The absence of a belief that God exists is technically the only thing that makes an atheist an atheist. Beyond that, there’s nothing one is required to believe to be an atheist.
If God existed and wanted me to believe he existed, I think he would have said something to me by now. I’ve tried to communicate with him many, many, times but have failed every time. The most likely explanation for this fact is that God doesn’t exist.
Well, that depends on what things you regard to be a “belief”. If it is something you think to be true without having any empirical evidence for it, then there are some things I “believe”. Like every natural number has a successor. Or “if A==true && A==B then B==true”.
No. Everybody may do or believe whatever he likes, unless he leaves me alone with it. I do not frown at church goers but at proselytisers. In fact I think missionary zeal is one of the biggest threats to freedom and peace the world has seen, therefore I do not impose my views on others. But I am happy to explain them, which leads to:
Wow, that’s a long story. Basically it comes down to this:
Hi Carl, it was you who brought me here a couple of month ago, when you were talking rubbish about atheists. I just explained my point of view, just answered the question of the OP. If that is so convincing, that it “converts” people to atheism - welcome to the real world but I don’t really care.
On the contrary - that is perfectly logical. It assumes that logic is a way to gain insights. As I have pointed out, you may cast aside logic and believe irrational things to escape the described dilemma. I for my part regard my logic very high, it serves me well in all kinds of errands. I see no reason why it should fail here.
“Eternity” does not mean a never-ending trip through time; eternity is the state of existing outside time. Those who reside in eternity are not subject to time; God, as the Creator of time, has complete control over it. I’m afraid that the idea of God being able to end His own existence is a non sequitur, as “ending” implies “beginning”, and neither of those concepts are pertinent when dealing with eternity.
A classic, to be sure - a classic logical fallacy. You proceed from conflicting premises: if there is an Irresistable Force, there can be no Immovable Object; if there is an Immovable Object, there can be no Irresistable Force. You try to use logic to prove that God does not exist, and wind up hoist by your own petard.
Can God tell a lie? no.
Actually, your answers have the making of a decent argument in favor of atheism or even apathetic agnosticism. I agree that AnAtheist was careless in the choice of words, but I also seem to recall that English isn’t his or her native language.
my point exactly
It is not only assumption, there is a great deal of observation too.
And what about God? He exists for what reason? Who or what created God? Same question, same answer.
Are you implying, that God exists but does not interact with this universe? If there is interaction, then observation must be possible. If not - a universe without divine interaction is undistinguishable from one without a god.
Logic is a tool to judge the truthfulness of statements based on the truthfulness of other statements. It is just a tool to determine truth, not truth itself. If we cannot rely on logic to find the truth all discussion becomes irrelavent.
that is one likely explanation, but there are others. for instance, He may have answered before you got call waiting. He may have given an answer you did not like and you disregarded it. He may have spoken, as He usually does, through other people and institutions whose authority you have rejected (for reasons that no doubt seem valid to you). He may have answered in the still, small voice which was drowned out by the thunder and lightening and the mighty wind.
I’m not sure about the analogy you’re making here. Or are you just being funny?
I’ve received no answer at all - not even one I didn’t like.
That seems rather impersonal and prone to error as his message gets filtered and diluted as it passes through fallible human beings. Do you reject the notion that God desires a personal relationship with each and every human being?
I’m not quite sure what your metaphor means here but if God is omnipotent then he should be able to speak above any noise.
God wouldn’t necessarily have to take on the form of a human being. A voice from the sky or in my head would be fine.