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If No One Believed In God...
- Thread starter lukethethird
- Start date
ppp
Well-Known Member
Well, there it is, then.
ppp
Well-Known Member
Do you disagree? I don't think that sour exists at all. There is no platonic sour out there somewhere for us to tap into.
I don’t disagree with your premise.
But you’re saying sour doesn’t exist as an experience?
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
I was not referring to mimicking one's parents or learning from them. I was referring to independently investigating the truth of a religion for oneself.
ppp
Well-Known Member
I would say that sour is an attribute of the experience.
ppp
Well-Known Member
I do not want to misrepresent you, but these two statements taken together seem to imply that belief in God comes only from independent investigation. Am I misunderstanding you?
Yet that's how the vast majority of people learn their religion.
Remember, the premis is "if NO one believed in god" so there would be no one to guide you even if you did think about.
And as you know, i have always considered truth to be that which is true or in accordance with fact or reality, and not what i believe.
Attachments
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
Belief is not what Makes God a God...
God would be God even if not one single person believed God existed.
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
The vast majority, but not everyone, and even if they learn it from their parents many people leave the religion they were raised in. The many atheists who have left Christianity are a case in point. Also, as you can see on this forum, many people switch religions as adults.
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
Belief in childhood generally comes from one's parents or clergy.
I was referring to belief that comes later, when we are adults. It is then that we can think for ourselves and investigate religion independently.
I disagree. As I mentioned earlier, a god is an object of human worship. I think this means that if something is not worshipped by humans, it is not a god.
Even if a thing would be worshipped as a god once a human being found out about it, it would not be a god until that worship happened.
An analogy: say there was a boulder that, thanks to the natural effects of erosion and whatnot, was just the right shape for someone to sit on. Is that boulder a chair? No, not until someone assigns it to that purpose.
... but what do you think makes a god a god, then?
Yes, as i said, the vast majority. However i will repeat, if no one believed in god... Then no one would believe in god.
HonestJoe
Well-Known Member
I suggest that the vast and wide range of different gods and god-like beings various people have believed in (or claimed to believe in) throughout human history supports the idea that they're a function of human imagination. Even if some kind of god or gods do actually exist, most (if not all) of these conflicting and contradictory perceptions would still be wrong.
ppp
Well-Known Member
I don't entirely disagree, but I think that most people believe solely based on their childhood. Indoctrination. And I think that's borne out by the fact that the vast majority of people remain with the religions to which they were born.
Sheldon
Veteran Member
Any conclusion from that question seems like an argumentum ad populum fallacy to me. The number of people who believe something, tells us nothing about the veracity of the believe.
lukethethird
unknown member
True, l see that now that you mention it, but if no one believed in God there would be no atheists.
lukethethird
unknown member
How do you know that?