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RE: Is belief in God a choice
September 3, 2009 at 12:44 am
The basic problem with an argument based on faith is the simple fact that such an argument cannot be specific to that which the the proponent of the argument is trying to prove. That is, faith can be used to argue anything, one can say "I have faith that Santa exists, unicorns exist, I can fly, god talks to me, Jodie Foster will marry me if I kill the President, I will get 72 virgins in heaven if I fly an airplane into a building, Jesus loves me..." On and fucking on.
I don't care how strong your belief is -- it does not PROVE anything. No matter how much you believe in some irrational bullshit there is some fanatic out there somewhere who can demonstrate that he can out-believe you.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste -- don't pollute it with bullshit.
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RE: Is belief in God a choice
September 3, 2009 at 12:50 am
Exactly, and therefore faith can be discounted as lunacy, and the only people who have it are people who have been brainwashed (did not choose).
Please give me a home where cloud buffalo roam
Where the dear and the strangers can play
Where sometimes is heard a discouraging word
But the skies are not stormy all day
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RE: Is belief in God a choice
September 3, 2009 at 3:34 am
Belief in god isn't a choice in the same sense schizophrenia isn't a choice, they're both delusions.
The plus side is Religious belief is one from which you can recover.
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RE: Is belief in God a choice
September 4, 2009 at 1:30 pm
I am far too lazy to read the whole of this thread so forgive me if I duplicate some one elses point.
In answer to the question 'is belief in God a choice?' I would say that for most cultures you have to choose NOT to believe, belief is the default, the easy way.
My children go to a church of England school where they are taught that jesus was our saviour as FACT.
I was fuming when I heard that.
My elder two have recovered from the initial brainwashing but my young son is still in its insidious embrace.
Where choice really comes in with respect to belief is when you change religions from your cultural one.
You can fix ignorance, you can't fix stupid.
Tinkety Tonk and down with the Nazis.
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RE: Is belief in God a choice
September 4, 2009 at 2:02 pm
How is belief the default? You honestly think that if you let children grow up without any understanding of religion or god, they would still believe?
God has to be taught, Christianity has to be taught. Non-belief is the default position of everything and anything (be it child, flower, or tree) because none of these things have any idea what God is, so they cannot possibly believe in them.
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RE: Is belief in God a choice
September 4, 2009 at 2:04 pm
A baby or small child is an atheist in the same sense a rock is. They don't believe because they've never even heard of the whole idea of such a superbeing as a "God" - they can't, they're too young. Just as a rock can't (in that case cos it's a rock).
EvF
