I can't imagine not believing in God. (page 40)

cofty

It must be quiet on exJWs4Shelby tonight.

If, then, little children start OUT with a tendency "believe"... even in something they can't see (with their physical eyes)... but certainly will tell you they HEAR from such a one... how do YOU know that atheism is the default position?

It's called imagination shelby. It is an evolutionary response to create fear. Our ancestors had this inbuilt fear which made them risk averse, and enabled them to move out of dangerous situations, thus surviving! Those that didn't have this imagination, and didn't have fear, took risks which reduced their chances aof survival.

sd-7

i cannot imagine life without believing in God and that he is good and that there will be a better future. I could never believe that this life and this world is all there is. I would be very sad and hopeless. I mean...if there's no God...what the hell is the purpose of life?

Well, I don't think I'm equipped to debate the matter of the existence of God or lack thereof. I'm not against belief in itself, merely against irrational belief that shuts down critical thinking. The universe could have come about in ways beyond our comprehension, that may have been caused by an all-powerful Creator or by the collision of a couple of universes (but then where did those universes come from?).

But if life now is merely lived in the hopes of something greater beyond it, is not the very purpose of life right now diminished anyway? If we really lived as though this were the only life, I would hope we might make every moment that much richer and beneficial to ourselves and those we will inevitably leave behind at death. At least that's an optimistic way to look at it, as opposed to just throwing up our hands and getting very drunk and etc.

The way I see it, it's not so much the destination as the journey. Even as a true believer I often wondered, how could one feel no fear at all upon facing death, even with the faith of Moses? We read so much in holy books, but we don't know. We, you and I, have never seen a dead man return from the dead. So we're hoping there's something better, but we don't know.

The point of it all is, to make something that will live beyond us. To me, that is immortality. To be remembered. It could be that there is a God who remembers us all and will build us anew in time. If so, it'd be great to have a second chance. If not, we can, perhaps, make it such that those who outlive us will live better lives than we did. To do that, we must question and learn as much as we can so we might pass such knowledge on to those who need it.

Maybe it doesn't exactly soften the blow of death, but...it can't hurt.

--sd-7

AGuest

It must be quiet on exJWs4Shelby tonight.

Surely you know by now that I'm a girl, C. And so doouble-tasking is nothing. Indeed, multi-tasking (which is more than double-tasking, in case you didn't know that) comes natural to [most of] us.

A slave of Christ,

SA, who thinks SURELY you can come up with a better "argument" than some "little boyz" play on the name of a website. Surely...

cantleave

The bottom line line Can't Leave is, that if one is walking by Spirit, they will find their way, no question. Sometimes it is via other 'religion' such as the WTBS, or Islam, or whatever, sometimes not. We though, are not in charge, it's beyond and above us.

So god can be found in all religions? It doesn't matter what you call him or what path you take. Does that make Shelby wrong?

cofty

little children have "friends" they believe in, believe exist. - Shelby

Some of us grow out of it.

cantleave

May I ask YOU that question? Why would it NOT be good for them? Because given those who follow Islam that I know, I don't know that it necessarily ISN'T good for them. Can you tell me why YOU think it might not be?

I think all religion is bad for people. For accepting anything on faith without vetrifiable evidence is delusional. I would say Islam is no different to Christianity!

AGuest

It's called imagination shelby. It is an evolutionary response to create fear. Our ancestors had this inbuilt fear which made them risk averse, and enabled them to move out of dangerous situations, thus surviving! Those that didn't have this imagination, and didn't have fear, took risks which reduced their chances aof survival.

Huh? To create fear, dear CL (again, peace to you!)? See, this is what's so confusing and serves to confuse many, statements like this. The LAST thing such a "friend" does is create fear, dear one. To the contrary, the "friend" is almost always the MAIN thing that DIFFUSES fear! And while a child might use his "imagination" to, say, "pretend" that a doll is real, or he is a "fireman", or that there's "tea" in the pot/cup... his is not pretending to hear a voice.

There is a saying in the legal circle: "Even a dog knows the difference between being kicked and tripped over." Even a child knows the difference between what is real and what they're making up. They just tend to acquiesce to what "adults" TELL them they are making up when they concede to having made something up that they didn't. WE tell them it isn't real... because WE no longer believe it's real (and I say "no longer" because at one point WE did... but some adult (or older child) came along and told us to stop, "stop acting like a baby").

And so we do. We start acting "older"... which, if you look around the world and are HONEST... has NOTHING to do with reality, given all of the dishonesty, untruths, lies, deceit, manipulation, hypocrisy, etc., that MAKE this world "go 'round."

Why is being HONEST so HARD for some? Simple: because there are many more who are DISHONEST. And we can't go displeasing the majority, right? I mean, we're in "Rome," so...

Again, peace to you!

A slave of Christ,

SA

cofty

Personally I never had an imaginary friend as a child, I was content with my real friends and family.

cofty

Shelby - you completely misunderstood cantleave's post.

You are descended from a very long line of ancestors who saw patterns in random events and read intent into randomness. Their cooler contemporaries got eaten more often.

I can't imagine not believing in God.

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