Merged (edited) General thoughts about Christianity and the bible

[Rusty Tyler]

Why do I need a god?

I've been managing tolerably well for a few decades without one.

Evidence about how the world/universe/that class of thing works? Yup, I need that and it has been very useful indeed.

My agnostic friend says the same thing. "I don't need it."
What would have to happen to you before you reached the breaking point of calling on anything that would save you?

 

[Carrot Flower King]

That's a completely meaningless answer.

Have you read the rest of our interlocutors threads?

 

[SpuriusMaximus]

Does that really require faith, or is it fear-based activity based on fear?

I mean, you have to have faith that Tlaloc exists and works that way, in the absence of any evidence, to sacrifice your children to him. Otherwise, why fear?

 

[Rusty Tyler]

Why do you lot insist that we must use the same thinking patterns as you but substituting "not god" for "god"? It just doesn't work like that.

We both have free will.

I use mine to receive the benefits of a relationship with the God you claim doesn't exist.

 

[Carrot Flower King]

My agnostic friend says the same thing. "I don't need it."
What would have to happen to you before you reached the breaking point of calling on anything that would save you?

Have you got anything other than watered down versions of Pascal's Wager?

I am pretty sure I wouldn't be calling on a non-existent entity to save me.

 

[SpuriusMaximus]

Well, ok, I'll grant you that.

 

[Rusty Tyler]

I mean, you have to have faith that Tlaloc exists and works that way, in the absence of any evidence, to sacrifice your children to him. Otherwise, why fear?

Hopefully you would realize the wrong in that BEFORE you burned your children.

 

[Rusty Tyler]

Have you got anything other than watered down versions of Pascal's Wager?

I am pretty sure I wouldn't be calling on a non-existent entity to save me.

Requiring evidence defeats faith.

 

[Carrot Flower King]

We both have free will.

I use mine to receive the benefits of a relationship with the God you claim doesn't exist.

"I do it because there's something in it for me!"

At least that's more honest than most religious posturing...And makes you far more cynical than us atheistical types.

 

[Carrot Flower King]

Requiring evidence defeats faith.

OK, so I don't need faith.

Remind me what the point of this particular thread is?

 

[SpuriusMaximus]

Hopefully you would realize the wrong in that BEFORE you burned your children.

Yes, but that's kinda my point. You had to believe without evidence, i.e., have faith, to keep doing that anyway. Otherwise there's no need to fear and appease that god.

(BTW, you must be thinking about Ba'al, that's the one with the burning. But same idea.)

 

[The Great Zaganza]

But aren't they incompatible?

Only if they meddle in each other's Domain.

Only if you think one should be used as evidence in the other.
Religion has nothing to say about science

 

[Olmstead]

What are the benefits of believing in a God that doesn't exist, Rusty? All you have are false hope and false meaning.

 

[sinnikal]

Have you read the rest of our interlocutors threads?

Unfortunately, yes.
I haven't taken part in threads like this in ◊◊◊◊ knows how many years.
It must go back to a time before the Dawkins forum turned to ◊◊◊◊.

 

[catsmate]

Requiring evidence for God defeats the purpose of faith.

Oh good grief what a pathetic co-out. Adams did it better.

 

[catsmate]

What actually is the purpose of faith?

Social control.

 

[SpuriusMaximus]

The biblical god is God the Father.
Not so much communal as familial.

He still massacred a city, or indeed almost all the planet, for the sin of a couple of people. More than once. Call it what you will, but same idea: the whole community had to appease him, or the whole community might suffer.

 

[zooterkin]

Hopefully you would realize the wrong in that BEFORE you burned your children.

Yes, what sort of god would order a father to sacrifice his son?

 

[Beelzebuddy]

What actually is the purpose of faith?

To excuse being a ◊◊◊◊◊◊ person.

Every practical expression of faith boils down to pushing moral responsibility for one's life onto a philosophical construct which is by definition above morality. Doubts? Excuses? AITA? Nay, nay, GOD wills it.

 

[Lukraak_Sisser]

Then again, why would a God require faith?

If there is some omnipresent, all-knowing, all-powerful being, everything that happens is according to it's design anyway, so it does not need our faith.
And if it is not all-knowing and all-powerful it is not a God.