Dr Michael Shermer | “God Does NOT Exist”

Dec 21, 2012 Dr Michael Shermer gives his argument against the existence of God.

Dr Michael Shermer begins by saying that 84% of the world's population believe in some kind of organised religion and how do those who believe in a particular religion know that they have chosen the right one and everyone else has got it wrong?

He proceeds to explain two pieces of evidence that proves that humans made up God and religion and not the other way around. He starts with evolutionary theory saying that we are all descendants from cautious creatures who creator false positive rather than false negatives.

The creation of an agency (an omnipotent being) within a religion is a powerful force of social control. Then the second line of evidence is the what ever social environment were born into we would be exposed to the dominant religion in that environment i.e. India -- Hinduism, Europe -- Christianity.

Filmed on Thursday 8th November 2012
ABOUT Dr MICHAEL SHERMER: Author and Founder of the Skeptics Society.
Views on YouTube: 2,133,420

Seth Andrews : “Awesome Without Allah”

"Nov 29, 2020 I was able to generate my own sense of purpose instead of having my life spoon-fed to me." For Seth Andrews, between the safety of the “religious cocoon” and the “goodness, love and beauty” he discovered upon leaving it? There’s no comparison.

Here’s some food for thought for you! I am not plugging atheism, by the way; so, please don’t jump to any conclusions. However, I do have an open mind; so I certainly have periods of doubt myself. Especially when I hear fundamentalists of every strip spouting forth. They sound so simplistic to me. They are so certain about things we simply cannot be certain about.

Because religion is nothing more than belief, and belief is just that: belief; we cannot ever be certain about God/Allah/Yahweh, whatever you call him. We shall have to wait until we pass on to know for sure.

So far, I do still have a belief in God, even though its strength waxes and wanes – just like the moon! But then that is normal for Christians.

What I do know is this: Christian principles are good principles to live by. However, in my experience, only the few actually manage to do so. Many call themselves Christians; only the few pass muster. We are all in need of trying harder.

The real Christians I have met in life are the ones that talk about it the least. They just get on and live by their principles – quietly.

I find Seth Andrews’ atheism very interesting; and in actual fact, I concur with much of what he says. I know from previous videos I have watched of his that Christopher Hitchens helped him along on his path to atheism.

Interesting.

© Mark Alexander

God Is Not Great | Christopher Hitchens | Talks at Google | 2007

Aug 17, 2007 Author Christopher Hitchens discusses his book "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything" as a part of the Authors@Google series. The author of Why Orwell Matters and Letters to a Young Contrarian, Christopher Hitchens is a Vanity Fair contributing editor, a Slate columnist, and a regular contributor to The Atlantic Monthly. He has also written for The Nation, Granta, Harper's, The Washington Post, and is a frequent television and radio guest. Born in England, Hitchens was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, where he received a degree in philosophy, politics, and economics. He now lives in Washington, D.C., and he became a U.S. citizen in 2007. This event took place on August 16, 2007 at Google headquarters in Mountain View, CA.

Seth Andrews: “I Miss Christopher Hitchens”: Remembering Hitch on the 10th Anniversary of his Death

Dec 17, 2021 We lost Hitch on December 15th, 2011. In this broadcast, we hear his voice, enjoy his mastery of language, and remember.

I post this today to give you all some food for thought. Am I an atheist? No I am not. But like sfor o many people, the strength of my faith varies rather ike a radio signal on a windy day: sometimes the signal is strong; sometimes it is weaker. In short, I vacillate. Why? Because one is forced to make up one’s mind on a concept we simply know next to nothing about.

Religion is nothing more than faith. Faith is nothing more than belief. Belief is nothing more than hope, when it is all boiled down.

There is much to be said for the idea that religions are man-made constructs of the rich and powerful to control the poor and weak – the masses. There is also much to be said for the idea that religions have been thought up to give people hope for a better life in the Hereafter, when they have suffered from poverty, ill health, hard work and misery in this life. In fact, perhaps they have been thought up as a way to appease and assuage troubled souls.

But there is a third option between belief and disbelief in an omnipotent, omniscient, all-caring, merciful, and compassionate God. And that is a god who neither knows nor cares what we do, what we eat, whom we love, and with whom we make love. Our understanding of God appears always to be based on anthropomorphism, namely the ascription to God of human qualities, the qualities of knowing and caring and beneficence. It is perfectly possible that God does indeed exist, but as a Being who does not share our human qualities and characteristics. It is possible that God is a powerful force which has brought the world into existence and just lets us get on with living life as best we can.

That there might well not be an Afterlife is indicated in the Christian faith itself. In the Book of Common Prayer, in the burial service, it states the following: “we therefore commit this body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life.”

Please notice the use of the word ‘hope’ of resurrection and eternal life. There is no certainty about it. That hope could well be vain.

As I said, just some food for thought. – © Mark Alexander

This Question Will Stump the Religious Homophobe

Quote thanks to Pinterest.

On God and Homophobia

Image thanks to Pinterest.

Facebook Wants You to Connect with God. On Facebook.

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The company is intensifying formal partnerships with faith groups across the United States and shaping the future of religious experience.

Months before the megachurch Hillsong opened its new outpost in Atlanta, its pastor sought advice on how to build a church in a pandemic.

From Facebook.

The social media giant had a proposition, Sam Collier, the pastor, recalled in an interview: to use the church as a case study to explore how churches can “go further farther on Facebook.”

For months Facebook developers met weekly with Hillsong and explored what the church would look like on Facebook and what apps they might create for financial giving, video capability or livestreaming. When it came time for Hillsong’s grand opening in June, the church issued a news release saying it was “partnering with Facebook” and began streaming its services exclusively on the platform.

Beyond that, Mr. Collier could not share many specifics — he had signed a nondisclosure agreement.

“They are teaching us, we are teaching them,” he said. “Together we are discovering what the future of the church could be on Facebook.”

Facebook, which recently passed $1 trillion in market capitalization, may seem like an unusual partner for a church whose primary goal is to share the message of Jesus. But the company has been cultivating partnerships with a wide range of faith communities over the past few years, from individual congregations to large denominations, like the Assemblies of God and the Church of God in Christ. » | Elizabeth Dias | Sunday, July 25, 2021

What Is God?

This lecture was Sponsored in memory of Barbara Schwartz by her family.

What Is God?

If God Created the Universe, Who Created Him?

Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz answers the classic questions: 'If all things have a creator, then who created God?'

Proof That God Exists In 4 Minutes!

The real question should be, how do you answer such a question in 4 minutes?

Returning to the 3 aspects: creation, revelation and redemption, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks OBM answers this important question with references to modern day philosophers and great societies built by people deeply influenced by the Hebrew Bible.

Abraham who lived close to 4000 years ago, with no army and no empires, but with lessons so pure, true and eternally valid, that his effect has influenced every culture since.

This video should not be missed.


Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks dies of cancer at 72 » | JC Reporter | Saturday, November 7, 2020

Dan Barker | God Does NOT Exist

Dan Barker gives his argument against the existence of God.

How Jesus Became God - An Interview With Bart Ehrman

An interview excerpt with author, New Testament scholar, and Professor of Religious Studies Bart D. Ehrman.

Is the Russian Orthodox Church Serving God or Putin? | DW English

As the Russian Orthodox Church faces mounting controversy over its hard line agendas and its close ties to the Kreml, Conflict Zone host Tim Sebastian travels to Moscow to talk to representative Vakhtang Kipshidze.

Only in America! Franklin Graham: God Had a Hand in This Election

Samaritan's Purse president explains on 'Fox & Friends'

Cardinal Burke Says Catholics and Muslims Don't Worship the Same God

Physics and God | Rice Brooks Interviews Physicist Brian Miller

Calls to Refer to God as a Woman as Female Bishops Take Up Posts

Bishop Libby Lane at Chester Cathedral

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Support is growing within the Church of England to rewrite its official liturgy to refer to God as female following the selection of the first women bishops

Support is growing within the Church of England to rewrite its official liturgy to refer to God as female following the selection of the first women bishops.

Growing numbers of priests already insert words such as “she” and “mother” informally into traditional service texts as part of a move to make the language of worship more inclusive, it has been claimed.

But calls for a full overhaul of liturgy to recognise the equal status of women have already been discussed informally at a senior level.

It comes after the “Transformations Steering Group”, a body which meets in Lambeth Palace to examine the impact of women in ministry on the Church of England, issued a public call to the bishops to encourage more “expansive language and imagery about God”.

Hilary Cotton, chair of Women And The Church (Watch), the group which led the campaign for female bishops, said the shift away from the traditional patriarchal language of the Book of Common Prayer in already at an “advanced” stage in some quarters.

“The reality is that in many churches up and down the country something more than the almost default male language about God is already being used,” she said. “Quietly clergy are just talking about God as ‘she’ every now and then.

“The response you often get at one end is ‘why does it matter because God is beyond all this?’

“At the other end the reaction is ‘you mustn’t because Jesus calls God father.” » | John Bingham, Religious Affairs Editor | Sunday, May 31, 2015

In Malaysia, ‘Allah’ Is Reserved for Muslims Only

Pupils at a Christian kindergarten in Kota Kinabalu, on Borneo,
are among non-Muslims not allowed by Malaysian law
to use the Malay word for God.

THE NEW YORK TIMES: KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia — As the students knelt in a circle at a Christian kindergarten near the shores of the South China Sea, a 6-year-old girl in pigtails read out a chapter from a children’s Bible: “Sepuluh hukum dari Allah” – God’s Ten Commandments.

Technically, she broke the law.

According to a series of government orders and rulings by Malaysia’s Islamic councils, the word for God in the Malay language – “Allah” – is reserved for Muslims. Malay-language bibles are banned everywhere except inside churches. State regulations ban a list of words, including Allah, in any non-Muslim context.

Malaysia, with its collage of ethnic groups and religions, has a long history of tensions over issues ranging from dietary differences to the economic preferences enshrined in Malaysian law for the Malay Muslim majority.

But there is probably no dispute more fundamental and more emotionally charged than who owns the word God.

For Malaysia’s religious minorities, the government’s ban on non-Muslims using the word Allah, and the repeated seizures by government officials of Malay-language Bibles, is enough to make a smiling and cheery kindergarten teacher snap in anger. » | Thomas Fuller | Monday, November 03, 2014

Liberal Lebanese Journalist Ziad Noujeim: If God Exists, It May Be Female; We Live in a Garbage Dumpster (January 13, 2013)