Does God exist?

Okay, yes, that was a sneaky title.� And it was for an ulterior purpose...

Care to proof-read a philosophy paper on the ontological arguments of Saint Anselm and Rene Descartes?� Total page count = 5, double spaced.� Roughly 900+ words.� Admittedly, I suck at this philosophizing business.� :/

frum me - I can send via email either as a Word�attachment or in the body.� All comments welcome.� I have a few days; paper is due 12/01.

Thanks!!

That's just my opinion but you already knew that :-)

It's the ODDEST coincidence -- that is EXACTLY my thesis in the paper!!� :D

because of the babelfish, right? it proves he exists, and therefore he doesn't.

oooooh.� THAT'S what I didn't put in there!� ;)

Your thesis is that I don't believe in god? Good topic. Want me to send you a notorized letter you can use as evidence in support of your thesis?

You'd do that?!� I'm going to have the BEST paper yet!!� All the documentation, notarized letters, etc.

Two more weeks.� Two more weeks.� My finals will be over.� No more philosophy papers, etc.

they have a sick sense of humor aboot a lot of stuff going on down here.

And when I die, I expect to find him laaaaaauuuuughing....

Thanks.� Now I need to dig out some Depeche Mode to appease the youthful angst that suddenly popped up.� (As a wannabe-diehard-fan of DM, I was enthralled when MF kicked into their own version at a show in Cinti.)

I believe God exists and is most accurately represented by the Christian faith, but not as organized religion or the religious right would have you believe.

Fortunately for me, I have two philosophers to deal with -- and then I only have to argue if they have convincing enough arguments to prove the existence of God.� Neither one does, to me, anyway, and it was easy to come up with counter arguments.� *shrug*

Personally, I don't know if God exists or not.� Or she.� Or if there's more than one.� Not too worried about, either.

Are you sure philosphers exist?

For Halloween 2003 I wore a "God doesn't believe in atheists" t-shirt.

Are you sure t-shirts exist?

Don't go there, do you really want to think about me walking around shirtless?

I think, therefore my thought exists. And I thought you were present in a t-shirt. Therefore the t-shirt exists. For me, anyway. ;)

The real question is, if a t-shirt exists in my mind, but Leah doesn't believe in it, does that make her wrong and therefore going to HELL?

um. That's probably enough from me for now. ;)

Well of course Leah is going to hell, does anyone question that?

if by hell you mean the unicorn farm, then no, there never was any question.

I hope you are kidding. Do you know how they treat the animals in a modern factory Unicorn Farm? They are kept in pens unable to walk around, in constant light, fed a monotonous diet of enriched grain, all so they can grow their horns faster.

mmmmmm.....unicorn horns....

I'll probably frum you on this one too, but have you covered the tow main arguments against Descartes?�� I'v e got a file somewhere where I did a whole module on Meditations so I can look it up if you want?�� There is debate about whether Descartes actually believed in God or was just trying to cover his tracks what with the whole Galilleo thing.� My tutor believed Descartes believed in God and refused to mark anything arguing that Descartes argument was "circular" as a general rule you need to go much further into the argument than that.

do explain.

Got about two hours? :)

Basically, in a simplistic nutshell, I've done alot of reading and research into the historical background of the life of Jesus and find enough evidence that the new testament account of his life is accurate. While there is no definitive evidence he was fully godhead and fully man at the same time (an obvious contradiction) there is certainly enough historical and factual evidence to lend a helluva lot of creedence to such a claim.

Having said that, I feel the most important parts of the bible are the gospel accounts of the life of Jesus and those are what should be studied. I do not beleieve in organized religion or the catholic or various protestant churches.

ah. so you're all about a more radical one-on-one personal relationship with Christ? Rock on.

I don't disclaim that Jesus lived.� Nor that the bible counts for actions of his life accurately.

However.

The idea that the red printed words were those that spilled forth from Jesus, word-for-word, direct quote stuff, nope.� Not buying it.� Why not?� Because the first gospel was written some 40 years after his death and the�Book of John nearly 100 years after he died.� He was one of many religious�cult leaders at the time.� (Ever heard of Thecla?)� He wasn't popular during his lifetime, not that we didn't know already that...

I've not had the time to read the published works on it yet, but apparently the dead sea scrolls provide some rather interesting information about Jesus that wasn't included in the bible.� Like siblings.

*shrug*� I'm not up to speed on this stuff anymore, but the research is available.

Personally, I admire anyone who can see these kinds of "problems" with religion, accept them and continue to have faith.

I don't take the position that the gospel accounts word-for-word what he said, however, if you read all 6 gospels, there are remarkable similarities describing the events, so I tend to focus on the commonalities. Also, the first gospel was written 20-25 years after his death, with the others coming between 40 and 107 years.

Yah, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the book of Thomas have alot of other details (although the new testament does speak of other children of Mary and Joseph) but also lend alot of creedence to the common account of the life of Jesus.

ummm, my bible has 4 gospels, what are your extra two?

The Gospels of Pete Best and Stu Sutcliffe.

I like the Gospel of George Martin best.

See, I'm Jewish. We only have volumes of commentary by Brian Epstein.

who else would have invented the platypus.

It could have been random chance. Just like the monkeys with the typewriters, given an infinite amount of time matter will eventualy assume every possible configuration.

it was random chance that monkeys were stuck in a room with typewriters?� I think that was planned..

Atheism yay!

whatever, jesus freak.

ew, I am SO over him.

yeah, RIGHT!

That's not what you said when I CAUGHT YOU IN BED WITH HIM.

Silly naight, I don't need to actually like Jesus to use him for hot hot lovin'

oh!oh!oh!

this is the perfect lead-in to my favorite sacrilicious joke!!! though it's better in person.

why do women love jesus?

...



...


because he was hung like this *stretch arms to the sides*


bada-bump.

hahahah, perfect. so perfect.

Mmmm, sacrilicious.

God is dead - Nietzsche
Nietzsche is dead - God

Therefore Nietzsche is God?

Therefore ray charles is god.

1. Theism, as a way of defining God, is dead. So most theological God-talk is today meaningless. A new way to speak of God must be found.
2. Since God can no longer be conceived in theistic terms, it becomes nonsensical to seek to understand Jesus as the incarnation of the theistic deity. So the Christology of the ages is bankrupt.
3. The biblical story of the perfect and finished creation from which human beings fell into sin is pre-Darwinian mythology and post-Darwinian nonsense.
4. The virgin birth, understood as literal biology, makes Christ's divinity, as traditionally understood, impossible.
5. The miracle stories of the New Testament can no longer be interpreted in a post-Newtonian world as supernatural events performed by an incarnate deity.
6. The view of the cross as the sacrifice for the sins of the world is a barbarian idea based on primitive concepts of God and must be dismissed.
7. Resurrection is an action of God. Jesus was raised into the meaning of God. It therefore cannot be a physical resuscitation occurring inside human history.
8. The story of the Ascension assumed a three-tiered universe and is therefore not capable of being translated into the concepts of a post-Copernican space age.
9. There is no external, objective, revealed standard writ in scripture or on tablets of stone that will govern our ethical behavior for all time.
10. Prayer cannot be a request made to a theistic deity to act in human history in a particular way.
11. The hope for life after death must be separated forever from the behavior control mentality of reward and punishment. The Church must abandon, therefore, its reliance on guilt as a motivator of behavior.
12. All human beings bear God's image and must be respected for what each person is. Therefore, no external description of one's being, whether based on race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, can properly be used as the basis for either rejection or discrimination.

That's quite a nice list of complete unsubstantiated and unfounded statements.

Thank you.

You just defined religion.

Zing!

Have I mentioned lately that you are my hero?

Thank you, kind sir.

Hello Christians! Do you exist on this sight?

oops...site

Yes.

Although my idea of "Christian" doesn't seem to carry much weight with the churches, the politicians, or the most vocal "Christian" demographic, and I don't feel like arguing with them about how I'm a bad Christian, or not a Christian at all. The way Christ imbues my life doesn't fit the monotheistic patriarchal dogmatic certainty, or the sociopolitical agenda, of "Christian America".

Yeah, I'm Christian. But I believe that Christianity isn't the only way that people "see" God, as it were. I'm not your classic biblethumper (tried that out once, it kinda freaked me), but I'm not quite a Unitarian either... I dunno. I also believe in reincarnation for my own personal reasons.

Aaand... </delurk>

*raises hand*

I'm a Christian of the --born again-- variety.

Awesome!

Yes, we're here.� But we're of the somewhat . . . meeker variety, I suppose.� Or at least less obtrusive.

Who...?