"Is Atheism a Belief or a Lack of Belief?"

Originally posted by Fetchmyjunk
Hold on, so you believe god doesn't exist and you don't believe he doesn't exist? That doesn't make any sense.

To answer you question, life would not make any sense if God was not in the picture. I don't think a life without God makes any sense whatsoever. I don't think life can create itself. The human body is more complex than a spaceship, don't th ...[text shortened]... designed. However you look at it something has always existed. And that thing I believe is God.

I never said that I believed god doesn't exist, that wasn't part of your question. I said that I didn't believe that god does exist, which is an entirely different animal.

Your argument that life 'doesn't make sense' without god being in the picture doesn't seem very convincing to me. Why do you feel that life needs to 'make sense'? It doesn't seem to make much sense to me much of the time! I am quite able to concieve that myself and everything else might be a happy accident. And your argument that the complexity of the human body requires a creator seems positively perverse to me. There are so many obvious flaws in the design of living things that to propose they were deliberately created that way seems, well, highly illogical. I don't claim to understand how life came about, or the details of all the mechanisms involved in the evolution of higher beings such as ourselves, but then, but there are lots of things I don't understand. Just because I don't understand something, doesn't instil a need in me to resort to belief in the supernatural! And how do you know something has always existed? That sounds like something of a stretch. I'm not sure I buy into any of current theories for the beginning of the universe, but then frankly i'm not sure I actually understand a lot of the finer details thereof. However, to imagine that my failure to understand it means that it 'must' be a creation of some all-powerful superbeing seems to me to vastly overestimate my, and indeed, my species', knowledge of the nature of the universe. I'm happy to just accept that its something I'll probably never know. There are a lot of questions which can't be answered. I don't feel a need to choose between competing theories for these things.

Originally posted by Ghost of a Duke
I have stated quite clearly old chap that I have no idea how life (existence or the universe) came into existence, other than i do not believe it was the action of a God I do not believe in.

I do however have some understanding of how life evolved, but that is a different conversation than how life came into being. I have also not made the statem ...[text shortened]... from nothing. That was merely a statement made by fetchmyjunk so that he could argue against it.

There was a point in time where there was no life. Which means either something started life or nothing did (which means life started itself). So if you reject the notion that something started life or that life started itself, what are the other options?

Originally posted by Fetchmyjunk
There was a point in time where there was no life. Which means either something started life or nothing did (which means life started itself). So if you reject the notion that something started life or that life started itself, what are the other options?

Maybe life in some form has always existed. Perhaps time itself is a construct of a finite mind. Perhaps existence is circular rather than linear. Who can say....

Originally posted by Ghost of a Duke
I have stated quite clearly old chap that I have no idea how life (existence or the universe) came into existence, other than i do not believe it was the action of a God I do not believe in.

I do however have some understanding of how life evolved, but that is a different conversation than how life came into being. I have also not made the statem ...[text shortened]... from nothing. That was merely a statement made by fetchmyjunk so that he could argue against it.

Well in my view having some insight into a process does nothing in addressing how everything got here, it isn't even the same conversation! If we have No idea on how it all started how can you rule out God, best cast you have no idea.

Originally posted by Ghost of a Duke
I appreciate it is a salient question, for you.

Curious as to why your Self Proclaimed Forum Title reads: "Never Sleeps".

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
Curious as to why your Self Proclaimed Forum Title reads: "Never Sleeps".

Because he's a Ghost! 😉

Originally posted by Ghost of a Duke
Maybe life in some form has always existed. Perhaps time itself is a construct of a finite mind. Perhaps existence is circular rather than linear. Who can say....

There has always been the potential for life as we know it to occur, whenever the conditions are right. Given all the variations on conditions that exist in the physical universe, it's should not be surprising or remarkable that it exists in those pockets of variation that.allow it.

Originally posted by JS357
There has always been the potential for life as we know it to occur, whenever the conditions are right. Given all the variations on conditions that exist in the physical universe, it's should not be surprising or remarkable that it exists in those pockets of variation that.allow it.

Well, considering the life as we know it here on earth I would be wary of any life we actually discovered elsewhere.

Just a thought.

Originally posted by KellyJay
Well in my view having some insight into a process does nothing in addressing how everything got here, it isn't even the same conversation! If we have No idea on how it all started how can you rule out God, best cast you have no idea.

I rule out the Christian description of God on other grounds having nothing to do with 'knowing how it all started'. I do not rule out a 'creator', but I do find it highly unlikely and certainly not 'necessary'. Positing a creator doesn't answer any questions and just raises new questions.

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
Curious as to why your Self Proclaimed Forum Title reads: "Never Sleeps".

Why is that curious? I have spoken many times about being an insomniac.

How is that even relevant?

Originally posted by Ghost of a Duke
Maybe life in some form has always existed. Perhaps time itself is a construct of a finite mind. Perhaps existence is circular rather than linear. Who can say....

So you reject the big bang theory or did life exist before the big bang? Or did you just not think that one through?

Conveniently you only refer to scientific theories when it suits you.

Originally posted by Fetchmyjunk
Conveniently you only refer to scientific theories when it suits you.

What about you? Do you refer to scientific theories all the time, none of the time, or only when it suits you?

Originally posted by Fetchmyjunk
So you reject the big bang theory or did life exist before the big bang? Or did you just not think that one through?

Conveniently you only refer to scientific theories when it suits you.

Maybe you didn't think through my use of the words 'maybe' and 'perhaps.'

Originally posted by Ghost of a Duke
Maybe you didn't think through my use of the words 'maybe' and 'perhaps.'

Yes maybe you are an atheist, perhaps you are not, nothing is certain with you.

Originally posted by FMF
What about you? Do you refer to scientific theories all the time, none of the time, or only when it suits you?

I have no problem with the Big Bang or most scientific theories for that matter. God spoke, and bang, it happened.