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I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?

 
Don'tBeAfraid

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01/25/2013 08:05 PM
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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
Logic and faith are mutually exclusive. You cannot use one to explain or prove the other.
 Quoting: Gigolo Jesus


So, faith (in a religious sense) is exclusive of reality?
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 32076855


thats non-sense. Faith and logic are not mutually exclusive.
 Quoting: chrion777


Agreed. Faith and logic are aspects of the Human Soul. They are both roads to find not only Truth, but also God. Since we cannot tease out and seperate Logic from the Soul as a discrete part, then we cannot use merely logic to encounter God by definition.

We are not logic, we use logic. Logic (for some of us, not so much in others) is an aspect of the Soul. The Soul is the summation of our consciousness. To use only logic would be using only a part. A part cannot be superior to the whole. Using the whole mathematically would exceed using a part. Since Logic is a part, and a Soul is the whole, then using the Soul would result in a greater understand of God, not less.

Faith by definition is:
"Complete trust or confidence in someone or something."
Trust is about an utter knowing. It is a perpertual epiphany of belief.

Faith is the constant trust that God exists. It is the arrival of the awareness of God by reason and faith.

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/25/2013 08:08 PM
Anonymous Coward
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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
Logic and faith are mutually exclusive. You cannot use one to explain or prove the other.
 Quoting: Gigolo Jesus


So, faith (in a religious sense) is exclusive of reality?
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 32076855


thats non-sense. Faith and logic are not mutually exclusive.
 Quoting: chrion777


Agreed. Faith and logic are aspects of the Human Soul. They are both roads to find not only Truth, but also God. Since we cannot tease out and seperate Logic from the Soul as a discrete part, then we cannot use merely logic to encounter God by definition.

We are not logic, we use logic. Logic (for some of us, not so much in others) is an aspect of the Soul. The Soul is the summation of our consciousness. To use only logic would be using only a part. A part cannot be superior to the whole. Using the whole mathematically would exceed using a part. Since Logic is a part, and a Soul is the whole, then using the Soul would result in a greater understand of God, not less.

 Quoting: Don'tBeAfraid


How about applying logic to the line of thought you posted?

It doesn't make any sense whatsoever. What is for example the logic behind the concept of soul? How can logic be applied to understanding the concept of God? What logic is behind stating that logic is a part, and a soul the whole?
Don'tBeAfraid

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01/25/2013 08:10 PM
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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
...


So, faith (in a religious sense) is exclusive of reality?
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 32076855


thats non-sense. Faith and logic are not mutually exclusive.
 Quoting: chrion777


Agreed. Faith and logic are aspects of the Human Soul. They are both roads to find not only Truth, but also God. Since we cannot tease out and seperate Logic from the Soul as a discrete part, then we cannot use merely logic to encounter God by definition.

We are not logic, we use logic. Logic (for some of us, not so much in others) is an aspect of the Soul. The Soul is the summation of our consciousness. To use only logic would be using only a part. A part cannot be superior to the whole. Using the whole mathematically would exceed using a part. Since Logic is a part, and a Soul is the whole, then using the Soul would result in a greater understand of God, not less.

 Quoting: Don'tBeAfraid


How about applying logic to the line of thought you posted?

It doesn't make any sense whatsoever. What is for example the logic behind the concept of soul? How can logic be applied to understanding the concept of God? What logic is behind stating that logic is a part, and a soul the whole?
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 22089462


For that answer, and not to detract from the topic at hand, see the link in my sig about the Soul for a long discussion of that.

In brief:
Logic is defined as "Reasoning conducted or assessed according to strict principles of validity".

Reason is defined as "Think, understand, and form judgments by a process of logic".

Both of those are aspects of consciousness. They are not consciousness, for that is the summation of being.

The soul is consciousness. It is that aspect of being which exists in a timeless way.

Therefore the soul is the whole of being and so more than logic or reason.

One definition of God is the Source of All Being or Ultimate Reality.

Our souls are being. God is Being. God is All Existence.

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/25/2013 08:15 PM
Anonymous Coward
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01/25/2013 08:16 PM
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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?

I'm considering god, but need a rational reason to actually believe. I would never take blind faith, as you could end up in any religion just dependant on the influence around you.

Anyway, I'm searching, but need a rational way to decide.
 Quoting: Please be serious 32076855


Start studying bible prophecy with the intent of disproving it.

You'll end up becoming a believer.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 32979804


Yes the Bible proves the Bible. The da Vinci code proves the da Vinci code and Origin of the species proves evolution.

If you rely on a dusty old book, full of errors, for your faith, you have faith in the book, BUT not a faith in GOD.

Accuracy is not one of religions or the religious texts strengths.
Hypertiger

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01/25/2013 08:18 PM
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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
GOD is Truth and Truth is GOD.

You have to know Truth...Belief is what lies depend upon.

Truth does not require belief.
Anonymous Coward
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01/25/2013 08:21 PM
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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
and the simplest way, just pray
"God if you are real, show me. Talk to me. Fill me with your spirit. If you are real I want to know you" etc

Act like "God" is standing in your room with you, converse with Him. If you dont get any breakthroughs then make your own decision. If you truly knock on the door with an open heart, you will get the answers you are looking for
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 14549475


Been there, done that, didn't work.

Now let me guess, you are gonna blame me for not trying hard enough?

What about the billions of non-Christians (past and present) who have tried similar methods and came to the conclusion that Islam was right or that Buddha really is the way to enlightenment? Did they also all not try hard enough?
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 22089462


GOD knows the heart, that is what he hears, if your not sincere or honest in finding him, he will know...If you are sincere and ask GOD....I am a simple man or woman and I don't understand how to believe in you and I don't understand why Jesus is the only way to come to you, please guide me in my journey to find you, and I will tell you this if you are sincere he will come to you, it is your faith. GOD seeks not your demands
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 6038128


So you are indeed saying I didn't try hard enough, well fuck you.

Why is it always the fault of the people not able of finding this "Faith"?

And again this doesn't explain how people can arrive at different notions of God(s) or different explanations of the Bible.

If God really speaks and responds to notions like that then one would expect a concise response in people receiving these "revelations". Yet there are thousands of different Christian denominations and even a multitude of that in different religions altogether claiming these revelations...

This means that 99%+ of the people claiming to have had similar "spiritual experiences" are arriving at the wrong conclusion. I simply can't see how such a method could be proof for anything.
Ozicell

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01/25/2013 08:26 PM

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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?

I'm considering god, but need a rational reason to actually believe. I would never take blind faith, as you could end up in any religion just dependant on the influence around you.

Anyway, I'm searching, but need a rational way to decide.
 Quoting: Please be serious 32076855


I don't believe you are an atheist! A true atheist wouldn't be seeking answers to these questions and neither would one be searching!

To me you sound more like an agnostic.
That which is - has already been, And what is to be - has already been. Quote: King Solomon.
Anonymous Coward
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01/25/2013 08:28 PM
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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
I pray you come back OP for I believe I have an answer. I personally would recommend you start with this. If this doesn't start allowing you to see through the haze, then nothing else written or spoken will. It is from the source and will answer every and any question you might have if you but let it with an open heart. Please don't squander your opportunity to experience that which you seek. hf

[link to www.humanitysteam.ru]
Anonymous Coward
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01/25/2013 08:32 PM
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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
One many evidences, that helps to disprove atheism.

Find NDEs, in which veridical information is revealed.

For example, here's a real case.

A person has an NDE. Goes to heaven, and learn of information about the deceased they saw in heaven.

This information was previously unknown, and impossible for the person to have known about.

After the NDE, it was discovered the information to be true down to the exact details.

Psychologists, neurologists, atheists, can not explain these types of NDEs, in which veridical info is discovered.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 32923844


Why do people in India have different NDE's then us people in the west (eg less tunnels of light, different characters guarding the afterlife etc. etc.)?

How does that exactly fit in with the notion that people have access to the afterlife in an NDE?

A far more likely explanation is simply that your brain hallucinates due to oxigen levels and shows what we expect to see in a rather warped way (in ways like for example hallucinogenic shrooms do).
PENG

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01/25/2013 08:35 PM
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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
just watch this, will help with some of the non faith justified side of things you are looking for


 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 14549475

This^
And The Case for Christ. Really good documentary.

What OP wants to know, most all want to know.... Not evidence but absolute proof. Unless God decides to show himself, you will never know for certain. Don't know, but I have faith and will continue my search til the end.
Good luck OP. if you find the answer, let us know. ;)
hf

Btw, doesn't almost drive you mad to think that all your loved ones who have passed, now know the absolute truth? They had the same questions as you and I. Or... Maybe they don't know .... lol.

Last Edited by PENG on 01/25/2013 08:38 PM
"May the road rise up to meet you.... May the wind be always at your back..."
Anonymous Coward
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01/25/2013 08:37 PM
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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
choose nothing = dont make a choice, just live.. derp
Fading Lights

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01/25/2013 08:57 PM

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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
As a former athiest, I will tell you what I had found. I assume you are highly intelligent for chooseing athiesm and not a doctrine presented. I looked to philosophy. An great athiest, Jean-Paul Sartre. Existentialism is Humanism.

[link to www.marxists.org]


"But there is another sense of the word, of which the fundamental meaning is this: Man is all the time outside of himself: it is in projecting and losing himself beyond himself that he makes man to exist; and, on the other hand, it is by pursuing transcendent aims that he himself is able to exist. Since man is thus self-surpassing, and can grasp objects only in relation to his self-surpassing, he is himself the heart and center of his transcendence. There is no other universe except the human universe, the universe of human subjectivity. This relation of transcendence as constitutive of man (not in the sense that God is transcendent, but in the sense of self-surpassing) with subjectivity (in such a sense that man is not shut up in himself but forever present in a human universe) – it is this that we call existential humanism. This is humanism, because we remind man that there is no legislator but himself; that he himself, thus abandoned, must decide for himself; also because we show that it is not by turning back upon himself, but always by seeking, beyond himself, an aim which is one of liberation or of some particular realisation, that man can realize himself as truly human.

"

But this was the beginning.


From there I went to science. Quantums physics. Entaglement, decoherance. Ultimatly I found "God". It is not what people tell you. You wont know untill you put the effort in to find it. But if you feel a force with in, tearing everything down, it is a humbling to seek the truth.



This course took me years to come to the conclussion. I went through horrors of war, and self distruction to understand that the world, and everything in it is designed to become self aware of the source of you. Nothing else.

Keep seasching, and disrgard everything beyond yourself. Your intuition is your guide. Christians call it the holy ghost, I call it the entagled energy of life interacting with your quantum mind. It all comes from the Sun, and is dispersed through all life, originating from one point beyond time and consciousness.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 25196431


Could I extrapolate this to say that you believe God exists in all of us and is not an omnipotent being who will ultimately "judge" us? Is our "God" the pineal gland and DMT?secrets
Nous sommes du soleil. -- We are of the sun.
Don'tBeAfraid

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01/25/2013 09:10 PM
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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
and the simplest way, just pray
"God if you are real, show me. Talk to me. Fill me with your spirit. If you are real I want to know you" etc

Act like "God" is standing in your room with you, converse with Him. If you dont get any breakthroughs then make your own decision. If you truly knock on the door with an open heart, you will get the answers you are looking for
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 14549475


Been there, done that, didn't work.

Now let me guess, you are gonna blame me for not trying hard enough?

What about the billions of non-Christians (past and present) who have tried similar methods and came to the conclusion that Islam was right or that Buddha really is the way to enlightenment? Did they also all not try hard enough?
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 22089462


GOD knows the heart, that is what he hears, if your not sincere or honest in finding him, he will know...If you are sincere and ask GOD....I am a simple man or woman and I don't understand how to believe in you and I don't understand why Jesus is the only way to come to you, please guide me in my journey to find you, and I will tell you this if you are sincere he will come to you, it is your faith. GOD seeks not your demands
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 6038128


So you are indeed saying I didn't try hard enough, well fuck you.

Why is it always the fault of the people not able of finding this "Faith"?

And again this doesn't explain how people can arrive at different notions of God(s) or different explanations of the Bible.

If God really speaks and responds to notions like that then one would expect a concise response in people receiving these "revelations". Yet there are thousands of different Christian denominations and even a multitude of that in different religions altogether claiming these revelations...

This means that 99%+ of the people claiming to have had similar "spiritual experiences" are arriving at the wrong conclusion. I simply can't see how such a method could be proof for anything.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 22089462

I'm sorry you feel frustrated. I hope you read my link on why people are not called into a relationship with God. If you personally examine you heart(soul) then you might find answers there. Real ones from a skeptical perspective using logic and reason.

All of us use our experiences and perceive the Universe in a messy illogical way unless we deliberately try to use reason and our experiences by using the totality of the soul(consciousness). This messy process is why there's so much disagreement, but... much is quite orderly in Monotheism in general. If you let go of pre-concieved ideas and look at the logical philosophical link I posted, you will see some orderly explanation of the existence of God.

It's up to you as a skeptic to decide yourself. No one can persuade you (deeply at least) because of the Law of Free Will. If you are indeed a being of reason, then as an intellectual you read those proofs as well as your own ideas. You also read skeptical challenges. Then you decide using Free Will to believe.

I hope you try. It's weak to criticize others and intellectually dishonest to discount what you haven't read even briefly.

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/25/2013 09:12 PM
Don'tBeAfraid

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01/25/2013 09:15 PM
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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
One many evidences, that helps to disprove atheism.

Find NDEs, in which veridical information is revealed.

For example, here's a real case.

A person has an NDE. Goes to heaven, and learn of information about the deceased they saw in heaven.

This information was previously unknown, and impossible for the person to have known about.

After the NDE, it was discovered the information to be true down to the exact details.

Psychologists, neurologists, atheists, can not explain these types of NDEs, in which veridical info is discovered.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 32923844


Why do people in India have different NDE's then us people in the west (eg less tunnels of light, different characters guarding the afterlife etc. etc.)?

How does that exactly fit in with the notion that people have access to the afterlife in an NDE?

A far more likely explanation is simply that your brain hallucinates due to oxigen levels and shows what we expect to see in a rather warped way (in ways like for example hallucinogenic shrooms do).
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 22089462


While some NDEs are possible as hallucinations or even the recovery of memories induced at childbirth, that won't explain the NDEs of many who were brain dead. If you understand some neuroscience, and I recommend you take at least one course in it, then you know that there are times when the brain is so damaged by illness or lack of oxygen that the brain cannot do higher order thinking by definition. And yet, those folks have experienced something in a NDE which is very complexed. That indicates a consciousness outside the limits of the brain. As such, it points to a life outside our limited Life within a body. Do a little more research into brain death, and I think you'll come to some conclusions about that.
Don'tBeAfraid

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01/25/2013 09:19 PM
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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
As a former athiest, I will tell you what I had found. I assume you are highly intelligent for chooseing athiesm and not a doctrine presented. I looked to philosophy. An great athiest, Jean-Paul Sartre. Existentialism is Humanism.

[link to www.marxists.org]


"But there is another sense of the word, of which the fundamental meaning is this: Man is all the time outside of himself: it is in projecting and losing himself beyond himself that he makes man to exist; and, on the other hand, it is by pursuing transcendent aims that he himself is able to exist. Since man is thus self-surpassing, and can grasp objects only in relation to his self-surpassing, he is himself the heart and center of his transcendence. There is no other universe except the human universe, the universe of human subjectivity. This relation of transcendence as constitutive of man (not in the sense that God is transcendent, but in the sense of self-surpassing) with subjectivity (in such a sense that man is not shut up in himself but forever present in a human universe) – it is this that we call existential humanism. This is humanism, because we remind man that there is no legislator but himself; that he himself, thus abandoned, must decide for himself; also because we show that it is not by turning back upon himself, but always by seeking, beyond himself, an aim which is one of liberation or of some particular realisation, that man can realize himself as truly human.

"

But this was the beginning.


From there I went to science. Quantums physics. Entaglement, decoherance. Ultimatly I found "God". It is not what people tell you. You wont know untill you put the effort in to find it. But if you feel a force with in, tearing everything down, it is a humbling to seek the truth.



This course took me years to come to the conclussion. I went through horrors of war, and self distruction to understand that the world, and everything in it is designed to become self aware of the source of you. Nothing else.

Keep seasching, and disrgard everything beyond yourself. Your intuition is your guide. Christians call it the holy ghost, I call it the entagled energy of life interacting with your quantum mind. It all comes from the Sun, and is dispersed through all life, originating from one point beyond time and consciousness.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 25196431


Could I extrapolate this to say that you believe God exists in all of us and is not an omnipotent being who will ultimately "judge" us? Is our "God" the pineal gland and DMT?secrets
 Quoting: Fading Lights


It's why the above is not a complete answer, only that it's possible that the pineal gland is a repository for the soul. The soul is not God. The soul is being which inhabits the body. God is defined as BEING (see what that means in philosophy). We simply are beings who exist, not EXISTENCE itself, and therefore not God.

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/25/2013 09:20 PM
Don'tBeAfraid

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01/25/2013 09:24 PM
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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
choose nothing = dont make a choice, just live.. derp
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 26868696


Logically, one cannot chose nothing. Chosing can only be chosing something.

However there's wisdom in your words. Just "being" is possible. It's an essential aspect of Zen Buddhism for one, which I don't agree with, but a valid philosophical spiritual system at least from an intellectual aspect.

One can also just "be" in almost any spiritual system or ignore all spiritual systems and "be".

However if you discount that life exists after death, then you're proposing that you no longer "be" at that point, and so I believe that's flawed intellectually.
Anonymous Coward
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01/25/2013 09:29 PM
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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
OP whatever you are searching for - just understand that ultimately it will not be found in any text or come from any source that is external to your own being.

:greenkarma:
Fading Lights

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01/25/2013 09:30 PM

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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
As a former athiest, I will tell you what I had found. I assume you are highly intelligent for chooseing athiesm and not a doctrine presented. I looked to philosophy. An great athiest, Jean-Paul Sartre. Existentialism is Humanism.

[link to www.marxists.org]


"But there is another sense of the word, of which the fundamental meaning is this: Man is all the time outside of himself: it is in projecting and losing himself beyond himself that he makes man to exist; and, on the other hand, it is by pursuing transcendent aims that he himself is able to exist. Since man is thus self-surpassing, and can grasp objects only in relation to his self-surpassing, he is himself the heart and center of his transcendence. There is no other universe except the human universe, the universe of human subjectivity. This relation of transcendence as constitutive of man (not in the sense that God is transcendent, but in the sense of self-surpassing) with subjectivity (in such a sense that man is not shut up in himself but forever present in a human universe) – it is this that we call existential humanism. This is humanism, because we remind man that there is no legislator but himself; that he himself, thus abandoned, must decide for himself; also because we show that it is not by turning back upon himself, but always by seeking, beyond himself, an aim which is one of liberation or of some particular realisation, that man can realize himself as truly human.

"

But this was the beginning.


From there I went to science. Quantums physics. Entaglement, decoherance. Ultimatly I found "God". It is not what people tell you. You wont know untill you put the effort in to find it. But if you feel a force with in, tearing everything down, it is a humbling to seek the truth.



This course took me years to come to the conclussion. I went through horrors of war, and self distruction to understand that the world, and everything in it is designed to become self aware of the source of you. Nothing else.

Keep seasching, and disrgard everything beyond yourself. Your intuition is your guide. Christians call it the holy ghost, I call it the entagled energy of life interacting with your quantum mind. It all comes from the Sun, and is dispersed through all life, originating from one point beyond time and consciousness.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 25196431


Could I extrapolate this to say that you believe God exists in all of us and is not an omnipotent being who will ultimately "judge" us? Is our "God" the pineal gland and DMT?secrets
 Quoting: Fading Lights


It's why the above is not a complete answer, only that it's possible that the pineal gland is a repository for the soul. The soul is not God. The soul is being which inhabits the body. God is defined as BEING (see what that means in philosophy). We simply are beings who exist, not EXISTENCE itself, and therefore not God.
 Quoting: Don'tBeAfraid


I wasn't asking you DBA -- I was asking the AC. BTW, I meant to put the God in quotes in the first sentence. You believe what you want. Did you watch the video or understand the post I was responding to, and video within?
Nous sommes du soleil. -- We are of the sun.
Don'tBeAfraid

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01/25/2013 09:32 PM
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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
As a former athiest, I will tell you what I had found. I assume you are highly intelligent for chooseing athiesm and not a doctrine presented. I looked to philosophy. An great athiest, Jean-Paul Sartre. Existentialism is Humanism.

[link to www.marxists.org]


"But there is another sense of the word, of which the fundamental meaning is this: Man is all the time outside of himself: it is in projecting and losing himself beyond himself that he makes man to exist; and, on the other hand, it is by pursuing transcendent aims that he himself is able to exist. Since man is thus self-surpassing, and can grasp objects only in relation to his self-surpassing, he is himself the heart and center of his transcendence. There is no other universe except the human universe, the universe of human subjectivity. This relation of transcendence as constitutive of man (not in the sense that God is transcendent, but in the sense of self-surpassing) with subjectivity (in such a sense that man is not shut up in himself but forever present in a human universe) – it is this that we call existential humanism. This is humanism, because we remind man that there is no legislator but himself; that he himself, thus abandoned, must decide for himself; also because we show that it is not by turning back upon himself, but always by seeking, beyond himself, an aim which is one of liberation or of some particular realisation, that man can realize himself as truly human.

"

But this was the beginning.


From there I went to science. Quantums physics. Entaglement, decoherance. Ultimatly I found "God". It is not what people tell you. You wont know untill you put the effort in to find it. But if you feel a force with in, tearing everything down, it is a humbling to seek the truth.



This course took me years to come to the conclussion. I went through horrors of war, and self distruction to understand that the world, and everything in it is designed to become self aware of the source of you. Nothing else.

Keep seasching, and disrgard everything beyond yourself. Your intuition is your guide. Christians call it the holy ghost, I call it the entagled energy of life interacting with your quantum mind. It all comes from the Sun, and is dispersed through all life, originating from one point beyond time and consciousness.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 25196431


Could I extrapolate this to say that you believe God exists in all of us and is not an omnipotent being who will ultimately "judge" us? Is our "God" the pineal gland and DMT?secrets
 Quoting: Fading Lights


It's why the above is not a complete answer, only that it's possible that the pineal gland is a repository for the soul. The soul is not God. The soul is being which inhabits the body. God is defined as BEING (see what that means in philosophy). We simply are beings who exist, not EXISTENCE itself, and therefore not God.
 Quoting: Don'tBeAfraid


I wasn't asking you DBA -- I was asking the AC. BTW, I meant to put the God in quotes in the first sentence. You believe what you want. Did you watch the video or understand the post I was responding to, and video within?
 Quoting: Fading Lights

Oh I know. I was just commenting on the dialogue between you. Yes I listened to the video. I understand what you're saying and even agree with you. The person in the video is a Pantheist. Forgive the succint way I explain it, but they believe that we are consciousness and that God is the Universe and so we are aspects of the Universe as beings, and so we are aspects of God. I disagree. That would be like saying that the bacteria E coli in our digestive system is God or us, and that's not true from a scientific or philosophical argument.
[link to en.wikipedia.org]
a [link to en.wikipedia.org]

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/25/2013 09:36 PM
Anonymous Coward
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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
One many evidences, that helps to disprove atheism.

Find NDEs, in which veridical information is revealed.

For example, here's a real case.

A person has an NDE. Goes to heaven, and learn of information about the deceased they saw in heaven.

This information was previously unknown, and impossible for the person to have known about.

After the NDE, it was discovered the information to be true down to the exact details.

Psychologists, neurologists, atheists, can not explain these types of NDEs, in which veridical info is discovered.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 32923844


Why do people in India have different NDE's then us people in the west (eg less tunnels of light, different characters guarding the afterlife etc. etc.)?

How does that exactly fit in with the notion that people have access to the afterlife in an NDE?

A far more likely explanation is simply that your brain hallucinates due to oxigen levels and shows what we expect to see in a rather warped way (in ways like for example hallucinogenic shrooms do).
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 22089462


Could someone NDE's be based on the subconscious?

Yes

If you read, my post carefully, you would see your explanation fails to explain, NDEs that contain veridical information.
Don'tBeAfraid

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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
One many evidences, that helps to disprove atheism.

Find NDEs, in which veridical information is revealed.

For example, here's a real case.

A person has an NDE. Goes to heaven, and learn of information about the deceased they saw in heaven.

This information was previously unknown, and impossible for the person to have known about.

After the NDE, it was discovered the information to be true down to the exact details.

Psychologists, neurologists, atheists, can not explain these types of NDEs, in which veridical info is discovered.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 32923844


Why do people in India have different NDE's then us people in the west (eg less tunnels of light, different characters guarding the afterlife etc. etc.)?

How does that exactly fit in with the notion that people have access to the afterlife in an NDE?

A far more likely explanation is simply that your brain hallucinates due to oxigen levels and shows what we expect to see in a rather warped way (in ways like for example hallucinogenic shrooms do).
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 22089462


Could someone NDE's be based on the subconscious?

Yes

If you read, my post carefully, you would see your explanation fails to explain, NDEs that contain veridical information.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 32923844


THANKS! I learned a new word today. That rarely happens!
Veridical means Coinciding with reality or truthful. Cool word and probably missed by most people reading this dialogue.

And I agree. Some NDEs can be Hypnogogia from the subconsiocous, but not all NDEs fit into that category because of lack of brain activity.
[link to en.wikipedia.org]

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/25/2013 09:40 PM
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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
The trick is to find the idea of God, which I call Prime Creator or Source Energy, inside yourself.
The biggest lie out there right now is that our food contains everything our bodies need for optimal health.
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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
nothing doesnt exist, therefore everything exists. enjoy the paradox
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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
if everything is god, nothing is godlike.. thats why i think there might be a lot of deception on this site
Anonymous Coward
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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
One many evidences, that helps to disprove atheism.

Find NDEs, in which veridical information is revealed.

For example, here's a real case.

A person has an NDE. Goes to heaven, and learn of information about the deceased they saw in heaven.

This information was previously unknown, and impossible for the person to have known about.

After the NDE, it was discovered the information to be true down to the exact details.

Psychologists, neurologists, atheists, can not explain these types of NDEs, in which veridical info is discovered.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 32923844


Why do people in India have different NDE's then us people in the west (eg less tunnels of light, different characters guarding the afterlife etc. etc.)?

How does that exactly fit in with the notion that people have access to the afterlife in an NDE?

A far more likely explanation is simply that your brain hallucinates due to oxigen levels and shows what we expect to see in a rather warped way (in ways like for example hallucinogenic shrooms do).
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 22089462


Could someone NDE's be based on the subconscious?

Yes

If you read, my post carefully, you would see your explanation fails to explain, NDEs that contain veridical information.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 32923844


THANKS! I learned a new word today. That rarely happens!
Veridical means Coinciding with reality or truthful. Cool word and probably missed by most people reading this dialogue.

And I agree. Some NDEs can be Hypnogogia from the subconsiocous, but not all NDEs fit into that category because of lack of brain activity.
[link to en.wikipedia.org]
 Quoting: Don'tBeAfraid


Veridical info in NDE / OBE to me are crucial since it completely rules out, that the person is hallucinating, or merely constructed the experience from his subconscious.

This is a very good case, that illustrates this
[link to www.youtube.com]
[link to www.youtube.com]
Notice too a comment, about the vid:
I know for a fact that this is a true story. Maurissa was my older sister and died when I was 12. Kat was a stranger to us before and there was no way she could have known what she did.
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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
if you're an atheist, you shouldn't!!! duh!!!!!1
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 32991022


Shouldn't what? I want a rational reason for a belief in god. Then I want to know which god/ belief system. All based on rational thinking and fact.
Why should people follow a god if there is no evidence of his/ hers/ its existence. How can a god punish people for not believing in something that doesn't add up or hold any weight in reality.
You can't be within reson to change your life around for something you don't have evidence for.
Emotions are not valid as proof. Coincidences don't equal miracles. Why should I believe?
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 32076855


One must listen to their heart and not all hearts assimilate the same data when factoring free will if you set aside your wants, perversions what is the message that you hear.
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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
nothing doesnt exist, therefore everything exists. enjoy the paradox
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 26868696


No. That is illogical. Yes, nothing cannot exist by definition.

Everything cannot exist. Everything is the summation of all things. Everything is an idea. Not all ideas exist.

For examine I may think up a species I call a jabberwocky thought up by Lewis Carroll.
[link to www.jabberwocky.com]
(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.


`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

However a great poem or idea, the Jabberwock doesn't exists.

If one defines everything as the Universe, then that exists by defintion. Everything however is an noun which is poorly defined. We can sweep our hand at our possession and say, "Look at everything...." and yet that is not everything logically.

Not everything exists.
Anonymous Coward
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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
no matter what you write down its going to an "idea" a "concept" aka nothing. or you can look at everthing AS IT IS, and not what you think it isnt.
Don'tBeAfraid

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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
Veridical info in NDE / OBE to me are crucial since it completely rules out, that the person is hallucinating, or merely constructed the experience from his subconscious.

This is a very good case, that illustrates this
[link to www.youtube.com]
[link to www.youtube.com]
Notice too a comment, about the vid:
I know for a fact that this is a true story. Maurissa was my older sister and died when I was 12. Kat was a stranger to us before and there was no way she could have known what she did.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 32923844

There are scattered reports of life after death expressing itself as reincarnation.

Obviously there's something to the phenomena. It isn't an aspect of Christian monotheism, and so I don't know what it is.

There's a myth in Jewish thought called the Guf.
[link to en.wikipedia.org]
In it, the idea is that all souls exist before birth in a place called the Guf. Then when we are conceived, the soul inhabits the body. Then after life ends, the soul leaves for some other place.

Who can know? It's an interesting idea.

All I know is that consciousness(soul) does exist.

As James got older, he lost the impressions he had of a previous life. That's just as intriguing as anything else.

As Christian, I don't know to make of it. Was James aware using some sense or perception because he was young? Was James reborn? Was it just an interesting series of circumstances which was accelerated by interested parents? Who knows. It is fascinating though.

For me, God is more fascinating as is Jesus.

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/25/2013 10:14 PM
Don'tBeAfraid

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01/25/2013 10:20 PM
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Re: I'm an Atheist. Why should I believe in a god? Which god? and why?
no matter what you write down its going to an "idea" a "concept" aka nothing. or you can look at everthing AS IT IS, and not what you think it isnt.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 26868696


No, there's some flaws there. Let's talk about that.

Nothing can be conceptualized as an idea, however ideas are not nothing. If we look as individual ideas as subsets of all Idea, then nothing is a subset of potential ideas, and so a concept.

Ideas are not nothing.

Example: a unicorn is a imaginary being as an idea. All ideas are not unicorns.

The other part i.e. referring to everything as it is...

We can only look at individual aspects of ideas, not the summation. That kind of thinking is theoretically called Gestalt. As humans we cannot think that way, or at least there are few who potentially can.
[link to en.wikipedia.org]

Some of us would love to be able to think holistically. That's a noble goal.

In Zen Buddhism that is called satori, a transitory Epiphany of awareness holistically
[link to en.wikipedia.org]

There is also in Zen Buddhism Mushin or "no mind" or a very superior ultimate form of intuition in which all is immediately grasped in a holistic way.
[link to en.wikipedia.org]

An example of Mushin


Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/25/2013 10:28 PM





GLP