons than I can count, but that doesn't mean that you would divide the probability of me having one by the number of kinds that exist. Let me put it this way, if I may:

The chances of getting any sequentially specific set of cards in a traditional 52 card game of 7-card poker is:

1/(52*51*50*49*48*47*46) = 1/674,274,182,400


However, since sequence isn't generally very relevant, the chance of getting any sequentially nonspecific set is actually:

1/133,784,560

However, once you sit to play your odds of getting a hand of seven cards is 1/1. No matter how statistically near-impossible any set of cards is to get, you will still get one.