Atheist/Anti-theist/Agnostic Troper Group

Yeah, I'm not so sure he's gonna be going away yet either. I do hope that we are led better in his absence.

And no, I do not think we should be lectured on how the left idolizes our politicians too. We are here to discuss religion (or lack thereof), not politics.

I feel like I should post this here for some reason. While looking up if Jesus was really born in a barn (no, I don't know why I was looking that up) I found this sort bizarre pseudo-atheist website about worshipping God without religion... somehow.

Also they described God as being in the "business of redemption." which gives me the image of God getting up every morning, putting on a suit, and heading to work to sort through redemption requests or something.

That is honestly a vision I never knew I needed to see.

Honestly, it just confused me.

That would explain why the God isn't available 24/7 or so it seems. Maybe irregular waking hours and varying amounts of sleep. But what about angels and other assistants? How much does he have to account for their part to keep many enough people faithful enough?

Can God even be bothered to keep track of all misinterpretations that are going around about him? Did he even say he's omnipotent in the first place? Trying to correct the record and all these little people just keep mishearing and misunderstanding. Well the Bible got right that getting too close tends to make people mad and Jung got that and Lovecraft had some idea. That's something. But ME-DAMNIT why can't this cosmic hotline for once work with no lags!!

And then someone says God put all the contradictions in the Bible on purpose.... try explaining that by "Satan did it"..... ME-DAMNIT!

Pretty much imagine if Santa was overworked 24/7/365.

/end joking mode

I like that interpretation better than three quarters of the actual, not joking interpretations I've seen.

I honestly don't understand why people try to use God's name to spread bigotry. Regardless of their religion. Part of why I became an atheist in the first place, because I didn't want to feel judged by something I didn't believe in. Regardless, my Mom thinks I'm ashamed of myself and still somehow believe in God because I get a pit in my stomach at churches.

I don't really know why I'm an Atheist. I can't pinpoint any point in my life that would cause me to be an Atheist nor can I really come up with one specific reason why I don't believe in God, or anything for that matter.

I mean, I have never exactly believed in God, but I think the fact that people used His name in a way that demonizes the LGBT kind of made me terrified. But I'm fine being an atheist. At least I can be myself that way.

I think my Atheism stems in part from the fact that I never really had a religious upbringing in the first place due to a lack of Jewish Temples around where I lived. By the time my family moved to a place with Jewish Temples nearby I had already decided I was an Atheist. It may also be partly due to the fact that I will staunchly analyze almost any piece of literature that I come across and I found the painting of a figure that from my point of view was not a very nice guy (there's one story in Judaism where he makes a bet with Satan and ruins a guys life) as a kind and loving person to be kind of unsettling.

Also, yeah, the bigotry thing didn't help either.

I tend to think of it not in terms of why one should be an atheist, but rather why one should believe in gods.

And having been raised outside of any religion, those reasons have always been lacking, in my eyes.

Like, I guess I'm kind of a rationalist, in the sense that I think the most important thing about a belief is whether or not it's true. According to some of the religious people I've spoken to, this is missing the point of belief somewhat.

I don't really get that line of thinking.

I was raised Atheist, and never really saw a compelling reason to believe in a higher power, or be spiritual at all, for that matter. Occam's razor and all, and the burden of proof is on spiritual and religious groups to provide compelling evidence, which they fail to do. I've never understood how believing in a higher power or in an afterlife brings anyone comfort myself. (And also I'm fairly sure it's a fallacy who's name evades me, to believe in something just because it would be better if that was true.)

After all, if there was an afterlife, who's to say that that afterlife would reward people or punish people as they say? I've always liked that response to Pascal's wager, the "what if god only damns those who believe in him?" one.

Probably "belief in belief"? Sounds pretty similar to denialisms of all kinds. Not wanting to believe we are just products of blind "forces" of evolution is one such denialism, wanting to believe one thing and not wanting to believe another.

Hi, everyone.

In my sincere opinion, the presence or absence of a God is just completely irrelevant.

If there is no God, praying or not, you´ll get no answer. And if there IS a God... praying or not, you´ll get no answer either.

So, I just dont care.

Sometimes a religious person will say that a universe without God would be a depressing universe indeed. But to me, a universe where God exists, but is totally apathetic, seems even more depressing. Not to mention making the "point" of God meaningless.

Well, I´d answer them that it seems a case of It's All About Me as they are assuming that their supposed GOD is paying attention to them.

If not... why should they care about it?

Edited by Oculto on Jun 10th 2021 at 12:05:07 PM

Because God is apparently some Lovecraftian abomination that can pay attention to everyone and everything at once while deciding whose prayers it answers and how.

Pretty much like if everything was in the mind of Yog-Sothoth the Mad God.

In certain aspects the Biblical God is similar to Lovecraftian gods.

Edited by MerryMikael on Jun 18th 2021 at 6:27:55 PM

Uhm, more than Lovecraftian... I´d say Biblical, given that´s exactly what all monotheistic religions state about their GOD.

What I mean is that if someone really thinks that not having a GOD is depressing, it´s only because they consider that being constantly watched by IT is actually important.

Edited by Oculto on Jun 17th 2021 at 8:44:38 PM

Why not. Santa does it.

...

Wait a minute. New theory! Santa is God!

Hmm... Omniscient but not omnipotent, and benevolent... seems like a better deal than YHWH.

Of course, that would leave the question of why he rewards the good, but doesn't bother to punish the evil, so the Problem of Evil remains — even if you're not omnipotent, you've still got some pretty impressive power (otherwise why would you be worshipped?).

He gives the evil coal, dude. That's the most evil thing you can do.

I'd argue that giving Coal just feeds the fire of evil. Literally, it lets you set at least one thing on fire.

Plus, it's not a preventative measure, just a retributive one. Sort of like YHWH patiently waiting for evil people to croak, before sending them to fiery torment.

Wait... fiery torment? Ooh, idea! Maybe when Santa gives coal to naughty people, it's a warning that if they don't repent, then they'll burn in Hell forever! Sneaky, Santa...

So Santa and Satan are twins. One is the good twin and the other is the evil twin. Or maybe Santa is Satan and he does double duty, hence the anagram.

So that makes Satan a combination of The Krampus and The Anti-God.

Upon further reflection, Santa actually looks the part of God. He's even got an army of divine servants!