How can any logical person be an atheist?

This is the nub of the supernaturalist's unease. The default state is atheism. Until a child is told there is a God, it does not believe. When it is told that an otherwise undetectable being exists, then it might logically say that as it is undetectable it cannot impinge on the reality of my experience so I will discard the claim. This is not active disbelief, but an initial lack of belief.

 

think of all the gods you do not believe in... now when you think of an atheist, realize, they only disbelieve in one more God then you do

are you being logical thinking your right and all the other god beliefs are wrong? you have to use your same logic for all the God's you disbelieve in

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I believe that we're born with an innate knowledge of God. I believe this can be demonstrated in the fact that almost every culture has some form of a God. I believe we're "hard wired" for worship.

 

Whether that's true or not, my son hasn't expressed any sentiments that indicate a belief in any god. He thinks thomas the tank engine is real, but not god. He's an atheist, but I've never told him to be one.

 

You apparently do not see that the God of the Bible is the Force behind the ever unfolding next frame of Reality which sires in "His" wake a son called The Truth.
It is the image of Truth that man was created such that he is privy to know the father of Truth, reality itself, which cries out to us at birth, "I am."

Our survival as a species depends upon salvation through faith in the Truth which we model mentally, as if it were the real external world within which we are both trapped and threatened, while nurtured, too.

Realty exists.
It is strange to us who left the solitude of the womb.
It cries out, "I, too, am."

We know we exist because we think, but this Reality is out there and known to us through only the seven senses that gather messages, incoming.
What we have learned about this "I am also here with you," is that our species has the promise of eternal life if, and only is, we learn how to adapt to this almighty "I am."

You, personally, have the promise of genetic reconstruction of you psyche in some new born again experience way in the future,... if you aid our species in the goal of Life, i.e.; survival.

 

I believe we are born with a need to belong, and indoctrination supports that need. Thus we see immensely diverse world views around the globe, but primarily homogenous ones within a cultural group.
The chances that you, elijah, would be a Christian had you been born in Iran are extremely remote.
Man is burdened with the ability to cogitate over his existence. We are the animal aware of its impending death long before it arrives, and we dread it. It doesn't take long for man to invent ways to believe that this eventuality can be overcome.

 

I am an agnostic atheist.

I totally agree with Hitchens Razor




As an agnostic I realize that the lack of evidence is not evidence of lack. BUT, lack of evidence cannot be construed as fact or realitiy.

 

Circular reasoning. You're essentially saying that God exists because people believe he exists. Which is ridiculous.

 

But, but, but atheists are so proud of their hypocrisy and hatred???

 

Personal belief is personal belief. There is just no way to answer the question " does God exit" either in the negative or the affirmative.

The best we can get to is "We just don't know"

To go one step further - even if one did strongly suspect there was a God, there is no way to ascertain the nature of this God.
What folks believe about the nature of this God is then pure speculation. We are left with speculation x 2.

"I suspect there is a God and I suspect that this God is such and such"

Personally, I believe that there must be a God. The key here is defining what a God actually is.

For me a God would be an entity that can control energy through force of will, thus having the power to create worlds, reorganize matter, and so forth with a mere thought.

To some degree humans have this capacity within their own bodies. You can prove this to yourself by willing your finger to move. Wow .. your finger moved !
This may seem like a trivial thing but it is not. Somehow your will was made manifest into physical reality.

The power of a human's will is limited to their own body. A Gods power would not be limited to this. (perhaps the entire universe is the body of God and we are all manifestations of Gods will ?)

Regardless of how this power looks or the extent of this power, my proposition is that a God would be able to manipulate matter and energy through force of will.

My proof that such a God exists is as follows:

The only thing we know for sure is that we exist and we have the ability to will things to happen within our own bodies. Where this will comes from is a mystery. We just know that we have it and that is all.

The universe as we know it is made up of two things, Matter and Energy, there may be other things but it matters not to the proof.

Proposition 1: At some point some configuration of matter, energy, or a combination of the two, gained knowledge of itself.

Proof: We exist - "I think therefore I am", or the better version "I drink therefore I am"

Matter and energy are connected and at the sub atomic level transform back and forth. Without getting into theoretical physics we can state that matter is a form of energy. E = M x C <squared>

If the some configuration of energy (in the form of humans) gained knowledge of itself. It is vein to think that are not other configurations of energy that are also self aware.

The will of a human happens to be limited to control over the energy in his/her own body.

Is it possible that the energy as a whole is self aware and is able to control itself through this will? Such a thing would be a really massive God and be everywhere at all times. My claim is that we exist so it must be.

Even if this is not true - there still is a good chance that there are other lesser Gods. Configurations of matter and energy that are self aware and whose will is able to control the external environment. Perhaps humans have this ability but just have not unlocked it yet.

In an infinite amount of time, all possibilities will happen. (slight correction - unless there are infinite possibilities ) but that is getting into warped mathematics.

In general this is true.

Chances are that there are some lesser God's out there.

I take as a logical certainty that the energy as a whole has self awareness.

 

We do not even have to speculate on this one. It is a religious fact that most people stay true to the religion of their birth.

Those that wander are most often folks that question and have the capacity for objective reasoning.

Most of the dominant religions use some degree of mind control ( implanting fear of eternal punishment in the afterlife into people at childhood). This makes it unlikely that those who have weak questioning and objective reasoning skills will be able to confront this fear.

We can see this often when folks will cling to the most absurd arguments and/or engage avoidance and denial tactics, in order to avoid confronting ideas that conflict with their beliefs.

 

I don't know. From a fairly young age, I've had a hard time with the worship thing. Bowing down and grovelling just isn't in me.

 

So, then are you agnostic, or are you illogical? (and as others have said, atheism can simply be a lack of belief)


And would you say it's illogical to state that the Easter Bunny does not exist? I mean, you can't prove it; it takes faith.

 

If it's innate, then why is it ALMOST every culture, and why are there such different beliefs about god? Why are their millions of people that aren't religious? You have religions with no god, religious with multiple gods, religions with one god and that god is different then religions with another god. Doesn't exactly seem innate to me. Do you know what "innate" means?

I'd say that if we have anything innate, it's our pattern seeking mentality. We search for patterns and answers, and that is why you have many people thinking those answers are religious, but not all the same religion. That is why some people turn to science and give scientific explanations and seek more scientific explanations.

 

Not nearly so proud of their hypocrisy and hatred as Christians....

 

To me the most logical thing in the world is to not believe in God.

I am not a 'theist'- I am not an anti-theist- I just don't believe in Yaweh or Jehovah or that Jesus Christ or Buddha are God.

Could they be? Sure- its possible that I am God. Anything is possible but as a relatively logical person, I can't see any reason that I would believe in a God, as I have seen nothing that makes me even suspicious that there is such a being.

 

Not as proud as you are of your flamebait, trolling and baseless insults.

 

You don't say, dairyair?????

A little, or a LOT of humility, would do this nation a lot of good.

 

Do planets and stars exist on the other side of the universe?

YES???!?!? So, you're saying that you believe planets and stars exist, which you've never seen or had proof of evidence before????

Doesn't this make your rejection of God...........hypocritical????


God does not depend on YOUR BELIEVING IN HIM. You atheists need to recognize that the universe, and God, does NOT revolve around your egos.

YOU revolve around Him!

- - - Updated - - -

Typical atheist response.

 

no we don't. and scientists have "seen" stars on the other side of the universe.

 

So you're arguing that stars and planets didn't exist until we invented telescopes?

You're saying that man invented the stars and planets????


EXACTLY, PERFECT ATHEIST MENTALITY!!!! You guys actually believe the whole universe revolves around you.

WRONG, YOU revolve around the unvierse, and God, NOT the other way around.

 

no im not. im saying that we know stars are there because folks have visual evidence of them. you better try a bit harder pal, youre batting 0.000

 

Does this YELLING thing that you love to do on PF work in your real life? Do you run around screaming at people and they suddenly see the light and think as you do?
Just curious.

 

Take a deeeeeep breath. Caaaaaalm down.

Maybe if you chill the F out and actually read and think about what people are writing, you'll stop making ridiculous strawman arguments.

 

Answer the question atheists:

Does the existence of planets and stars DEPEND ON our seeing them? Do we need to sense something, in order for it to exist first?

OR.......do things EXIST without our knowing, seeing, and sensing them? Aren't you claiming that humans know everything about the universe?

Existence depends on the senses??????????????? WHAT?!