(December 16, 2012 at 9:53 pm)ronedee Wrote:How would I know?(December 14, 2012 at 12:10 pm)pocaracas Wrote: What?
How do I know the characteristics of a Creator entity?
I don't.
You're the one who claims to know.
I guess I should've rephrased the question to: "How don't you know?"
All the information regarding all the deities that I am aware of has come to me through the vehicle of flawed human beings.
How did they come about to possess all this knowledge about such an array of deities?
If they came to have this knowledge, why can't I come about it in the same way?
(December 16, 2012 at 9:53 pm)ronedee Wrote:(December 14, 2012 at 12:10 pm)pocaracas Wrote: Are you seriously going for the god of the gaps?
No...just that mystery is a part of everyday life.
ah, the mysteries that science keeps hellbent on uncovering!
(December 16, 2012 at 9:53 pm)ronedee Wrote: Well, you have good points for not believing in God. But, if one is to search for a meaning he has to do it with an open mind. I don't find atheists to be a very open-minded bunch...Faith and open mindedness.
The first question has to be why ? The only answer it can be is LOVE.
That is usually good but for the majority of "believers". It wasn't (at first) for me.
The second question then has to be how ? This is actually the hard question! How are we to think like God? What [Grand Plan] can it be that would present us with what we have today?
But, if you have an imagination, an open mind and yes Faith...it can make sense. Remember, what people ONLY imagined 100 years ago...even 50 years ago is reality today! So, lets use 2 outta 3?
I consider myself to be open minded. In fact, it was this open mindedness that got me into atheism. When I was about 10 year old, it got me to consider the possibility that there's no god. At the time, I thought that everyone on Earth believed in god, so I just kept quiet about it... eventually, I came to learn I wasn't alone on this subject, and that was comforting.
Now, let's have faith and open-mindedness.
Have faith... in what? faith in god? which god? Why would I pick one out of the crowd of gods that man has worshiped throughout the ages? How would I begin to choose one?
If I pick one, what does that make of all the others? man-made, I guess? What is the fail-proof criteria I have to use to decide that one god is real and the rest are just imagined?
If I fail to find a reason to consider one god as the real one, does that mean that they are all man-made?
How did you do it? How did you choose?
Did you choose? Or someone else chose it for you and you just believed that person(s), and you random bible opening just "confirmed" it?
This is what I call open-mindedness: put all the options on the table and consider them.
All these options and the lack of, you know, gods interfering in my life have led me to attribute a much higher probability to the possibility that all gods are man-made. Hence, I am atheist.
(December 16, 2012 at 9:53 pm)ronedee Wrote: I started my search around my mid-twenties. I was in my grandma's attic with boxes of books around me that I was cleaning out for her... I pickup and easy-read Holy Bible called "Good News". Someone had told me once if I asked a sincere question, then opened the bible I would get an answer!
So... I sat on one of those boxes, alone (with God) and asked "THE" question that any Christian worth his salt should ask: "Why did Christ die for my sins?" .... I opened the book to: page #377...Romans 5:18.
And there it was.... under a stickman picture of Jesus on the cross the words read: "One rightous act sets all men free, and gives them life."
Of course being very much less than a biblical scholar...this one line asked more questions than it answered for me. But, it put me onto a path to finally connect those dots over time.
I think I should stop at this point. If my continuing interests you pocaracas, then I will. If not, I won't. I've already said more to you about my spiritual path than I've told most of my Chrisitian friends....
1. Because they probably don't need me to tell them anything to increase their faith or understanding.
2. I don't usually talk about "my road", because it's not really ortodox christianity...but that wouldn't matter (I think?) to you.
You are the second guy in this forum to present "random bible opening" as evidence for the existence of the christian god. The other guy, after some probing, turned out to keep opening the bible at random until he landed in a page that had the verse he was after.... how about you? How often does that work?
