Googling For God

[Keith Maitland]

Many are wondering why he made us who we are, but also who made him.

RTWT here:

http://tinyurl.com/qcq7xgz

[Shaker]

Places with lower life expectancies and more poverty are more religious

Nothing we didn't know already, but it bears repeating.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Places with lower life expectancies and more poverty are more religious

Nothing we didn't know already, but it bears repeating.

Less toys therefore not so much of a childish or adolescent delusion of invincibility?

[Shaker]

And in English?

[ProfessorDavey]

Less toys therefore not so much of a childish or adolescent delusion of invincibility?

What a bizarre comment.

Surely it the religious with their purported deity looking out for them who are much more likely to develop a delusion of invincibility.

[Harrowby Hall]

What the prof said.

And it's "fewer" not "less".

[Rhiannon]

Places with lower life expectancies and more poverty are more religious

Nothing we didn't know already, but it bears repeating.

Less toys therefore not so much of a childish or adolescent delusion of invincibility?

Do you have a fridge and a washing machine?

[Hope]

Surely it the religious with their purported deity looking out for them who are much more likely to develop a delusion of invincibility.

And why would that be, PD?  After all, is it even true to say that their  'purported deity (is) looking out for them'?  Just what do you even mean by ' ... looking out for them' in this context?  Doesn't the rain fall and the sun shine on all humanity equally?  Does God only perform miracles in the lives of those who believe in him?  Biblically, that never happened; instead, a miracle was just the opening for Jesus to explain to people who he was and what his purpose was.

So many questions leading from such an un-thoughtout assertion.

[Hope]

Many are wondering why he made us who we are, but also who made him.

RTWT here:

http://tinyurl.com/qcq7xgz

The problem with Google is that it can't differentiate between someone with a negative connotation of God carrying out a search, and someone with a positive one.  Related to this, it can't work out the purpose for which someone does a search.  Nor can it tell us what the person's conclusion was after reading the material.  It could be that, having read an article or two on 'Why God allows suffering' the reader changes their attitude to God.  As such, I would suggest that no-one is any the wiser having read this article than they were before doing so.

[Leonard James]

Places with lower life expectancies and more poverty are more religious

Nothing we didn't know already, but it bears repeating.

When life is difficult, belief in a better one to come is a clever carrot to offer.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Places with lower life expectancies and more poverty are more religious

Nothing we didn't know already, but it bears repeating.

When life is difficult, belief in a better one to come is a clever carrot to offer.

I'm sorry I didn't realise Sweden and everywhere else had banned religion.

Whereas the places that have have shocking records.

[Owlswing]

What the prof said.

And it's "fewer" not "less".

A+ comment!

[trippymonkey]

Places with lower life expectancies and more poverty are more religious

Nothing we didn't know already, but it bears repeating.

When life is difficult, belief in a better one to come is a clever carrot to offer.

Well, what would YOU say to these people?? You carry on being miserable, your belief's a load of SH++ anyway.
At least it might make it more bearable for them.

[Leonard James]

Well, what would YOU say to these people?? You carry on being miserable, your belief's a load of SH++ anyway.
At least it might make it more bearable for them.

I certainly wouldn't mislead them with daft fairy stories. Help them to improve their lives is the obvious answer, rather than talking at them.

[Owlswing]

Surely it the religious with their purported deity looking out for them who are much more likely to develop a delusion of invincibility.

Doesn't the rain fall and the sun shine on all humanity equally?

Hope, for a supposedly intelligent man you make some really stupid statements and this one is a corker!

NO NO NO! The rain does not fall and the sun does not shine on all humanity equally - if they did there would never be the devastating droughts that occur with devastating ferocity and frequency.

[ProfessorDavey]

Surely it the religious with their purported deity looking out for them who are much more likely to develop a delusion of invincibility.

And why would that be, PD?  After all, is it even true to say that their  'purported deity (is) looking out for them'?  Just what do you even mean by ' ... looking out for them' in this context?  Doesn't the rain fall and the sun shine on all humanity equally?  Does God only perform miracles in the lives of those who believe in him?  Biblically, that never happened; instead, a miracle was just the opening for Jesus to explain to people who he was and what his purpose was.

So many questions leading from such an un-thoughtout assertion.

Surely the notion that you believe that when you die you don't actually die but live on in paradise is just about the most extreme example of an 'invincibility delusion'. I can't think of anything more extreme in that way. If that isn't a deity looking out for you then I don't know what is.

For non believers we completely recognise that death is death, the end, finality, - we recognise that we aren't invincible. Those with religious belief (specifically christian) think otherwise, that death isn't the end, that death has been defeated, that they are, therefore invincible and cannot really die.

[Owlswing]

Places with lower life expectancies and more poverty are more religious

Nothing we didn't know already, but it bears repeating.

When life is difficult, belief in a better one to come is a clever carrot to offer.

Well, what would YOU say to these people?? You carry on being miserable, your belief's a load of SH++ anyway.
At least it might make it more bearable for them.

So you consider telling lies is an acceptable ameliorative for poverty and hopelessness?

[ProfessorDavey]

Places with lower life expectancies and more poverty are more religious

Nothing we didn't know already, but it bears repeating.

When life is difficult, belief in a better one to come is a clever carrot to offer.

Well, what would YOU say to these people?? You carry on being miserable, your belief's a load of SH++ anyway.
At least it might make it more bearable for them.

Indeed - the opiate of the masses. I think this is correct - if life is so unbearably hard, surely the only thing that may keep you going is having a belief that there is something better after death. And of course for those in power who keep the lives of ordinary people unbearably hard there has always been a great incentive to support those beliefs as the best way to ensure that those people will accept their sh***y lives.

[trippymonkey]

How do YOU know they're lies You DON'T !!!
Make their lives better by all means, as this is what as humanity, we SHOULD be doing but not let us do what the Christians did & use this as a way to 'convert' them.

I'll help you but get rid of any religious ideas?? ?!?!?! How dare you ?!!??

[Owlswing]

Surely it the religious with their purported deity looking out for them who are much more likely to develop a delusion of invincibility.

And why would that be, PD?  After all, is it even true to say that their  'purported deity (is) looking out for them'?  Just what do you even mean by ' ... looking out for them' in this context?  Doesn't the rain fall and the sun shine on all humanity equally?  Does God only perform miracles in the lives of those who believe in him?  Biblically, that never happened; instead, a miracle was just the opening for Jesus to explain to people who he was and what his purpose was.

So many questions leading from such an un-thoughtout assertion.

Surely the notion that you believe that when you die you don't actually die but live on in paradise is just about the most extreme example of an 'invincibility delusion'. I can't think of anything more extreme in that way. If that isn't a deity looking out for you then I don't know what is.

For non believers we completely recognise that death is death, the end, finality, - we recognise that we aren't invincible. Those with religious belief (specifically christian) think otherwise, that death isn't the end, that death has been defeated, that they are, therefore invincible and cannot really die.

Christians are not the only believers who consider that "death is death".

Many Pagans hold the belief in the cycle of Birth, Life, Death, and Re-birth - not all, but I am one of them.

[Owlswing]

How do YOU know they're lies You DON'T !!!
Make their lives better by all means, as this is what as humanity, we SHOULD be doing but not let us do what the Christians did & use this as a way to 'convert' them.

I'll help you but get rid of any religious ideas?? ?!?!?! How dare you ?!!??

How do YOU know that they are NOT!?

You DON'T!

You believe this to be true but you do not know it to be true!

Get rid of religious ideas? NO! Just get rid of the blatant lie that they are an irrefutable truth! Thgey are not and how dare you say that they are!

[Leonard James]

How do YOU know they're lies You DON'T !!!
Make their lives better by all means, as this is what as humanity, we SHOULD be doing but not let us do what the Christians did & use this as a way to 'convert' them.

I'll help you but get rid of any religious ideas?? ?!?!?! How dare you ?!!??

Help them unconditionally. Don't help them and feed them religion too.

[Shaker]

Does God only perform miracles in the lives of those who believe in him?

Alan Burns seems to think so. It makes a certain sort of sense - atheists don't believe in miracles from God; you have to be a theist for that.

Biblically, that never happened

I again refer you to the aforementioned AB, who only yesterday provided a biblical quote to exactly that effect. Take it up with him.

[Shaker]

I'm sorry I didn't realise Sweden and everywhere else had banned religion.

Since nobody said that they had I have no idea what this comment refers to. What the aforementioned countries have in common are very high rates of what the sociologist Phil Zuckerman (q.v.) calls organic atheism. This is not enforced state atheism in the service of another, separate agenda (i.e. Stalinism) but the atheism that comes from the gradual attrition of religious belief over time by multiple factors - cohort replacement (older people tend to be more religious, but older people die first and their religious beliefs aren't replaced or equally represented amongst the younger generations), financial prosperity and social security are considered to be some of the most important. Others in being harder to pin down are more controversial.

The short and simple version is that such societies essentially grow out of religious adherence over time. Organically, hence Zuckerman's coinage.

[Hope]

When life is difficult, belief in a better one to come is a clever carrot to offer.

Except that most Christians - if they think about the after-life at all - probably seen it in terms of 'different' as opposed to 'better'.  As I've pointed elsewhere, albeit in slightly different context, these ideas of worse/better seem to come more regularly from the non-believers here.