NGC1300 Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 We should all be open to spiritual experience, but "god" isn't real and I think most intelligent adults have some sense of this; if we take "god" to mean the man that can hear and answer prayers, or lives in the sky. Link to post Share on other sites
autumnnight Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 I have several graduate degrees and a 160+ IQ, and I believe deeply in God. So keep the whole "most intelligent people" thing to yourself please. YOU believe there is no God. Good for you, and you have every right to believe or not believe. But, quite frankly, neither you nor anyone else can judge my intelligence or anyone else's based on a prejudice. 6 Link to post Share on other sites
endlessabyss Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 Anything else you would like to share with us this beautiful Friday evening? Link to post Share on other sites
todreaminblue Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 can you explain to me why you think god isnt real ? adn why you feel others should also follow the concept of spirituality and not god........thanks....deb Link to post Share on other sites
Rainbowlove Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 We should all be open to spiritual experience, but "god" isn't real and I think most intelligent adults have some sense of this; if we take "god" to mean the man that can hear and answer prayers, or lives in the sky. Maybe your God isn't real, but mine is. I haven't decided my god's name, but I believe in a higher power. Guess I'm a dummy. Good gravey 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Mangina Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 You say you notice believers are unintelligent, I really do not think so. I have noticed that non believers are usually heavily depressed. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Lionclub2001 Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 Looking at it objectively why do you care what others believe? If a belief in God is not harming others then what does it matter if people believe in imaginary beings? 1 Link to post Share on other sites
todreaminblue Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 You say you notice believers are unintelligent, I really do not think so. I have noticed that non believers are usually heavily depressed. not quite sure about this statement would make me a non believer......god helps me through my depressive periods ...i am sure of it.....i have at times been diagnosed as being clinically depressed....depression is an illness...not a choice....having faith is a choice......i choose to believe...i do not choose to become depressed....having faith is my light at the end of of the tunnel..at the beginning of the tunnel and definitely there in the middle when no one person can reach me.....if it wasnt for god...i would have chosen to die a long time ago.......deb 1 Link to post Share on other sites
autumnnight Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 Looking at it objectively why do you care what others believe? If a belief in God is not harming others then what does it matter if people believe in imaginary beings? I have a feeling that there is an unwritten condescension in this post. The things about those who believe in God, we are not - in our hearts, minds, and souls, - believing in "imaginary beings." I understand that not all believe in God. I also understand that for whatever reason some find it necessary to never miss an opportunity to take a dig at those who DO believe in God. I just find the latter quite sad and lacking in emotional intelligence. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Author NGC1300 Posted March 7, 2015 Author Share Posted March 7, 2015 I have several graduate degrees and a 160+ IQ, and I believe deeply in God. Not on evidence you don't. Link to post Share on other sites
autumnnight Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 Not on evidence you don't. Where did I say anything about evidence. We are talking about faith. You don't believe. I am not going to be arrogant and obnoxious enough to try to force, convince, or belittle you. I would appreciate the same respect as a fellow human. Link to post Share on other sites
Mangina Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 not quite sure about this statement would make me a non believer......god helps me through my depressive periods ...i am sure of it.....i have at times been diagnosed as being clinically depressed....depression is an illness...not a choice....having faith is a choice......i choose to believe...i do not choose to become depressed....having faith is my light at the end of of the tunnel..at the beginning of the tunnel and definitely there in the middle when no one person can reach me.....if it wasnt for god...i would have chosen to die a long time ago.......deb I meant that atheist are usually bitter depressed people who are mad at the world 1 Link to post Share on other sites
endlessabyss Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 I meant that atheist are usually bitter depressed people who are mad at the world This is true. I've read from Bertrand Russell, to Karl Marx, to Freud, all bitter, depressed people who were mad at the inequity of the world. Link to post Share on other sites
endlessabyss Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 Where did I say anything about evidence. We are talking about faith. There is only a small step of faith that is needed to acknowledge God's existence. All theistic arguments outweigh atheistic arguments. Everybody looks at the same data, we just make different conclusions from what we observe. An atheist will look at this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27TxKoFU2Nw, and think somehow mutations and slight modifications (or nature/luck/chance), over billions of years, happened to organize and create this on its own. The theist sees a tremendous amount of complexity and order in this machine, and infers a Supreme Intelligence had to of had His hands in its creation. Both have no hard evidence of which is correct, but looking at it, you can see what would be the best explanation for its existence. It doesn't just come down to "blind faith". 2 Link to post Share on other sites
todreaminblue Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 I meant that atheist are usually bitter depressed people who are mad at the world as i said before depression isnt a choice.......as far as bitter goes i would say there are many god fearing people who experience bitterness at iniquity the world has in spades what helps a god fearing person i guess is....purely hope........i cant watch the news without crying and i get depressed....has nothing to do with my belief of god.....i cant watch people hurt others..or hurt people without feeling i want to jump a plane and find them...comfort them....i just cant do it, watch and then sleep peacefully.........i think as a people, as part of humanity you just have to respect a persons right to the freedom to believe or not believe.....without judging them as lacking anything.....for who are we really to judge when what we only should be judging is our own iniquities and short comings....deb..... Link to post Share on other sites
Lucko Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 What really galls me are those who insist dinosaurs and humans lived together or the earth is a few thousand years old or humans used to live for hundreds of years or other nonsense. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
SycamoreCircle Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 I don't see the difference between asserting absolutely that God exists or absolutely that God doesn't exist. Both are convictions. Both are born out of personal experience. Both are faith. Link to post Share on other sites
endlessabyss Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 What really galls me are those who insist dinosaurs and humans lived together or the earth is a few thousand years old or humans used to live for hundreds of years or other nonsense. Is it as bad as this: ? Link to post Share on other sites
SawtoothMars Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 We should all be open to spiritual experience, but "god" isn't real and I think most intelligent adults have some sense of this; if we take "god" to mean the man that can hear and answer prayers, or lives in the sky. Wait... We have had Fine Tuning Theory in ascendancy for 20 years. All physicists agree that the entire universe is fine tuned for life on earth and that if any one variable is changed by a hair the universe cannot even form. This means technically there is more evidence for than against some kind of directing sentience. I mean the competing theory is "Multi-verse" which is basically some stupid episode of Sliders. We may find more stuff later... but at the moment God seems highly probable. Link to post Share on other sites
Clair93 Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Wait... We have had Fine Tuning Theory in ascendancy for 20 years. All physicists agree that the entire universe is fine tuned for life on earth and that if any one variable is changed by a hair the universe cannot even form. This means technically there is more evidence for than against some kind of directing sentience. I mean the competing theory is "Multi-verse" which is basically some stupid episode of Sliders. We may find more stuff later... but at the moment God seems highly probable. So you're saying that God couldn't have made life on a universe with different parameters. So you don't believe that God is all-powerful or all-knowing. You can't claim that an external restriction points in the direction of God without accepting that God would be bound by that restriction. Link to post Share on other sites
Clair93 Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 I have several graduate degrees and a 160+ IQ, and I believe deeply in God. So keep the whole "most intelligent people" thing to yourself please. You can't deny the correlations between intelligence/education and lack of religiosity. A smart/educated religious person or a stupid/uneducated atheist doesn't disprove the overall trend. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Clair93 Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 All theistic arguments outweigh atheistic arguments. Everybody looks at the same data, we just make different conclusions from what we observe. That explains why less than 15% of philosophers are theists and more than 70% are atheists... or does it? Link to post Share on other sites
LookAtThisPOst Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Not on evidence you don't. You don't have evidence he doesn't exist either. I get a kick out of atheists that talk about how the universe was created by the "Big Bang" and not God. And I usually end that statement with, "God said bang!" Usually that ends the conversation. Link to post Share on other sites
Clair93 Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 You don't have evidence he doesn't exist either. I get a kick out of atheists that talk about how the universe was created by the "Big Bang" and not God. And I usually end that statement with, "God said bang!" Usually that ends the conversation. The evidence we have that God doesn't exist is the same evidence you have that vampires and werewolves don't exist Link to post Share on other sites
Author NGC1300 Posted March 8, 2015 Author Share Posted March 8, 2015 Wait... We have had Fine Tuning Theory in ascendancy for 20 years. All physicists agree that the entire universe is fine tuned for life on earth and that if any one variable is changed by a hair the universe cannot even form. This means technically there is more evidence for than against some kind of directing sentience. I mean the competing theory is "Multi-verse" which is basically some stupid episode of Sliders. We may find more stuff later... but at the moment God seems highly probable. It depends what we're calling "god". As I said in OP, the god that answers prayers, the conceptual idea of "god" that most people have - the god of Abraham, there's no reason to believe in THAT god. You can move away from that god, and start calling god something else (direct sentience), but just keep in mind that ultimately leads to pantheism. Einstein was likely a pantheist, but he certainly didn't believe in a "god". Also, from what I've read about Einstein, I didn't get the impression that he was a bitter and depressed person and some people here have suggested of atheists. Link to post Share on other sites
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