Arguments in favor? Arguments against?
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Thread: Does God Exist?
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05-22-2022, 05:22 AM #1
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05-22-2022, 12:17 PM #2
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05-22-2022, 02:57 PM #3
Something exists. Today after reading this thread I was singing my favorite Aerosmith tune in my head when I went to start my truck. The same Aerosmith song was playing at the same point of the lyrics in my head. I was going to drive my truck to show some prospective tenants a place to stay for the duration of their job at a refinery here. Turns out they had rented from me 2 years ago. They rented the same house they stayed in 2 years ago.
Guess what the Aerosmith song was.Current rankings:
EliKoehn: Sparrow
Steffo: Opossum
MTpockets: Opossum
TolerantLactose: Opossum
Faithbrah: Opossum
SuicideGripMe: Opossum
Air2Fakie: Opossum
Camarija: Raccoon
TearsOfIce: Fox
Paulinkansas: Coyote
Snails: Wolf
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05-22-2022, 04:46 PM #4
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05-23-2022, 06:16 AM #5
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05-23-2022, 06:24 AM #6
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06-03-2022, 04:05 PM #7
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07-19-2022, 08:39 AM #8
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07-19-2022, 08:59 AM #9
DNA didn’t happen by accident.
Water, a most precious sustainer of life, falling from the sky ,didn’t happen by accident.
How we all came to be, when , why, greatest mystery of all time…
I choose to believe that Jesus lived, suffered, died, rose again, many prophecies fulfilled…and live accordingly."A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
Old Guy deadlifting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zMrim-0Dks
bench press https://youtu.be/GaRzfueJVJQ
Every workout is GAME DAY!
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07-19-2022, 10:06 AM #10
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07-28-2022, 02:05 PM #11
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What do these comments even mean?
The definition of 'accident' is basically something that happens by chance, without any apparent cause or reason/intent.
You don't know what did or did not happen 'by accident' or by intent... you're just a sack of meat and guts like everyone else."When I die, I hope it's early in the morning so I don't have to go to work that day for no reason"
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07-28-2022, 02:08 PM #12
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I don't believe in any particular God... that's for sure.
I don't 100% dismiss the idea that there are things like other dimensional beings with sentience that far exceeds our comprehension, but insofar as a form of consciousness governing the inner-workings of everything that exists ANYWHERE?
No... I don't believe that at all.
And I sure as hell don't believe that the original humans were made from a rib bone..."When I die, I hope it's early in the morning so I don't have to go to work that day for no reason"
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07-29-2022, 08:02 AM #13
My opinion is that it's very possible. I don't like that science is sometimes used as a blanket reason to 'disprove' the existence of a God - it's intricacies are often a good argument FOR I think!
I would love to see my own version of proof as I don't believe 100%, but at the end of the day, if God's existence was proven to everyone then 'faith' or 'belief' wouldn't be so valued. :P
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07-29-2022, 08:07 AM #14
Yes he exists
John 3:16
Natty for life
Red for life
I'm not really 50, I'm 46, idk how to change the age
Autism crew (Asperger's syndrome)
High test crew
Bald crew
MAGA crew
Guys stop making me green! I actually enjoy being red! It's more alpha!
Born again Christian crew
Heavy metal crew
Sometimes the stuff I say is just ''trolling''
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07-29-2022, 08:10 AM #15
"To one who has faith, no proof is needed. To one who lacks faith, no proof is possible."
- Thomas Aquinas
In my deepest honesty, I do believe in God, and though I feel and sympathize with the allure of agnosticism, I find that its powerful draw always reduces to something far more intellectually weak than its suggestion threatens.Bench: 345
Squat: 405
Deadlift: 505
"... But always, there remained, the discipline of steel!"
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07-29-2022, 09:44 AM #16
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Science doesn't seek to disprove God in general, however it can/has disproven specific claims made in certain religious texts. Some people might try do that, but it's kind of a silly thing to even do because people aren't really leaning on religion/God most of the time for the purpose of predicting outcomes in the physical world (which is mainly the purpose of science).
I also don't understand what you mean by 'it's intricacies are a good argument FOR'
That's like saying, "we don't have an answer yet so I'm going to believe something that literally has no proof whatsoever".
Whether 'faith' is valued or not is irrelevant...Last edited by AdamWW; 07-29-2022 at 10:02 AM.
"When I die, I hope it's early in the morning so I don't have to go to work that day for no reason"
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07-29-2022, 09:45 AM #17
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I think you're confusing agnosticism with atheism.
Agnosticism is 'I don't know'
Atheism is 'I think I know, and the answer is "no"'
Two totally different things.
I disagree completely with the idea that "no proof is possible". That's absurd to me.
Out of curiosity.... you said you believe in 'God'. But, what God? Is it a contrived version of God that humans wrote about thousands of years ago? Why did you choose to believe in one version of God and not the thousands of others you could have chosen?
When you really look at how vastly different the versions of God/Gods are across the word... the idea of just picking and choosing one like it's a flavor of cereal becomes more and more silly, IMO
I general believe in a force beyond our comprehension that governs outcomes and physical laws in a manner we cannot understand seems reasonable, but believing in a human-like being that is 'all good' and 'all knowing' is... again... non-sensical.
That's why I also say I'm agnostic... I'm not smart enough (nor is anyone) to completely disprove some version of 'God'... assuming that just means any kind of influence that governs the outcomes of the universe...Last edited by AdamWW; 07-29-2022 at 10:05 AM.
"When I die, I hope it's early in the morning so I don't have to go to work that day for no reason"
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07-29-2022, 11:04 AM #18
The quote succinctly pertained to the subject matter, but that's the drawback of referencing any individual quotation, that it appears particularly vulnerable to criticism which wouldn't be viable if it was appraised in context.
Thomas Aquinas was a great thinker, and he wrote a multi-volume (I believe it was 10) systematic theology attempting to reconcile all of the doctrines of Christianity with all of the secular knowledge and thought available to him. Bear in mind, that was the 13th century, so this was significantly reduced in scope from today (and in points of modern science, virtually non-existent, of course), but philosophically, classical logic and most intellectual objections prevalent today were very well understood and so responses to these on that basis are still quite valid and meaningful, as are many of the arguments for the existence of God which are still compelling to many people, scientifically astute or otherwise.
Your point about which or what kind of God to believe in, assuming that one simply believes in "deity" as a thing dichotomous with the material world, which he/she rejects as being the only reality, is really valid in my opinion (and too absent from apologists' talking points) and I completely agree that reaching the conclusion that "God" exists serves more to open the door to much more difficult and complex questions, than it does towards settling the matter.
So, this is to my mind a valid retort, deserving of a good answer; but to my surprise, most people just give up there and don't even try to find the answer! They hear Pascal's wager, conclude that the reasoning is good, then just say "Yeah, which?" with some mixture of bitterness and indifference, and then just go along not seriously seeking to figure out what is plausibly true, even though that is open to them and they already agree with the basic premise of the argument.
But trying to answer that is where it gets complex, and I think the best approach lies in history. The full array of human belief systems, where they can be retrieved (and therefore, meaningfully spoken of) lies there. The apparent distinctiveness, unrelated variety and mutual exclusivity of various religions also recedes as knowledge their origins (and in many cases interrelationship) increases, I find.
For instance, the God of Abraham is by far the most worshiped (and therefore "represented" among all of the options, if you think on the basis of your cereal analogy) deity in human history, being the God of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, and even in pagan literature of archaic Greece, "God" is spoken of a personified being distinct from Zeus or any of the Olympians, as with "Great Spirit" of the Plains tribes in North America, so it could be argued that this monotheistic consciousness of God is not even strictly confined to the formal Abrahamic religions. Next to that might be the gods of the Hindus, though there are so many that any singular one that it would be dubious to say that, were they to take this title, that would be shared within their own pantheon, not a singular one of them, but other than this, it would only be an educated guess that any other society worshiped a god by greater weight of numbers than the God of Abraham.
That doesn't make it true, of course, but should be worth consideration towards the objection that "There are so many gods, why this one?" which is an obstacle against belief for many people. Then, I think the next step is to consider it seriously on the basis of its own claims, and seriously ask yourself if the various religions actually have equal or similar merit on this basis, instead of rejecting the whole question just because there is more than one object of faith in the world.
For instance, many of the eastern religions aren't even strictly theistic in the sense of having personified gods who created the world and deliberately interact with it, and many animistic religious beliefs have very little substance or claims associated with them, whereas claims surrounding the God of Abraham are deeply imbedded within actual history, and make reference to prophecies clearly contemporaneous with real historical events, whether one believes that they prophecies themselves were written afterwards or false (and there is hard textual/historical criticism which makes approaching some of those questions in a scientific manner possible in a way which it is not in say, the Vedic texts, which are completely legendary), so I think this equivocation of faiths is fundamentally misguided.
I believe in this God and that he is the highest and creator of the universe, but I am also henotheistic and believe that other gods exist though are lesser, while some are simply made up products of imagination. There are a lot of theological questions I do not claim to have the answers for (some of them not orthodox), but I pray to this God, and believe that Jesus was sent from him and died and rose again to reconcile humanity, by defeating death and paying the price of sin.Bench: 345
Squat: 405
Deadlift: 505
"... But always, there remained, the discipline of steel!"
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07-29-2022, 01:39 PM #19
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07-29-2022, 02:14 PM #20
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K, im going to hone in on the point or points written here that are relevant to the original questions I had.
You've mentioned here that you believe in the God of Abraham and that Jesus is the 'son' of God, etc, etc... and that you pray to that God.
In that case, are you also believing that God is all-powerful, all-good/benevolent, and all-knowing?
If so, how do you handle the 'problem of evil'? If you haven't read through the concept, there's a massive write-up here: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/evil/
In short, the logical dilemma is that: if God is both all-powerful and all-good (benevolent), then the very existence of evil is a contradiction, essentially. Reason being, a truly all-powerful and all-'good' God would simply not allow evil/suffering to exist... a God of pure love, etc, would not simply allow such massive amounts of pain to endure for all this time... or so it is posited.
Additionally, what about the age of the universe? The creation of earth, etc? None of that is supported by any evidence and is, in fact, disproven many times over... and yet, that's what the Bible says occurred....Last edited by AdamWW; 07-29-2022 at 02:21 PM.
"When I die, I hope it's early in the morning so I don't have to go to work that day for no reason"
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07-29-2022, 02:46 PM #21
Because He did not want or need automatons. He gave us free will.
His existence is pretty easy to me: If you threw a bag or handful of flour into a room, threw a few eggs on the floor, a stick of butter, some sugar, etc. When/if you later opened the door to that room and saw a perfectly baked and iced cake, you'd KNOW that someone else had entered that room and baked the cake - that it did NOT make itself by accident. Wouldn't you? I come to the same conclusion when I see the earth and all of its inhabitants.
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07-29-2022, 02:54 PM #22
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What do mean 'want or need'?
It's God... how are you defining 'need' in the context of a God? God isn't a human who has hedonic pleasures... unless you're suggesting God created humans for... entertainment? If that were true, he'd be allowing evil to exist just to make it interesting? Again... that suggests a non-benevolent God who is literally allowing evil to exist because he's entertained watching some people suffer while others don't.
I do not understand your comparison about throwing baking ingredients either.
Humans didn't suddenly pop into existence... our development wasn't like constructing a cake from like 5 ingredients and then putting us into an oven...
I understand you're not an evolutionary biologist, but just because you you're not in that field, I don't think relying on the most basic possible reasoning is a good alternative. This falls into the same logic of "I don't understand it, so I'm going to assume someone just put it there".Last edited by AdamWW; 07-29-2022 at 03:52 PM.
"When I die, I hope it's early in the morning so I don't have to go to work that day for no reason"
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07-29-2022, 05:53 PM #23
Something exists. I know none of you guys do short term rental housing for refinery contractors. I've got 23 houses that I do this with. Things magically happen where someone moves out and my wiife cleans up the place and then some other group wants it.
Current rankings:
EliKoehn: Sparrow
Steffo: Opossum
MTpockets: Opossum
TolerantLactose: Opossum
Faithbrah: Opossum
SuicideGripMe: Opossum
Air2Fakie: Opossum
Camarija: Raccoon
TearsOfIce: Fox
Paulinkansas: Coyote
Snails: Wolf
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07-29-2022, 06:08 PM #24
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08-15-2022, 10:09 AM #25
The Bible has some funny stories
An omnipotent being, who can see the past and the future and knows it all, created an universe, a planet and a man and a woman.
The woman does something stupid and God punishes the couple.
The couple has some children.
One of the children kills his brother, because he is jealous.
Why is he jealous? Because God appreciated more his brother's gifts {nobody knows why, God is picky, mkay}
The killer is punished by God and he finds a wife in the next village, even though his family members are the only humans on planet Earth.
Later, Gods want to kill all people, even though he was omnipotent and he could see the future.
He didn't like the fact that they ****ed like rabbits and rimmed each other and many other kinky stuff.
So he decided to kill them all.
But then, poof, he sees Noah and his family.
So he changes his mind and decided to keep 8 people on an ark, full of zebras and wolfs and bears and ants and many other species.
There are some species of insects that paralyze they prey and then they eat it alive slowly, piece by piece. God created them and decided to keep them. Why? Misterious are the ways of God, that's why!
Isn't this a mortal sin? Believing that other god are real too?
Do you also believe that women are inferior and that they should not be teachers, professors or have jobs where they have some kind of authority of any way over men?
Do you eat pork? Or actually believe that law was only destined to the Jewish people only, although it is not mentioned in the New Testament?
Isn't lifting vanity?
How about fornication?
This is The Watchmaker Theory and it has been debunked.
So who created God?
If the universe being so complex that had to be created by something, who created God?
I throw the flour, eggs, butter, sugar in a room.
I come back the next day.
Poof, an amazing cake right before my eyes.
I can assume that someone made a cake.
But who made the guy who made the cake?Last edited by jaxqen; 08-15-2022 at 10:14 AM.
I like to learn from the mistakes of the people who take my advice.
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08-16-2022, 08:28 AM #26
@Adam, I intend to reply seriously and at length to the best of my ability somewhat soon, but that's going to be an even longer and more complicated answer; nor do I presume to know everything, even if I can speak from what I personally find compelling in light of the same questions.
@Jaxqen, I know you're either being facetious or trying to foment some kind of angry response, but many of these questions I don't think you're asking with intellectually honest intent. I'm not sure if you've actually read the entire Bible, but I think it would dispel a lot of the strength of these objections and accusations, even if several of these questions themselves are fair. In brief, though, I would answer:
- No, acknowledging their existence is something the Bible does as well, but not always. Worshipping them would be. The Egyptian priests and magicians replicated many of the same feats as Moses, for instance (Exodus 7:8-9, "by their secret arts") while Baal is mocked by Elijah for being asleep or perhaps defecating despite the imploring of his priests (1 Kings 18). Here there is something of a semantic question, because there is only one omnipotent God, but divine beings (angels, demons, "gods") are everywhere attested to in Christianity, Islam ("djinn") and Judaism (see the story about the Witch of Endor consulting with the dead prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 28). However, that doesn't mean that any kind of pagan worship is somehow legitimate, of course (Isaiah 44), and to think so neither follows logically that because some other gods exist, everything called such must be one; nor stems from any good reason for thinking so inherently.
- I will answer your question about women when you answer me whether you even think that there are meaningful fundamental differences between genders (or even two of them, at all) in the first place.
- Yes, I eat pork. I am not a Jew. Dude, I think you need to read the New Testament lol! You've really missed a lot if you walk away concluding that about the Mosaic law. In particular, I would read the book of Hebrews. Acts 10 in particular addresses the question WRT pork. It would be one thing if you were claiming that the New Testament is wrong to conclude that the law of Moses is both ceremonial and fulfilled (also, was for the Israelites) and not binding anymore, but to say that it isn't centrally about this is a little surprising to hear. There is a law written on the human heart that all people have which is still binding and is specifically addressed as separate.
- Lifting certainly can be easily. It is also a pursuit of excellence, which is inherently a good thing. We also live in a modern world where most people's daily lives do not necessarily provide them with the physical activity needed for health and wellbeing, and most of us have to apportion our leisure off the clock in order to fulfill this. In that regard, it's important. Also, the Apostle Paul in the New Testament, in the context of competitive athleticism as an analogy, literally says that "physical training is of value" (1 Timothy 4:8), even if it is secondary to godliness.
- Fornication is wrong, I would say, yes. That's interestingly not even just a "Christian" thing, probably to many people's surprise. Read the story of King Gyges of Lydia (pagan) in Herodotus, and the capital crime for it in pre-Christian Germanic tribes recounted by (IIRC) Warnefridus in the 8th century when he wrote about the conquest of Italy by the pagan Lombards. I know which book I read that in though and can check that citation later. I think there's been this notion that the sexual morality associated with Christianity was entirely forced upon people who otherwise had no mooring here at all, and any good look at history shows that that's simply not true.Bench: 345
Squat: 405
Deadlift: 505
"... But always, there remained, the discipline of steel!"
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08-16-2022, 10:22 AM #27
I have to pay about $5000 in property taxes every July and December. For the last 10 years there has been a group of 12 guys that rent houses from me every July and December. Their rent is more or less the amount of property tax I have to pay.
The head honcho is coming here in November. He is guiding deer hunts for 6 guys that are clients for the company he works for. He's putting his clients up in my rental houses for the duration of their deer hunt. They just sit in a tree stand all day and wait for something to walk by.Current rankings:
EliKoehn: Sparrow
Steffo: Opossum
MTpockets: Opossum
TolerantLactose: Opossum
Faithbrah: Opossum
SuicideGripMe: Opossum
Air2Fakie: Opossum
Camarija: Raccoon
TearsOfIce: Fox
Paulinkansas: Coyote
Snails: Wolf
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08-17-2022, 11:27 PM #28
I am facetious. I am not angry. I like to debate this subject, but I don't get angry about it anymore... I used to, years ago, when I was a teen.
Also, I must mention I've only read the Old Testament.
I've tried the New One, got really bored, I've only read some paragraphs that interest me.
I'll try to respond, although you have an advantage, being an English speaker, and, like Adam said, "your sentences are like paragraphs"
1. I don't think the Bible acknowledges their actual existence.
Yes, other gods are mentioned in the Bible, but they are considered fake and non-existent.
They are only mentioned because people believed in them, the old Gods.
If so, who created the other gods, since God created everything?
Why would God create other small Gods?
Also, let's say you ask some religious authorities about their existence (catholics, protestants, orthodox, whatever). What do you think will be their answer?
2. Yes, there are 2 genders. Yes, there are differences between them. Especially physical. I am not a regressive leftist, come on!
Now please explain why does this matter when it comes to teaching? Why can't a woman be a teacher over men?
3. Why would an omnipotent God, who sees in the future, create some laws for some people and then have a change of mind?
4. I was refering to lifting as being a vanity. The purpose should be physical health, not improving the quality of your body so other people can admire it. Or improving your strength, so other people can admire it. And come on, who lifts for physical health only? Also, isn't bulking gluttony? {Not being facetious, serious question}
5. Why is it wrong in a modern society?
The Greeks and Romans from antiquity were more permissive about these things, come on.
Same for other barbaric and pagan societies.
Some questions?
a) Who was Cain's wife?
After Abel's death, Cain marries with a woman. AFTER this, Adam and Eve have a third one, named Seth. AFTER Seth, it is mentioned they have many sons and daughters.
b) 2 Kings 2:23-24
42 children are killed because they made fun of a guy's baldness.
Seriously? Is this a just God?
c) How about the Marry-your-rapist law? I understand it was the New Testament, but how does a just God agree to this?
d) I am curious about Genesis 6 and your interpretation about these two:
"Then the people began to multiply on the earth, and daughters were born to them. 2 The sons of God saw the beautiful women and took any they wanted as their wives"
"In those days, and for some time after, giant Nephilites lived on the earth, for whenever the sons of God had intercourse with women, they gave birth to children who became the heroes and famous warriors of ancient times."
e) Do you consider the theory of evolution false?
f) Is Paul going to hell for filling the Nutrition section with half naked women?I like to learn from the mistakes of the people who take my advice.
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08-18-2022, 02:08 PM #29
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08-18-2022, 02:12 PM #30
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