an agnostic
We don't know if there was an intelligent force behind the big bang or not. The exquisite patterns found in nature, human consciousnees, ethical impulses etc. cause some people to believe there was. I don't know and admit I don't know and am therefore an agnostic.
Some people postulate that the creator of the universe spoke using a human language. On the basis of that belief religions developed: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, for example. These religions have inspired the best and the worst from humanity but are nonetheless based to a large extent on the essentially psychotic notion that God "spoke". Christianity plunges a little deeper and asserts that "God" took on a human form and suffered the tortures that God made possible as a "sacrifice" for the "sins" that he also made possible in order that we "might' be able to spend an eternity at his side.
We have vast amounts of evidence which shows that human beings lie, hallucinate, fear death, feel guilty and seek to delude and aggrandize themselves. What we don't have is a single scrap of hard scientific evidence that God spoke. Yes, we have the testimony of some prophets, whom we admire, and hundreds of thousands of psychotics whom we tend to admire less, but perhaps there is less to differentiate them than some people think. That is my point.
Somebody is right here and somebody is wrong. "God" caused the molecules in the air to vibrate according to the patterns established by a number of languages: Hebrew, Greek if I am not mistaken, or he didn't. Some people believe that he did. I think it is an insane belief to hold given what we now know about the physical world and human psychology. I don't think that people like RDO are completely crazy, just crazy in relation to their religious beliefs. Like the prophets he can function beautifully I imagine, perhaps a lot better than people with no "faith" in an omniscient, compassionate God. Religious faith certainly has it's value as a defense mechanism and that is why it is so common. There is no convincing logical reason to accept it as literal fact however and otherwise perfectly intelligent people who continue to do so are deluding themselves.
Some people postulate that the creator of the universe spoke using a human language. On the basis of that belief religions developed: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, for example. These religions have inspired the best and the worst from humanity but are nonetheless based to a large extent on the essentially psychotic notion that God "spoke". Christianity plunges a little deeper and asserts that "God" took on a human form and suffered the tortures that God made possible as a "sacrifice" for the "sins" that he also made possible in order that we "might' be able to spend an eternity at his side.
We have vast amounts of evidence which shows that human beings lie, hallucinate, fear death, feel guilty and seek to delude and aggrandize themselves. What we don't have is a single scrap of hard scientific evidence that God spoke. Yes, we have the testimony of some prophets, whom we admire, and hundreds of thousands of psychotics whom we tend to admire less, but perhaps there is less to differentiate them than some people think. That is my point.
Somebody is right here and somebody is wrong. "God" caused the molecules in the air to vibrate according to the patterns established by a number of languages: Hebrew, Greek if I am not mistaken, or he didn't. Some people believe that he did. I think it is an insane belief to hold given what we now know about the physical world and human psychology. I don't think that people like RDO are completely crazy, just crazy in relation to their religious beliefs. Like the prophets he can function beautifully I imagine, perhaps a lot better than people with no "faith" in an omniscient, compassionate God. Religious faith certainly has it's value as a defense mechanism and that is why it is so common. There is no convincing logical reason to accept it as literal fact however and otherwise perfectly intelligent people who continue to do so are deluding themselves.
posted by david at 8:18 AM
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