One day two friends went fishing with a little boat. One of them was an atheist (non-believer) and the other was a believer (he believed in God). As they were fishing they had a conversation with eachother.
The Atheist: Why do you believe in God? We cant see God. The Universe was created by itself.
The Believer: Let me ask you a question. Is the boat we are sitting in created by itself?
The Atheist: No, off course not. It is a skillful carpenter who has made the boat.
The Believer: So you agree that this boat is not created by itself?
The Atheist: Yes, I agree.
The Believer: When such a little thing as a boat cant be created by itself, then how can the enormous Universe and our huge planet be created by itself?
The Atheist: I dont know.
The Believer: Now you know why I believe in God.
You're making quite the logical leap at the end. All you've got so far is an argument (and IMO a rather poor one) for why the universe needs a cause. When you slap the label "God" on that cause, you imply that the cause has all sorts of characteristics... everything that differentiates "God" from all the things that aren't "God". I don't know your specific religious beliefs, but I think it's safe to assume that you've got some mental image of God that's more specific than just "the first cause"; maybe "God" implies something intelligent and personal to you. Maybe it implies a being that came down from Heaven thousands of years ago and wrote instructions for human behaviour on stone tablets. Maybe it implies some being that's going to reward or punish us after we die.
... but there's nothing in the discussion so far that establishes why "God" is an appropriate label for that first cause.
Based on what you've given here, we could drop "Flying Spaghetti Monster" into your dialogue in place of "God" and it would make just as much sense.
Another problem: the analogy you used actually suggests polytheism if anything. No reasonable person would suggest that the existence of all the boats in the world suggests the existence of one single boat-builder. In fact, most boats are built by multiple people all working together.
Many people claim that God doesnt exist because we cant see God. You cant see heat or cold neither, but it doesnt mean that heat and cold dont exist. You cant see heat or cold, but you can feel it. You cant see God, but you can feel Gods presence.
You can? What does God feel like? What is it about this feeling that tells you that it's actually God?
And our senses can be tricked. Yes, heat and cold are real things (which we can confirm by thermometer measurement - is there an instrument we can use to measure "God's presence"?), but our sense of them is sometimes misleading: ask a room full of people if the temperature is too hot or too cold and you'll get disagreement; put your hand into a bucket of ice water and it'll actually feel like burning, not like normal cold.
The feeling of heat when we touch ice water doesn't imply that ice water is hot. Why should we trust your feeling of "God's presence"? How could we go about figuring out whether this sense can be tricked or not?
You cant see aliens neither, but it doesnt mean that aliens dont exist. So even dough you cant see something, it doesnt mean that it doesnt exist.
OTOH, the fact that you can't see something doesn't necessarily mean that it does exist. Every single non-existent thing hasn't been seen.
And since you can feel Gods presence, this is a sign that God exists.
Again: what does "God's presence" feel like? How do you know it's God?
If God has answered your prayers, thats another sign that God exists.
That's a big if. Has he?
The creation of the Universe, the sun, the moon, the stars, the planets, the earth, and the nature is a proof that a higher power exists.
No, it's not.
In addition to these things, thelogians, philosophers and scientists has proved that God exists.
No, they haven't.
God has created the Universe, and is the higher power that maintains it. The universe is not created by itself. The Universe is not created by chance. Not even a little pencil can be created by chance. So when not even a pencil can be created by itself, then how can the enormous, harmonious, symmetrical, mathematical and scientific Universe be created by itself? When not even a little pencil can be created by itself, then how can the advanced and complex human body be created by itself? Did you know that the human brain is more than 40 000 times more advanced then the most advanced computer that exists in the world today?
And imagine a being capable of designing such a brain. If the complexity of a pencil or a human being necessitates a creator, then how much more would God need a creator in turn?
Many people claim that the existence of God, is not compatible with science and rationality. If the existence of God is not compatible with science, then why is the existence of God proven by science? If the existence of God is not compatible wih rationality, then why is the existence of God proven by reason?
It's not, and it's not.
If the existence of God is not compatible with science or rationality, then why did some of the greatest scientists and philosophers believe in God? Albert Einstein, Nicolas Copernicus, Sir Francis Bacon, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Leonardo Davinci, Louis Pasteur and Rene Descartes were scientists who believed in God. Aristoteles, Immanuel Kant, Voltaire, Spinoza, were philosphers who believed in God. Some people claim that Socrates also may have believed in God (from the interpretations of the dialogues of Platon). And guess what, some of the greatest human rights activistists also believed in God. Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Nelson Mandela were human rights activists who believed in God.
Please stop propping up dead people and using them as your puppets. Especially people like Einstein, who explicitly argued against what you're now claiming he believed.
And it's not like the mere fact that a prominent historical figure had an idea means that this idea is a good one that we should hold today. Newton actually devoted more of his life to alchemy than he did to physics; should we all uphold alchemy as true now?
A couple of years a ago, there was a study in the Usa, were they wanted to find out how religious people and non-believers are when it comes to cleanliness. A study were some academics studied the lifestyles of religious people and non-believers. Do you know what they found out? They want out that does who believed in God, were more concerned with cleanliness than does who didnt believe in God. Those who believed in God, washed their hands more times each day, than those who didnt believe in God.
Would you mind providing a link to this study? Or at least enough information about it for us to Google it?
Did you know that people who believe in god, and have connection with religion/spirituality, are those who are most happy. And that religion is linked to a happy life. This is confirmed by a study done by Professor Clark and Dr Orsolya Lelkes. Their findings suggested that religion can offer a protection from lifes dissapointments and that religious people had higher levels of satisfaction.
What we found was that religious people were experiencing current day rewards, rather than storing them up for the future
- Professor Andrew Clark, Paris School of Economics.
Did you know that all psychological problems have a religious/spiritual cause? It is lack of belief/spirituality that makes many people depressed and experience other psychological problems. When someone believes this life is created by chance, and dont know the meaning of life, he/she might easily get psychological problems.
What a load of bunk.
Mental illness doesn't care about religion. There are plenty of religious AND non-religious people who suffer from it. There are also plenty of religious and non-religious people who don't suffer from it.
Many people who dont have a belief system based on a religion, get an emptiness in themselves that they fill with alchohol, parties, materialism. They are never content and constantly want more material things, and constantly want to do things that only give them pleasure (not happiness).
You don't actually know any atheists, do you?
