Does God have a future?..ABC nightline debate

It was like setting up a fight between a school yard bully and the 50 lb. sickly kid with an IQ of 70.

ABC knew this wasn't a fair fight and I imagine there are about 10,000 people 100% more qualified than the Love Guru to defend God's existence. The guy picked an LSD addict to back him up and didn't even let her speak? Come on'.
 
I have listened for several minutes of this.. and all of these people seem like they are talking to nothing about what I believe about anything. It is so bizarre to me to see people whose concept of life, and cultural and humanity are so vastly different. Sam Harris is quite a funny man. He made me laugh several times at his inability to approach any premise of religion I know seriously. I actually agree with Sam Harris on most points. I do, because he doesn't really describe Christianity by anything he says.
 
What an interesting question. I suppose if God decided to auto euthanize then (s)he or it wouldn't.

Given God's omniscience and omnipotence, from both derive anything God wants, including trinitatis, flow of time etc.

I have thought the concept of the Trinity is where Babylon 5 (JMS) got the idea for Kosh's ability to detach a piece of itself to place in others such as Sheridan.
 
Religious doctrine is an artifact from the infancy of our species, when we were ignorant and scared and superstitious. We are not born guilty of ancestral misdeeds. We are worthy of all the best to be had in this life. We are not being judged by a supernatural entity. There is no eternal torment for those who don't embrace a certain belief system. We have better explanations for the way things are in this universe. Give up the nonsense and the guilt and get on with living. Life is sweet.
 
Dionysus,
So what you are telling me is that you have a different way to explain the universe and why we are here. You reject some religious explainations for theodicy, salvation, and creation, but you accept some others. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but you seem to believe in materialism (in the sense of nothing but the material exists), and that all things happen because of linear cause and effect, and natural selection? Am I right? Because it seems like you have a belief in a system that explains our universe.......
 
Sam Harris said we should entertain the idea of a nuclear first strike against the Muslim world in his book "The End of Faith".
 
Occam's Razor specifically means that you should not invoke unseen causes beyond their necessity. Which is to say, requiring the intervention of an unknowable all-powerful entity can't be logically justified until all other tangible possibilities have been exhausted. Invoking a deity really won't ever really satisfy the Razor, but then if it could then it really wouldn't be "faith" would it?

Put simply, God is neither scientific nor logical, but that doesn't mean that there is no God. These disciplines are ultimately about observation, and can't be used to justify the existence of something which can not be observed. I'm not sure why some people are so determined to justify their beliefs with a language which was not made to discuss belief.
 
Considering WIlliam (of Occam) was a Franciscan Fryar, I suspect some on here may be speculating too much about the purpose of Occam's razor.
 
The belief in gods will never go away. Whether or not it, he, she, they exist in the first place is a differrent question.
 
I am not a theist of any kind, I am a physicist. That does not mean that Occam's Razor isn't a useful tool to me with regard to identifying ********.

When you introduce a god hypothesis here are a few basic questions that must be answered.

1. How does this hypothetical god interact with matter?
2. How does this hypothetical god communicate with humans?
3. What is this hypothetical god made of?
4. Where does this hypothetical god reside?
5. What created this hypothetical god?
6. If the answer to question 5 is a supergod how do you avoid the logical problem with extending that type of answer to infinite layers of supergods?

The last is a critical point since the logic used to invoke a god hypothesis place fails since there is no end point. The only way for it not to fail is not to invoke a god hypothesis in the first place.

Also, there are numerous sub-questions to those above. That is just some basics.

I like my theory of everything just fine, one force, two fundamental particles and space.
 
The Alpha and Omega...more of a future than all us us combined
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The existence or non-existence of a supernatural entity is unfalsifiable. Nobody can prove or disprove it, so it seems that we're stuck with a mystery. Arguments for or against are merely opinion.

I don't have a problem with the uncertainty - in fact, I find it to be a beautiful aspect of existence. I think it was Evelyn Waugh who said: "Either we are alone in this universe, or we're not. In either case, the very idea is mind-boggling."

What I find to be the most unfortunate thing is the ridiculous aspects of religious doctrine, like the idea that we're born guilty of something, that we're somehow unworthy of good. Or the notion that there's a place of eternal torment for people who don't embrace a certain belief, or that a man had to be publicly tortured to death to 'redeem' humanity. It is obvious to me that these ideas are man-made and are insulting to our basic human dignity.

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