There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life

[thanny]

mrstickball said:

The_vagabond7 said:

The same works for alot of muslims too. Plus that thinking again would lead to...shoot what's that called, some term that refers to the idea that god fore-ordains who goes to heaven and hell before they are even born, was made up by the calvinists I think. But it goes down that same road, why doesn't go reveal himself to everyone? If he really wants you to be in his life he'll reveal himself to you. Does that mean god already decided he doesn't want me in his life? I spent the first twenty three years of my life studying religious faiths. I prayed for truth and found atheism, what does that say about god? Everyone already knows what it's like to be an atheist, because you are all atheists towards some religion. Christians can look at muslims and say "Wow, they are way off base. Their scriptures are flawed, their life style is crazy, and they have nothing to base their beliefs on other than they 'feel allah' in their lives. They just don't get it". Which is how atheists see religious people. But most religious people never turn that sort of thinking in on themselves. They just "know", but they all "just know" even if they all contradict each other. That being said, I agree with most of the religious people in here. I think the "New atheist" movement is rapidly moving towards a new fundamentalism. If you go down the check list they essentially have the same attitude as all the other fundamentalist religions. Claims of moral superiority:Check. Lack of Pluralism:Check Us versus them mentality: Check Broad sweeping generalizations about specific groups:Check Feeling that the world would be better off if it consisted entirely of ones own group: Check So hi to the new boss, same as the old boss. Religion isn't the problem, ignorance, xenophobia, pride, hate, the lust for power, these are the problems of mankind. And they would exist with or without the belief of an invisible man. Atrocities have been committed in the name of god, they have been committed in the name of man, and they have been committed for no reason at all. At the end of the day people will find ways to justify their fears, and their greed and they don't need a religion to do it.

Spacing helps, FYI.

Your referring to predestination. Yes, 5-point Calvinists believe in that, but the Muslim faith believed it much earlier in history than when the Calvinist movement started....Calvinism has been around for under 300 years, while Islam has been around for over 1,300.

As for the question of God revealing himself to everyone: We (Christians, at least) believe that God revealed himself to us through Jesus Christ. Of course, he got murdered for claiming that, and there are many people out there that love disproving that Jesus didn't even exist, despite the evidence to the contrary. Christians believe that the source of the issue of why God doesn't magically come out of the clouds has to do with our rejection of God, and the fact that God is bound by laws that we've rejected, and thrown in his face.

Otherwise, I agree with a lot of your later statements. Man is intrinsicly evil, and uses whatever he can for his own gain. The difference is that Christians, at least, seek to curb that evil and make the person better, by following the example of Christ - the perfect man. Few can argue that if everyone had the morality and value system of the NT Christ, the world would be a worse place.

just adding to this.... God is all about people loving him and worshipping out of their own free will (except from a Calvanist perspective). If God just revealed himself clearly and openly to every person in the world including those who didnt ask, everyone would have no choice but to worship him and accept that he is real. This eliminates the 'free will' part of it...

 

and @ Wessle, if you pray to God and ask him to reveal himself to you, you have to do it with an open mind, because if something does actually happen and you just pass it off as coincidence or whatever then that kinda defeats the purpose of asking for proof in the first place.