Why Do We Assume That God Is Good ?

[M forever]

no.   
what do you not understand?

dj

Lots and lots of things... 0:)

[Brian]

Because he is a special treat for Christmas?

[Ephemerid]

Because he is a special treat for Christmas?

You're gonna burn in hell for that.

[greg]

you assume your spirit exists before you are conceived.

dj

if it wasn't, unfortunately there was no choice involved......

[drogulus]

Why do I assume God is a fruitcake?

      Thinking with fruitcake? Fruitcake with assent?

       
       

       

[david johnson]

some of you nonbelievers think your spirit exists before conception?  ...or are you tilting at your perceived windmill?  i would not have thought many of you granted credence to the idea of a spirit.

dj

[greg]

some of you nonbelievers think your spirit exists before conception?  ...or are you tilting at your perceived windmill?  i would not have thought many of you granted credence to the idea of a spirit.

dj

if you're referring to me..... well, i'm a believer, though it's mainly because it seems like the least non-sensical (however you spell that, if it's even a word) belief out there (being Baptist).

nothing makes complete sense, and i don't have the desire to spend my time studying stuff like Theology or the Bible, extensively...... (i need to stop wasting time posting here, too) 

BUT i think i have heard people referring to the spirit existing before conception...... though that may just be a myth nowhere in the Bible.

[drogulus]

some of you nonbelievers think your spirit exists before conception?  ...or are you tilting at your perceived windmill?  i would not have thought many of you granted credence to the idea of a spirit.

dj

      You can make something meaningful out of it. A materialist understands that ideas like spirit and soul are not unmotivated. Such ideas can just as easily be interpreted in nonsupernatural ways. You start by understanding what they actually refer to, so you ask people what they mean when they use the words. They will tell you that they are terms for the higher functions of the self, including self-awareness, moral and aesthetic intuitions, and judgments about the causes of these.

      So people have some vague theories about such things, mostly of a dualist (and therefore hopeless) nature. For reasons that aren't easy for me to understand, materialist theories of consciousness and higher function aren't popular. People are natural dualists, seeing a mind-body problem where there should be none, and all the time being blind to the problem of interaction between this world and a hypothesized "other" one where rules don't apply (these are the nonrules we don't know about, remember?).

      All of these contortions are an attempt to avoid a rather obvious solution: Everything that exists is made out of the materials at hand. Instead of saying "it can't happen", figure out how it did. Wow, what a radical notion! It's called reverse-engineering, and it works.

[c#minor]

yeah yeah God is good, yeah yeah God is Great,
What if God were one of us?

[karlhenning]

What if God were one of us?

The fruitcake?

[Saul]

Why do I assume God is a fruitcake?

Well having no brains can be a good reason for starters...

[david johnson]

if you're referring to me..... well, i'm a believer, though it's mainly because it seems like the least non-sensical (however you spell that, if it's even a word) belief out there (being Baptist).

nothing makes complete sense, and i don't have the desire to spend my time studying stuff like Theology or the Bible, extensively...... (i need to stop wasting time posting here, too) 

BUT i think i have heard people referring to the spirit existing before conception...... though that may just be a myth nowhere in the Bible.

the pre-existing soul is an assumption/belief many have.
the study of theology is ok in that it helps a little to understand where others are based.  i can't see it as a requirement, though.
a baptist that views bible study as not desirable is odd in my 'neck of the woods'.
you're not wasting time here 

dj

[Danny]

      Thinking with fruitcake? Fruitcake with assent?

       
       

       

Wiseguy.

[Florestan]

It's astonishing to see how atheists --- who supposedly value reason --- can waste their time in endless, useless and pointless verbosity assorted with kindergarten-level humour.

[MN Dave]

It's astonishing to see how atheists --- who supposedly value reason --- can waste their time in endless, useless and pointless verbosity assorted with kindergarten-level humour.

We know how to have a good time.

[DavidW]

It's astonishing to see how atheists --- who supposedly value reason --- can waste their time in endless, useless and pointless verbosity assorted with kindergarten-level humour.

There is nothing unreasonable about humor at any level.  There is however something unacceptable about not accepting and tolerating it.

[c#minor]

I believe this forum should be changed to the "Good Music and God Guide".


Not to say i don't like these discussions, because i really do. I just came in too late on this one.

[Brian]

We know how to have a good time.

Indeed.

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea...

[MN Dave]

Not to say i don't like these discussions, because i really do. I just came in too late on this one.

They're a huge waste of time, but I guess that's why we're here.

[c#minor]

but I guess that's why we're here.

hahaha precisely!