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Add to FavoritesThere is not a single, solitary, objective piece of evidence for the existence of God. When this argument is put, there are defenders of faith who argue that no truth can be objectively proved. Can't it? I content that is a truth that if you step off a tall building without a parachute or other life saving equipment the impact will be fatal. It you don't like that example try standing in front of a fast moving heavy vehicle. There is no evidence to contradict the claim that unprotected falling from high buildings and stepping in front of fast moving trucks are detrimental to the human body. That is objective evidence and shows that such a thing undeniably exists.
God, on the other hand, is an entirely subjective construct, which has no basis in objective reality. We could, of course play Descartes' little game. Briefly summarized it goes: everything that exists must have been created; everything that is created must have had a creator; everything must have had an original or first cause; that first cause cannot itself have been created; the only thing that could exist without being created is God. God Exists! It is game, set and match to Descartes.
But hold on! The match was a set up! It was fixed! Let us all agree on the idea that there was a first cause. It's hard to argue against. Let us now ask what objective evidence there is to help us define the nature of that first cause.
God is usually defined as non physical, pure spirit or supreme intelligence. OK, let's see if this makes any sense. Think hard, think really hard. Can you come up with a single verifiable example of anything which processes consciousness, without having a physical existence? I know we all love ghost stories, but the question is, is there the least thread of evidence for any such consciousness?
Don't we see in babies how consciousness and intelligence development as the child develops physically? We may disagree on the stages at which consciousness development, but no one has yet produced objective evidence, to show that human intelligence exists outside a physical context. Yet with God we are told infinite intelligence always existed outside of the physical. This contradicts all the objective evidence we know about the existence of intelligence.
But hold on! Somebody must have made the world! Must they?
From my window I can see a number of tall old trees. I have been thinking very hard about this and d I just can't seem to remember seeing anyone sculpture the branches. Now it is true that trees can have their branches trimmed but massive forests can grow with any interference of a living intelligence.
Now I can also see a church; it is a beautiful old building. I have read records of when it was build. Isn't there an attempt, by believers, to treat the trees in the same the church? There logic seems to go: Buildings needs an active planning, intelligence to be constructed, therefore mustn't living things also need one? They conclude that the Universe needed an architect.
Let us return to Descartes' argument. The first cause we are told was a non physical entity. Yet we have no evidence of consciousness ever existing outside the physical. On the contrary all that has conscious is first physical. The objective evidence supports physical and not non physical explanations for the beginning of existence. Does continuing existence need the interference of an active intelligence? No. As we have seen forests need no external intelligence.
So if the arguments for creation are so weak, why is faith in God so persistent? There are plenty of people who will testify to the value of faith. This is never rational or objective. We get wonderful claims like "God helped me to pass my exam," or "God helped my team win." This is the same God who did nothing to save the millions in Nazi concentration camps, or who years after year allows countless children to die of starvation.
Oh but it is not for us the question the ways of God, with all his divine love. So when good things happen God is praised and the bad things are, either nothing to do with him, or part of a greater plan we mortals can't grasp.
These claims are self contradictory and irrational. God is good because good things happen and a comfort in times of trouble but he is also all power, so could stop bad thing , yet doesn't. What a friend he is!
God is no more than a product of the human imagination. There is not a single shred of objective, verifiable evidence to contradict this.
This imagined deity has been used to justify wars, suppress populations, and confer a status of purity onto those who abused children. This imagined being has been called on by both sides in: Northern Ireland; the long conflict in the middle east; the terrible destruction of 9/11, the Iraq war, the war on terror; the list is endless.
All these conflicts and so many, many more have been driven by these deeply irrational beliefs.
A world free from this deeply destructive irrational idea would be far from perfect. There would still be wars, but at least it would be rid of one great source of harm. We would reduce the reasons for war and there would be fewer conflicts.
It is not so many centuries since a time of witch trials, or when claims of a round earth were treated as heresy. Belief systems do advance. Sadly they often take time to catch up with the evidence. If we are to build a more peaceful world, we need to start being realistic about how destructive a belief in God can be. This will start with individuals honestly assessing the true nature of their beliefs.
Learn more about this author, Noel Mcgivern.
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Yes
We can know God exists because god is in the spirit with which we do things. 'God is a spirit' - John's gospel. A spirit is the invisible energy cloud associated with the way you perform a task: whether working or making love with your wife.
So God is relevant because God is part of every single thing we do - whether were aware of it or not. No doubt though when a murderer murders he or she is not going to be aware god gave them the power to murder.
But what I am saying is, is that 'the way we do the things we do' is what counts, is what makes God relevant.
The bottom line is that how we survive is what makes God relevant or irrelevant in our lives. Although God's spirit supports the murderer as he murders, God is irrevelant to the murderer. The murderer just assumes his ability to do anything is unrelated to the spirit of God.
So if killer kills slowly or fast, then he is not merely killing but doing it a different way and so God may become relevant to him?
Killing is not actually surviving in a great way, so no matter how he kills God will still not be revelant to the murderer. If killing made him feel good, then yeah, he may become aware of God; but it is obvious that killing will make a person feel bad; maybe slightly good for a short time only, then bad there-after.
It is the same for whatever else we do. A homosexual act for example will make a person feel good for a short time, but in the long haul the repeated doing of the act will make the person feel horrible and then will kill them - calling it "old age" is just a cop out for the fact that you survived a dumb way and reaped the rewards of diabetes aids epilepsy or whatever.
There is always a reward. What goes around comes around. But only you can determine what that reward will be.
So called "good" people are just as bad as murderers and homosexuals because they also seek temporary satisfactions and short-lived thrills.
It is incredibly difficult, for example, to seek true satisfaction, lasting and long-term in the act of heterosexual sex, for example.
It is difficult because you have to deny your passions and lusts in order to search for lasting rewards - most people just don't have the patience for that. You must die to live - as jesus christ demonstrated by choosing to die on the cross. Passion must die so God in you can live.
Most christians are just hypocrites. I even wrote a song called 'liars of the word' that I posted on topix:
No ones more self deceived, than those of the creed, of ONE mean seed liars of the word liars of the word, (Johhny Cash riders of the storm). they claim he is their guide and for them cricified, for them pride,chorus, they go to church every week, my god they have a cheek, truth dont seek, my house shall be of prayer but they sing and preach there, just dont care, when truth is on display they laugh look away love sin play, in this world they put their trust, go hard and lust, turn gold dust, they accept they have sin but claim only he can win, turn and grin, they say precise is not right, power is might, dark-smart light, thye ridicule Jesse, to set nobody free, claim they see, he will come so soon to end this gloom theyve no room when truth it is they hear, they dont listen clear him don't fear, the members sleep around nothing new in town, priest just frown, the abomination has a seat, everyone to meet, dead sleep treat, they say sex is sex, with a voodoo hex, truth not rex, were forgiven not perfect, miracles neglect, shame deflect, they make the spirits fight, so they have might, power slight, do not ask a priest they will force your feast, wont use yeast, they love to obey, so they dont have to pray, lose their way liars of the, w-o-r-d, liars of the, w-o-r-d, LIARS OF THE WORD! bell bell bell bell. 4 beats a line.
So with so many hypocrites that claim they worship God, it is no wonder that many christians and non-christians ask the lame question of whether or not God is revelant today.
I should add one extra line to the song above:
They love to obey, so they don't have to pray, lose their way.
People who are looking for God to help them often just seek to obey what they told about God by someone else who claims to be an authority. Thus they look at the self-help guru or the indian mystic or local priest to tell them something they want and like to hear and then they just obey without question - it seems to some kind of herd instinct and in the worst cases leads to suicide pacts 'to meet God'.
But true zeal for God is to voraciously question everything in an honest search for the truth. Since very few religions encourage people to do that, then it is no wonder the very relevance of religion is questioned.
Christian zeal is not singing songs fervently nor preaching passionately it is questioning zealously, each individual seeking answers to his own questions, not seeking answers from other people, but seeking answers from himself, from God.
Preaching at a church is just a tradition started because of the necessary ministry of the disciples of Jesus. But questioning is how the disciples arrived at truth.
For questioning gives God space in your life, allos God to come in and eat with you. But certainty is shutting the door in God's face, saying 'I don't need you!'
It is natural to question and unnatural not to question - so the latter makes us ill. A little child asks questions.
So if churches turned and made church '...a house of prayer for all nations' then church would be revelant and not merely like another club where people meet to socialize.
If we look at the current situation of fears of recession, then church as a place of seeking truth (prayer) would be entirely relevant because answers to the fear of recession could be sought. It should be realised many people want a recession to come down on everybody so they won't be alone in their suffering and so they can seek some kind of revenge because they blame their current poverty on the actions of other people and not themselves. For similar reasons a gay man who gets infected with Aids will try to sleep with as many people, male and female, as possible to try and infect as many as possible. Why? I am not sure but I gave the possible reasons above as revenge and not suffering alone. The reality is about one third of the population supports the other two thirds who have unwarranted fears and lack of postive thoughts.
There are so many problems like Aids, world poverty, world pollution, infidelity, teen problems, and so on. Church would solve all these problems if God's house was the house of prayer (house of seeking truth) it is supposed to be. Then God would become not only relevant but necessary.
I mentioned elsewhere about the time capsul called the great pyramid of Giza. I was reading Peter Lemesurier's book 'the great pyramiod decoded' and was gazing at the drawing of the anti-chamber that, in his book, contains a circle and a sqaure - having studied architecture I am atuned to geometry and know that it 'speaks' to a person after a fashion, but I was surprised when I heard the actual words spoken to my mind: "There is Great Peace with God': the message the pharoahs sent us.
I hope someone else can read the same book and confirm that there is a spoken word encoded in the geometry - it is as if they placed a recording device there with batteries still working.
God is revelant, always was and always will be. It is religion that is not relevant - man's non-pragmatic interpretation of relationship with God. For example, see my site 'the love of shape' at yahoo groups where God is helping me solve the problems of fuel prices and pollution.
Learn more about this author, Raymond Ellis.
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