Gorthaur

Personal experience proves nothing.

As it applies to God, he does. But if you want to make your analogy that simple, it's useless. It doesn't apply to anything.

Show me one example of this. Saying "There is no God" is completely distinct from saying "I am 100% sure it is impossible for any sort of gods to exist under any circumstances." If the kinds of atheists you've dealt with before say they can disprove God scientifically and this other nonsense, I wouldn't blame you for thinking they're idiots.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Nietzsche

Zensati

The way I see it. Is that the Universe runs under scientific rules, There Is a very complex design to the Universe, Theres a kind of Intelligence or set of Universal Laws that govern everything. So If their is a Complicated design that means there must have been some kind of complex energy or Intelligence to create ,design, and maintain all these complex arrangements. If you want, you could call this complex Intelligence - god.

But If their Is a God Its way beyond our understanding.

Voodoo

So:

Its everything that's complex

we can't even begin to understand it

but we know it's complex.

patthager

If you want to go searching for God, dont search until you fit in with other local christians, you should search until you find God. To many people have satisfied their need for a higher power by kneeling to something wholly earthling. You have to approach it without presumptions or peer pressure, or you will never find God.
This argument is not about religion, it is about argument. It is not going to be won by anyone, and nooneś e-penis is going to grow

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God is fighting on both sides of his never ending war, Lucifer is stuck in the middle with ME

Voodoo

Its the only way to sate that hunger, mate.

patthager

There is a lot of religious literature and people out there man, and I have spent more time around them then you. Trust me, there is some diversity

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God is fighting on both sides of his never ending war, Lucifer is stuck in the middle with ME

Voodoo

Do not make your entire, sweet little digression above go to waste.

"I'm older than you, so shut up shut up."

That won't do.

By that, I didn't mean GOD>

Screw god, for all I care.

I meant, and keep up lover-

By religion, you need someone to tell you what to do.

Manson would love ya, mate.

Find your own religion.

And if you don't like them, make your own!

Funwriter

I am not one for religion. Religion has a bad track record.

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lin

Ah, that's right, kids. I keep forgetting Hodgikins is on this forum. I should probably post subtitles for kids to keep him from getting itchy. I think most people assume that questions like this assume adult attention.

Hodgy..you don't dog shit diddly dump about what I believe. Only what filters through your unformed, overblown, insecure adoloescent drive to scream "ME!" You have enough trouble trying to get your own beliefs across without deciding to tell others what they believe.

You REALLY need to take a logic course. Your "as do scientolgists" crap, although semi-slyly veiled is an attempt to attack an idea by attacking the one who stated it. Using the "you're like them" ploy (clumsily, but hey...) that is known in logical circles as an "undistributed middle term."

If you're going to go on and on about science and proof, you really need to study logic a little. If they still even teach it. Cut back on those unproductive sessions with your quack-ass shrink and spring for a college course that could do you some good.

Personal experience doesn't count?? Is that too fucked up for words? Tell us what else counts, okay?
Try it again. How do you know there is love? How do you know there are orgasms?

bunnybadass

personally, I think religion is religion for a reason. It is a set of common beliefs between people. There is no fact. Beliefs are what they are because there is no way to prove either way that they are true. It's like, truth doesn't need to be believed in order to be true, it just is. but a belief can never be proven to be true, which is what makes it a belief.

God has always been a confusing issue for me. It is something not meant to be rationalized, but people try to anyway because they want to understand what religion says is not meant to be understood. But for someone who doesnt have a strong faith they want some evidence to help them believe. It's very circular and as my dad would say, 'don't confuse the issue with facts'.

I think religion (and i think a lot of what we're talking about here is a monotheistic Christian/Catholic/Hebrew thing) is something that was meant to be personal, but has been warped into something that is sometimes forced upon us. I think it should be more personal, because it is what YOU believe.

Atheism seems lonely to me, that there is nothing greater to believe in. But a Christian God doesnt make sense to me either, because it's so contradictory. I call myself agnostic, because i'm skeptical. Because I hate how some people will force their religion down your throat and condemn you to hell in their minds. But usually, i'm envious of people who are able to believe so strongly in something unprovable. So much so that it gives them strength. I'm not envious of fools who are blind and full of themselves in their self-righteousness where they are committing 'sinful' acts by believing they are better because they are christian, or islamic and have found THE religion.

Again, i say, i think religion is and should be personal. Your personal set of beliefs (or lack thereof) whatever they may be. It's called a belief for a reason.
<3 bb

lin

Hard to argue with any of that, except that "religion" pretty much implies a group with dicta. You can have a personal spiritual experience, but to have a "religion" pretty much means a shared code of beliefs, etc.

lin

I figured this thread would degenerate into a theism/atheism rally.

But my comments here were not a statement of anything, merely a message to the original poster, who is not interested in theological monkeyshines, but in her own inner questions.

bunnybadass

mmmm...i see what you mean...was kinda quick to lump everything under the 'religion' category...spirituality is more what i was talking about.

Voodoo

God hates me.

I shall give him no pleasure.

Hodge

So lin, if I study logic will you, too? Because blustering on and on about how I don't know anything rather than, you know, addressing the point, is actually a logical fallacy.

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Science