How do you know it was concocted by man? That is simply your belief. You don't know but you do believe it to be fact.
until you provide evidence souls exists, my default belief is not going to be that they do. i can say with confidence my bones are separate from my eyeballs. you can only say with an imagination that a soul is a separate thing from an active brain.
You can maintain your belief systems. I support freedom of religion. You can have just as much confidence as a theist about what happens after death, but neither your faith nor their faith has any bearing on what actually happens after death. Personal confidence has no bearing on the truth or falsity of something.
This is the key element: "my default belief" GG has a belief system, they call it atheism. It is not fact, it is not objective science, it is not truth, it is just a belief. Naturally, he thinks it is the best belief, the correct belief for all human beings, and the belief that everyone else should adopt. Welcome to the human race.
if the world operated on your belief system, it would be a mess. everyone could make all kinds of bogus unfounded claims and we'd all just blindly accept them. the right thing to do is to be scientific--YET ACCEPT THAT WE DO NOT KNOW EVERYTHING. my scientific belief system gives us all the technology we have today. our computers come from my type of thinking, not yours. what do we get from yours? a bunch of fools killing eachother for god all over the world and a bunch of churches all over the place. yay....
ART: >Parents know that Santa Claus and the Easter >Bunny are imaginary to begin with. Not true...I think GG is right, ART can't be this stupid. A parent who knows that Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny to be imaginary are merely children who grew up and realized the truth and absurdity of the myths. The did not know this "to begin with" at all (unless they were lucky enough to have parents who didn't perpetuate the myth) >Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are not by definition >Eternal, Omniscient, and Unlimited in nature. I just love the gibberish from ART(ist). He claims that our puny human intellect cannot possible even fathom this god (pint container...gallon of water) AND YET...as an appeal to authority he refers to a definition that has been created ONLY BY HUMANS. ROFLAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO JB PS (let's be clear...my attack on ART's intellect is not because of his belief in god -- only his intellectually challenged statements)
I'll start here with this post: There are those that know [ie have faith] the earth is flat but we who are enlightened know better. These people are as adamant in their belief as you are in yours. What precautions have YOU taken to ensure that you are not similarly decieved?? Or at least to give you the edge if not guarantee your conclusion? we all need an edge. what's your edge??
never though i'd say this but i kind of thought ART, GG and LS were having a somewhat civil and respectful debate....heck, im almost agreeing wiht Gordon on a lot of these points ...but now you come trolling in with nothing to offer but insults and aggressive attacks agianst ART.....