I Know That God Does Not Exist

They will Nyuk Nyuk the demons right outta ya!

I've been setting this up since Message 1053It's an altar boy with an e (and maybe a priest) sticking in it.Damn you're slow.Edited by AZPaul3, : No reason given.

And yet the humans themselves are the intelligent agency forming a hypothesis on how it all happened...not just geocentrically but intergalactically. In essence we claim no evidence of and no need of a God yet attempt to take that spot of intelligence and observation for ourselves. I feel we limit the possibilities due to our own need for survival and meaning amongst ourselves.

Saint Joseph the Curly was the master of Nyuk-Nyuk, not Saint Moe.Far more miraculous was Saint Shemp the Howard, whose film career continued on for ten years after his death, hence the miracle (though saints need three, n'est pas?) (see here -- contracts do indeed carry on far beyond the grave).Oh! A wise guy, huh? Actually, yes, and I have the documentation to prove it.Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!------------------------------From memory and Christopher Titus' brilliant 2000 FOX sit-com, Titus (worst theme music ever, a car engine revving), Season 1 Episode 6, "Red Asphalt". He, his Northern Irish girlfriend Erin (she doesn't get mad; she just plants a bomb in your car), and his idjit half-brother Dave are driving home when they get caught in a road rage situation where the guy in the other car has a gun. Erin rummages through her purse and finds a fruit, but Chris stops her immediately, saying inside his neutral place (a common device in the show where he would step outside the action to discuss things with the audience) that there's nothing more dangerous than an Irish woman with a rock or piece of fruit in her hand. Then: BTW, idjit half-brother Dave was played by Zack Ward, now/then grown up, who in A Christmas Story had played the bully with yellow eyes ("Yes! He had yellow eyes!").Also BTW, being almost half Irish myself I enjoyed those Irish jokes.Edited by dwise1, : comment about contractsEdited by dwise1, : hence the miracle

Sadly typical of literalists.

Do please note that Dredge had pulled me out of context by leaving out the second paragraph.Wow! So you're a forking lower-than-whale-snot white supremacist? Why am I not surprised in the least?Read Rob Altemeyer's freely available electronic book, The Authoritarians -- available in a few formats, including PDF and audio. He is a retired psychology professor who wrote this book in 2006 when President "Dubya" Bush was the worst president we had ever had -- boy have things changed! He had studied authoritarianism for decades ever since he had failed his doctorate questions on the subject for his doctorate (When you fail a question, you need to go back and research the question, which led to his further research). Most of his published research over the decades was couched in a lot of statistical mathematics, rather normal for the field, but this book was written to be much more accesible to the public.In his research, he devised a right-wing-authoritarian index (RWA) which he then tied via many surveys to a number of attitudes -- read the book for the details. Furthermore, he noted that "right wing" does not correlate to political affiliation, since members of "left wing" political groups can also rate highly in the RWA index.High RWA ratings are the white supremacists and other rightests. They are trapped in fear and hate of and for anyone outside of their own immediate group; ie, paranoid xenophobia. Their actions and reactions are based on fear and hate, not on reason. A physical part of their brains, the amygdala, is over-developed far more than in the normal population, meaning that it is overactive. Whenever something bad happens to somebody else (eg, a hurricane, poverty), then they are far more ready to blame the victim. They will immediately and without thought embrace any manipulative politician who proclaims that he agrees with them.Low RWA ratings are the opposite. They tend much more to use reason; their amygdalas are far less developed. When bad things happen to people, they look to the causes and solutions instead of blaming the victims. And when a manipulative politician proclaims that he agrees with them, they tend to be skeptical.So there's no wonder that manipulative politicians target the high RWAs, who are much more easy to manipulate -- think of the problem of herding cats or the common wisdom that you want to keep your cattle as dumb as possible (who would ever want a cow who keeps trying to outsmart you?).Altemeyer also describes some world management simulations that he had spiked with either all high RWAs or all low RWAs. The low RWAs could work together and solve severe global environmental problems, given their attitude of "we're all in this together, so we need to work together." The high RWAs very quickly led to global nuclear war. Backing the simulation up a couple years, the high RWAs still were on the verge of nuclear war, plus they had never done anything at all to solve the major global environmental problems.It is an interesting and easy read. Be sure to read the footnotes, since most of the material is there.

What is intelligence? What is consciousness? What is self-awareness? Why do humans feel this strange need to invent powerful entities that influence and judge all of us? Why is there something rather than nothing?Lots of tough questions.

It was God who said it:

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Genesis 3:22 And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

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Unless, of course, it was just human authors putting those words into God's mouth....But then, "I am the way, the truth and the life," would also be words that humans put into a character's mouth.

Original sin is really just the origin of death. The cost of separation and awareness is the yoke of death. You will argue that death is a "natural" part of life, but it is not the default option. Humans who don't believe often cite science and observable evidence which we and only we have compiled and interpreted. Why believe in a power greater than ourselves? Especially if we have to be accountable to it. Better to doub that it exists and that even if it did it wouldn't be in our best interests.

More apologist garbage. It is the default. It is not an option. Stop it. I have told you repeatedly that that is not my motivation. I feel more accountable than you do.

So do you thus believe that it is your job and calling to do what God should be doing if He were either
A) existing...or (and)
B) Existing and consciously interactive amongst humanity.In other words, you believe that evidence supports no God and thus it is human responsibility to do for the least of these. I get that. Being moderately conservative, I cringe at having to change my cushy lifestyle too much simply to make things even globally and hope for better solutions that allow everyone to be helped while maintaining the comforts that I have now. This, sadly, is my carnal nature. In Spirit, I know that you are on the right track but i'm scared of sacrifice.

the evidence shows that things need to be done and there is no god doing them. So who else is going to do them? What gets me is how you can profess to believe in a Jesus who told you to do it.

I would hardly call that conclusive. There are many many believers who could vouch for God having done a lot of things in their lives. The default standard need not be scientific objectifiable proof in regards to such matters. How would one go about proving God to begin with? I don't simply believe in an alien overlord who expects me to snap to attention and do every little thing He asks. I expect a God...in sending His human Son...and giving all authority to this Son...would leave judgement up to Jesus.Jesus understands human psychology. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He fully understands why you accept Him as fiction and a made up anthropomorphized Deity. He also fully and compassionately understands me as a work in progress. He knows I'm not going to gleefully give from myself according to my ability to those(least of these) according to their need as my liberal friend from Canada claims to be the essence of a human inspired Bible! Granted you take the message more serious than I do in that you are an ardent proponent of cultural Marxism, or Socialism, or Communism, or whatever you (or we) choose to name it. What I can't believe is the way you do everything that Jesus commands in Matthew 25 and defend Him (and use His words to attempt to indict me) yet you see Him as a myth. You have no place to question the motives of believers when you yourself knowingly and willingly refuse to believe. Human attempts at a fair and just system devoid of God WILL fail eventually. But you may never see it in your lifetime. Go on trusting evidence.

It is conclusive. Poor people exist. It is not about something vague that is being done "in the lives" of believers. It's about what is not being done in other people's lives. You don't want that to be the standard because your god doesn't meet the standard. Easy. Pray for the sick and they're healed - every time. Then why do you believe? The only source you have for the existence of your alien overlord is the stories that tell you to snap to attention and do every little thing He asks. I call it being a decent human being. Why wouldn't a mythical character understand about being a decent human being? The people who created the myth weren't that much different from me. That's exactly why I question the motives of believers. How is your belief anything but an excuse for not being a decent human being? Nonsense.

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Can you name a machine (biological or non-biological) that has been observed to build itself?

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What's your working definition of machine in this case?Edited by Larni, : DVD extras