Today I visited my girls grave.

“clev, ive watched you analyze God and such so many times………. it gets old.”

Oh, you mean… kinda like how it gets old for me to hear about your imaginary friend “god,” constantly?

What was that thing Jesus said about casting stones?

It’s similar to that thing about glass houses…

@CDL:

“God doesn’t contradict with any scientific or logical evidence you could bring forward.”

Change that to “God doesn’t contradict with anything you could say that i will allow myself to accept as valid.”

For me, it’s more like: “Everything that can be defined as valid, both shows and contradicts continued belief in what is not evidenced.”

If i allow your opinion that belief in god legitimately makes sense, then you should allow my opinion that you have misinterpreted reality. And i can totally understand why many people are inclined to do exactly that. I wish i could change it for all of you, but that’s a choice you have to make on your own… or not at all.

That’s a tough question DT.

I think we are technically capable of refraining from discussing theism… but i think some people feel the need to interject their religious beliefs, every time anyone mentions any of the characters from the bible (like you did in your OP).

And i would have to agree, if you were to suggest that “this type of thing” is one of the reasons you’re not so sure about continuing to live in this world. It bothers me too; which is why i feel like i have to say something, when people go around insisting god exists, and is this or that, and isn’t this or that, and blah blah blah.

I honestly think no one has the slightest clue what “God” is, or isn’t. It’s just an idea that people’s imaginations tend to run away with, quite often and easily.

Like Rogue said, in his comment to sunnygirl: “…it’ll die if people stop thinking about it.”

It’s hard to not think about it, when everyone’s always bringing it up. I keep hoping that if i point out why it’s absurd, people will realize, and stop thinking about it, and stop bringing it up. But that doesn’t seem like it’s working.

@CDL:

No, actually; the OP clearly requested we NOT have this “stupid discussion about God.”

The God people are the ones who want to tell everyone that “God is the answer.”

Atheists like myself, want to find real answers, not waste our lives talking about imaginary characters. The fact that so many people insist on bringing “God” into every discussion, which then requires the efforts of people like me, to show why that’s both irrelevant and detracts from the point of discussion, and also assaults any readers with having to sort through “that stupid discussion about god,” is the problem. It bothers me. Why can’t we just assume we’re all alone in the universe, and attempt to solve our own problems, rather than “praying to god” that some magic will fix things for us, so that we won’t have to come up with our own solutions?

Let’s take some responsibility for our situations and try to solve problems with real solutions. Even if god does exist, he’s obviously absent in nearly all cases where people seem to need solutions they don’t have. So let’s solve problems, rather than debating endlessly about whether or not 3-5 billion people’s varied definitions of their imaginary super-friend, actually exists, or will ever help anyone solve a problem.

Treating me politely isn’t going to convince me that god exists.

And lol.

Before you start being antagonistic again, i was about to comment something like “i’m trying to allow us to coexist.”

I think maybe you missed the point.

I have no problem with not talking about or thinking about “God.”

Other people bring that shit into almost every comment they make.

Because i happen to be here, and because, as was recently emphasized, “people are young and impressionable and vulnerable,” i’m afraid for those vulnerable people being exploited by the religious, who want them to believe in completely ineffective non-solutions, based on utterly false premises, and defeat the capabilities of their minds to critically think, which is a prerequisite for finding real solutions to real problems in the world.

And so many of those people will fall victim to religious conversion, and wait around for their “prayers to be answered,” instead of understanding and accepting that they must think and act toward their solutions, if they hope for anything to actually improve. And when they sit around waiting for prayers to work, and it doesn’t happen, they’ll be right back here, freaking out, not understanding “why god hates/ignores/punishes them.” Still without real solutions.

So yeah. You could say i feel pretty entitled to be intolerant of that idea… and i’ve seen it carried out, far too may times… even experienced it myself, in the past. I know it’s something we should be trying to help EVERYONE AVOID, and NOT something anyone should be condoning, advocating, or encouraging.

So i get pretty riled up when i see people condoning, advocating, encouraging, and exercising those highly detrimental tactics, in an environment full of vulnerable and impressionable people, who are very likely to be further harmed by it.