Originally posted by wolfgang59The question I am talking about was: "WHICH GOD/S???"
The question was asked to an atheist by a Christian.
So it could be any god.
So now GF is a Christian and GB is an atheist?
Wow, you're really following along closely, aren't you?
This question is ALWAYS asked by atheists to Christians. That's why it's an asinine argument.
Originally posted by SuzianneOh dear .. I'm afraid it is you who needs to follow more closely!
The question I am talking about was: "WHICH GOD/S???"
So now GF is a Christian and GB is an atheist?
Wow, you're really following along closely, aren't you?
This question is ALWAYS asked by atheists to Christians. That's why it's an asinine argument.
GF asked "WHICH GOD/S" in response to GB's
"Why wouldn't all honest atheists welcome the possibility that God exists?"
GB asked the question GF asked for clarification.
Now go back to doing your nails.
- Joined
- 31 May 06
- Moves
- 1795
Originally posted by wolfgang59I was going to thumbs up till the last line...
Oh dear .. I'm afraid it is you who needs to follow more closely!
GF asked "WHICH GOD/S" in response to GB's
"Why wouldn't all honest atheists welcome the possibility that God exists?"
GB asked the question GF asked for clarification.
Now go back to doing your nails.
Lets not use patronising gender stereotype put downs please.
There are more than enough non-sexist put downs to choose from.
Originally posted by Grampy Bobby (OP)
Spirituality: Quotations
"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell." -C.S. Lewis
"Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important." -C.S. Lewis
"There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.'" -C.S. Lewis
"God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing." -C.S. Lewis
"With gratitude to Him, In Whom we dwell." -R.B. Thieme III
A few of yours?
Man is a Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion--several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn't straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother's path to happiness and heaven....
-Mark Twain
Originally posted by SwissGambit"Faith is believing something you know ain’t true."Man is a Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion--several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn't straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother's path to happiness and heaven....
-Mark Twain
"If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be -- a Christian."
"It (the Bible) is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies."
"A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows."
"Our Bible reveals to us the character of our god with minute and remorseless exactness... It is perhaps the most damnatory biography that exists in print anywhere. It makes Nero an angel of light … by contrast."
"I cannot see how a man of any large degree of humorous perception can ever be religious -- unless he purposely shut the eyes of his mind & keep them shut by force."
"If there is a God, he is a malign thug."
"'In God We Trust.' I don't believe it would sound any better if it were true."
"It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand."
"Man is a marvelous curiosity . . . he thinks he is the Creator's pet . . . he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea."
"Mr. Clemens was once asked whether he feared death. He said that he did not, in view of the fact that he had been dead for billions and billions of years before he was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it." -Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain, Author)
http://www.askanatheist.org/famous.html
Note: SwissGambit, here's some more grist from an acknowledged atheist for your peer approval mill. Enjoy.
Originally posted by wolfgang59Sigh.
Oh dear .. I'm afraid it is you who needs to follow more closely!
GF asked "WHICH GOD/S" in response to GB's
"Why wouldn't all honest atheists welcome the possibility that God exists?"
GB asked the question GF asked for clarification.
Now go back to doing your nails.
My point is that there is no need for clarification.
GB is a Christian. I ask again, "Which God do you THINK he's talking about??"
Use your brain. Not only is the "Which god(s)?" question asinine, it's disrespectful. I do not really give a damn which (or how many) god(s) you do not believe in. When I am talking about God, I'm only talking about ONE God. And you know that perfectly well. So your go-to fallback, "Which god(s)?" is asinine and disrespectful. And trollish.
As far as my nails go, you're just lucky you're not within reach.
- Joined
- 31 May 06
- Moves
- 1795
Originally posted by SuzianneDo you think I am an idiot?
Sigh.
My point is that there is no need for clarification.
GB is a Christian. I ask again, "Which God do you THINK he's talking about??"
Use your brain. Not only is the "Which god(s)?" question asinine, it's disrespectful. I do not really give a damn which (or how many) god(s) you do not believe in. When I am talking about God, I'm only talking ...[text shortened]... srespectful. And trollish.
As far as my nails go, you're just lucky you're not within reach.
I of course know that he is talking about the Christian god, because I am not an idiot.
My POINT [in asking "Which god" is that when asking an atheist ...
"Why wouldn't all honest atheists welcome the possibility that God exists?"]
Is twofold.
One. It's me figuratively looking around the universe and saying,
"Which god? I see no gods around here"
Two. It's a pointed reminder that I don't "not believe in the Christian god", I don't believe in gods,
lower-case plural.
You ask me whether 'I would like there to be a God' and I ask which god idea did you have in mind,
because I don't have a fixed concept of what a god should be because I don't believe in them.
Even if you limit to a 'Christian' god, none of you can agree on what that god is like, or explain it
to us/me. [because god is mysterious and unknowable... yada yada yada...]
So, no. Your point is invalid.
Originally posted by googlefudge
Do you think I am an idiot?
I of course know that he is talking about the Christian god, because I am not an idiot.
My POINT [in asking "Which god" is that when asking an atheist ...
"Why wouldn't all honest atheists welcome the possibility that God exists?"]
Is twofold.
One. It's me figuratively looking around the universe and saying,
[ ...[text shortened]... because god is mysterious and unknowable... yada yada yada...]
So, no. Your point is invalid.
Do you think I am an idiot?No, I do not.
One. It's me figuratively looking around the universe and saying,This is just vanity. It doesn't do much to answer the question.
"Which god? I see no gods around here"
Two. It's a pointed reminder that I don't "not believe in the Christian god", I don't believe in gods, lower-case plural.Do you think we're idiots? We know this, we've only heard it a million times. In the context of this conversation though, it's inconsequential, because we're NOT talking about any god or god(s). We're only talking about OUR God, and no, I do not think you're an idiot, and so, I would think you'd have picked up on this by now. And I think it's only respectful that, in a conversation with one person, you could assume the speaker is talking about his/her God of choice, especially when they capitalize God. Whether it is God, Allah, Brahma, or Baal, that is what they mean when speaking of 'God'. That's only reasonable and sensible.
You (atheists in general) talk all the time about theists shoving God down the throat of atheists. Well, I maintain the opposite is true as well. Atheists continually shove aspects of their position down the throats of theists whenever they get the chance. Yes, we get it that you don't believe in any god. Similarly, why don't you get it that when we talk about the one God, we're talking about the one God, whoever that may mean to us, not any other god(s). In the off chance that you are speaking to someone whose God you do not know, I'm sure they wouldn't mind you asking.
"Someone one day found the comedian W.C. Feild's reading the Bible and asked what he was doing. His reply was "just looking for loopholes, just looking for loopholes." There are a lot of people who read with the same intention of disregarding any evidence. After all we are so much more advance than they were 1,950 years ago when this ancient book was written.
There are only three options to explain our existence, one is to believe in God, another is agnosticism which states their may be a God but I haven't found proof. The last is atheism where one will state they know God does not exist. This is not just a non- belief in God but a willful denial of his existence. Agnosticism is where one admits that they do not know if God exists, not having the proof or that there is a personal God who has always existed. No one is born an atheist, they learn NOT to believe, just as one learns to believe. People choose to become atheists as much as they choose to become Christians, unfortunately they usually disbelieve by default. Hopefully one becomes a Christian because of evidence."
http://www.letusreason.org/apolo7.htm
"Brilliant modern day scientists - not all hardened atheists!
"There is sometimes a false perception that the only position for any modern, logical thinking scientist is one of disbelief in the existence of God. The author of this article once had this false idea. The below scientists may not have believed the Bible was the Word of God but they did believe there was a God.
* Albert Einstein - humble in the face of a vastly superior spirit. “Every one who is seriously engaged in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that the laws of nature manifest the existence of a spirit vastly superior to that of men, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.”102
* Stephen Hawking – the Mind of God. “… We shall all … be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we should know the mind of God.”97 [Sadly, Stephen Hawking has now concluded that the 'mind of God' is no longer required and that the universe can supposedly create itself from nothing!]
* Werner Heisenberg – science and religion pointing to the same reality
“In the course of my life I have repeatedly been compelled to ponder on the relationship of these two regions of thought [science and religion], for I have never been able to doubt the reality of that to which they point.”103
* Erwin Schrodinger – science is deficient … it knows nothing of good, God or beauty. “The scientific picture of the world around me is very deficient … It knows nothing of beauty and ugly, good or bad, God and eternity. Science sometimes pretends to answer questions in these domains, but the answers are very often so silly that we are not inclined to take them seriously. Science is reticent too when it is a question of the great Unity of which we somehow form a part, to which we belong. The most popular name for it in our time is God, with a capital “G”.104
* Max Plank – science and religion fighting the incessant battle against skepticism. “There can never be any real opposition between religion and science; for one is the compliment of the other.”105 “Religion and natural science are fighting a joint battle in an incessant, never relaxing crusade against skepticism ... against unbelief and superstition … [and therefore] ‘On to God!’”105
"Scientists know about the reality of invisible things: These brilliant modern-day scientists (Einstein, Hawking, Heisenberg, Dirac, Schrodinger and Plank) were all well accustomed with demonstrating that invisible things were a reality.
"Because of the consistency of the universe, these great scientists saw "a direct connection between their scientific work and their affirmation of a “superior mind,” the Mind of God.”c To these scientists, God who is invisible, was a reality. They may not have all believed in a personal God with whom they could communicate but they did believe there was a God who was real." http://www.changinglivesonline.org/item-by-category/books/item/360-there-is-a-god.html