Question from Brianna:
How do you look at a sunset and not believe that there is something out there greater than you?
Answer by SmartLX:
There’s plenty out there which is greater than me on many levels, and a lot of it comes to the fore in a sunset. The wealth of physics at work in the spectacle of a sunset does not diminish its beauty, nor obviously fail to account for it.
– The Sun itself is bigger than we can fathom even if we know the numbers, and provides nearly all the energy we’ve ever seen used.
– The atmosphere between us and the Sun is comprised of a huge amount of different chemicals (some more than others) each of which has an effect on the colours we perceive in the sky. Even scientists in the relevant field have a hell of a time explaining all the different factors, as Cliff Stoll once wrote.
– A decent-sized cloud in the sky has millions of gallons of water in it, again calculable but more than is comprehensible. Its precise effects on the sunbeams that pass through it could fill a book if you went into detail.
– Our eyes and brains not only register all this, but find subjective beauty in it. The processes that led to this being possible, not least evolution, have toiled for billions of years to get us to this level.
A good word to sum up all of this is sublime. This literally means a sense of something larger or greater than oneself, and atheists have plenty of opportunities to feel this living in the world we share with believers. The big difference is the absence of the assumption, even unconscious, that something greater than humans in any sense must have been designed or otherwise deliberately brought about by an intelligent entity, and this indeed makes all the difference.
When you believe in a god, you see amazing things and automatically connect them to the god; when you don’t, that doesn’t really happen and everything does not look like a self-evident monument to any god. It’s largely a difference in perception based on preconceptions; in short, non-believers don’t see the world the way believers do precisely because of their lack of belief. So (and here’s your takeaway, Brianna) to convert someone you need to instill some belief before pointing out the sunset.
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I, I will tell you HOW !
Instead of thinking about it yourself, with your obviously low IQ and even lower scientific knowledge , otherwise you would have thought of asking someone competent and not a atheists, a scientist in the field, about the ORIGIN of energy and matter, i.e. of the UNIVERSE, well, instead of all this that you have (not) done, i.e. nothing, GOOGLE this question and look for the answer that THEORETIC PHYSICISTS, of the UNIVERSE, will give you, not an atheist without any special knowledge on the issue in question, nor me, either, but SPECIALISTS.
One more thing you can do, ask QUORA, because scientists read and give answers there, too, among other people.
But, I can give you an answer right away, thou I am not a specialist, but I have read a lot about it. QUITE A LOT.
So, nobody knows the origin of the energy, from which matter become, read some EINSTEIN, too, but there are several theories, on of them having been, but not any more, that the Universe is there forever before, now and in the future, that energy has been there forever in the past and cannot be destroyed. Something like this.
I know this is unfathomable for an Aristotelian brain that we, at least the intelligent and educated in science of the matter at least a bit, but who says our brain is competent. No one ever said it, except the vain, lacking knowledge and intelligence ones.
So, I take it as something I cannot understand because my brain is a little organ that has evolved on a little planet, Earth, to serve the body. It is incompetent to solve the problem of forever before and after of energy and matter, and if this is not the case, then any other answer science proposes.
LIKE, WHO ARE WE TO KNOW HOW IT IS POSSIBLE WITHOUT GOD.
BUT, WE ARE COMPETENT ENOUGH, THE INTELLIGENT AND EDUCATION IN THE FIELD ONES, TO KNOW THAT IT I S !!!
A note.
Firstly, I willingly answered this question without previously having read the one SmartXL gave, because I wanted to be free of his influence, which would make me be kinda nicer to the one asking the question. I am not here to be nice and soothing, but to spread the truth, no matter what.
Secondly, now that I HAVE read SmartXL’s reply, I want to comment on his word SUBLIME, so nicely used in this context.
But, I have ANOTHER EQUALLY SUBLIME issue.
And, that one is of THE HUMAN BEING I have for my god.
That one of WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART’S MUSIC.
But, I must admit that what he was and did was equally of the Universe’s nature as is your SUNSET.
For me, it is MORE THAN PHYSICAL PHENOMENON OF ANYTHING NATURE HAS DONE AND GIVEN.
BECAUSE, I DON’T THINK ANYONE CRIED LOOKING AT THE SUNSET.
BUT MANY HAVE AND WILL CRY LISTENING TO MOZART…
I AM ONE OF THE LUCKY HUMANS THAT IS MOVED BY MOZART’S MUSIC MORE THAN BY ANYTHING ELSE, EXCEPT FOR MY MATERNITY, MY LOVE FOR MY SON…
Your god actually believed in the true God. His music was founded upon the inspiration he found in God. It is a shame that you worship the creation and not the Creator. If you did, you would be able to appreciate life more than you can possibly understand.
Gerald, of course I know MY GOD, WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART was deeply religious, but I understand HIM, because, think of it, HIS era was full of scientific ignorance.
I excuse HIM, but, not you and your likes.
SPINOZA WAS AN ATHEIST, AND SO WAS SHELLY. Google him.
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART was not, nor ANY of us was, created by ‘god’, but ALL LIVING ORGANISMS living came into EXISTENCE by the action of EVOLUTION of single-cell organisms that, lived millions or even billions of years ago.
Google abiogenesis.
I DON’T WORSHIP these one-cell organisms, nor EVOLUTION, that led to my MOZART and ME, and, by the way, unfortunately for the rest of us, to YOU, too!
Because only a COMPLETE IDIOT, IGNORAMUS and SIMPLETON can believe in such CRAP, as is reincarnation, rising from the dead and everlasting, eternal, forever life without body, as SOULS out of body, or even worse, with new bodies, STANDING somewhere there ABOVE US, SPITING GRAVITY AND…THE GREAT NEWTON!!!
I WORSHIP MOZART AND SCIENCE.
And here are some for you to look up.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/dec/26/peter-higgs-richard-dawkins-fundamentalism
http://blog.godreports.com/2016/06/noted-physicist-says-string-theory-suggests-were-all-living-in-gods-matrix/
Did you even watch this Gerald? Did you understand it? You’ve been told before the irreducible complexity is debunked. It was even laughed out of a Dover, Pennsylvania courtroom years ago. Are you going back to your cut and paste ways again, wanting people to read or watch stuff that you yourself watch or read and don’t even comprehend?
The claim that irreducible complexity has been “debunked”, is simply that. A claim. Where has this been shown to be as the “debunker” claims. The “debunkers” say that all that needed to happen is this and this and this and this, then that and that and that. But where have the “debunkers” actually reproduced the organs said by the Creationists, to be irreducible? I can claim to be “President Donald Trump” but does that make me the President? You can say that it is raining outside, when it is actually dry as a desert. Claims don’t the truth make. Evidence is what makes truth. And you want to turn the simple making of the claim as the truth. This is all the the Atheists and some evolutionists want to have to do to prove no God or that this world happened by accident. Make their claims. But until you can actually produce or reproduce the occurrences in the manner as you claim that they happened, you are blowing smoke.
Gerald, your ignorance is showing again.
Can you reproduce gravity? Then why should we think that gravity is what keeps you from floating off the planet when you get up every morning. Can you reproduce a star? Then why should we think that is where solar energy comes from? You don’t demand that these things be recreated in a lab, yet you accept them as factual. You don’t even think about them despite the daily importance of them in your life. BUT…when it comes to debunked nonsense like irreducible complexity, suddenly a whole new level of proof is required for you, isn’t it. When scientists take all the various molecules and put them together and recreate a bacterium, then cultists like yourself say that doesn’t count because it has to happen naturally. You demand a natural recreation in the lab, without human interference. You want something that took entire oceans, miles of volcanic vents, and 700 million years to be recreated in a lab.
But it’s OK to accept gravity or stars without recreating in the lab, because that doesn’t conflict with your ancient Sumerian revised tales in your book of stories. What an incredible double standard.
Let’s apply that same standard to your claim Gerald. Why don’t you reproduce a god for us. Just set up a lab and whip one up. That’s what it takes to verify a claim, right? Heck, I’d even settle for you to just PRODUCE the god creature for me. It’s all powerful and all knowing according to cultists, so it’s reading this as I type it and knows I want to see it. You should pray really really hard, Gerald, and ask your slavey loving, infant killing god to show up to me today and remove all doubt that it exists. Get on your knees and clasp your hands together and get to work. I’ll let you know if anything shows up.
In the mean time, every single claim of something being irreducibly complex has been debunked. All such complex things have in fact been shown how they came from something simpler. All the way down to simple self replicating molecules, which make copies of themselves without any help or assistance from anything, ever. There is no such thing as an irreducibly complex thing, Preacher Gerald.
And in the “courtroom” it had been ruled, and that quite unjustly and illogically, that it took 10 black men to equal 1 white man. The “court” ruled that a black person was property. The “court” ruled that women could not vote, that all that a woman possessed reverted to a man upon marriage. Please stop referring to the “courts” as though they are as supposedly “inerrant” as the Pope.
And if you haven’t noticed it, I don’t believe in Evolution. And there are millions of others. I have talked to people one and one. People from all walks of life. Students and teachers. Scientists and Doctors. And for almost every one person who “half halfheartedly” has more or less accepted, (without) being able to understand or even produce (like you) this supposed mountain of evidences that is said to be so insurmountable, the majority of those with whom I have conversed have laughed at the assumption called Evolution. They say that they either believe that God or a higher power made everything. And some of them when I gave them what I know about Evolution, they say, “I never thought about that”.
So even if you are not willing to accept the observable facts that derails that assumption of evolution, even from being a valid “theory” there are many who don’t rely upon what others have said, but who really want to know the truth
Preacher Gerald writes: [And in the “courtroom” it had been ruled, and that quite unjustly and illogically, that it took 10 black men to equal 1 white man. The “court” ruled that a black person was property. The “court” ruled that women could not vote, that all that a woman possessed reverted to a man upon marriage. Please stop referring to the “courts” as though they are as supposedly “inerrant” as the Pope.]
And in all those rulings, the Bible was used as justification for those findings. Go figure….
I said irreducible complexity (IR) was laughed out of the courtroom, I didn’t say the court made a ruling on it. In those cases the irreducible complexity claim was used as justification for trying to make school districts teach creationism in science classes, and every time the rebuttal witnesses showed what a sham it really is. IR is just another fabricated bit of nonsense that your creationist masters have tried to use to prop up their god claims, all for naught…
Preacher Gerald writes: [And if you haven’t noticed it, I don’t believe in Evolution.]
No one believes in evolution, Gerald. People accept it as true based on the mountains of data and evidence that support the scientific theory. That you don’t accept it up to you, even though you have no rational reason for doing so. Your lack of acceptance is based solely on the fact that it contradicts what it says in the most edited book in human history…
Preacher Gerald writes: [(without) being able to understand or even produce (like you) this supposed mountain of evidences that is said to be so insurmountable]
That’s a lie Preacher, and you know it. I’ve patiently explained the mountains of evidence for the scientific theory of evolution, everything from fossils, paleontology, and geology, to morphology and genetics. I’ve explained why these things support the theory, and how they all tie in together. I’ve repeatedly listed books for you to reference and offered links to websites for you to peruse. I’ve asked you to visit museums and universities and look at the physical evidences yourself, and hit up the libraries and read all about it. Have you checked out a single book, or had a single conversation with someone at a university? No.
I can point at the mountain and say look. I can describe the mountain with as much detail as possible so you know what it looks like. I’ve even told you where you can find the damn mountain. The only reason you haven’t been to the mountain, Preacher Gerald, is because you continue to avoid it at all costs…
Atheists obviously find such things awe-inspiring too.
We just won’t ascribe a hidden meaning/ hidden god driven by the inspired awe 🙂
Why should we?
This awe is one of the things that drives a people to try to understand and explain such phenomena … which leads to rational/ scientific progress.
How very backward/ strange it would be to feel the awe and then ascribe a god to everything, instead of trying to understand the natural processes that drive such awe-inspiring phenomena.
RM, thank you, I was feeling I was talking to a wall by name of Gerald.
More has been realized by peoples belief in God then for any other reason.
This ‘MORE’ of yours has NOT BEEN R E A L I Z E D !!!
These are delusions, not realizations.
SCIENCE does the realization, NOT RELIGION.
Religion leads to delusion, and it is dangerous. The least bad effect of religion is NOT TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR ONE’S OWN LIFE.
The era of Mozart was full of scientific ignorance, eh. And you suggest that because of their not having electron microscopes, and all the cool tools that scientists have to play with today, that they were religious only because they were ignorant. And that those scientists if they were looking through the lenses of today, would also come to realize that God is a myth. Is that what you think?
But you think this even though there are thousands of God believing scientists today who all say that all of creation says to them that God is. You say this even though there are thousands of scientists who behind closed doors, say that what the small percentage of atheists who are scientists are trying to say about how life came to be, makes no sense.
And I pointed out Niki, that being a Christian means that you ultimately take responsibility for your actions. Your thoughts. What you do and what you don’t do. Being a Christian means that your goal is to be perfect as God expects us to be. Christian women don’t plead “their time of the month” made them un Christ like. They know that they must be Christlike at all times of the month. Christian men don’t think it ok to come home and slap the wife, kick the dog, and ignore the kids, just because they had a “bad day at the office”. No they know that this is not what God wants them to do, so they come home and love instead. Christians don’t think it ok to “drink” to “fool around”. Christians hold themselves to a higher form of living, because our God, tells us to. And we know that this is possible because Jesus came and lived among us. Rubbing shoulders with the best and the worst of us and still lived an exemplary life. A life that was pleasing to God His Father. And that life when we come to realize that we have messed up, that life we accept as our own, finding that through Christ we find acceptance and adoption into the family of God.
That doesn’t mean that Christians are all good. That we do everything perfectly. We do. But we get up and try all over again. And we have the confidence that as we grow closer to Christ we will become more like Him. That is why you see so many Christians who have given up their ways of life and walk and act differently. That is why the thief stops stealing except to rob satan of souls that he had fooled into following Him. That is why the man that slept around cheating on his wife changes his ways and becomes a loyal loving husband. That is why the homosexual, stops lusting after the same sex and becomes straight. Why the alcoholic stops drinking, why all who accept the mantel of Christ and lifts up the banner of Christ, become new creatures in Christ. And their are hundreds of thousands, indeed there have been millions of changed men and women who down through the ages who have become testimonies to the power that God provides to change the human nature. And all have said that it was because they met the man Christ Jesus.
I know. I know. It’s all allusion you say. But let me ask you. Is it an illusion when a cure is provided to heal cancer? To heal diabetes? To heal infections? How do we know that the cure works? Is it not through the numbers of those who were healed?
Well as I said. There have been millions of sin sick souls who had written themselves off. Who had been deemed unfit for society by society itself. Who had been called the worst of the worse, and locked up for life, but when they opened “the Love letter” of God to mankind, they became the most sought after and most accepted. They have been the ones who went out and testified” I was was lost, but now I’m found. I was blind but now I see”. One after another Atheist has become a God fearing Christian.
NIki. I’m telling you that there is Power in the blood, of Jesus. There is healing in the touch of His hand. There is warmth in His welcoming embraces, and there is hope in the great “I Am”.
Come to Him Niki. I know you have to feel His calling. You can’t help but here the strings of your heart being drawn to Him. You can resist. He won’t stop you from doing so. But I know that you feel it if not way down deep. Because He will not give up on you without a fight. It may be a fight even worse then when He went to the Cross, but He will fight for you. Please come to Him.
I am praying for you.
Gerald writes: [I know. I know. It’s all allusion you say. But let me ask you. Is it an illusion when a cure is provided to heal cancer? To heal diabetes? To heal infections? How do we know that the cure works? Is it not through the numbers of those who were healed?
Well as I said. There have been millions of sin sick souls who had written themselves off. Who had been deemed unfit for society by society itself. Who had been called the worst of the worse, and locked up for life, but when they opened “the Love letter” of God to mankind, they became the most sought after and most accepted. They have been the ones who went out and testified” I was was lost, but now I’m found. I was blind but now I see”. One after another Atheist has become a God fearing Christian.]
Right. Like every kid that has died of cancer or some other disease? How about millions of Jews during the Holocaust, praying to a nonexistent god that they wouldn’t be gassed or showed into ovens to be burned alive? Still waiting for all those amputees to grow a new limb….
Gods are prayed to all the time Gerald. Studies have shown that prayer offers no increased statistical chance to survive cancer, or win the lottery, or any other thing that people pray for. And in cases where people KNOW they are being prayed for, their survival rate is actually WORSE than the average.
But you want people to believe your all powerful, slavery loving god, cares for everyone and has nothing but love for humans. Your god is all good, yet helps person A find their car keys while person B dies from the flu.
That’s pretty sick logic Gerald…
oh what an idiot are you to call scientific work play. they save lives and you a little shit dare say things like that. i vomited and could not read any more
scientists are the ones that enabled you to write to me, you little shit
It is a shame that you insist in utilizing your God given intelligence to insult and denigrate others, instead of allowing yourself to learn and grow. You fail to realize that those who were first called scientists were Christians. And they put God first in their lives and they led the way to helping us to know what we have learned. But we regress to the dark ages by not accepting that God is and that He is the true source of all wisdom. As long as science ignores the possibility of God, then they will not learn what really is for us to learn.
Gerald writes: [ You fail to realize that those who were first called scientists were Christians.]
I don’t think Plato or Aristotle were Christians. Neither were the Egyptians, or the Chinese, or any of the other peoples that made all kinds of discoveries well before Christ was even born.
As is typical for you, once again you’ve spoken out of your rear end without a clue, this time as to the actual truth of the history of discovery by humans.
I couldn’t help but think of something else you wrote earlier in this thread: [It is a shame that you worship the creation and not the Creator. If you did, you would be able to appreciate life more than you can possibly understand.]
Imagine it Gerald. Imagine if you spent more time learning about science and reality instead of trying to defend your slavery god, you would be able to understand life more than you could possibly appreciate….
Brianna – A sunset is nothing more than Rayleigh scattering of the light. The reason why we see blue at midday and red at dawn and dusk is completely understood and explained by simple physics. Why you would think that a sunset is an indication of something more than the reality of the universe makes no sense to me.
It’s too bad we aren’t snakes. They can see infrared light, and the sunsets must look even more amazing to them…
Brianna, the reason atheists can look at a sunset and not believe that there is something greater than them is because they have been taught that there is nothing greater them and they believe it. They believe that they were self-assembled by a mysterious force of nature that is able to replicate, organize, function, gain intelligence, survive, thrive, learn, explain, express emotion, all from the bottom up, just like all intricate things in life. You know, we observe it all the time, like how computers start with a microchip and self assemble and evolve into laptops. Cars started out with a spark from a spark plug and evolved into Model T’s and then into the modern cars we have today. Isn’t that how the world works all around us? Intelligence from nonintelligence? Forgive me if this comment seems random, I accidentally typed a letter “B” in this comment box and the rest of this comment evolved. On another note, Niki, you seem to rely pretty heavily on the ad hominem attacks and name calling on this one.
There are plenty of things greater than us, we’re tiny specks in an enormous universe and it’s very easy to get a sense of the sublime just by looking around us. Forces we are only beginning to comprehend have shaped our evolution, but the way they work now does not suggest any intelligent influence on them (besides what we ourselves have tried to exert) so there’s no intelligence to extrapolate into the past either. This discussion is always in progress on pages regarding evolution.
James84 – Atheists have been “taught”? In a way, you’re right. Most of the atheists I have ever met were raised as believers in some kind of religion. The reason they became atheist is because of what they were taught by other believers, and how ridiculous it all sounded. They read the Bible or Vedas or Koran or Torah and found senseless contradictions and factless claims. The teachings of their holy books and spiritual leaders taught them that they were being scammed and suckered. So when you say atheists were “taught” there is nothing greater to believe in, you aren’t far off the mark.
In the mean time, why do you stoop to the often and easily debunked irreducible complexity argument? No one (except young Earth creationists and their ilk) thinks a human being just popped into existence. Humans are made completely out of naturally occurring molecules that can exist outside the human body. Things like amino acids, alcohols, and sugars have even been found in deep space in comets and on meteors. We aren’t microchips made out of refined parts built into specific shapes, or spark plugs with smelted metals that don’t exist on Earth in such shapes and purities. It’s a strawman argument, and an invalid comparison.
But, alas, you seem the typical cultist who can’t seem to comprehend the rather silly point of trying to claim that intelligence has to come from other intelligence, and then states that an intelligent god being that DIDN’T have to come from other intelligence is where our intelligence comes from. The irrational false logic of that is mind numbingly obvious, yet escapes the attention of the ardent believer.
Tim there who were Christians, were, because just like any other relationship, it is necessary to devote time to that relationship. Other “religions” don’t have that opportunity. The majority of those who follow their god, do not follow God. There are some who when they know the true God they will follow. But those who at one time knew the Savior, for one reason or another stop following. Please see the parable of the “Sower” in the Bible.
Are you going to say that just because a spouse leaves their mate, that that spouse does so because the mate does not exist? No. the spouse leaves for failure to maintain the relationship.
But there are fewer Christians who leave God then those who are Atheists leaving Atheism. The Atheist once they see that all they have to hold on to in the end is nothing. They, when they realize that there is Someone calling them, they respond. This has happened over and over again. Just like a stranger is just a friend you haven’t met, so God is your Creator who is waiting for you to get to know Him. Stop and talk to Him some time.
Gerald, you are only in a relationship if there actually exists another person to be in a relationship with. Imagined relationships with non existent entities aren’t real relationships, so walking away from that is just the acceptance of reality. There’s nothing lost there except all the time you wasted.
As it relates specifically to Christianity, the fabled god creature of the Bible isn’t something a person should pursue a relationship with even if it did exist. A being that allows slavery, and gives people rules on how to beat their slaves? A being that kills infants, a being that hardens the heart of a pharaoh so that it won’t let the Jews leave Egypt, and then kills infants that happen to be the first born because the pharaoh won’t let the Jews leave? A being that kills most of the animals on the planet because it doesn’t like how humans behave? You want to be in a relationship with that thing? What the hell is wrong with you?
Why should people from other religions (or for that matter, the Christians that have reached different conclusions than you) think that your Bible god is something that one should be in a relationship with. Your deceiving, murdering, psychotic god is all the reason someone needs to be atheist…
Tim, today so many have internet relationships. It is another form of contact that has followed the telephone. There is someone on the other end right?
Well there have been thousands, hundreds of thousands, indeed millions of individuals who have had a relationship with someone on the “other end” of their faith.
And do you feel that discipline should not be delivered when wrong has been perpetrated? And you think using your limited understanding of what sin is. You either think that sin is just some mild infection or some little white lie type of wrong. When instead it is the most corrosive, vehement, malignant, seemingly innocent, force in this universe. Anything that comes into contact with, it destroys. Even more so than cancer, Alzheimer.
The President, some Generals, and many others who send people around the world do so because they are privy to details that others do not have. And extreme measures are used to prevent worst occurrences.
And once again, you think what you do about God excluding all of the other things that you read about the love that God has for us. The loving acts that have been unearned when they ignored His attempts, to lead them into a life worthwhile.
You ignore the messengers God sent so that the destruction that was delivered would not have to have been. God warned and warns us before destruction is sent. And many times that destruction was delivered by satan himself, because the people walked away from God’s loving protection and into the waiting arms of satan. Satan wants to destroy always. That is what his heart has turned into.
God wants to save. And those who ignore who He is and His warnings, knowing what they know about Him also side with the enemy of God and all that is good, satan. And so punishment is dealt out. And sometimes it is death. Other times, it is just enough to get the guilty’s attention.
There are plenty of warnings to this world that God has sent through the Bible and through people who lift Him up. To ignore these warnings means you run away from life.
And it isn’t that God doesn’t like how we behave. He loves us. But He can not just like any other parent ignore disobedience.
You say this even though there are examples in the Bible that shows how much God loves us.
Look at the story of the “Woman caught in adultery”. Peter when he denied Christ following the Crucifixion.
God and the Ninevites. Noah preaching for over 100 years warning those around him of the coming destruction. Take the time to read all the times that God’s people went to worship idols, and how God sent His prophets to warn them to come back. And even when they did not heed the warning, when they were overcome because the wandered away from God’s protection into slavery, when they cried out, God always heard them and delivered them. If you believe in God enough to consider the wrong that you think He did, you should at least consider the good He has shown also.
Read the whole of the Bible, not just the things that support what you think.
Gerald writes: [Tim, today so many have internet relationships. It is another form of contact that has followed the telephone. There is someone on the other end right?
Well there have been thousands, hundreds of thousands, indeed millions of individuals who have had a relationship with someone on the “other end” of their faith.]
You can get on a plane, and track an IP address, and trace calls, and go and see if someone else really is on the other end of the line. You can verify the existence of the other person in that long distance relationship. Can you verify the existence of that being at the other end of faith? Apparently not. The creator of the universe that is everywhere, all the time, can’t seem to pop on down and remove doubt from everyone’s mind. I mentioned this in yesterday’s post, but your god didn’t show up yesterday, even though it knew I wanted it to. It’s all powerful and all knowing, right? Maybe you didn’t pray hard enough, Preacher Gerald….
Gerald writes: [And do you feel that discipline should not be delivered when wrong has been perpetrated?]
Explain to me how a newborn drowned in the worldwide flood, or an Egyptian newborn killed when the angel of death passed over the land, was wrong. Explain to me, in your own words, how you justify those deaths at the hands of your god. Your god hardened the heart of the pharaoh so that he wouldn’t let the Jews go, and then because he wouldn’t let the Jews go he killed first born people that had nothing to do with it, including children and even newborns! Tell me how that is the act of a loving god, a god that is all good.
[ You either think that sin is just some mild infection or some little white lie type of wrong. When instead it is the most corrosive, vehement, malignant, seemingly innocent, force in this universe]
Sin doesn’t even exist, Preacher. There is no divine law, and therefore nothing to sin against. Even if there were divine law, your god has broken about every rule personally…
[The President, some Generals, and many others who send people around the world do so because they are privy to details that others do not have.]
Yeah but those people didn’t create the mess they are dealing with. Your god being created everything. Remember your Bible, Preacher. Your god created all. Which means your god created evil. In other words, your god got exactly what it wanted. It wanted an imperfect world where it could create minions that are coerced into giving it attention or else the god will punish them for all eternity. This is an all loving and good god creature we are told by the way.
The outlandish and horrible contradictions about the thing you pray to don’t go away Gerald, no matter how much you try to spin it or how much of the Bible you conveniently ignore…
[And once again, you think what you do about God excluding all of the other things that you read about the love that God has for us. The loving acts that have been unearned when they ignored His attempts, to lead them into a life worthwhile.]
Atta boy Preacher, continue to ignore the evil your god has wrought. Your own Bible says god is good, and god loves us all. Then it forces a pharaoh to ignore pleas to release the Jews so that it can kill first born children and infants in some sick display of power. He jerks Abraham around and makes him think he has to sacrifice his kid. He drowns innocents in a worldwide flood. He tells people how to beat their slaves. He tells women to keep their mouth shut while in church. Where, exactly, is the love this being supposedly has for us?
The difference between you and me is that you can ignore the real personality of the Bible god in order to maintain your fear of death coping mechanism, while I can’t ignore it.
[You ignore the messengers God sent so that the destruction that was delivered would not have to have been. God warned and warns us before destruction is sent.]
Exodus 7:3-4 says, “But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my people the Israelites.”
God doesn’t warn anyone. He makes the pharaoh ignore the pleas to release the Jews. Does he kill the pharaoh for it? Oh no, he kills innocent children and newborns that had nothing to do with it. Let’s point out again that this is an all loving and good god being we are talking about…
[And it isn’t that God doesn’t like how we behave. He loves us. But He can not just like any other parent ignore disobedience.]
How does a newborn disbehave, Preacher? How does an Egyptian firstborn son who is still a child release the Jews? If this is love you can have it. Your god is one sick puppy…
[You say this even though there are examples in the Bible that shows how much God loves us. Look at the story of the “Woman caught in adultery”.]
Didn’t even happen. That was added in at a later date. From Wikipedia: “many analysts of the Greek text and manuscripts of the Gospel of John have argued that it was “certainly not part of the original text of St. John’s Gospel.”[3] The Jerusalem Bible claims “the author of this passage is not John”.
Why don’t we focus on how much god loves slaves when he instructs their masters how to beat them…
[Read the whole of the Bible, not just the things that support what you think.]
I’ve read the whole thing. How do you think I became an atheist? Like I said, you choose to ignore the evil acts of your god. If your god creature is all good and all loving then even ONE story that shows the opposite refutes that claim. I’ve shown you several (and have done so for years now at this website), yet you continue to pretend that the being you pray to isn’t a sick and demented attention whore that created evil and then did evil to show off.
By the way, still waiting for your god to pop on down today and say hi. Maybe you should pray for that to happen, and we will see what good it does…
Once again Tim you go by what you reason without reasoning. What you glean from your loose reasoning to prove your thoughts, fails to take into account all else to help the truth to be learned.
If you would read before, you will notice that Pharaoh in the times before the one where God said He would harden Pharaoh heart, the Bible tells us that Pharaoh hardened his own heart.
And now you conveniently try to throw out evidence because someone else says that it didn’t happen. When there are many other scholars who say that the story of the woman caught in adultery was a true story that probably happened in the life of Christ and was added because it was so beautiful, not to be included. Also, it goes along with many other instances which also showed the compassion of God. Like the woman with the issue of blood. The story of the paralytic. The stories of the parents whose children died, or who were possessed by demons. The Leper and Lepers who were healed. The blind who were healed. And the Bible tells us that Christ did so many miracles that their would not be enough room to have recorded all of them.
And you say you read the whole Bible, it would seem that if you did, you did it to make your own point valid. Not with an open mind but one closed to any other possibility save what you wanted. Because millions of others who have read the Bible have come away with a completely different view point. And thousands of those used to be Atheists.