(NOTE: This was posted by someone else, but in the wrong area. Since I don’t have the ability to move comments, I just copied and pasted it here. I’m not sure if the poster will ever see this, but I apologize. I hope you realize that I didn’t just delete your comment. – Chris)
david
myexpandinguniverse.com
Submitted on 2015/08/04 at 11:40 AM
i know my website is ghetto, but cool thing is i took Discover April 2004 and made a conversation piece out of it. i absolutely love science of all kinds. thing is, i have the same evidence everyone else has to determine if God exists or not. i have pondered way too much for way too many years, even into the decades about the nature of it all – if God exists and who may know, what clues or “evidence”, cookie crumbs, etc. are left behind to help us discover him. obviously, true belief is simply in the spirit somewhere. SO, if God exists, how would he contact us? who would God receive to himself into eternity? i think it boils down largely, if not completely to this: desire. do we want God? if we do, God will draw us to himself.
well, i could keep writing, but that describes the end node pretty completely i think. answer yes or no to each node, each crossroads. my theology got redefined when i was 34. i asked myself, “do i want to crawl out of my grave, and have eternal life?” yes or no. i answered yes, so i kept moving fwd. i still am.
if your answer is “no, i do not want to seek this loving, all-knowing, creator God” – then that’s all, folks! nothing will really pull you along, in my opinion. but who knows, anything i suppose could happen if this omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent God who cares wanted to do whatever.
on creation, would you say that the sophistication of the dolphin’s echo location could likely have been formed in a mere few million years? or the salt-water adaptation of the sea mammals? if you force your answer into Yes because, well there is no God so that is the way it HAD to happen, then i’d suggest relaxing and allowing yourself to theorize how a living creator could possibly influence things to turn out how they did.
on saying that, i cannot come up with anything, because i would have to guess how God did it, scientifically; and, i am like you, i can only see what science has produced, so there. 8D. anyway, i work at AT&T as a software developer, gotta get back to work! thx for being there :).
Just because you “desire” a god, doesn’t mean one actually exists. It’s not that I don’t want there to be a god, or don’t want to seek him. I just haven’t been convinced that it exists. I’ve said before that god claims often come in three parts. First you must demonstrate that a god exists. Then you must demonstrate that you have the correct god. Then you must demonstrate that you know what that god wants or what characteristics it has. You’ve skipped from “I want there to be a god” to claiming that he is “omniscient, omnipresent, (and) omnipotent”. How did you determine that? What evidence do you have to support these claims?
Next, you start off assuming creation. This is a way of forcing a creator into the discussion. We have no evidence that we were created, let alone that we needed to be. As far as evolution (which isn’t a rival to creationism, by the way), I’m not a biologist. Plus it doesn’t have anything to do with atheism. Also, atheism is not the claim that there is no god. I’m not sure you’ve actually read my articles, because I’ve discussed this before. Those who understand evolution aren’t saying that it had to happen that way. They are saying that all of the evidence points to evolution by means of natural selection as the most likely explanation.
Finally you show the root of the problem when you say “I cannot come up with anything…” That’s a logical fallacy called an argument from ignorance. Just because you don’t know how something happened doesn’t mean that “god did it” wins by default. You’d actually have to prove it. And it’s ok to say that you don’t know the answer.
4 Comments
David
(NOTE: This was posted by someone else, but in the wrong area. Since I don’t have the ability to move comments, I just copied and pasted it here. I’m not sure if the poster will ever see this, but I apologize. I hope you realize that I didn’t just delete your comment. – Chris)
david
myexpandinguniverse.com
Submitted on 2015/08/04 at 11:40 AM
i know my website is ghetto, but cool thing is i took Discover April 2004 and made a conversation piece out of it. i absolutely love science of all kinds. thing is, i have the same evidence everyone else has to determine if God exists or not. i have pondered way too much for way too many years, even into the decades about the nature of it all – if God exists and who may know, what clues or “evidence”, cookie crumbs, etc. are left behind to help us discover him. obviously, true belief is simply in the spirit somewhere. SO, if God exists, how would he contact us? who would God receive to himself into eternity? i think it boils down largely, if not completely to this: desire. do we want God? if we do, God will draw us to himself.
well, i could keep writing, but that describes the end node pretty completely i think. answer yes or no to each node, each crossroads. my theology got redefined when i was 34. i asked myself, “do i want to crawl out of my grave, and have eternal life?” yes or no. i answered yes, so i kept moving fwd. i still am.
if your answer is “no, i do not want to seek this loving, all-knowing, creator God” – then that’s all, folks! nothing will really pull you along, in my opinion. but who knows, anything i suppose could happen if this omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent God who cares wanted to do whatever.
on creation, would you say that the sophistication of the dolphin’s echo location could likely have been formed in a mere few million years? or the salt-water adaptation of the sea mammals? if you force your answer into Yes because, well there is no God so that is the way it HAD to happen, then i’d suggest relaxing and allowing yourself to theorize how a living creator could possibly influence things to turn out how they did.
on saying that, i cannot come up with anything, because i would have to guess how God did it, scientifically; and, i am like you, i can only see what science has produced, so there. 8D. anyway, i work at AT&T as a software developer, gotta get back to work! thx for being there :).
Chris Dantes
Good evening,
Just because you “desire” a god, doesn’t mean one actually exists. It’s not that I don’t want there to be a god, or don’t want to seek him. I just haven’t been convinced that it exists. I’ve said before that god claims often come in three parts. First you must demonstrate that a god exists. Then you must demonstrate that you have the correct god. Then you must demonstrate that you know what that god wants or what characteristics it has. You’ve skipped from “I want there to be a god” to claiming that he is “omniscient, omnipresent, (and) omnipotent”. How did you determine that? What evidence do you have to support these claims?
Next, you start off assuming creation. This is a way of forcing a creator into the discussion. We have no evidence that we were created, let alone that we needed to be. As far as evolution (which isn’t a rival to creationism, by the way), I’m not a biologist. Plus it doesn’t have anything to do with atheism. Also, atheism is not the claim that there is no god. I’m not sure you’ve actually read my articles, because I’ve discussed this before. Those who understand evolution aren’t saying that it had to happen that way. They are saying that all of the evidence points to evolution by means of natural selection as the most likely explanation.
Finally you show the root of the problem when you say “I cannot come up with anything…” That’s a logical fallacy called an argument from ignorance. Just because you don’t know how something happened doesn’t mean that “god did it” wins by default. You’d actually have to prove it. And it’s ok to say that you don’t know the answer.
Here are my articles on these topics.
Bad Arguments: Personal Incredulity
https://www.chrisdantes.com/bad-arguments-personal-incredulity/
Minirant: Evolution vs. Creationism
https://www.chrisdantes.com/minirant-evolution-vs-creationism/
Atheism vs. Agnosticism
https://www.chrisdantes.com/atheism-vs-agnosticism/
Have a great day,
Chris
Chris Dantes
How much to buy your website domain? I am serious. Thank you.
Chris Dantes
Sorry. It’s not for sale. I mean, maybe if you offered a million dollars or something ludicrous like that, I might consider it.