How does Atheism pose a threat?

[Rayaan]

Rayaan, would it be terribly impolite of me to ask if your belief in God is in a real supernatural being? For me personally, although I'm an altar boy, I can't accept in my head a supernatural being. I think of God as a metaphor for goodness but he (although we use a personal pronoun and that's purely language), does not exist as an entity any more than goodness exists as an entity.

Is God a real supernatural being? I don't know, but I believe so.

Also, considering your conception of God that you described above, you appear to be more of a deist than a Christian to me. So, are you a deist or a Christian?

[Fryslân]

Ah yes, this sounds logical. To be honest. I was just thinking if you turned it around. What if there al of a sudden would be a god, I would not at all be comfortable with that.

The idea that a being can send you to a place to be forever tortured, your loved ones too, it is a situation that I would call - Worst scenario!
Bad for believers too if it be a god worse than the one they imagine. Like one who couldn't care whether you believed or not.
Personally, I find the idea that existence itself can become a prison where you can never leave, and to spend all eternity in pain and for the most trivial of reasons, to be the most frightening reality imaginable. I can't see how anyone would wish it to be true.

Thankfully, I've seen no evidence to support such things as gods or some afterlife. So I'm content with the fact that when I die I'll just cease to exist.

Yeah, that would be a worse case scenario! Good thing to know for you though is, you don't really cease to exist. Because nothing doesn't exist if you catch my drift. There will always be molocules and atoms of your body in the ground and air. If think even some percentage of the air we breath are the remains of people. But imagine this, what if the sun were to implode, oblitarate the earth, send your frozen cells blasting through the universe ending up on some weird planet creating a lifeform. Haha that would be terrific wouldn't it You can't letteraly destroy something, there will always be something left.

[Ace Otana]

Yeah, that would be a worse case scenario! Good thing to know for you though is, you don't really cease to exist. Because nothing doesn't exist if you catch my drift. There will always be molocules and atoms of your body in the ground and air. If think even some percentage of the air we breath are the remains of people. But imagine this, what if the sun were to implode, oblitarate the earth, send your frozen cells blasting through the universe ending up on some weird planet creating a lifeform. Haha that would be terrific wouldn't it You can't letteraly destroy something, there will always be something left.

Oh I know all that old boy. The atoms we're made of after all comes from stars that have exploded billions of years ago. When I say 'cease to exist' I meant mentally. Physically we cannot be destroyed. Only transformed.

[Anomalocaris]

Is it possible that religious people are so scared of the unkown they are prepared to start a war over it?

Anyone?

They are not afraid of the unknown. What they are afraid of is the deep sense of unease associated with not having the intellectual equivalent of the pacifier.

And yes, they will start a war, will probably start many wars, and have started many wars for the assurance of the pacifier.

[jonb]

Because we might be right.

[Anomalocaris]

Its not the "unknown" they're afraid of. They didn't sign up and subscribe to their religious dogmatic crap out of a thirst for knowledge.

They hate and fear anyone who thinks differently to them.

There's not enough insane asylums in the world to house such people.

They hate a particular difference more than any others.

[greneknight]

Rayaan, would it be terribly impolite of me to ask if your belief in God is in a real supernatural being? For me personally, although I'm an altar boy, I can't accept in my head a supernatural being. I think of God as a metaphor for goodness but he (although we use a personal pronoun and that's purely language), does not exist as an entity any more than goodness exists as an entity.

Is God a real supernatural being? I don't know, but I believe so.

Also, considering your conception of God that you described above, you appear to be more of a deist than a Christian to me. So, are you a deist or a Christian?

I don't know what a deist really is although I've seen the word and probably misused it myself. I am a Christian because my vicar says that in my church we have bishops and archbishops who don't even believe Jesus existed. So, since they are Christians and nobody will deny that, I must be so all the more.

I know many atheists and fundies say I'm not a Christian but I think we've got to leave it to the church to decide. They are the ones who will be doing the rite of confirmation for me later this year when i'm back in England.

[Fryslân]

Yeah, that would be a worse case scenario! Good thing to know for you though is, you don't really cease to exist. Because nothing doesn't exist if you catch my drift. There will always be molocules and atoms of your body in the ground and air. If think even some percentage of the air we breath are the remains of people. But imagine this, what if the sun were to implode, oblitarate the earth, send your frozen cells blasting through the universe ending up on some weird planet creating a lifeform. Haha that would be terrific wouldn't it You can't letteraly destroy something, there will always be something left.

Oh I know all that old boy. The atoms we're made of after all comes from stars that have exploded billions of years ago. When I say 'cease to exist' I meant mentally. Physically we cannot be destroyed. Only transformed.

Haha yes! Didn't mean to tell you something you already knew by the way haha. Would be quite weird if you wouldn't have known this.
Do you also agree that THAT is a happy ending? And i don't mean in a Thai way. I just love the idea of that so much.

[Anomalocaris]

Oh I know all that old boy. The atoms we're made of after all comes from stars that have exploded billions of years ago. When I say 'cease to exist' I meant mentally. Physically we cannot be destroyed. Only transformed.

Same with the mind.

Modern physics is fundamentally based on indestructability of information. This means the mind may stop functioning, but full information about every thoughts, feelings, whims, desires, perceptions that has ever been part of you mind also can never be destroyed, and can in principle always be retrieved and used to resurrect you.

[Fryslân]

Is God a real supernatural being? I don't know, but I believe so.

Also, considering your conception of God that you described above, you appear to be more of a deist than a Christian to me. So, are you a deist or a Christian?

I don't know what a deist really is although I've seen the word and probably misused it myself. I am a Christian because my vicar says that in my church we have bishops and archbishops who don't even believe Jesus existed. So, since they are Christians and nobody will deny that, I must be so all the more.

I know many atheists and fundies say I'm not a Christian but I think we've got to leave it to the church to decide. They are the ones who will be doing the rite of confirmation for me later this year when i'm back in England.

Questions:
Why would you let your church decide what you are?
Have you tried googleling deist?
If people that are specialized on the sublect of Jesus don't believe he existed why shoud you?

Don't be offended when I say this, but you strike me as someone who hasn't got a clue of what he's on about or doing. Please don't take it the wrong way, I do not intend to upset/offend.

---

Same with the mind.

Modern physics is fundamentally based on indestructability of information. This means the mind may stop functioning, but full information about every thoughts, feelings, whims, desires, perceptions that has ever been part of you mind also can never be destroyed, and can in principle always be retrieved and used to resurrect you.
[/quote]

How is a thought a matery? Isn't that like saying the words that come out of my mouth will never be destroyed?
And whats this about ressurection? How does that work?