so im in a bad mood and in for a good god debate.
i see people look towards god and religion as a moral compass. i guess that's reasonable, but it's in no way infallible. some believers tell non-believers and people they dont agree with to read a bible, get their morals straight.
thats just absurd.
the bible has been used by the nazis and the kkk. Ed Gein's mother read him the bible every night. google him. anti-abortionists tell pregnant 12 yr olds raped by their fathers that they better keep that baby, soley on the Word of this 'good book.' it's also been used by the good Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
so not everyone who quotes the bible is wrong, it's just that it's so damn big and vague (like Parka pointed out) that you can use it for any number of agendas. reading the bible alone certainly isnt going to make you a good person. so where does that leave us but back to relying on our own beliefs? there is no moral compass, but a moral triangulation between experience, democracy, and rational thinking.
and whats this highest power stuff? so far as i see it, we're in a neverending story of constantly trying to find deeper and deeper truths. if this is God, fine. But to characterize that as some kind supreme being that will always help you out when in trouble is a gross perversion of that to me. it cuts a person off from having faith in what will actually pull them through the situation: themselves. The Powers that Be are nothing to The Powers of Being.
There are obvious flaws in an omnipotent omniscient all-benevolent being, especially with all the violence in the Old Testament. And again to dwell on the absurdity of taking the Bible literally:
2 Kings 2:23 (New International Version)
23 From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they said. "Go on up, you baldhead!"
24 He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.
theres ridiculous stuff in the NT too.
but to get back to the subject matter:
" im not mistaken, you all believe that there are no godlike beings, thus no afterlife. when you die, you die, end of discussion.
but i have a question...normally when you cannot remember something, its as if that never happened (like infant years). so when you die, your brain ceases to function, so you cant remember ANYTHING. therefore, from your perspective, you never existed."
there is a big difference between not being remembered and not existing. Hitler killed the jews, but they grew back- so its like the Holocoust never happened, right?
atheists will be remembered by their actions and the memories of their loved ones, just like theists.
and the argument foamy the squirrel back there poses sounds really solipsist to me. solipsism involves only believing in yourself and in some versions some kind of supernatural force. thats it. the people around you are only puppets of this supernatural force thats playing with you. its very hard to debunk, but leads to a lot of philosophies many people would disagree with.
yeah. im atheist. and proud of it. bring it on.
