A question for Athiests/Evolutionists. (re: How can one not belive in something greater than himself? et all)

Coincidence.It's simply not that unusual particularly among family or friends.But keep a diary. Let each person write down every 15 minutes what the OTHER person is doing or thinking. Then after six months tally up the 15 minute logs.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Never mind, you don't seem to grasp what I am saying...But thanks anyways...

I think he does grasp what you're saying; he's dismissing it as confirmation bias.I suspect he's slightly underestimating and there's an element of shared upbringing and genetics as well. (edit - Doh! Noticed Jar mentioned that already.)This message has been edited by Mr Jack, 11-24-2004 05:39 AM

TheClashFanWell, you may be misinterpreting your abiliyy to notice patterns as being unusual however these are normal and not at all psychic.A clue is available when you realize that this is a occurence among close family members who have lived their lives together enough to be able to pick up on these patterns.

Well thats the whole point. It's silly to expect humans to love something they don't know. If a god is ambiguous that in no way makes any love it gets better, anymore than if a person is ambiguous or anonymous it does. It just confuses the issue. A god being obvious also in no way makes love inevitable, it just enables people to make a choice of wether to love or not.As an example I'm adopted. If I walked past my biological mother in the street I wouldn't know it, for all I know i've already done that. If that ever does happen i'll feel no love or any connection of any sort towards her simply because I don't know it's her. I don't know about other people, but I can't love people or entities that I have no idea exist I'd say if there's no proof there's no love, as I pointed out with my example of my biological mother above. Well I guess not everyone is the same then. I have no longing to go home because i'm already there

happy_atheist I second that. It is far better to deal in the actual life you have than to constantly try to live up to an ideal of somebody else's making.
Carpe diem.We are all food for worms.

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"Calling Atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair color."
--Don Hirschberg

Well, there are naturalistic explainations for all of those. EMotions are part of the evolutionary process. You can see the emotions we have reflected in animals too. I am sure you have seen anger, jealousy , love and hate all refected in cats and dogs.The forces of nature are 'greater than myself', but it is not an intelligent being that is either benign or malignant. It is just the complex environment that we live in... and all the more marvelous to realise it could come around via natural processes.I always depended on myself, not on others. Sometimes , I need more help , but I get help from others people, not from something that I
can not see or sense.

Love plays a very important part of insuring the surivival of our species. Man evolved as a social animal, and love insured that mothers will take care of their children, and fathers take care of mothers and children.

Except, not only is there no god, there is no devil either.There are just things that happen in life, and there are things that are caused by other people.HOld you hand out, palm up, and empty. I then want you do DENY that which is sitting on your hand.This message has been edited by ramoss, 11-24-2004 09:18 AM

I must refuse. There is not a demon in my hand, and if there were, I would tell it to leave my house, but I would not deny it's existance. I can see what you mean, though, but as a Christian, you can't simply belive in God and not beilve in the devil.

I thought that you would have said that love doesn't exist, that we merely group together to ensure the survival of our species. Love isn't required in order to procreate. After all, a rape victim can become pregnant, just as a woman can when she is in a loveless sexual relationship. What I am saying is that love serves a bigger part that just the continuation of the species, it's an instinct of our soul.

I do not think that animals hate, but I am sure they feel jealousy. As for your comment on self reliance, I find that understandable.

I can agree to what you first wrote of, but God did make the world, and therefore provided everything for us, according to my belief. As for the biological mother, if I was in the same position, I think that I would feel a certain familiarity about her. When I spoke of Home, I was refering to Heaven, since that's where we go when we die, and where I assume we come from in order to be born on earth. I can understand why you wouldn't feel the need to go Home in the way we do because you appear to be an athiest.

Even when we can be in seperate towns?

TheClashFanIt is possible however you would need to explain what level of detail you are talking about.