I really fail to understand this entire issue of anti-theism. If we think about the question logically, I think we can all say humans are defective and that we are not terribly moral agents. Whether God exists or not doesn’t seem to be very relevant in the sense that whether one be an atheist a theist or whatever the idea of becoming a better person morally etc is still important. I would argue that whether you believe in God or not if that belief unfounded or not drives you to behave in a more moral way then so be it. I think it is a fundamental waste of time to debate the unanswerable question of whether God exists it not being provable beyond circumstantial evidence which is open to interpretation. If Goes does exist it makes issues of evolution easier to explain and less surprising that it managed to evolve human intelligence and if not; if the idea of God drives people to be better then great. Sitting here bashing God seems like a bit of an illogical thing to do in the grand scheme of things.
I’m aware this is from 2008, but I just can’t let this stand in case one day an undecided visitor wanders past and reads GenericThinker’s comment. (I also can’t resist pointing out that his handle is rather appropriate.)
1.) Belief in God doesn’t necessarily drive people to behave in a more moral way. Consider Muslim fundamentalist terrorists, for example.
2.) The question of God’s existence is not unanswerable. The evidence for or against God is no more open to interpretation than any other evidence. If God affects the material universe, we can observe the effect(s); if God doesn’t affect the material universe, the question is moot. I believe Mr. Yudkowsky has also written about the fallacious “non-overlapping magisteria” idea.
3.) God’s existence may or may not make “the issues of evolution” (what are these?) easier to explain, but it brings up many, many more questions… like how an omnipotent, omniscient being might come about—a much more surprising phenomenon than mere humans, surely.
I really fail to understand this entire issue of anti-theism. If we think about the question logically, I think we can all say humans are defective and that we are not terribly moral agents. Whether God exists or not doesn’t seem to be very relevant in the sense that whether one be an atheist a theist or whatever the idea of becoming a better person morally etc is still important. I would argue that whether you believe in God or not if that belief unfounded or not drives you to behave in a more moral way then so be it. I think it is a fundamental waste of time to debate the unanswerable question of whether God exists it not being provable beyond circumstantial evidence which is open to interpretation. If Goes does exist it makes issues of evolution easier to explain and less surprising that it managed to evolve human intelligence and if not; if the idea of God drives people to be better then great. Sitting here bashing God seems like a bit of an illogical thing to do in the grand scheme of things.
I’m aware this is from 2008, but I just can’t let this stand in case one day an undecided visitor wanders past and reads GenericThinker’s comment. (I also can’t resist pointing out that his handle is rather appropriate.)
1.) Belief in God doesn’t necessarily drive people to behave in a more moral way. Consider Muslim fundamentalist terrorists, for example.
2.) The question of God’s existence is not unanswerable. The evidence for or against God is no more open to interpretation than any other evidence. If God affects the material universe, we can observe the effect(s); if God doesn’t affect the material universe, the question is moot. I believe Mr. Yudkowsky has also written about the fallacious “non-overlapping magisteria” idea.
3.) God’s existence may or may not make “the issues of evolution” (what are these?) easier to explain, but it brings up many, many more questions… like how an omnipotent, omniscient being might come about—a much more surprising phenomenon than mere humans, surely.
4.) No one is “bashing God.”
We’re bashing theists.