Like there's a difference?

Way to follow Pascal's Wager.

~Zoo

Ah, but you fail to prove anything else.

I personally hypocritically despise Pascal's Wager.

I do like Pascal, though.

So you'd rather put faith in something that you can't prove, period. Meh, sorry, but that sounds like  bunch of bull hokey. But hey, whatever floats your boat.

Also, I have no religion. My skepticism is soley based on the inability to prove the existance of God. I mean I do think that there is something out there greater than us, but I don't think of it as you do. For me, I just try to live a life that I feel is right; be honest, hard working, etc...

 

1. Who knows, at this moment *NO ONE* can prove that. All there is what the Christian Bible says, or the Koran, or the other various religious texts say. In my opinion, to believe whatever they say as truth requires faith, not evidence.

 

2. Who knows. Personally, I find both science and religion to be flawed. On one hand you have the big bang, on the other you have an almight God, but the question I have...if either of those are correct, then what about before them? If things need a source, then where did God come from? He can't, logically, just been. Likewise, where did the big bang come from? It couldn't have just happened, and neither could whatever caused it.

 

3. How can you say you have evidence of what you believe in? Personally, I just live life and don't bother proving it, because it's a personal thing. I'm Diest in that aspect. For that matter, why bother having to shove "prove it" into each other's noses? If you're happy with your beliefs, then okay, but they're your beliefs, right?

 

On evidence: Can you give evidence, direct observable evidence concerning the existance of your God? I mean you can prove with evidence that a rock is hard, it's there, you can touch it, feel it, test it, etc... As for evidence of God? Eh, can't do much with it.

 

 

All I need as evidence is existence.

*sigh*...you just don't get science, do you?

~Zoo

But what evidence is there to prove his existence? You cannot say logically that God exists because he does. That's faulty. You're belief that the evidence for God is that he exists, is flawed, because you cannot say that A exists just because of B.

Dude, seriously, I understand and even share some of your beliefs, but faith without logic or rational is just blind faith. Your God gave you a brain, obviously for it to be used, and how can you be using it (i.e. thinking, logic, etc...) when you makes statements like you do, that's not thinking.

By your logic, I could say that the supreme creator is a pink fluffy bunny and it'd be just fine, because the evidence is my faith/belief in its existence.



Not many do really.

Meh, I know you can say all that, but can you prove anything?

Life's too complex to be random.

From a pure standpoint of reason consciousness is only a means of awareness of existence, so consciousness cannot pre-exist existence. A consciousness aware only of itself is a contradiction.

If the bible is the infallible word of god then god sure doesn't care for intelligent inquisitive creations. He creates existence in 6 days a few thousand years ago with the false appearance of extreme age for what reason? He leaves no evidence of a soul or afterlife or anything that suggest there's anything outside of natural processes at work in existence. In the bible he exercises his powers not by using the omnipotent powers necessary to create existence, but through natural processes like plagues and floods. Even needing Noah to gather up his creations to save them from himself. Just turn everyone he's piss't at back into dirt, that can't be as hard as creating a hundred billion galaxies. He fails to reveal himself to his more modern creations as he did 2000+ years ago when we could now see and understand and spread his ministry to everyone instead of having to rely on ancient unverifiable and unreliable witnesses.

He sure does favor those that can suspend or are incapable of reason or logic and it just keeps getting worse for those whom want to believe but can't numb their brains. We're not far from synthesizing chromosomes and booting up life from digital information and inert chemicals. That will be a sad day because it will for me at least crush the dream of heaven. They better cure death by then.

Can you?

And yes, life is complex. But that doesn't mean that it has to have been created by a God. It all comes down to personal belief, you believe what you want, and I'll believe what I want.

I don't have to prove anything. I just have to prove two things that God makes very hard. That He exists, and that the universe had a beginning.

One is self-explanitory. The other... well, God insists on free will, so he makes himself scarce.

I submit that life is too complex to have been created all at once.

Besides, life is never random...natural selection pretty much dictates how life works.

~Zoo

Granted, the latter is true, something somewhere happened, and now here we are. Actually, that's what I'm trying to say, is if you're going to put forth that God is real, be ready to (attempt) to prove it.

Eh, I'm not so sure if he insists on free will. I often wonder, if there is indeed a "God," what he thinks about his creations and the result of being given free will.

I'm skeptical by nature, yet do believe that there is something, somewhere better than here and now, but I won't even begin to assume I know what it is. For all we know, what created everything, your God, is nothing more than an organic organism.

Ah, but life was not created all at once, it took six days.

Within six days even I can list off all the stuff needed for life and the universe.

And God is better than me.

1. What did we come from?  Most likely, from space as the anceint earth (billions of years old, not thousands) was pelted by meteors and other space debris.
2. Did that start from nothing or does it have a cause?   See above.
3. How can you say you have evidence to justify that?  Yes, I can. Science bears this out. Can you? You have a book (bible) that was written by man, influenced by thousands of preceeding years from other 'gods' and 'beliefs'. It's a book... just a book. Full of hate for 'others' that aren't the 'Chosen People'. Are you aware of the Mitharas cult? It existed many years before jesus was born, and it was EXACTLY the 'virgin birth' story, with a kindly 'god' who also gets maryterd and rises after 3 days and goes to heaven.

 

Different suggestions have been made.  One answer to the infiniteness question is a cyclical universe that goes from big bang to big contraction, but scientists have shown that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.  A subsequent contraction is unlikely.

 

What is significant about that?  If scientists had an agenda against religion, like so many of these zombies propose, they would have covered up that info.  Being honest was more important to them - not on a moral level, but because that is what science is, and without that rigorous honesty when looking at facts, science isn't science. 

 

THAT is when you could call it a religion.