Evolution and is God Evil

That's why I choose to see the "great spirit" you refer to, as the earth.

To suggest that the "great spirit" is god or something you can't see is illogical to me. I suppose you could say that if your belief is that God created the earth but that is highly debatable. I find that respecting the earth and treating it as your creator is the most logical choice.

Imagine what the world would be like if instead of people going to church every Sunday, they went out and cleaned up a park or road side.

... eh, I guess I'll go listen to more John Lennon as I'm dreaming about the potential of this world.

 

You can't see your mind...so it must be illogical to you too, right? How bout the wind...can you see it? How about gravity?

God is everything, and everything is God. I'm a pepper, she's a pepper, dontchawannabe a pepper too?

 

Well you can feel the wind and gravity. It can be measured so I don't really have to take that on faith. The concept of the wind and gravity make sense to me because I understand why such phenomena occur there for. The mind is more complex though. You can get a cat scan and see areas of the brain lighting up when a person experiences a particular emotion. It's possible to even stimulate the brain and produce certain reactions. But there is no such way to see inside a person's mind. There is no way to render an image, concept or feeling from the mind in any conceivable way as of yet. Still though, there is more to go on with proving that I have a mind than there is to prove the existence of a God.

(Also please don't think I'm trying to tell you what to believe. So many people get mixed up in that when having these kinds of discussions. I just want to say that I respect your belief and I hope you keep it if it suits you and brings you happiness. I'm merely stating what is logical to me and if we meet a road that cannot converge into one then we can agree to disagree and leave it as that.)

 

I can feel God...can't you? That's what makes debates like this so silly and dangerous at the same time. Which one of us is crazy...me for feeling it, or you for not?

That's why that, while we can have different personal beliefs, we must at the same time at least respect the personal beliefs of others. But noooo, we advanced humans tend to denigrate or even commit unspeakable evils on those who believe differently than we do.

I appreciate the fact that in here most of us can have these kinds of discussions without taking it personally and trying to kill each other.

 

I get the gist of what GhostX, is driving at, but you're merely straw manning him, without actually addressing his objection to the existence of the "great spirit" / god entity. You have made the same rookie mistake of reasoning that the student made in the OP fable, with reference to knowing whether or not the professor had a brain, without seeing it etc.

That I cannot see your mind,( and although at times I have wondered whether you do in fact have one), it is logical to assume, based upon on the evidence of what you have posted in these forums, that you do in fact have one (even though , at times, I am doubting that it is very functional ). If you did not have a mind, you would not have the cognitive faculties of consciousness, perception, thinking, judgement, and memory.necessary to post, even the execrable stuff that you seem to do. Much the same with the wind, and gravity. We cannot see these phenomena optically, but we certainly can observe their effects upon the physical world, we can measure their effects, and we can make fairly reliable predictions about these phenomena, by using sensing apparatus etc..and we can construct technology to take advantage of these physical phenomena in everyday life: "great spirits" and gods....less so. The existence of "great spirits" and gods tend to be unfalsifiable, and, to that extent, it makes little sense in investing much, if any, belief in their existence, beyond idle metaphysical speculation.

I'm tempted to retort, that "god is nothing and nothing is god", but I'll take a pass, on the deepities (yours and mine) thank you; and on the peppers too....

 

You believe what you believe and I will believe what I believe. If you can't handle that, you are not as intelligent as I or you thought you were.

 

I haven't argued that you couldn't or shouldn't believe what you believe....passively aggressively suggesting that I may not be handling your right to believe what you will, is mischievous nonsense.

 

You walked right into that one Brokor....

 

The empty bag of coffee grounds on my kitchen counter this morning.

 

It sounds like the "absence of evidence, is evidence of absence" argument as to the existence of evil.....if there was evidence of coffee beans in the bag, then we would reasonably expect that the evil of non-existent coffee beans would be absent!

 

It is not self imposed evil as I am not the one who drank all the damn coffee and put the empty bag on the counter as if it still contained a heaping dose of my morning sanity.

We'll see how Satan likes finding his box of frosted mini wheats devoid of sugar and carbs tomorrow morning.

 

And here I thought she was just a narcissistic sociopath!

 

I'm glad as well. People should be able to have civil discussions about these kinds of things. I realize that you likely were taught to believe in God at a young age like I was. I remember the way I used to see the world and I wouldn't want to take that away from you if that is how you are most harmonious in your life. It was easier for me since I was still young when I shed my faith. I didn't have as much stacked on top of that faith. I didn't have a whole world that would come crashing down if that foundation of belief was shaken or pulled out from under me. I chose to embrace a foundation based on the theory of evolution to restructure my psychology and simply shift everything over to compare what I know life to be. It didn't hurt. It was euphoric actually. Because I started thinking in ways I had never tried before. I was able to predict things because of a new found "common sense" approach to the world I couldn't quite reach before and it has only gotten stronger as I've matured.

I did try to "feel" God but I'm afraid that I never did when I had faith as a kid. I gave God many chances to reveal himself to me in a personal setting (I still do some times) but nothing ever happened that surprised me or inspired me to regain my faith. I was only met with the same cause and effect that I expected.

Maybe it's possible that I lost touch with a part of myself or was desensitized long ago, but I believe that I can see the world clearly for what it is and not for what I want it to be.

If that makes me crazy then I'm afraid I'm beyond help.

 

Man....hoofbeats may not be zebras, (blue or otherwise) but in this case it turns out that evil (according to DW) is definitely the Devil...not an invisible supernatural coffee taking agent, but a husband with a wicked, perverse sense of humour, or just simple thoughtlessness. I saw the humour in DW's narrative, whether it actually happened as DW described or not., and went along with it with some wordplay....not everything here need to be taken with po faced seriousness.

 

Kids, in DW's household??? Now that is an assumption! lol one may just as well assume a coffee drinking blue zebra.... (what's with the obsession with blue?)