Atheists Define "God," Once Again

[abaddon]

I believe that is it. For a theist like lion to give credence to anything we say would mean questioning his beliefs.

And would mean giving up the "get the atheists" trolling.

 

[Tinker Grey]

Mildred: Hey, Johnny, what [god] are you [not believing]?
Johnny: What've you got?

..

 

[Keith&Co.]

You gotta work out what it is you don't believe doesn't not exist.

Lion has his usual problem with pronouns. It's not our problem.

My aunt believes in God.
She believes in the God that inspired the Old and New Testament, but not the Koran, nor the Book of Mormon.
She believes in the God who judges people, but not all people, she accepts the Age of Accountability, though sge cannot find it in Scripture,
She believes in the God that uses evolution, judging Genesis to be a parable.
She also believes in the God who made the Earth an oblate spheroid, not flat.
She believes in the God who made Hell, though a LOT of what she believes about that Hell comes from the Divine Comedy.

She doesn't really care if Adam had a belly button, and dismisses the fact that people could run afoul of The Inquisition by painting Adam with or without one [depending on who was in power at the time] by shaking her head, and loftily saying, "Well, Catholics."

--------------------

I, on the other hand, do not accept divine participation in any holy book.
I do not believe the question of an Age of Accountability helps distinguish real from mythical gods.
None of the various descriptions of Hell, nor the schedules for who is going there or when are anything except fiction, to me.

Where the believer needs a scoresheet to determine where they stand on beliefs that are held to be crucial enough to identified as heresy, i regect them all as superstition.






....

 

[steve_bank]

Give me specifics about god and I will give you specifics on why I reject the specifics.

If you believe in ghosts it is incumbent n you to describe what that means.

 

[Lion IRC]

Atheist - I don't believe in God
Me - What do you mean by God?
Atheist - It's hard to say.
Me - Sounds like you're trying to avoid answering the question.
Atheist - Err, ummm, well...Higher Power etc. etc.

Me - typical atheist. They all seem to have their own definition of God.

 

[bilby]

Atheist - I don't believe in God
Me - What do you mean by God?
Atheist - It's hard to say <provides detailed descriptions as we see in the various posts above>.
Me - Sounds like you're trying to avoid answering the question.
Atheist - Err, ummm, well...Higher Power etc. etc. Wait, what? Is this thing on? Hello? Can you hear us??

Me - typical atheist. They all seem to have their own definition of God.

FTFY.

Your ignoring our definitions is not the same thing as our not having them.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Atheist - I don't believe in God
Me - What do you mean by God?
Atheist - It's hard to say.
Me - Sounds like you're trying to avoid answering the question.
Atheist - Err, ummm, well...Higher Power etc. etc.

Me - typical atheist. They all seem to have their own definition of God.

That's kind of the theists' fault. You give these vague and nonsensical descriptions which change radically depending on the circumstances and then it's other people's fault that they can't pin down WTF you're talking about?

 

[DBT]

Atheist - I don't believe in God
Me - What do you mean by God?
Atheist - It's hard to say.
Me - Sounds like you're trying to avoid answering the question.
Atheist - Err, ummm, well...Higher Power etc. etc.

Me - typical atheist. They all seem to have their own definition of God.

Hindus, as theists, have the same definition of God as you?

 

[Keith&Co.]

Atheist - I don't believe in God
Me - What do you mean by God?
Atheist - It's hard to say.
Me - Sounds like you're trying to avoid answering the question.
Atheist - Err, ummm, well...Higher Power etc. etc.

Me - typical atheist. They all seem to have their own definition of God.

So, if this is typical, Lion can pony up at least five atheists saying that it's hard to say what we don't believe in?

Or is this just more of Lion making shit up?

 

[Rhea]

Me - Isn’t god wonderful? Shouldn’t we make laws to force you to obey god?
Atheist - Which god?
Me - There is only ONE GOD
Atheist - I don't believe in God
Me - What do you mean by God?
Atheist - It's hard to say. Whatever god you’re selling.
Me - Well can you define him?
Atheist - What? Can I define YOUR God?
Me - Yes, you have to read my mind, because I won’t tell you.
Me Atheist - Sounds like you're trying to avoid answering the question.
Atheist Me - Err, ummm, well...Higher Power etc. etc.
Atheist - Well here, I’ll repeat back to you all the definitions of god that you disjointed poeple tell at various times, all the ones that make no sense, I’ll even quote your book to try to help you out...

Me - typical atheist. They all seem to have their own definition of God.
Atheist - Yah, no kidding. Garbage in, garbage out. You are incoherent.

Fixed that for you.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Believer - I believe that gods are real.
Atheist - Gods are just ghosts. Do you think ghosts are real?

Next line anyone?

 

[skepticalbip]

Atheist - I don't believe in God
Me - What do you mean by God?
Atheist - It's hard to say.
Me - Sounds like you're trying to avoid answering the question.
Atheist - Err, ummm, well...Higher Power etc. etc.

Me - typical atheist. They all seem to have their own definition of God.

Damn, I thought Jack Chick had already died.

Throwing up straw man versions of atheists is a fucking silly method of addressing atheist criticisms of religion. It doesn't address those criticisms at all which indicates that you have no actual rebuttals.

 

[abaddon]

Atheist - I don't believe in God.

Theist - What do you mean by God?

Atheist - Whatever you mean by it. It's whatever any theist says it is, since it's the theist's term.

Theist - Sounds like you're trying to avoid answering the question.

Atheist - Is this one of your instances of trying to pull a "trick" that you think atheists do to you? You heard atheists say "Sounds like you're trying to avoid answering the question" and "Theists all have their own definition of God" so, idiotically, you thought it could be a meaningful criticism of atheists to simply reverse things and throw their criticisms back at them. Why not use logic, instead of irrationally inverting the criticisms of theism? So, if interested at all in truth instead of playing games, think about this carefully: It's not logically necessary, or even logically possible, for atheists to have a distinct idea of what the infinity of all posited gods and all potential gods are that they do not believe in. They can generalize about gods and Gods, but not define one single God as THE God they don't believe in.

Theist - Typical atheist. They all seem to have their own definition of God.

Atheist - When atheists discuss God it's in light of what they have seen theists saying about it/them. If that reflection upon theist's Gods seem to vary among atheists, it's because different individuals will have different takes about the confused mess that theists say about their Gods. Different things within the mess of theism will stand out to different people.

 

[Lion IRC]

Atheist - I don't believe in God
Me - What do you mean by God?
Atheist - It's hard to say.
Me - Sounds like you're trying to avoid answering the question.
Atheist - Err, ummm, well...Higher Power etc. etc.

Me - typical atheist. They all seem to have their own definition of God.

Hindus, as theists, have the same definition of God as you?

Gods- plural.
Lots of definitions.
Moreover, I don't accuse Hindus of not knowing what they mean by the word - God.
Nor Muslims. Nor Jews. Nor Christians.

Atheists of the kind who started this Op are the only ones running around using "what do you mean by God" as if it was some kind of counter-apologetic argument against THEISM.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

My definition of God would be a supernatural being who interacts with our universe in any way. I disbelieve in that God.

 

[Lion IRC]

Atheist - I don't believe in God
Me - What do you mean by God?
Atheist - It's hard to say.
Me - Sounds like you're trying to avoid answering the question.
Atheist - Err, ummm, well...Higher Power etc. etc.

Me - typical atheist. They all seem to have their own definition of God.

That's kind of the theists' fault. You give these vague and nonsensical descriptions which change radically depending on the circumstances and then it's other people's fault that they can't pin down WTF you're talking about?

Nope. I could give 100 attributes of God and Rhea would still keep asking what do you mean by
omnipotence, what do you mean by benevolent, what do you mean by creator, what do you mean by incarnate, what do you mean by immaterial, what do you mean by theophany, what do you mean by eternal, what do you mean by transcendent, what do you mean by supernatural....what do you mean dictionary?

 

[Rhea]

Well, you’re an incurious son of a gun, now aren’t you.

 

[Rhea]

In my profession we have a thing called the Five Whys. There are worksheets and facilitators and preprinted cards for it. And not one person interested in the truth and root cause finds it onerous.

So interesting that you find this insulting. Perhaps you do not seek truth.

Of course I will ask “why” to reach understanding. I’d be a deluded fool not to. You and I think very very differently.

 

[Keith&Co.]

....what do you mean dictionary?

Ooooh, you almost made a point!
Pity, though....

Since you're one to use your own personal definitions of words, in defiance of a dictionary, or to add your own personal spin, we cannot depend on a dictionary definition to derive your meaning.

But even if we could, or pretended to take your statements at face value, if you ever actually LOOK at a dictionary, you will note that many words have multiple definitions. So, if you say 'God has trait X' and we see 'X' has five definitions and uses, it's not even a trick question to ask you to further specify what the fuck you're talking about.

But of course, admitting that would limit your ability to weasel around through the conversation, wouldn't it?

 

[ronburgundy]

Moreover, I don't accuse Hindus of not knowing what they mean by the word - God.
Nor Muslims. Nor Jews. Nor Christians.

.

Theist know what they mean, they just rarely honestly state what they mean b/c that makes it so obvious what a childishly absurd emotional projection their God is.
But the evidence of what they mean is clear in the texts they defer to and the way they talk about God. It makes it clear that to nearly every theist God is basically a Superhero like bilby accurate discussed, a sentient being with a human-like mind, will, goals, and emotions, but with supernatural powers to do and know things that are not possible for any physical being.
For monotheists, these powers are infinite b/c they need to explain everything via that one god rather than having multiple gods, each with finite powers.

It's also clear that virtually all Christians, Muslims, and Jews think that God thinks they are special and values humans above all his other creations. This makes sense, b/c why go to the trouble of denying obvious facts and suppressing rational thought to believe in a God, if it doesn't make you feel comforted and serve some egocentric purpose?

Again, when you describe God in this way, most theist will lie and pretend that is not what they mean, but such assumptions about God are inherent in the what the say about God and in the Bible and Koran they defer to.