Well, everyone has their reality. I don't belittle him expressing it, but I have to say there are others that seem to me to be more compelling..... Which would YOU rather do, live in fear of some devil or Satan, or just live as you like and do your thing without fear or anticipation of some indescribable punishment....for me life is too short.....
Proof #11 - Notice that there is no scientific evidence There is no scientific evidence indicating that God exists. We all know that. For example: God has never left any physical evidence of his existence on earth. None of Jesus' "miracles" left any physical evidence either. (see this page) God has never spoken to modern man, for example by taking over all the television stations and broadcasting a rational message to everyone. The resurrected Jesus has never appeared to anyone. (see this page) The Bible we have is provably incorrect and is obviously the work of primitive men rather than God. (see this page) When we analyze prayer with statistics, we find no evidence that God is "answering prayers." (see this page) Huge, amazing atrocities like the Holocaust and AIDS occur without any response from God. And so on⦠Let's agree that there is no empirical evidence showing that God exists. If you think about it as a rational person, this lack of evidence is startling. There is not one bit of empirical evidence indicating that today's "God", nor any other contemporary god, nor any god of the past, exists. In addition we know that: If we had scientific proof of God's existence, we would talk about the "science of God" rather than "faith in God". If we had scientific proof of God's existence, the study of God would be a scientific endeavor rather than a theological one. If we had scientific proof of God's existence, all religious people would be aligning on the God that had been scientifically proven to exist. Instead there are thousands of gods and religions. The reason for this lack of evidence is easy for any unbiased observer to see. The reason why there is no empirical evidence for God is because God is imaginary.
There is strong evidence that man's aversion to snakes is biological; fear of snakes has literally been hardwired into our genetic processes. Religious rites emphasizing snakes tend to be fear-based ones--an attempt to come to grips with the fear by mythologizing it. From E.O. Wilson's Consilience: Fear of snakes is deep and primordial among the Old World primates, the phylogenetic group to which Homo Sapiens belongs. When vervets and other guenons, common long-tailed arboreal monkeys of Africa, encounter certain kinds of snakes, they emit a unique chuttering call. They are evidently good instinctive herpetologists, because the response, which appears to be inborn, is limited to the poisonous cobras, mambas, and puff adders. The response is not made to harmless snakes. Others of the monkey group come to the side of the caller, and together they watch the intruder until it leaves the neighborhood. They are also ready with an inborn eagle call, causing all the troop members to scramble down from the trees and out of danger, and an inborn leopard call, triggering a rush in the opposite direction to parts of the canopy that big cats cannot reach. Common chimpanzees, a species believed to share a common ancestor with prehumans as recently as five million years ago, are unusually apprehensive in the presence of snakes, even if they have had no previous experience. They back off to a safe distance and follow the intruder with a fixed stare while alarting companions with a Wah! warning call. The response gradually intensifies during adolescence. Inborn behavioral response to particular animal forms. Through our ancient ancestors, remnants of such behavior were passed on to man. Amazing what evolution can do eh? As for dragons, they are just snakes with added features and optional legs. Blood sacrifice? Primitive attempts to deal with death via explanations and controlled interactions. p.s. Religion vs science is like a bunny rabbit vs a steamroller. The bunny can hop away to the safety of the bushes, but in all head to head confrontations there is no question as to who gets crushed.
This contribution is even less insightful than the one to which I originally responded. However, it's definitely more "inciteful." Regardless, I won't take the bait for a flame war. If you want to discuss something substantive, you'll need to actually make a substantive comment worthy of a response.
Proof #12 - See the magic When you look at different religions, they usually contain "magic." For example: The Mormon religion contains the magical golden plates, the magical angel, the magical seer stones, the magical ascension of the plates into heaven, etc. The Muslim faith contains the magical angel, the magical flying horse, the magical voices, the magical prophet, etc. The Christian faith contains the magical insemination, the magical star, the magical dreams, the magical miracles, the magical resurrection, the magical ascension and so on. The presence of "magic" is a clear marker for "imaginary." For example, how do we know that Santa is imaginary? Because (among other things) he has eight magical flying reindeer. How do we know that Jack and the Beanstalk is a fairy tale? Because (among other things) the story contains magical seeds. In the same way, how do we know that God is make believe? Because God is surrounded by magic. According to believers, God is an all-powerful being who has the divine, magical power to do anything. How do we know that this belief is a fairy tale? One way to know is to try to invoke God's magical power. For example, as described in Proof #1, the Bible tells us in many places that God answers prayers. However, whenever we try to pray, we notice that nothing happens (See Proof #1 and Proof #2). That tells us that God is completely imaginary. The magical powers ascribed to him are a fairy tale. Another way to know is to read the stories of magical events in the Bible. There is the magical flood, yet we know with certainty that the flood never happened. There are the magical miracles of Jesus, but (predictably) none of these miracles left behind any tangible evidence (see Proof #14). There is the magical resurrection, yet there is zero evidence that it ever occured and no reason to believe it (See Proof #15). God is identical to Leprechauns, mermaids and Santa. God is a magical fairy tale creature. The magic surrounding God tells us that God is imaginary.
Santa is NOT imaginary. Otherwise how do you explain the Christmas presents? Those are REAL presents! Jack and the Beanstalk is NOT imaginary. It had the goose that laid the golden eggs. That was told by Aesop. Aesop, being one of the greatest story tellers of all time, couldn't possibly just made things up! What are you trying to do? Kill the only little bit of innocense left in our culture?
God is the common means by which adults can keep an imaginary friend without having to remind themselves it's at best childish and at worst psychotic to be talking to something invisible. I can testify that Santa does actually exist. Many years ago, I saw Him in mommy's bedroom playing horsey with her late one Christmas eve.
Since you have no proof that God does not exist, your claims are without factual foundation. If in fact God does exist, then the thoughts of God are not imaginations of something false at all. Until such time that you can offer proof that God does not exist, you have no proof that people who think of God are in fact in a state of imagination of something false. I truly am sorry that your childhood wounding is not being treated...
No, yours is. When Newton "imagined" gravity, not yet a fact of science, his imagination was not false. It was an imagination of a truth. Your inability to disprove God, is of course, a fact. Please seek some counseling for your childhood wounding and subsequent adult resentments that focuses on others successful practice of their own religion...