Religious Beliefs

[Daniel Jackson]

God would be the creator, not an alien, to be exact. An alien would be a being that originated from a celestial body other than Earth. God didn't originate, he has always existed.

[immhotep]

Ah the self inflicting wound of religion, god can exist without a creator yet we cannot? Erm if god is has a neccisary existance, and we have a contingent one, at which point will illogic be reversed and come up saying in the minds of all, "well hang on, if god can exist without a creator then why the hell cant we."
Then you have a miricle.

[SoulReaver]

I do consider that the higher powers could easily be aliens

not much of a "god" then

alien => living being => mortal & flawed => can be killed

[immhotep]

alien => living being => flawed & mortal => can be killed

Or

God => Fictional => Requires belief/delusion to exist => Can be deleted from existence by denial

[Daniel Jackson]

Ah the self inflicting wound of religion, god can exist without a creator yet we cannot?

It's not a matter of existing with or without a creator. It's a matter of being created. The Human species originated from the first man and woman: Adam and Eve. They were created by God. God was not created, because he is God. There is nothing in reality nor fiction that compares.

Erm if god is has a neccisary existance, and we have a contingent one, at which point will illogic be reversed and come up saying in the minds of all, "well hang on, if god can exist without a creator then why the hell cant we."

Why are you so fixated on us having a creator and God not having been created? Who cares?! I don't.

[immhotep]

Who cares?! I don't.

Erm..

They were created by God. God was not created, because he is God. There is nothing in reality nor fiction that compares.

You do care!

[SoulReaver]

God => Fictional => Requires belief/delusion to exist => Can be deleted from existence by denial

bummer, ants don't believe in us either - hope we don't get deleted too

[SoulReaver]

Ah the self inflicting wound of religion, god can exist without a creator yet we cannot? Erm if god is has a neccisary existance, and we have a contingent one, at which point will illogic be reversed and come up saying in the minds of all, "well hang on, if god can exist without a creator then why the hell cant we."
Then you have a miricle.

infidel ! bow to the prophet or phear our holy wrath !!

[Daniel Jackson]

Erm.. You do care!

Since you're in the mood to argue, let me make this crystal clear. I believe that God is the alpha, the omega, the almighty, the creator, that which brought the galaxy into existance. Without God, there is nothing. I also believe that God is not linear like we are. He has no beginning, no end, he simply is. God has no creator. God created us. I'm fine with this. You want to argue why we have a creator and God does not. That was the part I don't care about. It's like arguing over why we have two arms instead of three. We've always had two, we'll never have three, so why discuss the issue? Now, if you're faith or religion says that God was created and that something greater exists beyond God, then you'd have room for an intelligent conversation. Otherwise, you're just looking to pick a fight.

[immhotep]

We dont know that A single colony of ants has the same amount of nuerons as a human brain. its entirely possible that us pouring boiling water down thier nests could seen by them as a flood, sent by a high being to kill them all. As many as possible cling to leavy debree collected in the nest, forming an arc that saves only those who are strong enough to survive the flood. Sound familier...

[Colonel Sharp]

Nope.

I'm agnostic

[SoulReaver]

We dont know that A single colony of ants has the same amount of nuerons as a human brain. its entirely possible that us pouring boiling water down thier nests could seen by them as a flood, sent by a high being to kill them all. As many as possible cling to leavy debree collected in the nest, forming an arc that saves only those who are strong enough to survive the flood. Sound familier...

well in that case they'd be right wouldn't they ? there is a higher being trying to kill 'em all :|

btw ants don't have a collective consciousness, so no matter how many individuals (thus neurons) there are, each ant will still be, well, as dumb as an ant

[SoulReaver]

I'm agnostic

ditto

[Daniel Jackson]

We dont know that

Key Word: B E L I E F E

A single colony of ants has the same amount of nuerons as a human brain.

Your point?

its entirely possible that us pouring boiling water down thier nests could seen by them as a flood, sent by a high being to kill them all.

A flood? That's exactly what it would be given the amount of water in relation to the size of the ants. However, a flood sent by a high being to kill them all? An ant's mind isn't that complicated. It's an insect. It's life revolves around maintaining the ant colony, defending the colony, retrieving food, and not much more.

As many as possible cling to leavy debree collected in the nest, forming an arc that saves only those who are strong enough to survive the flood. Sound familier...

Yes, it does. It's called survival. What's your point? If you're trying to make an analogy to the great flood from the Holy Bible, it's not applicable. God got fed up with the Human race, so he decided to whipe us out with a global flood. He had a change of heart and decided a few could live and give Humanity a second chance. He told Noah to build an arc for a few people and a male and female of every species. Obviously sea life would be exempt from this. Once the ark was loaded up, the world was flooded. The world, there was nothing above sea level. If you were watching from above, the Earth would be a big blue ball with this little boat floating on it. After a week, the flood came to an end, and Humanity's second chance began.

[immhotep]

Since you're in the mood to argue, let me make this crystal clear. I believe that God is the alpha, the omega, the almighty, the creator, that which brought the galaxy into existance. Without God, there is nothing. I also believe that God is not linear like we are. He has no beginning, no end, he simply is.

For the record, weve had this arguement, also theres a whole universe that is infinate and depending on which theory you subscribe too is also non linear but a series on never ending collapses and expansions of every particle in that universe. It bangs and expands, then falls back in on itself and then as every particle is compressed in to an area the size of a single atom explodes with enough force to create another universe. Theres also overlapping universe, paralell universe and various other things. The single biggest flaw with no beginning, no end argument is that if he has no beginning and no end, why should he exist between not beign created and non existence. There is no end to this circle, there is no answer because each side could never resolve the issue, there is no evidence beyond faith that god ever existed. But lets no even get in to the evidence arguement because well, there isnt one, there is no evidence on your side and ill just be saying show me any evidence all the time.

God has no creator. God created us. I'm fine with this. You want to argue why we have a creator and God does not. That was the part I don't care about. It's like arguing over why we have two arms instead of three. We've always had two, we'll never have three, so why discuss the issue? Now, if you're faith or religion says that God was created and that something greater exists beyond God, then you'd have room for an intelligent conversation. Otherwise, you're just looking to pick a fight.

How do you explain gods existence, seriously, do you not understand how utterly implausable it is to a omnipresent, omnipotent, all knowing being to simply generate itself out of the vastness of the pre universal space and then construct an equally complex reality in the same moment. Its completely illogical, theres just no sense in the rationale that you can be created by a higher being that has no creator.
Also we have two arms because evolutionary natural selection has favoured primate development, there is an advantage in having two arms instead of 3, 2 eyes instead of 7, 1 brain instead of 3, everything in the world, everything that you see has an explaination and to simplify it to the work of humanity's inbuilt delusions of a higher being is an insult to the natural world in every way a a degrating trait of the human centric view of our universe. Why are we so obsessed with US that we can look at the world and think, damn, im so lucky to live here, to have such a rich complex world with billions of infinate combinations of elements and reactions and organisms at our fingertips. Why do we think, damn, some higher being must have done this otherwise the world couldnt be this perfect and wonderful. Earth is a special planet, but that doesnt mean its so special it was created for us, its a random jackpot on universal probabilities that were living here instead of the infinate number of things which oculd have evolved here instead. The complexity of the world is so vast that to reduce it to the world of one thing is revolting.

If I said to you, i am responsible for the creation of the universe, i dont exist but am typing this message through a medium of sorts in an effort to convince you that i am indeed the creator of all things and can prove this by saying in this message, a tangable manivestation of my godly power that i indeed did create this world so that you could live here and one day you could understand this message of love from me.

If i said that you would laugh, and ignore me. But what ive just said is EXACTLY what the bible is. The only place that it says god exists is in the bible, which 1600 years ago was written up in the equivalent of the forum just like this in Rome. The bible is essentially one giant forum post from 1600 years ago that everyone has decided to accept and have faith in its reliability instead of reject. The bible had a 50/50 chance of being rejected. Your either going to believe that im the creator of all things and i created a manivestation of myself to walkamoung you and record my teaching which 400 years after i die for you ungrateful sods will be combined to provide many millions with a guidence for life itself, life which i created by the way. Or your not going to believe I am who i claim i am and therefore dont worry about it.

Tep