blue_chameleon said:
In reply to this thread, and im not sure if it has been said before, but a simple thought here:
If there is no god, why have so many people believed, over so many many years that there is? Are we all being fooled? Im talking alot of people here, more than anyone can comprehend.
i will accept the challenge to refute this outlandish claim with my feeble rebuttals...haha...rebuttal is a funny word^^
HAHA i think its actually very easy to answer this question
"Are we being fooled?" - I think its more like we are fooling ourselves into thinking that a supreme being exists. As mere mortal beings we are confused and ignorant little things, so we invent things like God and Heaven to overcome our ignorance and confusion---> thats why we have "faith in things unseen". utter bullshit....
"Are we being fooled" - Yes, by other perverted little beings called bishops and priests....the enforcers of organised religion who get their power trip out of telling us ordinary folk what to do.
Ppl are naturally weak. We are social creatures and although individually we like to think of ourselves as independent, reasoning entities, in reality most of us just follow a herd mentality. You really gotta give it to those prophets...they must b really charismatic, and yes, manipulative, storytellers to be able to fool ("convert" in religious speak) the herds of peasants. And then of course there is conversion by the sword, by the stake, etc. Ppl are weak and will believe anything.
2ndly, religion and religious people cause more wars than solve them. And yes, i do believe in the theory of the "clash of civilisations".
I know im a bit off topic but here goes. By Judea-Christian conventions, we normally associate the supreme beings, lets say God, as a peaceful loving kind of guy who created all so that we may multiply and prosper, yaddah yaddah. Why isn't the antithesis of the conventional God, ie, Satan, a valid alternative as a supreme being? Ie, sum1 who creates the world for it to destroy itself, who creates beings like us to destroy ourselves, so that what was once order turns into chaos. This isnt to say that I condone the ritualistic practices in Satanism, but I dont think Satanism should be overlooked as another monotheistic faith
In conclusion, faith exists because people want to believe in it.