Why do you believe in a higher power? Why don't you?
I don't care if you think there isn't any, but please refrain from just posting "no evidence", it doesn't make for very good readin'
>>445576
What else am I supposed to say besides that there is no evidence?
>>445576
Why would I?
>>445619
Because I'm educated and like to ask questions. Popular religions provide barely any answers.
>inb4 muh (insert holy book) gives you all the answers you need
>>445576
I stopped caring.
I spent free time in my late teens right before college trying to make sense of it all and I realized it just wasn't worth it. We don't know enough to know enough.
And then college and pussy and alcohol and now a job and pussy and a house and 4Chan. Honestly this response is the first time I've contemplated the entire thing in many, many years.
That depends on what you consider a "higher power". I had some freaky ESP experiences when I focused in a specific way.
>>445619
>why wouldn't you?
no reason to. Same for practically everything else I don't do
>because it's not the in thing right now?
I'm not from America so the tiresome atheist/christian shitflinging has no significance to me, if that's what you're referring to
>>445887
Care to share your experiences?
>>445576
I cant even conceptualize or find any meaningful definition of god that isnt clearly an all too human projection of humans themselves into the universe and reality in an attempt to make sense of it and humanize it.
The very idea of god is by its ultimate essence inconceivable and undefinable, and that paradox makes me a radical agnostic or ignostic I guess.
Thats why it pisses me off when fedora-tier atheists or fedora-tier religitards go on a tangent about their assurances. They always show how they had no self-questioning about their worldview or their personal concept of god to see if it is even coherent.
I'm sorry if I'm not being coherent myself, but its late as shit and I'm hungry but I still wanted to answer.
>>445576
I've just always assumed there was a higher power. It just so happens this higher power does nothing that affects us personally, and probably does nothing at all.
Like how Crom is treated by the Cimmerians: there, but not really something to pay much attention to.
Which God? What religion?
Religion served an important purpose as social mortar in a time when humanity didn't know jack shit about anything and without it we would not have survived. But times have changed and religion is now a larger threat to human survival than anything and we would all be better off without it. It's the thinking of a child, and we are not children anymore.
I don't believe in any theistic higher power, certainly not a abrahamic deity. To state my reason for disbelief succinctly, why is God geographic. To stay with the Abrahamic faiths, why do all the early thing occur in one geographic area. No chinese, Indians or Native Americans. Are you telling me God is restrained by distance? When you see all religions equally and realize their origins are cultural and geographic, they lose any divinity. B4 anyone says all mythos share common origins and structures, remember mythology is based on the natural world. The world is pretty constant throughout the world, so stories about the world are going to be similar. Combined with the fact that all cultures are just offshoots of earlier, shared cultures common stories will occur.
>>445960
I've always been curious, do people like you really find religion to be extra seditiious? Is violence motivated by religion any worse than violence motivated by politics? Now we have ISIS killing in the name of Allah, but is that worse than killing in the name of Kim Jong Un? Is not zealotry the true threat to peace. People kill each other over gods, but they do over political ideology and ethnic lines as well. It just so happens religious violence is in the forefront now.
>>446000
I think it's worse than political hate because political hate can be overcome with rational thought, compromise and effort. religion is something a person is bred into, with inbred hatreds passed from generation to generation with no rhyme or reason. Do non religious people find reasons to kill? Absolutly. The difference is the religious people don't even need to look for a reason. They were born with one.
>>445576
Yes.
inherent drive of the universe to create life + our inherent spiritual drive being sufficient evidence for me
>>445935
I just tried to see aspects of a randomly decided person's surroundings, and what I saw correlated with what they later described. The weird thing is how it felt: abstract but distinctive. Like poorly formed background thoughts magnified to a huge extent. I haven't been able to do it lately because it's impossible to meditate when you aren't very awake. But even if I could, it's not so easy that I could just do it on the spot.
Maybe I somehow imagined the whole thing. If simple breath meditation is all that was needed for this, surely tons of people would have attempted it at some point. You just need a broad target that you don't know and a way to confirm accuracy afterwards.
>>445960
Are you really under the impression that mankind has changed and we're magically smarter now that you are alive? Nothing under the sun has changed regarding the human condition. Everything and nothing matters.
>>445576
We all believe in a higher power, anon.
Even atheists have one: the universe and/or Richard Dawkins rule 34
I guess I vaguely believe in a higher power. I'm raised Christian, so the idea of something being out there is a little hard to let go. I don't subscribe to any actual organized religion, though, and I haven't looked hard enough at my own beliefs past, "maybe something is there."
>>446193
No, my existing isn't what makes modern times more advanced. But we landed on the moon, cracked the atom, built the Internet, and mapped the human genome. We are many magnitudes more advanced than we were when any of the holy books were written. You have access to more information than anyone who lived even 100 years ago. Fundamental human brain structure hasn't developed much, true, but our society has developed exponentially. Our race has a greater understanding of the universe now than it ever has, and very little of that has to do with any God.
>>445576
I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours
>>445976
Abrahamic religions (at least in Islam) say that god sended prophets to all nations
>>446075
Neither of those things are inherent anon.
>>446265
You didn't answer the question you moron.
>>446282
I don't for the same reasons you don't
>>446312
Yup, unironic. And I can tell it is convincing because you posted hats instead of a counter point
>>446278
im not arguing semantics with you, plebian
>>446316
It's not semantics if the entire core of your argument is rendered null because you said some stupid shit that's factually wrong.
>>446000
It's just a simple fact that religion motivates violence and conquest. However, I have a hard time believing that the people who aggregate it are religious at all. It's as simple as mentioned above, why wouldn't you push for the support of a god-like entity and reward in the afterlife so people both fear doing the "wrong thing" (aka, not participating in the war, or not doing whatever it is they want you to do) and also don't fear dying? Religion is a very powerful motivator for people who otherwise have no motivation to do what is demanded of the higher-ups. Even if you completely disregard the clear benefactory relationship to war, it helps people get through every-day life, do work as required, and lessen crime. I very much doubt that the initial inventors of religious practice were anything more than scam artists who struck gold.
Think of it like a shaman in a tribe, he of course has no magical powers, but he was smart and made up some bullshit and made it convincing and now he is hailed as the tribe shaman with large wealth and power and sway over the tribe. People fear what they don't understand, if someone says he can command the weather and does something tricky, clever, and convincing to prove that he can indeed control the weather, people will not fuck with him under any circumstances, lest they be struck by lightning and have their entire village ruined by rain. This can also be seen in more modern times, I don't remember the name of the guy, but he promised to remove the rain of places, at a price. It turns out he was the one causing the rain to begin with by using chemicals.
I dislike it because it encourages people to follow certain rules not because they are a food idea, but because of tradition. Thus I do not vouch for it.
>>445576
Honestly, because I wasn't raised that way.
If I had been born into a religious family, then I likely would believe. As it stands, I don't. Sad to think that it boils down to this, but I haven't spent the last 20 years studying theology, or everything that religions have to offer to come to this conclusion.
It's my comfort zone. Thanks dad.
Lanciano.
Because human knowledge is demonstrably fallible.
Religion is human knowledge, yet claims perfection. That doesn't make sense
