a question for the Atheists..

[dreama1]

Well, people are naturally susceptible to believing in god. There is a region in the brain that is activated with some type of supernatural experience. Because of several cognitive biases, including confirmation bias or cognitive dissonance, most of our day to day decisions are wholly irrational - eating junk food, smoking or praying to god.

Next time you meet someone religious, ask them to imagine if they were born in another country to another family, would they believe in the same god? Most of them can't answer this question and because of the above biases will stop any sort of critical thinking from occurring. I always wondered why people say that several religions can coexist, which is in direct conflict with much of their own dogma. Note some religions don't have deities per se.

[myriverse]

Originally Posted by Raavak [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Whether or not you believe in Jesus, just look what he taught:

Love each other.
Let he who is without sin punish the sinner (i.e. no one).
Help people in need, no matter who they are.
etc.

Aren't those good messages?

What sucks is the people who take this and use it for their own goals (inquisitions, persecution, controlling knowledge & education, crusades, etc).

Forked tongue syndrome: he says this while expressing completely approval of punishing sinners, people in need, etc.

[dreama1]

First, what aggravates me is that 'god' is automatically assumed to be 'he', which already exposes the first fallacy of the very concept of religion - it's man made. There are over 4,200 different religions in the world. Most of them are mutually exclusive. Because of this, either one is right or all of them are wrong. Which makes more sense?

Second, you don't need religion to have moral values. This is a total farce. I won't indulge myself into the follies of atheist extremists that claim that there is a science of morality, i believe that morality is a wholly a social phenomenon, i.e., what someone finds right or wrong depends on their cultural background, time, place etc etc.. That is, it is not objective as people would like to believe.

Finally, there are three types of people.
1) people who believe in god in fear because they think they will go to hell (lol)
2) people who believe in god because they want to believe in it (gives them some purpose or meaning in life)
3) people who don't believe in god but would like to believe in it if there were good evidence to suggest that it does exist

[Rail]

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[Rail]

Originally Posted by Rail [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[IMG]X[/IMG]

^ fail.. try again:

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[Raavak]

Originally Posted by dreama1 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

First, what aggravates me is that 'god' is automatically assumed to be 'he'

In Judeo-Christianity God has both male, female, and non-sexual personas. I think we use "he" because we are still a male centered society, though not as much as we were in the last 2000 years.

[moklianne]

Originally Posted by dreama1 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Finally, there are three types of people.
1) people who believe in god in fear because they think they will go to hell (lol)
2) people who believe in god because they want to believe in it (gives them some purpose or meaning in life)
3) people who don't believe in god but would like to believe in it if there were good evidence to suggest that it does exist

And when it comes down to it, aren't all of these functions of our own ego or even selfishness?

You want to be 'saved' so that you'll go to heaven. Its a somewhat selfish act.

I treat others the way I do because I expect that treatment from them in return. That should really be enough to be a decent human being in this world. No deity required.

[Raavak]

Originally Posted by myriverse [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Forked tongue syndrome: he says this while expressing completely approval of punishing sinners, people in need, etc.

Where?