Atheists/PF atheists/Define Imaginary Friend when used to describe God

Discussion in 'Religion & Philosophy' started by Doc Dred, Feb 2, 2012.

  1. Doc Dred

    Doc Dred Banned

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    The imaginary friend analogy is just a low blow ridicule in my books.
    It actually shows one hasn't even given much thought to the concept of God even.

    I will leave further , till the discussion gets going .

    has this been a thread yet here on PF?

    I ask if everyone can focus on the topic.
     
  2. lopey

    lopey Banned

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    Why would one give much thought to a concept they don't believe in. Do you give the tooth fairy much thought?
     
  3. charliedk

    charliedk New Member Past Donor

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    from my humble teachings at a catholic school when I was a kid the nuns always told us god has always existed..
     
  4. Doc Dred

    Doc Dred Banned

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    Only because of the plethora of claims here at PF concerning the OP.

    So it is fair to create such a thread.

    but btw you and me...your inept attempt at making a psuedo pf atheist retort was expected.
    Also lol...your very response is a misnomer within a misnomer reply

    heh heh....

    NEXT!!!!:bored:
     
  5. lopey

    lopey Banned

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    ????? ok big guy
     
  6. XVZ

    XVZ Banned

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    We humans, and primates in general project consciousness into others. It is very useful for numerous reasons, but specifically in relation to learning. When you pick up an object, a sequence of neurons will fire in your brain. If you watch someone picking up an object, the same neurons will fire in your brain.

    Likewise, if you see someone being tapped on the shoulder, neurons in your brain fire just as when you are being tapped on the shoulder. People who have the connection to their nervous system compromised will even feel the sensation of tapping just by watching someone being tapped on the shoulder. It is essentially the neurological underpinnings of empathy. Some regions are more sensitive as you may know if you've seen anyone kicked in the nuts.

    Anyway, this projection is routinely applied to all manner of objects. Anyone who has operated with Windows is familiar. Or, 'if I go to the park, it will rain' as if the order of nature takes into account ones desire just for the sake of spite.

    The concept of gods stems from humans' condition to project consciousness. The gods are projection of consciousness onto the universe or nature in general. (e.g the gods sent this natural disaster because he is angry)

    So how do we relieve the gods anger? Oh right, lets be friends. Yay, friends. Woo, friends! We just have to acknowledge it and he'll be our friends. Of course it is a he... Make him feel important and then we can be friends!

    So that is essentially what the imaginary friend thing is all about. It is condescending, but what about it?
     
  7. Wolverine

    Wolverine New Member Past Donor

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    It just goes to show that certain people have given the concept of god quite a bit of thought, and they find indistinguishable from an imaginary friend.
     
  8. rstones199

    rstones199 Well-Known Member

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    Because that is what 'god' is.
     
  9. Someone

    Someone New Member

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    In what way does god differ from an imaginary friend? People claim that "he" talks to them, directs their actions, saves them from danger, etc. Yet no one else can actually observe any of this. It is entirely in their head. That sounds like an imaginary friend to me.
     
  10. FreeWare

    FreeWare Active Member Past Donor

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    Who told you it's an analogy?

    It's not.
     
  11. Swensson

    Swensson Devil's advocate

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    Hi Doc, good to see you again

    As for the argument, for starters, most of the time when that argument comes up, there is no actual persuasion going on, more general ridiculing. If anything, the atheists in questions are going after Richard Dawkins' idea that ridiculing people for believing in God would have the same effect as ridiculing people who believe in Santa.

    To me, the argument is based in the same problem the entire theist/atheist discussion is. Insufficient definition of God. One cannot "give much thought to the concept of God" if God is undefined.

    An atheist is not interested in features or actions of God (well, he can be, I'm not claiming to talk for atheists), in order to ponder an entity whose existence is debated, one has to look for the necessary and sufficient conditions to fulfil in order to be whatever we are discussing. For instance, if we are discussing the existence of dogs, it is irrelevant for a believer in dogs to say "My dog is playful", since it is not a necessary condition, dogs do not have to be playful. Likewise, it would be irrelevant for a believer in God to give examples of things God has or would have done unless they are necessary. To quote John 3:16 is completely useless in trying to discern the nature of God, as many (but far from all) Christians claim.

    In the end, a set of sufficient and necessary conditions has not been supplies, and consequentially, we don't know what the difference between a god and an imaginary friend would be.

    That being said, the purpose of saying it is probably one of ridicule. There is of course the fact that an atheist sees God as made up to the same extent as an imaginary friend. However, the only theists who have not already considered this unbiasedly would probably not be persuaded anyway.
     
  12. XVZ

    XVZ Banned

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    You are right in a way. It is more for satirical effect. Example:

    youtube.com/watch?v=nlTiMmVQa0s&t=09m49s

    Is it not curious that we have a group of people that we all agree is in bad taste to make jokes of: mentally handicapped, mentally ill, physically disabled... and religious people go 'oh there is a group we belong in!' You cannot make fun of belief in gods, how dare you!

    As an aside, can I just say that this site is mad. In another thread when I was trying to have the youtube video come up in the post, it wouldn't. Now, when I try to duplicate that by having it just as a link, it keeps inserting the video. I didn't want the whole video, just the joke which is 10 minutes in. Aaarr!
     
  13. XVZ

    XVZ Banned

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    Studies ought to be done to see if children's neural activity is similar to adults' neural activity when asked about what their respective imaginary friends believe. Will it correlate with estimating an "other" or the "self": Believers’ estimates of God’s beliefs are more egocentric than estimates of other people’s beliefs
     
  14. FreeWare

    FreeWare Active Member Past Donor

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    It is not a joke or a ridicule to conclude that a mentally ill person communicates with an imaginary friend, - it is merely a part of listing the symptoms in order to make a diagnosis.
     
  15. Tram Law

    Tram Law Banned

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    Well, you want to know the irony is to that?

    We all make God in our own image.

    So think of it this way, if God must be imaginary to them then they must be imaginary to everybody else.

    :love:
     
  16. Kit

    Kit New Member

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    Which is an admittance that "God" is not actually a being existing objectively and independent of anyone's mind, but is indeed a subjective imaginary friend.

    It's like that saying, "On the 5 trillionth day, man created god."
     
  17. fishmatter

    fishmatter New Member

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    Would you object if we were just to use quotes - "god"? Just to keep it clear that we view him as hypothetical and hopefully without the implications of "imaginary friend"?

    I'm fine with that if you are.
     

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