Why Care Whether God Exists Or Not?

[McBell]

I agree with you here. This is why I responded to him the way I did. I responded to the statement that he "believes the bible is infalable"...... Sometimes I take issue with statements like that. It gives me the impression that one is learned in all of the languages of the bible and its context and has comitted the scriptures to memory. Even that unto itself is not enough because one will only be able to render their interpertation of said scripture. I don't think that these are hard questions to ask when one makes such a statement. As I said, this is just a taste of the inconsistency. The book of the Chronicles, the book of the Samuels, the book of the Kings and all the way through the NT. These books were written by different people some anonynous and at different times as well as in different places. They were originally oral stories so I don't expect them to be spot on with each other which, TO ME :sorry1:, says that they are not "inspired by God".....Again, that's just me..... Seven hundred/seven thousand...God/Satan...yeah I find it interesting that some try to spin it to mean something beyond what it actually says....but when people truly believe it to be the word of God...what can you say?????? Their minds are already made up....

I have been to websites where the author lists contradictions from the Bible.
The interesting thing is, that many of those websites have the exact same devotion, manipulation and narrow mindedness of many of the Christians who explain them away.

There are contradictions in the Bible.
Ones that cannot be explained without nonsensical reasoning, Calvinization, or outside (the Bible) sources.
But I also understand and will flat out state that there are many "contradictions" that people list that do have honestly exceptable explanations.

 

[roli]

So you're a polytheist, then? I haven't got that impression from reading your posts, but you're welcome to clear up the confusion.

I believe in cars, and everything about them,but I beleive and act,more so on the one I chose to drive because of it's reliability, performance,history and look.
Not to say those are the reasons I beleive,trust in, rely ,place my confidence in God, but I hope you get what I am saying and not philosophize this to it's core.


I believe there are other religions, but I don't follow after or devote my life to defining them,worshipping them,serving them or laying down my life for them.
That is only deserving of the one God I choose

Let me correct myself for your clairty,I am consciously aware of and acknowledge the possible existence of other gods,demons,spirits etc, but for myself,I do not believe per say, by it's truest defintion of the word ,"beleive" ,which implies ,trust ,reliance upon,confidence in,dependence.in them for my overall purpose,direction and destiny.

Is your Christianity henotheistic, then? I've heard the theory that Elijah preached henotheism (i.e. acknowledgment of the existence of many gods but worship of only one) and not monotheism, but I've never heard a present-day believer in any of the Abrahamic religions espouse that view

Your play on words and "isms "here is simply amazing.
I am beginning to see your display of intellectualism and your ability to deduce your conclusions
If you have to put an "ism "to it ,go for it.
If you want to be technical about it,yes, Elijah did acknowledge, but only to openly destroy them if your referring to the time the fire of God destroyed the false gods
Paul in Acts 17 acknowlegdes other gods,Jesus throught the gospels,I acknowledge what Jesus preached regarding false gods and I have seen demons manifest themselves in people.

 

[Dirty Penguin]

I have been to websites where the author lists contradictions from the Bible.
The interesting thing is, that many of those websites have the exact same devotion, manipulation and narrow mindedness of many of the Christians who explain them away.

There are contradictions in the Bible.
Ones that cannot be explained without nonsensical reasoning, Calvinization, or outside (the Bible) sources.
But I also understand and will flat out state that there are many "contradictions" that people list that do have honestly exceptable explanations.

Yea, I agree. I hadn't gone to those sites until you mentioned it. There are some out there like that. I know I should have stayed on topic but I couldn't let it go by.....

 

[The Interested Sociopath]

I used to classify myself as an atheist, but now I have changed my mind. It now seems inescapable to me that there is a god, just as it seems inescapable that this god is not a He or a She(because that would require gender, which is a purely physical thing, which would mean that this god is limited to one form), as well as the fact that this god does not care about us except to the extent that we provide it with amusement.
In this way I now classify myself as a deist.
An important analogy that I feel I must share is that of the otter mother. I was walking down a river bank one day when I saw an otter playing with her cubs. A delightful image, I am sure you will agree. The otter then dived into the water and pulled out a salmon and started eating it. As it was being eaten, the salmon split open, releasing all of its eggs (or whatever you call them), much to the delight of the cubs, who promptly started eating them. Mother and younf feasting upon mother and young.
Christians, as well as Jews, Muslims and other monotheists, say that god is all knowing and all powerful. Yet so many animals are killed and eaten, not necesarrily in that order, all the time. And that is just on our planet. Who knows how many other planet there are in the universe capable of supporting life?
My point is that if there is a god that knows everything that happens everywhere, then this god must be a sadist. Someone who delights in torture and torment and the pain of others. Someone who is, to use a word so beloved of monotheists, evil.
This draws attention to the paradox of Hell. Hell is a place where bad people spend eternity burning in fire, or other such agonising punishments. The problem is that we only have a finite life, and so after so many decades, even the worst person would have paid for their 'sins'. But the punishment will not end. They will pay for their 'sins' again and again and again, an infinite number of times over. So they will not in fact, 'deserve' to go to hell at all. The only way someone could deserve to go to hell is if they committed an infinite number of sins, which they could not do seeing as they moment they go to hell they stop committing sins.
Again, god must be a sadist to allow this.
I think the mistake most people make about god is in thinking that god is a force, infallible and inescapable, instead of a person just like the rest of us. I personally believe that god is someone who truly understood the universe, and when they died their soul remained behind ( instead of randomly reincarnating to another member of the same species at the right point of conception) and they sent a disturbance back through time to disrupt the infinite energy fields in the Nothing, and caused the Big Bang.
I do not mean to be bigoted, as some posts on this sight seem fond of calling one another, but religion seems false and stupid to me. I think that god doesn't care, and we are deluding ourselves if we think otherwise.
I apologise if I have offended anyone, but this is how I see it.

 

[Storm]

Is there any reason we should care whether God exists or not? If so, why? If not, why not?

To KNOW.

"All knowledge is worth having." ~ Jacqueline Carey.

 

[Pudding]

Is there any reason we should care whether God exists or not? If so, why? If not, why not?

"Is there any reason we should care whether God exists or not?"

If we're interested to know whether God exist or not, then this is the reason we care.

If we're not interested to know whether God exist or not, then this is the reason we don't care.

Why we're interested or not interested? Ask ourself then we shall know.

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"If so, why?"
"If there is reason we should care whether God exist or not, then why do we care?"

If there is reason(assume this reason is support by ourself) we should care whether God exist or not, then we care, it's because we think there is reason we should care.

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"If not, why not?"
"If there is no reason we should care whether God exist or not, then why we don't care?"

If there is no reason we should care whether God exist or not(this means we find no any meaningful reason we should care), then we don't care, it's because we think there is no reason we should care.