Evil isn't a problem unless one posits for themselves and omnipotent and benevolent God.
If they do posit that type of God, however, then they run into an inconsistent triad of statements.
1. If God is all good and willing to prevent evil then he is not omnipotent because evil exists.
2. If...
Apex, I think your comment is slightly misplaced...I do, however, think humans in general fit the paradigm of the cancer cell (in so much as we continue expand for no other reason than to expand and we continue to destroy and take over). I think the statement applies across the board, humans...
Thanks for the welcome everyone...Bryson - my main problem with fully committing to something like Pantheism is that I'm nervous to assign a special recognition to what I might otherwise simply call the natural order of things. While I believe there is sort of a religious unity you can feel by...
Just because someone doesn't believe in God doesn't mean they are working towards moral destruction. Though my morals are rooted in different ideas than yours I imagine we still hold somewhat similar morals (probably not exactly the same, but not enough to argue that my morals are leading to...
Well, it depends on the God that you believe in...Until you have a clear concept of the God you believe in I don't think anyone can simply answer those questions for you (their conception of God might differ from yours; perhaps the God one person believes in does punish and another person might...
Well...if this "global consciousness" is going to be reached I think that the root of it would have to be a dissolving of all languages into a single common vernacular. In essence if we are going to reach this level of unity it won't be about religion but more about how we construct our ideas...
erm...why don't we not trash talk...
Look, in a certain sense Logician is right and in a certain sense he is wrong. It seems to me that there is an upper echelon of the Church that may be trying to manipulate people and gain a certain sense of power (It has probably lessened to some degree now...
Well...that's one perspective...a perspective that may be focused on by a social conflict theorist...
A functionalist would probably disagree with you and most religious people would disagree...By gaining believers there is a creation of unity and a common conception of what is good.
I know...
Mr. Logician,
Pragmatically I think that is one of the main things religion (especially organized) attempts to do. Certainly religion is multi-faceted and it depends greatly upon the church you attend; there are many "purposes"...however, simply looking at the Bible and other religious text one...
Hey folks,
I'm a twenty two year old college student who is about to graduate from a small liberal arts school. I'm a philosophy major with a minor in English. I'm a lover of logic and proper argumentation.
I'd probably most aptly be described as a cynical atheist but I also have some...
It is very unclear what is meant by God...many people have offered many different definitions...
one example of a definition that has been posed is : a being a greater than which cannot be conceived. This usually goes along with an argument for God's existence based on existence being a...
Well, admittedly I haven't read the entire discussion...my first thought upon reading the initial post is Erving Goffman...Dramaturgy. Read up on it a bit...it's basically the idea that the self isn't anything concrete that you carry around with you, rather, a self is only developed through a...
No, I do not accept this argument. The main problem is that the answer of God is never actually explanatory. Referencing God doesn't explain why these "objective morality" exists or why we should follow them, it simply asserts it through brute force. Let us suppose that God does exist and he...
I haven't read the Pensees in its entirety but I've read parts of it. Pascal's wager is extremely simplistic and ignores the fact that there are many other options that one could "wager." It also assumes that if you believe you will automatically go to heaven and gain infinitely...Thus, one...