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Is evolutionary chance impossible?

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youkrst

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Re: Is evolutionary chance impossible?

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craigdressler wrote: Isn't the idea of a divine designer, God, who engineered this process and set it in motion much more plausible?
i dont know about "more plausible" but if this "God" did indeed engineer this process and set it in motion then wouldn't "He" be responsible for this sort of thing?

http://healthmad.com/conditions-and-dis ... the-world/

or would "He" be accountable for this sort of thing?

Conquistador of Mexico
Zulu and the Navaho
The Belgians in the Congo
Plantation in Virginia, the Raj in British India
The deadline in South Africa
The story of El Salvador, the silence of Hiroshima
Destruction of Cambodia?

or any uncountable number of absurdities and atrocities

this seems to me to be the unworkability of the "traditional" "literalist" "orthodox" "external" kinda "God"

if you changed your definition of "God" to mean "that which everything and everyone is a manifestation of" then at least "God" could get of the hook by saying "hey i did all that shit to myself after all"

still no consolation if you just suffered one of "life's little surprises"

i suppose i'm getting at the "definition of god" question.

i tend to read it all buddhism, hinduism, xtianity, islam, atheism, george carlin etc etc etc and keep whatever helps and makes sense and cross references well and carry on pondering while not being too hasty to grip too tightly to any one system and i shun literalism (reading religious texts as if they were history) like the plague.

i find more infinity and wonder all around me most days than most people seem to be prepared to even admit to as a possibility, and when i cant sense that beauty it is none the less there/here, and so is all the bullshit.

i mostly just enjoy stuff and get angry occasionally at the absurd predicament we find ourselves in under the rulership of vampires and fools.
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Re: Is evolutionary chance impossible?

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ant wrote:
I've always seen Einstein's references to God as metaphorical. I think you could make a good argument that Einstein was an atheist, not that it really matters.
I'd like to hear that argument. But if you don't think it matters that's fine.
To clarify, interpretations of my readings about Einstein are that he believes in a god similar to that of Spinoza's god and not a personal god.
A person's thoughts about the nature of God may change over time. So Einstein may have been more inclined towards theism or pantheism early in life and perhaps less so later in life. (I have no idea if this was actually the case with Einstein.)

There's also so much semantic wiggle room with the word "God" that usually such discussions are an exercise in futility. What one person thinks is "God" is very different from what someone else thinks is "God." The word God is frequently used as a kind of vague reference for the unknown. God is love. God is the universe, etc. But if God is love, for example, why not just use the word "love?" Some people just don't want to think of themselves as being atheistic, so they go through these semantic contortions to make it sound like they believe in something. Also, our society is still very Christian-biased and it's socially unacceptable and bad form in polite circles to say you don't believe in God.

I would argue that someone who doesn't believe in a "personal God" is essentially an atheist. The word "atheist" means simply without belief in God. By most people's definition, God is the very anthropomorphic creator and ruler of the universe. Clearly, Einstein didn't believe in a personal God which means he was an atheist. As far as I know, he used the term "God" only as a vague reference to the universe which many people do. Even I do it (although usually ironically).

So it's no wonder that it's hard to talk about God because it's a word that stands for a concept that can't be shown to actually exist. Some people like to claim that Einstein believed in God and some people like to say he was an atheist as if this is somehow a point in their favor. To me it's about as pointless as the argument over Hitler's alleged Christianity which flares up here every now and then.
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ant

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Re: Is evolutionary chance impossible?

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or would "He" be accountable for this sort of thing?

Conquistador of Mexico
Zulu and the Navaho
The Belgians in the Congo
Plantation in Virginia, the Raj in British India
The deadline in South Africa
The story of El Salvador, the silence of Hiroshima
Destruction of Cambodia?

Would you hold him accountable? If so, is it because the people behind these attrocities said god told them to do it?
Why would you believe them and why would you believe that god would support their actions? Are you using the evil god of the Old Test as evidence?
Last edited by ant on Tue Jan 31, 2012 12:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
youkrst

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Re: Is evolutionary chance impossible?

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ant wrote:Would you hold him accountable?
well as i dont believe in the "orthodox traditional all powerful external god person like a man" of literalist xtianity i obviously wouldn't hold him accountable, anymore than i'd hold santa responsible if i didn't get any xmas pressies.

i was getting at the fact that if you believe "god" made "all things bright and beautiful" then doesn't it follow that he made evil as well?

not to me but to someone who believes in the god of literalist christianity.
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Re: Is evolutionary chance impossible?

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youkrst wrote:
ant wrote:Would you hold him accountable?
well as i dont believe in the "orthodox traditional all powerful external god person like a man" of literalist xtianity i obviously wouldn't hold him accountable, anymore than i'd hold santa responsible if i didn't get any xmas pressies.

i was getting at the fact that if you believe "god" made "all things bright and beautiful" then doesn't it follow that he made evil as well?

not to me but to someone who believes in the god of literalist christianity.
Hypothetically, if you were a believer in the traditional sense, would you believe god was the cause of acts like this?
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Re: Is evolutionary chance impossible?

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ant wrote:
Hypothetically, if you were a believer in the traditional sense, would you believe god was the cause of acts like this?
You were not asking this question generally but I would like to answer. I think most believing people define God and heaven as they like. They think God lets their team win and their battle also. So to Muslims the world over 911 was a huge sign of God's favor, while some Christians in NYC could see it as God's abandonment. Of course most would not. They would probably say "God works in mysterious ways."

Which of course is what Muslims could say about the death of Osama Bin Laden. The realists of the world say all the things, including those on the list are the acts of man. Most of them done in the name of their faith.
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Re: Is evolutionary chance impossible?

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ant wrote:
Hypothetically, if you were a believer in the traditional sense, would you believe god was the cause of acts like this?
You were not asking this question generally but I would like to answer. I think most believing people define God and heaven as they like. They think God lets their team win and their battle also. So to Muslims the world over 911 was a huge sign of God's favor, while some Christians in NYC could see it as God's abandonment. Of course most would not. They would probably say "God works in mysterious ways."

Which of course is what Muslims could say about the death of Osama Bin Laden. The realists of the world say all the things, including those on the list are the acts of man. Most of them done in the name of their faith.
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Re: Is evolutionary chance impossible?

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ant wrote:Hypothetically, if you were a believer in the traditional sense, would you believe god was the cause of acts like this?
why not let the big fella answer for himself
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Amo 3:6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?
2Ch 18:20 Then there came out a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will entice him. And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith?
2Ch 18:21 And he said, I will go out, and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the LORD said, Thou shalt entice him, and thou shalt also prevail: go out, and do even so.
2Ch 18:22 Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil against thee.
as for me i am no longer a literalist and the whole question seems to be a dodge from the issues i raised in my posts.

if god didnt create evil who did? another creator?

again i am no literalist so it's not my conundrum, basically no literalism no confusion.

when i was a literalist i used to constantly struggle to make sense of the non-sensical once i saw it all as it is - a giant metaphor - it was a great relief not to have to defend the indefensible ie. stupid literalist dogma.

ie. he's gonna burn you in hell but he loves you

ie. he made everything but not evil

ie. he put a frikkin talking snake in a garden

etc etc etc literalism kills understanding.
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Re: Is evolutionary chance impossible?

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Hi youkrst,

I've noticed in your posts a tendency to argue against taking the Bible literally. I think most of us are in agreement with you. Both here and in the thread about Jesus as a historical person, we're all assuming a materialist perspective. Either way, the Jesus in the Bible is a total myth. If there was a real person, Jesus, he was merely the basis of the myths that followed.

The notion of God in this thread is a prime mover, just an entity that got everything started and has no presence at all in the world. This is not the personal God of the Bible which is an absurd fairy tale. You're absolutely right that literalism kills understanding. The person who started this thread was presumably asking about a prime mover type god. I'm probably just confused, but I thought I would point that out.
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Re: Is evolutionary chance impossible?

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youkrst wrote:
ant wrote:Hypothetically, if you were a believer in the traditional sense, would you believe god was the cause of acts like this?
why not let the big fella answer for himself
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Amo 3:6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?
2Ch 18:20 Then there came out a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will entice him. And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith?
2Ch 18:21 And he said, I will go out, and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the LORD said, Thou shalt entice him, and thou shalt also prevail: go out, and do even so.
2Ch 18:22 Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil against thee.
as for me i am no longer a literalist and the whole question seems to be a dodge from the issues i raised in my posts.

if god didnt create evil who did? another creator?

again i am no literalist so it's not my conundrum, basically no literalism no confusion.

when i was a literalist i used to constantly struggle to make sense of the non-sensical once i saw it all as it is - a giant metaphor - it was a great relief not to have to defend the indefensible ie. stupid literalist dogma.

ie. he's gonna burn you in hell but he loves you

ie. he made everything but not evil

ie. he put a frikkin talking snake in a garden

etc etc etc literalism kills understanding.
I must say that you are more of a literalist than even some of the christian literalists I know.
It's so ironic and something I simply could no longer ignore. ;)
Last edited by ant on Wed Feb 01, 2012 3:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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