Can anyone see a problem with my logic here?

Question

When I was at primary school I used to hate the school bully. He used to make my and some of the other kids' lives misery.

We got around this though by telling ourselves he didn't exist. Problem solved.

@ /\_/\ :

"He made my life misery" is a British idiom. I'm from Britain. If you are too, perhaps you're at the other end of the island.

Answer 1

Silly, just silly.

But see, you knew he was there, you saw him, interacted with him, AND it was provable he existed. The same can't be said for god.

Answer 2

Actually, I *do* understand. I spend pretty much 12 years of doing the same thing. I got on the bus, ignored the taunts of the idiots --why they did I don't know although now I have some idea but I won't say here -- went to school and did the same on the way home. It was a rather miserable existance but it gave me a deep charecter -- three of them. I didn't realise that I had shattered into three personalities until my thirties.
Problem was NOT solved.

Answer 3

I might be missing something, but if you say that "some A are not B" is false, then all A must be B. So true. But I'll actually sit on the fence and say that it is not quite determined, since there is the possiblilty that 'A' defines a circumstance that is somehow logically impossible, i.e. no A exist to be B.

Answer 4

If you believed that the bully didn't exist, then you would have acted out those beliefs. Whenever you went to school and met them in the hallways or playground, they would see you but you would ignore them and walk by them.

By doing that you would have taken away the bullies' power over you; they get this power from your fear, and if you don't show them fear, then they'll probably leave you alone (and probably get it from some other victim).

That's my rationale for your situation, assuming it actually happened. If you're using this as an argument against believing in God, you would have to prove the relevant premises, ie:

a) God existed
b) God was a direct bully (ie to you in particular, but not only you)
c) God is the type of bully who leaves you alone if you stop believing in him.

Answer 5

Yep, I get it. Bear with me, please-

You're a creationist. You have lived your entire life being taught evolution in schools but the fundie vicar tells you it's all a lie. Your school makes a trip to the London Museum, filled with fossils. You and the other kids decide the fossils are all made from plastic, designed by liars who are trying to lead you away from your faith.

Mum gets you vaccinated at the NIH because the laws say so. She explains to you it's another lie of satan to receive those shots, despite the fact she knew kids in braces from polio in the early 1950s.

End.

"made lives misery" is not incorrect, with the implied "state of misery" in there.

Mind when we used to say... oh wait, that's my Scots mither speaking.

Answer 6

We tend to emphasize the beauties and pleasures of youth whilst the ugly side of life - old age, sickness, death, boredom, despair and depression, are pushed aside. When we find ourselves with something we do not like, we try to get away from it to something we do like. If we feel boredom, we go to something interesting. If we feel frightened, we try to find safety. This is a perfectly natural thing to do. We are associated with that pleasure/pain principle of being attracted and repelled. So if the mind is not full and receptive, then it is selective - it selects what it likes and tries to suppress what it does not like. Much of our experience has to be suppressed because a lot of what we are inevitably involved with is unpleasant in some way.
f anything unpleasant arises, we say, ‘Run away!’ If anyone gets in our way, we say, ‘Kill him!’ This tendency is often apparent in what our governments do....Frightening, isn’t it, when you think of the kind of people who run our countries - because they are still very ignorant and unenlightened. But that is the way it is. The ignorant mind thinks of extermination: ‘Here’s a mosquito; kill it!’, ‘These ants are taking over the room; spray them with ant killer!’ There is a company in Britain called Rent-o-Kill. I don’t know if it is a kind of British Mafia or what, but it specializes in killing pests - however you want to interpret the word ‘pests’.

Answer 7

I can see whetre you're going here but it falls apart after you make the transition to your nexst questinm, based on the aqnswers from THIS one.

The Bujlly IS real. you can see the tangibvle results of his work. Not only can you see the tangible results of his work but you can actually SEE for yourself the bully condutcting his reign of terror with your own eyes. Hear his shouts with your own ears and FEEL his punches in your face as he beats up on YOU. In other words there are physical proofs that he exists BOTH in the results of his existence AND in the ACTUAL witnessing of him conducting his acts of terror. You are left with no other choice BUT to believe in his existence, the empirical eveidence would be overwhelming in support of it.

Brightest Blessings,
Raji the Green Witch

Answer 8

Yes, you were ignoring the evidence, of course the same is true of the opposite: you could have convinced your self that there was a bully at school and refused to go, regardless of having no evidence that the bully existed.

Answer 9

I love to do that. Ignorance is bliss. Sometimes we have to bury our heads to protect ourselves. When you're ready, you'll pick up you're head, wash your hair, and be strong enough to see and hear the scary truth. Even though with many things, you can't, and therefor wont, afford to indulge in such luxury, do not let other people tell you things you CAN'T hear right now. Some times we have to protect our selves from bad thoughts because we can't make them stop.

Answer 10

Yes, you knew he was a real living breathing person that you had plenty of evidence for and had seen with you own eyes. Thats just stupid.

I hope this isn't you trying to be clever.....

To ignore something that you have overwhelming evidence for is just stupid. Look at creationists.

Answer 11

If instead he was real, and gave you the promise of eternal joy and happiness, and showed you how to have a joyous, wonderful life, would you still ignore him? Of course not.