So I might not be an atheist after all...

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So I might not be an atheist after all...

Post by Stardog » Tue Dec 02, 2014 12:32 pm

http://www.science20.com/writer_on_the_ ... oke-139982

...of course I am just kidding. I'm a total atheist. :RedDevil: :RedDevil:
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Re: So I might not be an atheist after all...

Post by WickerMan » Tue Dec 02, 2014 2:23 pm

Don't you think maybe you're an Agnostic? I think one cannot know the truth about God or an afterlife until one is there, and as far as I know no one has come back to say definitively one way or the other.
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Re: So I might not be an atheist after all...

Post by Stardog » Tue Dec 02, 2014 2:43 pm

[youtubell]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93SjXowlJD0[/youtubell]

I will refer you to what my friend Rich has to say on the topic.
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Re: So I might not be an atheist after all...

Post by Rhino » Tue Dec 02, 2014 2:54 pm

I like the clickbait title for an article about how we all have imaginary friends. :D

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Re: So I might not be an atheist after all...

Post by fixxervi6 » Tue Dec 02, 2014 3:10 pm

there are different levels of atheism "there is no god" and "I don't believe in god" are not the same, one is classified as "hard atheism", that being "there is no god".
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Re: So I might not be an atheist after all...

Post by Stardog » Tue Dec 02, 2014 10:32 pm

Rhino wrote:I like the clickbait title for an article about how we all have imaginary friends. :D

:idea:
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Re: So I might not be an atheist after all...

Post by BeautifulDisaster » Tue Dec 02, 2014 11:12 pm

I still say you are spiritual, you just don't know it yet. ;)
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Re: So I might not be an atheist after all...

Post by Firewa11 » Tue Dec 02, 2014 11:14 pm

Everyone has their own beliefs, even if those beliefs are to believe in nothing omnipotent. Respect.
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Re: So I might not be an atheist after all...

Post by BeautifulDisaster » Tue Dec 02, 2014 11:16 pm

Are you getting Rastafarian on us? ;) <3 Much rrrrraaaaaspect!
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Re: So I might not be an atheist after all...

Post by Firewa11 » Tue Dec 02, 2014 11:17 pm

:icon_silly: Mebbe.
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Re: So I might not be an atheist after all...

Post by Stardog » Wed Dec 03, 2014 10:46 am

Firewa11 wrote:Everyone has their own beliefs, even if those beliefs are to believe in nothing omnipotent. Respect.
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Re: So I might not be an atheist after all...

Post by Stardog » Wed Dec 03, 2014 10:48 am

So did you guys read the article or what? Religion is a genuine hereditary defect. Often people are no more capable of freeing themselves from religion than they are of freeing themselves from say.... Alzheimer's.
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Re: So I might not be an atheist after all...

Post by DarcShadow » Wed Dec 03, 2014 10:57 am

Don't confuse Religion, and belief. Two very different things. I believe in a higher power but I do not believe in religion.
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Re: So I might not be an atheist after all...

Post by fixxervi6 » Wed Dec 03, 2014 11:04 am

Stardog84 wrote:So did you guys read the article or what? Religion is a genuine hereditary defect. Often people are no more capable of freeing themselves from religion than they are of freeing themselves from say.... Alzheimer's.
I've always said there is something different about their brains vs mine. I've tried religion, it didn't work, didn't stick, it never held up to my brain going "ok now lets think about this for a moment...." I have a much easier time believing in the force than I do heaven or hell, and the force is made up stuff in a movie. I have a very far out there theory about it.

Now, this may upset people so don't attack me, it's just a theory and an idea

The part of the brain that makes us "seek out a higher power" and believe in the magic invisible bearded man was engineered for control. Best way to control the masses - make them want you to take control of them. No need for war, occupation etc, they willingly submit, self slavery.

I think that part of the brain was put into us by something else for the purpose of controlling us, that part has gone defective in some of us and the control mechanism no longer functions.

I wouldn't be shocked at all of some being stepped off of a saucer and said behold I am your creator and your god. Done under the right disguise people will be tripping over themselves to bow down while I'm running for my .308.
DarcShadow wrote:Don't confuse Religion, and belief. Two very different things. I believe in a higher power but I do not believe in religion.
Agree, I believe in a god for lack of a better term. but follow no religion. (don't confuse the term god with invisible man in the sky, I use that in place of a better term, the universe itself could be god for example)
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Re: So I might not be an atheist after all...

Post by Stardog » Wed Dec 03, 2014 11:14 am

The universe is not sentient. It contains sentient beings. So am I God?

Darc - Why do you believe in a higher power? You are one of the smarter guys that I know. Let's hear it.
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Re: So I might not be an atheist after all...

Post by Rhino » Wed Dec 03, 2014 11:17 am

Stardog84 wrote:The universe is not sentient.
How do you know?

Maybe we're just universal bacteria or something.

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Re: So I might not be an atheist after all...

Post by fixxervi6 » Wed Dec 03, 2014 11:23 am

Stardog84 wrote:The universe is not sentient. It contains sentient beings. So am I God?

Darc - Why do you believe in a higher power? You are one of the smarter guys that I know. Let's hear it.
Who says our creator has to be sentient?

Who has proven that the universe is not?

When I look at how we work, how complex the human body is, it's a marvelous work of engineering. When I went to a seminar on cell wall androgen receptors, I sat there listening and my brain took in the info and went "I am observing a computer program, this is how machines work too".

Then scale it up, ecosystems, virus's, bacteria, solar systems, planets - the shit is WAY too prefect.
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Re: So I might not be an atheist after all...

Post by Stardog » Wed Dec 03, 2014 11:36 am

fixxervi6 wrote:Who says our creator has to be sentient?
I would NEVER say that. That would be ridiculous.
Who has proven that the universe is not?
Proving a negative, philosophical burden of proof yada yada...
When I look at how we work, how complex the human body is, it's a marvelous work of engineering. When I went to a seminar on cell wall androgen receptors, I sat there listening and my brain took in the info and went "I am observing a computer program, this is how machines work too".

Then scale it up, ecosystems, virus's, bacteria, solar systems, planets - the shit is WAY too prefect.
It isn't perfect. Fuckups happen constantly and we have had billions of years to evolve and for our system to seek equilibrium. Think about it like this. You have a vast empty space and you put a bunch of miscellaneous shit in there. Throw some bombs in there to mix shit up. Set those fuckers off. I'm guessing that a bunch of collisions will take place. Come back several billion years later. Do you expect that the system would still be bouncing around crazily or that it would have found some sort of equilibrium?
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Re: So I might not be an atheist after all...

Post by DarcShadow » Wed Dec 03, 2014 11:46 am

Higher power to me doesn't mean god, or even necessarily an omnipotent being. Hell for all I know, Douglas Adams had it right all along and the world was created by a race of planet builders hired by an interdimensional race that take on the form of mice in our dimension with the function of the earth being to find "The Ultimate Question" who's answer was 42.

I don't believe a higher power watches over us, or controls anything, or even cares for that matter. But I'm open to the idea that something/someone had a hand in creating us. There are jumps in evolution that science can't fully explain at this time. Weather that jump is from an omnipotent being, or aliens, both, from a human perspective, would be a higher power.
Stardog84 wrote:It isn't perfect. Fuckups happen constantly and we have had billions of years to evolve and for our system to seek equilibrium. Think about it like this. You have a vast empty space and you put a bunch of miscellaneous shit in there. Throw some bombs in there to mix shit up. Set those fuckers off. I'm guessing that a bunch of collisions will take place. Come back several billion years later. Do you expect that the system would still be bouncing around crazily or that it would have found some sort of equilibrium?
Ah, but who threw all the crap together originally? :))
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Re: So I might not be an atheist after all...

Post by fixxervi6 » Wed Dec 03, 2014 11:49 am

To your last point, do you subscribe to big bang theory? The universe is currently anything but in equilibrium. It may appear that way to us specs on a rock but that's because we are so tiny - and it won't reach equilibrium ever - depending on which theory you subscribe to.
DarcShadow wrote:Higher power to me doesn't mean god, or even necessarily an omnipotent being. Hell for all I know, Douglas Adams had it right all along and the world was created by a race of planet builders hired by an interdimensional race that take on the form of mice in our dimension with the function of the earth being to find "The Ultimate Question" who's answer was 42.

I don't believe a higher power watches over us, or controls anything, or even cares for that matter. But I'm open to the idea that something/someone had a hand in creating us. There are jumps in evolution that science can't fully explain at this time. Weather that jump is from an omnipotent being, or aliens, both, from a human perspective, would be a higher power.
That pretty much sums it up for me
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Re: So I might not be an atheist after all...

Post by Stardog » Wed Dec 03, 2014 11:51 am

Ah, but who threw all the crap together originally? :))

Well let's ask that. If someone threw the crap together originally, how did that being come in to existence? Let's just say OK, "God" made it. Now what happened to bring God in to existence?
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Re: So I might not be an atheist after all...

Post by LonestarCBR » Wed Dec 03, 2014 11:53 am

WickerMan wrote:Don't you think maybe you're an Agnostic? I think one cannot know the truth about God or an afterlife until one is there, and as far as I know no one has come back to say definitively one way or the other.
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Re: So I might not be an atheist after all...

Post by Stardog » Wed Dec 03, 2014 11:56 am

fixxervi6 wrote:To your last point, do you subscribe to big bang theory? The universe is currently anything but in equilibrium. It may appear that way to us specs on a rock but that's because we are so tiny - and it won't reach equilibrium ever - depending on which theory you subscribe to.
Then scale it up, ecosystems, virus's, bacteria, solar systems, planets - the shit is WAY too prefect.
All things are relative of course. If we humans experienced time on a universal scale it would seem quite violent indeed, but as you said it is all quite perfect to us, living these lives so short and never seeing more than a blink of what constitutes real time.
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Re: So I might not be an atheist after all...

Post by fixxervi6 » Wed Dec 03, 2014 11:57 am

Stardog84 wrote:
Ah, but who threw all the crap together originally? :))

Well let's ask that. If someone threw the crap together originally, how did that being come in to existence? Let's just say OK, "God" made it. Now what happened to bring God in to existence?
Limited human minds can not comprehend infinity, we are locked into our timeline in a world where infinity does not exist.

and again, do you subscribe to big bang theory? inflation theory, or one of the hundreds of others?
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Re: So I might not be an atheist after all...

Post by Stardog » Wed Dec 03, 2014 12:00 pm

I am not an astrophysicist. I acknowledge that there is debate between people a whole lot more educated than me and much more qualified to take stabs at how our universe came to exist.
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