Why do I need to prove there is no God?

Someone once presented me with evidence that the Earth is alive, called the Gaia; I'm not saying the Earth is not alive, I am just saying I do not believe that what they presented to me was evidence of a living Earth.

I look at it this way: there may be a god, or gods, but I do not believe any of the various gods worshipped by humans are true gods.

Good points.

 

Certainly possible. But your claim was that all religions follow the same basic pattern. My only point was that Christianity doesn't follow the pattern of religions before and after it. That doesn't necessarily make it true or false - but it does make it somewhat unique.

 

Christianity leaves people with little room for growth. It's the equivalent of spiritual second grade your entire life.

I hope people more and more learn the real meaning behind the /wizard of Oz and have the courage to consider new ideas they hadn't thought about.

 

If God really cared about earth people believing him, all he needs to do is boom his voice a couple times over NY, Paris, London, Shanghai, Moscow while showing his face. Didn't he used to do that in the old days with all the show of power and force? Unless the God in old testament is not the the same one in the new testament.

 

Here is a thread that pretty much addresses what you ask.
http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?p=5264833#post5264833

 

This thread is very frustrating. It's like voices of reason from all sides come in and make thought provoking posts, then they're followed up with the same idiocy that was just posted a few pages prior.

 

Except what if from God's POV faith is what is important? The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has a good take on this.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/f1ctoT7ezTE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

It just goes to show people are thinking of God in the wrong way to think he/she/it/they are/is just some person in sky (really, in the sky?).

And how would we know if that appearance by God was some kind of decepetion? People need to look intenernally for God, not in the sky or somewhere beyond outer space.

 

I do not expect God to be living in the clouds, if he is really the creator of the universe. But I expect him to show us that he is there. How about stop a hurricane and save lives?

 

Ok your choices are narrowed to Jack White or Jimmy Page

I don't know many guitarist that still play, but would like to hear your band... getting them to Houston might be a chore.

 

Howabout Pete Townshend?

I tried to convince a friend of mine who gigs regularly to get me a gig, get me gear and a band to back me in Houston. He wasn't very obliging with that proposal.

Have actually had an offer to come play in Houston before but I have a hard enough time getting some members of my band to play outside of the Twin Cities metro area let alone getting them to go to Texas.

 

to me faith is a personal comfort, and one way or another it doesn't matter if anyone believes in god. if he is there, he is there and will continue to do what god does regardless of what we think or believe.

i think it's a pretty narcissistic view of god that he would create the world for us and do things for our benefit. the universe is incomprehensibly larger than us and human civilization is relatively insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

 

So the ultimate test for god is to see if humans are capable of believing in something without proof? Why would a benevolent god encourage that?

 

We are a figment of your imagination.
You can't prove otherwise.
Yes, I'm talking to you.

Spoiler

Had a random thought while waiting for my lunch - as technology advances, we will eventually be incapable of knowing if we are what/who we think we are. Whether it be from implanted memories and/or simulated environments.

If this is true, then we can't know that we aren't currently at that technological level and the product of said implants/simulations.

Of course this is tinfoil hat lunacy, but for a lunchline revelation I thought it was at least interesting enough to post. And yes, posted it in the god-proof thread. Because we can't prove the presence or absence of god, let alone what is reality.

The kicker is trying to decide if this 'reality' would be a punishment or a reward.

And I'm sure this is some basic philosophy 101 topic, but /shrug

 

Again, would that be God or some force created by God that stopped the hurricane? How would you know? This argument, not to mention, there is paranormal phenomena that happens (and it usually discredited) that makes it clear there is more than we can perceive with the five senses.

Like I said, the key to discovering God is internal, not external. I think it's most people's problem, they keep waiting on that external savior to do everything for them.

And if higher divine forces intervened just one time, just one time then what? You'd expect their/its help and get angry if they/it didn't come to save or help in every bad situation in your life, giving you a crutch as to not improve yourself.

 

Well I should have been more specific. This is all within the context of authenticity and proof and such. The Greeks could no more give evidence of their beliefs than a Christian and so on. All religions to one extent or another are there to explain the unexplained. At some point they explained the sun, the winds, the seas, the seasons, etc. At this point they explain the origin of life and the universe. Christians don't use their faith to explain the function of the seasons or eclipses or what have you because we know why those exist. So once the origin of life is explained, the desire, need, and likelihood to use your religion to explain it is severely diminished which takes power away from those beliefs.

 

I told you I wasn't trying to prove anything to you. So I gave opinions.
Be honest please.

God is a spirit and you don't know what that means so on what basis can we discuss this.

Define three things for me and we might have common ground for intelligent discussion.

Human conscience, human forgiveness, human justice.

The mind has intellect but that doesn't explain those three. Intelligence doesn't demand any of those.

What is the purpose or meaning of life is not a valid question for someone who evolved from a lower life form- but that is a question that motivates most human intelligence.

You said- "one life make the most of it"- that is intelligent but it doesn't explain the spirit of justice in a person or forgiveness or conscience.

Anger, self defense and revenge are very different than justice- BTW