Pointless

It provokes hostility because of the terrible actions it's used to justify and is responsible for.

Lets imagine this debate was instead about capital punishment. I beleive one side, you believe the other. You're telling me 'I have no particularly strong or scientific reason to believe what I do, but you're wrong to criticise me for what I believe because I believe it very strongly'.

This doesn't satisfy Dawkins; it doesn't satisfy me.

Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, and Dawkins' Spaghetti monster could all explain a 'deeper level to our existence than the material world'; why don't you believe in them?

Let's have it

I'm slightly more concerned about you though, the new testament is a lot harder to rip apart than the old one

if there's a hell I'm in big trouble

come on..... we won't mind

tease

So you're fighting what you believe to be hostile religions with hostility, while attempting to force others to subscribe to your logic.

The irony...

Because I think the world I exist in correlates with ancient Judaic teachings... Why can't you accept that someone is entitled to a view that differs from your own? This debate isn't about whether g-d exists or not, this debate is about what andy_rocks can and cannot understand.

Every scientist on the face of this planet would agree that in the scale of existence we know a microcosm... To expect a scientist or a religious cleric to prove or disprove g-d is too much to ask with our limited knowledge... Both present theories, you subscribe to one... I subscribe to the other.

Both of us place faith in our theory.

Hey Joe!!

What do you call a Jewish ladies boobs????

Joobs

How you doing big jim? Hows the family?

Fine mate, all is well, hope you're the same. We'll have to have a beer soon

there is NO reason. Thats why he can't answer. Faith is like that. It's not open to reason.
And I wish I had some because the futility of life does get to me sometimes. But. I just can't find a religion that doesn't seem to me ludicrous in the extreme, even Buddhism has barmy gods when you get into it. The whole thing is just so unlikely as not to be possible to be believed in by anyone.
yet people do.
I have this horror that on my death bed I'll get so scared I'll give in and let my brain flop off into rejecting reason and going for the god delusion just to feel better, which is the only reason I can think of for anyone swallowing it all in the first place

good plan, might try and head up to twisted logic if it doesn't clash with my diary

Forks can you qualify "reason" as the pair of you seem to throw the word around relentlessly.

how appropriate

I use it in the sense of meaning something which is proveable , logical and verifiable with our senses. and which is 'reasonable' ie likely on the balance of probabilities to be true.

Mate you've got no chance, this is the infallable word of God we're talking about here! "Sharper than a double edged sword"!!

"For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."

Hebrews 4:12

hey they really tell it like it is those Hebrews

I'm not asking for proof, I'm asking for a good reason why you believe what you do.

I've supplied mine:

I don't believe in G-d as there's no evidence for his existence.
I don't believe in Allah as there's no evidence for his existence.
I don't believe in the tooth fairy etc.....

I believe in a 'big bang' through cosmic expansion and all the other excellent observations it supports.
I believe in evolution as logically it must occur, and explans rather nicely the similarity between the human and dinosaur skeleton. No religious theory can explain this.

etc etc etc

If someone told you they believed very strongly that the earth was flat, and their Bible told them the world was flat, would you question this in any way???

We've already explained that the odds of the tooth fairy existing must be (extremely) close to 0%, and there's no reason to suspect that of religion might be any higher.

Lovely

the earth is flat or else you'd fall off the bottom.





















(this is essentially the same argument as intelligent design)