Comments: True conversation I had with a self-described atheist some years ago:
"How's the weather up your way?"
================================
A kind way to dismiss an idiot.
In reference one one might say, "His wife makes a good apple pie."
Posted by ghostsniper at April 24, 2017 6:30 PM
Describe all that is hideous and evil. Describe mans inhumanity to man. Describe a child's death, from some horrible decease.
Yes, I know all that is wonderful is proof of god and he works in mysterious ways...you got it all covered. But we atheist must have a legitimate answer to all the unknowables or we're wrong. Cute game.
Posted by tim at April 25, 2017 6:10 AM
I wonder where the universe did come from, if not God?
It is a good argument by Don, but apparently the listener wasn't ready to have any of it. Libraries and libraries upon libraries in the Western world are full to the gills with sound, authoritative academic works on theology, and yet ignorance is also a boundless tool.
Speaking of the weather, that's another good source for mankind's hubris, isn't it? When faith is lacking, pretentious theories abound.
Posted by Casey Klahn at April 25, 2017 7:45 AM
tim, it isn't a game.... or if it is, it is a very good game! I'm reminded of a quote from Dorothy Sayers:
"... for whatever reason God chose to make man as he is—limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death—he [God] had the honesty and the courage to take his own medicine. Whatever game he is playing with his creation, he has kept his own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from man that he has not exacted from himself. He has himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. When he was a man, he played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it well worthwhile."
The problem of evil is huge, probably insurmountable by human effort. But a few days ago we Christians celebrated what we believe was God's solution to the problem. What do you make of that? Seriously, what do you think of that?
Posted by BroKen at April 25, 2017 8:22 AM
"I wonder where the universe did come from, if not God?"
===========
The question is flawed, and could be considered trolling.
Where did you get the idea that the universe *came from* anywhere?
To take the silliness to the next level, where did the god that is talked about in the bible, come from?
I know, I know, he just always was, right?
But no universe could be like that.
Quote of the day:
"My imaginary superhero can beat your imaginary superhero's ass."
Posted by ghostsniper at April 25, 2017 10:11 AM
The double-posting is hilarious because that's the only way that comment could have been more offensive. Well done.
Posted by Jason in KT at April 25, 2017 10:21 AM
... it isn't a game.... or if it is, it is a very good game!
The game of life is the greatest and most glorious sport of all! It is only our own ignorance, or outright refusal to acknowledge clearly what is right in front of our eyes, which impedes our enjoyment of the game.
Posted by John Venlet at April 25, 2017 10:37 AM
I greatly admire the work of Eric Hoffer, who was an atheist. What bothered him about that tribe was
it's lack of hesitation and wonder. He described himself as a gentle atheist, one who does not care if there is life eternal or not.
Posted by james wilson at April 25, 2017 10:59 AM
"If there is no God, nothing matters. If there is a God, nothing else matters" - H.G. Wells
Vastness
III
Lies upon this side, Lies upon that side
Truthless violence mourned by the wise
Thousands of voices drowning His own
In a popular torrent of lies upon lies
XIV
He that has lived for the lust of the minute
And died in the doing it, flesh without mind
He that has nailed all flesh to the cross
Till self died out in the love of His kind
XVII
What is it all if we all of us end
But in being our own coffins at last
Swallowed in vastness, Lost in silence
Drowned in the deeps of a meaningless past
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Posted by Denny at April 25, 2017 4:18 PM
The universe is proof that god exists? Not the god you're trying to sell me.
Posted by bgarrett at April 26, 2017 9:32 AM
bgarrett, the post did not postulate "proof", merely evidence. Surely, the universe is evidence of Something or SomeOne. Yeah, we're more interested in "selling" SomeOne than Something and, if you want, we could talk about the evidence (I won't say "proof") for Him. Do you want to talk about that?
BTW, we're not really selling, merely offering. One beggar telling another beggar where to find bread, as they say. We don't get a commission.
Posted by BroKen at April 26, 2017 11:00 AM
Either there's a Prime Mover, or it's turtles all the way down.
Take your pick...
Posted by Smokey at April 26, 2017 11:32 AM
The moron failed to ask the first question.
Define god.
Posted by Bill Jones at April 26, 2017 5:32 PM
Anselm: That Than Which No Greater Can Be Conceived.
Thomas Aquinas: Unmoved First Mover.
Posted by Bunny at April 27, 2017 6:43 AM