Lets say there is a civilization that is 50 million years older than us. Do you think that civilization with all its technology could have the ability to say create a planet in 6 days? Do you think that civilization would have the ability to take random DNA strands and manipulate them to create millions of different animals in a very short period of time? Would that civilization have the ability to moniter all our actions and record them on computers without being seen or us even knowing about them? (remember...they are 50 million years more advanced than us) And what if that civilization made the discovery of where our energy goes, they call it a soul, and they have the technology to not only verify that it exists, but to use technology that can interact with it and even make it feel pain or make it feel joy (kind of like heaven & hell) What if this planet is an experiment and only those with faith get to go on and the ones that have none are destroyed. The ones that believe in what is possible without knowing would definately be more beneficial to an extraterrestrial races advancement in the universe as opposed to a person who only believes what has already been proven. So now any atheist should be able to see that statement and logically think that its possible. So i just ask the atheists to take it one step further and imagine there is one that is more advanced than the alien race and has better technology. That one we will call God.
Not at all. You said nothing about how you conduct yourself in society. Do you commit adultry? Do you rob others? Are you rude to others? Do you drive drunk? Assuming you live your life based on some set of values, how will some set of beliefs about god/the afterlife/whatever change the way in which you decide to live your life? You either decided to dodge the question with your reply, or, you do not understand the difference between taking action and holding a belief.
You are not born with beliefs...there has to be a decision to believe. And if you believe, you will take the actions of that belief system that tells you how to live your life, otherwise you do not really believe. When you have made the decision to believe, there will be times when you do mess up. If you believe your belief system, you will feel like you've done wrong when you mess up, and definately try not to do it again because of the guilt you feel. If you do not believe in God, or anything else, then your beliefs come from a mixture of societies beliefs or rather the beliefs of the people you are around most of the time. Take a look at teenagers for instance. You put a group of them together, and they will try get to one of them to go into a store and steal something. When the kid does it, the other kids congradulate him and now the kid has the belief that stealing is ok even if he didnt before. A teenager generally has to have a very strong belief in what is right & wrong to say no to his friends. Most people have self serving beliefs though if they dont believe in God. They will say things like "lying is wrong...Unless you are doing it for a good reason." I believe that everything is black & white in the moral category. Something is either right or its wrong, but people with no beliefs will change what they believe if it serves them for the better. Anyway...hopefully this is the answer you wanted.
you are a good example of the dangers of religion. look what it has done to your mind. Beliefs should be a search for truth and understanding, not denying reality so you can have faith in a compendium of books written by unknown authors over hundreds and hundreds of years complied much later by other fallible men, as 100% literally correct. That is a faith that is truly blind The very concept of faith is an insult to human intelligence. If you take something on faith, you are in effect saying, "I don't need evidence, facts, or logic. Evidence is worthless, facts are for ninnies, logic is nonsense. I'll believe whatever I want even if reality overwhelmingly shows that it's just not true."
finally you have stumbled onto some truth. people are not born believers. people are born atheists. your religious beliefs are usually indoctrinated into you by your parents. that is why the vast majority believe what their parents believed. if you had been born in a muslim country you would be just as sure that islam is the only true religion.
With due respect vhehn, you are guilty of the same... Some of the information contained in the links that you reference are just absolutely in error. They are nothing more than an adamant conclusion in search of proof.
Typical quote by dawkins and completely false logic by you. People are not born atheists. Atheism is absolute denial of God. People are born agnostic, then they have to find out the truth for themselves whether thru family, friends or books written by complete strangers. Personally i think i have pissed you off a little bit as my original post was pretty convincing. I notice that its pretty much been completely ignored or attempted to sway away from the original subject.
Just curious, is your compulsive atheist-baiting thread habit an attempt to convince atheists or to convince yourself? So, people find out the truth for themselves from family, friends or books? Were you old enough to read books when you found out the truth for yourself? You told everyone you were agnostic until you learn't to read did you? By the way, where did the author of those books you read find out the truth? Earlier you suggested that teenage friends would lead someone stealing something, but now you're suggesting this is how you find out the truth? By the way, where did your friends find out the truth from? Today, there is a 1 in 5 chance that a child born on the planet will have Muslim family, friends and Islamic books to find out the truth from. By the way, where did those Muslim familys find out the truth from? There is a 1 in 3 chance that a child born on the planet will have Christian family, friends and books toe find out the truth from. Most estimates though suggest that Islam is the world's fastest growing religion and will overtake Christianity as the world's dominant religion within a hundred years. Which child though is finding out the correct truth here? Just asking...