h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Okay so it's the obvious response to a crappy week, but if anyone can convince me that life fits in with the existence of the almighty, or, conversely, that I'm an idiot for even asking this question, I'd be a lot less confused.

I would say any god depends on belief so if you don't believe, he/she/ it doesn't exist.

There's Nighthoover.

RF

Well that's well and good but I can't make my mind up. Does God exist if you're not sure?

It's entirely possible that he exists for other people, if that makes sense?

God's in the mind of the beholder. A focus for mental energy and something internal to bash ideas/hopes off.

Not really. You're talking about a concept whereby the existance of God is a bit like the existence of money- only real if you believe in it. Well and good, but I think pretty much any monotheistic religion in the world will say that God is real in the sense that you can talk and God can listen and respond. Not just a God that you have made up in your own head. Or have I misunderstood your point?

This thread has already been started. Get through the TWENTY SIX THOUSAND posts and get back to us. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/F55607?thread=192835&post=37207076#p37207076

Whether there is a God or not, it doesn't matter! Most Western (and some Eastern)conceptions of God agree that free choice is the mainstay of the faith.

So if you've had a really bad week the options are to blame a god for 'causing' this or going out there and changing your situation so that the bad things don't happen or are at least improved. No matter whether you believe in a god or not, belief in yourself and the impetus to change your situation are the best assests to improve your life.

Awful things happen to nice people sometimes and while it would be easy to try to find someone to blame, sometimes there is no answer and no one to blame.

Blame life, blame incompetent managers, blame the government, blame faulty genes or a vulnerable mortal body, but blaming an ethereal concept is a self defeating task.

Good luck in all that you do and a big for all your worries.

Free choice? Surely most major religions give you some fairly specific guidelines don't they? Although, pedantry aside, I see your point and you're probably right. I need to train as a vet.

Despite my earlier rationalisation I have to say:

Of course there isn't. And there are actually real things to worry about.

Now that's sorted:

Two teenage men hung in Israel a year or so ago because they were gay.

Just thought I'd mention it.

I'm not talking as a huge religion fan here. I was raised as a Catholic but haven't been to church in years and consider myself as a neo-agnostic!! (steal a bit of various world religions, a healthy dose of scepticism and a bit of respect for the natural world!!) I think I'm a bit left of Zen Buddism with a dose of Jedi and Wicca with definite Humanist leanings!!!!

I remember the Catholic teachings which would have had me burning in Hell right now, but they also espoused the free choice aspect. Yes, you may have a Hellish eternity if you indulge in behaviours against the tenet, but at the end of the day, that's your choice!

I thought of being avet but the 7 years of vet school put me off!!! I always thought that a being a florist would be my ideal!!! Flowers don't talk back and they smell nice!!

BoB

Just to prove the point and put this into perspective:

http://gayorbit.net/?p=2459

see what God fearing people do?

Please, anybody who identifies with an organised religion, remember that the people hanging those young men justify their actions by their beliefs.
They believe that this is what their God wants. Won't we be better off when more people believe in humanity than deitys?

Time to move on methinks.

I have no problem with anyone personaly ascribing to the view that some sort of God exists, I would just be happy if it was generally conceded that the serious, rationale evidence for the existance of God(s) is so flimsy that to use this assumption as the basis for anything at all (life actions, moral choices, hymn writing...) is ridiculous. How can you act upon the basis of what somebody wants when you couldn't convince a reasonably impartial witness, armed with all the evidence you possess, that they even exist?

Sorry to be a bore but: faith kills people. Atheists kill people but atheism itself doesn't.

Much as I disagree with that sentence, I have a few comments:

They were "unaware that homosexuality carried the death sentence". I don't believe that for a minute. Aren't the basic tenets of Sharia Law hammered into them from an early age?

Sharia Law is not just a religious law, it is also the law of the land in Iran. Ignorance of the law is no defence in nearly every country, including the UK.

Initials AM and MA: that would be Ali Mohammed and Mohammed Ali, then. Not exactly "disguising" their identities...although they all seem to be called that.

Homosexual sex is a crime in the UK for minors. OK, we don't execute people for it*...but that's a matter of degree of punishment, not whether a law has been broken.

RF

* Or anything else, these days.

You're right: ignorance of the law is no defence, but that doesn't defend a law based on ignorance.

They were alive. They're now dead. That's a situation directly attributable to religion.

I'm not sure I can wholey agree with the notion that faith kills people. Well, I can to a certain extent, but I think faith's more serious intellectual crime is not to provoke murder but to justify it- ie, to legitmise actions that would be completely unacceptable were it not for the veil of religious justification.

In terms of the question of homosexuality, it is fair to point out that the young men were probably executed for comitting what they knew perfectly well to be a crime. I'm interested in the context here, though. Are these people carrying out the executions police or is this just, basically, a riot? It does underline a wider problem, I think, of a kind of religious Simon says (actually simon says 'I don't know him, I don't know him, I don't know him... oh it's you, if you know Eddie Izzard) whereby you can justify without argument anything you can convince yourself that God told you to do. This is getting pretty contraversial isn't it?

Yup...but if it is our misfortune to be born in Iran, then you're likely to be shat upon from a great height no matter what you do, unless you conform to their religion.

What a bunch of loonies.

RF