(January 9, 2015 at 7:48 pm)whateverist Wrote:(December 29, 2014 at 7:11 am)W.Smith Wrote: Seriously. I have joined to find answers to the big questions in life. I cannot believe in anything just because someone says so... and that goes both ways - both by religions and by nonbelievers. For someone to say there must be a God, for how else can we explain the existence of the universe.... or for someone to say there cannot be a God because we cannot prove the existence of such a God... are equally unacceptable! These are just opposite "view points" but with no real substance. I hope by joining this forum that I can have some proper discussions and ideas/feedback from people who are open-minded and serious.
I think I can clear this up for you. We atheists don't have anything we want you to believe. I don't have a clue what this god thing is supposed to be. So I don't know what evidence there may or may not be. Now if you want to take a flying leap of faith and believe in this .. what ever it may be, go ahead. Fine with me. I have no reason why you shouldn't. I simply see no reason to do so for myself. I generally don't believe in seemingly weird, undefined shit on a whim myself. Doesn't mean you can't. If it makes you happy, have at it.
Doesn't mean you won't be welcome here and there may be lots of other topics which we may share an interest in discussing. So welcome aboard brave leaper .. if you are a believer in the 'beyond'.
(January 2, 2015 at 10:02 am)W.Smith Wrote: What do you all think about this 'something more than our normal life'? Personally I find it frustrating we don't know more about our existence... (because that at least ought to be a fact... LOL). So what kind of prof would we need to satisfy our desire to know that the concept of God is real, at least with some certainty? (I call it 'concept' because I don't want the question to be about appearance)
Well I certainly think there is plenty going on below our own surface to fill me with wonder. Aside from your conscious mind there is a vast cavern of processing going on of which you are rarely aware. Don't know it for a fact of course, but I am aware of a depth and even an otherness within. Call it god if you want but then I don't think this 'god' has any separate existence. Nor do I think it created the cosmos. It did, in a sense created your conscious mind and assembles the world as you experience it consciously. If you're content with that much god then I have no problem discussing god with you. 'God' in this sense is intra- or trans- personal, but not interpersonal.
Do we have any common ground?
Yes, I think we do. If you by being "aware of a depth and even an otherness within" mean something more than what you see in the mirror - I agree with you. And I also think that if there is some "god" type thing, this "god" does not have a separate existence from us.
