Loki

Also, where does god send masochists when they've led a life of sin? Isn't torturing them a bit counterproductive?

For instance: "God must exist because humans are complex."

You could substitute 'Zeus' or 'Freya' or 'scientifically advanced aliens' and the sentence would make no less sense. Substitute 'evolution' and it actually makes more sense.

Or: "God must exist because the Bible says he does."

Substitute 'Hermione' and 'Harry Potter', 'Gollum' and 'Lord of the Rings', or 'Oedipus' and 'Sophocles'. As you can see, this isn't proof of anything.

Or even: "I prayed to god and something good happened later."

Substitute 'wished on a star', 'threw a penny in a wishing well', 'made a thousand paper cranes'.

Or: "You can't prove that god doesn't exist, so he must be real."

This same reasoning can be applied to anything from unicorns to the Jabberwock.

I've spoken to many people who say that they only believe in a specific god because their parents told them to. Often these are the same people who say that their god is objectively the correct one. I don't understand.

If so, does this mean that a higher power also created your god?

Some of you will try to say that this has never happened. Please note that intentionally drowning someone is generally considered to be a form of murder.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_myth

Does this sound like the behaviour of someone who feels confident that he will pass the aforementioned test? An all-knowing and all-powerful god would know that he could stand up to any kind of testing or scrutiny without fear of failure.

(Deuteronomy 6:16: “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”)

Bonus question (for those who have blamed it on someone less powerful than god): why does he even allow it to happen?

After all, it's very difficult to prove a negative. How do you know that there are not millions of gods? Remember that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence...

When people's brains are damaged, such as by a stroke or other injury, often their personalities change. This isn't consistent with the idea of the mind as a separate entity from the brain. When the body dies, the brain is deprived of blood, oxygen, and energy, and thus ceases to function; so how could the mind go on?

I know that some people posit the existence of a 'soul', but this is similarly difficult to understand from a biological or neurological standpoint. If it has a physical presence, what is it composed of, and why can it not be detected or measured? If it does not, how can it influence matter? And if the soul can be separated from the body, what prevents this from occurring while a person is still alive?

What are your viewpoints? Is there something I'm missing?

In other words: Atheists, what would need to happen in order for you to believe in a god? Theists, what would make you stop believing in your god?

(1 being 'completely and utterly insignificant' and 10 being 'the most important thing ever')

I know that it may be of philosophical or scientific interest, just as it would be interesting to know whether planets too far away to visit or communicate with are inhabited. But is it of practical importance?

There is a very interesting video on the subject by Lawrence Krauss (a physicist). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjaGktVQdNg

I personally find this easier to believe than the idea of an all-powerful being 'just existing' and one day deciding to create the Universe. However, I don't understand quantum physics well enough to know for sure that this is a reasonable explanation... can anyone shed some light on this for me?

We wouldn't be alive if they hadn't created heavy elements such as carbon and oxygen; nor would our planet exist. Also, the iron in our blood is what destroyed them in the first place, which is a little eerie if you stop and think about it.

Don't they deserve just as much respect as Jesus?

For instance: I am an agnostic atheist, but I agree with many tenets of Buddhism.

Bonus question: what country do you live in?

I'll start. I'm 21, an agnostic atheist (or more accurately, a theological noncognitivist), and I live in England.

Bonus question: by your estimate, what percentage of Earth's inhabitants at the time of the Biblical flood were children, babies, or pregnant women?