Marduk

1) I assume the majority of you do not believe in a creator. What do you believe in if anything with regards to how we are here?

Don’t know how we got here

2) in your opinion, if you drew a circle around everything in the universe, would the origin of how we got here come from within or from outside of the circle? An old question I know, but I am curious as to how you answer this?

Don’t think there is an outside, the multiverse is infinite.

3) Why is this forum here in the first place? Is it specifically to deny the existence of a creator? If so, why bother?

Mostly to exchange chit chat on a variety of subjects.

4) If you had the choice, would you prefer there to actually be a divine creator or not? If not, then what would you prefer?

A divine creator would be fine, if he/she were nice and helpful

5) Concerning the theory of evolution, what do you believe things are evolving from, at root?

Organic compounds

6) Do you feel that we are literally just a fluke of nature/evolution?

Most likely, considering the fossil record and extinction rate

7) How do you attach significance to your loved ones, if there is no creator or ultimate plan for us? If we are literally just flukes, than are we worthless? if not how not?

They are all we have, we need each other

8) How do you define right and wrong? How do you know you are right in your definitions?

I just use the traditional ones, play nice, share your toys etc.

9) What is the worst that can happen if you believe in a god?

People flying large jumbo jets into tall buildings, using violence to make people follow your deity.

10) Does the theory of evolution, mean that there is no creator?

Not really, discovering how a God of some sort does things does not necessarily mean he/she doesn’t exist.

Starboy

1) I assume the majority of you do not believe in a creator. What do you believe in if anything with regards to how we are here?

I am not sure we will ever know how everything came to be here. I do know this, pulling ideas out of thin air and then labeling them the “truth” or real is not how to know anything. It is however how one would go about committing fraud.

2) in your opinion, if you drew a circle around everything in the universe, would the origin of how we got here come from within or from outside of the circle? An old question I know, but I am curious as to how you answer this?

Nonsense question. Along the lines what would happen if an immovable object met an irresistible force. Language is capable of great ambiguity well past the point of nonsense.

3) Why is this forum here in the first place? Is it specifically to deny the existence of a creator? If so, why bother?

I’ve read that it is here to support secular humanism, which is not atheism. I’m here because places for atheists are few and far between. I am glad IID exists.

4) If you had the choice, would you prefer there to actually be a divine creator or not? If not, then what would you prefer?

Oh my, we get a choice! Are you the good fairy or something?

5) Concerning the theory of evolution, what do you believe things are evolving from, at root?

Hard to say. The theory of evolution only deals with how life adapts to its environment not on how it first came to be. There are many ideas but not much direct evidence. This is another area where we may never know. We may be able to figure out any number of ways as to how life could form from inanimate matter but may never actually know how it formed on planet Earth.

6) Do you feel that we are literally just a fluke of nature/evolution?

I have no idea. Your question begs a specific class of answers all of which presume that what is happening has a purpose. Based on what I can see if it has a purpose it has nothing to do with humanity.

7) How do you attach significance to your loved ones, if there is no creator or ultimate plan for us? If we are literally just flukes, than are we worthless? if not how not?

How does a plan make any life significant? You assume 1) you are part of the plan and that 2) the plan would not work without you. And even if you are part of a plan what makes you think that you are still not worthless. Every construction site has a scrap heap. And even if humanity does play some important role why should that make a bit of difference to us. What cares a horse that it has plowed a field, it does not serve its own ends but that of the farmer.

8) How do you define right and wrong? How do you know you are right in your definitions?

Right and wrong are words that represent concepts that are part of our culture. I have knowledge of these concepts because I am part of this culture. These concepts did not always exist because mankind and its culture did not always exist. I do not see them as “truth” but as artifacts of existence. If I didn’t exist they would not matter, their existence doesn’t bring meaning to my life. It is my existence, interests and desires that bring meaning to my life. If you lack the imagination to see this and can’t find your own meaning in life then religion may be the ticket for you.

9) What is the worst that can happen if you believe in a god?

This is a silly question. Which or what god? The god in your head? The god in the head of the person that proselytized you? The many gods in the bible? The god we cannot know and understand? What will happen is a big waste of very precious time.

10) Does the theory of evolution, mean that there is no creator?

What do you think?

Starboy

Infidelettante

quote:Whispers
1) I assume the majority of you do not believe in a creator. What do you believe in if anything with regards to how we are here?

The universe is a living entity which gives rise to all things. As to how we are here? We are organized life at the very end of billions of years of organization governed by laws of physics which I do not claim to understand.

2) in your opinion, if you drew a circle around everything in the universe, would the origin of how we got here come from within or from outside of the circle? An old question I know, but I am curious as to how you answer this?

There is no "outside" the universe. All we can know is in our universe. If there is something or someone outside the universe it must reveal its' self to us. We can't know it otherwise.

3) Why is this forum here in the first place? Is it specifically to deny the existence of a creator? If so, why bother?

Why you bother is the more interesting question.

4) If you had the choice, would you prefer there to actually be a divine creator or not? If not, then what would you prefer?

The universe is both divine and creative. We tend to prefer what works for us.

5) Concerning the theory of evolution, what do you believe things are evolving from, at root?

A living universe evolves. Evolution is the organization of life. Death is the disorganization of life. Life rises and evolves from life.

6) Do you feel that we are literally just a fluke of nature/evolution?

Yes. The living universe is not mindful. What exists could be thought of as a "fluke of nature / evolution" but what sets us apart from creation is our mindfulness. How we got here is not as important as what we do now that we are here.

7) How do you attach significance to your loved ones, if there is no creator or ultimate plan for us? If we are literally just flukes, than are we worthless? if not how not?

Why would I require another to give me worth or to tell me my feelings have value. I have lived a long and interesting life thus far and can choose its' direction and apply meaning to my actions without resort to anything other than the strictures of my society and the guiding hand of my culture. For those who can't do so we have prisons.

8) How do you define right and wrong? How do you know you are right in your definitions?

I do not do what harms others as best I can. I accept the rules we place upon ourselves as a society of peaceful, law abiding people. Untill my society falls into anarchy I will assume those rules to be right. For those who can't do so we have prisons.

9) What is the worst that can happen if you believe in a god?

I would turn into the self righteous a**hole I was when I believed in God the first time. I would withdraw from society and my family because neither are of God. I would believe that devils and demons are lurking around every corner to steal my soul or turn me away from God. I would believe that some of the finest people I have ever known are in hell.

10) Does the theory of evolution, mean that there is no creator?

No.

JT

lpetrich

Whispers:
... I have been practicing Therevadan buddhism for the last 8 years, but of late I have been exploring the Christian tradition. ...

The questions you act do have a sort of Xtian slant; in Buddhism, questions like the origin of the Universe are often considered irrelevant. There is even a famous analogy attributed to the Buddha himself about how being preoccupied with the origin of the Universe is like being stuck with a poisoned arrow and being reluctant to pull it out unless one finds out the arrow's construction, sender, etc.

1) I assume the majority of you do not believe in a creator. What do you believe in if anything with regards to how we are here?

"Look long upon a monkey", and you will have the answer.

And even if some of our features were designed, then those designers are likely multiple, finite, and fallible.

And if our emergence was the result of design, then the designers would have to have worked from long-ago apes.

2) in your opinion, if you drew a circle around everything in the universe, would the origin of how we got here come from within or from outside of the circle? An old question I know, but I am curious as to how you answer this?

Humanity's origins are very clearly inside that circle.

3) Why is this forum here in the first place? Is it specifically to deny the existence of a creator? If so, why bother?

Simply look around to see what we are interested in.

4) If you had the choice, would you prefer there to actually be a divine creator or not? If not, then what would you prefer?

I don't care. I believe what I believe because that's what the Universe seems to me the most like -- that it is governed by impersonal natural laws.

5) Concerning the theory of evolution, what do you believe things are evolving from, at root?

Evolution is like a big tree with lots of branches; check out the UCMP pages on the history of the Earth and its life for more.

6) Do you feel that we are literally just a fluke of nature/evolution?

Overall, I think that we are a cosmic accident; there are lots of different ways that evolution can turn out. But many of our features are adaptations, and sometimes there are only a few ways to do something. Thus, our eyes have a video-camera-like architecture because that's the way to get high-resolution vision.

7) How do you attach significance to your loved ones, if there is no creator or ultimate plan for us? If we are literally just flukes, than are we worthless? if not how not?

I just do so. Why should one need any justification for doing so?

8) How do you define right and wrong? How do you know you are right in your definitions?

I've never thought much about that question.

9) What is the worst that can happen if you believe in a god?

That I'd become some Holy Warrior and cause a LOT of trouble.

10) Does the theory of evolution, mean that there is no creator?

Of course not.