we don't. we just assume that he doesn't exist for the same reason Bertrand Russell assumed the teapot revolving around Mars doesn't exist and for the same reason you assume unicorns, big foot, Santa, and fairies don't exist -- because no one has seen them and there is no empirical proof of their existence except a few minor hoaxes.

to us, God is like Santa Claus for adults.

my new theme song



erikboyd60@hotmail.com

"True poetry can communicate before it is understood"

-T.S. Eliot

battle record:

7-0-0

besides, even if i do make up something completely ridiculous, there is still the possibility of that thing existing, though the chances are really low

no, that isn't true. proof is a mathematical measurement. there is no such thing as scientific proof. will i dismiss anything that isn't supported scientifically by evidence? absolutely.

this is one possibility, however, emotions do exist and evidence of their existence can in fact be provided and if love really is an emotion, or a composite emotion, then it is a brain state or a combination of brain states that can be shown in a brain activity scan. in fact, TheWatcher (who is a Christian btw) posted something that i remembered hearing about in which doctors had discussed that love occurs in a person when certain things take place sparking a chemical reaction in the brain and one of the things that sparks love is sex. basically the article showed that it is not a real bond between two people, but rather just a chemical reaction within one person. with the love we have between family and us, there are different, non-sexual actions that spark a different but similar chemical reaction. i am not necessarily saying i believe this, but this is a theory that is being presented right now. i may have gotten it a bit wrong too because i haven't studied this, but that is what i've heard tossed around.

i would absolutely agree with you there, but why believe in something with such a low chance for it existing? would you believe me if i told you an invisible monster that you will never be able to sense was coming into my room at night? probably not, i would hope (even if everyone else in the world confirmed it and there was an ancient anthology of books written over a span of thousands of years about it by 40 different authors in multiple languages). if not, why would you believe in God under the same circumstances?

yes, everyone says that. oh what a beautiful technicality.

ok, then what about the invisible flying spaghetti monster (that is, btw, intangible)?

where did you get this funky bit of information????? talk to a dog some time and ask it if it believes in God in more seriousness though, ask a Buddhist if they've ever believed in God. belief in God is enculturated, not natural. it is a construct of human ingenuity. as soon as we had an acute awareness of the consequence of our existence we began exploring an answer to why we exist. what was natural, at that point, was to assume within our range of thinking, and due to a lack of knowledge and a need to feel like we knew, God was born.

my new theme song



erikboyd60@hotmail.com

"True poetry can communicate before it is understood"

-T.S. Eliot

battle record:

7-0-0

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6823229.ece

Added (24/Dec/09, 11:37 Am)
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that sort of goes along with what i said. the difference is that the person who wrote that article seems to misunderstand that it's not God or an idea of a creator that scientists believe may have come through the evolutionary process, it is curiosity and creativity which lead to us proposing God:

this article explains it better:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment....ncenews

also, here's a comment on your article:

"The "religious" tendencies they speak about include: fear of the unknown - including paranoia. Basically, our ancestors evolved to be afraid of anything they were unsure about; e.g. strange noises in the woods, the dark, what ever was causing the ground to tremble, etc. Fear - especially during our early evolution - served our survival. Superstition - including religion - is a by-product of that fear and paranoia. Just as our ancestors invented tools(weapons) to control what they feared in their environment, the fearful mind invented rituals and prayer in attempts to control the unknown; e.g. the "deities" making the ground rumble. These weapons acted as a comfort blanket - putting their mind at ease while living in a hostile environment."

http://www.venganza.org/

it is just as plausible as God.

my new theme song



erikboyd60@hotmail.com

"True poetry can communicate before it is understood"

-T.S. Eliot

battle record:

7-0-0

i disagree. i believe it is the fact that other life forms don't have a capacity for rationality or creativity (to our knowledge). it has also been shown that things like symbolism are solely possible by human beings (at least here on earth). non-human animals and other life forms cannot postulate metaphysical questions like "where did we come from?" hell, they may not even be able t question period. it is this very questioning power that leads humans to answers such as "God". while it may be irrational compared to the answers presented by other, more intelligent and rational humans, it is far more intelligent than any answer that any other animal or life form can give. for that reason, God was created because we evolved the ability to postulate such questions, but religion was created for the purpose of order and control.

my new theme song



erikboyd60@hotmail.com

"True poetry can communicate before it is understood"

-T.S. Eliot

battle record:

7-0-0

...maybe...

youre saying religion wasnt created to answer such questions?

no it isnt....in that link, there is no mentioning of his invisibleness.... therefore he is detectable, and again if he is invisible, explain what the "spaghetti" describes...

depends on how you interpret it

what happened to this?

i thought there was no such thing as morals?