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[Leafsnail]

...It suddenly occured to me that, actually, a lot of these arguments do support the notion that God is "imaginary".  You just have to use the right definition of imaginary.

If you take it to mean "fanciful: not based on fact", then pointing out contradictions in the Bible does suggest that God was imagined by the people writing it.  And "prayer doesn't work" and looking at the reasons why people might construct a God could also be seen as evidence.  Even the slavery one could sortof contribute, since it shows the Bible reflects the view of the people at the time rather than some kind of universal morality (and therefore suggests that God was imagined rather than the writer of the Bible himself or something).

What should be stressed, though, is that under this definition, "Imaginary"=/= "Doesn't exist".  In the same way I could have an imaginary friend who (through chance or other means) perfectly corresponds to a real person, an "imaginary" God could actually exist.

[Vattic]

I was going to avoid this topic but what Leafsnail has said makes me wonder if the Flying Spaghetti Monster really might exist despite the parody. The Pastafarians wouldn't like that.

[Africa]

You can't prove that God doesn't exist, but it's the reasonable scientific view, in the same way that it's reasonable to assume unicorns don't exist.

As for the Bible being morally repugnant...just skim through the Old Testament. I'll get you started: just read the Book of Joshua. It's not hard to find examples of "God is Evil."

So we've got slavery, genocide, oppression of women, more genocide, death penalty for consensual sex outside of a certain prescribed form, more genocide, we've got God inciting people to attack the Israelites as a way to punish them, and then murdering all of the people he incited as punishment for attacking the Israelites! Even though the only reason they attacked them was to be God's tool of punishment! Nobody can catch a break.

[Leafsnail]

I was going to avoid this topic but what Leafsnail has said makes me wonder if the Flying Spaghetti Monster really might exist despite the parody. The Pastafarians wouldn't like that.

...Wouldn't they?  I thought that was the whole point of it.

[_DivideByZero_]

All the Racism and stupid decrees (I think somewhere it forbids wearing clothes made of blends of different materials.) in the Old Testament does kinda mean you have to take it with a handful of salt.

Maybe you could post that verse for us? "I think" does not make it so.

Bam.

From google:

Neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee—Although this
precept, like the other two with which it is associated, was in all probability designed to
root out some superstition

[Reelyanoob]

Hang on, linen is a plant fiber, wool an animal one.

The Hebrews started as a nomadic herding people, and have a whole lot of irrational hatred of farming in the old testament. e.g. Cain & Abel. The brother who grew animals - loved by God, the brother who grew plants - hated by God. (God must have known fully well snubbing Cain would lead to Abel's death, yet he still did so, the bastard.)

This anti-cloth mixing law could have a the same "basis" (cultural purity, differentiation from neighbouring tribes)

[Fossaman]

I glanced through just a few of those, and the theme that popped out at me was that the author was bitter that God hadn't solved all the world's problems. I don't know if all of them are that way, but most of my random sample was.

[Nadaka]

Sites like this bother me, because I see no point in trying to disprove Religion, but rather think that we should try and fight injustices committed in the name of Religion. Half the people I know are religious and they're jolly good people, but there's an AIDS epidemic in Africa and children are being molested and people are getting away with it. Surely fighting this is more important? Fighting it by combating the people, not the idea? Because trying to disprove God isn't going to stop people doing horrible things in the name of X.

To save people from evil. Religion is the source of a huge number of bad things in the world. It is evil, it is wrong. It would be unethical to not take stand against religion. I can't prove that any given deity does not exist, but I damn well can prove that most of them would not be worthy of worship if they did.

Besides the whole unhealthy worshiping evil part, faith in religion itself is bad regardless of what religion is followed. Religion is fundamentally a form of governance that externalizes the threat of punishment and the promise of reward to false supernatural effects. It is a way to placate and control people without making a real investment in their well being. This exacerbates the corruption and perversion the political and social processes that could otherwise be used to make the world a better place.

[Strife26]

Bullshit, Nadaka. That fucking "I HATEZ RELIGIS PEPOL IS EVUUL" attitude had done a helluva lot more to fuck up the world than any religion ever has.



"To save people from evil"
As is any number of things, from fast food to the internet where you're reading this. Moreover, "saving" people from evil in this manner is just about the most evil thing imaginable. You're dictating belief? Fuck you.

"Religion is the source of a huge number of bad things in the world"
Bullshit. It's the justification for a huge number of bad things in the world. People tend to do evil things and always find some justification. Moreover, religion is the source of a huge number of very good things in the world.

"It is evil, it is wrong."
How so?



You know what. Fuck this. I've got better things to do with my time. Enjoy being a self-righteous, hypocritical dipshit.

[Criptfeind]

Despite the fact you are 100% right. You might want to lay off the swearing.

[lemon10]

I glanced through just a few of those, and the theme that popped out at me was that the author was bitter that God hadn't solved all the world's problems. I don't know if all of them are that way, but most of my random sample was.

To be fair, a omnipotent god WOULD be the cause of all the worlds problems, since he chose to have it become this way, and he could have prevented it with almost zero effort on his part.

Oh, I do agree. My point was that it's really not relevant now days. People were messed up back then and they wrote it into their Big Book O' God. Nobody cares anymore, and nobody is into slavery because they're Christian.

No they aren't, but they can use their religion to justify why slavery is fine, if the church says that slavery is fine and moral, then you won't have the people who profit from having nearly as guilty a conscience or moral problems as if the church said SLAVERY WILL SEND YOU TO HELL.

Besides the whole unhealthy worshiping evil part, faith in religion itself is bad regardless of what religion is followed. Religion is fundamentally a form of governance that externalizes the threat of punishment and the promise of reward to false supernatural effects. It is a way to placate and control people without making a real investment in their well being. This exacerbates the corruption and perversion the political and social processes that could otherwise be used to make the world a better place.

I must disagree, if you can externalize the threat of punishment for acts that you consider "bad" then people are less likely to do them, even if there is no basis in reality.
The below picture contributes to my point.

Spoiler: picture (click to show/hide)

Bullshit, Nadaka. That fucking "I HATEZ RELIGIS PEPOL IS EVUUL" attitude had done a helluva lot more to fuck up the world than any religion ever has.
...
You know what. Fuck this. I've got better things to do with my time. Enjoy being a self-righteous, hypocritical dipshit.

Dude calm down. And religion has done FAR more then anti-religious people have done to screw up the world, if you don't think that you are delusional.

[Strife26]

Despite the fact you are 100% right. You might want to lay off the swearing.

Probably.

[Criptfeind]

Eh... Fuck it.

Dude calm down. And religion has done FAR more then anti-religious people have done to screw up the world, if you don't think that you are delusional.

So Islam is a horrid thing because it promotes terrorists?

[Angel Of Death]

Eh... Fuck it.

Dude calm down. And religion has done FAR more then anti-religious people have done to screw up the world, if you don't think that you are delusional.

So Islam is a horrid thing because it promotes terrorists?

Nope, the people who do it in the name of Islam are.

[Bauglir]

Dude calm down. And religion has done FAR more then anti-religious people have done to screw up the world, if you don't think that you are delusional.

To be fair, religion's also done a lot more to help the world. There's a pretty overwhelming bias in the sample here.