New study proves someones "god" is nothing more than one's own image! Religion crumbles...

There are many theories and many opinions about religion and god.
That is a fact.
If we all just respected everyones freedoms to have those opinions and gave EVERYONE an avenue to debate or speak their mind,then we should also do it with grace and tolerance towards others opinions.
This is not us vs them....we are all us really and drawing lines in the sand is not accomplishing anything other then dividing us all even more.

I am not an athiest or a part of any religious group and even I can see how this thread got rude pretty quickly.

Does god exist???We all have our opinions and thats quite ok by me....I just wish it could be discussed in a more thought provoking,intelligent and tolerant manner sometimes.
For the people on these boards that can do that...I appreciate you guys.
Its time to get out of the age of witch hunting people and grow up with the times.

Back on topic.
The OP"s source did have a point in that there is a section in the brain where your belief in god or spirituality comes from.
What was left out of the op's source was that people behave based on their experiences and not everyone has the same experiences so obviously this will shape their views based on their perceptions of their experiences which may be right or wrong.
Whos to say really whats right or wrong when it comes to your own perception of your experiences???
This does not disprove that god exists or if he doesn't exist...it only proves that we will choose based on our experiences which again we might be right or we might be wrong.
I just call it free will.

Originally posted by A Fortiori
I think you want to believe it was because of the subject, the "what" of his posts, when clearly evidence shows it is because of the "how". I have no problem, nor does anyone else, discussing religion calmly. Baiting people, chortling, using the ridiculous laughing icons to laugh at instead of with someone is taunting. That is not a quality post, and if you removed "Christian" from his posts and put in "Muslims" or "blacks" or "women" it would have been jerked, as well...

Exactly. The subject matter of this thread is subject matter that is always talked about on ATS without people getting banned. The subject matter didn't get the OP banned, but rather his debate style.

And I agree that the original subject matter (i.e., the study that everyone seems to have forgotten about) is very interesting. I just wish the OP wanted to talk about the study (after all, that was the subject of this thread) rather than making up excuses to act like a thug or bully.

Originally posted by DrumsRfun
...people behave based on their experiences and not everyone has the same experiences so obviously this will shape their views based on their perceptions of their experiences which may be right or wrong...

...This does not disprove that god exists or if he doesn't exist...it only proves that we will choose based on our experiences which again we might be right or we might be wrong.
I just call it free will.

I agree.

As I have said already on this thread, assuming God DOES exist, then how humans perceive that God is irrelevant. "IF" a supreme creator of the universe exists, then it would still continue to exist no matter how our brains perceived it.

Not only that, but people KNOW that their idea of God is a truly personal one. They UNDERSTAND that their view does not always match the view of their organized religion. This is not a huge revelation.

So how exactly does this study signal the "crumbling of religion"? I just don't get what the OP was trying to say.


[edit on 12/2/2009 by Soylent Green Is People]

Atheist Agenda thread

reply to post by watcher73


I'm sorry. I tend to assume the person to whom I am addressing can remember a post made only a few minutes ago. Or that they know how to click the link on top of the reply to see the post I am responding to.

reply to post by Silicis n Volvo


What a well thought out, stunningly insightful and original retort. Thank you for that enlighening response.

[edit on 2-12-2009 by Watcher-In-The-Shadows]

Would like to start off by saying I am not part of any particular religious organization. Normally I would never post on something like this. However I find it odd how many people who are Atheist, do not like have to religious views forced upon them. Yet time and time again, many try vigorously to force their views upon others. I cannot say for certain there is a God, or vice versa. Religion is flawed, simply because man himself is flawed. I agree that there have been many wars have raged, lives lost, and much hatred spilled over religion. On to the point, I think the study is foolish, simply because man knows no different image of how to portray a God than himself. I would like for science however to create life, not from life. Cloning is a big step sure, but it in itself requires life. In my views, life feeds on life, and that is a beautiful cycle. To my knowledge there is no way for it to be done. Until science can take matter and create a living organism (in some form), I will continue to believe that there is no possible way we just "happened" to be here.

reply to post by DrumsRfun


This is a reply to your post at the top of page 20.

Well said Sir.

Philosphy 101 declares that there is a God. Another Atheist Agenda forum

reply to post by reasonable


The truth is that they actually serve Satan, that is every last Christian that refuses to love and understand and actually talk to god, they simply follow base impulse number one or two.

These Christians "most" are deceiving themselves and continue to engage in standard selfish and toxic behaviors all the while they long for the time when Earth will be bathed in blood.

Revelations is the statement of the destruction of everything that these fools love. Society is what these people serve and God's will naturally percolates from the mountain tops to their preachers and politicians (who they don't trust but are bound to obey them), and they will forget all the good lessons of the bible like NOT STEALING or JUDGING or MINDLESSLY OBEYING FALSE PROPHETS, or ACTUALLY RAISING YOUR CHILDREN than letting YOUR CHURCH and GOVERNMENT DO IT FOR YOU.

You know, the Zionists of the world believe that since you are GENTILES you will burn with your prophet and they simply don't care as long as you burn for eternity. Christians don't get to ride anyone's coattails to eternity. All the while they continue to persecute and violate the rights of the Palestinians to live in peace with clean food and water. Boy, that sure is what Jesus would do.

When the end that you actually believe in comes, it will be the standard Christians on the chopping block, because they lie, are selfish, and take advantage of the world to their narrow minded perspectives.

If Christians do not listen to this post and ask God personally if they are on the right track, you will burn in the hell that you have envisioned for the rest of us.

I've seen Satan, and I'm not scared. If you did as well you would think Satan a joke too.

See? I said something crazy for impact. The test illustrates that the people worried about Satan corrupting humanity don't get that they don't actually believe that God or Satan could or would actually be able to take a human like form (Satan didn't, big ol' demon that was laughing, he was hilarious in that it was a fear tactic) and could prove their existences to you personally.

Most Christians don't believe, and the poor Christians who do will be judged by coming from a hard life, but many people from rough lives really do become gentile, understanding, and loving examples of what God's love represents.

The rest? You will get to go to another Earth just like this one for not being able to live in what you call the New Jerusalem. If you Christians do not take the time now to speak to God as a loving, caring, concerned older person, you will never truly seek what was promised:

Eternal peace (most Christians support war, which is against God's will), Eternal happiness (most Christians cannot be happy without their technologies, their churches and their usual routines. "I can't live without Mt. Dew, or God, yeah him too), and eternal love (many Christians throw their children away when they have sex before marriage, or try drugs even once, God is forgiving, so I don't have to be.) How could God be your role model when you support whatever the institutions of man tell you what to do, and you do it.

Most who need this message aren't going to listen, because they are devolved to a point where they support the power structure and are happy with what little social benefits are provided by the powers that be.

It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for current Christians to enter the gates of heaven that are pretty much hanging from rusted hinges.

Now watch the social experiment unfold as certain Christians will attack this message without realizing they are incriminating themselves.

Anger, selfishness, callousness, a refusal to accurately disseminate information to produce Truth, and every fallacy you can think of will be thrown at this post. Or it will be ignored, as usual.

I don't care, too many Christians obey their false prophets and are non-adaptive drones who demand the collapse of society to give them the Utopia they feel they deserve for paying lip service to TPTB and God. Utopias cannot exist and neither can the current social views that everyone except the people who wrongfully judge others will go to hell.

I'm already in the hell our government and its followers have generously provided for us, you can't send me or anyone else to another. Unless you want to bore us to death.

Then it's o.k.

Any belief without foundation is delusional.

Any extraordinary event that has happened, contains witness and has been analyzed by the scientific method and either came to a reasonable conclusion or none at all, is still an extraordinary event that happened.

For instance, 2 humans next to each other experience something at the same time, that is not plausible to be explained by conventional methods is extraordinary, and if it cannot be explained, then they are either insane, or hoaxers. Even if they have unedited video of this event.

What does this have to do with religion? Not much, more so spirituality, metaphysics etc. It's time tested that paranormal events have taken place, do occur and have been witnessed in real life by more than one person, at the same time.

Debunking a book is easy, literature and history are hear say, especially before we had video cameras. No matter how well documented it is that Christopher Columbus colonized America, I could say that he didn't, because there is no video.

Point being, don't say there isn't something when you can't prove there isn't, explicitly when there is proof, or testimony that it happened.

Originally posted by Silicis n Volvo
reply to post by Watcher-In-The-Shadows

 

theres no such thing as god...the sooner religion is erased the better


yawn!

My first thought rebuttle was:

there's no such thing as Liam Gallagher...the sooner Liam Gallagher is erased the better.

Rock stars are made in our own image. You perceive that he is someone that you ought to admire enough to post his photo as your avatar. In real life he is someone else entirely. It is his image that you have made an icon.

That is a religion.

It comes down to what is the nature of God?

We keep trying to form him into an image of us... When she is something else entirely. That something is, well, something we are, as yet, and may never be, capable of comprehending. We, who believe, and yes, I do believe God exists, see evidence of her existence in all things.

There are, obviously, those of you who don't see it as I do. So? I've no issue with that...my God(dess) works in mysterious ways, who am I to say they're wrong?

The OP's premise was faulty in that he/she insisted that this test, however silly it may have been in my view, was concrete proof that God is a figment of peoples imaginations...

God doesn't speak to me. Not sure I'd listen, or agree, if she did. He gave me free will, to come as I please, to go as I please. To choose my own path. I choose to believe in a God that allows us that, and to mind our own affairs as we will. He is waiting for us to join him, so that she can show us even more wonders.

My view. No need to share, if you don't want to. If God doesn't care, why the heck should I?

Reasonable,
where are you?

Actually if you want to get technical about god belief, it is possible that it was purposely designed in our DNA, it may in fact be necessary.

reply to post by seagull

We keep trying to form him into an image of us... When she is something else entirely.

umm, who ever said HE was a SHE ?

reply to post by GideonHM


Gideon - I consider myself a "Christian". Not one of those indoctrinated by their church or the cult of catholocism, just a Christ-follower. Your statement there was quite harsh but I suspect if Jesus were in the world preaching today, His words wouldn't be much different than yours were. If people would study their beliefs instead of this maddening and foolish blind faith in their preachers Biblical interpretation with his own opinions and prejudices thrown in, perhaps Christianity wouldn't have evolved into this selfish judgementalism farce of a belief it is today.

Christians - read Christ's own words. He preached against the church leaders and the people who thought they were so much more holy than everyone else. He hung out with the "sinners" of his time. Love everyone was His message - and the thing he pointed out to His followers over and over was how sinful judging others is. Christians are "called" to be doormats, not the judges of the world.

Star for you Gideon.

reply to post by oliveoil


You do understand Bob Marley was under the influence at the time of saying that, right?

reply to post by oliveoil


No one. My personal interpretation. You may, of course, disagree or agree as you please...

This has been my opinion for a long time: God is above such thing as gender bias, as he is above such mundane considerations...as she should be...

reply to post by Agree2Disagree


I once had a very interesting conversation w/a Rastaman in Jamaica regarding Jah. These people actually believe that they are the lost tribe of Israel.
And then he showed me