Kassiana

Why do you use the word "theist" to mean Christian, when it clearly includes numerous religious positions which are non-Christian?

THX1138

Or as E.M. Cioran says: "The love or the hate we bear Him [God] reveals not so much the quality of our anxieties as the grossness of our cynicism."

J

Scorpion

"How do you explain the existence of subjective experience/consciousness/etc.?"

-S-

Heathen Dawn

“How can you believe the orchestra of the universe has no conductor?”

Dean Anderson

"Why are you so angry at God?"

Plognark

Hmm, this isn't a hard one at all...actually, none of these are. This one is also very arrogant and presumptuous; nothing new.

"Why are you so unwilling to entertain speculation over another order of reality that relates to but that does not consist of this world order?"

I think this boils down to something like 'if you really thought about this stuff deeply you'd think like me!'



And the condescending arrogance just rolls right along here....maybe his sarcasm is a result of that fact that we've heard this bullcrap hundreds of times before. It's not new, profound, insightful, or hard to answer, despite how clever you seem to think it is. It's just rude.

Ojuice5001

I mentioned one in response to the inevitable debate that took place on the original thread, and it makes sense here. Especially since no one, including the poster I was addressing, did offer an answer. Here goes.

All emotions are a recognition of a property that things or situations have. For instance, fear is a recognition of danger, laughter is a recognition of absurdity, etc. So the question is, What is the property we're recognizing when we feel awe? It's rational that there must be some such.

Note: The best candidate for an atheistic response is to say that it is mystery. But then you need to account for the awe felt at sunsets. Sunsets inspire awe in many people, but they aren't mysterious; I mean, how else is day going to become night?

Karalora

"Why does it bother you that I believe when I don't go around pestering other people with it?"

Kaiser_Soze

When I have felt awe at sunsets it's been inspired by (properties such as) natural beauty (colours), immense power, massive scale, etc. - I see no need to bring mystery into it.

Think that fits well with this: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=awe

Awe
1. A mixed emotion of reverence, respect, dread, and wonder inspired by authority, genius, great beauty, sublimity, or might: We felt awe when contemplating the works of Bach. The observers were in awe of the destructive power of the new weapon.
2. Archaic.
The power to inspire dread.
Dread.

As can be seen in def.1, awe can be inspired by a great number of things. If you're trying to connect awe to the existence of a god(s) or some other supernatural then can you be a little clearer?

Answerer

God knows. Oh shit, guys, please don't hate me, please don't............