RE: What should replace Pascal's wager in my opinion.
August 28, 2012 at 4:22 pm
(This post was last modified: August 28, 2012 at 4:25 pm by Mystic.)
(August 28, 2012 at 3:54 pm)Chuck Wrote:(August 28, 2012 at 3:26 pm)MysticKnight Wrote: This thread is irrelevant to the issue of believing God or disbelieving in him.
I've made it clear time and time again, I don't believe in the type of God that tortures people for disbelieving.
I even made a poem defying such a God here:
http://atheistforums.org/thread-13909.html
It rather has to do with how we should rationally deal with religions that threaten people with consequences of disbelief.
I think the rational thing is to investigate the religion and become sure it's wrong if you are not going to follow it.
I feel I have done that with regards to the religions that teach there is consequence for disbelief.
And we have made it clear time and again that whether a god tortures people for disbelieving does not in itself make the existence of said god either more credible or less credible.
The only god that can, even in principle, be credible is one who can be shown to inevitably possess a combination of testable characteristics that must be unique to this god.
There is no overwhelming reason, other than your flimsy wishes, why if any god exist, he must or must not torture people for fun.
Here is sort of line of reasoning I've had for a long time. Greatness is founded in a living eternal reality, and like greatness can be perceived, so can this trait be seen as an essential trait of it. The foundation of all greatness cannot be other then ultimate greatness, for ultimate greatness is included in greatness (all together).
Once we derive ultimate greatness exists, we know it must have some essential attributes, for if it didn't have them, it would not be ultimately great.
These include being compassionate, merciful, loving, forbearing etc. How do we know this? Well through the greatness that has descended into our souls and is the foundation of our souls along with what said earlier. We been given some knowledge of what is essential to being ultimately great.
(August 28, 2012 at 3:57 pm)Minimalist Wrote:Quote:They teach you shouldn't be basing your life on what you don't know but trying to attain knowledge and follow what you know.
I can not possibly disagree with you more on that point.
Religions teach that they have all the answers already.
This doesn't contradict that they teach in principle to follow knowledge, it's just they claim they teach much of this knowledge to be followed.
