Ask an Atheist!!!

#841

Indeed.

In fact, I personally think that man’s obsession with god like beings comes from their desire to be gods.

At least in some fashion.

All this technology, all this progress… where is it leading us? If we avoid destruction, what is the inevitable conclusion to the process of technological advance?

IMO, it’s simple. We want the power that we have dreamt about and created stories about for generations. We already have a few godly powers that our ancestors did not. We can communicate instantly to any person on the earth at a whim. We can fly through the air in safety and comfort. We can summon the living back from the dead with a shock to the chest.

These are all god-like powers, made mundane by the fact that we know how they work.

Think of all the powers we will gain in the decades to come, thanks to the common aspiration to become greater than what we are.

Pretty exciting stuff.

#842

Civilization will lead mankind to levels beyond what we would describe as godly. Sucks that we won’t live to see it, I came to the realization that our current civilization most likely won’t make it and will fall like all the others before it, but the next one will rise higher than we could ever imagine, I hope they succeed where we have failed.

#843

Humans turning to gods you say?



#844

Isn’t the top one 2001 Space Oddity? And therefore not about a person turning into a god.

#845

2001 A Space ODDYSSEY. It quite clearly depicts David Bowman entering the next stage human evolution (a godly composition of pure energy) in the final scene. The Star Child visage is just a representation of his rebirth.

#846

Doh at my name mistake. Also, * ODyssey.

I need to watch that film again.

#847

At first I was like:

But then, I lol’d:

#848

Not a bad tune though. Bowie! Woot!

#849

Everyone loves Bowie. Unless they don’t have soul.

#850

Very well played.

#851

You know, I’ve been doing some thinking on religion. And I know now why we will always have it, and why it is such an integral part of humanity. It is a result of the limitations of the human mind.

In the psychological development of a child, there are numerous stages one goes through. One such stage is the Preoperational Stage, from approximately 2-7 years old. Here, you find children making those cute theories about the world around them that don’t really make sense logically (“A monster plays with my hair, that’s why it’s messy in the morning,” “The clock ran out of batteries so time is stopped,” “The sky is blue because it is made of water”). They make these theories because they are not developed enough to make rational and logical theories. This normally ends by age 8.

However, the world is complicated. Very much so. How do we expect to rationalize everything we see? Why are we here? Why is there matter? Where did it come from? Why does it cause gravity?

Religion is our small form of the Preoperational Stage of child development. Why do we assume that once age 8 hits, we are suddenly able to understand everything we see? The sad fact is that the human mind is not perfect, as much as we like to think so. Therefore, we use religion to explain everything nicely, almost childishly.

I call myself agnostic, leaning towards atheism. I defend and appreciate religion both for the reasons I stated above and because of it’s cultural impact. I admit, I myself have religious and spiritual thoughts, but at the end of the day I am able to tell myself that I think these thoughts because of the limits of my mind. I cannot accept the emptiness of death, so I create a scenario which allows reincarnation.

But, again, it is only because we wish to explain things we simply don’t have the capacity to explain logically and rationally.

#852

Do you accept “the emptiness” before you existed?

#853

good point, but what kind of Brain that made that?, I mean if my memory servers right, I remember some people here discussing Natural and unnatural stuff (Including Homosexuality) one of them asked a smart question, it was : it was if Homosexuality is unnatural, then the internet, satellite, cars every single piece of technology is unnatural. ok now these things are unnatural then you conclude that the thing behind them is also unnatural “The Human Brain”, our Brain is more complicated than the most advanced super Computers in fact, you can’t even compare them. so tell me what you think on our tremendous Capacity of our Brains that made these ?

#854

No, but he wasn’t alive before then. The survival instinct takes precedence in most creature’s brains, but the human brain is far more complex and requires reassurance in the mental and physical aspects. A mentally simpler creature such as a rat may only need the presence of food to be reassured, but a human can think ahead to when the food will run out and requires further knowledge to be sated.

#855

I dunno. I find that the billions of years before me is about exactly as troubling as the billions of years after me: none. The idea of existing forever and ever is the worst hell one could ever inflict on someone.

I’m here now and I’m going to make the best of it. :slight_smile:

#856

Why is that? Is there some kind of universal law that says there MUST be a God in this universe even though there is no evidence of his presence? Well then why don’t we add the flying spaghetti monster, to me he’s definitely a must in this universe. I have no evidence to support my claim but only a fool would know he isn’t there, after all that’s what you said right?

Quoted from a website:

#857

Ummm, you can’t ever prove the nonexistence of something. You can show heavy evidence against it, but you can never show that something isn’t there.

Teapots around Mars.

#858

baconeggs: To be fair, you can illustrate that what is described is nonexistent through simple logic. I know logic doesn’t work for a lot of people. In the words of Dr. Gillian Taylor from Star Trek IV: “Whoever said the human race was logical?”

Still, though, something like God, as described in the Bible, is a logical impossibility.

Also, certainly, you don’t have to prove the nonexistence of something to know that it doesn’t exist if there is not a single solitary shred of evidence for it whatsoever after thousands of years of searching over billions of people.

I know God doesn’t exist, simply due to Ra, the ancient Egyptian sun god. We know today that the sun is a nuclear fireball orbiting the galactic center, and that there is no bird-headed man that rides a fiery boat into the underworld everyday. The same goes with the gods of man.

This “You don’t know for CERTAIN” is a rubbish argument. You might as well say, “You don’t know for CERTAIN that gravity won’t fail sending you hurtling into space.”

Sorry, but I do know for certain.

#859

Exactly, you can pretty easily show that something doesn’t exist, but never beyond reasonable doubt. There IS always a possiblity.

#860

Sorry, but the probability is zero, far beyond reasonable doubt. Gravity just doesn’t fail. My right arm will not suddenly turn into a three-breasted prostitute from Mars. There are no sentient mattresses. And there are no gods as described by humanity’s books…if “god” can even be definable or characterized in a mutually agreeable way amongst people. At least the three I gave have agreed-upon characteristics.

I mean, you ask a thousand people to describe “god” and they’ll give you a thousand different characteristics. Many will, of course, overlap, but what about the ones that don’t? Which description is the right one? Is there one? How can we even try to propose the existence of something if no one can even agree on how to DEFINE it?

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