Do Gods Exist?

[DBT]

"Faith is like a piece of blank paper whereon you may write as well one miracle as another." ~ Charles Blount (1654-1693)

Faith, like faithfulness, faith in your spouse, children, family, science, money. Credit, credentials, credible - all mean faith. Faith is simply trust. You know that don't you? I think atheism in general, and specifically these forums, need a translation guide for double speak and misappropriated colloquialisms.

No, not the same. Direct experience with someone or something is not the same as a belief held without the support of evidence. Building trust or an understanding of how the world works is not the same as having faith in a belief held without evidence.

 

[Elixir]

You have to insist upon your opinion as fact even though you can no more prove your position is true than mine. So, you demand evidence (the available body of facts or information indicating whether a belief or proposition is true or valid) and proof (evidence or argument establishing or helping to establish a fact or the truth of a statement) without fully understanding what those things are.

Gee, that would make more sense (as well as being more honest and factual) written with the first and second persons reversed, I.e. “I have to insist upon my opinion as fact even though I can no more prove my position is true than yours.” Etc. etc.
At least that would make it an unassailable assertion of fact, rather than a specious conjecture.

You actually lack any authority or knowledge to present the above as fact as written.

It is interesting to note how long it took you to get around to admit believing in the Santa Clause of American religion; the Xtian-style supernatural Creator-God invention.
That is typical of the religious “gotcha”-seeking crusaders who come around here.

 

[Elixir]

You know what's dumb?

Yes. I do. Atheism and science.

Reeel dam smort, yabetcha!
Y’all need a good ol fashioned wooden soapbox to stand on while waving your arms and proclaiming that Teh Stoopid afflicts everyone but you.
We ain’t never seen nuthin’ lak thet thar round these here parts!
(At least not for at least three days before you came here with your manmade can of rhetorical fog.) gonna tellya a secret you won’t believe:

WE SEE YOU!

 

[Jarhyn]

You know what's dumb?

Yes. I do. Atheism and science.

Reeel dam smort, yabetcha!
Y’all need a good ol fashioned wooden soapbox to stand on while waving your arms and proclaiming that Teh Stoopid afflicts everyone but you.
We ain’t never seen nuthin’ lak thet thar round these here parts!
(At least not for at least three days before you came here with your man made can of rhetorical fog.) gonna tellya a secret you won’t believe:

WE SEE YOU!

Like, most Christian apologists have the same damn arguments because they all come either from the same damn "leadership training" ecosystem, or knockoffs specific to the sects. The worst part is that as a kid and young adult, I was all over those events, and for whatever reason I was different and saw through the "cheapness" of their canned rhetoric, and had the actual time to study the fact that it's all build on hollow rhetoric and convincing people to knee-jerk reject science since it's so dangerous to their world view (it's central feature is doubt!)

 

[ideologyhunter]

"Faith is like a piece of blank paper whereon you may write as well one miracle as another." ~ Charles Blount (1654-1693)

Faith, like faithfulness, faith in your spouse, children, family, science, money. Credit, credentials, credible - all mean faith. Faith is simply trust. You know that don't you? I think atheism in general, and specifically these forums, need a translation guide for double speak and misappropriated colloquialisms.

Well, shoot, you need to skedaddle on over to islamqa.info, where you can find 9 indisputable proofs of Islam and the Quran, and you won't have to simply 'trust' nothin'. You'll have proof.

 

[Elixir]

You'll have proof.

Aw shucks. The thing about godders is they don' need no steenkin' proof. At least not the ones armed with invincible ignorance and rhetoric to match.

 

[Jarhyn]

And the worst part, @RIS? We know you won't deconvert no matter what we say. You can't. You're trapped in a church trained to reject you from your entire family community if you do become an apostate, and we are a sorry replacement for a community, however cult-based it is.

Look at what they have done to you in the name of a person who would certainly be appalled at such an act of rejection over a difference of opinion: they have made your very mother and father, perhaps, or your wife, or your friends, or perhaps "and..."

Do you not see how evil that is? How disdainfully and unmercifully and lovingly corrupt that is?

 

[RIS]

Because?

.

And the worst part, @RIS? We know you won't deconvert no matter what we say. You can't. You're trapped in a church trained to reject you from your entire family community if you do become an apostate, and we are a sorry replacement for a community, however cult-based it is.

Look at what they have done to you in the name of a person who would certainly be appalled at such an act of rejection over a difference of opinion: they have made your very mother and father, perhaps, or your wife, or your friends, or perhaps "and..."

Do you not see how evil that is? How disdainfully and unmercifully and lovingly corrupt that is?

First of all, wrong again atheist. I've never belonged to any religious or political organization or group. Secondly, for once, in spite of your indoctrination, propaganda, group think and ideology, think for yourself. Your desire to deconvert me is exactly the same thing you criticize the church for.

 

[pood]

Because?

.

And the worst part, @RIS? We know you won't deconvert no matter what we say. You can't. You're trapped in a church trained to reject you from your entire family community if you do become an apostate, and we are a sorry replacement for a community, however cult-based it is.

Look at what they have done to you in the name of a person who would certainly be appalled at such an act of rejection over a difference of opinion: they have made your very mother and father, perhaps, or your wife, or your friends, or perhaps "and..."

Do you not see how evil that is? How disdainfully and unmercifully and lovingly corrupt that is?

First of all, wrong again atheist. I've never belonged to any religious or political organization or group. Secondly, for once, in spite of your indoctrination, propaganda, group think and ideology, think for yourself. Your desire to deconvert me is exactly the same thing you criticize the church for.

No one has any desire to deconvert you. We simply point out how silly your arguments are. I mean, you criticize as “dumb” the very methodologies of science that gave you an internet platform to assail science as dumb. How dumb is that?

But why are you here? To convert us to Christianity? If that is the case, it would be hypocritical of you to criticize anyone for trying to deconvert you, if indeed anyone were trying to do that.

If not to get converts, why be here? Surely you must have realized that a board full of educated skeptics and atheists would be critical of your posts, so why do you get bent out of shape by criticism? What were you expecting?

 

[TomC]

"Faith is like a piece of blank paper whereon you may write as well one miracle as another." ~ Charles Blount (1654-1693)

Faith, like faithfulness, faith in your spouse, children, family, science, money. Credit, credentials, credible - all mean faith. Faith is simply trust. You know that don't you? I think atheism in general, and specifically these forums, need a translation guide for double speak and misappropriated colloquialisms.

Nope, the word faith is more complex and nuanced than that.
I have trust that my real parents loved me because of what they did for decades. (I wasn't a model child). Biomom and sperm donor were just a couple of dumbass college kids that "God" dumped me on in 1958. Ann and Bill C took me in and gave me a good home. I had faith in them based on solid evidence and personal experience.

That's extremely different from religious faith and theism. In that context, Faith means a Belief in things that the Believer really wants to be true, despite the lack of evidence. Or even in contradiction to the clear evidence. And has the corollary belief that the Believer is smart and special enough to understand what is real when most people are not.

I am not a hard atheist. See my self description for more detail. But I am not a theist because I don't think I am so great I understand more about God than most people. I'm not sufficiently delusional to believe that highly of myself.
Tom