Atheist here (Ask me anything)

[brinny]

Originally Posted by Skeptic90
What are your thoughts on death?

Also I will ask the same question, I was asked in my philosophy/morality class that I would like to hear everyones elses responses as well:

If an angel came to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more, nothing changing, nothing new. The exact same life over and over again for an eternity."

How would you respond to this deal?

Originally Posted by brinny
that sounds like hell.

If you deny the offer, it means that you haven't lived a fulfilling and happy life. You haven't done enough, or done enough in this life time to be happy. If you accept the deal, it simply means that you are happy with the life you had if you died today.

So for all who answered that question with denial, you must make revisions in your life, and see what can you do to improve your life. The only thing that matters is that you live a happy and good life. What is the meaning of your life? and have you lived a meaningful life?

what you posted that i responded to first...it sounds excruciatingly monotonous...reminds me of the movie "Ground Hog Day".

It sounds like an episode of Twilight Zone, someone trapped in a time warp without ever escaping. It sounds like hell.

 

[Skeptic90]

what you posted that i responded to first...it sounds excruciatingly monotonous...reminds me of the movie "Ground Hog Day".

It sounds like an episode of Twilight Zone, someone trapped in a time warp without ever escaping. It sounds like hell.

Well still anyone will stll want to relieve a great life over and over again. Same way you want to eat your favorite food over and over again, and every time feeling the same feeling.

 

[brinny]

Well still anyone will stll want to relieve a great life over and over again. Same way you want to eat your favorite food over and over again, and every time feeling the same feeling.

for eternity, eh? Never, ever escaping it? It would be hell. It would, like in the episode of Twilight Zone, drive one insane.

 

[woundedsoldier]

What if you are wrong and have to stand before God someday. Are you willing to take that risk?

 

[Tinker Grey]

Are you willing to stand before a God that gets irate when someone "believes" on him on a bet?

 

[Skeptic90]

for eternity, eh? Never, ever escaping it? It would be hell. It would, like in the episode of Twilight Zone, drive one insane.

Ok fine, what about not knowing that you are being 'reborn' like every new life is new, but yet the same, without knowing. How would you answer then?

 

[Skeptic90]

What if you are wrong and have to stand before God someday. Are you willing to take that risk?

What if I am wrong? What if you are wrong? WHat if you are wrong about Allah, about zuez, about anu, apollo, baal, charun, gaia, and all the other gods imagined by men. What if you are in the wrong faith/religion?

Let me guess, you have to believe in something so you can be in the game.

Ask yourself what if you are wrong?

Ok lets say you are right, and your baptist belief and your god are the correct way to heaven. Lets say that god did indeed said that I am not accepted to his kingdom, even if I was good as any other good baptist. Lets say I do go to hell because of my disbelief. What kind of god will that make god? A just and merciful one that loves all his children no matter if the believed or not? Or a god that sends anyone who didn't worshiped him to hell or another punishment?

If its the unjust god, well I rather not be praying to that god, I rather go to hell than worship an evil and unjust god.

If the Christian god is indeed real, I believe he will treat me the same as another good Christian.

Its like a parent that has a child that tells them that he believes they are not their real parents. What kind of parents will abandon and punish their own children for such a thing?


So again I ask, what if you are wrong?

 

[modernaquinas]

.

 

[lighthouse_hope]

What do you know about Theology?

Have you ever read Rudolf Otto?

 

[Skeptic90]

What do you know about Theology?

Have you ever read Rudolf Otto?

I don't know what I know about theology, lets say I just know the bare minimum to just know what is theology. No, I do not know who is Rudolf otto, care to en light?

 

[brinny]

i like yer avatar, Skeptic90, i believe science, the very origin of it, the very "life" of it, the "core" of it originated with the God i believe in.

 

[lighthouse_hope]

I don't know what I know about theology, lets say I just know the bare minimum to just know what is theology. No, I do not know who is Rudolf otto, care to en light?

Well Rudolf Otto was a Lutheran scholar who became like the "Darwin" of the modern study of the religious phenomenon. His work "Das Heilig" if I remember well (I believe it's translated to English as "The idea of Holy" -which is a bad title, but anyway...- ) is a great basis to understand the religious experience.

Read it, it's a small book, not hard to understand (I had to summarize it in my first year in the seminary -and it was a Catholic seminary-) and it will certainly broad your perspective.

You see the concern that I have is that, unfortunately, High School education -at least in Spain- offers a scarce curriculum on Contemporary Philosophy -even scarcer than science-, and so, sometimes you have this young person in college with a working command of say, physics or biology, but who knows little -or even the existence- of Phenomenology and the works of the like of Levinas (that's tough stuff), Buber (easier), Gadamer or Derrida -not to mention specialist like Rudolf Otto or Mircea Eliade.

 

[Skeptic90]

i like yer avatar, Skeptic90, i believe science, the very origin of it, the very "life" of it, the "core" of it originated with the God i believe in.

It came from believers of various beliefs and backgrounds who asked the question, is there more to the universe than what I have been told or have seen?
Doubt, uncertainty, skepticism

 

[brinny]

It came from believers of various beliefs and backgrounds who asked the question, is there more to the universe than what I have been told or have seen?
Doubt, uncertainty, skepticism

Aah yes, those questions that make us uniquely human.

It is said that THomas Edison was thrown out of school for asking too many questions.. i haven't researched it, however it did bring a chuckle to me heart n' soul...he is a kindred spirit, and i find the idea of his questioning to that extent delightful

 

[Skeptic90]

Well Rudolf Otto was a Lutheran scholar who became like the "Darwin" of the modern study of the religious phenomenon. His work "Das Heilig" if I remember well (I believe it's translated to English as "The idea of Holy" -which is a bad title, but anyway...- ) is a great basis to understand the religious experience.

Read it, it's a small book, not hard to understand (I had to summarize it in my first year in the seminary -and it was a Catholic seminary-) and it will certainly broad your perspective.

You see the concern that I have is that, unfortunately, High School education -at least in Spain- offers a scarce curriculum on Contemporary Philosophy -even scarcer than science-, and so, sometimes you have this young person in college with a working command of say, physics or biology, but who knows little -or even the existence- of Phenomenology and the works of the like of Levinas (that's tough stuff), Buber (easier), Gadamer or Derrida -not to mention specialist like Rudolf Otto or Mircea Eliade.

Well I am going to read the book once I get back to college and check it out from there. From the few summaries I read, he makes very clear that this deity is something that cannot be understood by the 'rational' or science, it exists away from the mesuarable and its linked to one persons experience. An outside force if you will. Or in his words: "non-rational, non-sensory experience or feeling whose primary and immediate object is outside the self".

This very much contradicts phenomenology which is more similar to how I think.


I do agree with Otto, god cannot be put under the microscope, and it can only be 'experienced'. But, I can say that ideas, as long as you believe will all your 'heart', they become your reality, and you experience your realities as if real.

Am I correctly interpreting otto, or am I missing something, please correct me if I am wrong.

 

[lighthouse_hope]

Well I am going to read the book once I get back to college and check it out from there. From the few summaries I read, he makes very clear that this deity is something that cannot be understood by the 'rational' or science, it exists away from the mesuarable and its linked to one persons experience. An outside force if you will. Or in his words: "non-rational, non-sensory experience or feeling whose primary and immediate object is outside the self".

This very much contradicts phenomenology which is more similar to how I think.


I do agree with Otto, god cannot be put under the microscope, and it can only be 'experienced'. But, I can say that ideas, as long as you believe will all your 'heart', they become your reality, and you experience your realities as if real.

Am I correctly interpreting otto, or am I missing something, please correct me if I am wrong.

You are interpreting well his starting points. It goes beyond that, but anyway, in which way does it contradict phenomenology?

 

[Skeptic90]

Aah yes, those questions that make us uniquely human.

It is said that THomas Edison was thrown out of school for asking too many questions.. i haven't researched it, however it did bring a chuckle to me heart n' soul...he is a kindred spirit, and i find the idea of his questioning to that extent delightful

Oh did he really. Thats funny. Remind me of what I did. Like every 5 min, I raised my hand and asked question, and usually off-topic, not totally off-topic, still related to the material. After a few weeks, the teachers get annoyed and they simply ignore me.

Even till now, not usually in my large lecture classes, but in my small lecture classes, I always ask questions, and once in a while professors and I start a whole conversation aside or just get mad. It simply makes classes more interesting when you interact, I wish it was allowed more often. I believed if researched, it will show that these types of question and answer things will show higher levels of knowledge retention than in just hear and take notes.

I usually spend 10 hours a day at school, usually by the doctoral departments or at my professors office hours. I love school.

 

[Skeptic90]

You are interpreting well his starting points. It goes beyond that, but anyway, in which way does it contradict phenomenology?

Well from the few things I know about it, phenomenology is trying to explain the things acted upon the concious, or the first point of view things. Or in other words the objective study of things that are subjective. Its just trying to get a logical explanation of things, which from the few things I know of Ottos book, is just making faith look like if it cannot be measured. I guess I am just a realist and materialist.

Do you seen any contradictions between both? or any objections on what I said? I don't know very much on this area.

 

[UnionJack]

skeptic im sorry if anyone asked this before but how do you believe the universe was created?

 

[Skeptic90]

skeptic im sorry if anyone asked this before but how do you believe the universe was created?

Well for short, I do not know and no one knows for certain. I can give you an explanation how it happened after that point, but before or at that point, my guess is as good as anyones guess.

We do not have any evidence showing things at that point. The universe could have existed for an eternity, and always was. The universe could have been a creation of another universe, it could have been that I created it or you created it. We really don't know. Sure you could say god did it, but then brings the question, who created god and so on. So for now it is more logical to say that there was no god. Saying that god did it, it is as logcal as saying pokemon, superman, buddah, or any other creature or deity we have not seen. Until provided with evidence, I will then say what is my best guess.

So again, I do not know.