Is the argument about whether or not God exists simply "silly"?

Question

My previous post (check it out off my profile page if you like) asked about the inability to prove OR disprove the existence of God by mankind. If it is in fact impossible to prove or disprove (in terms of a reasoned, scientific method) His existence, then isn't it just ridiculous for people to waste so much time and invective on the issue? Believe or don't and live in peace. Why does religion become such a contentious issue, when most religions espouse peace on Earth and goodwill to man?

Happy Holidays (and a great big ol' Merry Christmas to my fellow Christians)

Answer 1

At a certain level you are undoubtedly correct - a lot of the argumentation I see here doesn't even live up to "silly."

But in all fairness to the countless serious intellectuals who've pondered the issue over the ages, there's a bit more to it when you include "scientific method" as part of the discussion. And that's just because of the way science works. Most theologians have come to terms with this issue and I won't belabor it but here's the gist of it.

A proposal which claims, from the outset, to be necessarily beyond any empirical verifiability, cannot be a subject FOR science. In other words, it isn't that proving the existence of God is impossible because it is too difficult for the paltry human mind. It's impossible because the concept of God is crafted explicitly to avoid scientific proof. Most scientists don't have a problem with this. They, like the smart theologians, have assumed it belongs to another realm where science cannot intrude. And we could certainly have a good time if we left it at that. But ...

The problem is that a brand (mostly American) of theism demands that science incorporate God into their "explanation." In fact, they demand the rejection of any scientific proposal that implies the irrelevance of a "creator." That is not silly. That is pernicious.

Answer 2

It's an argument that will go on until the end of time. I just think that there HAS to be a God, or higher power, to create all this. Look at the trees, the mountains, the seas, the people, the animals, the sun, the moon, the stars!! where could it all come from? Nothing can materialize on it's own. Human life can't materialize on it's own. SOMEONE or SOMETHING had to create brains to think with, blood, a heart that pumps the blood around the whole body, the ability to communicate with our fellow humans, and with animals, too. . Humans and animals know about eachother, are aware of how we fit in the whole scheme of things, and accept that. (Though the animals always seem to be getting the short end of the stick.) The animals are closer to God than humans, because of the inability to knowingly sin. Yet at the same time, humans are God's crown jewel. We were made in His image.

Us Christians seem to take offense to the naysaying unbelievers. I think part of the reason is our reason for being alive. TO WITNESS! It's part of our duty as a Christian, to lead non-believers to believe! To tell them the GOOD NEWS! To make it so that they have an eternal life of beauty, grace, joy, and peace.

My brother said it best. "To live, is to die." Life on earth isn't a real life! It's temporary. It's not guaranteed. It's the one in Heaven we need to focus on, which is forever, and GUARANTEED if we do what we need to do. We must work hard to get to Heaven. Our sin keeps holding us back, keeps chaining us to the life of this world. If we open our eyes, we then see that if we believe that Jesus died for us, we are charitable, and we repent of our sinning, then we realize that what we see while looking around, ISN'T LIFE! HEAVEN is life!

Answer 3

The problem is not one of "believe or don't and live in peace," because both Christianity and Islam hold the apocalyptic belief that either Jesus or Mohammed will return and annihilate most of the world's population. Their beliefs concerning these Biblical or Koranic prophesies are likely to become self-fulfilled unless more reasoned and logical minds continue to argue for saner policies and practices.

I am not willing to place the world's fate in the hands of those who believe in a book written in a time when the wheelbarrow was considered a technological miracle. There may be a God but his current advocates' minds are sealed by the ignorance contained in books of dubious origin.

Answer 4

Yes, it is silly.
People feel the need to try to prove that there is no God so that they can feel a false peace when they sin. If there is no God then that means they can lead a sinful life all they want. So instead of giving up their sinful lifestyles, they try to make reality a nonreality so they can feel "good" about themselves- when really it is all a cover-up because when you're in sin you feel rotten, which is why non-christians get so mad at you when you point out that something is sinful or ungodly, or that if you sin you'll go to hell or that there is a God, etc...

Merry Christmas to you too ;)

Answer 5

We are make to believe the God does exists. Unfortunately, scientists are not able to proof that except for miracles that happened every now and then. Don't loss sleep or friendships over such argument. If I'm you, I'll stay away from such discussions.

Answer 6

You just said what I have been trying to explain in words my whole life.
I don't believe in god, and I can't understand why people spend so much time on the topic.
I just live my life to the fullest, and try to be as good of a person as I can be. I think that people that devote their lives to religion are wasting precious moments of their current lives thinking about an afterlife.
Now is NOW. I believe that we should live while we can.

Answer 7

Very few of our beliefs are actually held on strictly scientific grounds. Memory serves as one of the greatest resources of personal knowledge. We also take knowledge on authority, personal experience, inductive and deductive reasoning. Very few postulates are even subject to proof. The debate about God's existence need not shut down because it does not fit within the narrow scope of empirical sciences started by Francis Bacon and continued today. The entire scientific apparatus rests on philosophical assumptions that cannot themselves be verified scientifically (the burden of Logical Positivism).

Answer 8

Yes.... it is.

The existence of God is meaningless because it has no verifiable (or testable) consequences. Saying "God exists" is on the same intellectual level as saying "Tuesday is green". Both are nonsensical and meaningless. The "I don't know" of agnosticism ceases to mean "I don't know if God exists or not" and becomes "I don't know what you're talking about when you talk about God." Until this ignorance is cleared up, we are justified in ignoring putative arguments for or against.

Answer 9

there is not any longer any. God is a concept that people invented. we are able to cajole ourselves that he's genuine and we are able to "sense" that he's genuine, yet in the top it quite is the ability of the "concept" itself that human beings use as their very own very own data. it quite is sparkling that one and all religions are synthetic and that they bypass away gaping holes as far as unanswered questions and techniques that contradict our pronounced fact. All it takes is for somebody to realize basically as a results of fact their faith is defective does not inevitably recommend Gods are not genuine and that they are going to start to make certain basically what share errors are relatively of their faith. in the top, it quite isn't any longer God that does something, it quite is all approximately human perceptions and how they make certain to work together existence.

Answer 10

I know! Man it gets tiring telling people I can't prove my God you can't prove yours. How about we watch football now? People care to much about what other people are thinking. I just want to talk to people about whatever not fighting because that raises my blood pressure and makes my spine hurt.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas