Romy

560! I said 560!

560!!!!!

560!

560! Not going to give up!

560

560

550....

550.... The 2 of you waiting for each other to post.... That's cheating :o... Edit: Nevermind, I was over-speculating...

Guys.... that's called cheating...

FSM is not about that, it's about what you want it to be. I want it to be a joke of religion, and a counter point to the existance of God (to me it's as legitimate to exist as any other God). Even if that wasn't true, FSM is not a replacement to religion, I doubt anyone really takes it that way. Also, are you trying to tell me what I think :S? As for you comment that hating religion is not the same as not believing in God. that's true. And I don't remember claiming otherwise. I never said I'm an atheist because I'm a Pastafarianist, or because I hate religion (I actualy don't hate religion, I just think it's pointless and thus hate some of it's outcome), I said I'm an atheist because I am - I don't believe in any God in any form whatsoever. As for your 5 year comment, if you read more carefuly what I said you'd find out I was trying not to find an article as such. I was trying to reach my own conclusions and not have anyone's opinions affect me.

530...

Because that + (your sig) I'm a Pastafarianist - I belong to the Flying Spaghetti Monster religion. R'amen. = not an atheist. The FSM bible states numerous times "he" (the flying spaghetti monster) exists. By following it as a religion you can't class yourself as a atheist which makes pretty much 99% of your arguments on this topic hypocritical. You claim to be a follower/believer in FSM and yet class yourself as atheist. The FSM never once denies there being a God its just an alternative concept for a divine being like it was intended to be. To me it looks like you want to be a religious rebel, but fail to get out of the stereotype boundaries it gives. Google -> why god doesn't exist Second result, this article strange hey? Like I said in my second post this has been ton so many times the article is a bore to read. Over 9,780,000 for the same search you did to get this article. To me it seems like you totaly missed the concept of FSM. Today it's used mostly (or only as) a parody of religion. I highly doubt anyone in this world truely believes we get beer and strippers in Heaven, or that Pirates are the only true believers of a God... I call myself a Pastafarianist as means to balance my (very much faithful to God) environment. That being said, with addition to the definition of atheist, I consider myself an atheist. I don't believe in any divine entity, and take FSM as a good counterpoint to "true" Gods, and as a joke. As for my search... About 5 years ago (at the age of 13) I started to seriously question the existance of the Jewish God. For 13 years I found myself very close to God and have done anything I could to prove myself worthy of his attention. But then I started questioning, and questioning. I asked my father who seemed like the #1 believer some questions left unanswered, later I asked Rabbis and anyone else who claimed to believe in God. Through internal research and much thought, I've come to the conclusion God doesn't exist. Later I started having doubts about the existance of a God, not necessarily the Jewish one or any other religion's God. Just an entity that created us all etc. I've come to the conclusion that we cannot prove whether this kind of God exists or not, but that believing in him is as pointless as believing fairies. Through my internal research I never once used the Internet. I didn't want to be tilted this way or that way by others, I wanted to reach conclusions on my own. After some discussion here in the off-topic section, I decided to make a thread for discussion about God (I probably should have used the search button, but meh), and thought I'd add in an article that represents my thoughts. That's the first article that popped on Google and it had my every thought about God inside it, literally not one is missed (that's not saying the author didn't add something that never occured to me, such as the annoying facts section which was pointless and immature IMO). As it's the first article I read about atheism and since it had my every thought in it, I thought it would fit great in this thread.

I'm an atheist and I don't see theists as mental patients. Some of the smartest people in the world believe in God. I see believing in God is something of bits of blindness, but that doesn't make the believers mentally ill, or dumb etc.

Could I come up with some kind of sci-fi explanation or would that be too much like scientology? :lol: The thing is, as far as I've heard so far, the scientific explanations are either ridiculous or about as close as you can get to suggesting divine intervention as possible without actually suggesting it. Unless I'm wrong (probable) it's that an infinitely small particle that had all of the mass/energy in the universe exploded outward in the big bang. If that is the case, how did that particle get there and why did it explode outward then and not earlier/later? Until we know the answer (probably will never find it) it's actually reasonable to assume something created it. But even if not you still get into the infinite loop of creators. I can't say I know enough about physics to be accurate about this. Though I assume knowing would only make it more of a mind screw. If there is a god it has a sense of humor. I actualy think that's where the problem comes from. Human-beings do not know where that particle came from, just as much as the ancient greeks didn't know where lightining came from, or how the sun works. So? We don't know how lightining is created... Must be some sort of God for it! Same works here, we don't know what caused the big bang, must be God then! Humans can't stand not knowing something, and when they can't know something, they invent an explenation. I'm not saying it's not possible that someone created that particle, I'm saying we shouldn't jump to conclusions. If any God exists, who said it's the Christian one? The Jewish one? Muslim? Hindi? I hope you understand what I'm saying here, any religions revolving Gods today are a result of the human mind just as much as FSM or fairies and unicorns. If that's the case, anyone can pick on believing in a divine deity or not, and not necessarily follow a religion. Also, if some God did create that particle, what makes you think it's the same one who supposedly helped us find a great career or win the lottery? What I'm asking here is, who could possibly gurantee God still exists (if he ever did), or that he still is with us?

I'm actualy not sure whether or not I will. It's one of the reasons I created this thread actualy... Currently tilting towards 'no' though.

Heh, talk about annoying. 1. The author is assuming what god's purpose was. Maybe he wanted to throw us off. Maybe he wanted this debate to occur. Maybe there is a use behind their anatomies that is not apparent to us. Maybe god just thought it didn't really matter. 2. What part of intelligent design suggests that god had the intentions of keeping every last specie alive? Again, there is an assumption about god's character being made. 3. So god's a sadist? What does that have to do with existence? And I wouldn't exactly call the circle of life sadistic. Same with sex. Is it perverted of god to make us have sex with each other in order to procreate? I see them as beauties. 4. This is just a twist of words. Reminds me of when people say to be more tolerant of their intolerance towards gays and stuff like that. I'm not trying to defend the intelligent design argument. I'm just pointing out the flaws in his criticisms. Yeah, after those points I got the gist of what the author is doing and it's not very convincing. The only argument on an atheist's side for disbelieving would be that there is no proof of his existence. Other than that, there is no evidence that suggests that he does not exist, so why he would go as far as claiming that he can prove it is well beyond me. Sorry, but judging by everyone else's responses, I think us TIFers are still tired from the last 300-some pages of theistic debating. Yeah, I very much disliked that part of the article. Seemd dumb, immature, and petty. The rest was interesting though.

The rules are simple. You prove to be better than the one above you (either smarter, more beautiful, more successful, all around better, or anything else that fits). Simply talk to the above and prove it. I'll start. I'm better than you because you simply don't exist (no one's above me :)).

I thought we'd see a more serious discussion by now. I'm not accusing anyone by that, only saying that posts like "yeah, that's nothing new" are semi-off topic. Instead, try to actualy discuss either God in general, or God according to the article. I'd really like to see some of the TIF brains arguing one of the most popular phenomenons around us. @JoeDaStudd- I had and gave it away. Why do you ask? Oh, and he did mention other Gods as well as talking about (a) God(s) in general.