Quote:Original post by Yann L

Quote:
Nope, I,m perfectly content with my well-being and mental state as it is. I'd also need a lot of hard evidence for me to change my mind, nothing short of a true impossible miracle. (like God himself turning the sky purple, reshapign the clouds into letters and a booming voice saying "Here I Am! I Exist LOL!" with most of the population to testify that I wasn't in fact halucinating. ;)

It doesn't work that way, unfortunately. Remember that well known quote from Artur C. Clarke ? "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". Simply replace magic by miracle. Even if something you outlined above happened, it wouldn't prove anything related to the existance of a "God". It could just be some individual, some company, nation or even extraterrestrial life with access to a technology more advanced than ours, who is playing God.

In the old times, miracles were proof of divineness. Not so today. Lightning was supposed to be a sign from Thor or Jupiter. Today, one could create such a "sign" artificially without much trouble. Let's look at Jesus. Healing the sick and blind ? Just look at modern medicine. Returning from the dead ? No problem today, although only for a short time period (eg. after a cardiac arrest). Turning water into wine ? Probably possible with some chemical tricks, or a large particle accelerator ;) Walking over water ? Well, we're not there yet, but given some kind of anti-gravity device, you could do all sorts of funny "miracles"...

All that to say that miracles are a dime a dozen. They don't mean anything anymore today. There are no "impossible" miracles, if you factor in the possibility of a more advanced form of technology.

Do i belive in God ? No, I don't. Does it matter ? No, it doesn't.

So your theory is Jesus is an alien.....?

I don't believe in any of the gods other people seem to - sure, the whole "random person with magical powers" thing is a neat idea, but the long-dead religions did it so much better (and our interpretation of their religion in various TV series was pretty good too despite amazingly low budgets).

Quote:Original post by Alpha_ProgDes
[...]So your theory is Jesus is an alien.....?

StarGate SG-1 proved that, didn't it? Good example of my point that our reinterpretations of long-dead religions can be a lot of fun

Quote:Original post by Alpha_ProgDes
So your theory is Jesus is an alien.....?

Lol, no [grin]

My theory is that people always defined something that used to be impossible in their period of time as a miracle and a proof of God. However, things that tend to be impossible today are often not impossible anymore tomorrow. Hence, they're no good at being a universal proof.

I think Jesus just was a normal guy, like you or me, that tried to gather people to follow him on his political ideals, in a country and period that used to be quite oppressive for people with unconventional political ideas. Everything else (miracles, resurrection, etc) is essentially a product of his "biographers" that had a little too much imagination :)

I was lucky enough that my parents didn't force religion on me whatsoever. Never been to church in my life, or sunday school, never read the bible, and never watched 100 huntley street.

I find it sad how many people are forced into religion. I dont mean 'forced' as in someone put a gun to their head. But forced as in they had no choice. If you are 3 years old and your parents start teaching you about god and taking you to church and all that stuff until you are 18, then you are going to believe in that stuff, you dont have a choice in the matter.

Once in a while someone in a suit will approach me on the subway and try to convert me to christianity. These people are just plain creepy. They seem so brainwashed. Everything they say seems so scripted and you can tell that they didnt even have a chance. Living a normal life wasnt an option for them because of the way they were rasied. Some times I let these people chat with me and I explain why I dont believe in that stuff, and I almost think that by the end of it they want to believe me but they just cant because its so ingrained in them. One time I made one of them cry. Wierd shit.


Religion should be like alcohol and cigarettes - You have to stay away until you are 19 when you can intelligently make the decision for yourself.

Is anything affected by whether God exists or not? No. So why should we even consider explanations with no proof and which can neither be observed nor confirmed, when there are other explanations which are not only observable and have been confirmed and proven, but also provide the means of making accurate predictions?

Nope.

Quote:Original post by GCoda
Please everyone, feel free to explain why you don't believe if you don't, like some posters did.

Why don't you believe in the easter bunny?
Probably the same reason I don't believe in God. Unless you actually do believe in the easter bunny, in which case maybe that's not a good example.