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RE: christian looking to understand athiests
August 20, 2015 at 8:09 am
Speaking of Pink Floyd.
When they reformed without Roger Waters to tour here in Australia, with Gilmour doing guitar and vocals, I heard an interviewer ask Roger Waters what he thought of the sound of the new lineup. He replied: It's a perfect forgery! hehe
No God, No fear.
Know God, Know fear.
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RE: christian looking to understand athiests
August 20, 2015 at 8:25 am
What you need to know (essentially) is that atheists are not convinced there are any supernatural entities - Period. We are not necessarily closed to evidence in favor of the deity's existence, we just haven't seen it yet. An easy method to apply is to picture Greek polytheistic religions and you understand how we view other religions, including Christianity
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you
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RE: christian looking to understand athiests
August 20, 2015 at 8:30 am
There is only evidence of humans making up claim and passing them down to the next generation.
If longevity of tradition made a deity real then the Ancient Egyptian gods would be real by proxy of their 3,000 year dynasty.
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RE: christian looking to understand athiests
August 20, 2015 at 9:08 am
(August 20, 2015 at 5:53 am)Irrational Wrote: (August 20, 2015 at 12:13 am)loganonekenobi Wrote: i'm no QM scientist so I dont have authority on this subject. I have seen some evidence that having faith in oneself and a positive outlook tend to bring about a greater possibility of success and of course the opposite attitude brings about a lot more failer. Sometimes I am not cautious and so I can expose myself to faulty thinking. That's okay since then i learn more and my ideas are challenged.
That's more to do with psychology than quantum mechanics.
My point exactly. 'God' can't be about cosmology yet the phenomenon of belief in it persists. So it must be psychological. Some one coined the phrase 'god sized hole' in the brain. The perception that 'God' is about cosmology is a symptom of having gotten something stuck in that hole. One should exercise good hygiene around that hole at all times.
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RE: christian looking to understand athiests
August 20, 2015 at 2:52 pm
(This post was last modified: August 20, 2015 at 2:53 pm by Rhondazvous.)
(August 19, 2015 at 5:56 pm)Stimbo Wrote: It's also not the best idea to step on aunts. It most likely won't rain, but take it from me they don't thank you for it.
You obviously don't know my aunt. If you did, you might suggest I step on her with both feet, wearing steel-toe, spike-heeled platform shoes.
The god who allows children to be raped out of respect for the free will choice of the rapist, but punishes gay men for engaging in mutually consensual sex couldn't possibly be responsible for an intelligently designed universe.
I may defend your right to free speech, but i won't help you pass out flyers.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire
Nietzsche isn't dead. How do I know he lives? He lives in my mind.
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RE: christian looking to understand athiests
August 20, 2015 at 3:12 pm
I used to have an aunt like that. Note "used to".
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
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RE: christian looking to understand athiests
August 20, 2015 at 3:18 pm
(August 20, 2015 at 12:17 am)robvalue Wrote: Positive attitude definitely can bring about greater success, there's no doubt about that. My entire recent therapy is based around that principle.
There's all sorts of sound reasons why a good state of mind and belief in yourself pays dividends, which don't require anything supernatural/spiritual. Even a prayer can "work" by simply making yourself believe you can do something. That can be a double edged sword though, because you need to really believe the prayer has innate power. There are other ways to achieve similar effects such as meditation.
I've never met a preacher who would tell you that your prayers will work if you're not paying tithes and offerings.
The god who allows children to be raped out of respect for the free will choice of the rapist, but punishes gay men for engaging in mutually consensual sex couldn't possibly be responsible for an intelligently designed universe.
I may defend your right to free speech, but i won't help you pass out flyers.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire
Nietzsche isn't dead. How do I know he lives? He lives in my mind.
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RE: christian looking to understand athiests
August 20, 2015 at 3:32 pm
(August 20, 2015 at 3:12 pm)Stimbo Wrote: I used to have an aunt like that. Note "used to".
So that's why the police were asking about you. Well, I didn't know anything then and I still don't. It's better that way.
The god who allows children to be raped out of respect for the free will choice of the rapist, but punishes gay men for engaging in mutually consensual sex couldn't possibly be responsible for an intelligently designed universe.
I may defend your right to free speech, but i won't help you pass out flyers.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire
Nietzsche isn't dead. How do I know he lives? He lives in my mind.
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RE: christian looking to understand athiests
August 20, 2015 at 3:45 pm
What Becca and others said. I said "Show me the evidence for your claims, or stop disturbing me with cruel lies!" It didn't make my life any easier, but having survived a childhood in which I had not one single day free of anxiety, I now live free without any worries beyond the grave.
There are two types of ideas: there is fact, and there is non-fact. Facts are determined empirically, i.e, what the King James Version says verbatim is an empirical fact. That it doesn't represent a ghastly mountain of cruel bullshit is non-factual. Therefore, please don't waste other people's precious time trying to spin Bullshit Mountain as gold! 
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RE: christian looking to understand athiests
August 20, 2015 at 3:49 pm
The failure of prayer is what initiated my questioning that eventually led to my rejection of the god hypothesis.
I had scoliosis, everyone in my church prayed to Jesus for me to be healed- it didn't happen.
I underwent back surgery to correct it, thanks to medical science, I've had a relatively healthy, normal life despite this disease.
Fast forward a few years, an assistant pastor in our church was diagnosed with cancer, everyone in church prayed fervently for god to heal him -he died of cancer.
I went to his funeral and they played nice little songs as he lay there in front of the entire church that was praying for this NOT to happen.
Here's another story, there was this guy that didn't like Jews, he started WW2 and proceeded to exterminate millions of Jews fervently praying to not be marched into his gas chambers. I think it's safe to say, millions of Yhwh's chosen people were praying for a different outcome, Yhwh had no answer but silence. Why?
The simple answer? Nothing's up there to answer their prayers.
Using the supernatural to explain events in your life is a failure of the intellect to comprehend the world around you. -The Inquisition
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