lazyadan

According to the Bible, and some people today, the Lord speaks to them. Some of these people do genuinely good things as a result, like charity and volunteer work, others to horrible things, like murder people or dismember their kids.

Is there any objective way of knowing who is crazy and who God is actually talking to? Can we simply say that good deeds are a sign that it's God and bad deeds are a sign of crazy people? But God once ordered a man to kill his only son... only to stop him at the last minute. What if God didn't tell him to stop, and instead he had a minute of insanity because God ordered him to do something he didn't want to do so he imagined God told him to stop even though he really didn't?

Also, we clearly don't all agree on what is good. What if important people in Congress came out and said God told them that homosexuals deserve the right to marry? Some will say that's good... others bad. How can we know?

Is it not more likely that all these people that hear voices that come from no where are crazy?

but instead I just told a few of my close friends to stay away from there, am I being just and loving? If after the bomb blew up and my friends were on a newscast thanking me for saving them from disaster, would others viewing the video not hate me for not warning as many people as possible?

If we agree that this would be a pretty heartless thing to do, how does God get praised for saving people from death? How can we thank God that someone was brought out of a coma after a car crash, and not think about the fact that God let other people die in that same crash? Or that he let the person he "saved" go through the crash and remain in a coma for months before doing anything?

In the bomb scenario, I am just a person with limited powers, but I clearly would have been able to save more lives had I informed the authorities. God is supposedly all-powerful and all-loving, yet he gets the credit when one person survives a disaster, even if they are seriously harmed in the process.

Please help me understand how any believer can rationalize this?

Answers are now 4 points!?!? Woohoo!

I didn't realize until well after lunch when I noticed a rather fierce debate going on between my friends on Facebook. I'm so glad I didn't make the mistake of going there for lunch today! I don't intend to boycott them just because their CEO is a moron, but I surely wasn't going to support them today.

why do some people jump to conclusions? What reason is there to assert that this happiness is proof of any gods? Realizing that people of all faiths experience this, even atheists who lack all faith, isn't it much more likely that this happiness is caused by a more personal reason? Isn't it more likely that this happiness is brought about because we have found something that matches us, that is true to ourselves?

I can think of no greater source of sorrow than fighting with myself to make me believe something that makes no sense to me. The opposite of that has to be the source of true happiness, right?

I been thinking, and maybe we should be offering psychiatric care, instead of ridiculing the Bible.

I know the idea of living forever is a bit scary for me. Even if you find something to keep you entertained for the first 999 billion years, what about the next 999 billion years? Plus, God already knows everything, so it's not like he would have the pleasure of learning like I would, so he had to get bored much sooner.

So he came up with this great idea to not be bored... he would make friends! And these friends would be great, they'd love and worship him for bringing them into existence, and they'd have fun together... but it didn't take long for humans to disappoint him.

So then he had to create a minor league system (Earth) to determine who was worthy of his presence. The minor league system was so deprived of talent, that he decided to kill off countless people. It's fun for him for awhile, kinda like a kid killing ants with a lens... but then even that gets boring. Then there's that hell place... gotta let out your aggression somewhere.

Then he invents two alternate personalities known as Jesus and the Holy Spirit. They come up with some goofy plan to accept more people into heaven, because so few people have met the standard. So Jesus volunteers to let sins be committed upon him, just so that the sins of the very people who are harming him can be wiped clean...

Yes, it all sounds crazy, but I think we need to give the guy some slack. It can't be easy trying to entertain yourself forever. I know it'd drive me crazy eventually.

Some people say that all sins are sins, and that's why all sinners who do not accept Jesus will end up in hell, but then some people claim that America has natural disasters or market crashes because of particular sins.

Does this mean that God will punish all sinners the same way in the afterlife, but some sins make him so mad that he will punish us while we are still living this life?

If so, what sins are worst? And why do I hear that God punishes people for allowing homosexuality, but not for divorce? Or eating shellfish? Or working on the Sabbath? How about honoring thy mother and father? And who could forget murder?

But no, I guess the God of the Bible cares more about men not touching each other's private parts than he does about people killing each other or children being molested.

How does this make sense?

So you're in a plane, and these people are telling you it's going down, and they are offering you a parachute. Only, they all say that their parachutes are the only ones that work. No one will let you open the parachute to inspect it, you just have to take on faith that their parachute is the correct one.

For the sake of the discussion, I'll concede that the plane is actually going down.

So the Christians are handing out Christian parachutes, the Muslims are handing out Islam parachutes, and so on.

I think atheists would be the MacGyver in the corner of the plane attempting to make wings out of seat cushions, or fixing the plane with a paper clip. As crazy as these things are, it sounds less crazy than accepting any of the parachutes.

What do y'all think?

The idea that cells formed through a process, while unlikely to happen, had millions of interactions happening each moment that increased the potential for life to begin, then evolution occurred, again with millions of years and millions of births, species began to evolve by chance and some with advantageous mutations had higher probability of survival, thereby making them more likely to reproduce and have offspring

OR...

Some "intelligent mind" that exists without the need of a creator, that somehow exists outside of space and time... all claims that there is no evidence to support... personally chose to create all things, including the life on our tiny little planet

I am certainly not an expert on either hypothesis, so forgive my layman explanations. Feel free to better describe either description as you see fit.

So which really takes more faith?

Because the last thing I want to do is spend eternity with people like that. Can anyone tell me where they are going so I know to go the other way?

Wait... they are going to the same place... right? I mean, if they end up going different ways... is there a third place I could go? Maybe just to nonexistence? HELP PLEASE!

If we are all sinners, then how does anyone stop sinning when they go to heaven? How do you not feel great sorrow for the loved ones who did not make it to heaven? How do you cope with your annoying nephew that you always hated being around, but that also made it to heaven? What about people who love sports, or beauty pageants or anything else that is a competition, are competitions outlawed, even if that was someone's favorite activity on Earth? If competitions still exist, does nobody ever lose? Can they lose and not feel sorrow?

If heaven is supposed to be perfect, where those that are lucky enough to go to heaven experience perfect bliss, how can it really be possible unless God gives everyone a spiritual lobotomy or changes them in some way? It's plainly obvious to me that, in our current state, we are not capable of living in constant bliss, so without being changed by God, such a place would be impossible.

But how can it really be paradise if we are not still the same person?

When a Christian attempts to insult me or make assumptions about me based on finding out that I am an atheist, I can't help but wonder why.

Perhaps Christians think that if they convince me that most atheists are stupid or effeminate or if they convince me that Hitler was an atheist, that will make me not want to be an atheist?

Fortunately, I am comfortable being who I am and couldn't care less about peer pressure, but it begs the question... Do Christians choose Christianity based a great deal on peer pressure?

"Thou shalt cherry-pick thy Words of God as ye chooseth, use thy Word to condemn those you hate, and still claimeth to be loving everyone. Also, ignoreth any of thy Word that is inconvenient or at least claim that said passage was symbolic and chastise the skeptics for not reading in context."

Do we really ALL have some kind of faith? As an atheist, I am sometimes scolded by theists for discounting the value of faith, because I supposedly have used faith my whole life and do so on a daily basis. However, I completely disagree.

Is it faith to think that I will not get into a car wreck and die on the way to work? Is it fair to call it faith when I believe that my car will start when I want it to? Is it faith to believe that my car will not only start, but won't blow up and kill me?

How far is too far? I don't believe it takes any faith at all to believe that my car will start, because it has started for me so many times before, and has not been giving me any trouble lately. I also think it's ridiculous to say that believing my car will not explode is an act of faith, but no more ridiculous than saying I have faith that it will start.

Do I have faith that gravity will keep my *** firmly planted in this chair while I type on a keyboard that I have faith will accurately transfer the letters and words I type onto my computer screen and faith that the computer will successfully submit this question onto Yahoo to allow others to read and respond?

I don't think it's right to call such beliefs a type of faith. They are things that I have learned to expect based on a lifetime of experience.

So am I incorrectly understanding the meaning of faith? Is there another example that would be better to show that I do use faith regularly?

I hear the argument that the subjective morality that humans are capable of is not as good as the objective morality that god has. For instance, the Nazis thought they were doing the right thing, but obviously with an objective morality everyone would know that was wrong.

But what about god? Can we really call his morality objective? He has killed first born children, sent plagues, flooded the entire world and destroyed cities. Thou shalt not kill! (unless I command you to) After destroying those cities he rewards the attacking armies by letting them have the livestock and the women. Thou shalt not steal nor covet thy neighbor's wife (unless I give them to you as reward for you victories)

Oh I know! I must be taking this out of context, because those teachings were meant for another time.... but if god's morality is objective, then how can it change based on the time period? Does that mean god changed? If we accept that maybe there is a good reason for holding people in different times and places to different standards, doesn't that make any and all morality subjective?

that blue is accurate and correct? I don't care if you can show me that some things are blue, because that does not prove how accurate or correct it is. I don't care how you define blue, I just want to see proof and evidence that blue is accurate and correct...

Think this is a stupid question to ask? Yea, me too.

Now, for anyone who may have ever thought that asking the same question of atheism was a valid question, perhaps when the same question is asked of blue you can see how ridiculous the question really is.

The 12 disciples suffered agonizing deaths because they chose to continue spreading the word of God, rather than be quiet and be allowed to live.

Atheists risk eternal damnation because they do not accept Jesus as their Lord and savior.

Both chose what they believe in their hearts to be true instead of giving in to a threat, but atheists are risking eternity in hell, while the disciples risked finite pain until death brought them presumably to eternal paradise in heaven.

So... who is more noble?

but there is a punishment, and if you lose you will be tortured. Groups of people are dropped in random spots around an island, and each group is given a map to find paradise. However, each map is different and takes the followers to a different part of the island; only one map shows the safe path to paradise. Now some people from other groups may accidentally bump into the ones with the true map and choose to follow them instead, but no one knows for sure which map leads to paradise.

Would you want to participate in this game show? Would you want to put your life and happiness on the line for this?

What if God's plan is basically the same, except we have no choice but to play the game and be either punished or rewarded based on which "map" we follow? There is no proofs that show any religious book to be any more reliable than the others, yet (if there is a God) then we will still be judged based on our ability to correctly guess which religion we will follow?

Can such a god really be called just?

That would be like playing the same video game on mega-easy for your entire life... sounds like hell to me.

I think I've seen far worse than that.