Our beliefs about life

Still have not answered the question. I asked you to describe exactly what a soul is, and asked you to not used metaphysical nonsense, which is exactly what you did. Do you struggle to converting to Hinduism, Buddhism, or Islam when they trot out equally absurd nonsense like this?

I make up my own beliefs.

Right, because the things your are saying here are totally original. I've never heard anyone use sophistry. Right.....

I just believe what feels right. Same way atheists or anybody else on earth does.

Except atheists do not believe in any thing. It is not a positive claim. Atheists also do not bring metaphyicial nonsense to bare in order to prove our points. Souls, Gods, pure perfection, talking about these things is to talk about nothings.

I laugh at pure perfection. Any woman who has given birth, or men who are over 50 would tell you that God cant even get the region around our pelvis quite right. MAybe that's why God hates sex, because he never got it right to begin with. Pure perfection!!

Atheists can believe in what they want, it's still a belief. Eternal oblivion, or whatever other nonsense they believe in. Their beliefs don't change how the universe works anymore than my beliefs do.

Believing in eternal obvilion, evolution or any other (as you say) nonsense is not required to be an atheist. You simply have to lack the belief that God exists. That is surely not to say that you believe that he doesn't exist.

And I'm pretty sure no one sensible suggests that beliefs change the world. Rather, we form beliefs based on how the world is. And since there's a lack of evidence for God, atheists are those who did not form the belief that God exists.

What you're saying really doesn't make sense. For example, say that bitterness is not a colour but rather a taste. It's not yellow, or green, or blue, and so on. And then you say, ah, but bitterness does have a colour. It has the colour of lacking any colour. Well, in that case, I grant you that atheism is a much of a belief as bitterness is a colour.

God of the gaps is one of the most popular religious arguments today, and it is pathetic. Religious people make huge claims, then science shows their claims to be false, they then retreat into areas where science currently has ignorance, and merely assert that whatever the point of ignorance currently is, it is the realm of God. It is a pathetic argument.

“Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity. It is the mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus.”

―Thomas Jefferson

I do not believe alchemy, witchcraft and astronomy do not exist. They do not exist, period. My belief on the matter has no bearing. I do not see how you cannot grasp the simple fact that a lack of belief is not in itself a belief. Recognizing and analyzing how the universe works is not an article of faith either, nice try. Atheists do not believe in eternal oblivion, whatever the hell that means....

@hillelslovak: I can assure you astronomy certainly does exist

astrology, my bad.

I thought you meant that lol, didn't mean to come across funny.

Anyway read your posts in this thread, agree with all you have said but I think you might be fighting a loosing battle, the guy doesnt seem to get it. He's either dumb and cant actually grasp what your saying or hes trolling us.

Do you have an argument?

The most rational stance is being an agnostic as you can't prove there's a god nor you can't deny its existence....this shit is damn complicated , beyond human comprehension.

Yeah it would be foolish to think this is all there is. Like we think the universe will end but that could be a part of another process.

Agnosticism is a statement about knowledge. All atheists and theists are technically agnostic. Some claim to be gnostic, but none really are.

My goodness this thread....

And I used to be a fan of reading religious threads or taking part in discussions, but this is just asinine. I can't understand how some of you guys can endure bashing your heads against the wall like that....

@tocool340 said:

My goodness this thread....

And I used to be a fan of reading religious threads or taking part in discussions, but this is just asinine. I can't understand how some of you guys can endure bashing your heads against the wall like that....

It's all part of god's divine plan.

@slipknot0129 said:

@tocool340 said:

My goodness this thread....

And I used to be a fan of reading religious threads or taking part in discussions, but this is just asinine. I can't understand how some of you guys can endure bashing your heads against the wall like that....

It's all part of god's divine plan.

It's official, he's trolling. We can move on.....

"disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods."

Nope, not rational, if there's no god then how the hell universe is created? ("cause and effect" rules out the Big Bang theory....actually, to put it better, what caused Big Bang?) and if there's a god then "too many questions!" ...so being agnostic is the most rational stance.

That's correct , the thing is we don't have any rock solid evidence showing that definitely there's no god (that universe example) , and the same goes for having a god hence i prefer to be an agnostic rather than an atheist, i don't know how atheists can be absolutely sure about that while there's such a big mystery revolving around the universe creation.

@mjorh: Also as foxhoundfox said, agnostic is a statement about knowledge.

You are either a thiest or a athiest, everyone is one or the other.

We can change who we are. People literally change everyday that we sleep because our brains rewire themselves. Who told you otherwise?

There is something to say about being closed-minded versus being open-minded. Some would say that being open-minded is the best way to approach all situations. I suppose this argument would be contradicted by someone seeking to preserve his sense of self when being exposed to mind manipulation techniques that are shown on the television through marketing which can be good or bad. Having said that, being completely closed to alternative views leads to intellectual stagnation. You see that happening with science as we have folks in the news agreeing that people should find the study "that works for them," and disregard conflicting research. As a science major, this is quite disturbing to me because sensationalism takes precedence in everyday life and in scholarly reports for research money in place of credibility and logic even at the cost of professional integrity.

Hmmm....i don't get it.

Here's the definition :

ag·nos·ticaɡˈnästik/nounnoun: agnostic; plural noun: agnostics1. a person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God or of anything beyond material phenomena; a person who claims neither faith nor disbelief in God.

I'm exactly this.

So i guess the 2 statements you articulated are both related to atheism..... agnostic version would be like this :

i don't know if there's a god nor i know that there isn't one.

Agnostic is sth between the theist and atheist....i'm saying this based on the definition.... a person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God or of anything beyond material phenomena; a person who claims neither faith nor disbelief in God.

@mjorh: see gergs post above he beat me to it.

As he and others in this thread have said, A person is a thiest or not a thiest, ie thiest or athiest.

The definition you posted describes your position on the knowledge of God, not ones belief.

@thehig1: @thegerg: oh got it now, then in that case i'm an atheist.

But, there's this quote from Albert Camus which says : "i don't believe in god , but i'm not an atheist" ... what's your take on this quote? Personally , i interpreted this as Camus being an agnostic ....but now i'm all confused :D

@mjorh: agnostic athiest would be our position.

Yeah i guess he was goin' with that, as @thehig1 said i think "agnostic atheist " is the closest thing we can get to Camus's statement and also my stance.

Some people can change who they are, that's who they are, people that can change their beliefs. Me, I'll always believe in a god, higher beings, our universe being a small part of the whole picture, higher dimensions, and all kinds of other stuff. Like if I believed every detail about this existence was made by a intelligent designer, it still won't get in my way of learning science. I'll still be thinking about it in the same way a nonbeliever would.

@hillelslovak said:

@slipknot0129 said:

@tocool340 said:

My goodness this thread....

And I used to be a fan of reading religious threads or taking part in discussions, but this is just asinine. I can't understand how some of you guys can endure bashing your heads against the wall like that....

It's all part of god's divine plan.

It's official, he's trolling. We can move on.....

No. I mean, he must be really consistent with his trolling or he must be 100% dead serious since I'm positive I've seen him post the same nonsense in the past 4 or so years....

Kinda defeats the purpose of having belief if your faith is shaken very easily or that you change it every day.

@bmanva: You can basically drop the mic and /thread with that last post.

As with my constant insistence of posting this for the past couple years in all his threads: