The absolute absurdity of God

[I_am_not_mafia]

I've been considering this approach with Xtians myself. I've been wondering if debating with them actually gives their ridiculous beliefs credence. Like there is something to be debated. I remember when I was a wooist believing in reincarnation and a friend studying biology just flat out told me repeatedly, no you just die and turn into worm poo and consciousness stops. We're at the stage now where we can categorically state that there is no god, no after life, no soul, no heaven. In the same way that we know that when we jump out the window that we'll fall to the ground. Because if we can't even know these simple truths then we can't know anything and the word 'know' becomes useless.

Arguing that you believe something underplays quite how much we actually do know about how the world works which is contrary to what the religionists would have us believe.

[Simon Moon]

Theists expect us to believe in something that is, frankly, quite absurd when you really think about it.

We start with a fairly simple concept:  God, an all-powerful being who created the universe.  And right there, a lot of skeptics are lost from the onset.  And that's completely fair, but the concept itself isn't so absurd.  It just lacks evidence.  And one can believe in many things without evidence.  Maybe not logically so, but it's not completely and totally absurd.

However, we then delve further into what these theists expect us to believe that this deity created the earth as a test for human beings.   This is where we start delving into the absolutely absurd.  Earth is a 'test'.  One that:

-Nobody asked for, or agreed to take
-The rules for which aren't made immediately clear
-Is rigged against us from the beginning
-Has the sole purpose of determining an eternal afterlife

The first absurdity should be obvious to everyone.  Nobody agreed to take this test.  We're much like Harry Potter in the fourth Harry Potter book here.  Magically obligated to participate in a contest for which we did not agree to partake in.  And in fact one that we are NOT qualified to partake in from the onset from which the test begins.  There's no opting out.  The goblet of fire called our name, and according to theists, we're obligated to play along. 

The second absurdity is less absurd, I suppose.  One could argue that the rules are made clear:  It's all in the bible, silly!  You know the one that's only inspired so many denominational splits that it's not funny.  Apparently one book every 2000 years should make everything clear.  Except you know... to people born to different faiths.  Might have also been helpful if this book were actually written by the big man, instead of just inspired by.  And the book itself definitely reads like it was written to appeal to the people of biblical times.  Somehow their morality just happens to match God's.  This is in itself fairly absurd.

The third absurdity is that the test is rigged against us from the start.  This God, who allegedly created us and expects us to follow the rules for a test that we didn't agree to take... refuses to provide any real evidence of his existence.  Instead he expects us to take it on 'faith'.  Cause you know... if he revealed himself to us, we wouldn't have free will.  Like the people during Jesus's time dind't have free will!  If this game is real, then it's rigged against us, making it even more pointless.

The final absurdity is the idea that this determines where we spend our eternal afterlife.  This God creates a test, puts us all through it (despite nobody signing up for it) and the reward/punishment for getting it right/wrong is far greater than the test itself.  One wonders why (and my kids have asked me about this regarding other people and what they believe--making me glad I'm not a believer who has to answer these questions) God didn't just put everyone in heaven to begin with. 

Is it to feed his narcissistic tendencies?  Survey says: No.  Sure, he comes across as a narcissist.  But a true narcissist would reveal themselves to revel in people worshiping them.  Much like the God of the Old Testament is said to have done.  (Oh yes, but he 'changed' after becoming human.  Except not enough to make any logical sense, or provide evidence of his existence). 

The only other explanation is: He doesn't want us to know it's a test.  He wants to see how we all act when we think we're not being watched.  The problem with this, is equally simple.  The idea of God itself would destroy the ability to test under such conditions.  Besides, we already see plenty of believers act badly.  So it's not as if knowing about the test for certain would really change our behaviors.  Otherwise you wouldn't have priests molesting children, and Pope's turning a blind eye to that stuff.  Everyone forfeits, and the task is cancelled and counted as null and void.

Yep.

It all boils down to this, theists expect us to buy into, the idea that their god created a universe, with at least 100 billion galaxies, each with at least 100 billion stars, and an untold number of planets (the count is currently 3815 exoplants in our limited galactic neighborhood alone), black holes, asteroids, etc, etc.

And the main function of all of this? To be a "Soul Filtering Machine" for a bunch of hairless apes on one of all those countless planets.

Every once in a while it really hits me how ridiculous theistic beliefs are.

[The Grand Nudger]

Theists expect us to believe in something that is, frankly, quite absurd when you really think about it.

We start with a fairly simple concept:  God, an all-powerful being who created the universe.  And right there, a lot of skeptics are lost from the onset.  And that's completely fair, but the concept itself isn't so absurd.  It just lacks evidence.  And one can believe in many things without evidence.  Maybe not logically so, but it's not completely and totally absurd.

As a bit of background...for the purposes of your post you may start with that concept..but it;s neither simple nor the concept of divinity that human culture began with.  The single all powerful creator god is a recent and complicated development  The origin of god belief lies in a far easier sell.  So..on the one hand, we're conditioned to perceive the idea of a vague but decidedly monotheistic god, a deists god, as the "simple" concept only by relation to a space crowded with sophisticated belief systems..and on the other, it's no less absurd than any of the attendant theology.  A god capable of poofing the universe into existence is the whole enchilada.  No silly story in any magic book is silly in the face of a being like that.  Parts the ocean, splits the moon, can manifest itself as a man...and in many places simultaneously.... all np..to the being that created the universe.  

The god of the tree in my backyard can't do any of that shit.

However, we then delve further into what these theists expect us to believe that this deity created the earth as a test for human beings.   This is where we start delving into the absolutely absurd.  Earth is a 'test'.  One that:

-Nobody asked for, or agreed to take
-The rules for which aren't made immediately clear
-Is rigged against us from the beginning
-Has the sole purpose of determining an eternal afterlife

Ya gotta perform your twelve labors or you won't get absolution! 

[Neo-Scholastic]

To the OP: I have no other reason to reply other than to say I think your beef is with a considerably smaller subset of believers than simply "theists". I will let those who actually agree with your characterization dispute your opinion of them. That shoe doesn't fit so I'm not going to wear it.

[Silver]

That shoe doesn't fit so I'm not going to wear it.

If I had a nickel for every time a theist made that claim. Yet, judging by how theists post here, they are as riddled with cognitive dissonance as a grade schooler with lice.

[I_am_not_mafia]

It all boils down to this, theists expect us to buy into, the idea that their god created a universe, with at least 100 billion galaxies, each with at least 100 billion stars, and an untold number of planets (the count is currently 3815 exoplants in our limited galactic neighborhood alone), black holes, asteroids, etc, etc.

And  the main function of all of this? To be a "Soul Filtering Machine" for a bunch of hairless apes on one of all those countless planets.

Every once in a while it really hits me how ridiculous theistic beliefs are.

Furthermore Mr God and Heaven must exist separately in a different dimension even though he can continually sense, consider and act within our three dimensions. Mr God also has to be close enough so that signals from us and commands from him have no discernible latency because he is limited by the speed of light. To put this into context, the sun is 499 light seconds from us.

Unless the Xtians claim that there are physical signals that exceed the speed of light that we have not yet discovered, And they do need to be physical if Mr God can hear our prayers, sense what is making us ill and then interact with our bodies and environment. And even if that were so then Mr God needs to be able to process everything, such as the neural firing patterns in our brain and how that relates to our environment. And what powers these prayers?

(Mr God, Heaven and Hell also have to violate the second law of Themodynamics if they are to be eternal.)

And if the Xtians argue that Mr God can do all that, then it's great because it means that it should be possible for us to harness an infinite energy source somehow and wean ourselves off cheap oil with all its pollution. All we would need to do is have people praying in front of some device that can capture the energy from prayers to power our cities.

[SteveII]

Theists expect us to believe in something that is, frankly, quite absurd when you really think about it.

We start with a fairly simple concept:  God, an all-powerful being who created the universe.  And right there, a lot of skeptics are lost from the onset.  And that's completely fair, but the concept itself isn't so absurd.  It just lacks evidence.  And one can believe in many things without evidence.  Maybe not logically so, but it's not completely and totally absurd.

However, we then delve further into what these theists expect us to believe that this deity created the earth as a test for human beings.   This is where we start delving into the absolutely absurd.  Earth is a 'test'.  One that:

-Nobody asked for, or agreed to take
-The rules for which aren't made immediately clear
-Is rigged against us from the beginning
-Has the sole purpose of determining an eternal afterlife

The first absurdity should be obvious to everyone.  Nobody agreed to take this test.  We're much like Harry Potter in the fourth Harry Potter book here.  Magically obligated to participate in a contest for which we did not agree to partake in.  And in fact one that we are NOT qualified to partake in from the onset from which the test begins.  There's no opting out.  The goblet of fire called our name, and according to theists, we're obligated to play along. 

The second absurdity is less absurd, I suppose.  One could argue that the rules are made clear:  It's all in the bible, silly!  You know the one that's only inspired so many denominational splits that it's not funny.  Apparently one book every 2000 years should make everything clear.  Except you know... to people born to different faiths.  Might have also been helpful if this book were actually written by the big man, instead of just inspired by.  And the book itself definitely reads like it was written to appeal to the people of biblical times.  Somehow their morality just happens to match God's.  This is in itself fairly absurd.

The third absurdity is that the test is rigged against us from the start.  This God, who allegedly created us and expects us to follow the rules for a test that we didn't agree to take... refuses to provide any real evidence of his existence.  Instead he expects us to take it on 'faith'.  Cause you know... if he revealed himself to us, we wouldn't have free will.  Like the people during Jesus's time dind't have free will!  If this game is real, then it's rigged against us, making it even more pointless.

The final absurdity is the idea that this determines where we spend our eternal afterlife.  This God creates a test, puts us all through it (despite nobody signing up for it) and the reward/punishment for getting it right/wrong is far greater than the test itself.  One wonders why (and my kids have asked me about this regarding other people and what they believe--making me glad I'm not a believer who has to answer these questions) God didn't just put everyone in heaven to begin with. 

Is it to feed his narcissistic tendencies?  Survey says: No.  Sure, he comes across as a narcissist.  But a true narcissist would reveal themselves to revel in people worshiping them.  Much like the God of the Old Testament is said to have done.  (Oh yes, but he 'changed' after becoming human.  Except not enough to make any logical sense, or provide evidence of his existence). 

The only other explanation is: He doesn't want us to know it's a test.  He wants to see how we all act when we think we're not being watched.  The problem with this, is equally simple.  The idea of God itself would destroy the ability to test under such conditions.  Besides, we already see plenty of believers act badly.  So it's not as if knowing about the test for certain would really change our behaviors.  Otherwise you wouldn't have priests molesting children, and Pope's turning a blind eye to that stuff.  Everyone forfeits, and the task is cancelled and counted as null and void.

I agree, creating the world to be a test is absurd. Unfortunately, your post is one long straw man argument.

There is no way you can construe Christianity as God "created the earth as a test for human beings". You should at least pick something someone actually believes before bashing it in a post that must have taken some time to write. 

-Nobody asked for, or agreed to take
Since our purpose if not really a test, the most you can say is that we all have decisions/responses to make given the information we are presented with. That is simply defining being a conscious, morally-culpable person. 

-The rules for which aren't made immediately clear
There are rules--you got one right. God will judge you on your response to what has been revealed to you. 

-Is rigged against us from the beginning
Free will entails sinning. Sinning entails a need for atonement if you want the max out of life. Don't want the max out of life, don't seek atonement. 

-Has the sole purpose of determining an eternal afterlife
The purpose of this life is not a test. It is for maximum enjoyment/fulfillment/experience--which includes recognizing and responding to God.

[Silver]

I agree, creating the world to be a test is absurd. Unfortunately, your post is one long straw man argument.

There is no way you can construe Christianity as God "created the earth as a test for human beings". You should at least pick something someone actually believes before bashing it in a post that must have taken some time to write. 

-Nobody asked for, or agreed to take
Since our purpose if not really a test, the most you can say is that we all have decisions/responses to make given the information we are presented with. That is simply defining being an conscious, morally-culpable person. 

-The rules for which aren't made immediately clear
There are rules--you got one right. God will judge you on your response to what has been revealed to you. 

-Is rigged against us from the beginning
Free will entails sinning. Sinning entails a need for atonement if you want the max out of life. Don't want the max out of life, don't seek atonement. 

-Has the sole purpose of determining an eternal afterlife
The purpose of this life is not a test. It is for maximum enjoyment/fulfillment/experience--which includes recognizing and responding to God.

You had me in the beginning, but then you decided that myths such as god's judgment, the concept of sin, and the "fulfillment of life required a god" were real. Well, at least you tried. You get half a kudos for half the effort.

[downbeatplumb]

To the OP: I have no other reason to reply other than to say I think your beef is with a considerably smaller subset of believers than simply "theists". I will let those who actually agree with your characterization dispute your opinion of them. That shoe doesn't fit so I'm not going to wear it.

Well then, what is a god?

[Neo-Scholastic]

To the OP: I have no other reason to reply other than to say I think your beef is with a considerably smaller subset of believers than simply "theists". I will let those who actually agree with your characterization dispute your opinion of them. That shoe doesn't fit so I'm not going to wear it.

Well then, what is a god?

What is a theist?