What are the Odds there's a God?

[Penumbra]

Exactly. So what are you complaining about? What is your grievance?

Where am I complaining, and what grievance do you imply?

 

[Midnight Pete]

Oops! It was actually Dan4Reason and not Penumbra that said

If God is loving then why does he punish rational skepticism with such eternal ghastliness? The fact that he would punish free thought with the barbarism that eternal torture is, indicates that he is not a good God like he would make us believe

 

[Penumbra]

Oops! It was actually Dan4Reason and not Penumbra that said

Well, I didn't say it there but I agree with it.

One has got to separate the hypothetical, though. Pointing out that a god that would punish skepticism is ridiculous doesn't mean one's complaining or that one believes this god exists. It merely points out the irrationality of such a being and the perceived flaws of a worldview that includes such a being.

 

[Midnight Pete]

Well, I didn't say it there but I agree with it.

One has got to separate the hypothetical, though. Pointing out that a god that would punish skepticism is ridiculous doesn't mean one's complaining or that one believes this god exists. It merely points out the irrationality of such a being and the perceived flaws of a worldview that includes such a being.

Why do you care about any of this? Why should the idea of hell bother you if you're such atheist? It shouldn't. Why complain about God if you reject God?

 

[javajo]

Again, whether one believe in him or not, they will still give an account before him.

 

[Nerthus]

I don't believe in this God, yet its religion still affects certain areas of my life (the sins etc). One can still complain about your God if it is you who tries to influence ones life with your belief.

Not you, as in you, but generally speaking.

 

[Penumbra]

Why do you care about any of this? Why should the idea of hell bother you if you're such atheist? It shouldn't. Why complain about God if you reject God?

The idea of hell only bothers me to the extent that it shows dark aspects of the human mind that would develop and propagate such an idea. It's not a complaint about god, it's a complaint about humans and how they need to improve.

Your god is but one god out of many that I debate or discuss. Not all of them include hell concepts.

 

[javajo]

Jesus came and talked about Heaven, warned about Hell, and died so we don't ever have to go there.

 

[Penumbra]

I don't believe in this God, yet its religion still affects certain areas of my life (the sins etc). One can still complain about your God if it is you who tries to influence ones life with your belief.

Not you, as in you, but generally speaking.

That's true.

Things like irrationality, malevolence, tribalism, small thinking, threats, and so forth need to be dispelled if society is going to advance. I don't know where you're from, but in the country I live, religion (and often the very unattractive aspects of it) plays a huge role in politics.

 

[Penumbra]

Jesus came and talked about Heaven, warned about Hell, and died so we don't ever have to go there.

So did people like Muhammad, Buddha, Krishna, and so forth. They all explained what they view as the problem and what they claim the solution is.

 

[newhope101]

Based on my limited knowledge of the universe, I think it is just as likely that God exists as that It doesn't.

Such a simple statement that says it all. For me that is the point. Some like to believe luck and chance is behind the creation of the universe and abiogenesis. Some like to believe God caused these things to happen and it was not luck at all.

 

[Dan4reason]

In Romans 5 it says:
10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. 19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.

No matter if one is a skeptic or agnostic or whatever, we will all give an account of our lives to God, we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and if we are blind to it now, we surely won't be then, and every mouth will be stopped. But, God in his great love for us to save us gave his son, "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

What is so wrong with being imperfect? I am quite alright with imperfect humans because they have so much good in them. There are many good moral people and they do not deserve to be tortured eternally. That is a punishment too harsh for small discrepancies. This is all an excuse for God to use excessive cruelty on humans because we are not as good as him.

It is also ridiculous that Jesus' death somehow pays for our sins. I do not see how punishing someone else makes everything you do all right. What does this all have to do with punishing rational thought.

Because rational skepticism has no use for God.

I am sure that an evil God would only care about what is useful to himself. Apparently God punishes that which is not useful to him and that makes sense if he is selfish and evil.

 

[Midnight Pete]

The idea of hell only bothers me to the extent that it shows dark aspects of the human mind that would develop and propagate such an idea.

Unfortunately there's nowhere you can go to escape these dark aspects of the human mind.

It's not a complaint about god, it's a complaint about humans and how they need to improve.

So you place yourself above and beyond human beings, eh? Nothing arrogant about that.

Your god is but one god out of many that I debate or discuss. Not all of them include hell concepts.

You like to complain, don't you?

 

[Penumbra]

Unfortunately there's nowhere you can go to escape these dark aspects of the human mind.

So you place yourself above and beyond human beings, eh? Nothing arrogant about that.

You like to complain, don't you?

 

[dogsgod]

If you were asked to describe your belief or disbelief in god in terms of odds, what odds would you ascribe to the possibility that god exists? One out of ten? Two out of ten? Something else?

Why did you estimate the odds as you did?

Same odds as for anything magical, leprechauns, tooth fairies, Santa Claus, Easter rabbits, that sort of thing, about 0/10.

 

[Reverend Rick]

Same odds as for anything magical, leprechauns, tooth fairies, Santa Claus, Easter rabbits, that sort of thing, about 0/10.

OK wise guy, what do you believe the chances are of UFO's and aliens?

 

[darkendless]

OK wise guy, what do you believe the chances are of UFO's and aliens?

Like 100/100, havn't you seen E.T

 

[Reverend Rick]

Like 100/100, havn't you seen E.T

:bow:

What if God was an Alien Scientist? Perhaps we are all living in his test tube in a laboratory. Anything is possible. What are the odds?