Sure.
I think I've heard every theist argument.
- Thread starter KingMerv00
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Sure.
KingMerv00
Penultimate Amazing
And your "nothing" is better than your neighbor's "nothing" how?
Does this "something" have any attributes that you know of?
blobru
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Jonestown: cult leader Jim Jones. A couple of feds nosing around his commune were shot, then he and 900+ followers [i think] drank cyanide-laced kool-aid.
Waco might be a more recent example, depending on whose account of how the fire started you believe.
A common refrain akin to the "winning locker room" argument: "First of all, I like to thank God for givin' me strength to beat my opponent to a bloody pulp..."
(refutation: the bloody pulp believed in God too.)
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ponderingturtle
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Actualy it was a congressman named Leo Ryan
blobru
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Sorry, federal employees. He was shot dead and his aide Jackie Speier was wounded five times.
I wanted to draw the comparison to Waco, which was also a showdown between cult and federal authority.
In hindsight, referring to a man who was gunned down doing his job as one of a "couple of feds" seems flip and callous on my part.
RIP.
Did I say it was better?
A creator...something that holds everything together?
Probably along the lines of the Christian God...but I'm not so fundamental in my approach towards him.
The first one is the one I'm referring too.
Obviously their faith didn't help them much.
What happened in Waco?
Well, that's very ... vague of you.
Do you think that there has to be a "creator"? If so, what created the creator?
Do you think that "everything" needs to be "held together"? Why?
What does "along the lines of the Christian God" mean? Omnipotent? Omniscient? All-loving? Three-in-one? Male?
Does this entity impact on the universe, and more particularly on the Earth, and even more particularly on humanity, today? Did it ever?
The whole essence of a creator is that he was the beginning.
Where do you think everything came from? The original source?
Yes.
Along those lines yes. Male? I never realized that gender was a defining qualification of God.
Yes. Obviously as a creator it would impact everything it created.
blobru
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That was David Koresh in the early '90s. When officers tried to search his Branch Davidian compound for a weapons cache, shooting broke out and several were killed. After a prolonged siege and negotiations in which some cult members were allowed to surrender, the compound was stormed with armored tanks. A fire started (some investigators say deliberately by cult members committing suicide, some say by the tanks)... in any event, 75 people inside, including Koresh, perished in the blaze.
Seismosaurus
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May I ask why?
I don't know. I don't understand the physics around the Big Bang. However, I do understand that declaring a god to be the "beginning" only pushes the question back a step: what created the creator? If the creator didn't need a creator, then why does the universe?
You didn't explain why you think everything needs to be held together.
Every Bible I've seen refers to the Christian God as "He" and "Father".
And if you think that God is all-knowing, all-powerful and all-loving, you will need to deal with the problem of evil.
Would you not expect there to be some evidence of this impact?
Thank you!
I remember reading something about that.
Wasn't there a movie made about such a following?
Because I'm pre-programmed to believe in God?
How the heck should I explain 'why' I believe in God?
Aha.
You've now officially stumped me.
But I do believe that a Big-bang is a very possible explanation for the birth of the universe. That does not mean that there wasn't a supernatural being that created it.
Yes, what created the creator? Nobody seems to know that answer.
Okay, I mis-worded my original answer.
I believe that a supernatural being, God, created the universe is such a way that it could evolve by itself. So, your 'why' question should not be directed towards that, but towards my belief of a supernatural being having actually 'created' the universe.
To answer that....I sincerely believe that there had to be a controlling aspect to the creation, simply because of the chances a perfect planet could be created.
Does that mean there are no other perfect planets? No. But those perfect planets must have had perfect circumstances surrounding their creation as well.
And which God have you heard of that isn't referred to as that? Can God have a gender? Perhaps father is a not to be taken as a literal term....rather as a 'father' of the universe.
Yes I know that. Still working on it.
No. Evidence would cite proof...which would nullify faith.
Seismosaurus
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Well how you explain is up to you isn't it? As for whether you can or not... well if not you then who?
Alright...I'll basically give the same answer I gave in another post.
I believe that a supernatural being, God, created the universe is such a way that it could evolve by itself. So, your 'why' question should not be directed towards that, but towards my belief of a supernatural being having actually 'created' the universe.
To answer that....I sincerely believe that there had to be a controlling aspect to the creation, simply because of the chances a perfect planet could be created.
Does that mean there are no other perfect planets? No. But those perfect planets must have had perfect circumstances surrounding their creation as well.
It doesn't mean there was, either.
So, if you're willing to stop there, why are you not willing to stop one question earlier and say you don't know what caused the Big Bang?
The anthropic principle. Have you ever considered that you're throwing a dart at a big wall, then drawing the target around the dart and declaring that you have scored a bulls-eye? The universe is an awfully big place. The odds were very very good that some planet(s) would be "perfect" so as to give rise to life. Earth was (the) one, so we are here to ask the question. If some other planet had been "perfect" we would have been there asking the same question.
And if this being is so powerful, and can create any universe it wishes, doesn't it seem awfully wasteful to create such a vast one just to give rise to us?
There are plenty of gods that have been female, although those have been within pantheons that also included male gods. I just wonder why you adopt so many of the attributes of the Christian god but balk at this one.
Yes I know that. Still working on it.
Good luck with that.
Watch out for those zebra crossings!
Seriously, though, have you considered this? That would imply that God was careful not to leave evidence of his/her/its existence, just so that we could believe by faith. What kind of twisted logic is that? The same kind that makes gardens with one forbidden fruit tree, I guess.
