God

The lack of disproof for a claim is not the same as proof of its opposite. Saying "God doesn't exist" is a positive assertion, rather than a position of skepticism, and one has every bit as much right to demand evidence for such a claim as one does for one's opposite. Saying "God is man-made and imaginary" is taking the assertion even further. One can claim A or not-A in an argument, and either way their assertion can be challenged. If I assert that there's no cheese on the moon, as sensible as that claim might be, I would still have to back up that claim if challenged on it(and in fact, this claim be verified empirically). If, however, I ask for evidence to support the claim that there is cheese on the moon, then the burden of proof is on the person claiming that there is.

Not really. There's insults and there's observations. I may have made a harsh observation, but it was an observation nonetheless.

Sorry if I hurt your feelings. I was sick of having to repeat myself without my logic sinking in.

No, I am asking you to prove that man invented faith. That this is something we set out to create.

I still see from anthropology and studies of world religions that FAITH came first. And then faith was used to attempt to explain the world. This is something you completely ignored and instead made an ignorant rebuttal about what the Crusades were fought over, which in a post or two later you said exactly why they were fought, for power.

So again, give me evidence that man created faith, and not that faith is something natural to human beings.
For the connection of faith being natural, coincidentally the part of our brain that lights up during prayer / meditation / similar practices is directly connected to the part of our brain that lights up when we are happy. Our brain is naturally wired to have faith.
EDIT: http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/04/04/neurotheology/

I made an assertion, Faith is natural to humans. I further supplied this with evidence.

Now, your turn. Supply me with evidence that Man created faith.

Hubris is a sin, you know.

I don't recall saying that man invented faith. I recall saying man invented religion & god.

Just a shout out in a public forum to say

I DON"T BELIEVE IN GOD AND IT"S GREAT!

You don't have to worry about what happens when you die, you can eat anything you want, and you get to think through all of your decisions based on a humanistic view of right or wrong rather than a "supernatural" interpretation (which varies according to the flavor of the day).

I prefer my universe without a master plan thankyouverymuch. Makes me feel less like an ant in a demented elementary school students ant farm science project.

...
and evidence..?

Thats without me even touching the fact that your sentence lacked both rationale and logic.

Evidence...that man invented religion and the concept of god?

How about...because he fucking DID?! Where do you think it came from? If there is one, true god...why are their different religions? Why are their conflicting accounts between those different religions? Why does church doctrine change with the times to reflect the society that follows it?

Why does "god" have human characteristics? God is referred to as "he" denoting sexual gender. Why would an omnipotent being have to be of a specific gender when reproduction is not part of the show? God supposedly feels love, wrath, disappointment.....the spectrum of human emotion.

Why does religion exist under a similar hierarchical structure as the society who believes in it?

Why does everything having to do with god & religion look, act & sound like the people who follow it? Because it is their creation.

You keep coming back with "where's your proof....where's your proof.....where's the concrete evidence". You want concrete evidence of something that does not exist. It does not exist. God is a belief...not a thing. God is the Easter Bunny...and the tooth fairy,,,and Old Man Winter...and Mother Nature.

I liked the part in your argument where you showed you don't actually have a full conception of what religion, faith, spirituality, or even an understanding of what God is, or even a limited perspective on how the human mind works.

First, Organized Religion and Religion are two different things. Organized religion is closer to a government, ANY government, than it is to be about faith. Its a way to control people, but it is not faith. It is not religion, and it is not God.

EDIT NOTE: Also, Christianity and the bible is not the only book out there, and you keep bringing references that only effect Christianity. END EDIT NOTE.

Why do we give a gender to our vehicles? Or even name our vehicles? To make it more familiar and closer to us. Its the same reason that looking at an American electrical outlet is internationally recognized as a face, humans automatically humanize things. Doesn't change the fact that, as written, the highest form of God is Anamorphic, whether that be God, Allah, Brahma, Gaia, or the Buddhist belief...the higher power is with out form. Just most people can't conceptualize it and dumb it down for them to get a closer connection.

I say you do more research. Almost all religions actually have a very similar structure, its the fine print that gets people confused. Easy example, the Trinity and the angels. For Christianity, its God, The Holy Ghost, and the Son, and all the angels. For Hinduism, its Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu / Krishna, and all the demi-gods. For Norse its Yggdrasil, Odin, the third is debatable, and all the Valkyries and Gods. What is this? They all have a sense of us all being connected by a soul, the highest form of God, and that Death is rejoining that soul? Wow, sounds like Buddhism to me!*
I can keep going. But in my studies, I've seen many more SIMILARITIES between religions than differences. Its simply a hang up on print as opposed to the meaning. Or hell, debating the importance of the font used for a sentence, and not what the actual sentence says.
*note, this is dumbed down so I don't have to write a 12 page report for each of these religions just so you can come back up with another "Dur, I don't understand what you're saying" come back.

I'm not asking for you to prove to me God exists. Hell, I believe in a God, and I don't even think its possible to be proven.
I want evidence that humanity set out to create religion. We didn't. Faith, religion, spirituality, the idea of a higher being...it all came to us. Its all natural to us. It came first. Organized Religion, trying to explain the world through myths, and all the other bullshit you go through was secondary.

What does faith coming first show? Well it could be used for an argument for many cases. I use it to say that spirituality is something we should all embrace, in our own special way.

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ROFL. I laugh, because my second deity is Mother Nature.

the heart is a powerful tool as well.

i don't think that people of faith think of themselves as ants "in a demented elementary school student's ant farm science project" as you so eloquently put it. i think that perhaps they think of themselves as part of something bigger, of something greater than themselves. and that sense of contributing to some greater good that they get is beautiful and noble, i feel.

and i think that worrying, that doubt, is an essential part of faith. even Mother Teresa, arguably one of the greatest souls this planet has ever known, doubted the existence of God in a world of suffering she so intimately knew.

Yes....um. I agree with you actually that people of faith have convinced themselves of those things. Which is why I was speaking "eloquently" (and thank you for the complement by the way) on behalf of MYSELF and not people of faith

Not believing in a supernatural creator does not disqualify you from being a part of something bigger, better, and more noble than your immediate life. Family, community, art, science, volunteering, teaching, learning, and spending time making and continuing friendship are all things I find very meaningful and fulfilling (and greater than myself).

For ME and MY opining. Giving supernatural credit for what happens in our lives actually cheapens things. It takes away the importance of humans being good for the sake of being good. And it gives implication that the horrific suffering that happens on this planet is somehow justifiable because it's part of a noble "plan" an all loving creator has invented. Bullshit.

Oh, and I don't buy into the sainthood of Mother Theresa either, the good she did for the poor IS arguable and controversial. It just so happens that the very rich and powerful catholic church needed a new saint to draw attention away from some, um, other areas of church news. You can check into it if you haven't already.

Not to says she was a bad person, but any time someone is lifted up as "arguably one of the greatest souls this planet has ever known" without having made a real lasting dent in either poverty, violence, education or womens rights... I will tend to disagree.

It is! Did you know in a lifetime the heart pumps about 1,000,00 barrels of blood!

This pointless debate can continue if you like, but you'll all be sorry when my god gets here.

Last time I checked, your god gets stomped out pretty regularly by an alien in long johns.

Outside of the obvious discrepencies in timeline. The information presented about Krishna is complete bullshit.

I hate to use Wikipedia, but I am going to:

Clearly July is not December.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna#Birth

Big surprise, no crucifiction:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna#Later_life

Reading through some of the others, the information appeared extremely sketchy to say the least. Horus having more than one story, and only an 1895 translation of the book of the dead being "said" to have the story as told in the video.

The video is offensive because it deliberately mangles history and myth to force its point.

Annnnnnnnd right HERE is where I can no longer take anything you say seriously.

While I will refrain from mocking you publicly...I will be having a hearty laugh at your expense privately.

I can't help but notice the similarity between your avatar and the tone of your posts.

Care to explain why?

I second wanting to know this.
Personally, I think its because he's ignorant and completely unaware that there are MANY religions that actually worship the Earth, some of them being the oldest religions in the world. Hell, almost every pantheon religion I can think of off the top of my head has a head Goddess that represents the Earth. Not too mention religions around today, such as Wicca.

Or B: He's ignorant and refuses to actually answer any of my question due to a complete inability to argue.

Either way, he's an ignorant fuck in my mind now. I'm actually offended by his response.

*Note: The status of ignorance only pertains to Religion. I'll reserve my judgment on other knowledges for later.

Watch out. Dirt Mothers and Sky Fathers are serious business.

Show one repeatable, provable experiment that god exists.

Can't be done.

End of story.