(June 25, 2015 at 11:49 pm)paulpablo Wrote:(June 25, 2015 at 9:59 pm)Louis Chérubin Wrote: Hi everyone!
I'm not sure whether this is the right place to post this, but I'd really appreciate some answers to some/all of the following questions. I'm interested in how an average atheist thinks about these topics. It would be great if you could give some explanation for your answers. I'm coming from a protestant worldview.
1. Does God exist?
2. Where did the universe come from?
3. Does my life have a purpose?
4. Why do people suffer?
5. Is there life after death?
6. Can I distinguish right from wrong?
7. Can people know truth?
Sorry for being point form.
1) Don't know
2) Don't know
3) Don't know
4) Because humans have mainly evolved to want certain things and to avoid certain things but the nature of life means we can't always avoid certain things (cancer, rape, war, being crushed to death) and we don't always get what we want (money, fame, fortune, sex)
5) Don't know
6) You can try
7) I think people can believe they know the truth and be right, but I don't think anyone truly knows they know the truth.
Sorry for being late in answering.
1.Yes we do know that gods do not exist, in the same way we know parents invent Santa to get children to behave. They are products of human imagination reflecting humans desires.
2. False analogy. The skeptic plays into the delusion of the theist by trying to split the baby with "We don't know" We also don't know when the first clouds formed but science does not default to Poseidon being the cause of hurricanes. We do know conditions, so what came prior to this universe even if unknown at this point still would not require a super natural cognition. Stephen Hawkins "A god is not required"
