Gemma Therese

Automaton:

I cannot respond to all your arguments due to lack of time.

God created us to know Him and to love Him. Every human being has this desire. Why do you think you post on an atheist messagemoard? You have obviously searched and concluded God does not exist. Your posting here shows you are searching still.

Let me tell you a personal story about why I believe in God. A friend of mine had 6 sons. One of them, John Michael, died when he was only 17-months old. (Do you have children, Automaton? Imagine the pain).

My friend speaks of heaven and says, "My son is in heaven. I can't imagine the joy!"

In this instance, I refuse to believe in logic / realism. I have no doubt whatsoever that someday my friend will be reunited with her son. Therefore, there must be a God.

In God's Love,

Gemma Therese

Aquila ka Hecate

"Because I am afraid, therefore I believe in god"


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Automaton

Understandable.
Well, I am not necessarily searching for a god, I am searching for the truth and knowledge (if the existence of God is the truth, then that is indeed the knowledge I am seeking, but obviously I have found the opposite.)
I'm sorry, loss is terrible.
No, I do not, but I have lost loved ones, and I know how it feels.
I'm not trying to trivialize your friend's loss at all, but this is exactly opposite to the opinion expressed in your opening post: "It something is true, it is true whether I feel it to be or not." The truth hurts, but I'd much prefer to know the truth than to live believing in an elaborate fairy tale.

LittleGuy

A variety of people post on a variety of discussion boards for an even greater variety of reasons. Not everyone of us continues to search, although we are always willing to learn, and indeed many of us come here to socialise, have fun, debate and indeed, to mock the occassional drive-by fundy.

Most people here would immediately see this as an illogical appeal to emotion. True, bereavement can often cause alot of pain, and sometimes, any sort of reassurance would do, especially with the Christian scenario: That you would re-unite with a be-loved deceased someday forever in paradise.

Is this why you are a believer, Therese?
Why do you find this so appealing?

And why do you refuse to believe in logic/realism in this special case, and accept it for all others?

(Edited for spelling)

[ May 28, 2002: Message edited by: LittleGuy ]

[ May 28, 2002: Message edited by: LittleGuy ]</p>

Aethernaut

You know the will of god? You know for a fact that he needs "NOTHING" from us?

You didn't answer any of my questions. We shouldn't need to do anything to please god if he's omnipotent and omniscient, yet he craves our attention in that he expects us to worship him and if we don't he sends us to hell. Then, he dares to call that love. Sounds like a codependent psycho stalker to me. Your god is contradictory to love.

Again, if god is omniscient how can man have free will? If god it omnipotent could he make a rock that even he couldn't lift?

I know I certainly don't have or want any desire to know or love this blood thirsty tyrant called god.

-SK

[ May 28, 2002: Message edited by: Schrodinger's Kitten ]</p>

Automaton

If God is omnipotent, there is no such thing as a rock so big that God cannot lift it. Such a demand would be like asking God to make a "ghdiegfheiqus", since he is omnipotent.

hezekiah jones

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth."

- God

CX

The question itself is meaningless. I could just as easily ask does barglenoose exist? Unless I gave you a coherent definition the question is meaningless.

Automaton

Good point. Not only are the properties ascribed to the traditional concept of God themselves incoherent, most directly contradict with at least one other. Theists have never given a sufficient defintion of God.

Ion

Like I wrote before, I trust proofs outside of religious books like the Bible, not "...a Trappist monk...".
What does "...a Trappist monk..." know about scientific interpretations of nature's forces?
Not much, I bet.
Regarding reading books like "The Seven-Storey Mountain", Gemma feel free to read books like the "Differential Calculus" by Arnaudies and Ferrand, so that after about six years of successful understanding of these, you can grasp my faith in science as opposed to religions.