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God enthusiasm

barehl

Master Poster
barehl
Joined
Jul 8, 2013
Messages
2,655
There are bigfoot enthusiasts, alien enthusiasts, and ghost enthusiasts, so how are god enthusiasts any different?

If you can be a bigfoot skeptic, alien skeptic, and ghost skeptic then why not god skeptic?

These all seem to be beliefs or lack of belief in imaginary things. Why do people insist on classifying them differently? For example, if you are afraid of ghosts, you are childish; but if you are afraid of God, you are righteous? Why is it that if you think zombies might burrow out of the ground you've probably been watching too many zombie movies but a similar belief about Jesus only makes you a Christian? Believing that if you write to Santa he'll bring you presents makes you naiive but believing that if you pray to God he'll reward you makes you devout?

God seems to be the childhood fantasy that adults feel comfortable holding onto. But I am baffled about the malice. If one child told another that he hoped the other child would get stomped to death by reindeer or strangled by elves for not believing in Santa, you would probably feel that therapy was in order and it would not be defended if an adult said it. Yet, if a religious person suggests that Hurricane Katrina was punishment for a gay pride parade or suggests that God will destroy an entire nation that is often defended. Is God the delusion that adults feel comfortable defending?
 
I am a non-believer/skeptic of all of those plus a crapload of others. Hope that helps:)!!
 
barehl said:
If you can be a bigfoot skeptic, alien skeptic, and ghost skeptic then why not god skeptic?
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No-one is saying that you can't.

People are saying that you can't be a "proper" skeptic (whatever that means) unless you are a god skeptic, and that's the part I don't agree with.
 
arthwollipot said:
No-one is saying that you can't.

People are saying that you can't be a "proper" skeptic (whatever that means) unless you are a god skeptic, and that's the part I don't agree with.
Click to expand...

"Skeptic" =/= "non-believer". If you consider the evidence and determine that, for you, the best explanation involves the existence of God, I may disagree with you, but I'll respect you a hell of a lot more than if you've never even bothered to ask the question.

Dave
 
barehl said:
There are bigfoot enthusiasts, alien enthusiasts, and ghost enthusiasts, so how are god enthusiasts any different?

If you can be a bigfoot skeptic, alien skeptic, and ghost skeptic then why not god skeptic?

These all seem to be beliefs or lack of belief in imaginary things. Why do people insist on classifying them differently? For example, if you are afraid of ghosts, you are childish; but if you are afraid of God, you are righteous? Why is it that if you think zombies might burrow out of the ground you've probably been watching too many zombie movies but a similar belief about Jesus only makes you a Christian? Believing that if you write to Santa he'll bring you presents makes you naiive but believing that if you pray to God he'll reward you makes you devout?

God seems to be the childhood fantasy that adults feel comfortable holding onto. But I am baffled about the malice. If one child told another that he hoped the other child would get stomped to death by reindeer or strangled by elves for not believing in Santa, you would probably feel that therapy was in order and it would not be defended if an adult said it. Yet, if a religious person suggests that Hurricane Katrina was punishment for a gay pride parade or suggests that God will destroy an entire nation that is often defended. Is God the delusion that adults feel comfortable defending?
Click to expand...

Yes.
 
barehl said:
There are bigfoot enthusiasts, alien enthusiasts, and ghost enthusiasts, so how are god enthusiasts any different?

If you can be a bigfoot skeptic, alien skeptic, and ghost skeptic then why not god skeptic?

These all seem to be beliefs or lack of belief in imaginary things. Why do people insist on classifying them differently?
Click to expand...
Same reason why no parent ever tells psychiatrist: "My 13-year old son is obsessed with football. He just won't shut up about it! Is something wrong with him?"
 
I remember watching a debate on all jeezera TV with Richard Dawkins. He said to the perfectly articulate and educated muslim 'I'm going to give you credit and assume you dont believe Mohammad split the moon or flew on a winged horse' to which the Muslim said-no I do believe in those things.
Religion is stupidity write large, the fact that a christian thinks the ressurection took place but says the Mayan story of the returning to life of the hero twins is silly says it all. Remember just because someone is smart and educated doesn't mean they can't be gullible.
 
DANGER WILL ROBINSON! DANGER!

This thread may become yet one more thread on the meanings of "atheism", "agnosticism" and other words as well.

Fact is the Abrahamic god concepts are mainstream in our societies. Unfortunately, belief in some Abrahamic god is considered a desirable trait and it is usually assumed that a random Joe or Jane believes in god. Under this view, UFOs, bigfoots and ghosts are fringe subjects and seen by most society as less likely than god or even lunacy. Sure, they turn a blind eye to the whole bunch of sillinesses contained within their beliefs.

Thus, you have words for folks skeptics in god- atheists, agnostics, ignostics. Abigfootists, aUFOtists, aghostists et al., on the other hand, are not part of our languages.
 
I would have thought that scepticism is exactly that. As a rule of thumb doesn't it mean being sceptical about propositions where the evidence is less than conclusive. That surely applies to all the phenomena in the OP.
 
Correa Neto said:
Why are you angry with god?
What god has done for you that you hate him?
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He gave me several medical conditions that are so rare that on one ever born should have all of them. He must hate me a lot, so why should I not be angry?

IXP
 
why are you angry with god. WTF

That's a joke right. I mean really you do know that Yahweh along with Shiva,zeus,Thor,Apollo and all the rest of them are man made right. We,homo sapiens,made them all up. Every single last one.
So no I'm not angry with god he(ha!) Is not real-so what would be the point of getting angry with him. You would be as well to be angry with Darth vader-or my little pony.
I am however angry with that part of humanity that is insane enough to take bronze or iron age myths as reality. I'm angry with suicide bombers and with anti abortion nuts that kill doctors . I'm also angry with the so called religious moderates that condemn violence in one breath but excuse it in the next. I'm angry with all those fools that gleefully think 'my made up pal is cooler -and realer-than yours'.
I am not however angry with a fictional character, what would be the point.
 
barehl said:
Why is it that if you think zombies might burrow out of the ground you've probably been watching too many zombie movies but a similar belief about Jesus only makes you a Christian?
Click to expand...

Never thought of Jesus being a zombie before :scared:

barehl said:
If one child told another that he hoped the other child would get stomped to death by reindeer or strangled by elves for not believing in Santa, you would probably feel that therapy was in order
Click to expand...

Really freaking laughing :D

Good post BTW:)
 
arthwollipot said:
No-one is saying that you can't.

People are saying that you can't be a "proper" skeptic (whatever that means) unless you are a god skeptic, and that's the part I don't agree with.
Click to expand...
Obviously none of us is free of blind spots, but you have to at least admit not applying critical thinking to god beliefs is a double standard.

NOMa is a flawed philosophy.
 
Why are you angry with Gould?

Now, bad puns apart, people are indoctrinated since their early childhood about god. People change and even abandomn religions for one too many reasons but giving up (at least openly) belief in god is very rare.

God deserves the very same treatment other extraordinary claims deserve; if a given god concept can be tested, it must be tested and if it fails, dumped. We don't see this happening - at least not frequently - with god and religious dogmas. This, I think, is just due to cultural pressures. NOMA, in my opinion, is a product of these social pressures.
 
Mark6 said:
Same reason why no parent ever tells psychiatrist: "My 13-year old son is obsessed with football. He just won't shut up about it! Is something wrong with him?"
Click to expand...

You've lost me. Football is a real game. It can be watched, studied, supported, and participated in. These don't apply to God, ghosts, bigfoot, or aliens.
 
Correa Neto said:
Why are you angry with god?
What god has done for you that you hate him?
Click to expand...

They're not angry at God, not really. They're really angry at people that aren't really Christians, people who use the love of God for their own purposes. God really loves people and won't let the true love be prostituted. This is why it's primarily used to bestow touch downs. No exploitation is allowed of God's true love.
 
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