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If not God.

Iti oj

Global warming is real and we need to act
Premium Member
I know that its very difficult to accept this truth.
But, yes, it is true, my brother. :)
Please don't preach to me it's disrespectful and against the rules. I was asking for clarification on the op.
 

LuisDantas

Aura of atheification
Premium Member
Atheists, if not God, than what do you mean by word God ?
I mean deity. As is, anything anyone decides to call "God", "deity", "Kami", "Deva", or whatever.

I have actually created a thread about why it is a meaningless, hopelessly arbitrary concept.

Is there anything in the concepts of deity that is not arbitrary? | ReligiousForums.com

However, people who insist that belief in God is something others should pursue or "admit that they have already" tend to think of God as some sort of license to hold unlikely beliefs, to lend a mystique to some other idea, to exert social control, or to simply avoid difficult subjects.

I guess when I am talking with them it is those expectations and their odd reliance on a word as if it had inherent meaning that I refer to.
 

Lyndon

"Peace is the answer" quote: GOD, 2014
Premium Member
Atheists tend to have really bad definitions of God, often heard from believers that have really bad definitions of God, if they had a really good definition of God, they might become believers.
 

Monk Of Reason

༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ
If not God, than what do you mean by the concept of God ? :)
Exactly what I said. It is a concept. All anyone can talk about is the concept. There are different beliefs about how "real" the concept is in the universe but everyone talks about the same general thing which is a concept.
 

Rick O'Shez

Irishman bouncing off walls
Atheists tend to have really bad definitions of God, often heard from believers that have really bad definitions of God, if they had a really good definition of God, they might become believers.

So have you got any good definitions of God that might tempt the atheists among us?
 

Lyndon

"Peace is the answer" quote: GOD, 2014
Premium Member
Well for one thing, reading Lao Tzu's Tao te Ching, I find my view of God closer to the Tao, than the Abrahamic God of the Old Testament, I've argued with several atheists on this forum who tell me God doesn't exist but they believe in the Tao, followed by "there is nothing divine or Godlike about the Tao", I disagree.

In Buddhism I see the emptiness and the dhammakaya coming the closest to my understanding of God. So I definitely don't agree with many western Buddhists that see Buddhism as an atheist religion.

But the non believers that seem to have the worst impression of God, are the ones that rely on right right wing fundamentalist Christians to supply the definition, its doesn't take a lot of brains to argue that a really really old white haired and bearded man sitting on a throne in heaven (that created the universe) doesn't exist!!
 
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JRMcC

Active Member
...? What?

When don't atheist mean God by God.

It's hard to understand, but I think he might be asking what "theist" means when you call yourself a"theist". If that's the question I think it's a reasonable one. God could practically mean anything, so if you don't specify (at least generally) what kind of concepts your atheism rejects then it becomes unclear as to what your atheism really is.
 

viole

Ontological Naturalist
Premium Member
I know that its very difficult to accept this truth.
But, yes, it is true, my brother. :)

Yes, I am a-fairist too. It causes me sleepless nights when someone asks me "if not fairies, what do you mean with the word fairy?" and I have to admit that I do, indeed, mean fairies.

Ciao

- viole
 

viole

Ontological Naturalist
Premium Member
Atheists tend to have really bad definitions of God, often heard from believers that have really bad definitions of God, if they had a really good definition of God, they might become believers.

Which does not explain why those believers with a really bad definition of God do believe in God. Do they believe in the wrong God?

More importantly: how do I know your definition is right and theirs is wrong?

Ciao

- viole
 

Jumi

Well-Known Member
Well for one thing, reading Lao Tzu's Tao te Ching, I find my view of God closer to the Tao, than the Abrahamic God of the Old Testament, I've argued with several atheists on this forum who tell me God doesn't exist but they believe in the Tao, followed by "there is nothing divine or Godlike about the Tao", I disagree.
Why mix Tao with God, when Tao stands on it's own? God would only add confusion to it. As you say, it has not that much to do with the God of the Christian OT.

In Buddhism I see the emptiness and the dhammakaya coming the closest to my understanding of God. So I definitely don't agree with many western Buddhists that see Buddhism as an atheist religion.
I don't know what dhammakaya is, but can't you accept that some Buddhists don't want to use the word God for that?
 

savagewind

Veteran Member
Premium Member
I think he means an atheist saying "God does not exist" means what?

Define the word god in the sentence "god does not exist".
 
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