Agreed 100%! It's imperative to "disagree without being disagreeable". That's a well-known quote, and oftentimes, many people choose to simply ignore its meaning. There are two topics in this short life of ours that are guaranteed to engender immediate and heated rhetoric: Politics and Religion. Historically, this has always been true, and most people are extremely passionate about both. Resisting the human urge to resort to name-calling can be a tough proposition for (some). As they say (using a boxing axiom) "let's have a clean fight, gentlemen!" Please, no hitting below the belt.
belief is fundamental to religion. In fact it is belief in a god or gods that defines it. If your talking about the church, i kinda get where your're going but they prescribe to the same product they're sellign which belief is the keystone
Well, I read the first post, this kind of topic usually raises a lot of ´love it or hate it´ reactions, so I jumped the rest. But I'm willing to tell you this: When you get rid of the tyranny of a divinity, your life has come to a new height, and the freedom you experiment surpasses largely any social or familial negative reactions. Prepare yourself to be a complete man, with all the responsibilities it brings. I'm on wheelchair with multiple sclerosis, but let me tell you: I would not trade the sensation of being a free thinker and free from the tyranny of this cruel religions' god for any improvement of my overall health. If I do get worse, I'll suffer my pain, but my mind will still be forever healed. No, didn't become an apostate cause of my disease, neither I hate god or believe he hates me. I just don't treat this entity as existent at all. And I'm happy for being responsible for my life and my family's, as well as for my health. This is freedom, an non negotiable good. The best to you.
Amazing story man. And I totally understand where you are coming from. Me personally have a problem believing in nothingness becoming somethingness so a "God" sounds more plausible in my mind. I just don't think that if there actually is one, it would definitely not be the one in the Bible. Doesn't even sound like a God in the Bible... it's terrible the things I've read man.
I might add that a God would still be nothingness becoming somethingness, as you say, So the ´first cause´ ,like theologians advocate solves not the problem, but creates a new one. I really understand the human desperation of their consciousness becoming nothingness, and I somehow share this discomfort, but the truth is much more valuable and comforting than wishful thinking, at least to me. We might add that the existence of God should not be discarded, but is unproved and unsupported by the reality, and possibly improbable anyway, mostly if we talk about the schizophrenic gods that fill the sacred books pages.
And yes, the God of the Bible sounds almost like a devil Himself, puts on shame many devils around. I recommend some listening to The Atheistic Experience in the internet, lost of rich arguments against Bible's shameless morality.
@Chris Wellz, check out this clip and this channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7_gcs09iThXybpVgjHZ_7g the universe didn't become something from nothing with the big bang. Which wasn't really an explosion. As far as we can tell, the universe isn't expanding into anything, only itself. So when all matter was compressed into a singularity it was everywhere all at the same time. and if you can't wrap your head around the hawking level physics don't worry. it's ok to not know. you wouldn't try to categorise a new bacteria found on the arse end of an iceberg, saying, well it must be this or that, cos you really have no idea (unless you're a micro-bioligist). And I'm sure you're ok with not knowing that.
