if that's what you believe, fine. if you think religion is great, fine. but there are people in this world that don't need that nonsense. i'm one.
never say never.....One day, you may indeed need to look up...Just as you thought when you started you would make money trading; maybe one day you will look up and acknowledge some GOD..get my point.....lets just hope you never find yourself in a situation that will make you contradict the thousands of pages you have devoted to your non-belief.....Like I said I am not here trying to tell you what to think. I just want to point out the fact that most think your way and when they find themselves in certain negative situations they come praying......thats all...
where are the statistics on that? i don't care about some loser in prison. and who cares if they do anyways. they have nothing to lose, why not give it a shot? maybe if i was on death row i'd say a prayer too for the hell of it. it wouldn't mean i necessarily believe in praying. i haven't said a prayer since i was about 5 years old. back then my grandmother made me go. eventually, my father said i didn't have to. he's a science teacher and knows better. anyway, are you saying i've never had negative situations in my life? i've had many...and they never caused me to pray. you can continue to think i'm going to turn religious someday, but i'm not. prayers = talking to yourself...nothing more. if praying makes you feel better, great.....but you're really just talking to yourself. i know you can't get yourself to realize this, so i don't expect you to agree with me.
Talking to yourself or not; my point is that u yourself admitted that if on death row you will pray for the fun of it...First off I doubt you will be praying for the fun of it; and second, you answered my point. And I dont have the stats it is just an experience I am sharing with ya..... nothing more nothing less.... peace and good luck
If praying can enable people to get through crises (including life and death situations) that would sink non-spiritual people, then it is NOT limited to just "talking to yourself...nothing more." Don't underestimate the power of prayer and the spiritual strength and courage that it can elicit in most individuals. Where do you think Islamic Fundamentalists find the courage to kill themselves from? Just muttering to themselves?
like i've said before, the only question that christians and theists need to bother to answer is, "if it can be shown your beliefs are irrational or unsubstantiated, would you be willing to change them?" i have yet to meet one christian that has answered "yes , i would". since that's usually the case, there is very little point in maintaining any kind of discussion with them. however, when people keep trying to keep the idea of god, and christianity specifically, alive based on its "truth", i have to interject. the christian claims knowledge of some great truth, yet this "knowledge" does not fulfill the requirements of knowledge. Faith is simply an ivalid cognitive procedure. Man does not acquire knowledge via faith, he acquires it via reason. faith is nothing more than wishful thinking. the christian brings us the bible, the book from which knowledge of god (and his edicts) is derived, and asks us to have blind faith in it. the christian asks us to suspend our natural critical impulse to the outrageous claims the bible makes and, instead, to have faith that they are true. and why should we? cos its god's word. and how do we know god is real? the bible tells us so. WHAT COMPLETE AND UTTER GARBAGE! IF ANYONE CANNOT SEE THROUGH THIS CRAP, THEY DON'T DESERVE TO BE CALLED HUMAN! adding further insult to injury, whenever reality conflicts with and contradicts the bible, the christian doesn't throw away the bible in disgust and exclaim, "damn, i've been duped!"; no, he brings in his favorite theologian to creatively "interpret" what the bible was "really trying to say". that way, the christian has no trouble at all living with the unbelievably corny stories, which are demonstrably false, like the genesis creation, the "great flood", the life of jesus (to name a few). my favorite tactic is when theologians not only interpret the bible in such a way that it no longer conflicts with reality, but go further, and claim that the bible really supported that aspect of reality all along. what jokers!
Wow, so many of the brightest mathematicians and philosophers (philosophers who do high level math-logic research on the most abstract concepts) make these very valid points, but yet they are just lack the "intellectual apparatus" to distinguish between proof and non-proof (I guess that's what the second option was, since you didn't specify). Considering epistemology and our limitations, and recognizing what can and can't be ruled out, actually requires an open mind and a great deal of good reasoning. To sum up the arguments made the way you have, and to rebut them this way (I guess that's what you're doing, even though you never addressed any points whatsoever) can be done by any idiot (ie you)!