Why do/don't you believe in a higher power? (Any HP)

[Salandriagado]

Theology is just bad philosophy, and consists entirely of assuming that God exists, and ignoring all evidence to the contrary for ever.

God’s existence can neither be proven nor can it disproven. It takes a leap of faith to assume either. In one hand, you assume that the lack of physical evidence is evidence by itself, but then, you are using science (which seeks answers for the physical) to attempt to know what is metaphysical, which is impossible, since if God exists, He would not limited by the laws of science as He is an onmiscient, omnipresent, and omnibenevolent metaphysical being.

Absence of evidence is evidence of absence. There's no science involved: this is a trivial consequence of basic probability theory.

[The Grims]

Theology is just bad philosophy, and consists entirely of assuming that God exists, and ignoring all evidence to the contrary for ever.

God’s existence can neither be proven nor can it disproven. It takes a leap of faith to assume either. In one hand, you assume that the lack of physical evidence is evidence by itself, but then, you are using science (which seeks answers for the physical) to attempt to know what is metaphysical, which is impossible, since if God exists, He would not limited by the laws of science as He is an onmiscient, omnipresent, and omnibenevolent metaphysical being.

Is this time to mention Russels teapot, the flying spaghettimonster and fairies?

[Ifreann]

Exodus 4:21 - "The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go."

First of all, let us look at the context.

God obviously is going to show His divine power and make the gods of Egypt look like pieces of feces. To do that, He will strike Egypt with the Ten Plagues, each of which overpowers the Egyptian gods and shows their worthlessness. To this end, He hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he will refuse to let Israel go until the last plague, where he finally relents after his firstborn son (and thus the crown princes) died.

In addition, if you are in Pharaoh’s position, you would not want to be the one that dishonours your dynasty by letting an entire people that have been your slaves for 400 years go free, even if you saw your Hebrew half-brother’s staff turn to a snake to eat the snakes of your magicians. Letting the Hebrews go would mean that you are a weak Pharoah's, and you wouldn’t want that.

Overall, the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart can be attributed to two things: God wanting to show His power (thus making the Egyptian pantheon look worthless), and the fact that Pharaoh being a Pharoah would rather not dishonour himself and his dynasty by letting the workforce of the kingdom go.

God carried out a campaign of terrorism, not for the reasons he had his representative give, but for the secret reason of demonstrating his superiority to the Egyptian gods.

God murdered children, MURDERED CHILDREN, to show that his divine dick is bigger than those of the hundreds of Egyptian gods.

That's actually worse than doing it to get the Israelites set free. That's fucking insane. God is dangerous and needs to be stopped. War on Heaven when?

[Genivaria]

First of all, let us look at the context.

God obviously is going to show His divine power and make the gods of Egypt look like pieces of feces. To do that, He will strike Egypt with the Ten Plagues, each of which overpowers the Egyptian gods and shows their worthlessness. To this end, He hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he will refuse to let Israel go until the last plague, where he finally relents after his firstborn son (and thus the crown princes) died.

In addition, if you are in Pharaoh’s position, you would not want to be the one that dishonours your dynasty by letting an entire people that have been your slaves for 400 years go free, even if you saw your Hebrew half-brother’s staff turn to a snake to eat the snakes of your magicians. Letting the Hebrews go would mean that you are a weak Pharoah's, and you wouldn’t want that.

Overall, the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart can be attributed to two things: God wanting to show His power (thus making the Egyptian pantheon look worthless), and the fact that Pharaoh being a Pharoah would rather not dishonour himself and his dynasty by letting the workforce of the kingdom go.

God carried out a campaign of terrorism, not for the reasons he had his representative give, but for the secret reason of demonstrating his superiority to the Egyptian gods.

God murdered children, MURDERED CHILDREN, to show that his divine dick is bigger than those of the hundreds of Egyptian gods.

That's actually worse than doing it to get the Israelites set free. That's fucking insane. God is dangerous and needs to be stopped. War on Heaven when?

Been reading Salvation War I see.

[Free Arabian Nation]

First of all, let us look at the context.

God obviously is going to show His divine power and make the gods of Egypt look like pieces of feces. To do that, He will strike Egypt with the Ten Plagues, each of which overpowers the Egyptian gods and shows their worthlessness. To this end, He hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he will refuse to let Israel go until the last plague, where he finally relents after his firstborn son (and thus the crown princes) died.

In addition, if you are in Pharaoh’s position, you would not want to be the one that dishonours your dynasty by letting an entire people that have been your slaves for 400 years go free, even if you saw your Hebrew half-brother’s staff turn to a snake to eat the snakes of your magicians. Letting the Hebrews go would mean that you are a weak Pharoah's, and you wouldn’t want that.

Overall, the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart can be attributed to two things: God wanting to show His power (thus making the Egyptian pantheon look worthless), and the fact that Pharaoh being a Pharoah would rather not dishonour himself and his dynasty by letting the workforce of the kingdom go.

God carried out a campaign of terrorism, not for the reasons he had his representative give, but for the secret reason of demonstrating his superiority to the Egyptian gods.

God murdered children, MURDERED CHILDREN, to show that his divine dick is bigger than those of the hundreds of Egyptian gods.

That's actually worse than doing it to get the Israelites set free. That's fucking insane. God is dangerous and needs to be stopped. War on Heaven when?

Forcing someone to give up something that will be used as blackmail and then terrorism.

What did Satan do again? Get some chick to eat a fruit?

[Andsed]

First of all, let us look at the context.

God obviously is going to show His divine power and make the gods of Egypt look like pieces of feces. To do that, He will strike Egypt with the Ten Plagues, each of which overpowers the Egyptian gods and shows their worthlessness. To this end, He hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he will refuse to let Israel go until the last plague, where he finally relents after his firstborn son (and thus the crown princes) died.

In addition, if you are in Pharaoh’s position, you would not want to be the one that dishonours your dynasty by letting an entire people that have been your slaves for 400 years go free, even if you saw your Hebrew half-brother’s staff turn to a snake to eat the snakes of your magicians. Letting the Hebrews go would mean that you are a weak Pharoah's, and you wouldn’t want that.

Overall, the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart can be attributed to two things: God wanting to show His power (thus making the Egyptian pantheon look worthless), and the fact that Pharaoh being a Pharoah would rather not dishonour himself and his dynasty by letting the workforce of the kingdom go.

God carried out a campaign of terrorism, not for the reasons he had his representative give, but for the secret reason of demonstrating his superiority to the Egyptian gods.

God murdered children, MURDERED CHILDREN, to show that his divine dick is bigger than those of the hundreds of Egyptian gods.

That's actually worse than doing it to get the Israelites set free. That's fucking insane. God is dangerous and needs to be stopped. War on Heaven when?

DEUS VUL-- Wait no that does not apply here.

[Ifreann]

God carried out a campaign of terrorism, not for the reasons he had his representative give, but for the secret reason of demonstrating his superiority to the Egyptian gods.

God murdered children, MURDERED CHILDREN, to show that his divine dick is bigger than those of the hundreds of Egyptian gods.

That's actually worse than doing it to get the Israelites set free. That's fucking insane. God is dangerous and needs to be stopped. War on Heaven when?

Been reading Salvation War I see.

Don't know it, I'm afraid.

---

God carried out a campaign of terrorism, not for the reasons he had his representative give, but for the secret reason of demonstrating his superiority to the Egyptian gods.

God murdered children, MURDERED CHILDREN, to show that his divine dick is bigger than those of the hundreds of Egyptian gods.

That's actually worse than doing it to get the Israelites set free. That's fucking insane. God is dangerous and needs to be stopped. War on Heaven when?

DEUS VUL-- Wait no that does not apply here.

SOBEK VULT!

[Genivaria]

Been reading Salvation War I see.

Don't know it, I'm afraid.

---

DEUS VUL-- Wait no that does not apply here.

SOBEK VULT!

Here you go.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ ... lvationWar

"When the Final Trumpet gets called, All Earth Breaks Loose On Hell."

[Risottia]

Theology is just bad philosophy, and consists entirely of assuming that God exists, and ignoring all evidence to the contrary for ever.

God’s existence can neither be proven nor can it disproven. It takes a leap of faith to assume either. In one hand, you assume that the lack of physical evidence is evidence by itself, but then, you are using science (which seeks answers for the physical) to attempt to know what is metaphysical, which is impossible, since if God exists, He would not limited by the laws of science as He is an onmiscient, omnipresent, and omnibenevolent metaphysical being.

I don't need a leap of faith to assume that there isn't a fine bone china teapot orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.
This isn't science (which requires a hypothesis falsifiable by replicable experiment), this is just logic, which is metaphysics per se.
Also, you can't really apply the "exists" category to a non-physical entity, not in the same meaning it would have in the sentence "Socks the cat is a malevolent, beautiful, purrfect physical being".

Edit: "exists", for a physical being, means "in a conceivable frame of reference, its energy-momentum quadrivector is non-zero".

[Risottia]

Been reading Salvation War I see.

Don't know it, I'm afraid.

Read it. Possibly while slightly intoxicated.
I know a pub near the Na Cúirteanna Breithiúnais Coiriúla which would provide a good place to read it, a free wifi connection and lots of Murphy's Stout.

[Gondlaura]

I used to believe in god, then other Christians ruined it for me... now I believe in 3 levels of afterlife:

Level 1: Heaven

Whether or not God and Satan exist are up for debate as there’s no supporting evidence for or against such a thing. But I believe in a heaven where all people go when they have met with and made peace with everyone they wronged. All differences tolerated, all arguments forgiven, all crimes forgiven, but only if everyone involved makes peace with what happened in life.

Level 2: Common Purgatory

Where all people go regardless to make peace with everything that happened to them in life.

Level 3: Hell

For those who have committed crimes and can’t make peace with their victims... like the 9/11 terrorists.

When you go to the common purgatory, it advances as we do so there’s no difference between us and them... other than them being dead. The common purgatory is a waiting room for those with things left unsaid and baggage still living on earth. Once you meet with the last person, assuming you made peace with the others the you go to heaven, if you meet the last person and couldn’t make peace with the others you go to hell until you are able to make peace with them. This way there’s room for compassion and redemption. But only if Peace is made.


I don’t quite like the idea of a pointless hell where people are dumped and forgotten for all eternity.

[The New California Republic]

I used to believe in god, then other Christians ruined it for me... now I believe in 3 levels of afterlife:

Level 1: Heaven

Whether or not God and Satan exist are up for debate as there’s no supporting evidence for or against such a thing. But I believe in a heaven where all people go when they have met with and made peace with everyone they wronged. All differences tolerated, all arguments forgiven, all crimes forgiven, but only if everyone involved makes peace with what happened in life.

Level 2: Common Purgatory

Where all people go regardless to make peace with everything that happened to them in life.

Level 3: Hell

For those who have committed crimes and can’t make peace with their victims... like the 9/11 terrorists.

When you go to the common purgatory, it advances as we do so there’s no difference between us and them... other than them being dead. The common purgatory is a waiting room for those with things left unsaid and baggage still living on earth. Once you meet with the last person, assuming you made peace with the others the you go to heaven, if you meet the last person and couldn’t make peace with the others you go to hell until you are able to make peace with them. This way there’s room for compassion and redemption. But only if Peace is made.


I don’t quite like the idea of a pointless hell where people are dumped and forgotten for all eternity.

...

...wait a second, if you no longer believe in God then why do you think that Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory exist?

[New Legland]

Exodus 4:21 - "The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go."

First of all, let us look at the context.

God obviously is going to show His divine power and make the gods of Egypt look like pieces of feces. To do that, He will strike Egypt with the Ten Plagues, each of which overpowers the Egyptian gods and shows their worthlessness. To this end, He hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he will refuse to let Israel go until the last plague, where he finally relents after his firstborn son (and thus the crown princes) died.

In addition, if you are in Pharaoh’s position, you would not want to be the one that dishonours your dynasty by letting an entire people that have been your slaves for 400 years go free, even if you saw your Hebrew half-brother’s staff turn to a snake to eat the snakes of your magicians. Letting the Hebrews go would mean that you are a weak Pharoah's, and you wouldn’t want that.

Overall, the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart can be attributed to two things: God wanting to show His power (thus making the Egyptian pantheon look worthless), and the fact that Pharaoh being a Pharoah would rather not dishonour himself and his dynasty by letting the workforce of the kingdom go.

1. It says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, not that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, so any of his own interests are thrown out the window.

2. God is a huge dick if he was willing to ravage Egypt with plagues before killing thousands of children to prove something he could have done much, much less to prove.

[Andsed]

First of all, let us look at the context.

God obviously is going to show His divine power and make the gods of Egypt look like pieces of feces. To do that, He will strike Egypt with the Ten Plagues, each of which overpowers the Egyptian gods and shows their worthlessness. To this end, He hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he will refuse to let Israel go until the last plague, where he finally relents after his firstborn son (and thus the crown princes) died.

In addition, if you are in Pharaoh’s position, you would not want to be the one that dishonours your dynasty by letting an entire people that have been your slaves for 400 years go free, even if you saw your Hebrew half-brother’s staff turn to a snake to eat the snakes of your magicians. Letting the Hebrews go would mean that you are a weak Pharoah's, and you wouldn’t want that.

Overall, the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart can be attributed to two things: God wanting to show His power (thus making the Egyptian pantheon look worthless), and the fact that Pharaoh being a Pharoah would rather not dishonour himself and his dynasty by letting the workforce of the kingdom go.

1. It says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, not that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, so any of his own interests are thrown out the window.

2. God is a huge dick if he was willing to ravage Egypt with plagues before killing thousands of children to prove something he could have done much, much less to prove.

Yeah I can list a couple things god could do to prove he exist without violating free will.

1. Have a bunch of lighting strikes create craters that spells out a message confirming he exist.

2. Light the ocean on fire.

3. Talk to every human at once saying he exist.

And many many more things he could do.

[Korhal IVV]

First of all, let us look at the context.

God obviously is going to show His divine power and make the gods of Egypt look like pieces of feces. To do that, He will strike Egypt with the Ten Plagues, each of which overpowers the Egyptian gods and shows their worthlessness. To this end, He hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he will refuse to let Israel go until the last plague, where he finally relents after his firstborn son (and thus the crown princes) died.

In addition, if you are in Pharaoh’s position, you would not want to be the one that dishonours your dynasty by letting an entire people that have been your slaves for 400 years go free, even if you saw your Hebrew half-brother’s staff turn to a snake to eat the snakes of your magicians. Letting the Hebrews go would mean that you are a weak Pharoah's, and you wouldn’t want that.

Overall, the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart can be attributed to two things: God wanting to show His power (thus making the Egyptian pantheon look worthless), and the fact that Pharaoh being a Pharoah would rather not dishonour himself and his dynasty by letting the workforce of the kingdom go.

1. It says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, not that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, so any of his own interests are thrown out the window.

2. God is a huge dick if he was willing to ravage Egypt with plagues before killing thousands of children to prove something he could have done much, much less to prove.

1. Any reputable Bible scholar will tell you that Pharaoh was more or less kept on a path he already chose by God.

2. To be fair, the Egyptians were killing Hebrew children and oppressing Israel for 400 years. You can call it divine justice. One must remember than when God punishes, it is always severe and a massive kick to the arse, because humans tend to forget.

[Andsed]

1. It says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, not that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, so any of his own interests are thrown out the window.

2. God is a huge dick if he was willing to ravage Egypt with plagues before killing thousands of children to prove something he could have done much, much less to prove.

1. Any reputable Bible scholar will tell you that Pharaoh was more or less kept on a path he already chose by God.

2. To be fair, the Egyptians were killing Hebrew children and oppressing Israel for 400 years. You can call it divine justice. One must remember than when God punishes, it is always severe and a massive kick to the arse, because humans tend to forget.

So how is killing children who had nothing to do with the oppression of Israel in any way justice?

[Korhal IVV]

First of all, let us look at the context.

God obviously is going to show His divine power and make the gods of Egypt look like pieces of feces. To do that, He will strike Egypt with the Ten Plagues, each of which overpowers the Egyptian gods and shows their worthlessness. To this end, He hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he will refuse to let Israel go until the last plague, where he finally relents after his firstborn son (and thus the crown princes) died.

In addition, if you are in Pharaoh’s position, you would not want to be the one that dishonours your dynasty by letting an entire people that have been your slaves for 400 years go free, even if you saw your Hebrew half-brother’s staff turn to a snake to eat the snakes of your magicians. Letting the Hebrews go would mean that you are a weak Pharoah's, and you wouldn’t want that.

Overall, the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart can be attributed to two things: God wanting to show His power (thus making the Egyptian pantheon look worthless), and the fact that Pharaoh being a Pharoah would rather not dishonour himself and his dynasty by letting the workforce of the kingdom go.

Are we still pretending that Exodus is anything other than entirely fictional?

Which is just the general consensus of all atheists like yourself.

1. It says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, not that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, so any of his own interests are thrown out the window.

2. God is a huge dick if he was willing to ravage Egypt with plagues before killing thousands of children to prove something he could have done much, much less to prove.

Yeah I can list a couple things god could do to prove he exist without violating free will.

1. Have a bunch of lighting strikes create craters that spells out a message confirming he exist.

2. Light the ocean on fire.

3. Talk to every human at once saying he exist.

And many many more things he could do.

Mankind does not get to decide what God decides to do.

First of all, let us look at the context.

God obviously is going to show His divine power and make the gods of Egypt look like pieces of feces. To do that, He will strike Egypt with the Ten Plagues, each of which overpowers the Egyptian gods and shows their worthlessness. To this end, He hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he will refuse to let Israel go until the last plague, where he finally relents after his firstborn son (and thus the crown princes) died.

In addition, if you are in Pharaoh’s position, you would not want to be the one that dishonours your dynasty by letting an entire people that have been your slaves for 400 years go free, even if you saw your Hebrew half-brother’s staff turn to a snake to eat the snakes of your magicians. Letting the Hebrews go would mean that you are a weak Pharoah's, and you wouldn’t want that.

Overall, the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart can be attributed to two things: God wanting to show His power (thus making the Egyptian pantheon look worthless), and the fact that Pharaoh being a Pharoah would rather not dishonour himself and his dynasty by letting the workforce of the kingdom go.

God carried out a campaign of terrorism, not for the reasons he had his representative give, but for the secret reason of demonstrating his superiority to the Egyptian gods.

God murdered children, MURDERED CHILDREN, to show that his divine dick is bigger than those of the hundreds of Egyptian gods.

That's actually worse than doing it to get the Israelites set free. That's fucking insane. God is dangerous and needs to be stopped. War on Heaven when?

Hmmm, I may have misstated. Freeing the Israelites was also a primary reason.

To be completely fair, the Egyptians were throwing every Male Hebrew baby child they could find to the Nile, so we can say that God was merely avenging His people.

God’s existence can neither be proven nor can it disproven. It takes a leap of faith to assume either. In one hand, you assume that the lack of physical evidence is evidence by itself, but then, you are using science (which seeks answers for the physical) to attempt to know what is metaphysical, which is impossible, since if God exists, He would not limited by the laws of science as He is an onmiscient, omnipresent, and omnibenevolent metaphysical being.

Absence of evidence is evidence of absence. There's no science involved: this is a trivial consequence of basic probability theory.

It ultimately depends on one’s perspective, regardless.

Assuming that, for example, everything in the universe came by chance, the chances of it all coming down this perfectly are so small that it might as well be impossible.

[Andsed]

Are we still pretending that Exodus is anything other than entirely fictional?

Which is just the general consensus of all atheists like yourself.

Yeah I can list a couple things god could do to prove he exist without violating free will.

1. Have a bunch of lighting strikes create craters that spells out a message confirming he exist.

2. Light the ocean on fire.

3. Talk to every human at once saying he exist.

And many many more things he could do.

Mankind does not get to decide what God decides to do.

God carried out a campaign of terrorism, not for the reasons he had his representative give, but for the secret reason of demonstrating his superiority to the Egyptian gods.

God murdered children, MURDERED CHILDREN, to show that his divine dick is bigger than those of the hundreds of Egyptian gods.

That's actually worse than doing it to get the Israelites set free. That's fucking insane. God is dangerous and needs to be stopped. War on Heaven when?

Hmmm, I may have misstated. Freeing the Israelites was also a primary reason.

To be completely fair, the Egyptians were throwing every Male Hebrew baby child they could find to the Nile, so we can say that God was merely avenging His people.

Absence of evidence is evidence of absence. There's no science involved: this is a trivial consequence of basic probability theory.

It ultimately depends on one’s perspective, regardless.

Assuming that, for example, everything in the universe came by chance, the chances of it all coming down this perfectly are so small that it might as well be impossible.

In what way did I say humanity gets to decide what god does? I simply stated a few of the ways god could show undeniable proof that he exist.

[Kowani]

Are we still pretending that Exodus is anything other than entirely fictional?

Which is just the general consensus of all atheists like yourself.

No, it’s the Archeological consensus as well. Seriously, I did this debate in the CDT. Check it out there if you want.

[Ifreann]

God carried out a campaign of terrorism, not for the reasons he had his representative give, but for the secret reason of demonstrating his superiority to the Egyptian gods.

God murdered children, MURDERED CHILDREN, to show that his divine dick is bigger than those of the hundreds of Egyptian gods.

That's actually worse than doing it to get the Israelites set free. That's fucking insane. God is dangerous and needs to be stopped. War on Heaven when?

Hmmm, I may have misstated. Freeing the Israelites was also a primary reason.

To be completely fair, the Egyptians were throwing every Male Hebrew baby child they could find to the Nile, so we can say that God was merely avenging His people.

Avenging his people on children. By murdering them. As part of a terrorist campaign/dick-measuring contest. This is not less evil than my previous interpretation.

[New Legland]

God carried out a campaign of terrorism, not for the reasons he had his representative give, but for the secret reason of demonstrating his superiority to the Egyptian gods.

God murdered children, MURDERED CHILDREN, to show that his divine dick is bigger than those of the hundreds of Egyptian gods.

That's actually worse than doing it to get the Israelites set free. That's fucking insane. God is dangerous and needs to be stopped. War on Heaven when?

Hmmm, I may have misstated. Freeing the Israelites was also a primary reason.

To be completely fair, the Egyptians were throwing every Male Hebrew baby child they could find to the Nile, so we can say that God was merely avenging His people.

So, the perfectly just god avenges his people by stooping down to the level, nay, plummeting far below it (considering the other 9 plagues), of their evil oppressors?

Absence of evidence is evidence of absence. There's no science involved: this is a trivial consequence of basic probability theory.

It ultimately depends on one’s perspective, regardless.

Assuming that, for example, everything in the universe came by chance, the chances of it all coming down this perfectly are so small that it might as well be impossible.

There's an extremely low chance you'll roll ten sixes in a row on a die, but if you do it enough, it's an inevitability. Claiming that the probability for life is too low for it to have happened randomly gives the impression that you believe that this is the first time any universe has ever been created, hell, even the first time any planet has ever been created.

[Salandriagado]

Are we still pretending that Exodus is anything other than entirely fictional?

Which is just the general consensus of all atheists like yourself.

No, it's a fact. There simply was never any significant Hebrew population in Egypt, nor did any significant portion of the Egyptian population up and leave. Both of these things would leave evidence (or, at least, the Egyptians would have fucking noticed). They didn't.

Yeah I can list a couple things god could do to prove he exist without violating free will.

1. Have a bunch of lighting strikes create craters that spells out a message confirming he exist.

2. Light the ocean on fire.

3. Talk to every human at once saying he exist.

And many many more things he could do.

Mankind does not get to decide what God decides to do.

We do, however, get to judge whether an action is evil or not.

God carried out a campaign of terrorism, not for the reasons he had his representative give, but for the secret reason of demonstrating his superiority to the Egyptian gods.

God murdered children, MURDERED CHILDREN, to show that his divine dick is bigger than those of the hundreds of Egyptian gods.

That's actually worse than doing it to get the Israelites set free. That's fucking insane. God is dangerous and needs to be stopped. War on Heaven when?

Hmmm, I may have misstated. Freeing the Israelites was also a primary reason.

To be completely fair, the Egyptians were throwing every Male Hebrew baby child they could find to the Nile, so we can say that God was merely avenging His people.

Again, not true.

Absence of evidence is evidence of absence. There's no science involved: this is a trivial consequence of basic probability theory.

It ultimately depends on one’s perspective, regardless.

No it doesn't. It's literally a proven fact, and I mean the word "proven" in the strongest possible sense.

Assuming that, for example, everything in the universe came by chance, the chances of it all coming down this perfectly are so small that it might as well be impossible.

That's simply not true. Even taking the most pessimistic assumptions, we'd expect literally trillions of earth-like planets around the universe.

[Austria-Bohemia-Hungary]

Assuming that, for example, everything in the universe came by chance, the chances of it all coming down this perfectly are so small that it might as well be impossible.

Do you even understand how terrifyingly humongous the Universe is? Even if chances for life to happen are infinitesimal the numbers of planets in the Universe are so endlessly large that it becomes an exercise in multiplying by infinity, and even an absurdly small number multiplied by infinity is still infinity.

[The Grims]

Assuming that, for example, everything in the universe came by chance, the chances of it all coming down this perfectly are so small that it might as well be impossible.

Do you even understand how terrifyingly humongous the Universe is? Even if chances for life to happen are infinitesimal the numbers of planets in the Universe are so endlessly large that it becomes an exercise in multiplying by infinity, and even an absurdly small number multiplied by infinity is still infinity.

Actually, the whole premise is flawed. To use an oldie:

Consider a sentient puddle of water. This puddle might notice how perfectly it fills the hole it is in and then state that said hole must be the result of intelligent design.

Can you spot the flaws in that reasoning? And yes, plural.

[Gondlaura]

I used to believe in god, then other Christians ruined it for me... now I believe in 3 levels of afterlife:

Level 1: Heaven

Whether or not God and Satan exist are up for debate as there’s no supporting evidence for or against such a thing. But I believe in a heaven where all people go when they have met with and made peace with everyone they wronged. All differences tolerated, all arguments forgiven, all crimes forgiven, but only if everyone involved makes peace with what happened in life.

Level 2: Common Purgatory

Where all people go regardless to make peace with everything that happened to them in life.

Level 3: Hell

For those who have committed crimes and can’t make peace with their victims... like the 9/11 terrorists.

When you go to the common purgatory, it advances as we do so there’s no difference between us and them... other than them being dead. The common purgatory is a waiting room for those with things left unsaid and baggage still living on earth. Once you meet with the last person, assuming you made peace with the others the you go to heaven, if you meet the last person and couldn’t make peace with the others you go to hell until you are able to make peace with them. This way there’s room for compassion and redemption. But only if Peace is made.


I don’t quite like the idea of a pointless hell where people are dumped and forgotten for all eternity.

...

...wait a second, if you no longer believe in God then why do you think that Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory exist?

Wishful thinking. It makes life easier to believe there’s more at the end. Also, to me at least, it’s more believable for a godless afterlife to exist than a divine afterlife, if god is part of that great, if not oh well.