If there were compelling evidence disproving what you currently hold to be true; would you change your position?

Many religions advocate that humans are to be blamed for the imperfections of the world. Supporting this view, they interpret the Genesis myth as declaring that transgressions committed by the first human pair brought about a “fall” of creation resulting in the present corrupt state of the world. Gnostics respond that this interpretation of the myth is false. The blame for the world’s failings lies not with humans, but with the creator. Since -- especially in the monotheistic religions -- the creator is God, this Gnostic position appears blasphemous, and is often viewed with dismay even by non-believers.

Originally posted by tinfoilman
reply to post by xelamental

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I'd do the same thing I'm doing now. If ghosts were proved to not exist, I'd still wonder and try to figure out what caused me to have my almost 20 different ghost sightings over the years. Some of them even when other witnesses standing by seeing the same thing.

Sure maybe it wasn't really ghosts. Maybe it was mass hallucinations or sleep paralysis or EMF fields or maybe it was just having a ten minute conversation with something that wasn't really there.

I'd still be just as interested to know which it was and why those things cause people to see things. Sure, maybe ghosts aren't real, but the search for answers continues anyway. Still looking for something. The show must go on.

If God or Jesus was proven to not exist, I'd still do the same thing. If Jesus had good advice or bad advice, it was still good advice or bad advice regardless of if he was real or not. After all, it was the same message. That hasn't changed.

If donating to charity and going to church and preaching and atoning for my sins was important before, it's even more important if God isn't real. That means there's no second chance. I only get one shot to get it right. This is all we get.

A good charity or a good church is all about community. Something that would become even more important and should be more important than it is. If there's no God, all we got is each other. There's no invisible sky wizard to come and save us from ourselves. If we won't help each other and come together just because there is no God then what hope is there for us?

If I'm preaching it's because I'm passionate about something and I believe it's important and I believe it's important to other people and they need to hear the message. Sure, God might not be real, but there must be something that the people need to hear?

Isn't it important they hear about other things like stop destroying the planet! Stop the wars! World hunger! or any of the other millions of important issues out there. There's plenty of things to preach about if God isn't real too. Just because we can't prove it, isn't any excuse to sit on the lazy boy and do nothing.

Also, i'd better atone for my sins now. Let's not forget the actual people that may have been harmed. Maybe I don't have to apologize to God, but what about anyone I hurt? When I die, I'll just be dead. If there isn't going to be another chance to say sorry, then I'd better do it now. Even more important if God isn't real.

In other words, not believing in God isn't any excuse to be lazy. It doesn't justify not getting up on Sunday morning. There's still a world that needs to be improved out there, and now there's one less sky fairy to do it for us.

We don't know if God is real or not. One should be content with how they live their life regardless of if God is real or not. One should live a life that works for them regardless. Real or not a good life is a good life and a bad life is a bad life.

This is exactly why Jesus wants us to believe in him though. He knows many people will just sit there and do nothing unless they believe.

Let's take a lesson from the Bible. Jesus came and told the people to not judge, turn the other cheek, love each other, help the poor, and help the sick.

They crucified him. Three days later he came back from the dead and eventually ascended to Heaven. Then he started getting more followers. Some of the very people that didn't believe in him before.

Not because of his message, that was the same as it had been from the very beginning, but because of his little magic trick showing he was God. And now today how many people believe in Jesus not because of his message, but because of a magic trick that would certainly be insanely trivial to accomplish for a God?

Cause that's how people work. They have to believe in something and see a magic trick before they'll get up off the couch and actually do something about it.

Now, do you really need God to come down and do a magic trick or see some sort of proof? Or, are you gonna get up off the couch, live your life as best you can, and do something productive right now?

Originally posted by Astyanax
reply to post by xelamental

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If there were compelling evidence disproving what you currently hold to be true; would you change your position?

If there were such evidence, I would immediately change my position. I think any sensible person would, don't you?

Concerning the running example we're speculating about (trust ATS members to go for the big one!), I'm an atheist, so my change of position would have to be based on the discovery of compelling proof that God exists.

If such proof were found, my reaction would be one of horror.

It would mean that all the injustice, wickedness and random horror of the world exist because Someone said 'let it be so'.

That Someone would have to be very, very evil. There would be no excuses for Him or Her. We might as well all give up trying to be good, because it would be hopeless. Why be good, when the greatest good to be hoped for from Omnipotence is to be coddled as a favourite while others are cruelly trampled?

If God were proved to exist I should be forced to become a gnostic.

Many religions advocate that humans are to be blamed for the imperfections of the world. Supporting this view, they interpret the Genesis myth as declaring that transgressions committed by the first human pair brought about a “fall” of creation resulting in the present corrupt state of the world. Gnostics respond that this interpretation of the myth is false. The blame for the world’s failings lies not with humans, but with the creator. Since -- especially in the monotheistic religions -- the creator is God, this Gnostic position appears blasphemous, and is often viewed with dismay even by non-believers.

Interesting I never knew about gnosticism. The thing is if a god is real, we would have to take his/her view of reality, because he/she created it. If this is really just a simulation setup for a test to see who loves god, then everything would make sense.

Originally posted by xelamental
Can you expand more on your philosophy?