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Forums - General Discussion - The Abrahamic Religions make No Sense

Slimebeast said:

Why doesn't it make sense?

Let's pretend God is truly almighty and knows who will end up in Hell and who will end up in Heaven (and who will be immediately destroyed after Judgement day) and thus ultimately it means no human has true free will. So humans have no free will but religion teaches us to act as we have free will. A dilemma, right?

But how is that different from a naturalist atheist point of view? There's not a single proof that humans have free will and yet we all act as like we have free will. Every person makes thousands of moral decisions in his life as if he has free will and there is always somebody (including yourself) who will hold you responsible for your actions if you made a bad choice in a given situation. Exactly the same dilemma. Don't pretend that atheists are any smarter regarding this dilemma.

The bottom line is that it's not religion that doesn't make sense, it's the fact that we don't have free will that doesn't make sense.


You are absolutely right; it is the same dilemma. Naturalist-atheists don't mind if there is no free will though, while religious people would have to question their entire faith. If there is a free will though, then they'd have to question if God truly is almighty or not, which is another dilemma.

Bottom line: In both scerario's the Abrahamic religions makes no sense, as they claim that God is almighty and gave humans free will.

If there's something that I'm missing, feel free to fill me in.



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IIIIITHE1IIIII said:
Slimebeast said:

Why doesn't it make sense?

Let's pretend God is truly almighty and knows who will end up in Hell and who will end up in Heaven (and who will be immediately destroyed after Judgement day) and thus ultimately it means no human has true free will. So humans have no free will but religion teaches us to act as we have free will. A dilemma, right?

But how is that different from a naturalist atheist point of view? There's not a single proof that humans have free will and yet we all act as like we have free will. Every person makes thousands of moral decisions in his life as if he has free will and there is always somebody (including yourself) who will hold you responsible for your actions if you made a bad choice in a given situation. Exactly the same dilemma. Don't pretend that atheists are any smarter regarding this dilemma.

The bottom line is that it's not religion that doesn't make sense, it's the fact that we don't have free will that doesn't make sense.


You are absolutely right; it is the same dilemma. Naturalist-atheists don't mind if there is no free will though, while religious people would have to question their entire faith. If there is a free will though, then they'd have to question if God truly is almighty or not, which is another dilemma.

Bottom line: In both scerario's the Abrahamic religions makes no sense, as they claim that God is almighty and gave humans free will.

If there's something that I'm missing, feel free to fill me in.

Yes they do. No one acts is if there exists no free will.

If I said I hate a certain race or a certain sexual orientation I would have tons of intellectuals condemn me and try to make me feel bad and guilty. No one, absolutely no one, would say "I understand you, your opinion makes perfect sense for you, you couldn't have any other opinion than what you just expressed. I don't agree with you and I would like to change your opinion but if I can't change it you should feel harmony about the opinion you have, even if I happen to believe it is severely wrong. You are no worse person than me in any way, we are perfectly equal".

If I molested a child no one would explain to me that my action made perfect sense to me and that I have no reason to feel guilt and no reason to be punished.

You just don't feel indifferent to the moral choices (or lack of choices) of a person like Khadaffi and think "I don't condemn any of his actions, he did what he had to do, he couldn't have done anything in any other way". No one does. I have never ever met such a person no matter how non-reglious, scientific or naturalistic they claim to be. No one behaves as if there doesn't exist free will no matter what they claim to believe in theory.

A guy like Dawkins (who claims to be rooted in science and fact, and who probably would support the notion that there isn't proof of free will) constantly walks around and condemns religious people and makes them feel bad (don't try to convince me he only does it for maximum effect to change other people's behaviour, because he also makes a moral judgement).

Btw, Ambrahamic religions do not directly claim that humans have free will. They imply that people have free will, but that's for the reader to interpret. There are theologians and followers of Abrahamic religions who believe everything is pre-determined and known by God, but for some reason God put this show in motion and we as human individuals have to act through this theater of life until the end, no matter how meaningless it might appear.



Slimebeast said:

Yes they do. No one acts is if there exists no free will.

If I said I hate a certain race or a certain sexual orientation I would have tons of intellectuals condemn me and try to make me feel bad and guilty. No one, absolutely no one, would say "I understand you, your opinion makes perfect sense for you, you couldn't have any other opinion than what you just expressed. I don't agree with you and I would like to change your opinion but if I can't change it you should feel harmony about the opinion you have, even if I happen to believe it is severely wrong. You are no worse person than me in any way, we are perfectly equal".

If I molested a child no one would explain to me that my action made perfect sense to me and that I have no reason to feel guilt and no reason to be punished.

You just don't feel indifferent to the moral choices (or lack of choices) of a person like Khadaffi and think "I don't condemn any of his actions, he did what he had to do, he couldn't have done anything in any other way". No one does. I have never ever met such a person no matter how non-reglious, scientific or naturalistic they claim to be. No one behaves as if there doesn't exist free will no matter what they claim to believe in theory.

A guy like Dawkins (who claims to be rooted in science and fact, and who probably would support the notion that there isn't proof of free will) constantly walks around and condemns religious people and makes them feel bad (don't try to convince me he only does it for maximum effect to change other people's behaviour, because he also makes a moral judgement).

Btw, Ambrahamic religions do not directly claim that humans have free will. They imply that people have free will, but that's for the reader to interpret. There are theologians and followers of Abrahamic religions who believe everything is pre-determined and known by God, but for some reason God put this show in motion and we as human individuals have to act through this theater of life until the end, no matter how meaningless it might appear.

Now you have.

And lots of people around me do. During our philosophy class nearly half of all students believed that everything is determined.



IIIIITHE1IIIII said:
Slimebeast said:

Yes they do. No one acts is if there exists no free will.

If I said I hate a certain race or a certain sexual orientation I would have tons of intellectuals condemn me and try to make me feel bad and guilty. No one, absolutely no one, would say "I understand you, your opinion makes perfect sense for you, you couldn't have any other opinion than what you just expressed. I don't agree with you and I would like to change your opinion but if I can't change it you should feel harmony about the opinion you have, even if I happen to believe it is severely wrong. You are no worse person than me in any way, we are perfectly equal".

If I molested a child no one would explain to me that my action made perfect sense to me and that I have no reason to feel guilt and no reason to be punished.

You just don't feel indifferent to the moral choices (or lack of choices) of a person like Khadaffi and think "I don't condemn any of his actions, he did what he had to do, he couldn't have done anything in any other way". No one does. I have never ever met such a person no matter how non-reglious, scientific or naturalistic they claim to be. No one behaves as if there doesn't exist free will no matter what they claim to believe in theory.

A guy like Dawkins (who claims to be rooted in science and fact, and who probably would support the notion that there isn't proof of free will) constantly walks around and condemns religious people and makes them feel bad (don't try to convince me he only does it for maximum effect to change other people's behaviour, because he also makes a moral judgement).

Btw, Ambrahamic religions do not directly claim that humans have free will. They imply that people have free will, but that's for the reader to interpret. There are theologians and followers of Abrahamic religions who believe everything is pre-determined and known by God, but for some reason God put this show in motion and we as human individuals have to act through this theater of life until the end, no matter how meaningless it might appear.

Now you have.

And lots of people around me do. During our philosophy class nearly half of all students believed that everything is determined.

Wait, didn't you read my post properly? I said to live and act as if there is no free will, to live and act as if everything is pre-determined..

There are many people who take pride in their belief that there is no free will (which is easy), but they don't act as if there exists not free will (which is extremely hard).



IIIIITHE1IIIII said:
Slimebeast said:

Why doesn't it make sense?

Let's pretend God is truly almighty and knows who will end up in Hell and who will end up in Heaven (and who will be immediately destroyed after Judgement day) and thus ultimately it means no human has true free will. So humans have no free will but religion teaches us to act as we have free will. A dilemma, right?

But how is that different from a naturalist atheist point of view? There's not a single proof that humans have free will and yet we all act as like we have free will. Every person makes thousands of moral decisions in his life as if he has free will and there is always somebody (including yourself) who will hold you responsible for your actions if you made a bad choice in a given situation. Exactly the same dilemma. Don't pretend that atheists are any smarter regarding this dilemma.

The bottom line is that it's not religion that doesn't make sense, it's the fact that we don't have free will that doesn't make sense.


You are absolutely right; it is the same dilemma. Naturalist-atheists don't mind if there is no free will though, while religious people would have to question their entire faith. If there is a free will though, then they'd have to question if God truly is almighty or not, which is another dilemma.

Bottom line: In both scerario's the Abrahamic religions makes no sense, as they claim that God is almighty and gave humans free will.

If there's something that I'm missing, feel free to fill me in.

A naturalist-atheist, who doesn't have any responsibilities in life, outside of taking care for themselves,and does not worrying about society and how people do things can end up not minding the lack of free will.  The entire structure of society, with criminal laws and so on, and defense of "freedom" is based upon free will existing.  Take away this belief, and it is the end of laws that end up providing structured consequences for certain behaviors.  On the other end, it opens up prospects of a Totalitarian state where the best minds are supposed to make all decisions, and you fall under a society developed by Behavioralists on top, who end up believing the system needs to be structured in order to generate predictable outcome.  You are read as a nerve cell is read by the body, IF lucky, but things are done in a mass scale, implementing the moral conclusions of determinism.  It is usually done on a mass manner, easier to implement.  So, a society at least believe in a fiction of free will, in order to have some freedom, or freedom in all situations will be thrown overboard, whenever faced with something else.  A byproduct of this is a cencored Internet, and how things are in China.

What you miss here is the prospects of an almighty God giving people free will, which in reality here is restrained somehow, because no one has totally free will in life, because they are bound by certain necessities.  If such a God ends up knowing everything, and can do anything, it doesn't necessarily follow that God wants every single thing, at all times, to line up just the right way in correspondence with the wishes of them.  Such a God may want to have a system that can grow and mature on its own, that he can stand back and watch.  Actually, come to think of it, you are missing one of the usually key elements that usually come up when trying to say God exists.  That is one of motive.  It is supposed to be: If God is almight, all knowing, and all loving, then why is there evil in the world?  Take out the motive factor, and you still can explain it.  Without this, how do you know things aren't the way God exactly wants them now?  And if they are, then there is no issue here.



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IIIIITHE1IIIII said:
richardhutnik said:
IIIIITHE1IIIII said:


I think you need to understand that you are making this way more complex than it really is. If God created time (and is not affected by it), then he must be able to predict the future. Do you really think that God has no idea of what you will be doing tomorrow, or what will be your next meal?

 

For the millionth time: God cannot be omniscient while still not be able to see the future. Here is the definition of omniscient:

"Having infinite awareness, understanding, and insight" also: "Possessed of universal or complete knowledge"

 

The knowledge is not complete, in God's case.

Considering you completely deleted my post, I would have to then treat your post as its own entity, without context.

As for predicting anything, the word predicting seems off when everything is known.  it is just knowing.  Beyond this, whatever else you are talking about isn't really anything.   You have missed a few points here, how knowing everything connects to anything at all, points which usuall get brought up when discussing things in this area.  I believe you also have seemed to confuse having concern for with knowing.  One can know every detail, but not find aspects of those details important.  Also, one find things of far greater importance in the big picture.

If you want to discuss, then be open to details.  If you just want to yammer on and on, and supposedly justify your own points in your own mind, that is must simplier.  Just say you believe what you believe and be done with it, and don't feel the compulsion to change the mind of others you know nothing about.  The short is, have more security in what you feel, without needing to validate it by getting confirmation on what others think.


Bolded: I don't know why you put so much weight into making that point. We both know what I meant, and by flawlessly being able to predict the future you obviously also know what will happen and when.

I mean, as humans we can predict lots of things that will happen in the future extremely accurately, but sometime we forget certain details which renders our calculation inaccurate. God, on the other hand, would not make those errors. Present is entirely shaped by the past (which cannot change), thus the future is shaped by present (which then cannot change). 

Underlined: That's what I have been doing the entire time, which is supposed to make others question their faith. It is up to others to convince me that I'm wrong if they wish to do so, or they could just ignore posting in this thread.

Italics: I have full security in what I feel. Jesus wanted to spread his view of how He think that others should live (so do God...), so why shouldn't I be allowed to do so?

One think that is an issue here, is that you presume that people actually care what you think or don't think, and presume that other care to bother to persuade you are wrong.  Or the care to bother to have their faith questioned.  Why is someone going to care one bit what you think.  You, as is I guess typical of people who post on the Internet, are totally devoid of knowing what motivates people.  

As for why the idea of Jesus and the religion of Christianity being spread, well, at its core is love actually, in the commands, the idea is one of salvation for people.  It offers, by numerous means, commands, and so on, the ability to change lives.  And if you care about people, and have the means to help, you can then do help.  It is done through people, because people are to be elevated to partners with God and see this.  It also offers people the option to say no, and this manifest things.  What I see with you?  You offer people nothing.  You take away.  You end up wanting to undermine and destroy what they have that holds them up, and offer them nothing in their place.  You don't.  If I am going to compare you, or any other stand alone atheist out there, who is on a crusade to deconvert people, to that of genuine people who practice loving faith, to be able to live with, I will go with those of the faith, because I don't see anything you offer of value to humanity.  What you do end up, as a byproduct you don't see, is going to produce a society that ends up demanding more and more government services, to address needs that the churches you had churches torn down, have provided.  And with this, will come people who are paid to do jobs, rather than people driven by love to make a difference in the lives of others.  Of course, you don't see this.  Why would you, a puny mortal be able to see the consequences of your actions.  You just resent that religion has a moral imperative to reach out, and wish what you believe would, so you do it alone.  You are one person on a quest to tip windmills alone.

You know what you remind me of?  You remind me of someone I know of, who became an ex-friend, who yells at the world to vote third party, and goes out to beers to discuss with his associates in a "meeting of the minds".  He then tells me, after I said it is a bit pointless, and I have a lot of issues I need to go through to "quit your whining".  Take that attitude, turn it into a "meeting of the minds" on the Internet, and away we go.   In your case, you end you getting frustrated and wonder why you bother, because the world doesn't go along.  What you end up missing is a key piece of practical reality.  You also miss that someone like myself finds your arguments lacking and understand the basics of how the God of Christianity works, and end up merely refining what I believe by your points.  And in this, this discussion is of benefit to me, before it refines what I believe, and is of value.  But, from your end, it will be an abysmal failure.



Slimebeast said:
IIIIITHE1IIIII said:

Now you have.

And lots of people around me do. During our philosophy class nearly half of all students believed that everything is determined.

Wait, didn't you read my post properly? I said to live and act as if there is no free will, to live and act as if everything is pre-determined..

There are many people who take pride in their belief that there is no free will (which is easy), but they don't act as if there exists not free will (which is extremely hard).


I was talking about when you said:

"No one, absolutely no one, would say "I understand you, your opinion makes perfect sense for you, you couldn't have any other opinion than what you just expressed."

And later:

"You just don't feel indifferent to the moral choices (or lack of choices) of a person like Khadaffi and think "I don't condemn any of his actions, he did what he had to do, he couldn't have done anything in any other way". No one does. I have never ever met such a person no matter how non-reglious, scientific or naturalistic they claim to be."

Yet, here I am saying those things.



richardhutnik said:

One think that is an issue here, is that you presume that people actually care what you think or don't think, and presume that other care to bother to persuade you are wrong.  Or the care to bother to have their faith questioned.  Why is someone going to care one bit what you think.  You, as is I guess typical of people who post on the Internet, are totally devoid of knowing what motivates people.  

As for why the idea of Jesus and the religion of Christianity being spread, well, at its core is love actually, in the commands, the idea is one of salvation for people.  It offers, by numerous means, commands, and so on, the ability to change lives.  And if you care about people, and have the means to help, you can then do help.  It is done through people, because people are to be elevated to partners with God and see this.  It also offers people the option to say no, and this manifest things.  What I see with you?  You offer people nothing.  You take away.  You end up wanting to undermine and destroy what they have that holds them up, and offer them nothing in their place.  You don't.  If I am going to compare you, or any other stand alone atheist out there, who is on a crusade to deconvert people, to that of genuine people who practice loving faith, to be able to live with, I will go with those of the faith, because I don't see anything you offer of value to humanity.  What you do end up, as a byproduct you don't see, is going to produce a society that ends up demanding more and more government services, to address needs that the churches you had churches torn down, have provided.  And with this, will come people who are paid to do jobs, rather than people driven by love to make a difference in the lives of others.  Of course, you don't see this.  Why would you, a puny mortal be able to see the consequences of your actions.  You just resent that religion has a moral imperative to reach out, and wish what you believe would, so you do it alone.  You are one person on a quest to tip windmills alone.

You know what you remind me of?  You remind me of someone I know of, who became an ex-friend, who yells at the world to vote third party, and goes out to beers to discuss with his associates in a "meeting of the minds".  He then tells me, after I said it is a bit pointless, and I have a lot of issues I need to go through to "quit your whining".  Take that attitude, turn it into a "meeting of the minds" on the Internet, and away we go.   In your case, you end you getting frustrated and wonder why you bother, because the world doesn't go along.  What you end up missing is a key piece of practical reality.  You also miss that someone like myself finds your arguments lacking and understand the basics of how the God of Christianity works, and end up merely refining what I believe by your points.  And in this, this discussion is of benefit to me, before it refines what I believe, and is of value.  But, from your end, it will be an abysmal failure.


Bolded: People are responding to this thread, so obviously they do care one way or another. And especially you, who keeps writing essay after essay just to tell me how much you don't.

And you obviously misunderstood my entire purpose with this thread, which I explained earlier. My purpose is to make people understand that there is no such thing as sins. There are laws which should be held up, but unjustified sins (such as being gay and the other things I mentioned a few times earlier in this thread) cause pain all around the world every day. I have even said that I don't mind if people are religious, as long as they just let everyone who isn't live their own lives unaffected by their beliefs (which is the majority, by the way).

Going by the three famous scenarios I mentioned earlier, the best case would be if all who read this thread would choose the "God is almighty and can predict every decision that we'll make, so logically there is no hell"-option. That was my personal opinion before I left Christianity altogether, and it made me realize that sins cannot exist.



Paul said:
How about this one, if god is almighty (as I've heard him described) he could create a rock so big that even he couldn't lift it up.

Being almighty doesn't mean being able to perform the logically absurd.

If being almighty requires that one be able to perform the logically absurd, then one who is almighty could create a rock so big that even he couldn't lift it, then he would do the logically absurd, and lift it.



I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.

GameOver22 said:

I always thought this argument resulted from confusion concerning what counts as knowledge for God. We tend to define knowledge in terms relative to human experience. Mainly, we are finite beings existing at a point in time, and we experience past, present, and future. We can have knowlegde of the past and present because we can test whether our experience corresponds with reality. We can't do this with the future because there is no reality with which to compare.

God, on the other hand, is not limited by space and time. He is a timeless being, and the notions of past, present, and future do not apply to him. The reason God knows the future is not because he lives in the present and can predict  the future. The reason God knows the future is because He exists at all points in time and has already experienced every occurence that will happen (past, present, and future). In this sense, God's knowledge comes from experience, and He is not controlling the future. He is a timeless observer. Taking this view, I think omnisciennce and free will are compatible, but I have no idea if Abrahamic religions would accept the argument. There are just so many competing notions of God's characteristics.

That would be true if time were a fourth dimension; as far as I know, that is hypothetical, and not coherent with what we have observed and tested; in other words, incoherent with scientific knowledge. Even Einstein didn't think time was a fourth dimension.



I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.