Think about it, what is religion? The belief in something that cannot be proven, that has many, many things that as of yet we have found impossible, and in many people, it is unshakeable. Now I am not saying that all religious people are going to go kill someone or end up in an assylum, but think, in every religion, the basis is something that cannot be know, but is only faith. Faith in something that could turn out to be wrong, faith in something that you have absolutely no way of knowing. Also, think how many of these religions started, some person got a message from a "god" that told them what to do. Don't go crazy on me, I just want people to think about it.
Think, what solid proof does christianity have that they are even SLIGHTLY right?
Theists will site their own personal experiences of or with God as their primary justification. Philosophers have argued (pretty well, I might add) that belief in God is a properly basic belief, must like perceptual knowledge is. Your evidence for the belief that there's a tree in front of you is based on your sense experience of a tree. The theist will say her experience of God is the same, it was a sensory experience of God in some fashion. Maybe she just "felt" God's presence, but this sort of evidence is hard to refute. There are also some excellent arguments for the existence of God, especially contemporary cosmological arguments which use physics and probability.
What I'm saying is that if you're equation irrationality to not having proof for a belief, then I'm not sure you could lay that claim against the theist. This version of rationality seems to be close to epistemic justification. And, like I said, the theist seems to be prima facie justified in their beliefs.
look at the comandments. the bad ones say you will go to hell, i believe that this was created to give another reason for people to stay in line and obay the law. so not only prison, but hell. stupid
Your evidence for the belief that there's a tree in front of you is based on your sense experience of a tree.
One small difference. EVERYONE that isn't blind can see that tree.
It's the same thing, no differences, "I was blind but now I see." When Columbus arrived to the new world the Indians saw the ship off the coast but said it was invisible to them cause they never saw a ship before. So maybe God is like that to some people too.
Theists will site their own personal experiences of or with God as their primary justification
Oh yes, but God, almighty he is, only talks to a few people,
Feeling the presence of God isn't the same thing as talking to Him.
A better question would be: Is religious belief irrational?
I don't know, maybe some of the things we do in church could look like insanity to outsiders, like when they made my dad kiss the rattler before he could become an usher - thing bit him smack on the nose! The poison didn't do to much of damage cause he was protected by the Holy Spirit. It's all based on Scripture, just so you know!
Sorry for the doublepost. There's also the idea of speaking in tongues, it's also based on Scripture. That might look like insanity if your not a believer. My mom's sister came in and told everyone she just received the gift of tongues. No one in the family could do it so it was kind of new for us to see. But within a couple weeks everyone in the family was able to speak in tongues too!
So I think some people could really speak in tongues but others are just copycats, so maybe its the copycats whom are insane.
- thing bit him smack on the nose! The poison didn't do to much of damage cause he was protected by the Holy Spirit. It's all based on Scripture, just so you know!
This doesn't prove God's existence. One: The nose is full of hard cartilage, and the nostrils are hallowed out. The venom maybe leaked out his nose or hit cartilage and never entered the blood stream. Two: Even if the venom enter your Dad's blood stream; how does this prove God? You can not make the assumption that a super-natural event is caused by a deity. We could try an experiment, where we have your Dad and an atheist*roughly the same weight and height* injected with same amount of venom at the same spot. If your dad lives again and the atheist dies, then you can make that assumption. Three: So if God is so loving; why does he choose to protect your dad and not children In Africa strickened with famine, plague and genocide? God loves people more than other I suppose.
Three: So if God is so loving; why does he choose to protect your dad and not children In Africa strickened with famine, plague and genocide? God loves people more than other I suppose.
Kasic It sort of feels like someone is in the room next to you and lifting you up. That's the best I can describe it. It doesn't make any sense, and if it happened to you, you'd probably find some logical reasons to explain it away.
That makes no sense. They obviously saw it, but they might have been in denial.
Yeah. There brains probably denied a ship and made it match some concept that they were comfortable with, like a big upside down tree root or something.
Maybe that's like you, where your ready to ridicule the concept of the "resence of God experience", because it doesn't fit comfortably into your concepts, so you want to make it into something you understand, something safe - like warm wind on a cold day.
Maybe that's like you, where your ready to ridicule the concept of the "resence of God experience", because it doesn't fit comfortably into your concepts, so you want to make it into something you understand, something safe - like warm wind on a cold day.
That goes both ways you know. People in the past have turned to random things for support, and in my experience, many religious people either grew up with it, or had some extreme emotional trauma, like surviving cancer or a plane crashes with your family on it. Not many people turn to religion unless something like that happens. Maybe you just want to find SOMETHING that could explain how the universe is and why there are bad things in the world, so you turn to something that no one can disprove and can explain everything with, "he's god, who knows his reasons?"
It sort of feels like someone is in the room next to you and lifting you up
That's how I feel when i'm happy. So, either god is only with me when i'm happy, or it's just a chemical reaction in your brain.
find some logical reasons to explain it away.
Well, it makes sense to find a logical way to explain things. That's the point of this thread, is it even logical to believe in something where the answer is always, "God knows why"
[quote]find some logical reasons to explain it away.
Well, it makes sense to find a logical way to explain things. That's the point of this thread, is it even logical to believe in something where the answer is always, "God knows why"[/quote]
