For atheists....how?

[bunny]

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Personally I think just for him to come up with that was pretty impressive. Now it is absurd in the way that you can fake a belief in something you don't really think exists. It doesnt work like that.

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He wasnt suggesting you could trick God. He was suggesting that by following religious customs without believing in God, you would come to believe for real.

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I don't think you should believe in God if you don't, I do think you may want to look into the possiblity of it and maybe do the steps that others have done that gave them there strong belief. It says in the bible if ye pray and ask if I am real with a pure heart, he will reveal that answer to you with an undenyable feeling. If you refuse to even try, thats your own choice. And you either made a good one or a very bad one. Im sure you will find out before me

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A common theme through your posts seems to be that we atheists havent "given it a go". Many of us have made a genuine effort to believe in God (if it is indeed possible to "try" to believe) and found that the hypothesis just doesnt fit the facts. You're not discussing religion with people who refuse to acknowledge God as a possibility, you're discussing it with people who think his existence is very unlikely.

[vhawk01]

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Most will realize at some point in there life it doesnt matter what you want there to be.

That has no determination to where you will go after you die.

What you want to be true doesnt matter either. Cause if what you want to be true isnt, then all the wanting means nothing.

So considering a change in beliefs just cause your afraid of your current ones won't matter.

You'll find out when you die.

But as an insurance policy you might want to pray to this made up person called Jesus Christ once in a while, may help ya if there is this made up place called heaven.

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And all this after I tried to explain to you the absurdity of Pascal's Wager. Some people never learn.

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Personally I think just for him to come up with that was pretty impressive. Now it is absurd in the way that you can fake a belief in something you don't really think exists. It doesnt work like that.

I don't think you should believe in God if you don't, I do think you may want to look into the possiblity of it and maybe do the steps that others have done that gave them there strong belief. It says in the bible if ye pray and ask if I am real with a pure heart, he will reveal that answer to you with an undenyable feeling. If you refuse to even try, thats your own choice. And you either made a good one or a very bad one. Im sure you will find out before me


[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

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Whether you can fake it or not is NOT why Pascal's Wager is absurd. Think harder.

[SitNHit]

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Whether you can fake it or not is NOT why Pascal's Wager is absurd. Think harder.

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I only read it, didnt think about it.

You might think its absurd cause it says that God rewards belief or that christianity is the only religion that says you will be judged, which is not true or that it says that you can choose belief or the costs that believing would bring or change in lifestyle rather.

I guess your Athestistic view is that whether or not I believe, if there is then he should judge you are your life and not just cause of belief(which I agree), if there isnt then you didnt lose anything in the first place. But I also think not exploring the possiblity is a decision you make to.

[vhawk01]

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Whether you can fake it or not is NOT why Pascal's Wager is absurd. Think harder.

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I only read it, didnt think about it.

You might think its absurd cause it says that God rewards belief or that christianity is the only religion that says you will be judged, which is not true or that it says that you can choose belief or the costs that believing would bring or change in lifestyle rather.

I guess your Athestistic view is that whether or not I believe, if there is then he should judge you are your life and not just cause of belief(which I agree), if there isnt then you didnt lose anything in the first place. But I also think not exploring the possiblity is a decision you make to.

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Christianity isn't the only religion that claims God will judge us based on our faith in him. There are an infinite number of Gods who will do this. And there are an infinite number of Gods who will do the opposite, and there are an infinite number of Gods who will refuse your entry into Heaven for wearing pants. You'd better take them off, just in case.

[SitNHit]

You can say whatever you want to justify the way you think. That's human nature.

[vhawk01]

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You can say whatever you want to justify the way you think. That's human nature.

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Sure, but if you want people to listen you have to form coherent arguments and be rational.

Are you disputing my claim that there are an infinite number of possible Gods who will punish you to Hell for wearing pants?

[DougShrapnel]

Tony, you might want to try to make a list of all the things that your "faith" helps you to deal with. And then find secular alternatives. There is no reason why the transisiton must be painful. I've made a list for posters on this board a couple of times now, I'll gladly make it again if you or anyone wants. However I think speaking about fear is more important. The emmotions that we have, we have them becuase they are usefull. "Fear" is no different. Fear is what we feel when our body senses danger. Fear is needed to give the body/mind extra strentgh to fight or flight. After you make your list, use your fear to either flight back to theism or fight your indoctrination.

[madnak]

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You can say whatever you want to justify the way you think. That's human nature.

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This one wins the award for being both chillingly true and unintentionally hilarious.

Do you reject the idea that math and logic are essentially indisputable?

If so, then to be consistent you should pretty much avoid any attempt at rational discourse. But let's pretend. If math isn't correct, then how can we perform calculations of phenomenal precision? Why can we land a hunk of tin on the moon? How can we effectively engineer complex machines? How do we even know the earth revolves around the sun, and not the other way around? That cells exist? That water expands as it freezes because the molecules arrange themselves in an organized way? How do vaccines work, and medications? Surgery? Ballistics?

It's all math, baby. And Pascal's Wager has been mathematically disproved. It's also circular - do you understand the meaning of that?

[Bad Beat Bill]

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If its REALLY bothering you, go latch on to some religion to make you feel more comfortable. It doesn't matter which one. They're all equally true.

'nuf sed

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If someone came in here and preached Christianity as the ultimate truth in everything they'd get flamed, so why is garbage like this not looked down upon? There is waaaay too much unknown to us so that any rational person can say "all religions are equally as true".

[vhawk01]

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If its REALLY bothering you, go latch on to some religion to make you feel more comfortable. It doesn't matter which one. They're all equally true.

'nuf sed

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If someone came in here and preached Christianity as the ultimate truth in everything they'd get flamed, so why is garbage like this not looked down upon? There is waaaay too much unknown to us so that any rational person can say "all religions are equally as true".

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And so the default probability of each of the possible religions is the same. Whats wrong with that? If I don't know if the coin you have is biased or not, what should my guess of the likelihood of tails be? I hope we agree its .5?