Is it possible that God exists?

"Ignorance + lsd = god"?

This is not reason qualifying information. This is prejudice distorting information.

 

Haha no. I made up my mind from an atheist position.

 

Why do I argue with people that don't even understand what the word PROOF means?

Fuck this, it's pill time.

 

relaxxx, relaxxx

 

wow
OK
that is intriguing.
What did it for you?

believers are so nonchalant about their belief.
Don't you realize that many people are extremely curious and eagerly await evidence that would support this belief?

Yet you say 'I made up my mind', but offer no reason why, as though it's an unimportant footnote.

I think the reason why you left out your reasoning is because on examination, it isn't conclusive or substantial.

Then you will probably say 'you just have to have faith', which isn't substantial either.

In my attempts to have faith, I have actually hurt my head.

It's similar to believing that 2+2=5.
Try it.
Can you then tell me what 2 to the power of 2 equals?

It's not possible for me to abandon my critical thinking because thinking is all I have.

To have faith I would have to THINK that I had faith, yet faith demands I depart from my ability to think. It's impossible.

 

some view faith as simply believing something, while others view it as an understanding that goes beyond the imperfect logic of the conscious mind, often brought on through the mind's realization of its own innate ignorance of reality.

the 2+2 analogy has no place in this discussion, as there are far more factors involved (some of them unsolvable by themselves, such as the question of origin, which makes our existence just as unlikely as anything else), so many that it is virtually impossible for an individual to consciously analyze them all and calculate some sort of logical "answer."

 

I left out my reasoning because i assumed you didn't care. I grew up with my mind made for me that god was real, by sixth grade i actually thought about it then i made up my mind that there's 0 evidence so god must not be real. I continued with this for some years. Tripped dick and realized that I don't know shit about the universe or reality. And the fact that i don't know shit means it's possible for god to exist. Then i realized that if i'm conscious of myself, then it's possible that the universe is conscious of itself as well. I bet you also assume everyone thinks god is a guy on a golden cloud with a golden robe and a golden beard

 

I do not believe in God, any supreme being nor an afterlife.

 

I do care =)
I am very interested as to why people believe in god.
And I would agree that I too don't know squat about the universe.
And I also agree that it's within the realm of possibility.

On the consciousness of the universe,
some people see human minds as a method which the universe is using to be conscious of itself, and there is a collective conscious, and one might call this god.
Others would say God is transcendent rather than immediate.

yes well I'm sorry. I'm rather grumpy because..well I'm somewhat of an anti-theist.
Perhaps an agnostic anti-theist.

I view the anthropological effects of beliefs in God and it seems that having beliefs in God have a somewhat negative effects certain aspects of society.

 

i just hope that there is something greater than man kind.. because man kind arent doing a great job with this planet!!!!!

put a name on it if you wish "god"

 

The problem with faith, is that it demands the subject is not understood.

You need faith to believe in god because there is no proof to derive
understanding from. Though I'm sort of contradicting myself considering the
point I'm trying to make.

Saying you have faith in god is more or less equivalent to saying 'I don't understand'.
It is the closest thing to a human error message that I can site off the top of my head.

Though most people that say "I have faith" are actually affirming the trust that they
have for the person(s) that indoctrinated them....They don't really
believe in god. How can you believe in something you don't understand?

Its like the people who say "You cant define god".

If you cant define god, what exactly are you saying we cant define? You cant
reference something without defining it, and that's exactly what faith (in god) does.

 

This is not a very interesting take, to offer a prohibitive definition and then say that definition is problematic.

There is a type of faith, belief if you will, that is essentially a symbol chosen to represent an unknown variable.

There is another kind of faith that is the practice of allowing the truth to emerge, suspending decisions until all the facts are in. It is not unreasonable to trust, or have faith in, reasonable outcomes.

 

It is an error though, to mistake the integrity of a loved one for infallibility.

The trust you are talking about is a form of consistency being affirmed.

The faith you are talking about (in the 3rd line) seems to be being used as a
synonym for receptivity.

Faith is not required for reasonable outcomes.

 

It is quite possible this universe was designed..
Thus a 'god' in one shape or form is'.

Religion on the otherhand does not have validity other than it tries to explain what is.
without even deciding if the universe could be a-causal.
A god does not need religion.. religion does need a god. And usually the most absurd one any rational being could imagine.

Occam

 

It's possible that a god exists in some way, if only because the untestable can't be disproven.

I believe it's very unlikely.

 

Wouldn't dream of it.

No faith is not required for reasonable outcomes, but it is not unreasonable to have faith that there is a reasonable chance of success. If you do not have faith in a reasonable chance of success, you will not make the attempt.

I think you are attempting to deny any redeeming effects to a position of faith. If we did not have some measure of faith, there would be many things that we would not participate in. Driving an automobile or flying in a plane, for instance. If we did not have faith that the other drivers on the road would stay in their lanes when passing by them, we would be too frightened to drive, or if we did not have faith in the aviation equipment to function properly, we could not bring ourselves to fly.

 

Sorry this is too complicated for me.

 

I wouldn't even give you the word 'chance' considering the circumstances.
Chance insinuates the circumstances are favourable, and that just isn't the
case when it comes to faith. faith functions, like you said, to represent an
unknown variable. Saying something IS, or IS NOT is
establishing information about the already established unknown.

You cant have it both ways....

Rationality is belief based on reason or evidence. Faith is belief in inspiration,
revelation, or authority. The word faith generally refers to a belief that is
held with lack of, in spite of or against reason and evidence.

The phrase "faith in a reasonable chance" is just too convoluted to think
about.

This is misplaced credit.

And what of the drunk man swerving lane to lane? Should we have faith in
him as a good driver?----

Everything you wrote above would be true if human beings were controlled by
their fear alone, but we both know that isn't true.

"We have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night"

 

I said there was a quality of belief that is a symbol chosen to represent an unknown variable, I also said there was another kind of faith. I don't know what you mean by the highlighted portion of your statement.

I am not asking for it both ways. It seems you have somewhat of a hysterical bent when it comes to the word faith. Faith is a perfectly acceptable word, describing the way people process and use information

Again you a trying to limit the definition of faith to correspond to your "beliefs" on the issue. The word faith also means trust, by definition.

I understand that this is your take. I understand that this is what you believe about the word faith. Faith does not exist to spite anything.

You could simply learn what words mean in all their conjugations. Faith and reason are not opposites, but form a symbiotic relationship in the mind.

I think not. You have a prejudicial attitude toward the word faith. You know, faith is a word, to use it in context is appropriate. It is not a "dirty" word.

What do you think? We trust that the oncoming will stay in their lane. But since our "faith" is not blind we remain alert.

You will have to explain what you mean by this comment. I speak from experience.

What is the point here? We are not afraid of those things we are familiar with.

 

Your not debating your point anymore, either of you, your just arguing over the subtleties that lead to confusion in each others points.

Faith is interpretable in many ways. But the many definitions and uses are almost irrelevant because we know the context of which we wish to use the word faith. When arguing over how hot the fire is, you do not get anywhere by saying how if you load a gun you will fire again. You take the word out of the context it is meant to be in, and then call out the other individual because they are unwilling to accept this new way of using the word, even though the new context completely changes the nature of the argument.

I have faith in reasonable things, like that the sun will rise tomorrow, I will probably not die today, that because it has been snowing the past few days it is probably chilly out.

This would be faith as defined as trust in a person or thing.

But I can also have faith in unjustified belief. This is what most people do not seem to understand if they do not have it. The more an atheist tries to tell someone with great faith how stupid they are for having so much faith in something completely unlikely and probably impossible (at least as far as the Christian God goes) then the more reason that theist has to believe in God. I personally do not believe in god, at least not the christian god how we understand it, but again, a mere problem of definition.

In the case of God, you are usually always using faith as unjustified belief, because the individual has belief in something that is not justifiable.