BWC- that makes sense, but belief in God is based on both real-life teachings and proven facts, AND pure faith. It is an undeniable fact that Jesus existed and died on the cross, and he taught about God. However, believing that he was divine and that God exists is pure faith.

Interesting, please tell me more.

Ah-ha-- yes!! God is YOU! God is everyone. So, when you say you don't believe in a god, you're essentially saying that you don't believe in yourself.

Ah yes, you've got me there. Sadly, I'm not an organised religion. Oh, and the ONLY thing I believe in is myself - don't try and argue with me on this, I know a lot more stuff than you do,

Please don’t downvote me, but here are my thoughts. God is not a genie, who grants you a perfect life albeit of pain and suffering. Of course, he does help people when it is the right time, but having a God does not mean your problems are going to disappear. But knowing something loves you endlessly, and died for you, (Christianity) is wonderful. Also knowing that when you die, it isn’t the end and your life doesn’t become worthless. This doesn’t mean everyone has to believe this, but understanding the idea more can help.

Living life is what makes life worthwhile, not some unwarranted promise of an afterlife.

Living life these days would say otherwise. And the belief that your life is going to sum up to you rotting 6 feet under and simply ceasing to exist seems more unwarranted and dark than a belief of heaven. And again, let’s try to respect others religions even if you don’t agree with it. I respect what you think and am simply sharing my thoughts. I don’t dictate what you get to believe.

I wasn't trying to dictate anything. We are all free to choose. I will die knowing that I lived my life as I wished. I don't see that as dark. Have a wonderful weekend!

You too! No arguments intended! I can be rather pessimistic at times, so my apologies. :)

Not a problem. We're all in this together, some more than others😉. I hope everything works out for you.

Unwarranted? How about guaranteed? Consciousness is eternal.

Who is the god you're referring to?

Do yourself a favor and recognize that the "scientific method" is failable,, and that scientists still have a lot to learn.

Yes, I do realize that scientists have a lot to learn. That's the whole point of science. The fact that you put scientific method in quotation marks really just helps make my point that you don't really understand it. Most of us were taught science in school from an authoritarian point of view. As in "this is what science says and science knows best". This isn't how science is meant to work though. The whole point of the scientific method is to rigorously test a hypothesis until it's proven false, or there is enough evidence for it to consider it. At that point others will come up with different tests to see if the results are repeatable. The scientific method is nothing more than a tool, and it's a very powerful tool. That said, of course humans will misuse it & misunderstand results gleaned from it. We're human. We have a long history of f*****g up. That doesn't change the fact that, when applied correctly science is the best tool we have for learning about the universe around us.

Amen!

You don’t even know what a theory is, or how it is formed, much less anything about the scientific method. So, it’s quite ironic that you’d say it’s scientists who have a lot to learn 🤣 And, by the way, scientists don’t claim to have all the answers about the universe, yet. They make a point of discussing how much more is out there to be discovered. The ones claiming to have the answers are the leaders of organized religions. So your argument doesn’t make sense on any level.

Science is the methodical study of God's handiwork. The concepts may be inseparable, but individual proof is just that: individual. Accept what you will but be careful what you deny. With ideas as big as the cosmos, play it safe and smile!

Voilà.

You are confusing the meaning of the word "theory" in the language of science and colloquial speech. Are the theory of gravity or the theory of general relativity also "just theories"?

God isn't invisible...oh, wait, you weren't looking. You don't want to SEE? Don't waste our time.

Please show the reasonable evidence that a big explosion caused the existence of life as we know it on earth. Thnx.

As that is at best a gross misrepresentation of any existing scientific knowledge, I wonder why you think I’d accept your kind invitation….If you mean that you can’t show any evidence of gods, why don’t you just say so ? - others have already had the courage to do that at least

Can you show any evidence that a big explosion caused all of life as we know it?

No. I don’t know anybody who would. Your question bears no relevance to any scientific knowledge that I’m aware of. Either you are ignorant of science or are wilfully misrepresenting. Which is it?

You seem to be conflating two very different things: The origin of the cosmos vs abiogenesis.

Everything that happens can be considered "the good things in life" - it just depends on your attitude.

"It's all good" is a glimpse of psychotic behavior. Satan would love for us to believe that. Yin and Yang (polarized opposites) is more realistic. God didn't make everything, just the good stuff.

Maybe🤷‍♂️

God is good. Live and think positive and things go well. Satan does no favors.

I have actually read the Bible - well, I say read, actually had it thrust on me for 6 years at boarding school. Then when I left school / Uni etc, I decided to try and get an academic hold on a few other religions so read the Talmud, Koran, Buddhist and Hindu texts and they are all quite good stories, some a bit bloodier and nasty in places but taken in the context of the times (ie 2000 + years ago), most were basic morality tales in different clothes (in fact, many of the main Abrahamic Religions (Islam, Christianity, Judaism), have so many cross over stories, you'd almost think they were written by the same people - which, strangely, they were !!!), having read them, I lost any faith I had following the deaths of 6 friends and my younger Brother within 5 months when I was 22. Religion, like History, is bunk .....

The Bible is a history book written and edited by many over the millenia by those who wish to utilize the power of words to sway the masses. What does your internal compass tell you? Listen to your personal guidance system.

I'm going to assume by your assertions that you are quite young and as such have very little understanding of how the World works. Personally I don't care as I'm very tired and your ideas are are both badly thought out, tedious and complete c**p. Now f**k off and play with your Unicorn.

Lol You are wrong on every assumption you have made about me and how "the world works". It makes no difference to me that you don't care about yourself as it's quite apparent in your replies. Only angry people reply with insults as you do. I'm sure you're playing with your "unicorn" reading this,😊

History is written by the winners who know how to write, and for several millenia, only the elite could read.

There are over 8 billion people on earth. There could always be someone mutated by a radioactive spider, you don't know! :P

Brilliant !!!

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And the messages in every Spiderman comic reiterates what all religions base their tenets on--

To quote the late Christopher Hitchens: "That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence".

Like a lot of "scientific" theories about our existence

Which scientific theories are you referring to? Science is evidence based. The word theory is not used the same way in science that we use it in everyday speech. A scientific theory only becomes a theory after many studies, and all the evidence pointing to said theory is shown to be true. You may be looking for the word hypothesis which is the scientific equivalent of a guess, or hunch. A hypothesis however, is only that until it has been studied thoroughly and either shown to be false, or it has enough reproducible evidence showing it to be true that it becomes theory. Science is not perfect but it is the best tool we have for understanding the world around us.

Ah, but it might be my fault - it usually was according to my ex Wife (and I might be god as well), as for shonky propositions, I have made many, many of these over the years and sometimes I didn't get slapped for them !!

Did you ever consider that maybe your God-self wasn't in alignment with your ex-wife and that the relationship wasn't serving your existence in the best possible way? Or that her God-self wasn't in alignment either and you both needed to learn from the relationship to improve on yourselves to create the existence you want? It has nothing to do with organized religion but a lot to do with having faith in yourself and the situations you create for yourself to experience.

Noname, if your reply is in a language where English not your first language I will forgive its slightly odd syntax / context and gibberishness. If English IS your first language however, can I suggest two things ; Firstly, take the pills that your psychiatrist has prescribed and secondly, don't post on here with such utter, utter existential laughably inarticulate c**p. Now go away and play with your Unicorn.

@hugh Cookson Wow, you just don't have a snappy comeback to my reply that can refute my response to your post. I'm sure you play with your "unicorn" several times a day while hiding in your parents basement. 😂

I believe in "never say never". Do you think 300 years ago, people ever imagined what we can do in this day and age? Just because there's nothing in 2023, doesn't mean that in 2024, 2040, 3023, or whenever will hold nothing.

Again you accept that there is no evidence to support the outlandish claims of religions. That really is no reason to believe, quite the opposite, it is ample reason to dismiss

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Big bang theory is an assertion without empiracal proof.

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So, where's the empiracal evidence of the big bang theory? It's easier to believe that some superpower imagined the existence of everything than it is to believe that one day the universe exploded and then there was life on earth 😜

It's okay to not know something. Science helps understand the universe but we are far from knowing everything. Religion claims to have all the answers but its all bs stories made up by humans. To your point, both options sound pretty absurd from our point of view. Science has some ideas on how the universe started but no one claims to have all the answers (except religion of course). To reiterate my point, it's ok to not have all the answers, but science is helping us find those answers. Sometimes only one small step at a time. Religion simply claims to have the truth with nothing to back it up.

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I don't believe it is nonsense. Am I saying there is proof right now, no. Will there ever be proof, probably not. Does that change my faith, not in the least. My faith makes me happy, and that's all it needs to be. But the fact he said that even if we had proof, he "might" believe it makes me think of anti-vaxxers. "show me proof that this vaccine doesn't cause autism" Here's all the proof in the world. "I still don't believe it"

I didn’t ask for “proof”. A small amount of supporting evidence is sufficient to start a discussion. You said that you weren’t going to provide it cos Hugh already had made up his mind. Now you say it’s actually cos you don’t have any. That might be why Hugh and others have made up their mind…..

You can’t compare AVs with people who reject gods. And that’s because of evidence. The AVs make a claim, that vax is dangerous- it is for them to support their claim. Likewise the religious make a claim - their god is real. Again it is for the religious to support that claim