The evidence is unnecessary

Here is the thing as far as I can tell: if God can make you believe regardless of the lack of evidence, he has taken away your ability to question. Then it becomes a matter of whether you'd rather reign in hell or serve in heaven.

 

I find this to be incorrect. Things have to display tangible data (or whatever) in order to _be believed_, not to exist.

 

First, its utterly ridiculous to claim that only unintelligent people believe in God. About 90% of Americans believe in God.

Second, what you want is objective unequivocal proof that will convince a person who has already rejected God. There is no such proof.

But there is evidence, and while evidence is not proof there is enough evidence to convince many people that God does exist to the point that it changes their life. People examine the events of their own lives, they see how other people behave, they observe the natural world and history, and decide that God exists.

 

Of course there is no such proof...as a matter of fact proof suggests otherwise. Why kind of maniac living in the ether inflicts the pain and misery that this sky daddy does and still deserves reverence and worship. The natural world's existence depends upon what the scientific world reveals. Keep your hooey for yourself. And btw... there has been a steady drop in believers of myths and fairy tales.

Less People Believe in God, More are Exiting the Church
http://www.worldreligionnews.com/re...le-believe-in-god-more-are-exiting-the-church

 

Which god or gods are you referring too when you say god, thought out history there have been thousands

 

Then why doesn't he? Seems to me your god isn't believed in by billions of people, many of whom are religious.

It is hardly unfounded. Perhaps you can point to anything beside god and his supernatural minions that doesn't display "tangible data" of some sort.
But I do agree that belief in the supernatural is a prerequisite for belief in god.

I submit to higher authority all the time. Its called the law. As to getting over my own ego what does that have to do with believing in the supernatural?

"Hide behind the excuse of lack of evidence"? Seems you confuse "excuse" with "reason". and I don't know many atheists who "hide", except when they are prone to be hacked to death by some religious nutbar like the Daesh scum.

Nope. Nice try tho. Atheists don't worship anything in a religious sense. All humans have egos and all humans to some degree or another possess vanity and conceit.

Of course atheism is a " form of rejecting god", however, I'd be curious if you believe being a Hindi is also a form of rejecting god, or being a Buddhist, or being an animist?

 

I don't have a god. God is the Lord of the universe, and whether you call Him Jesus or whatever doesn't change that.

The law is a creation of man, so you are basically submitting to man. So I guess atheism is self-worship after all.

 

There is no higher authority and we all are equally endowed with the supreme power the world is endowed with. That is the philosophy of Vedanta, the ancient Hindu scriptures. God is not an entity, not something that sits on a high seat in heaven. This is an illusory thinking, and the Biblical God as most Christians believe in appears somewhat primitive and mythological. But the existence of God in the Vedas is taken differently, and it has more to do with consciousness and this is the collective consciousness that permeates all material realities. Let us dig into that greater wisdom in the ancient Vedic texts to experience some higher truths that has little to do with theism and atheism. Both can shake hands in that reality.

 

And that is the closest that the human race will ever get to being in harmony with a higher plane, but this will never happen with the current crop nor the ones before them.

 

The only thing I reject is unsubstantiated claims. I like your efforts here to argue that your claims don't require substantiation -- they are most amusing.

Nothing happens that requires God (whatever the brand) as an explanation, and attempts to assert God as an explanation fail, because God actually explains nothing. It's a place-holder at best.

 

There is a possibility to be in harmony with the powers that empower this world. That is not any other power than what we integrally possess but cannot realize. If we realize we understand how this world works what moves it. I do not know but I guess the Vedas have some clues to this fact.

 

Of course you have a god. Your god isn't the Hindi god fer instance.

Yes, just like every religious scripture and all associated dogma is a creation of man. I do not submit to "man" I am a man and submit to the legal dictates of the society I live in.

Psst ...... You aren't a very good guesser.

 

Is this "Hindi god" the Lord and Creator of the universe?

The former is your opinion; as to the latter, these "legal dictates" are created by man.

 

all Gods are the same.

all fantasy.

 

Yep, at least according to the faithful.

No actually it is not my opinion, its factual. The development of both Christian and Islamic scripture has been pretty well documented. last I heard it was written or at least recited by men.

you seem to feel that the author(s) had direct conversation with god or one of his minions, thereby proving divine origin. From my perspective people who hear voices other than their own in their heads have serious mental issues.

 

True!!!

 

So where's the problem; we all believe in God.

You wish....

 

this might explain it to you

 

No, the natural worlds existence does not depend upon what the scientific world reveals, science helps humans understand the Universe but the Universe operates independently of humans knowledge.

Read the actual Pew poll cited in your link, it shows that of all adults, in 2007 92% believed in God, in 2014 89% believe in God. Hardly a significant shift, so small its not even noteworthy. And 89% is a massive majority.

Your link makes it sound like a big deal by discussing subsets of the population.

Interest in religion ebbs and flows with the times, its been that way for all of history. At times some people claim to be enlightened and have risen above the need for religion, it does not last.

 

In history during times of plague, millions of people lost their faith in a GOD. Imagine seeing your loved ones die and so many others that lived around you die and GOD stayed invisible and silent. This is definitely a time frame when everyone's faith was tested and then they realized there was no GOD.

 

I am an Atheist, but I wouldn't try to kill Christ if he appeared today. On the contrary, I would agree with him most of the time and vehemently defend his right to speak his mind and act voluntarily.

I am not anti-religion, it's just not my view. To each their own, I'll even come to Church and pray if the situation calls for it (baptisms, Christmas, etc).

 

A rather ignorant summation why people become athiests. While it is true that there's no evidence of god that's not the reason people become athiests. The reason people become athiests is because of the overwhelming evidence that man created god as opposed to god creating man.

We can track the origins of many religions and we see that they basically plagerize prior religions, add to that with new teachings, and then market the religion to the people with an underlying agenda of securing political power.

For example the Jewish religion plagerized the early religion of ancient Mesopotamia by stealing stories from the Epic of Gilgamesh. Later the "Christians" (a small Jewish cult) created the New Testament (about 30 years after the death of Jesus) where they adopted some of the Jewish beliefs, mixed in a little Greek Mythology (Jesus was a demigod like Perseus and Hades rules the underworld - hell), and then marketed the religion predominately to the Romans. Next came Islam that adopted some of the Jewish religions, some of the Christian religion, and created a new religion from them. Even the Mormons modified Christian teachings to create a unique religion of their own.

The evolution of new religions from old religions is so fundamental and so well documented with actual evidence that it cannot be disputed.

It's the evidence, not a lack of evidence, that leads an informed person to become an athiest.

 

I never said that all atheists would but history shows us what happened before.

 

The Bible was written over 1500 years by around 40 different authors and there are no contradictions in it. That in itself would probably be impossible without some divine intervention. Many of the authors also did not have access to other writings which makes this even more miraculous. Imagine if someone told you to continue a story that has been going on for 1000 years and not being given the actual written story to read first. At the most you have stories people tell about what happened.

 

Try explaining the 101 contradictions in the Bible listed on the following link:

http://www.answering-christianity.com/101_bible_contradictions.htm

Only very ignorant people believe the Bible contains no contradictions. Even the number of "Commandments" that God gave to Moses varies from about eight to twelve (as I recall) based upon which passages are read. We can also note that the canonization of the Bible occurred in about 300 AD and that the Church omitted anything that didn't fit with it's political agenda and modified texts as necessary to comply with it's agenda.