Hey guys, haven't posted in this section in years, and for a good reason. A few years ago on this forum I got into a debate I was horribly inept to even take part in. It was a classic Creationism vs. Evolution debate. Needless to say, the great minds scooped up and tossed away every argument I could think up. Eventually I was stumped and my self-esteem took a beating. My argument was "I know God exists, I just know it. I can just feel it inside." That was 4 years ago or more and as my mind started maturing, I started to think logically and stopped taking bullshit fluff for answers to important questions. Once and for all I wanted to know the truth. I remember when I first started doubting that there was a God. Penn and Teller Bullshit did a episode on Creationism that made me start to doubt my "beliefs." Then I youtubed people who talked about religion like The Amazing Athiest, Hitchens, Dawkins, The Athiest Experience (Radio show) and suddenly I heard something that made sense. They refuted everything I believed with such perfect logic and common sense. Just the other week I bought "The God Delusion," it's a hard book to put down and everyone should read it(whether you are god-fearing or not). I can see how religion traps the mind from maturing. With threats of eternal damnation, curses and demond possession a man can become a little boy scared into submission and a life of constant fear, paranoia and wasted time and resources. Religions control their members by forbidding them to venture outside their sheltered lives. Intellect is viewed as an enimy, a tool that the devil used to "deceive" you with. Of course, what a perfect mental trap, "do what I say, no matter how crazy or illogical, or you're deceived by the devil." Since I have given up my pet beliefs and delusions I feel like a man finally, I no longer feel like a little kid. I've faced the one monster in my closet I've been hiding for so many years, that I knew I'd have to tackle at some point in my life. Facing this monster has given me the self-esteem back(truth seems to do that to you) and I no longer feel the need to waste time, money and emotional energy on vague, untouchable, incalculable claims. Yes, I'm happy to say, I've found the truth. You were right, I was wrong. Thank you.
Good to hear clinton. It's nice to see you came to the conclusion that if it isn't true you don't need to be frightened of its threats, a lot of the time the fear is what keeps people clinging on to it long after they have internally concluded that it's made up.
Because that will be against humanity and general moral.. We are atheists, not some psychopath barbarians. Jeez!!
Welcome aboard, Clinton. @Apoc - personally, I won't and don't kill for profit. I, for one, value human life as much as any religious person out there do.
Agree about "claims" but there is no longer for you the vague, untouchable, incalculable...to find answers for and destinations to reach? Do not be to quick to join the "Dead End" crowd, there are other avenues as real as death and just as plausible.
I think your question implies, if there's no God how can there be a concept of evil? I think natural selection has given us the innate ability to interact in social groups peacefully. We have to in order to survive. If we didn't have this inborn sense of what's right and what's wrong, we'd quickly be weeded out of existence. Being social animals for so long we would have had to evolve into this socially accountable creature. In small tribes it would mean being shunned or killed by the other members. If you weren't killed, you'd be left stranded to survive in the wild by yourself. In modern days we have jails, which seems like a good example for socially accountability. And so the question, where does evil come from? Well, it comes from us deciding how we like to be treated, and using that as a basis on how to treat others. Others also tell us how they like to be treated. That might be a little oversimplistic, but it's a start. Overall, when we work together without and continue to be accountable to each other, we keep the peace, and it lowers the chances of our race being weeded out of existence. We often others with respect and human decency(our family, co-workers, friends, every day people) because we know there's a good chance it may be reciprocated, and that makes us feel good. It would be impossible for us to be at the stage we are in the evolutionary cycle if we didn't have morals, and that innate sense of what's right and wrong. Why? Because if we were unwilling to co-operate with each other, we would have not been able to survive as a race. We wouldn't have even started. ApocalypseXL - To answer your question. I try not to be high and mightly, too much pride does strange things to people. I'm just another human being, lucky to be apart of this great planet, searching for the truth. Why not kill for money? Well it goes back to what I said above. I've seen what putting money above human life has done on this planet. It causes a lot of pain and ruins lives. Money should be used to benefit others, give people jobs, help your family, maintain your ideal lifestyle and give honest people a second chance. And then it goes back to that whole golden rule thing, I don't want to kill people because I don't want to get killed. I don't totally understand what you meant here. If I got it wrong, please correct me. I think what you're saying is, "your style of analyzing and accepting evidence as true or false may be too narrow." I've thought of this before. It didn't bother me for long for the pure fact that I'm using the faculties of my mind that I can distinguish between reality and fantasy. I don't believe in pixies, because I haven't found any significant evidence to convince me that pixies exist. However, I'm open to further evidence. Though, someone claiming that pixies exist without any real evidence isn't enough to convince me that they exist. So why should I just be convinced through science or basic logic? Because it works the best. This is how we refute bullshit claims. This is how we are convinced. It basically comes down to, if there's no real evidence other than stories or random fluke then my disbelief is justified. Those aren't very narrow criteria. Just basic common sense. Most kids will listen to anything you tell them. When you get older you start asking questions because you "just accept" all of those fudged answers your parents, or teachers, preatures, etc. gave you.
So if you want to kill or not it's a simple personal choice just like choosing if you want ketch-up on your pizza . As for natural selection it has long been invalidated . So many people should have died to it that it's not even possible to count them , think only about the huge number of people that are born with a devastating genetic disease that die of old age instead of being eaten by an animal. As for the planet it can go eff itself if i'm just a temporary electrochemically powered lump of carbon i want to use this time to live to the max . Why would i care about those who don't care about me ? Our social needs developed to protect ourself from the danger of other species but today the only danger comes from ourselves . I don't want to kill because i don't want to get killed , lol . The majority of organized hits are never discovered . Simply because they are not murders they classified as missing persons , in the us alone 50.000 adults are missing . So this actions never trigger the massive murder response systems that lead to the spectacular arrests .
Um..lol..yeah it's a choice that carries a little more weight than choosing a topping for a pizza. Sure, it's the whole, "Since we're all just spacedust nothing really matters." argument. No one says you have to care for the whole human race or be some kind of saint. I was talking more along the lines of human decency and respect for human life. Sorry man, this is making me kind of sad. If you're saying the only reason you don't go out and murder people (hopefully never getting caught) because your god has tabs on you, you've got bigger problems. Being ok with taking another person's life simply because you'll never pay for it? I try to treat others how I want to be treated, it doesn't mean that how I treat others is exactly how others are going to treat me.
Why would i do that? Did you just admit that the only thing stopping you from murdering people is your belief in god? Did you just admit that you have to be coerced in to not killing people by threats of torture? it's funny how we can just let the religious talk and they inevitably end up outing themselves as psychotic lunatics.
Da... You have no idea what is Natural Selection... That makes you a selfish sob. As for me, I spend my Sunday working for an animal Shelter, not because I want my golden ticket to fairyland.. Because it makes me feel good. What the heck that has to do with belief or non-belief?
Physical death is your corpse - your life need not have the same destination. The Architecture for Evolution is an example, i.e. an ongoing process transcending physical death.
God created both good and evil so that He may test the believers. It is only human beings who have the ability to distinguish good from evil. Animals don't have the concept of good and evil but they also exist. We don't see any species getting extinct unless it is being intervened by human beings.
It's nice to see that when confronted with a ethical issue the militant atheist go into personal attack mode and their best argument is Ad hominem . You guys are as worthless in a argument as any other religious nut . QED for the .... God knows how many times
No, evil is a creation of Mankind. Mankind digressed to evil (a state of being) by choice and is expelled from Existence to the Everlasting until Remittance is accomplished for their return. Mankind is not aloud a role in the Architecture of life.