Through out this entire thread I have not been arguing against the idea that there could be a God. If you read correctly, what I've been really arguing is 1.) The Bible is not evidence of God or evidence against evolution and 2.) that it's just as valid to think there is no god as it is to say "we can't know for sure." Neither position is arrogant.
deletedover 9 years
Im not saying I know for 100% certain, because obviously, no one knows everything. I'm saying a lack of evidence is the reason why I don't believe in God, and until such evidence is given I will continue to do so. I think it's incorrect when Cerazus states this is an arrogant position to take.
Seriously. It is arrogance to assume that you KNOW that a deity exists. How could you possibly think that highly of yourself? At the same time, how could you possibly think that you KNOW there isn't one? It is something that cannot be proven or disproven, and to suggest that you KNOW either way, 100%, for certain, is to lie, or to be arrogant.
Republic, you've missed the point consistently throughout this thread.
deletedover 9 years
No. It does not go both ways. I do not believe in a God for the same reason I do not believe in Dragons, Unicorns, and the Flying Spaghetti Monster - not because I claim to know everything about the universe (which would be true arrogance/dogmatism) but because there is a lack of evidence that supports their existence. There has never been an example of a god like creature, any photos, any data to suggest it. I do not care if a God is an all powerful universal life force and a unicorn is a horse with a horn, it is the same to me. I believe the universe to be a creation of natural phenomenon instead of a beings personal creation. I believe Aliens exist because there IS proof that life can exist in our universe under certain set of circumstances - us. We are living proof that under the right conditions, life can arise. Therefore, it's safe to say that under the same set of circumstances, life can arise elsewhere. WE ourselves are the example that is evidence in support of life existing in our universe.
Do you get what I'm trying to say? It essentially goes both ways. If we do not yet have the means to establish/falsify the truth about a particular thing then yes it is arrogant to have presumptions regarding it, if course by arrogant you mean dogmatic assumptions that are not based on pure reasoning.
EXACTLY. It's arrogant because we don't yet have the ability to ascertain the truth of that. Same thing applies with the existence of ET, best we can do is look through all the arguments without assuming the truth about it.
Personally I'd define myself as a free thinker. At times I can be a staunch atheist, an apatheist who just doesn't give a f*ck, an agnostic who's truly unsure of anything, a pantheist that believes that god truly lies in the beauty of the universe.
deletedover 9 years
It's arrogant to assume complex things need a creator.
I'm not talking about god in the very narrow sense of how it's portrayed in Abrahamic religions. I'm talking about the concept of god in general. I'm talking about Einstein's god, Spinoza's god, pantheism, deism etc.
That's irrelevant. That doesn't in anyway prove that there's life out there. I mean seriously if it works that way one can just argue, "The universe is complex. Something that is complex must have a creator. Ergo, the universe was created". Both are conjectures that has to be proven and their truths cannot be determined yet until we have the means to establish/falsify them.
deletedover 9 years
Sorry if I'm wrong, but I haven't seen cezarus actually state their own opinion on this topic so far?
deletedover 9 years
I could say the same thing about what you say....
deletedover 9 years
That's a different case though as well.
We can see with life around us that mortal life has arisen on our own planet, therefore we could easily believe that there are similar cases out in the universe.
We have, however, yet to find ANY example of a previous supernatural allpowerful entity.
Easy analogy. Just because we haven't found any evidence yet for the existence of extra-terrestrial beings doesn't mean we can be 100% sure that they don't exist and thus should stop every effort we have right now to reach them.
deletedover 9 years
I think it's arrogant to say that people are arrogant if they don't believe in a god.
