Do you believe in "GOD" ,and the "Great" beyond ?

No, the proof is that there is no logical reason for what many proclaim him to be doing. For example, he could just show up. Just show himself performing some miracle to the world; it would instantly discast all doubt. But he doesn't, why?

"To test our faith!"

The test isn't fair, which has been established. If "God" really exists, what he's doing doesn't make sense, which is enough reason to just stop following him.

Here's a question-- why won't God heal amputees?

www.whydoesgodhateamputees.com

Nobody prays for the restoration of lost limbs, since humans do not have the potential to regenerate their limbs the way salamanders do. Interestingly, the diseseases that receive prayer are those that are known to be self-limiting, ones that people can heal or recover from even without prayer. People probably realize that it’s no use to pray for certain things and rather than waste time in prayer and see no results (which would force them to question their beliefs), they only pray for problems that will most likely get better with time anyway.

--



Btw, this is weak.

People, no matter the (lack of) religious background do stupid crap all the fucking time. Some atheist slits the throat of a 4 yr old and sodomizes the body even while the child slowly dies... does this mean that all atheists are shitheads? :/

Yet again, you misunderstand what I said. I never claimed that it was all people who believe in God are guilty of such. If you weren't so hypersensitive you might have caught that. The atrocities that men have committed in the name of "God" is merely one of hundreds of reasons I don't believe in a God.

I think you and I need to have a one on one talk so we can better understand one another. These misunderstandings are becoming troublesome.

I seriously chuckled, because I imagined you saying that with this stern/dad face. :] I promise I'm not going out of my way to target you or twist things and I'd hardly say I'm hypersensitive-- I just read through the discussion and what you said caught my attention.

Feel free to PM me and I'll pass on my gmail if you do want to talk things out. A fellow atheist, I want only peace rather than explosions in the sky (though the band does kick some serious ass ^__~).

I believe in God but I don't believe that he influences every part of our lives. I believe it would be impossible for even someone like God to have influence over such a large amount of people, planets, stars, galaxies, etc. all at the same time for all of eternity. I don't believe that we were created by God ,or at least, not directly. I believe that he started the universe(probably with the Big Bag) but he let it run its own course. If he intended for humans to be born on Earth, which I doubt, he might have taken a few measures to ensure our creation, such as ensuring that our evolutionary path from simple-celled organisms to sentient beings happened but with minimal interference as possible.

If I were to believe in a God the "Grand Architect", "Prime Mover" or "Watch maker" are the models I would be most likely to believe in. Some being, who looks at the universe with the same eyes as some old world watch maker.

Well, it seems all of you need a lesson: God was created long time ago because people doesn´t know how to explain things, then was created the idea of good and evil; because it was hard for the people to pray to the one who gives misery, Devil was created. That is for jewish religion. Time continues to the age of the controling-mind religion, catholisism. If you can read some history, this one was the worst, and still is, of al religions.
Anyways, any kind of god is a miserable and pathetic excuse for a useless reason to live. Evolution makes us what we are and we are nothing in universe, so, its impossible we have a reason in our lives. We are going to give more life when we die, and our lives just cause death. Just think about it.

P.D.: miracles = magic = tricks = illutions, jaja

i believe in what Sai Akuto(Ichiban ushiro) said that God is merely a system created by desperate human. A being that possess an omnipotence power like that doesn't exist at all.
He may be omniscient ,but omnipotence is impossible

This is weird. How can he know everything when there are things out of his reach?

Not that I believe in god anyway. That just kinda caught my attention.

I'd never thought of the amputee stuff before, but it is a pretty solid inductive argument. I think the best types of religious arguments are ones that people can relate to, because most of the logical conjecture is lost on your average person - who honnestly probably doesnt really know what they believe anyway.

I will say though, while yes, religious background is not the sole criteria for making senseless decisions, it still does tend to be one of the criteria for making senseless decisions. As I hinted at before, I think atheism also can be classified as a religion to an extent, because so long as people are still telling you what to think and what to believe, atheism will still breed the same sort of conflict traditional religion has bred for centuries.

That will never change though, people will always hate, and there will always be conflict. There are deeper problems with religion than this however, and it goes back to what I've been terming 'senseless' decisions. I agree, you cannot say that religion is a bad thing, but you can't call it good either. Wasting time arguing over who's fictional belief is the true fictional belief, and sitting in church on sundays to pray to something that does not exist can hardly be called intelligent or efficient. I think society can do better than a belief structure that is only senseless, afterall, science is all about progression. And for whatever else atheism is, at least it isn't sensless.

How can lack of belief in something be a religion to any extent? Not sure, but I think James Randi once said this, "Calling atheism a religion is like calling not collecting stamps a hobby."

As I see it, a religion is a religion because of its beliefs, not how much the followers preach. Some atheists are just assholes about it.

That's just the extreme end of things. Actively proselytizing doesn't have to involve going around saying there's no such thing. Trying to teach others the way of skepticism and how that leads to atheism doesn't sound all that religious.

My point here is that "preaching" one's ideas may be part of religions, but doesn't make the religion. Also, a single belief doesn't make a religion either, as it is a system of beliefs.

I don't care how much of an asshole about it some guy who calls himself atheist is, and how much he might resemble those who are religious (in preaching shit), I will not see that belief as religious. He has faith in the belief (he claims to know) that god does not exist, and that's all I leave it at.

Claiming that god doesn't exist (I believe they're called "strong atheists") alone doesn't make him "religious", but if there are other beliefs that accompany it like "theists aren't intelligent", that would make him more than just an atheist, so I guess you can probably call that religious.

Not. Really.

But you can go ahead with that.

You folks do realize there's a difference between philosophy, a set of beliefs, and religion?