Don't believe in God? Why not? - Page 8

drolldurham · 02-06-2002, 07:20 PM

i say, we all get thrown in a big field, and we all get big guns and knives and tanks and........ rats!! with big teeth. then we all fight and kill each other!!!!! I SHALL TRIUMPH

or you should all just accept the fact that you all have different thoughts and go on playing GTA3.
and if you don't think GTA3 is a good game you are WRONG and you should DIE your opinions are STUPID.

carbon dating has proven it

BreakABone · 02-06-2002, 07:22 PM

As always an extremely interesting topic on religion at GT, I think it';s been a whole 2 months since we had one last.

Being lazy and catching the thread after some 100+ replies, I won't read through most of this, but it seems to have turned into another science vs religion thread.

The fact of the matter is I really don't trust either one. I mean they both share common problems...

1)For the most part neither can be proven.
2)For the most part either can be disproven also
3)You can't believe in both (I mean some can, but they basically try to disprove each other)

Well yadda..yadda..yadda...

Anyhow I also find it hard to buy into either since they aren't proven, but all exist in theory. I mean in Biology alone there are all these "If" this happens and then they find something to disprove it or change it..it's all so confusing...

sdtPikachu · 02-06-2002, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by BreakABone
I also find it hard to buy into either since they aren't proven, but all exist in theory.

Well, I would say this is because you misunderstand the nature of the word "theory" in the scientific sense. Time and time again I hear people saying "it's only a theory", using it in the same context as "the Loch Ness monster is only a theory".

There is a difference between a genuine scientific theory and what most people understand as theories... a scientific theory is a "rule" based on obervations... it IS substantited and "proven" to a reasonable level of certainty.

The reaon they are called theory rather than fact or law is that science is continually changing and adapting as more and more is discovered or re-examined... hence to call something a rule or law when you know very well that it might have to be changed next week is a bit daft.

"they basically try to disprove each other"

I wouldn't say so; science does not set out to try and disprove religion, although manysee it like that. There are many aspects of science that have little or nothing to do with belief and vice versa; many scientists are in fact religious to some extent. There is room for both of them in someone's life.

Even the pope managed to admit that evolution occurred...

"For the most part neither can be proven."

Well, science can be proved to be true beyond reasonable doubt for the vast majority of cases... that's how our theories come about.

"For the most part either can be disproven also"

What aspect of science do you know of that can be disproved?

""If" this happens and then they find something to disprove it or change it.."

Such is the nature of scientific adaption... if something happens that your theory can't account for, then the only option you have is to think up a better one which fits in with the available evidence.

"it's all so confusing..."

I guess it can be!

The_Dunadan · 02-06-2002, 07:47 PM

thanx for posting your beliefs guys. i'm eventually going to go through it and write down the good arguments and come up with answers for them sometime.

chris did a really good job of anwering and i agree with him a lot. i scanned some stuff so i'll give some brief statements...

gekko, nowhere in the bible does it say it waas an apple! quit listing that as a reason

and i believe the garden was destroyed shortly after adam and eve were kicked out or during the flood, which by the way this story is found in many many more places around the earth in different forms of writing.

i saw some stuff about religion. don't let religion get in the waay of your belief in god or your relationship with him. the right religions are the ones that go by the bible. the wrong ones are the ones that do things that go against it.

carbon dating is very innacurate.

something i saw said believing more in satan cause more bad going on. the bad is going on because so manty people have turned their back on god.

and finally, its about faith. god sent his son to die for us, shows us endless mercy, etc etc. now what he wants from us is our faith, our belief in something not physically seen. if he showed himself to us, physically, of course we would believe. but he want people who believe because they want to return his love he showed to them. btw, who are we that god should show himself to us.

thanx again for posting. hopefully someone will benefit from this, either through this thread or because next time i get asked some of these questions i'll be ready to answer them.

anything else to say you can contact me at dunadan00 on aim. my icq is in myt profile. or you could just post of course

sdtPikachu · 02-06-2002, 08:07 PM

"i saw some stuff about religion. don't let religion get in the waay of your belief in god or your relationship with him. the right religions are the ones that go by the bible. the wrong ones are the ones that do things that go against it."

Wow, now that IS offensive. You are a bigot. That was worse than anything that BJW has said. Instantly you've just dissed more than half of the worlds population. Well done.

Who are you to say what is right and wrong about someone's belief?

" the bad is going on because so manty people have turned their back on god."

Yeah? Prove it. I suppose you'll agree with Jerry Falwell and say that the 11-9 attacks are the fault of people like me... not forgetting the homosexuals, liberals, agnostics, hindu's, islamics and all the rest of it? Well I guess you may as well just kill me now, because in your eyes I'm obviously grossly inferior to human beings.

Your post displays a spectacular sense of total inconsideration for anyone with a belief that does not centre around the christian bible. It is people like you who give religion a bad name. Why can't you learn to accept people on their character instead of what god(s) they do or don't believe in? You have no right to decide which religion is "right" or "wrong" merely because your religion says that all others are wrong.

"hopefully someone will benefit from this"

Well maybe all the people who beileve in the same religion as you will. Everyone else however will have had their beliefs insulted by you.

Thank you very much for getting me annoyed. I hope you will choose your reply with a little more care and tact.

The_Dunadan · 02-06-2002, 08:11 PM

we'll do it one at a time. first thing, how did i diss half the world's population?

sdtPikachu · 02-06-2002, 08:16 PM

Cos more than half of the world doesn't follow the bible

The_Dunadan · 02-06-2002, 08:19 PM

i was talking about religions. somebody said how do we know which ones are right and which ones are wrong. so i said the right ones are the ones that follow the bible. they don't say things like....the world wan't created by god. it happened through evolution. that would be going against the bible. i wansn't really talking about people.

does this straighten things out?

sdtPikachu · 02-06-2002, 08:25 PM

Yes, it straightens things out: you have just re-asserted your original statement; namely that you consider religions which follow the bible to be "right" and iones which do not to be "wrong". Even if applied only to religion, you are still slagging off about three billion people.

I agree that atheism as far as I'm concerned isn't a religion per se, but it's a system of belief and you are claiming that all beliefs contrary to your own are "wrong"

Professor S · 02-06-2002, 08:46 PM

When it comes to Religion, I trust my gut.

My gut tells me there is a God. Not necessarily THE God. I believe there is a greater force because when I try to convince myself there's not, I don't even buy it. Something just tells me there is.

As for the rest of it, I don't know. I'm not goign to say that the Bible isn't true, I just don't know that it is. I mean, how many times was is passed down word of mouth before it was put on paper? And how many times after that was it copied and recopied before a definite text was established? How sure is anyone how much has been mis translated or competely left out after all these year?

For all we know Christ was really a chicken and we really piss God off every time we go to KFC for some Honey Barbecue Wings

The_Dunadan · 02-06-2002, 08:48 PM

i'll talk to you on icq soon when mine is back up.

sdtPikachu · 02-06-2002, 08:54 PM

Well, you'll have to hurry; it's 2 in the morning here and I'm about to go coma.

Strangler; not only do I agree with alot of what you say about the bible... I thought that bit at the end was especially poignant...

Good night everybody... bleurgh. Sorry this is is my second night without sleep and I think I might die soon...

Xantar · 02-06-2002, 08:58 PM

The_Dunadan, remember what I told you about your first post? You're doing it all over again. You're speaking as if the Bible is fact. That is not the way to debate. It won't incline any atheists to listen to anything further you have to say.

In a debate, you just have to treat your side (namely the Bible) as a theory and argue it from there, always keeping in mind that some people genuinely don't believe the Bible and never will. BigJustinW has done a pretty good job of doing that, and as far as I can tell, the atheists have as well. You should do the same. Otherwise, you come across as bigoted and narrow-minded.

Anyway, we managed to have a civilized debate about religion for once. Some doubloons are in order...

The_Dunadan · 02-06-2002, 09:03 PM

the reason i didn't feel like saying what you said i should say is because there were post in here saying there is no god its crap and other stuff of that nature as if it was a fact. i didn't see them say anything otherwise or you warn them about it. sorry, i'll do it next post(this time i'll actually do it; i'm serious, i will

)

Xantar · 02-06-2002, 09:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by The_Dunadan
the reason i didn't feel like saying what you said i should say is because there were post in here saying there is no god its crap and other stuff of that nature as if it was a fact.

Actually, if you read all the posts carefully, you'll see that almost every post has an "I believe" somewhere in it. Those simple two words can change the tone of an entire post. The only time I saw posts either way where the person didn't say "I believe" was when he had already explained "I believe God does/doesn't exist" in a previous post.

I'm not perfect, so I won't say that some posts haven't slipped by me. But I've been reading this topic very carefully, and I think you'll find that what I saw is at least true for the most part.