Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Questions for Atheists

Options
1…6791112

Comments

  • Options
    #242
    ColmDawson
    Registered Users Posts: 1,001 ✭✭✭ColmDawson


    Guys, two possibilities are becoming apparant to me:

    (i) Sebastian4jc is a troll and merely trying to enrage us

    or

    (ii) Sebastian4jc is not a troll, but is incapable of entertaining any sort of reasonable discussion.

    Either way, further discussion is, it seems to me, fruitless.


  • Options
    #243
    Choochtown
    Registered Users Posts: 1,429 ✭✭✭Choochtown


    I'm genuinely interested Sebastian as to how you get these "answers" you speak about.

    Is it by reading a book? The Bible?

    Is it being told by other people or institutions? Priests/ Catholic Church?

    Is it your God talking to you directly? A voice in your head?


  • Options
    #244
    MagicMarker
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 32,865 ✭✭✭✭MagicMarker


    sebastian4jc wrote: »
    it is trying to twist my words if you're trying to imply something like comfort when I said no such thing. I believe in God because it provides answers. Atheism (by your own admission) doesn't provide any. I'm all about getting the best answer to understand things. This atheism doesn't even provide any of those so why would you take up a position like that.... which doesn't even explain anything at all? Why you people so content just to live in ignorance, it astounds me really.
    Belief in God does provide answers, they're just the wrong ones.


  • Options
    #245
    Turtwig
    Registered Users Posts: 26,578 ✭✭✭✭Turtwig


    sebastian4jc wrote: »
    You people can't state any answers atheism provides. Belief in God provides answers to important questions. I'm going with the best explanation possible, which is providing answers that your atheism can't.

    That's because atheism is only concerned with ONE thing deities. Nothing else, nothing more. An atheist could believe in Unicorns, life after death, gays being lizards, pancakes are secretly alive, hollow earth, flat earth, that 42 is the reason for living, that cows farts provide us the ultimate understanding via their fumes, reincarnation, the universe is a fractal self feedback conscious loop, the Ooompa Loompa's are real, sex is bad, sex is good, evolution is a lie, democracy is unfair, etc etc.

    Everything else bar the stance of the belief in God has NOTHING to do with atheism. They derive from a persons philosophy on life which is taken from other stances and beliefs. The same actually applies to theism too. Your philosophy of life comes from else where, so too your understanding of this being known as a God.
    Zillah wrote:
    Q2 - What happens when we die?

    A: As far as we know you just die.

    Q3 - Am I special? Does someone, somewhere, always love me and protect me no matter what?

    A: No.

    Q4: Why is there something other than nothing?

    A: We don't know. Maybe 'nothing' is impossible.

    Q5: Does some force ensure that a moral balance is maintained in the world no matter how badly we run society?

    A: No.

    None, of these actually depend on athesim/theism.


  • Options
    #246
    Choochtown
    Registered Users Posts: 1,429 ✭✭✭Choochtown


    I really must read the entire thread before posting ...


    Avocado, peanut butter and green olives.
    (Has to be on fresh brown bread)


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #247
    Ghost Buster
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 5,172 ✭✭✭Ghost Buster


    Choochtown wrote: »
    I really must read the entire thread before posting ...


    Avocado, peanut butter and green olives.
    (Has to be on fresh brown bread)

    Marmite. You either love it or hate it dont believe in it.


  • Options
    #248
    King Mob
    Registered Users Posts: 25,236 ✭✭✭✭King Mob


    sebastian4jc wrote: »
    it is trying to twist my words if you're trying to imply something like comfort when I said no such thing. I believe in God because it provides answers. Atheism (by your own admission) doesn't provide any. I'm all about getting the best answer to understand things. This atheism doesn't even provide any of those so why would you take up a position like that.... which doesn't even explain anything at all? Why you people so content just to live in ignorance, it astounds me really.
    No one is twisting your words man. You just simply don;t even understand you own position.

    Yea believing in God provides answers, but there is nothing to show that they are the right ones.
    Just like how saying Unicorns cause rainbows is an answer to where rainbows come from. But we both know that isn't the right one.

    Now not believing in unicorns doesn't provide any answers as to where rainbows come from. So how can you possibly hold that position which doesn't explain anything at all?
    Why are you so content to live in ignorance?


  • Options
    #249
    sebastian4jc
    Closed Accounts Posts: 46 ✭sebastian4jc


    MagicMarker wrote: »
    Belief in God does provide answers, they're just the wrong ones.

    You seem pretty certain of that. Care to back up your claim?
    Dades wrote:
    You take a position that you believe most represents reality.
    Yes, that's what I'm doing. I think believing in God is the best position because it explains the most about reality. What does atheism explain about reality? Nothing. What's the use in that?


  • Options
    #250
    MagicMarker
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 32,865 ✭✭✭✭MagicMarker


    sebastian4jc wrote: »
    You seem pretty certain of that. Care to back up your claim?

    Yes, that's what I'm doing. I think believing in God is the best position because it explains the most about reality. What does atheism explain about reality? Nothing. What's the use in that?
    Okay, tell me what answers god gives you and I'll tell you how god is wrong.

    Atheism doesn't claim to explain anything about anything, you don't seem to be able to grasp this.


  • Options
    #251
    Zillah
    Registered Users Posts: 17,371 ✭✭✭✭Zillah


    sebastian4jc wrote: »
    it is trying to twist my words if you're trying to imply something like comfort when I said no such thing. I believe in God because it provides answers. Atheism (by your own admission) doesn't provide any. I'm all about getting the best answer to understand things. This atheism doesn't even provide any of those so why would you take up a position like that.... which doesn't even explain anything at all? Why you people so content just to live in ignorance, it astounds me really.

    Do you accept that some times we just don't have an answer to some questions?
    Malty_T wrote: »
    None, of these actually depend on athesim/theism.

    Well yes but they tend to be sold as a package.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #252
    Dades
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 25,558 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dades


    sebastian4jc wrote: »
    it is trying to twist my words if you're trying to imply something like comfort when I said no such thing. I believe in God because it provides answers. Atheism (by your own admission) doesn't provide any. I'm all about getting the best answer to understand things. This atheism doesn't even provide any of those so why would you take up a position like that.... which doesn't even explain anything at all? Why you people so content just to live in ignorance, it astounds me really.
    sebastian4jc, you're just embarrassing yourself now.


  • Options
    #253
    Zillah
    Registered Users Posts: 17,371 ✭✭✭✭Zillah


    Dades wrote: »
    sebastian4jc, you're just embarrassing yourself now.

    You're saying this at page 17?


  • Options
    #254
    strobe
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,872 ✭✭✭strobe


    sebastian4jc wrote: »
    Yes, that's what I'm doing. I think believing in God is the best position because it explains the most about reality. What does atheism explain about reality? Nothing. What's the use in that?

    Yes, that's what I'm doing. I think believing in unicorns is the best position because it explains the most about reality (Black holes are portals created by unicorns to allow them to travel between our universe and their own. Dark matter is material that has leaked from the unicorn realm into our own. When we die our essence is sucked out of our bodies by the black holes and we spend eternity serving the unicorns in their gigantic crystal palaces). What does not believing in unicorns explain about reality? Nothing. What's the use in that?

    Your position of unicorn atheism gains you nothing, you are left wondering about the answers to questions like the nature of dark matter and what happens after we die. I, however, don't even have to try and find out the answers to these questions, or any other questions, because if anything is unexplained I know the unicorns did it.

    If only people had of been unicornists like myself throughout history they could have been much happier and content. If Antonie van Leeuwenhoek had of believed in unicorns he wouldn't have had to waste all that time studying bacteria, he would of known angry unicorns made people sick. If Alessandro Volta had of just accepted that electricity was unicorn magic he wouldn't have had to bother inventing batteries. If James Watson, Francis Crick and Rosalind Franklin had of been followers of the unicorn they would have been happy with the explanation that all animals are made up of tiny microscopic unicorns, instead of coming out with all that DNA nonsense.

    But they were unicorn atheists and their atheism didn't answer anything about reality. What use was that?


  • Options
    #255
    sebastian4jc
    Closed Accounts Posts: 46 ✭sebastian4jc


    Dades wrote: »
    sebastian4jc, you're just embarrassing yourself now.

    it is the likes of you who should feel embarassed. The universe hardly created itself.

    God is not the same as unicorns, I thought we had established this pages ago. The usual strawman tactics from the atheist side then. I'm not impressed at all.


  • Options
    #256
    Galvasean
    Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    sebastian4jc wrote: »
    You people can't state any answers atheism provides.

    128934444683333559.jpg


  • Options
    #257
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 49,640 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    sebastian4jc wrote: »
    I believe in God because it provides answers.
    magic-8-ball.jpg


  • Options
    #258
    5uspect
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 10,518 Mod ✭✭✭✭5uspect


    sebastian4jc wrote: »
    it is the likes of you who should feel embarassed. The universe hardly created itself.

    God is not the same as unicorns, I thought we had established this pages ago. The usual strawman tactics from the atheist side then. I'm not impressed at all.

    The Universe can't create itself but God can? Or is it unicorns all the way down?


  • Options
    #259
    Mark Hamill
    Registered Users Posts: 7,776 ✭✭✭Mark Hamill


    sebastian4jc wrote: »
    The universe hardly created itself.

    How do you know?
    sebastian4jc wrote: »
    God is not the same as unicorns, I thought we had established this pages ago.

    No. You repeatedly asserted this pages ago, but you where wrong each time.


  • Options
    #260
    Malari
    Registered Users Posts: 18,150 ✭✭✭✭Malari


    Sebastian, let's take a completely different analogy. Lets say you and I live together and our flat is broken into. I say, "it must have been Joe across the street, he has shifty eyes and he never says hello to me." You disagree but don't have a clue who broke in either. Your position on this doesn't have any answers, but you are not saying the flat wasn't broken into, you just don't have any evidence to say who did it. You just realise there is no real evidence to say it was Joe across the street. This is the same as atheism. The only reason there is even a word for not believing in god is because so many people DO believe.


  • Options
    #261
    Penn
    Registered Users Posts: 33,811 ✭✭✭✭Penn


    sebastian4jc wrote: »
    Yes, that's what I'm doing. I think believing in God is the best position because it explains the most about reality. What does atheism explain about reality? Nothing. What's the use in that?

    Atheism doesn't give any answers to anything. Science does. But with science, we don't have all the answers yet. We can make educated guesses based on research, and when new evidence is uncovered, the theories can be revised.

    Atheism just doesn't fill in the blanks with "God did it".


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #262
    King Mob
    Registered Users Posts: 25,236 ✭✭✭✭King Mob


    sebastian4jc wrote: »
    it is the likes of you who should feel embarassed. The universe hardly created itself.
    Why can't it exactly?
    sebastian4jc wrote: »
    God is not the same as unicorns, I thought we had established this pages ago. The usual strawman tactics from the atheist side then. I'm not impressed at all.
    Why isn't God the same as unicorns? You seem to just be declaring this fact without a scrap of a argument to back it up.

    But I think we both know why you are. You know as well I as do that the arguments you're making fail when you hold them up to the standards you have for other matters.

    So Sebastian, why do all these "arguments" you're making for God not apply to other fanciful creatures?


  • Options
    #263
    alex73
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,731 ✭✭✭alex73


    phutyle wrote: »
    If you're so concerned about atheists talking about god, why are you posting here asking us to reply to questions that will inevitably involve talking about god?

    Personally, I'd love to live in a world where I never had to mention god again. People like you make that impossible, though.

    That world was attempted, it failed, and faith and religion only grew stronger because of it.


  • Options
    #264
    Mark Hamill
    Registered Users Posts: 7,776 ✭✭✭Mark Hamill


    alex73 wrote: »
    That world was attempted, it failed, and faith and religion only grew stronger because of it.

    By who?


  • Options
    #265
    housetypeb
    Registered Users Posts: 1,192 ✭✭✭housetypeb


    alex73 wrote: »
    That world was attempted, it failed, and faith and religion only grew stronger because of it.

    When did all this happen-i seem to have missed the memo.


  • Options
    #266
    Dades
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 25,558 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dades


    alex73 wrote: »
    That world was attempted, it failed, and faith and religion only grew stronger because of it.
    Please tell me you're not referring to a 20th century totalitarian dictatorship...


  • Options
    #267
    Turtwig
    Registered Users Posts: 26,578 ✭✭✭✭Turtwig


    sebastian4jc wrote: »
    it is the likes of you who should feel embarassed. The universe hardly created itself.

    God is not the same as unicorns, I thought we had established this pages ago. The usual strawman tactics from the atheist side then. I'm not impressed at all.

    God is not the same as unicorns. How do YOU know that!? Have you disproved unicorns? Do you not accept that there are various things about supernatural unicorns that make them unknowable us?

    With Regard to the universe harldy creating itself, oooh purrrllleasseeeeeeeeeeee you don't even know the universe was created so how can you assign a likelihood to it?

    Let me put it another, way, my first post on this thread gave you the benefit of the doubt, you ignored it, as you have done many other posters who took the time to explain their positions to you and their subsequent attempts to clarify stuff to you. So I'm not impressed with you and frankly I think you're just here to dis your imaginary atheist made of straw.


  • Options
    #268
    Zillah
    Registered Users Posts: 17,371 ✭✭✭✭Zillah


    sebastian4jc wrote: »
    The universe hardly created itself.

    It didn't? How could you possibly know anything about the creation of the universe?
    God is not the same as unicorns

    There is no evidence for unicorns, and good evidence that they were just made up by people. There is no evidence for God, and good evidence that he was just made up by people.

    Sure they're the same. You might not like that but as we've been trying to explain this whole time, your personal emotional reaction to a truth does not change that truth.


  • Options
    #269
    Galvasean
    Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    Let's agree to disagree. God and unicorns are the same... only different.


  • Options
    #270
    nozzferrahhtoo
    Registered Users Posts: 9,348 ✭✭✭nozzferrahhtoo


    sebastian4jc wrote: »
    You are just DECLARING that there is no evidence.

    Context man. It is important, use it. I am declaring nothing, I am telling you what we have been shown.

    I do not know everything, so I can not know there is no evidence. Maybe there is and we have not been made aware of it. If you think you can adumbrate some go right ahead.

    When I say there is "no evidence" I mean there is none that has been forthcoming, not that there is no evidence, anywhere, ever. There very well could be, just no one... yourself included... has provided it.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #271
    nozzferrahhtoo
    Registered Users Posts: 9,348 ✭✭✭nozzferrahhtoo


    sebastian4jc wrote: »
    Belief in God provides answers to important questions. I'm going with the best explanation possible, which is providing answers that your atheism can't.

    Simply making something up that explains an idea to you is not the same as establishing what you have made up is true. Consider for example the following conversation between two young boys:

    Boy1: Where do babies come from?
    Boy2: The stork brings them.
    Boy1: What makes you think that?
    Boy2: Well what do you think is the answer?
    Boy1: I do not know yet.
    Boy2: AHA! See? The stork does bring them. My answer explains it and your Astorkism explains nothing.

    Clearly Boy1s lack of an answer is not evidence for Boy2s answer. Nor is astorkism required to explain anything in order for it to be valid to hold that the answer Boy2 has given is unfounded and baseless.

    This is all we are doing with you. We are listening to your answer and recognising that although it is one of the infinity answers we could make up to fit the story, it is entirely baseless and unsubstantiated at this time and so we dismiss it.

    Should you actually find any arguments to support your answer then great, we are all ears. You do not get to jump over the evidence stage, straight to the first answer you like, and name call people close minded if they do not accept it by fiat.


Advertisement