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Atheism people Argument, "I don't believe in Bigfoot." 2

Windwalker

Veteran Member
Premium Member
My position is that the concept of a real god, a god with objective existence, not imaginary, is incoherent. And no one is offering non-imaginary solutions.
When one imagines God as a "being" with a separate existence from that of yourself, that is what is imaginary. The non-imaginary solution is simple: God is not an object of belief, but the Subject of all that is. You want to see God? Pick up a rock, pet a cat, breathe in the air.

God is the Seeing of Reality. God is who we are. If we don't know what God is, we don't know ourselves. We see ourselves as an object too, just like God, always looking for the eyes we are looking out from the whole time.

That's the solution. Get rid of subject/object dualism. Quit looking and start seeing.
 

blü 2

Veteran Member
Premium Member
When one imagines God as a "being" with a separate existence from that of yourself, that is what is imaginary. The non-imaginary solution is simple: God is not an object of belief, but the Subject of all that is. You want to see God? Pick up a rock, pet a cat, breathe in the air.

God is the Seeing of Reality. God is who we are. If we don't know what God is, we don't know ourselves. We see ourselves as an object too, just like God, always looking for the eyes we are looking out from the whole time.

That's the solution. Get rid of subject/object dualism. Quit looking and start seeing.
Yo, WW ─ I trust you're well?

I'm afraid the only result I see from your suggestion is the reduction of the word 'God' to a synonym for 'anything'. Or 'everything' if you prefer. I find 'anything' is a much clearer way of saying 'anything' and 'everything' is a much clearer way of saying 'everything', so that doesn't really answer my question.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
No offense, atheists, but if you don't know what you're not believing in, then yours is an unconsidered opinion.

Atheist ::a person who disbelieves or lacks belief in the existence of God or gods.

Anything else, including Bigfoot is a straw man put forward by anti atheist's in a futile attempt to discredit what they are unable to comprehend.

Considering the 100% lack of any evidence for gods put forward in 10,000+ years of god worship, and the many indicators that disproved the various gods exist I'd say the position is quite considered.
 

sealchan

Well-Known Member
Is the above an "unspecified and unconsidered assertion about what one does or does not believe"*?

When a believer says "I believe in G-d", he has a specified Being in his mind, he may provide further details about Him if asked.
When a non-believer says in his response "I don't believe in God" that is the denial of that specific God mentioned in "I believe in G-d" only, not in general about all god/s believed by different people.

Regards
____________
* one may like to read post #42, #59 from PureX and:
posts #62 from paarsurrey

I don't not believe in God...

On the other hand some people don't deny not believing in God but many might deny, denying there is a god.
 

james blunt

Well-Known Member
Is the above an "unspecified and unconsidered assertion about what one does or does not believe"*?

When a believer says "I believe in G-d", he has a specified Being in his mind, he may provide further details about Him if asked.
When a non-believer says in his response "I don't believe in God" that is the denial of that specific God mentioned in "I believe in G-d" only, not in general about all god/s believed by different people.

Regards
____________
* one may like to read post #42, #59 from PureX and:
posts #62 from paarsurrey
Did you not see the pink elephant why you painted it ?
Can you now see the grey elephant under the pink elephant?
Does big foot exist elsewhere in the universe?
Is your mind free or controlled?
Do you seek knowing ?
What is knowing?

pexels-photo-266604.jpeg
Chapter One – Back in Time

The elders of the village gathered around the fire, it was an important evening as Jeremiah was about to make a huge revelation of importance to the village elders. The elders sat gazing into the fire , silence amongst them as they wondered with anticipation, what was so important? that Jeremiah had called for such a meeting of urgency. After a while , a figure of a man appeared from the shadows, at long last it was Jeremiah .

Jeremiah walked over to the fire and picked up a burning stick, then turned facing towards the elders.

”Elders of the village” Jeremiah loudly says,

” In my hands I have a stick, the stick is on fire, we made the fire by using flints, we have ingenuity”.

The elders of the village sat in silence, the crackling of the fire deafening to Jeremiah’s ears.

”What do you mean by ingenuity Jeremiah ” ? eventually replied one of the elders.

” I mean, we are not the same as a camel or a rock, we are inventive and creative, we are smart! ” explained Jeremiah.

The elders whispered among themselves what seemed forever , Jeremiah could see the frustration on their faces and he knew he needed to say something. After some thought , Jeremiah shouts out with shaking breath,

”how did we get here”?

The elders stared at Jeremiah in shock , then one by one began to applaud Jeremiah.

”Please tell us more Jeremiah of this great new wisdom you have found” said several elders.

”Please , please” they begged , ” what do you call this new wisdom”?

Jeremiah took a deep breath, ” I will call it creation and creation shall be the study of all things”.

The elders nodded with acceptance, the journey had begun.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
I agree.

I still believe - despite the many frustrated comments I have received due to it:eek: - that everyone believes in god.

Frustrated, no, laughing my socks off, yes.

Interesting how you can tell me what i believe, how long have you been taking mind reading lessons?
 

HonestJoe

Well-Known Member
No offense, atheists, but if you don't know what you're not believing in, then yours is an unconsidered opinion.
Doesn't that apply to theists as well? I guarantee that there will be countless god concepts people somewhere in the world have believed in that neither of us are even aware of. Do we believe in the existence of those gods?
 

Windwalker

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Yo, WW ─ I trust you're well?
Doing well. Thanks. Yourself?

I'm afraid the only result I see from your suggestion is the reduction of the word 'God' to a synonym for 'anything'. Or 'everything' if you prefer. I find 'anything' is a much clearer way of saying 'anything' and 'everything' is a much clearer way of saying 'everything', so that doesn't really answer my question.
No, not a synonym. Rather, it's more like the paper on which everything is drawn. It's not seen in the drawings, yet the drawings without it would be nothing, they would be no 'thing' at all, they would have no objective reality. They would not be a they.

To try to come up with some better ways to say this: It is everything that is what is anything. A rock is a rock, but because God Is. The rock does not exist without God. God is the Subject of all that Is. The Subject is the both the subject and the object. The Subject in neither the subject nor the object.

Now, none of those would qualify on the same level as just naming anything in conventional usage as you want to "God" as a synonym. That of course would make it a meaningless statement, and only cause confusion in the ordinary use of language, which is where synonym would apply. So it couldn't be being used or meant in that way.

If however you did point to the mountain for instance, and say "This is God", understanding the underlying Condition of all reality, which binds and connects and holds all of reality together, then it has great depth of meaning. It is a radically different way of saying those words. "This is God," said with arms outstretched to the universe as you absorb all of reality into your being, is vastly more full of depth and meaning.

That use is a sacred declaration, not just another word for the same thing. The word God has the meaning of Divine attached to it, therefore it could not be considered an appropriate synonym for the common names of objects.
 

paarsurrey

Veteran Member
Please provide evidence for that claim please
G-d has introduced Himself in the very first chapter of the Quran like thus:

[1:1]In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful.
[1:2]All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of all the worlds,
[1:3]The Gracious, the Merciful,
[1:4]Master of the Day of Judgment.

[1:5]Thee alone do we worship and Thee alone do we implore for help.
[1:6]Guide us in the right path —
[1:7]The path of those on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy blessings, those who have not incurred Thy displeasure, and those who have not gone astray.
The Holy Quran - Chapter: 1: Al-Fatihah
In the first four verses He had provided the key attributes of Him, then has taught how we should seek his guidance that He provided to the persons blessed by Him and the last verse is about the persons who did not tread that path.

Regards
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
G-d has introduced Himself in the very first chapter of the Quran like thus:

[1:1]In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful.
[1:2]All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of all the worlds,
[1:3]The Gracious, the Merciful,
[1:4]Master of the Day of Judgment.

[1:5]Thee alone do we worship and Thee alone do we implore for help.
[1:6]Guide us in the right path —
[1:7]The path of those on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy blessings, those who have not incurred Thy displeasure, and those who have not gone astray.
The Holy Quran - Chapter: 1: Al-Fatihah
In the first four verses He had provided the key attributes of Him, then has taught how we should seek his guidance that He provided to the persons blessed by Him and the last verse is about the persons who did not tread that path.

Regards

Not evidence, but a belief based on a book.
 

Yerda

Veteran Member
That's a bit of a cop-out, isn't it.

You don't know what you don't believe in, therefore you can't not believe in it???

By the same argument, if you don't know what you don't believe in, therefore you can't believe in it, either.
In other words atheists can't believe in a god or gods....Which is basically the definition of an atheist
Was that her point? I think you may have misunderstood.
 

Willamena

Just me
Premium Member
That's a bit of a cop-out, isn't it.

You don't know what you don't believe in, therefore you can't not believe in it???
Not believe in what, though?

By the same argument, if you don't know what you don't believe in, therefore you can't believe in it, either.
In other words atheists can't believe in a god or gods....Which is basically the definition of an atheist
Well, you can't believe in things you're ignorant of, this is true. However, if you're going around claiming you don't believe in a thing, it ought to actually be a thing you're not believing in.
 

Willamena

Just me
Premium Member
Doesn't that apply to theists as well? I guarantee that there will be countless god concepts people somewhere in the world have believed in that neither of us are even aware of. Do we believe in the existence of those gods?
It applies to theists, yes. If they're believing in something, which asserts it as true, they ought to know what it is they're believing in.
 

Windwalker

Veteran Member
Premium Member
What if we say, the rock is mass-energy? What if we say mass-energy is the paper the universe is written on? That way we make a statement about reality that doesn't rely on imagination, and can be true or false, no?
There are plenty who describe God as energy. But when you are speaking of energy here, I assume you mean that measure of something on the physical plane. The meaning of energy in a physical sense would not translate over to the non-physical, such as the domain of thought, or of spirit. But as an artificial "thing" we call something that it's actually not, energy works for the spiritual domain and mental domains as well, such as "the energy of negative thought", or the "energy of the Divine Will", or something like that.

Energy isn't really a "thing" in the natural word either, like height for instance. These are just what we use to describe reality with. Just like God is. Energy doesn't quite bring the same all-embracing nature as God does, however, unless you capitalize it like Energy, which just makes it the Divine anyway. but then we're not talking just physics.
 
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