That’s just like your opinion, man. I don’t understand the need for external validation for assigning worth or value to what I hold to have worth or value. A tree/rock/person is sacred to me because I choose to hold it as sacred.
I think it's about standards. You can indeed declare someone or something sacred but, it is based on your perception. "Thou art god."
I have felt God's presence and trust in those good men who have felt it as well. You want to believe the world is black and white. That only those things that can be touched or measured count. Ideas, faith, honor, love and all the rest are what is important in the world yet extremely difficult or impossible to measure. Yet, they do exist.
You miss the point. Those immeasurable thoughts and feelings are more real and, more important than all the things that can be pointed at and measured. I believe God is real.
Again you miss the point. The point is to demonstrate that there are many things besides God that can not be pointed to or measured yet are of importance to people. Yes, yes I know but, that still doesn't prove anything. What else you got?
Thoughts and feelings exist in the mind of a man. When that mind goes away those thoughts disappear, they dont continue on. They have no existence of their own, they are part of that mans existence not apart from it.
Can we try to not make this personal? I'm quite enjoying the debate right now and I feel that if it does it's going to get I'll tempered very quickly!
I don't need any outside validation.
carm.org
Not really !1 Now you are throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks.......carry on...
Most atheists that I have encountered in the past few years have abandoned the definition of of "atheism" as being the belief that there is no God. That assertion is impossible for them to defend. So, they have gone to a definition which says "atheism is a lack of belief in God". I've written several articles on this and here is another. Lack of belief is a subjective issue. Therefore, I present this series of points I hope demonstrates it another problem with that definition.Lack of belief in God is too subjective
An analysis of one of the problems inherent in the subjective expression "I lack belief" that atheists often retreat into when discussing God's existence
- Belief is an experience, just as thinking and love are experiences.
- Belief is the subjective experience of an individual.
- Lack of belief is a lack of this subjective experience.
- An atheist who challenges the Christian to convince him that God exists is asking the Christian to induce belief by overcoming the atheist's personal lack of subjective experience.
- But, the Christian cannot grant the atheist this subjective experience, since it is, after all, purely subjective to the individual.
- In addition, being convinced of something based on information is also a subjective experience since what convinces one person might not convince another.
- Therefore, the atheist must provide the criteria by which his personal subjectivity can be affected and belief be the result.
- If the atheist, for whatever reason, does not provide this criteria, then he should not ask the Christian to demonstrate that God exists, and induce belief, since he is asking the Christian to overcome his personal subjectivity without providing the subjective criteria by which this might be accomplished.
So, when atheists who "lack belief in God" ask Christians to prove that God exists, they're asking them to overcome the atheists subjectivity. This is, of course, problematic.
^ This is actually very good. Keep it mind if you ever get the urge to proselytize.Most atheists that I have encountered in the past few years have abandoned the definition of of "atheism" as being the belief that there is no God. That assertion is impossible for them to defend. So, they have gone to a definition which says "atheism is a lack of belief in God". I've written several articles on this and here is another. Lack of belief is a subjective issue. Therefore, I present this series of points I hope demonstrates it another problem with that definition.Lack of belief in God is too subjective
An analysis of one of the problems inherent in the subjective expression "I lack belief" that atheists often retreat into when discussing God's existence
- Belief is an experience, just as thinking and love are experiences.
- Belief is the subjective experience of an individual.
- Lack of belief is a lack of this subjective experience.
- An atheist who challenges the Christian to convince him that God exists is asking the Christian to induce belief by overcoming the atheist's personal lack of subjective experience.
- But, the Christian cannot grant the atheist this subjective experience, since it is, after all, purely subjective to the individual.
- In addition, being convinced of something based on information is also a subjective experience since what convinces one person might not convince another.
- Therefore, the atheist must provide the criteria by which his personal subjectivity can be affected and belief be the result.
- If the atheist, for whatever reason, does not provide this criteria, then he should not ask the Christian to demonstrate that God exists, and induce belief, since he is asking the Christian to overcome his personal subjectivity without providing the subjective criteria by which this might be accomplished.
So, when atheists who "lack belief in God" ask Christians to prove that God exists, they're asking them to overcome the atheists subjectivity. This is, of course, problematic.
My friend and I say that honestly -- In all my years I have never proselytized anybody!
I find it amusing that you can ask all these questions! Since I attempted to answer one, why don`t you attempt to answer one?
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