Do you wish you could believe in a Deity?

[BlackMason]

I was going to stay out of this but couldn't resist when this line came up:

...I do not prosecute you for trying to understand a being that can not be understood...

My question is then: Is god a fool for attempting to establish an understanding with us via any form?

Why do you turn a blind eye to this inherent paradox?

Are you stupid?

Do the stupid know they are so?

[Confused Ape]

You can be that knight. You can fight a spiritual fight for Jesus Christ. Maybe you could be the one to bring these wayward souls on this site to Him.

If, for some bizarre reason, I ever converted to a belief in a deity it would be Brahman. This is a concept of God which actually makes sense. Making intellectual sense, however, doesn't prove that Brahman is real.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

And I'm not asking for your ridicule, I'm asking a sincere question on why atheists hate Christians and God, and don't give me the crap that you don't because just about everyone here proved they do, now will you please answer the question thoughtfully this time

I don't presume to speak for other atheists, but I don't hate Christians. The overwhelming majority of Christians are perfectly nice people, but they are nice people in spite of their religion, not because of it. Secondly, I don't 'hate God' any more than I hate Father Christmas or Lamont Cranston. That being said, I do indeed despise religion. Here are a few of the more obvious reasons why:

1. Religions (particularly Christianity and Islam) are inimical to free inquiry.

2. Religions persuade otherwise stable people to become unstable (shooting abortion providers, burning churches, etc).

3. When religions become involved in the political process - which happens all too often - freedom suffers. Inevitably.

4. The smug, self-centered claim by religions to possess Ultimate Truth (a claim based on no evidence whatsoever) infuriates me.

5. (corollary to #4) How some street preacher (or internet preacher) can lay claim to knowing the intricacies of the mind of the alleged Creator of the Universe baffles me. Eff the ineffable.

6. I don't need to research books written by nomadic semi-barbarians to learn what to eat, what to wear, and with whom I should sleep.

7. While religiously-minded individuals can be (and almost always are) hard working, productive people, religions per se add nothing of value to the human condition.

8. It is far better (and more in line with what the religious books want you to believe) to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and give to the poor, than it is to build a cathedral, synagogue, or mosque.

9. Women and children deserve far, far better than what they've gotten from the Abrahamic religions.

10. 'It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.'

Boru

[Cyberman]

I'd like to ask a question of Theonewhoanswersyourquestions, if I may.

You say you don't hate we nonbelievers, only our sin. What sin is that, please?

[Fidel_Castronaut]

God does not order these things to be done, he give humanity punishment for what they do, and you just see them as tyrannical doings, Gods work is done on a much larger scale for you to understand, this is the same as if you do something your parents don't want you to do, the spank you, it gives you pain and should tell you not to do it again, but humanity as a whole is as a child, and does not learn from one punishment, so the punishment gets worse as the sin in the Earth continues to grow, it sucks, but if humanity wasn't such a terrible race, it be a whole lot better but God gives us the mercy to continue to live the way we want, if God was not kind and merciful, he'd FORCE us to bow down to him, and forcefully command us in life

And if any other being decided to use slavery, genocide and so on as punishments, you would label them a monster. Why does god get away with treating everyone so much worse than you expect any given human to treat you?

Fucking A to the men.

[naimless]

God does not order these things to be done, he give humanity punishment for what they do, and you just see them as tyrannical doings, Gods work is done on a much larger scale for you to understand, this is the same as if you do something your parents don't want you to do, the spank you, it gives you pain and should tell you not to do it again, but humanity as a whole is as a child, and does not learn from one punishment, so the punishment gets worse as the sin in the Earth continues to grow, it sucks, but if humanity wasn't such a terrible race, it be a whole lot better but God gives us the mercy to continue to live the way we want, if God was not kind and merciful, he'd FORCE us to bow down to him, and forcefully command us in life

And if any other being decided to use slavery, genocide and so on as punishments, you would label them a monster. Why does god get away with treating everyone so much worse than you expect any given human to treat you?

I had a dream that answered this once. Basically if you suffer in this life then you have eternal happiness. Essentially this world is full of sin and basically it is a test to see how determined you are which is why a lot of the good die young and most older generation world leaders are warmongering psychopaths.

But I also had a dream about KFC once, and one where I was in a war zone, and one where it was just a normal day, and one where I had some crazy good sex... I think god is a pretty ambiguous term, a bit like love. I wouldn't really trust one group of people or one book to define the personal experience of billions.

If that experience is "delusional" in one's perception then so be it. But I do notice the OP craves for that delusion again. I know I'd prefer it if Santa exists. I know I'd prefer the world as a 7 year old again...

But you know a lot of people who do heroin say it feels like chicken soup and a blanket when you are sick. They are describing love and self-medicating themselves with an opiate.

So in short I don't begrudge people who need to live in what one may perceive as a dream-world. A 2014 atheistic perception of truth is possibly the most depressing existence to someone with an exceptional experience of the universe, and whose preceptors and synapses have fired beyond utopia and euphoria...

That is god to some people. Of course it makes sense to wish that is true.

[Cato]

[quote='Theonewhoanswersyourquestions' pid='685153'
I'm sorry but we are not trying to hypnotize people to our liking, we only give the answers out to those that seek them, God is the answer, and I hope you discover that before it is too late
[/quote]

Nice try, but you're forgetting the bit where much of your new membership is in the form of impressionable young minds that have yet to learn how to reason. This constitutes brainwashing and indoctrination.

[Esquilax]

I had a dream that answered this once. Basically if you suffer in this life then you have eternal happiness. Essentially this world is full of sin and basically it is a test to see how determined you are which is why a lot of the good die young and most older generation world leaders are warmongering psychopaths.

That's not much of an answer, though, because now you have a god engineering a test that he doesn't need to instate, filled with suffering that he doesn't need to inflict, in order to bring people to a heaven that he has no reason not to just immediately send us all to.

If "it's just a social experiment" isn't an excuse that'd work for trolls on the internet, then it sure as hell shouldn't work for god.

[naimless]

I had a dream that answered this once. Basically if you suffer in this life then you have eternal happiness. Essentially this world is full of sin and basically it is a test to see how determined you are which is why a lot of the good die young and most older generation world leaders are warmongering psychopaths.

That's not much of an answer, though, because now you have a god engineering a test that he doesn't need to instate, filled with suffering that he doesn't need to inflict, in order to bring people to a heaven that he has no reason not to just immediately send us all to.

If "it's just a social experiment" isn't an excuse that'd work for trolls on the internet, then it sure as hell shouldn't work for god.

Indeed. My mistake for responding with compassion to the OP. I should have just stated; "NO, A WISH THAT YOU COULD BELIEVE IN A DEITY IS NOT REASONABLE/LOGICAL" and continued the inevitable dogmatic drone... as if it mattered, and as if any of this life/universe/world/existence has a reasonable/logical meaning.

But go ahead, knock yourselves out.

[LostLocke]

If you mean 'real traditional' deities, then no.

But, I'm an 80s baby and grew up playing Dungeons & Dragons. So from that perspective, yes, I wouldn't mind seeing some pop into existence. Some of the events, battles, stories, etc... to me, would be pretty cool to experience first hand.
Plus, it would toss our go go go, workaholic, technology based world on its head. :p