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RE: Amazing Coincidence, or Miracle?
November 30, 2014 at 3:58 am
(November 30, 2014 at 3:49 am)robvalue Wrote: And I always come back to...
How can you distinguish between hearing or feeling god, and a delusion? If someone uses "God told me to do it", would you accept that after they kill your family? Frailty
You make people miserable and there's nothing they can do about it, just like god.
-- Homer Simpson
God has no place within these walls, just as facts have no place within organized religion.
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Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends. There are some things we don't want to know. Important things.
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Once something's been approved by the government, it's no longer immoral.
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RE: Amazing Coincidence, or Miracle?
November 30, 2014 at 4:00 am
Ooh looks interesting, cheers.
I have never heard a theist address this problem in any way that is even slightly honest.
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RE: Amazing Coincidence, or Miracle?
November 30, 2014 at 5:41 am
You can fix ignorance, you can't fix stupid.
Tinkety Tonk and down with the Nazis.
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RE: Amazing Coincidence, or Miracle?
November 30, 2014 at 11:32 am
(November 29, 2014 at 3:57 pm)Castiel Wrote: I grew up in a Christian home, believing in miracles and that God proves himself in many ways each day. I no longer believe in God, but some of the stories of "miracles" I've heard are just... hard to dismiss.
A friend of a friend supposedly felt "God" telling her to pull over while she was on the highway. She ignored it several times, and then finally gave in and pulled over. She got out, looked down, and found her husband's wallet, which had apparently fallen off his truck earlier that day. My family shared her story and basically said that "God knew exactly how many times He'd have to tell her to pull over before she did it, and it was all in His perfect timing so that she'd pull over at the right place".
That is just one scenario that I have been told about by my super spiritual family. I'm just wondering what any atheists, or simply anyone who's not a Christian, believes about this.
What are the odds of that happening? Does this mean there's something like "fate" that caused this? Is it some other force of nature we've yet to understand that is responsible for these unbelievable coincidences? Or... could there be a God, after all? If so, why would any loving God take the time to find someone's wallet, but not rescue someone from disease, war, rape, hunger... etc.?
Coincidence
Atheism is a non-prophet organization join today.
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Amazing Coincidence, or Miracle?
December 3, 2014 at 12:30 am
Why do we assume we know what God is thinking and what he is motivated by if he were to choose to do a miracle? Why assume we understand enough to pass judgement about what it appears that God does or does not do? How can we assume that every miracle ever reported has some sort of natural origin? At the same time, we should not think that every or most Christians who think that God has done a miracle are correct. Perhaps Gods ways are difficult to understand for a believer and perhaps impossible for an unbeliever. Impossible.
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RE: Amazing Coincidence, or Miracle?
December 3, 2014 at 12:50 am
(This post was last modified: December 3, 2014 at 12:51 am by Whateverist.)
(December 3, 2014 at 12:30 am)Jhayward Wrote: Why do we assume we know what God is thinking and what he is motivated by ..
I couldn't agree more. But isn't it theists who assume the most on this score? They assume God is trying to communicate with them. They assume certain books are God's official word. They assume they know what God wants, what He likes and what He won't tolerate. That is a whole lot of assuming.
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Amazing Coincidence, or Miracle?
December 3, 2014 at 12:52 am
They assume that the bible is a casebook through which one can learn how God chooses to interact with people
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RE: Amazing Coincidence, or Miracle?
December 3, 2014 at 12:54 am
(December 3, 2014 at 12:52 am)Jhayward Wrote: They assume that the bible is a casebook through which one can learn how God chooses to interact with people
Exactly. And what validates that assumption?
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RE: Amazing Coincidence, or Miracle?
December 3, 2014 at 1:02 am
(December 3, 2014 at 12:30 am)Jhayward Wrote: How can we assume that every miracle ever reported has some sort of natural origin?
Consider the set of everything that's ever happened. Every event. Either we know what caused the event or we don't. Now, consider the subset of events consisting of events that we know the cause of. For any individual event in this subset, either we know that it had all natural causes or we know they it at least one super-natural cause.
Wouldn't you know, it turns out that the set of events that we know had all natural causes is nearly infinite, and the set of events we know have at least one supernatural cause is... wait for it... empty.
This does NOT logically, formally prove that every event has a natural cause, but it's hella suggestive of such, to the point that to *not* assume this is... well, silly is a nice word. Extraordinary claims. Not even ordinary proof.
TL;DR: Answer: to not assume this is silly
*disclaimer: I'm logico-freestylin' here. Analyze deeply at own risk.
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RE: Amazing Coincidence, or Miracle?
December 3, 2014 at 1:26 am
Quote:Why do we assume we know what God is thinking
See, I never do that. Since none of you can provide any evidence for whatever variant of a god you swear exists I treat you all as lunatics and your god is just bullshit until proven otherwise.
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