If belief in God works for you, then I can't argue with success. Based on my own experiences, belief in God is obviously a delusion. It could be that many people need the God delusion to cope with life and death. I won't deny you that remedy if you think it makes you feel better.
That's a fallacy of bifurcation. There are more than yes/no answers to the question: "Do you believe in God." I already posted an example of a third answer.
I know. I said it is Webster's definition.
Right, and some atheists might believe there is no God which differs from lacking belief in a...
What if the answer is "not sure"? I don't see theism as a yes/no, binary phenomenon.
Which definition are you referring to? Webster defines atheism as either lack of belief in a deity or strong disbelief. I've heard that atheists are people who believe there is no God.
I don't see my having a...
Most people I've discussed God with, especially Christians in online forums, assume that I'm an atheist even though I no longer label myself that way. I ask a lot of questions about theism and religion and expect honest, sensible answers, but I don't tell them I'm an atheist. I also have what I...
Today? Only among some theists. But it used to be common to define an atheist as a person who believed no Gods existed.
A "none" has no religious affiliation but may or may not believe in God.
I'm well aware of this "word problem" in religion and theism. Religion and theism really just boil down to words with no objective reality. There's no way to define those words which is no accident. What keeps religion going is its slippery nature. It can slip out of the stickiest situations...
If by "world" you mean thoughts and words along with attendant methodologies , then math does point in the direction of an unobservable world. But it's a world we invented.
What experiments have been performed to find a mathematical world?
That's correct, and that's why we should take care not...
I agree with you completely. I don't believe in any Gods, but I'm much more than that. I prefer to identify as a "truth seeker" which is to say I want to know the truth whatever it might be. So if any Gods exist, then I want to know. If Gods only exist in the imagination, then I want to know that.
Much of life can be painful, but generally life is good.
If we cannot change what hurts us, then yes, we may need to adapt to it. But people seem to me to give up on doing anything about suffering especially when others suffer. If we would get off of our lazy, uncaring duffs, and help others...
An all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful deity would not need to respond to pain and suffering because she wouldn't allow it to begin with.
We should all "sit" with those who suffer to ease their pain hoping that some day when we suffer somebody will be with us.
He basically had the right...
Yes. You might call those times "vanished eras." Rock and roll is like steam power: It's still around, but mostly for limited uses like nostalgia.
I like to fantasize about a super rock band that comes along like a juggernaut outdoing anything the Beatles or Led Zeppelin did. I call the band...
That keeps happening. The old bands we loved in the old days can't put out new music that's nearly as good as the old stuff. Well, there are some exceptions.
But people still listen to rock, and there are still rock bands releasing new music. So let's say rock is having a midlife crisis.
I wish I could agree, but one of the first omens I encountered was the downfall of hard rock and metal in the early 1990s. Iron Maiden's 1990 No Prayer for the...
I like some new music, but there's not nearly as much new music I like as in the 1970s and 1980s. Two exceptions are the 2005 Judas Priest album Angel of Retribution and the 2015 Scorpions album Return to Forever. So it's still entirely possible to put out good music.
I know I am! I just turned 62, and these days I worry if I can shower.
I've always been a Black Sabbath and "early Ozzy" fan, but as far as I'm concerned Ozzy should quit while he's still not too far off from being ahead. Even the old bands aren't nearly as good as they used to be.
I've been into rock & roll for fifty years, and it's still my favorite genre of music. Sadly, rock isn't what it used to be. I remember when Pink Floyd released The Wall way back in the late 1970s. It was a block buster. Everybody talking about it. But there hasn't been anything even close to it...