God - i fancy a good old debate

[seal!]

Does anyone else think that "God" was just something that was used as an excuse for not being able to explain the "big questions"? I mean, if you think about it, it was quite a good excuse for people to use.

Man - "How did we get here?"

Philosopher - "oh, it was God"

Man - "ah, of course, so, how was the earth made?"

Philosopher - "oh, that was God too"

Man - "oh right, what about the stars and planets?"

Philosopher - "yeah, that would be God as well"

I'm sure a lot of people don't agree with me, I just think that it's a convenience that got out of hand.

All opinions are welcome.

[seal!]

By the way, I'm not an atheist. If people were wondering.

[rosyrussell]

Didn't someone once write that if there was no God, then Man would invent Him? I think that it is self preservation to be honest. By a quirk of evolution, our brains grew so big that we were given the curse of thought, and with that curse came the belief that we were in some way different to other animals! Inventing a God was the only way we could cope with the fact that though we could think, we couldnt always come up with rational answers. Well that is my take on it anyway! Its easier to blame some celestial being for things going wrong than having nobody to blame.

[vehelpfulguy]

I have to say I agree with you.

As humans we are very small insignificant items in the whole scheme of things. If you actually try to think how massive the universe is it can do your head in (and what is "outside" the universe).

So we try to package it all up by saying God did it all. That way we can just think of God rather than the whole universe.

Of course there is a sinister side, the various churches use God and the power of religion to keep their members under control.

Look how rich the "church" has got in history, by making people pay to "buy off" their sins.

Look at the wars and suffering caused by leaders saying their religion is better than someone elses.

And the Catholic Church put Gallileo under house arrest for years purely because he said the Earth went round the sun. It was true, but the catholic church didnt agree with him.

And look at all the furore in the last few weeks just because someone drew a cartoon of a religious leader.

And you cant eat certain meats, or work on a Saturday, and all sorts of other strange behaviour, all in the name of religion.

[mibn2cweus]

'God', is a term use to personify the universe. Unfortunately 'God' is no better understood than our inability to achieve complete understanding which led to our invention of �God� in the first place. Claims by those who purport some understanding of what/who 'God' is are reinforced by those who are unable to refute such claims.

The term 'God' is used in much the same way as the term �randomness� is used to describe events for which we have not yet learned the complete chain of cause and effect relationships which brought about the event. Sometimes causality is too complex to fully understand how some events occur, however randomness like �God� does not exist in reality and does nothing to solve such dilemmas.

The failure to refute the existence of �God� leads to many unfortunate outcomes, some of which have already been alluded to in this thread. Belief in the existence of �God� aggravates our ability to understand our existence and the world we live in by subverting our reasoning ability.

Shortcuts to understanding, such as faith and wishful thinking, lead us down blind alleys that result in a dead end to achieving an understanding of reality. Such understanding requires the patience to rely on a piece meal learning process based on our only link to reality, the evidence provided by our faculties of perception and a reasoned analysis of them that comes with the wisdom of experience.

I am predisposed for the near future but as I find time I will attempt to refute any �evidence� submitted for the existence of �God�. My hope is that any success in this will inspire a return to reason for the benefits to all, direct and indirect, that this offers. We can learn much from others if we rely as individuals on our own rational judgement; otherwise we are up the creek without a paddle.

[potterfan3]

I agree with you, but without relgion to start of with, we wouldn't have law and order now

[mibn2cweus]

potterfan3, Do we? This might make an interesting topic in itself. I am unaware of the historical role of religion in establishing civil obedience though I am willing to learn. Reasonable people understand the value of mutually beneficial relationships and mutual respect and cooperation.

[seal!]

i have to dissagree with you potterfan3, I don't think that religeon had anything to do with law and order.

[potterfan3]

Think about it

Caveman1: stop killing them people

Caveman2:why

Caveman1: Or you will suffer forever in hell

Caveman2: ok then

This then evloved into our society and we now think not killing people is acceptable

[Postdog]

I agree with you entirely. I believe there is some historical basis for a lot of religion, but that things have over time become distorted or explained away in such a way they have got further from the truth. For example, I beleive there was a Jesus, but my own theory is that he was a con man of the time, whether maliciously or otherwise, and because things couldn't be explained better, he got the following he did.

It was only about a hundred years or do ago that religion played a far bigger role in society than it does now, and even in my lifetime (50 years) I have seen science and social devolopment explain things that were previously regarded as religious domain.

I'm not an atheist either. I'm agnostic, but I respect the right of others to believe in whatever God they choose - I just choose to believe in myself first.

[Greedyfly]

Scaremongering - allI

[Greedyfly]

All I have to say

[mindimplode]

What about events that are (as yet) still unexplainable by science. Eg, Paranormal activity has huge sceptisism surrounding it. We just don't understand and so obscure theories are concocted. I hope one day soon somebodys theory will be proven correct and we can all go "ah, right", and stop bickering over it. (Thats papanormal activity - not the whole god thing. I think that one may never be proven/disproven).

[dohnutdic]

"GOD" is all a lie, a creation to answer what used to be unanswerable questions. You'd be better of putting your faith in Svens men winng the world cup.

[bigveg]

did you hear about the dyslexic, agnostic insomniac?

he sat up all night wondering if there was a dog.

[SlimySySy]

So much for your debate Seal, we all agree with you.

[elginsmarble]

Human consciousness is derived from the complex electrical interactions in the brain. Would it then be possible that God exists in, for example, the Higgs Field - a concept used to explain the exisence of gravitational attraction? )The Higgs boson was discovered in 2000 but no media attention was paid because a new season of Big Brother [yawn] just started.)