(August 30, 2014 at 2:24 am)Riketto Wrote:(August 29, 2014 at 2:28 pm)Mister Agenda Wrote: Until you prove that trying to improve our lives is 'proceeding toward God', there's no need to explain the logic of not believing it's true. We don't believe it's true because you haven't established that it is, in fact, true. Funny how that works, eh?
Very funny indeed!
How did you established that the road of continually learning and improving your life does not take you eventually to God?
I don't have to establish it, you have to support your case, since you're making the positive claim. You have the burden of proof, and if you don't meet that burden, I shouldn't believe you.
(August 30, 2014 at 2:24 am)Riketto Wrote: You haven't so far so how can you dismiss the fact that it MAY take you there?
Because an argument from ignorance is a fallacy. Me not being able to prove something ISN'T true doesn't take you one whit closer to proving it IS. I can't prove that the invisible empire of the underwear gnomes isn't where a certain percentage of missing undergarments wind up to further the gnome king's ambitions toward world domination, either. Life is too short to take ideas whose only claim to truth is that they haven't been proven not to be true, seriously.
(August 30, 2014 at 2:24 am)Riketto Wrote: You dismiss something when you got the clear evidence not before.
When the claim is something the person making it doesn't seem to be in a position to know, I am certainly justified in dismissing it until I have clear evidence the person knows what they are talking about and isn't just self-deluded.
(August 30, 2014 at 2:24 am)Riketto Wrote: You want the evidence from me?
That would be nice, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
(August 30, 2014 at 2:24 am)Riketto Wrote: Suppose the road to God is 1000 miles.
I am getting closer to the goal so i can see the end while you are far behind and obviously you can not perceive anything.
I can tell you that God is there but until you get closer to God you want be able to perceive anything so in a way i can understand your point.
That's nice, but why should I believe there's a God, there's a road to God, that we are both on it, or that you are farther ahead than me? The simplest answer to you thinking you can perceive things other people can't is that you're fooling yourself. We know people fool themselves. We don't know any of the stuff you're trying to convince us of, and your argument seems to boil down to 'trust me'. That's exactly the sort of person I don't trust: someone I don't even know who wants me to trust them on something they can't demonstrate is true.
(August 30, 2014 at 2:24 am)Riketto Wrote: On the other hand it is unlikely that your progress will move much faster until your desire to fulfill man natural desire for infinite peace of mind makes some progress.
In real life, someone who wants to me to take a path can do a lot more to convince me than sell me on getting motivated to take a path that hasn't been established to exist yet. You sound like you're selling a self-help book. And infinite peace of mind is NOT what I desire, only a reasonable modicum of it. Wanting an infinite amount of it sounds greedy, and possibly hazardous.
(August 30, 2014 at 2:24 am)Riketto Wrote: The oxymoron that we are arguing about is all about the contradiction.
We're not arguing about an oxymoron. We're arguing about whether the word 'atheist' is an oxymoron, like the word 'parkway' (it's not for parking) or 'apartment' (they're together). It's usually a humorous observation about an apparent contradiction that doesn't really exist. The 'park' in 'parkway' refers to the landscaping around the roadway, not to parking. Apartments are dwelling units in the same building, so rather than being one dwelling, they are numerous dwellings 'apart' from each other despite being in the same building. Oxymora are fine for humor ('airline food', amIright?), but not only are you not getting it right in this case, you're taking it way too seriously.
(August 30, 2014 at 2:24 am)Riketto Wrote: On one hand you want to go ahead in learning and improving your life and at the same time refusing to believe that at the end of the journey there is God before you got the evidence that God is not there.
Yes, why would I not want to go ahead in learning and improving my life regardless of whether God is there or not?
(August 30, 2014 at 2:24 am)Riketto Wrote: But again you haven't explained how it is possible to fulfill man desire for infinite peace of mind in this finite universe.
I don't desire infinite peace. It sounds infinitely boring. Or like brain death. Have you already achieved this state? I'm thinking it would explain a lot.
I'm not anti-Christian. I'm anti-stupid.
