'There Is No God', or 'I Believe There Is No God'?

[PorkPie]

I strongly disbelieve in God, through no fault of my own.

[widdershins]

I strongly disbelieve in God, through no fault of my own.

That's how I feel.  I gave fairy tales a fair shake.  Far more than fantastical tales of magical woo deserved.  It was my search for God which brought me to the conclusion that there are no gods.

[Mike Cl]

I strongly disbelieve in God, through no fault of my own.

I feel the same.  I disbelieve--that is my emotional answer.  But I like to take 'belief' out of the argument (at least for myself) because that word implies to me that thinking and proof has no room in that process.   I like to say that I am a nonbeliever and not an atheist.  'Atheist' means roughly anti-theist, and I'm not that.  I'm not against people who are theists.  Most are nice people--willfully ignorant--but nice.  So, I'm not against them, but don't share any of their belief system or reasoning system.  'Atheist' too often is taken to indicate that a person knows there is a god but is just against god.  I don't think that way--I have determined there is no god(s) through thinking and reasoning.  Hence I am a nonbeliever. 

The default should be (and is for me) that there is no god(s), so why should I think there is one or several?  If you believe there is, then it is incumbent upon you to give me some proof to show I am wrong.  Too often, the theist wants me to disprove his/her belief.  That is not the way it works.  Bugs Bunny isn't real and unless I can produce some data to prove otherwise, he is and will remain a fiction.  So to with any god--there is not proof.  So, I think there is no god(s)--I am a nonbeliever in anything supernatural.   

[Baruch]

lying to your child is only a good way to parent when you are teaching your children about honesty and how to spot a lie. It's good to be wise to bullshit at any age. But lying to a child in order to fool them into believing in some fantasy is counter productive. Why not teach your children to be gullible idiots while you're at it? I have never told my children that santa is real. I have always been against telling kids that.

Not selling Santa is fine ... that is an American marketing gimmick from the the 1920s.  But your kids are constantly exposed to lies at school, from the teachers and the other kids, and whatever TV etc you let them watch.  I accept freedom of speech, and how it can both help or harm my child (when she was little).

[Unbeliever]

No idea.

I don't know how he made a cow either but I know he made it.

He has revealed to everyone enough information to know a. That he exists and b. We are accountable to him and have all failed to match His Glory.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

How the hell could anyone - anyone at all - not fail to match His glory!? How could any finite being match the glory of an infinite deity?


I see the poster's been banned, but he may still read this and ask himself some needed questions.

[Unbeliever]

This is what it feels like here, sometimes:

[Simon Moon]

I strongly disbelieve in God, through no fault of my own.

I agree with the following addition: I strongly disbelieve in all gods that have ever been presented to me.

And, yes, it is not our fault. If a god exists, and he wants humans to believe he does, the onus is purely his/hers/its/theirs.

[Solomon Zorn]

I think, a lot of theists have proving the existence of God, confused with proving something in a courtroom. In the courtroom, a defendant's statements are, more or less, true until proven false. But in logic, a premise is, more or less, false until proven true. The problem is, they see themselves as the defendant(being called a liar), rather than the accuser(who makes a positive claim). They think you have to prove them guilty of false belief, rather than proving their own beliefs.

[SGOS]

I think, a lot of theists have proving the existence of God, confused with proving something in a courtroom. In the courtroom, a defendant's statements are, more or less, true until proven false. But in logic, a premise is, more or less, false until proven true. The problem is, they see themselves as the defendant(being called a liar), rather than the accuser(who makes a positive claim). They think you have to prove them guilty of false belief, rather than proving their own beliefs.

The recent Randy, now in purgatory, attempted to do just that with several posts devoted to the methodology of the justice system as a blue print for proving the existence of God.  Although, it got more convoluted than that.

[Solomon Zorn]

The recent Randy, now in purgatory, attempted to do just that with several posts devoted to the methodology of the justice system as a blue print for proving the existence of God.  Although, it got more convoluted than that.

The method was championed by Josh McDowell, the author of a book, popular when I was in Bible college in the mid 80's, called Evidence That Demands a Verdict. It's the book that got me interested in apologetics, and led to my taking a class in logic.

[PorkPie]

I was taking to a Christian on another forum the other day, his 'proof' that God exists is that he had an electrical fault in his house that was going to cost him over £2000 to fix, he offered a prayer to the almighty and lo and behold, the fault rectified itself.
Need I say more.

[Solomon Zorn]

I have a Christian friend, who is an older lady in my building. Her proof of God, went something like this:

She was visiting a person in the hospital, when something fell on the floor.

She bent down to pick it up, and a feeling came over her that she should pray for the person, so she did.

The person died a short time later.

Therefore God must have told her to pray.

No further proof needed.

[SGOS]

I was taking to a Christian on another forum the other day, his 'proof' that God exists is that he had an electrical fault in his house that was going to cost him over £2000 to fix, he offered a prayer to the almighty and lo and behold, the fault rectified itself.
Need I say more.

£2000 to fix an electrical fault? 

First, he needs to get a bid from another contractor.  Second, more likely he's fibbing to make it seem like a bigger miracle.  Third, the second is silly, because miracles are not measured by the amount of money you save.  Fourth, his whole story is most likely not even true.

It's just a repackaging of the one about the doctor telling you that you died on the operating table while you were having an out of body experience.  What kind of a medical diagnosis is that anyway?

"Oh Doctor, the patient's heart stopped."
"Just give him a jolt, and wake him up."
<Pop!>
"There Doctor, he's back to life.  Oh wait, now he's dead again."
"Just up the voltage, and give him another jolt."
<Pop!>
"Oh, he's alive again.  Doctor, you brought the patient back to life!"
"Yes, Nurse.  Make sure you tell that to the patient when he wakes up.  They always get a thrill when they hear that.  You can also charge them extra."

[widdershins]

I was taking to a Christian on another forum the other day, his 'proof' that God exists is that he had an electrical fault in his house that was going to cost him over £2000 to fix, he offered a prayer to the almighty and lo and behold, the fault rectified itself.
Need I say more.

I would have him check his local building codes.  I highly doubt "God" made it through the licensing procedures to do electrical work.  That would raise some red flags and he might be in for some serious fines and then have to have a licensed electrician look it over anyway.  I'm not saying God doesn't do good work, but electricians are licensed for a reason.

[PorkPie]

I did advise him to get a qualified electrician to take a look at Gods handywork, I also pointed out to him that at the exact same time that God was sorting out his electrics for him, a child somewhere in the world was dying.

My comments didn't go down well.