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Permalink Reply by Lionel France on Thursday

How do you know I belieive in God?

You know, to require, either through inducement or threat, for people to adhere to a certain system of belief does not represent the essence and purpose of religion. Yet that is what is so manifest in the world today. Religion has become another form of government—a form of government that seeks power and domination, a form of government that seeks to overcome its competing rivals, the competing agendas of other religions and faiths. And so there is a contest and a kind of war exerted between the most radical elements of these systems of belief. But this is not what religion really is.

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Permalink Reply by Pope OoO (Out of Order) on Thursday

You are so filled with fear and ambition, so easily distracted, so easily manipulated, so easily controlled, so easily dominated by the opinions or the determinations of others, man.

Fortunately, age and experience are opportunities to learn to overcome those pressures.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Povero on Friday

** Narnia fails

"If a lion could speak, we couldn't understand him" -- Wittgenstein.
Philosophical Investigations. section 190e.

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Permalink Reply by Davis Goodman on Saturday

Not believing in god isn't a choice as Satan makes me do it. So it feels icky and uncomfortable. I keep pleading with Lucifer to let me believe in one of the worlds gods...any one at all...but he keeps saying no. And so I feel even more icky. Basically...not believing in god feels really icky and I wouldn't recommend atheism for those who don't like ickiness. I would do anything do just have one icky-free day and sit on a beach while drinking mojitos and believing in god in a non-icky environment. I simply wish I could tell you how uncomfortable it all is when you can't believe in god...that...and the ickiness.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Sarbeck on Saturday

Davis, I enjoyed your spoof. It was a spoof, wasn't it?

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Permalink Reply by Magnus Mayus on Saturday

It feels like putting a target on your forehead sometimes because all those theist become worried about your soul and smother you with their idiotic ways of converting you, first nicely, talking to you as if you are a small child, then more intense, as if talking to a stubborn teenager, and finally, when their frustration sets in with threats, as if you had committed a vile crime.

Other than that it feels fine. No feeling of being watched, judged, or having to do anything out of character.

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Permalink Reply by Magnus Mayus on Saturday

I like that...

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Permalink Reply by Gary Clouse on Saturday

It's pretty much the same as not believing in Zeus, or Pele' or the evil closet-monkey, except those that believe in Zeus or the closet-monkey are much more accepting of non believers than some Christians.

 At least they are not trying to make laws to force their beliefs on everyone.

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Permalink Reply by J T Benjamin on Saturday

It's like not believing in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.  Or, more directly, it's like YOU not believing in every version of a divine being in which you choose not to believe.  I can only presume you have a specific definition of "God" when you say that you believe, and that versions of gods which don't meet that definition are versions in which you don't believe.  I presume you don't believe in the Islamic concept of God called "Allah" or the Zoerastrian version or that of The Church of the Living Elvis or the Flying Spaghetti Monster or Zeus or Jupiter or Vishnu or Brahma or Osiris or Coyote or Quetzalcoatl or the Earth Mother or any of the other multitudes of gods or dieties or creator beings which have been created out of the minds of men and women over the centuries. 

You seem perfectly content to not believe in all those versions of God, just like atheists have.  You've just made an exception.

I don't.

That's what it's like.

 

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Permalink Reply by Pope OoO (Out of Order) on Saturday

It confirms my thoughts about people, not God, who have invented several different scriptures, recycling other stories of supernatural power. They are still inventing and believing in new religions even today. As religion only requires faithful followers for it to seem valid and deserving of respect, critical thinking and science must often be considered as enemies of their presumed "truth". 

Our need to join in common purpose is largely an evolved social drive that drove groups to conform to any purpose that was beneficial or otherwise pressing for the group's survival. As we quickly became increasingly successful at survival in groups, our need to invent and believe in group purpose had to morph into "higher", intellectual but fictional narratives. Many of these narratives were then ascribed divine origin, easily imposed by force, and used as tools to control culture and behavior, for better and for worse.

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