You might be getting trolled.
Hey, this belongs in the woo woo thread - just saying.
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āā¦in the ways of Nature there is no evil to be found.ā -Marcus Aurelius
Good and evil do not exist my friend. Things arenāt good or evil, itās your perception that make these as such. Thatās why some things considered evil in some culture arenāt in others.
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Youād āgive it some thoughtā?
I just watched The End of Evangelion again. Donāt get me startedā¦
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Iāve tinkered with this a bit and only rational conclusion is agnosticism.
I understand atheism as well, since there can not be any way to prove this. But I donāt see nothing wrong in believing in higher entity/entities either.
The conclusion Iāve made is that IF there is something we could call god, it can be seen present in all religions (which are just limited human interpretations from the same subject), and we really have no idea what/who āgodā is. It might be active force, and a ābeingā. Or it can be passive force, like a rule of nature, which we donāt understand yet. Or it might be something completely different.
While this is fun and important to ponder with this, it wonāt get us anywhere, since we have no tools to verify or dis-verify god. So its a matter of faith, like Flappinit said.
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This is well said, and where I fall.
I donāt know that Iāve ever had a satisfying conversation about these matters, unless with someone who falls similarly to me on the spectrum and is open to pure speculation, e.g. pleasant examination of the pros and cons of reincarnation or the difficulties one can assume should pets be allowed into heaven and you have to deal with all of them when you get there (the cat who hated everyone, say):
On a related noteā¦I particularly like it because my husband feeds the birds and is perpetually at war with the squirrels, who seem to think that the food hung in their tree is for them, which it is NOT:
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This reminds me of something my co-workers and I discovered the other day.
In Danteās āInfernoā, the circle of Hell for those who had the sin of Wrath was perpetual war and violence, waged between all, where combatants would regenerate just to do it all over again.
Also known as āValhallaā.
Christian Hell is Viking Heaven.
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mainly b/c logic canāt keep up haha
To answer the question succinctly and with distinction: Yes, but not religion. I consider myself more of a Deist - a bit like Emily said if this God were an involved One, Heād be One fucked up Being for sure.
Instead, I consider God and Nature and Universe to be the same thing and our (humans) pursuit of evidence and science is our attempt to understand the Universe, to understand Nature, and by extension, God (since I tend to think theyāre all the same thing, just with different connotations and understandings to us) on a more intimate level. Also, I think we do ourselves a disservice by anthropomorphize this Being. I understand, due to religion and manās interpretation of this phenomenon, that a belief exists that We were made in His image. Iām not convinced by this, to magnumdās point, evidence doesnāt exist. Why would we be in His image and not some other being we know of? That we donāt know of?
I see God all around me, if weāre being candid. For instance, and to magnumdās point, thereās a point to which we do NOT understand things. The question ask myself a lot recently is āWHY does that work the way it does?ā For instance, I understand that biochemical processes in the right proportions, within a margin of error, cause a seed to sprout. But why/how do these conditions cause this thing, which houses the blueprint for this being, to sprout into existence? From where did this process originate? Why?
Iād wager magnumd puts a lot more faith in things than he may realize in order to do what he do. We all do, if we examine deep enough into any singular natural phenomenon, especially with respect to ourselves, weāre going to reach a level where science, us/we, hasnāt produced a rational answer.
To be clear, Iām not saying we SHOULD stop looking or asking questions. Itās in our nature to do so - if a God exists who is benevolent and caring, itād be in our best interest to find Him as He would have bestowed upon us the faculties to find Him. I.e. weāre a thinking, reasoning animal with the capabilities of extremely refined communications - it DOES take, however, great energy to create and discover NEW things and make sense of things which have previously not been noticed/discovered or made sense of. But mysteries exist. They continue to exist. And existence comes fromā¦???
EDIT: Also, I think that those who are so steadfast in not believing do themselves a disservice in the pursuit of Truth. Truth is, you donāt know. Youāre CHOOSING to not believeā¦I get being skeptical, I donāt get holding hard to not believing. At least if youāre not sure, youāll continue to explore and possibly grow intellectually and spiritually - and those are beautiful pursuits and part of what it means to be human.
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Nothing wrong with faith, and there definitely could be a God, and thereās nothing wrong with worshiping Him either. Just using logic to justify faith is silly. If you knew God existed it wouldnāt take any courage or faith to believe in him.
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it was a joke about circular reasoning being round compared to linear logic ā¦ n/m 
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I got the joke, no worries. Was just elaborating on my reasoning since, looking back, my comments may have sounded dismissive of faith and belief. Thatās all.
Iām gonna kinda sorta change the topic, just because I think itās related, and ask if anybody believes in the ādevilā or demons? Iām assuming not, if you donāt belive in God, but Iām just curious.
Iāve gone back and forth on my beliefs over the years, but last summer I saw a dude fall to the ground, start convulsing, was screaming either a different language or just random sounds, and his eyes were glowing. Some people prayed over him for a while, I didnāt see anything beyond the first 10 seconds or so of that, but when I saw him the next day he seemed fine. Completely true story, I was sober, unemotional, unstressed, etc. That really shook me up and I just wonder what some of your perspectives would be to a situation like that?
Itās not my perception. God sees it as evil. Us as humans naturally find sin fun and enjoyable.
So murder isnāt evil. Raping a newborn baby then killing it isnāt evil?
Check out the podcast Snap Judgment, Episode Mind Games (the second part) for an interesting tale along this topic.
I believe.
I think there are lots of easily explanations for things like this. He could be faking. He could have really believed he was possessed. He could be mentally ill. Speaking another language isnāt a big deal. Knowing another language isnāt hard to explain at all.
The problem with things like these is that we are not prepared for behavior so out of the ordinary even if itās fake. We may have seen it even more dramatized on TV, but experiencing it in real life is a different thing altogether.
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I was being a little facetious. Most of the evidence that anyone has tried to use to convince me has come from the Bible, a book that I donāt believe in. My belief is that it was written by men to control the mind and pocketbooks of people for their own self serving interests. Growing up as the son of a southern baptist deacon I was forced to read more of that book as a child than most people will read in their whole lives and I was still not convinced. Now I age 60 Iām even more entrenched in my free thinking belief.
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I mean, the Bible is a fantastic historical document regardless of your religious beliefs. Itās going to have a ton of verifiable events in it. None of those prove or disprove the existence of a higher power either way.
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