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Does belief in God make him real?
October 12, 2011 at 3:59 pm
(This post was last modified: October 12, 2011 at 4:00 pm by DrDolittle.)
Some things are undeniably real - gravity, for example. However concepts exist only in the human mind, such as nations or morality - but we still accept that they exist.
Take morality for example - it was 'immoral' many years ago (and in some Muslim nations today) to be homosexual, this was usually a punishable offense. Considering the vast majority of the population believed homosexuality to be 'wrong', did this not make it so? Moral consensus is decided by the majority, and as most laws are based on morality this may as well make it fact - like gravity.
So my question is this - does 'belief' in God make him real? After all, if everyone believes God exists and behaves accordingly does this not make him 'real' in the sense that morality, nations or money are 'real'?
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RE: Does belief in God make him real?
October 12, 2011 at 4:03 pm
Does belief in Gandalf make him real?
No...
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RE: Does belief in God make him real?
October 12, 2011 at 4:10 pm
(October 12, 2011 at 4:03 pm)frankiej Wrote: Does belief in Gandalf make him real?
No...
But if everyone believed he was real, and this belief had real consequences, would he not be 'real' in the sense that morality, private property etc are 'real'?
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RE: Does belief in God make him real?
October 12, 2011 at 4:11 pm
"A lie is a lie, even if everybody believes it, and the truth is the truth even if no one believes it".
Belief does not affect reality. Only our perception of reality can change, not reality itself.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence - Carl Sagan
Mankind's intelligence walks hand in hand with it's stupidity.
Being an atheist says nothing about your overall intelligence, it just means you don't believe in god. Atheists can be as bright as any scientist and as stupid as any creationist.
You never really know just how stupid someone is, until you've argued with them.
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RE: Does belief in God make him real?
October 12, 2011 at 4:13 pm
Religion is real, and it's effects are very real. God however is not.
"Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."
Einstein
When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down happy. They told me I didn't understand the assignment. I told them they didn't understand life.
- John Lennon
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RE: Does belief in God make him real?
October 12, 2011 at 4:14 pm
It's the everyone believes it, it must be true.
Or they're all ridiculous.
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RE: Does belief in God make him real?
October 12, 2011 at 4:14 pm
(October 12, 2011 at 4:10 pm)DrDolittle Wrote: (October 12, 2011 at 4:03 pm)frankiej Wrote: Does belief in Gandalf make him real?
No...
But if everyone believed he was real, and this belief had real consequences, would he not be 'real' in the sense that morality, private property etc are 'real'?
I think that just make the idea of god real. Not the idea itself.
If I die and god is real, im so screwed.
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RE: Does belief in God make him real?
October 12, 2011 at 4:15 pm
(This post was last modified: October 12, 2011 at 4:18 pm by Cyberman.)
Of course it doesn't. 'Everybody' at one time thought the Earth was the centre of the Universe. It wasn't. Percival Lowell believed in Schiaperelli's mistaken discovery of 'canali' (channels), which Lowell translated as canals, on Mars. He even drew up maps of them. There were never any such thing. If we've learned one thing about this Universe of ours, it's that it is completely indifferent to wishful thinking.
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: Does belief in God make him real?
October 12, 2011 at 4:18 pm
(This post was last modified: October 12, 2011 at 4:20 pm by Ace Otana.)
(October 12, 2011 at 4:14 pm)5thHorseman Wrote: It's the everyone believes it, it must be true.
Or they're all ridiculous.
Argumentum ad populum. A fallacious argument.
"Most people believe there are pixies; there for pixies must exist".
If what was stated was true, all these years we would of perceived this reality...backwards.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence - Carl Sagan
Mankind's intelligence walks hand in hand with it's stupidity.
Being an atheist says nothing about your overall intelligence, it just means you don't believe in god. Atheists can be as bright as any scientist and as stupid as any creationist.
You never really know just how stupid someone is, until you've argued with them.
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RE: Does belief in God make him real?
October 12, 2011 at 4:32 pm
I believe in God
...I still don't KNOW if he's real.
Belief means nothing to anyone but the believer
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