Meditations

[azareus]

Out of the two choices:
A. Everything we can witness exists
B. Everything we can witness exists, plus another thing

Why do you think the second one is simpler?

It prevents me from having to think about the first thing, which then gives me time to do other stuff. Let the people interested figure it out. I don't really care about stuff such as this because it has absolutely no practical purpose. You might think I am crazy or stupid for doing this, but that is just, like, your opinion man.

[Redafro]

Wow, tons of responses! Uhmm... I agree the wall of text thing is daunting. I'll try to keep it concise.

Why did you dismiss the possible existence of all the other deities so quickly?

I really haven't dismissed them quickly. I've been working on this stuff for at least 20 years at least. Yes, the only religion I grew up with was Christianity, but I haven't simply dismissed other religions. It can certainly be argued that I'm biased because of that, and that is fine because it doesn't change the fact that I've experienced God through Christianity. I could of course be wrong, but Christianity is pretty exclusive and doesn't leave room for saying "oh, it's Jesus, and Krishna, Buddha, and everybody else." It could be the case, but I have to follow the evidence as I see it. So far, I have not found any other religion as compelling as Christianity. Doesn't mean I'm right of course, just currently convinced.

Are you referring to Pascal's wager here?

That is kind of a "hell's wager," but I'm equally referring to a kind of "heaven's wager," as well as just a straight up "truth's wager." My point has been if you have a consistent argument for God's nature and his apparent absence which states you find evidence for God by desiring him, then there is nothing irrational about that, and it may very well be the truth. I'm.... just still working out the consistency part. XP

So it seems that after all agnosticism is not a bad starting position

Yeah, I'd agree with that.

Gotta go. Type more later.

[Oleander]

What makes Christianity more compelling to you?

[azareus]

What makes Christianity more compelling to you?

It is the state religion.

[Oleander]

I was asking Red.

[Vurn]

there is really no other way for the universe to have started YET

Take for example, the big bang as a theory. Nobody has any proven answer to what caused it (or maybe I am just excessively ignorant). I believe this is true for all other theories of how it all started?

No, there are no proven answers. But that's different from saying there's no other way there are for example the oscillatory bangs/cyclic universe hypothesis, the no boundary hypothesis, the infinite inflation hypothesis, the brane collision/ekpyrotic models and dual theories (in string theory), the big bang lattice models, the loop quantum cosmology, spinfoam cosmology... nearly every theory has its own prediction of what happened XD
Anyways, religious/deistic hypothesis of the origin of the big bang aren't proven either anyways (that I know of). All other no-big-bang theories are practically debunked already because of the CMB radiation.

You can assume a deity created the universe, but there are other ways to explain it. For example, as a personal preference I like the no boundary hypothesis

I don't know about you guys but I think this is a really nice post

[Vortex]

Thanks...
I was already starting to think that everyone skips my nerdy/technical ramblings, lol

[Anteroinen]

Out of the two choices:
A. Everything we can witness exists
B. Everything we can witness exists, plus another thing

Why do you think the second one is simpler?

It prevents me from having to think about the first thing, which then gives me time to do other stuff. Let the people interested figure it out. I don't really care about stuff such as this because it has absolutely no practical purpose. You might think I am crazy or stupid for doing this, but that is just, like, your opinion man.

So, your belief in God is caused by sloth? I don't see why you would ever need to think about the beginning of the universe even if a god didn't exist either. I don't know how the Big Bang happened, I only know it has been proven (beyond reasonable doubt) that it did, and I'm quite happy with that. It is not an issue, because it is largely irrelevant to my life for the reasons you mentioned. What makes you suppose something did it in the first place?

Thanks...
I was already starting to think that everyone skips my nerdy/technical ramblings, lol

Of course not.

[azareus]

Out of the two choices:
A. Everything we can witness exists
B. Everything we can witness exists, plus another thing

Why do you think the second one is simpler?

It prevents me from having to think about the first thing, which then gives me time to do other stuff. Let the people interested figure it out. I don't really care about stuff such as this because it has absolutely no practical purpose. You might think I am crazy or stupid for doing this, but that is just, like, your opinion man.

So, your belief in God is caused by sloth? I don't see why you would ever need to think about the beginning of the universe even if a god didn't exist either. I don't know how the Big Bang happened, I only know it has been proven (beyond reasonable doubt) that it did, and I'm quite happy with that. It is not an issue, because it is largely irrelevant to my life for the reasons you mentioned. What makes you suppose something did it in the first place?

All reactions must have an action causing them. Maybe we find out what caused the big bang at some point. Then we will be stumped at what caused that, and so on. As I see it, at some point we will probably just give up and say that magic did it or whatever... I guess I just grew up with Christianity, and I like its values. I don't really care about the Bible and all of that. Nobody does in Denmark.

[Vortex]

It prevents me from having to think about the first thing, which then gives me time to do other stuff. Let the people interested figure it out. I don't really care about stuff such as this because it has absolutely no practical purpose. You might think I am crazy or stupid for doing this, but that is just, like, your opinion man.

So, your belief in God is caused by sloth? I don't see why you would ever need to think about the beginning of the universe even if a god didn't exist either. I don't know how the Big Bang happened, I only know it has been proven (beyond reasonable doubt) that it did, and I'm quite happy with that. It is not an issue, because it is largely irrelevant to my life for the reasons you mentioned. What makes you suppose something did it in the first place?

All reactions must have an action causing them. Maybe we find out what caused the big bang at some point. Then we will be stumped at what caused that, and so on. As I see it, at some point we will probably just give up and say that magic did it or whatever... I guess I just grew up with Christianity, and I like its values. I don't really care about the Bible and all of that. Nobody does in Denmark.

Neither in Spain. Here 70% of people are supposedly Christian, but only around 15% actually attend mass more than once a month or so... I'd say it's more of a tradition-keeping feeling than actual belief, or... just plain sloth for some. And iirc more than half of all young people are now atheists in many cities.