The evidence is unnecessary

So regardless of dogma, as long as one has faith in one's god its okay? If only practioners of all those religions actually behaved that way.

Yes, if one does not believe in the Abrahamic or any other gods, then rejection of its religious dogma follows. I'm surprised you haven't figured that out.

You have that bass ackwards. Its a "being" based on an idea. The idea being a supernatural entity that presides over us and causes all kinds of natural human interactions, not to mention natural disasters.

Funny but last time I looked "ideas" were the exclusive realm of man.

 

Where did the 'ideas' come from?

 

No, good deeds are also required.

Rejecting God is not the same as rejecting religion.

No, it is an idea based on the One God who is alone worthy of worship.

 

why not a god of Good and a god of Evil?

 

God alone is Master.

 

maybe the Bible and koran are wrong.

ever consider that?

 

if god alone is the master of his creation, why does his creation suck so much?

 

yes, PRACTIONERS.

Okay lets be clear here. You can't have religion without a deity.

God IS the idea in the first place.

 

The minds of men. Generally speaking ideas are created by human intelligence, knowledge, creativity and our superior problem solving abilities. IOW Sapience.

 

Ever hear of deists?

God can exist without being an idea.

 

He, she , it is a sadistic bastard?

 

No god cannot exist without being an idea. Since god by definition is supernatural, it can only be described by the ideas of man.
Its called imagination.

 

Yeah, I am like that too. I have not seen any evidence that says a Creator does not exist. I have only seen opinions, in one way or the other. Of course, if God only exists outside of thought and memory, then that would explain the lack of evidence, in either direction. For if God is immeasurable, thought could never capture that. And any attempt would be impossible.

And so, the only rational point of view is that NO ONE KNOWS. And it is only arrogance of the human brain that says otherwise. The world is filled with such arrogance, some are called atheists some called theists. Then there is a group that says they do not know, exhibiting humility, and we call them agnostics, the most intelligent of the 3 tribes. And the only group of the 3 that is not emotionally invested in the argument. And the only group that has any integrity. And it is the agnostics that do not go around creating conflict, stirring up emotions that historically have ended up with humans killing one another over some damned ideas, created by the brain. Agnostics are also probably the less egocentric of the 3 groups.

 

Then I guess he ain't that powerful 'cause I ain't a believin' w/out the evidence!

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But a talking donkey just feels so right!

 

God has failed 99.9% of the time that he's (allegedly) created a new species of animal. That's actually true, as 99.9% have gone extinct.....fail. So the Bible is wrong, he didn't design us....he doesn't exist.

 

Yes, I'm aware that atheists view God as an imaginary concept (one their obsessed with, of course).

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Well, duh. You are the most smug and derisive atheist on this board.

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Free will. It's so easy to blame God and not oneself.

 

You're going to blame free will for earthquakes and floods and tornados?

 

I blame "acts of god"....i.e. Jesus/Allah. Ok I don't really - too bad he's not actually real or he could prevent those tragedies from happening. Too bad.

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No, no, no, it's the gays we have to blame!!!! Pat Robertson said so, and god/Jesus approve of killing the gays, so I guess Pat must be right!!

 

The bolded is an interesting point.

It lends credence to the idea that free will is an illusion when an all powerful being initiates and watches over the universe.

And for that reason, it means that this being cannot be considered benevolent.

 

If you had god's superpowers you could change that, however....make me a better person....for example, Goomba, if you had god's superpowers would you provide court-room level of evidence (evidence so convincing that it can be used in a court of law) for your (god's) existence? I wouldn't be a "smug atheist" if you did that, I'd actually be quite thankful. Would you provide that evidence if you had's god's Superpowers, Goomba? You seem like a pretty decent kind of guy.

 

No. Free will is not an illusion. It is real. Man can choose to reject God if he wants to.

 

"God" kinda looks like a fool, I gotta say, and if I was looking like a fool, I'd provide evidence, evidence that would educate those darned atheists and keep them from hell at the same time - because I care about people. God obviously doesn't care about people. He also selfishly keeps the cure to cancer to himself (or is he not all-powerful and can create such a cure?)

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By "reject God" you mean to embrace science, reason, and critical thinking, I assume.

 

Is it really a choice though if God set everything into motion already knowing ahead of time what choices we would make?

If we assume this being is all-powerful and all-knowing, then literally everything that happens is essentially a program that God set into motion. We're merely the products of our environment.

 

That has to be one of the stupidest comments I have read here. Religion is not incompatible with science, reason, and critical thinking.

 

Like I said earlier, humans have the free will to acquiesce to the signs of God. But many people stay stubborn to the end, and reject God out of arrogance and what not.

There are people who DON'T want to believe in God, but they nevertheless give excuses (where's the evidence?) just to make themselves feel better .