How can you be so sure?
I cannot
But why should I worry about what no one even defines?
Am I to worry about the idea in your mind, or a Muslims, a Hindus, someone else? Since those internal models do not match person to person even inside religion the term God holds no meaning other than what YOU assign to it.
I do not assign any meaning to it, instead I insist believers define it, and they universally fail.
So there is no need to be 100% certain there is no God (whatever the hell that means).
In it's literal sense, there is nothing that humans can be certain of. We can only be certain of anything in a practical sense.
Beg, plead, cry, for gawds help in some horrible situation...then hold yer breath!
We can all agree there is no such thing as magic. Religion is pure super naturalistic magic. There is absolutely no reason, logic or true workings of the universe in it. It is totally ego centric and self-serving especially for the hierarchy. Religion goes against all the workings of the natural world and principles of the universe. How can one (albeit pretty stupid) life form be paramount in the vastness of the universe? Fear, ignorance, selfishness, greed and arrogance are the central tenants of all religions!!
Unless and until there is credible, verifiable EVIDENCE to prove the existence of any deity,
I will maintain that there are NONE.
Prove to me that there is a god, or are gods, and I'll consider changing my mind.
I am completely sure of my position. The burden of proof is always on the person who
claims something exists. I don't have to prove there is no "there" there.
I am an agnostic - anti-theist.
I'm with Penn Jellette on this:
Agnostic and atheist answer two different questions:
We cannot know fur shur how our universe started: agnostic (without knowledge)
There ain't no all powerful invisible critters fucking with humans on the earth: atheist (there is no reliable proof of such a being.)
And I agree with Sam and Christropher,... I am an anti-theist because I oppose religionists imposing their mental illness on all us good folks.
I'm not 100% sure. I'm 99.99% sure. In other words I acknowledge that it is impossible to prove the non-existence of something.
What do you mean by god?
I am intrigued by “Spinoza’s god” and monist approaches to explaining consciousness but I’m pretty sure most believers, faithists, and most people in general would consider those to be atheist concepts if they took time to think about it
How can we be certain Bertrand Russell's teapot is not orbiting our unverse in some outer shell of the unverse the encapsulates the many universes one of which we live in?
The thought that there's any kind of more powerful being in this universe running things or being involved with its development is completely insane. When I think that it's true I feel insane, when I remember what it was like to believe that I was insane. End of story.
I would be careful to say I am 100% certain about anything so ambiguous
Can you be certain there isn't an invisible, untouchable monkey's ass circling all our heads? (Perhaps I should have said "unsmellable" ). Belief in god is the same thing except god has been perpetuated because power structures have an investment in the concept. But it's just as verifiable as an invisible orbiting monkey ass.
If there’s an undetectable monkey’s ass circling my head, I wouldn’t know it because I can’t detect it. When I asked this question, I was hoping it would get people to think about why they’re absolutely sure there are no gods. Saying you’re certain there are no gods is equivalent to asserting there are no gods. If you don’t have evidence to show there are no gods, then you have nothing to verify your assertion. It's like having faith that there are no gods, and just as worthy of ridicule as any other kind of faith. I was taught that there are many gods but only one supreme god, Jehovah. And I hope he isn’t real, I just try not to say I know he isn’t real. However, I'm very comfortable saying that if the things I was taught about him are true, then I’d sooner shit in his mouth than worship him. I wouldn’t worship Satan either, but I would have less disdain for Satan than for Jehovah. Really, I wanted to get people to see that saying it’s definitely not true when you can’t prove it is no better than saying it’s definitely true when you can’t prove it. You can see from some of the comments that I probably should’ve made that clearer from the start.
@zing Actually, god, as a concept is contradictory. Like saying god is beyond description and understanding. If so, then there should be no concept of it. And there are the old contradictions inclusive to the attributes of god. E.g. if god is all powerful then it can create a being more powerful than itself (it can do anything). But if it can create something more powerful than itself then it can't be all powerful, so it must not be able to create a being more powerful than itself. But if it can't do that then there is something it can't do, so it's not all powerful. And you could do the same thing with omniscience. The problem is not with the reasoning but the concept behind it.
Also, the idea of the supernatural is contradictory. We live in the natural world. By definition, if it's in our world it's part of the natural world. So the supernatural, as something outside the natural world by definition, is not part of the natural world. By definition. And since the natural world constitutes everything, then the supernatural doesn't really exist.
God is a kind a conceptual game rooted in fallacious ideas that, upon analysis, are really just nonsense.
@towkneed Every god concept I’ve heard is contradictory, but I feel like maybe it’s possible we haven’t defined god correctly, or maybe there’s some piece of the puzzle that will someday be discovered and things will start to fall into place. Wishful thinking on my part perhaps, but either way, I can’t prove or disprove it and that’s my reason for not going all in on saying there are or aren’t gods. Anyone who wants to say it’s a sure thing either way should be able to show that if they expect to convince anyone, that’s where I stand for now. It just seems strange to me how many people are willing to move the needle all the way, it’s like saying ‘there is no possibility that I’m wrong here’. It can close off productive discussion because you’re not open to new information, you already know you’re right. Hey now that I think about, it’s possible that I’m wrong when I say that the doors of possibility should stay open at least a little bit. Or is that a contradiction? Golly now I’m wondering if god is well capable of being a contradictory concept but gave us logic and reason just to fuck with us. I need some weed.
If there is a God, I believe all the religulous have it wrong. Particularly if they are killing each other over what they believe god really is...