does god exist?

The Something Awful Forums > Main > BYOB: BYOB BYOB BOYB BBOY YOBB YBOB BBYO?? > does god exist?

smoobles

just a lil topic i thought would be interesting to discuss... i was thinking about it earlier while i was walking

thoughts?

# ? May 31, 2015 04:22

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# ? May 3, 2024 00:05

blinking beacon nose: birthday frog comes bearing gifts and special birthday wishes

you just blew my mind :aaaaa:

# ? May 31, 2015 04:23

Barco Fiesta: a fantasy of olives

idk if the world is ready for all my revolutionary opinions about that subject

# ? May 31, 2015 05:03

LP0 ON FIRE: _{beep boop}

i think "god" is a little ambiguous. what would god be anyway?

# ? May 31, 2015 05:03

Gross Dude: Gross Dude

I think god exists, op, but I don't think he's some old guy on a throne or anything. Basically, op, I don't know what God is or even what we talk about when we talk about God , but he's real.

# ? May 31, 2015 05:17

Gross Dude: Gross Dude

Do you think that maybe god could be the look of wonderment in a child's eyes? Maybe I'm getting way to deep for BYOB, though.

# ? May 31, 2015 05:18

Golden Gate Bride: knife to meet you

Very haunting topic, I hope you find peace in life op.

# ? May 31, 2015 05:18

i am he

yes.

# ? May 31, 2015 05:31

Piso Mojado

no.

# ? May 31, 2015 05:32

Piso Mojado

well...maybe.

# ? May 31, 2015 05:32

Gone Fashing: KEEP POSTIN
I'M STILL LAFFIN

nah

# ? May 31, 2015 05:33

i am he

God is real.

# ? May 31, 2015 05:35

E3 Keynote: eyyyyyyyyyy

i say no but my older relatives say yes

so its kinda still a debate you know?

# ? May 31, 2015 05:35

The X-man cometh

If God didn't exist, how could something as quirky as BYOB exist?

# ? May 31, 2015 06:06

Theglavwen: Frankly, I don't know anyone who likes Chinese bronzes, but I have one of the finest collections in the country.

What do you mean OP?

# ? May 31, 2015 06:07

BIRDCON 2017

E3 Keynote posted:

i say no but my older relatives say yes

so its kinda still a debate you know?

whoever outlives the other is correct

# ? May 31, 2015 06:14

ham_sanitizer: professional swine bather

nietzsche is dead -god

# ? May 31, 2015 06:18

Cinderful

ham_sanitizer posted:

nietzsche is dead -god

Qft

# ? May 31, 2015 06:22

Gone Fashing: KEEP POSTIN
I'M STILL LAFFIN

i am he posted:

God is real.

hmm

# ? May 31, 2015 06:47

cuntman.net

this is a very complicated question maybe a poll might help clear things up

# ? May 31, 2015 07:01

joke_explainer

god is real, and that's why the name the most religious country ever isreal.

# ? May 31, 2015 07:22

GODSPEED JOHN GLENN: I put my thumb up my bum and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth.

joke_explainer posted:

god is real, and that's why the name the most religious country ever isreal.

# ? May 31, 2015 07:37

smoobles

ive gotten lots to think about from the replies here, thank you all for the mental fodder as i continue to toy with this concept of God

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# ? May 31, 2015 07:40

Barco Fiesta: a fantasy of olives

what if god is a woman?

# ? May 31, 2015 07:46

ham_sanitizer: professional swine bather

what if god was one of us

# ? May 31, 2015 08:00

dentist toy box: There's a haint in the foothills of NC; the haint of the #3 chevy. The rich have formed a holy alliance to exorcise it but they'll never fucking catch him.

he's dead

# ? May 31, 2015 09:10

cuntman.net

god says he exists and god probably knows whether he exists or not better than we do because i think therefore i am applies to him too so that means he probably exists

# ? May 31, 2015 09:39

cuntman.net

unless hes lying

# ? May 31, 2015 09:40

I.N.R.I

Obviously

# ? May 31, 2015 09:49

H.H: August is the Cruelest Month

Here's an idea: all the good, and bad, that came from both organized religion and simple faith does not necessitate the existence of an all powerful being.
Even if he doesn't exist, his imagined reality has had an immeasurable impact on human history. So the question of his existence is not as important or interesting as his effect on us.

# ? May 31, 2015 10:43

real_slime: by Lowtax

H.H posted:

Here's an idea: all the good, and bad, that came from both organized religion and simple faith does not necessitate the existence of an all powerful being.
Even if he doesn't exist, his imagined reality has had an immeasurable impact on human history. So the question of his existence is not as important or interesting as his effect on us.

I don't think that really makes much of a difference.

You can't say 'it doesn't matter if God is real cos we think God is real, and that's the same', because we're also capable of thinking God is fake.

If you remove God's existence from the question, then a huge amount of the justification for things that have happened and will happen in the world disappears and a lot of them become murderously or cruelly insane. A lot of them are anyway, even if you believe in God, but it removes any grey area of interpretation because you say we shouldn't bother worrying about what is actually for God or not.

So it works the other way too if you just handwave whether God exists, because that also makes everything ever done in his name pointless. If it doesn't matter whether or not he exists, then only our actions and ideas matter, then you've got to consider the actions and ideas on their own merits. And many religious ideas fall to bits instantly if you do that. I don't think that really makes much sense. I don't think 'wow, look at all this history' is a compelling viewpoint, either.

Do you think religion overall justifies itself because it has had a good impact on society in certain areas? Maybe that's what you mean. That's might be true in a lot of history and parts of the world. It's done a lot of bad, too, though. Some of it is really incomprehensible to me. You could say a lot of the good and bad that happened would have happened anyway, or the opposite. Impossible to even judge that kind of thing since you are talking about billions of events. So the total sum or what religion has done both good and bad might not be the most pertinent question because it's done huge amounts of both.

Instead of judging a bunch of stuff that has happened already, or is going to happen anyway, I think it's important for people to ask now (since many of us are now free to ask, and have the info available, which is all pretty new) whether God exists or not and how our answer is going to impact a bunch of our ideas and decisions going ahead. Widespread acceptance of not believing isn't even a thing which has had much of a chance in all of recorded history, so it could turn out to be very good.

I don't think your idea is very good, sorry! It seems like a cop out.

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# ? May 31, 2015 13:23

H.H: August is the Cruelest Month

How will not believing in an abstract idea really have an immense change on humanity, for the better?

We need to believe (at least, some of us), just like we believe in the communal identity and human constructs. Can we prove these things don't exist? sure. Do we nonetheless need them? Absolutely.
It may be hypocritical of me as an agnostic, but I believe that without the faith of many of those who came before me, or those that exist now, things would look much worse.

That's just a subjective opinion, though. Bottom line, most things done in the name of imagined realities arose out of some sociological or psychological need of individuals or communities. Trying to disprove these constructs to invalidate the actions of the believers is pointless, since faith isn't based on proof. Such attempts will not get many converts, since people don't like their conceptions of reality downplayed, whether it's god, patriotism, or the indian rupee .
The question that should be asked is not "does this thing exist?", but rather "Do we benefit from our actions in relation to this thing?".
Do we need to accumulate money, even if it's just bits floating around in some big server? Is patriotism good or bad?

People will always believe in things greater than themselves, no matter what they call it, since there is a psychological need for that.

# ? May 31, 2015 13:55

poverty goat

god exists and is dead

# ? May 31, 2015 15:13

The X-man cometh

H.H posted:

Here's an idea: all the good, and bad, that came from both organized religion and simple faith does not necessitate the existence of an all powerful being.
Even if he doesn't exist, his imagined reality has had an immeasurable impact on human history. So the question of his existence is not as important or interesting as his effect on us.

If God didn't exist, we would have had to invent him?

# ? May 31, 2015 15:40