What is your belief in God?

RickeyD

@Happy_Killbot ; Prove there is NO God...any god you choose...prove a Creator does not exist...can you read? Can you comprehend as a mindless, foolish, atheist? Is this beyond your abilities? You deny God, you deny a Creator...you must have some proof seeing that if you're wrong you will die in Hell...so then, where is your "proof" that God does not exist?

Happy_Killbot

@RickeyD Can you comprehend your foolishness?

Actually, I can prove that no more than one belief system is real, and the rest are made up.

Its easy and intuitive...

No two belief structures have the same beliefs, and many of the contradict. Therefore we can conclude that any two contradicting beliefs can not both be correct, so at least one must be false, or both are false.

Therefore, of the infinite potentially true beliefs, almost all of them are false, and either one and only one ( which we may be oblivious to) is correct, or non of them are.

You see, you are more atheist than theist, because you reject a nearly infinite number of god beliefs. I only take it one step further.

And it has made my life significantly better.

RickeyD

@Happy_Killbot Prove the God of the Bible, the Christian God is false...prove it, atheist.

RickeyD

@Happy_Killbot ; Hurry up, atheist. I have things to do. Prove atheism is true...get with it son! Let's hear your insanity articulated. Convince me that being a cowardly and mindless atheist is rational and not insane.

Happy_Killbot

@RickeyD

OK BOOMER!

Oh, and for the record, I'm not an atheist I am agnostic.

Why don't you go jerk off or something?

RickeyD

@Happy_Killbot ; For the record, you're a fool...a mindless fool. Now prove God does not exist. I'm weary of asking....can't you prove atheism? Don't be embarrassed of your idiocy...prove it!

YeshuaBought

Happy_Killbot said:

@RickeyD

OK BOOMER!

Oh, and for the record, I'm not an atheist I am agnostic.

Why don't you go jerk off or something?

Happy_Killbot said:

@RickeyD

OK BOOMER!

Oh, and for the record, I'm not an atheist I am agnostic.

Why don't you go jerk off or something?

I am not sure what is an agnostic?

Happy_Killbot

@YeshuaBought

An agnostic is someone who is not sure about the existence of god, or who doesn't care about the existence of god.

It is the opposite of Gnosticism, which means absolute certainty.

Really, god beliefs lie on a spectrum between theist (I am 100% certain there is a god) to atheist ( I am 100% certain there is no god) and everything in between is technically agnostic.

One thing you might do is put then on a 7 point scale, 1 is 100% theist, 7 is 100% atheist., and 4 is dead center. You might assume this scale was exponential, but we will ignore that for now. On this scale, I would be a 6, because I am sure that the evidence suggests a lack of a god, however if evidence were to surface, I would change my mind. Rickey is a solid 1. He will not even consider the possibility that there is no god, most likely for the rest of his life. Einstein would probably be a 4, because he famously stated that he wasn't sure.

RickeyD

@Happy_Killbot Atheist or agnostic; they're both the fool of Satan and will die in Hell lest they repent.

smoothie

@RickeyD you will die as a laughing stalk, lest you repent

Happy_Killbot

@RickeyD

Oh I failed did I?

Tell that to the decline rates of religion in the US. Christianity will be remembered as mythology in a century, if that.

https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/

RickeyD

@Happy_Killbot ; You failed, both as a the fool of Time and Eternity in your atheism. God will not fade away and you will be accountable for your idiocy and self-deception in the Judgment. Prove me wrong, atheist.

YeshuaBought

Happy_Killbot said:

@YeshuaBought

An agnostic is someone who is not sure about the existence of god, or who doesn't care about the existence of god.

It is the opposite of Gnosticism, which means absolute certainty.

Really, god beliefs lie on a spectrum between theist (I am 100% certain there is a god) to atheist ( I am 100% certain there is no god) and everything in between is technically agnostic.

One thing you might do is put then on a 7 point scale, 1 is 100% theist, 7 is 100% atheist., and 4 is dead center. You might assume this scale was exponential, but we will ignore that for now. On this scale, I would be a 6, because I am sure that the evidence suggests a lack of a god, however if evidence were to surface, I would change my mind. Rickey is a solid 1. He will not even consider the possibility that there is no god, most likely for the rest of his life. Einstein would probably be a 4, because he famously stated that he wasn't sure.

Fair enough, thank you, for telling me. I used to be a panentheist, before I was a Christian.

Happy_Killbot

@RickeyD Prove you wrong?

I already did. Several times. Again and again and again! Mmmmm....

I bet you liked that didn't you?

RickeyD

@Happy_Killbot ; You've proved NOTHING but that you're a fool and cannot substantiate the insanity of atheism...now try again...I'll give you one more chance. Prove atheism to be rational, logical, truth.  Prove our Creator does not exist.

Happy_Killbot

@RickeyD ;

You're going to have to wait a while bby,..

I can only pull that off so many times a day...

can't we just watch netflix or something?

RickeyD

@Happy_Killbot ; Typical foolish atheist...now you're mockingly obfuscating. How mindless and ignorant. Enjoy.

smoothie

RickeyD

@smoothie ; Get back we me when you can substantiate the rationality of atheism...remember I warned you...if you die in your unrepentant sin/sodomy, you will not see life in God's Kingdom. Without Jesus as Lord, you will lose your soul in Hell!

smoothie

@RickeyD You are far from rationality.

RickeyD

@smoothie ; When you get beyond your addiction to sodomy and prove atheism as rational and logical...touch base with me; otherwise, enjoy your demonic insanity.

smoothie

@RickeyD ; I do not have an addiction, I have a life that you have no business telling me how to live it. That is irrational, you authoritarian.

Good luck explaining your sins of pride and wrath to your "god" once you expire. You bully.

RickeyD

@smoothie You are addicted to your sodomy and you have surrendered your soul to Satan in conformance to his will for your life. Plastic straws in the smoothie...shame on you liberal!

smoothie

@RickeyD Plastic straws in the smoothie? What does that mean? How are plastic straws shameful, are you using liberal ideas against plastic straws?

satanlover667

Satan created us to perform in the mortal grounds as a ceremony to his likeness and Jesus tried to turn us away, how dare he

“Blessed are the destroyers of false hope, for they are the true Messiahs - Cursed are the god-adorers, for they shall be shorn sheep!”

Hail Satan

RickeyD

@satanlover667

xlJ_dolphin_473

RickeyD said:

@Happy_Killbot ; Prove there is NO God...any god you choose...prove a Creator does not exist...can you read? Can you comprehend as a mindless, foolish, atheist? Is this beyond your abilities? You deny God, you deny a Creator...you must have some proof seeing that if you're wrong you will die in Hell...so then, where is your "proof" that God does not exist?

Here's the thing. There is no proof that God does not exist. But that doesn't mean God exists! We can't prove that the Tooth Fairy doesn't exist, but that doesn't mean she exists, and it certainly doesn't mean we worship her in temples, churches and synagogues the world over. There is a difference between not knowing whether something exists and automatically reasoning that it exists based on the fact that we can't be sure.

MayCaesar

I still have difficulty wrapping around my head the fact that some adults seriously believe in stuff like gods, angels, etc. I figured out that adults made up stories all the time fairly early, perhaps at the age of 4, and by the age of 6 or so I learned well to distinguish fantasy from reality. When adults talked about Santa Claus, I always smirked, thinking to myself, "Ha-h, they still think I am that naive. Very well, I will play along." When they talked about god, I thought the same, "They must think me a little ignorant kid. Oh well."

Learning later that some adults actually believed this stuff made me wonder what was wrong with this world. "Really, guys? You are 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 years old and never figured out that Santa Claus was just a story to make kids excited?" Luckily the country I grew up was, especially at the time, fairly atheist (probably the only thing commies do well in countries they take over is make people question religion), so I did not encounter these beliefs very often and thought it was just a small minority of weird folks.

Yet there are countries where almost 100% people believe in god... In Saudi Arabia virtually everyone believes in Allah. Country of adult kids.

I do not have anything against religious people, but I can never help but think that some part of them never quite developed. But to each their own! Growing up has its downsides. I have not grown up myself in many regards, and have always felt that my maturation halted somewhere around the age of 15 and never quite progressed further.

Happy_Killbot

@MayCaesar Having come from the other side of the fence, I can tell you that it is 100% about two and only two things: Familiarity and emotion. I grew up in a very small rural village that had more churches than anything else except corn. Everyone was very religious, and classically so. People who live there are types who do not want to, nor have they ever left the area, my grandparents for example have lived their entire lives within a 150 mile radius, have never been on a plane, and never seen any other countries.

For them and everyone else in the area, there has been no exposure whatsoever to alternate ideas and opinions, so the concept of religion seems natural and accepted. To think otherwise would be considered insane. This is why the internet is such a threat to Christianity and religion in general, because it allows for the fast spreading of ideas and differing opinions, which breaks this norm and exposes people to new ideas and opinions.

The second, emotion, I think is the easier to understand. Religions push fear on to their members as a form of indoctrination. This of course can only be successful if you already believe it. When I was a young teenager, I remember going into a booth at the county fair and being told the whole "repent or go to hell" That you can read any day from certain posts even on this site. This of course conflicted with other ideas I have been told from other sources. My church's pastor was a young woman in her early 20's who in a bible study group talked about how she decided to become a pastor after hiding in a church as a child because she was so scared. She had extreme anxiety issues, as I discovered later. The following year at the county fair I went into the same booth and asked them the hard questions, things like "how do we know" and "why do we do this when the bible says this" of course, I got the same dissatisfying answers. "The bible is right because it says so in the bible" "We do what we do because god says so, and the other people aren't listening to god" I found this puzzling. The booth then gave me a small booklet, which to summarize is about a Christian who meets with a preacher from the denomination giving out the booklets (bet you can't guess which one) stating that even other Christians will not go to heaven because they are following the wrong religion. Then I actually sat down and over the course of about a month I read the bible cover to cover. After that, I could never be Christian again, as I realized that none of it made any sense whatsoever. I recognized the fear and the hatred, and decided to never be held back by such foolishness.

It is cowardice that allows one to be held back in fear, and dishonest to claim truth without evidence. People believe because they are convinced, even to the point of being deeply horrified in these things, and rather than take the time to think rationally and allow their higher minds to sort it out rationally, they jump straight to the conclusions they were raised with as a default. "If it is true, then I must do x, if I don't then there will be consequence" without considering the other possibilities. This in and of itself demonstrates a lack of creativity, but the scarcity of original thought in the human population is a given.

The fact that religion is so dominant, both in the US and globally is a phenomena that can hardly be accounted for in psychology. It demonstrates that our very thoughts must have some intrinsic weakness to thinking in certain ways, and religion is the force which has evolved to exploit this.

Dee

@MayCaesar

, *****but I can never help but think that some part of them never quite developed

  I believe that also , I’ve experienced such as a once devout Catholic where every day religion was pounded into us and it was at ones own peril if one dared question such. I think the “religious part “ of ones mental development stays stuck at this childish stage rarely to escape its powerful clutch .

Politics can have the same effect as a fair proportion of people stick to the very same political positions as their parents rarely to change.

Pity one was not introduced to religion  until one was 15 - 16 years I bet most then would dismiss it for the nonsense it is 

MayCaesar

@Happy_Killbot
@Dee

My case may be somewhat unique, as I got scarred very early in life from lies and employed a very sceptical attitude. When I was, I think, 4 years old, I was a very naive and trusty person, who did not even have the concept of lies/deceit in his mind: my family consists of extremely honest and friendly people who always treated me well (with several exceptions), and I was not social enough to have many chances of being fooled by other kids.

I remember it as if it happened now, my first - and the worst - exposure to the worse side of humanity. Another kid, several years older than me, while we were playing, suddenly said that he feels that something is off, and asked to look in my mouth up close (weird, I know). I opened my mouth, he looked and said, "Wow, you have a sickness. You should not eat anything but chocolate. Let us go to the grocery store, I will show you what you can or cannot eat." I went along and took everything he said as sacred truth. Finally, when we returned to the playground and I was crying and shaking in fear, he said, "Run home and tell your family everything I told you. Run now! And do not look back, or you will die!" Unable to handle it any more, I ran crying to my family, who told me that the kid was just playing with me.

The gentle and sensitive boy I was, the experience scarred me so much that I immediately employed the axiom: "Unless someone proves to you that they speak the truth, assume that it can be anything". Pretty much a simplified version of the burden of proof which the little kid surprisingly discovered on his own. So, pretty much since the age of 4, every time people told me something that seemed off to me, I immediately asked myself, "What is the hook here?" I figured soon that kids and adults alike talked nonsense all the time and became a bit like Feynman, in that I did not take anything that could not be proven seriously. Santa Claus, religion, traditions, social norms, etc. - all these things quickly went out the window, once I realised that people cannot actually logically defend them.

Had a lot of trouble in my life because of it, especially at the peak of my rebelliousness, in the mid-teen years, when I was so vocal in my scepticism that basically nobody could tolerate me. But I think it created a good base framework in my mind, which, once I matured up some more, I started building a solid world view and behavioral ruleset on, not influenced directly by any ideologies other people came up with. There is nothing more limiting in life than conforming with the narrative someone else has put out: you become essentially a prisoner of other people's ideas and cannot easily escape them, because you cannot challenge them logically, since they are not founded on logic to begin with.
Granted, there is nothing wrong with accepting others' ideas that make sense - but only after you have processed them in your mind. Unprocessed ideas are like scrambled data on a computer: they have no positive value and only clutter the space that actually useful data could be stored in instead.

My case perhaps is somewhat unusual, but really, I do not see why anyone cannot develop healthy scepticism early on. Perhaps most people just break under the peer pressure and accept questionable ideas not because of lack of critical thinking, but because of lack of disapproval - and subsequent rationalisation of those ideas. I was extremely lucky in that my parents are very open-minded and encouraged healthy scepticism, and never picked on me for disagreeing with them on anything - and I, again, was not social enough to be bothered by my peers' opinions that much.

Dee

@MayCaesar

Thats fascinating in that from a cruel prank played by  a student you developed a healthy skepticism, it could have so easily gone another way as I’m sure it has for many other children caught up in similar circumstances.

***** My case perhaps is somewhat unusual, but really, I do not see why anyone cannot develop healthy scepticism early on. Perhaps most people just break under the peer pressure and accept questionable ideas not because of lack of critical thinking, but because of lack of disapproval - and subsequent rationalisation of those ideas. I 

You’ve hit the nail on the head when you say ...... Perhaps most people just break under the peer pressure and accept questionable ideas not because of lack of critical thinking, but because of lack of disapproval........

When I was growing up it was unheard off to question ones elders as it was assumed they must be more intelligent on account of having reached adulthood which always struck me as an absurd type of “reasoning” , people had not got access to the internet or such so that left one as intellectual prey to those who people presumed were authorities on various matters and who couldn’t be questioned. A man I worked with told me to read everything I could and don’t be a spectator in  life but question everything , also  he said going the opposite way to accepted positions and norms one would in a lot of cases be wrong but learn an awful lot in the process.

Only yesterday I read a piece where David Hume was saying “ that to assume an apple will taste like an apple is the result of lazy thinking based on ones experience of previous apples “ , Hume questioned absolutely everything and I’m sure annoyed the Hell out of people but a fascinating character all the same as he never stopped searching for answers