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Sleepwalk7

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#1 Sleepwalk7
Member since 2013 • 113 Posts
In any case, from what I understand, many Israelites turned away from the true God to worship false gods like Baal and Asherah, but I don't see how that disproves the existence of the Judeo-Christian God.
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Sleepwalk7

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#2 Sleepwalk7
Member since 2013 • 113 Posts

[QUOTE="Sleepwalk7"][QUOTE="Mithrandir50"]

 

"Yahweh... and his Asherah"

Mithrandir50

So where is the contemporary and reputable source that teaches the Bible is a collection of early mythology?

 

This site should be helpful for you

It isn't since it's not a reputable source. I was thinking more along the lines of, you know, the work of an actual scholar, not a basement dweller.
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Sleepwalk7

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#3 Sleepwalk7
Member since 2013 • 113 Posts

[QUOTE="Sleepwalk7"]

 Again, these types of theories were thrown out a long time ago. I challenge you to find and cite a contemporary and reputable scholar that believes the Bible is a collection of early mythology.Mithrandir50

"Yahweh... and his Asherah"

So where is the contemporary and reputable source that teaches the Bible is a collection of early mythology?
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#4 Sleepwalk7
Member since 2013 • 113 Posts
I've gone over this many times on this forum so I'm used to trying to describe things in terms most people can understand. I've been studying quantum physics since 1995, and I can most definately pull out the math.

br0kenrabbit

You proclaim that you understand quantum mechanics, but you do not know how to spell "definitely." I don't mean to be insulting, I don't buy it. And when you say you've been studying quantum physics since 1995, what does that mean exactly? Reading popular level books on the subject? Going to college? Are you an actual physicist? Do you watch YouTube videos on quantum mechanics? What? And in a sense, it doesn't matter if you know quantum mechanics or not because you're getting some very fundamental things wrong. One example is the idea that in quantum mechanics particles come into being from nonbeing. That's wrong. And it's a pretty big thing to get wrong, by the way.

By 'nothing' I was suggesting in the same way a photon is 'nothing'

See, there you go again conflating terms. Photons aren't "nothing." Nothing is nonbeing. Photons exist.

Going on the above, no one has ever seen a photon, either

Actually, we observe collections of photons all the time. In fact, the human eye can detect single photons.

We have inferred their existence from their interation with other particles and fields, the same as we can infer the exstience of extra dimensions by the fact that the math tells us that strings have to move in more than three spatial directions.

Is this unquestional evidence? Well, it's got the same weight as "Look around you = God".

I have no problem with looking at effects and predicting what kind of cause there would need to be in order to create the aforementioned effects. I was just making fun of the hypocrisy of some atheists on this point.

^And the cop-out.^

It is a cop-out to say it is meaningless to ask, "What did God do with all of His time," when time didn't exist? How so?

I think the best proof against the Biblical God

Now we're going outside the scope of this thread. Notice that the thread isn't titled, "Arguments for The Existence of The Judeo-Christian God"

are in the stories that predate the Torah: Gilgamesh, Homers Odyssey, the Assyrian and Phoenician myths, etc.

The argument, "the Bible is based on older myths" has been thrown out years ago by Old and New Testament scholars and historians. This sort of argument only thrives in places like YouTube or forums like this which are filled with layman.

And beyond that, there's Jewish history itself: the Jews borrow the Phoenician alphabet as their first written script and the first thing they come up with is something strikingly similar to The Epic of Gilgamesh.

Then there's the whole Yahweh issue...what with YHWH being traced to a pantheon of Gods where he happens to be the Storm/War God, and then his appearance in the Old Testament in the visage of storm clouds and thunder and always declaring war and so on.

Oh, what happened to his female consort, Asherah? She first belonged to Baal, then Yahweh, and then Yahweh decided he didn't like her. The Jews took a while to catch up, though...I believe Asherah poles were in the temple as late as the events of 1 Kings.

Just about every story in the OT has a pre-existing analog in the mythos of other cultures. The story of Christ has several.

Oh, and why does Hebrew record the first verse of The Bible as "In the Beginning GODS", in the plural (Elohim)? Oh yeah...Asherah.

So you see, human history itself leads to the conclusion that the God of the Bible is a construct.

 

Again, these types of theories were thrown out a long time ago. I challenge you to find and cite a contemporary and reputable scholar that believes the Bible is a collection of early mythology.
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Sleepwalk7

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#5 Sleepwalk7
Member since 2013 • 113 Posts

1. Everything that begins to exist has a cause.rastotm

Yes, this does seem plausible.


2. God has no cause.

True. Because God didn't begin to exist. He has always existed. A necessary being.


3. God never began to exist

True.


4. He does not exist.

This is a non-sequitur unless one presumes that everything in existence is contingent. In other words, you'd have to believe that everything in existence had a beginning--or that there was a "time" when everything in existence didn't exist.
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#6 Sleepwalk7
Member since 2013 • 113 Posts

[QUOTE="Sleepwalk7"]1. Everything that exists has an explanation of its existence, either in the necessity of its own nature or in an external cause.

2. If the universe has an explanation of its existence, that explanation is God. Illogical leap. 

3. The universe exists.

4. Therefore, the universe has an explanation of its existence (from 1, 3).

5. Therefore, the explanation of the universes existence is God (from 2, 4).

---

1. Everything that begins to exist has a cause.

2. The universe began to exist.

3. Therefore, the universe has a cause. There is no evidence that any sort of all powerful being was said cause

---

1. If God does not exist, objective moral values and duties do not exist. False assumption

2. Objective moral values and duties do exist.

3. Therefore, God exists.

---

1. The fine-tuning of the universe is due to either physical necessity, chance, or design. False assumption

2. It is not due to physical necessity or chance. False assumption

3. Therefore, it is due to design.

---

1. It is possible that a maximally great being exists. False assumption

2. If it is possible that a maximally great being exists, then a maximally great being exists in some possible world.

3. If a maximally great being exists in some possible world, then it exists in every possible world.

4. If a maximally great being exists in every possible world, then it exists in the actual world.

5. If a maximally great being exists in the actual world, then a maximally great being exists.

6. Therefore, a maximally great being exists.

Read more: http://www.reasonablefaith.org/the-new-atheism-and-five-arguments-for-god#ixzz2UiSrAM1CGuybrush_3

Since you didn't write anything of substance, I'm left with responding to one or two word blurbs.

illogical leap

I take this to mean you think the premise is false or probably false, which means you think there is a better explanation for the existence of the universe than God. What is this explanation?

There is no evidence that any sort of all powerful being was said cause

Once you conceptually analyze what the cause of the universe would need to possess as far as causal powers go, you come to the realization that it is God. For instance, the cause of the universe would need to be timeless, immaterial, powerful, and an agent.

False assumption

Then how would objective moral values exist outside of God?

False assumption

Then what other possible explanations are there for the fine-tuning of the universe for intelligent life outside of physical necessity, chance or design? And why do you think it is wrong to say it is more plausible than not that the fine-tuning is due to design as opposed to physical necessity or chance?

False assumption

So you're saying it is impossible for a maximally powerful being to exist? How so?
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Sleepwalk7

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#7 Sleepwalk7
Member since 2013 • 113 Posts
[QUOTE="Mithrandir50"] First of all, your premises (assumptions) are by and large false. To deduce God to be the answer, you first have to deduce the existence of God. Since you haven't, you are inducing the answer to your questions to be god.

I just shared with you and the other posters here a link to a very reputable source explaining what deductive arguments are. I'll explain it to you again. A deductive argument is an argument where the conclusion follows necessarily and inescapably from the premises--if the premises are true. Feel free to pick out one or more of the premises mentioned in my original post and explain why they are false or probably false. To do so would be to engage in actual debate. I thought atheists were supposed to be rational, but all I'm getting (for the most part) are emotional responses and sarcasm. I guess there are just no good rational reasons to be an atheist...
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#8 Sleepwalk7
Member since 2013 • 113 Posts

[QUOTE="Sleepwalk7"][QUOTE="br0kenrabbit"]

My first sentence is supported by the following sentences. I tell you spacetime is meaningless and then in the following sentences to describe how distance and time are both irrelevant.

Mithrandir50

To me, it still seems like the statement "spacetime is meaningless" is hyperbolic nonsense that is being used as a way to sweep your lack of knowledge of the subject under the rug. 

Again, you would have to define what you mean by "time." In my view, God has always existed and "time" didn't come into being until God's first creation. Within this view, it becomes sort of meaningless to ask what God was doing prior to creation. But I will say He was existing, perfectly, possessing the attributes: omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, and omnibenevolence.

 

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA

 

 

 

HAhAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I can only speculate on what you think is funny. You seem to think that writing, "Asking what God was doing (implying the existence of time) prior to the existence of time is meaningless." With "space-time is meaningless," in regard to quantum mechanics. Could you explain the parallel, because I don't see one. How could quantum mechanics make space-time meaningless when quantum mechanics is part of the fabric of space-time?
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#9 Sleepwalk7
Member since 2013 • 113 Posts

I know this has got to be a troll thread, but I feel like playing anyway

1. Unproven statements, without any support for those qualities.

2. Sequentially speaking, those three points are true. But the second point requires that the universe had to have a cause, and no one knows if it did. Besides, if the universe had a first cause, what caused that first cause?

3. Morality is not universal, also, the argument fails because the first point is groundless. Morality is based on the society around it, and therefore is not objective.

Naw, I don't care anymore

Starchaser187
I don't know what arguments you're referring to save for the ones where you implicitly mention--so I'll just respond to those. If the universe didn't have a cause, then that would mean it came into being uncaused from nonbeing. Talk about magic. You're free to believe that if you want, but to me this seems irrational. To ask what caused the first cause is logically incoherent, because you're talking about the first cause. If something were truly the first cause, then obviously it couldn't have a cause itself. Your position on morality is nothing but circular reasoning, a logical fallacy. You're going to have to provide reasons for why you think objective moral values do not exist. And by saying objective moral values do not exist, what you're essentially saying is this, "torturing and killing babies isn't objectively wrong. It is only my opinion that it is wrong."
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#10 Sleepwalk7
Member since 2013 • 113 Posts
[QUOTE="brucewayne69"][QUOTE="Sleepwalk7"][QUOTE="VaguelyTagged"] and this is supposed to support the idea of existence of a deity?

That would be one premise in a deductive argument that supports the existence of God, yes.

You are not using a deductive argument though. For someone to deduce something, there has to be possible causes and conclusions. You are using inductive reasoning. You are saying "this happens so there must be a God." If you were using deductive reasoning, you would say, "This happens, and we know that these can't be the cause, so God is the cause."

No, deductive arguments are, "A deductive argument is an argument that is intended by the arguer to be (deductively) valid, that is, to provide a guarantee of the truth of the conclusion provided that the arguments premises (assumptions) are true." http://www.iep.utm.edu/ded-ind/ An inductive arguments is, "an argument that is intended by the arguer merely to establish or increase the probability of its conclusion. In an inductive argument, the premises are intended only to be so strong that, if they were true, then it would be unlikely that the conclusion is false." http://www.iep.utm.edu/ded-ind/