Assuming that the Question of Gods can be answered

[kcplusdc@yahoo.com]

If God exists, I may or may not have to change teams, you know, to get with the program, new managment type of stuff, but for the most part my life goes on as it was, admittedly with less football time on Sunday but maybe I can opt out with the Saturday God people.
If you got bona fide God credentials, I'm with it and you got my full attention. The truth of God'would be enough to convert me. Aint looking for no beef with the supreme one. Probably would be a big relief for me since I would know where to address my complaints.

Now, if God doesn't exist then.....ohh no! We have evidence of a historically documented mass delusion of people of all types and sizes. A delusion so pervasive that it has shaped history, cultures, thinking and God only knows what. We have been building crazy on top of crazy for centuries!!
How do I proceed from that bomb shell?
What an impossible mess we are in, everything is a lie? This information sucks,
I'm probably delusional by osmosis? I live and breathe the same crazy air, was raised by deluded folk. I got to be crazy! It's been the normative state of most people all my life. Im infected!

This no God thing really sucks, everything is suspect, the planet is full of crazy, and I'm not sure that it is logical to assume that I don't need a tinfoil hat as well.
Frankly i liked it better when God existed.

Question for debate = Would evidence that proved God didn't exist have serious implication to mankind's mental health. Are we crazy?
Is it logical to assume that we can untangle ourselves from a pile of crazy that big?
Glad we sorted that out, all good now?

[Divine Insight]

Question for debate = Would evidence that proved God didn't exist have serious implication to mankind's mental health.

As far as I'm concerned we already have overwhelming evidence that the God described by Hebrew mythology (i.e. the Bible) has already been proven to not exist. At least it cannot exist as it is described in the Bible. So this means that the "Biblical God" does not exist.

Does this mean that there cannot be a "God" of any kind? No of course not. In fact, the God of Eastern Mysticism could be the correct description of "God". Say for example, the God of the original Buddhism.

So while we can already rule out specific God myths, it would be extremely difficult to prove that there cannot be any kind of "God" at all.

Let's return to you debate question from a totally different perspective:

Question for debate = Would evidence that proved God didn't exist have serious implication to mankind's mental health.

What if there was no God. What would that mean?

Well, we might first take it to mean than when we die it will just be "lights-out" and that's the end of our existence.

But then we have the following important question to ask?

Is life meaningful and worth living?

If the answer is YES, then clearly life is meaningful and worth living whether there exists a God or not.

If the answer is NO, then it wouldn't matter if there was a God since that fact would hardly change anything.

You might want to claim that if a God exists then perhaps we might live forever. However, if life is not meaningful or worth living, then extending a meaningless life for eternity isn't going to make it anymore meaningful.

So the existence or non-existence of a God won't have any affect on whether life is meaningful or not.

Let's take a look at yet another spin on your question:

Question for debate = Would evidence that proved God didn't exist have serious implication to mankind's mental health.

What about morality? Should we try to live a "good" life?

Well, if there is a God who is going to punishment us if we don't then we surely have some motivation to try to live a "good" life whether we want to or not.

But let's face it, trying to live a good life just to avoid being punished by a God is hardly a respectable position to take. All we would be saying here is that if there is no God then we no longer care about "good" things and we're perfectly ok with doing "harmful" things.

If that's truly the kind of people we are, then none of us should go to any perfect heaven anyway.

If we care about ourselves and others, then we should want to do what's "good" for everyone involved anyway. We certainly shouldn't need any God for that.

So the bottom line is, it really shouldn't matter whether a God exists or not in terms of how we live our lives.

One more time,...

Question for debate = Would evidence that proved God didn't exist have serious implication to mankind's mental health.

Mankind is already seriously mentally ill if he thinks it would be important whether or not a God exists.

No one can be said to be a better person than a "good" secularist.

A "good" secularist is the epitome of intellectual evolution.

A "good" secularist is good because it's who they want to be, and NOT because they think some Sky Daddy might give them a spanking if they fail to be a good person.

So if there is a God who cares about morality, that God would be far more pleased by "good" Atheists, than by pretentious religious people who are only trying to be good to avoid getting a "God-spanking".

In fact, a lot of devout religious people have actually said that if there was no God they would have no reason to be a good person. Sounds like an open confession that they aren't a good person to me. Apparently they are just being good to avoid a spanking.

Pretty sad, don't you think?

[Jagella]

Question for debate = Would evidence that proved God didn't exist have serious implication to mankind's mental health. Are we crazy?
Is it logical to assume that we can untangle ourselves from a pile of crazy that big?
Glad we sorted that out, all good now?

Religion is what you might call a "mass delusion." In other words, it involves large numbers of people who believe something that is not true, and these believers should know better. I don't know if there is a cure for this mass delusion because those who are so deluded in most cases refuse to give it up.

[Tcg]

Is it logical to assume that we can untangle ourselves from a pile of crazy that big?

Many of us have, at least to a large extent, so there is hope for individuals to untangle themselves.

If by "we" you mean all of humanity, sadly, it doesn't seem very likely. Many have too much invested in their faith and fear they would be lost without it. In can be unsettling to lose faith in God/gods, but in the long run, people find their footing and develop a much more rewarding approach to life.

Sadly, fear keeps too many far away from the passage that would allow them to untangle themselves.

[StuartJ]

A period of detoxification would be required.

And a course of methadone equivalent may need to be prescribed ... say Jeesadone.

Or easing the patient into a pseudo-religion - like Pastafarianism - where the patient may more easily recognise fantasy when they encounter it.

It may be a little more difficult with Mormon friends, however. Giving up the idea of inheriting your very own planet when you die is more difficult than giving up a mere robe and crown and the keys to a mansion in Jesusville.

Not that you'd need keys there, come to think of it ....

But I have noticed that trying to talk to a Christian about Jesus is very much like trying to talk to a drunk about alcohol. You haven't a hope of getting through while they're under the influence.

[Wootah]

Moderator Comment

Please review the Rules.

I really am not going to count the various infractions in this thread but leave it to as a reader exercise. Count this as a delusional mercy or something.

Thread is locked.


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