When I met my husband I was on the fence. We would argue about belief and he would always say, "You know deep inside that there is no god but you are a coward. You need a crutch, so you delude yourself. Your little chicken heart is too scared to deal with the possibility that no one is coming to save you." He is a meanie but he taught me to be strong. You reminded me of those days. : )
Just speak your mind. We are exchanging ideas, not accusations. There is no room for offense. If this discussion makes people uncomfortable, we have achieved our objective. Even for the most fervent believer, a comfortable belief is or should be a luxury. If faith turns a blind eye to reality then it isn't faith, it is a delusion.
: ) In our case too, discovery of lack of faith, or that it is OK to be faith-less : ) remains one of the fond memories too. That is why we were more than happy to be just the gudda guddi in the wedding, and let whoever do whatever they want, right from the pandit to some guests who took over part of the proceedings. : ) Much as I love my wedding pictures and all, I felt/feel so fake.
The references are only for fun! The #001 of any debate is to drop a perspective hitherto untouched. So the links, references, arguments and ensuing counter-arguments are not to level the participants but only to enliven the discussion. I was fuzzy about lot of things in life and it took long time to crystallize my stance on few aspects of life. I'm sure when the endgame bugle is sounded by the provost we will all retreat with our beliefs not distastefully shaken but only wholesomely stirred.
Thanks for your thoughts. I agree religion does have a therapeutic value, much like a placebo does. The real source of the solace is perhaps our own brain. As to your nose analogy, why we all have noses in the center of our faces? Heard of Darwinian evolution? You think there is a beauty and symmetry to life. When people give credit to god they speak of butterflies and sunflowers and waterfalls. All lovely things, but what about the ugliness? David Attenborough said this about giving credit to God for the beauty in our world. "They always mean beautiful things like hummingbirds. I always reply by saying that I think of a little child in east Africa with a worm burrowing through his eyeball. The worm cannot live in any other way, except by burrowing through eyeballs. I find that hard to reconcile with the notion of a divine and benevolent creator." Brings up a question to all in general -- do those of you who believe god made the world believe in evolution? In the biochemical origin of life, the primordial soup?
U know I really really wish this were true but its not. A woman brutally raped is actually lynched in a country (we all know where) because hey according to them and their moral code she deserves to be. And u and I might have a diff opinion on the subject but that only stands testament to one thing there is no such a thing as universal moral code. We can talk of numbers and brand those that do not fall in the range as insane but as long as the outliers exist its not universal. Now to the second question why is god a mute spectator to evil? Whose evil mine or urs? I will perhaps take a break after this and just read.
I'm sorry I don't follow. No one is talking about a universal moral code. If god can't intervene in the rape, he should intervene in the lynching, but he does neither. Are neither of the two acts objectively wrong?