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RE: The Reason I'm Atheist
April 12, 2023 at 10:17 pm
(April 12, 2023 at 4:48 pm)HappySkeptic Wrote: (April 12, 2023 at 12:41 pm)The Grand Nudger Wrote: Right, lol? There's a hell of alot of mileage between less miserable and perfect. Best possible world is actually a favorite of mine.
Maybe this really is as good as it gets, given a gods particular abilities. Some problems, in this view, are simply intractable...even for a god. That does raise a question. Why don't we worship the very best people just as we worship gods? Whatever it is they cant do, whatever supposed failing they have that makes them unsuitable for worship (especially to the monotheistic and anti-idolatrist eye) are simply not their responsibility and beyond any reasonable expectation. So what gives? Why worship gods despite their fundamental inabilities while rejecting the worship of man for the same reason?
If a perfect creation is an impossibility, then I would argue "so is a perfect god".
what does it mean “perfect”? perfect only has sense in relation to a bench mark. my bench mark is, is god good enough to make me perfect. if not, then the god is evidently flawed by my standard.
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RE: The Reason I'm Atheist
April 15, 2023 at 11:31 pm
(This post was last modified: April 15, 2023 at 11:33 pm by Neo-Scholastic.)
To me, perfection means the lack of privation or limitation. The Negative Way proceeds from an understanding that empirical observation of the world reveals its limitations and thereby allows the devout to see in outline various 'positive' attributes of God...noncontigent, self-sustaining, singularity, simplicity, etc. Its pretty much all there in the Summa.
<insert profound quote here>
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RE: The Reason I'm Atheist
April 16, 2023 at 2:58 am
(April 11, 2023 at 10:39 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: (April 11, 2023 at 8:03 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: Welcome. The OP raises a very valid experiece. Many people, including many close to me, find the problem of evil very troubling. And in my deepest grief I feel the abursurdity of existence acutely. IMHO there are reasonable ways to ponder the problem, such as Liebnitz's "Best of All Possible Worlds" defense, weak sauce tho it may be. Personally, I accept that creation must be imperfect since God alone can be perfect. But one does wonder why it must still be so miserable.
A perfect carpenter does not build a crooked cabinet.
He can, depending on your detailed definition of perfect.
Cetero censeo religionem delendam esse
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RE: The Reason I'm Atheist
April 16, 2023 at 9:02 am
(April 16, 2023 at 2:58 am)Deesse23 Wrote: (April 11, 2023 at 10:39 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: A perfect carpenter does not build a crooked cabinet.
He can, depending on your detailed definition of perfect.
If he intends it to be crooked, sure. I had thought it clear that the crooked cabinet in my point was the result of a mistake ... but I'll remember to insert painstaking detail, thus bogging down communication, if you so desire.
Or not. You're smart enough to have gotten my gist.
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RE: The Reason I'm Atheist
April 16, 2023 at 9:18 am
(April 11, 2023 at 2:15 pm)Once Wrote: Why did God create people capable of Tyranny, Evil, Anger, Infliction, Argumentation, Aggressive.
It just proves that God cannot actually be real, or he would solely be to blame for all of it, as he made it possible.
This is a kind of argument from consequences. A logical fallacy. It does prove nothing (but maybe that you didnt know this fallacy...until now).
Cetero censeo religionem delendam esse
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RE: The Reason I'm Atheist
April 16, 2023 at 9:49 am
(This post was last modified: April 16, 2023 at 9:54 am by Anomalocaris.)
(April 15, 2023 at 11:31 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: To me, perfection means the lack of privation or limitation. The Negative Way proceeds from an understanding that empirical observation of the world reveals its limitations and thereby allows the devout to see in outline various 'positive' attributes of God...noncontigent, self-sustaining, singularity, simplicity, etc. Its pretty much all there in the Summa.
if he is without limitation then he would not need to impose limitations on his creations to serve any end.
imperfection in his creatio bespeaks if his imperfection. limitation in his perfection betrays his limitation.
your god is an abusive tyrant who will beat the shit out of you if you did not praise from your heart his omnibenevolence at all times.
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RE: The Reason I'm Atheist
April 16, 2023 at 10:11 am
(April 15, 2023 at 11:31 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: To me, perfection means the lack of privation or limitation. The Negative Way proceeds from an understanding that empirical observation of the world reveals its limitations and thereby allows the devout to see in outline various 'positive' attributes of God...noncontigent, self-sustaining, singularity, simplicity, etc. Its pretty much all there in the Summa.
If God lacks limitation then he cannot be limited by the principle of non-contradiction. Therefore one cannot say of such a God that he doesn't have limitations because if he was limited to only either lacking all limitations or not lacking all limitations, then he is necessarily limited.
inb4 "But his nature...."
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RE: The Reason I'm Atheist
April 16, 2023 at 10:16 am
(This post was last modified: April 16, 2023 at 10:16 am by Disagreeable.)
God has the burden of proof on him. With a lack of evidence, God can be assumed to probably not exist.
Schopenhauer Wrote:The intellect has become free, and in this state it does not even know or understand any other interest than that of truth.
Epicurus Wrote:The greatest reward of righteousness is peace of mind.
Epicurus Wrote:Don't fear god,
Don't worry about death;
What is good is easy to get,
What is terrible is easy to endure
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RE: The Reason I'm Atheist
April 16, 2023 at 4:14 pm
(April 16, 2023 at 10:11 am)Angrboda Wrote: (April 15, 2023 at 11:31 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: To me, perfection means the lack of privation or limitation. The Negative Way proceeds from an understanding that empirical observation of the world reveals its limitations and thereby allows the devout to see in outline various 'positive' attributes of God...noncontigent, self-sustaining, singularity, simplicity, etc. Its pretty much all there in the Summa.
If God lacks limitation then he cannot be limited by the principle of non-contradiction. Therefore one cannot say of such a God that he doesn't have limitations because if he was limited to only either lacking all limitations or not lacking all limitations, then he is necessarily limited.
inb4 "But his nature...." Or the PNC could just be our limited perception of a manifest aspect of God.
<insert profound quote here>
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RE: The Reason I'm Atheist
April 16, 2023 at 4:16 pm
Or it makes no sense and this is just excuse making
"Change was inevitable"
Nemo sicut deus debet esse!
“No matter what men think, abortion is a fact of life. Women have always had them; they always have and they always will. Are they going to have good ones or bad ones? Will the good ones be reserved for the rich, while the poor women go to quacks?”
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