If you were God...

[Space cat]

-- you find it easy to put down mermaids , unicorns and other mythical creatures --

What! No mermaids? You'll be telling me that there's no such thing as a magnetic monopole next.

Serious point:

Sooey has it right. A true scientist postulates a theory then sets out to disprove it. I don't see too many religious types devising ways to disprove the existence of 'God'. There's a reason for that; it can't be done. This is perhaps where some atheists come unstuck with their insistence that there is no such thing as 'God'. Do I believe in 'God'? No, but I can no more disprove the existence of 'God' than I can mermaids or magnetic monopoles. Indeed it's quite likely that something we might call a mermaid exists somewhere out there.

PS: Maxwells equations do not preclude the existence of magnetic monopoles. A more pertinent question might be, why do electric monopoles exist?

 

[sooey]

I don't see too many religious types devising ways to disprove the existence of 'God'. There's a reason for that; it can't be done.

You can never disprove any outlandish claim like that but that's not the reason why religious types expound their faith so forcefully. They want to build up some kind of heavenly credit by converting as many people as they can to their odd ways.
That is acceptable when they are trying to convince adults but they go too far trying to brainwash kids with their nonsense. It shouldn't be allowed in this day and age and they should all be locked up for child mental abuse. The one's who haven't already been locked up for physical abuse I mean.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

I am pretty sure the scientists are that very community who are desperately trying to find the truth of our origin, but their approach is somewhat far too meticulous, requiring proof at every stage, knowing true well that we lack the ability to see or sense many things that may exists, a few thousand years ago, man could not have predicted that electricity could be produced from magnetism, or that nuclear radiation existed, these powerful forces exist in an invisible dimension, where our senses cannot reach, with the help of instruments developed by scientists, we can now see indirectly their existence, one day I am sure scientists will be able to see God indirectly, as he is the master source of all invisible Energies) at present we know dark energy exists, because our calculations dictate us that, but so far we have not had better luck at detecting this dark energy or even dark matter, but scientist have already started to carry out these deep underground experiments trying to detect these god particles, the SERN reactor was constructed to replicate the events during the big bang, we have just managed to see what may have happened during the big bang, once we have masterminded how the big bang happened, and what triggered it, we could then see beyond this or before that trigger point, so far scientist are taking one thing at a time, step by step, whereas, the religious people have started to look outside the box, and can begin to see a creator,in their head, not with visionary perception, but their mind can see the point beyond the big bang.

God is simply the master source of all energies, found in many forms or dimensions, some of its dimensions are still to be discovered by mankind.

We are not just flesh and blood, there is more to us than just flesh & blood, we have not yet fully understood our own brain and conscious, it doesn't just rely on blood and flesh or hormones, how do you explain when some people who have never spoken German may suddenly start speaking in German? there has to be some sort of energy that drives our conscious, and it may get swapped occasionally and people start blurting words they have never spoken before

We are all contributing to discover our origin and our maker, some try to find him through religion, others meditate, other just ponder about our origin, or our creator, like I do, scientist have their own systematic approach, but end of the day all of us have the same goal, and our questions are the same, who are we, why are we hare? who else is out there? are we alone? what makes us tick, what makes us think? why did we even need to have come in the first place, what if we never needed to have come? what difference would it make if we seize to exist? who would care? if we were a;ll obliterated one day would it bother anyone out there? do we really need to go through this earthly suffering? do we need to be born and go to school and study hard to get a job and then make more babies and the cycle continues! Do we? what is the point if end of the day we are just going to die, so why don't we use our intellect and stop making babies until the last man dies and the earth will be planet of the apes, we won't have to scum to our corrupt governments, pay taxes, pay fines, fight over land, food, houses, races , fight for a living, for jobs, own cars, pay for petrol through our nose only just to survive, do we really need this kind of life, is this a living? is this existence worth it? living in fear of wars, drones, bullying, etc etc.


I mean what is the point? who are we doing this for? ever wondered? surely we are not doing this for our creator, the greed in us is driving away from thinking straight, we are going astray, we forgot our purpose,
we are just numbers and need to get registered on birth and start compulsory education so that when we are 18 we start earning our living to pay taxes to keep our Governments happy, and that is what we are all doing now, we have lost our spiritual connection, our lives are full of stress now! If you have money you are Ok, but if you are skint, you turn to crime, and you suffer more ill health, your mind becomes sick!

 

[chapeau]

Too long again. Can't you boil it down into a couple of sentences?

PS Your final paragraph did stand out somewhat so I read that. The answer to your question (as currently understood) is found in:

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins.

 

[mdf290]

I am pretty sure the scientists are that very community who are desperately trying to find the truth of our origin, but their approach is somewhat far too meticulous, requiring proo.... lots more stuff .....o why don't we use our intellect and stop making babies until the last man dies and the earth will be planet of the apes, we won't have to scum to our corrupt governments, pay taxes, pay fines, fight over land, food, houses, races etc etc.


I mean what is the point? who are we doing this for? ever wondered?

But all this postulating wastes precious time we do not have as thw whole world is currently heading into a meltdown and war with everyone else stating their particular flavour of GOD drives them on.

Back to the original post question. If i were god i would say hey I never actually existed so you are going to have to sort things out by yourselves and not in my name.

When everyone has to be judged by THEIR OWN actions not those done in someone elses name then we have ACCOUNTABILITY.

we all know what happened with the NHS when people realised they could dodge accountability and blame policies instead. People died needlessly and the protagonists felt no guilt. Can we see this as a microcosm of religion? I can.

 

[Space cat]

In another thread:

//www.diynot.com/forums/general-discussion/barrstards.346145/

-- and what do you mean by 'sexual' love.

-- something that can only be experienced first hand --

And now, in this thread:

I must say I am appalled to have learnt that being in love is simply an abberation of your hormonal balance and not something more deep and mysterious.

I should have known that.

And so, since that abberation of one's hormonal balance leads to a suspension of rational thought and an experience that the best writers on the planet have never been able to put into words, could it be that religious types experience the same hormonal imbalance when they 'connect' with their chosen deity? It would certainly explain a thing or two.

 

[mdf290]

In another thread:

//www.diynot.com/forums/general-discussion/barrstards.346145/

-- and what do you mean by 'sexual' love.

-- something that can only be experienced first hand --

And now, in this thread:

I must say I am appalled to have learnt that being in love is simply an abberation of your hormonal balance and not something more deep and mysterious.

I should have known that.

And so, since that abberation of one's hormonal balance leads to a suspension of rational thought and an experience that the best writers on the planet have never been able to put into words, could it be that religious types experience the same hormonal imbalance when they 'connect' with their chosen deity? It would certainly explain a thing or two.

People get addicted to many objective things - gambling - spending money on credit cards and so forth and behave irratonally when they need what is simply a 'fix of seratonin the brains happy chemical. Conversely some people on anti depressants commit suicide. We are a weird chemical soup and our brains work because they learn to use neural pathways that create images and emotions we accept these as 'reality' because we know it is there. Strangely our brains also deceive us too.

I lost 70% of the vision in my right eye a couple of years ago due to Optic Neuritis. I could not even see a car brake light at night in the dark 20 metres in front of me and yet when I looked around even in a fully lit bright room there were no black spots in my field of vision everything appeared as perfectly normal until I tried walking accross a room and found myself tripping over things that just were 'not there'.
You brain produces images to make up for what your eyes aren't seeing it stretches what it can see accross areas where it has no information.
This is how your brain creates a reality that does not even exist. Mass hysteria and other events are simply your brains way of coping when the logic doesn't compute it skips it out and just binds the bit that makes sense. Otherwise with sight and thought we would be continually waiting till we got confirmation before we proceeded. Cars would not be able to travel at more than 5mph as your brain sought to build up complete picture images instead of just snatching the bits it thinks are relevant.

Ever driven round a roundabout and suddenly thought 'I cant remember going round it and taking the turn off?

The brain is a wonderful device but it can be deceived because it has inbuilt mechanisms that deliberately do that for itself.

 

[joe-90]

The eye doesn't actually see anything, it sends electrical data to the brain that constructs an image as per your memory. If a blind person (from birth) has his sight sorted - he still can't see anything as he has no props or scenery to construct an image with. He has to 'learn' to see.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

I lost 70% of the vision in my right eye a couple of years ago due to Optic Neuritis. I could not even see a car brake light at night in the dark 20 metres in front of me and yet when I looked around even in a fully lit bright room there were no black spots in my field of vision everything appeared as perfectly normal until I tried walking accross a room and found myself tripping over things that just were 'not there'.
You brain produces images to make up for what your eyes aren't seeing it stretches what it can see accross areas where it has no information.
This is how your brain creates a reality that does not even exist. Mass hysteria and other events are simply your brains way of coping when the logic doesn't compute it skips it out and just binds the bit that makes sense. Otherwise with sight and thought we would be continually waiting till we got confirmation before we proceeded. Cars would not be able to travel at more than 5mph as your brain sought to build up complete picture images instead of just snatching the bits it thinks are relevant.

Ever driven round a roundabout and suddenly thought 'I cant remember going round it and taking the turn off?

The brain is a wonderful device but it can be deceived because it has inbuilt mechanisms that deliberately do that for itself.

The thing i can't understand is when you said that you could see everything clearly in a brightly lit room despite loss of 70% vision in your right eye, I would have thought that your left eye would take over to compensate for the loss of information from your right, and when you quoted that you were tripping over objects that were not there! how is that possible, I thought the act of tripping is caused by an actual physical restriction, so either you were actually tripping on real objects that you were not able to see, as I can't see how your brain could make you trip over something that is not physical there, unless your brain has acquired a 10th sense that detects some invisible objects! and then it reacts to this and throws you over, So who knows you may be the right person to see or feel God, and you could be the next prophet, and who knows your brain may start writing another religious book, I would say bring it on! we could all be your followers, what would you call this new found religion, any names you have decided yet on?

I can't imagine you being sober and pulled over by cops, and as you are asked to step outside and you trip over an invisible cone, the cops think you may be drunk! and you try and explain to them that your brain is tripping you over these bloody cones, and they will probably suspect that you are high on drugs, and may even order you to a mental institute! (LOL)

As for driven around a round about, there are times when you do not remember some of the journey, and often you park your car in your street and next morning you have no idea where you parked. but that is just you are not paying attention at the time, so you forget, or you had other things on your mind at the time.

 

[mdf290]

The thing i can't understand is when you said that you could see everything clearly in a brightly lit room despite loss of 70% vision in your right eye, I would have thought that your left eye would take over to compensate for the loss of information from your right, and when you quoted that you were tripping over objects that were not there! how is that possible, I thought the act of tripping is caused by an actual physical restriction, so either you were actually tripping on real objects that you were not able to see, as I can't see how your brain could make you trip over something that is not physical there, unless your brain has acquired a 10th sense that detects some invisible objects! and then it reacts to this and throws you over, So who knows you may be the right person to see or feel God, and you could be the next prophet, and who knows your brain may start writing another religious book, I would say bring it on! we could all be your followers, what would you call this new found religion, any names you have decided yet on?

Sorry what I was trying to describe is how your brain fills in the dots.

When you lose vision it isn't that the bits of your eye still working show images and the bits not working are black spaces, your brain fills the gaps with a kind og blurry grey texture which you cant see as they are off centre and when you move your eye so it moves. This means that the impression you get when you look into a room is that it looks quite normal but you walk into objects that are physically there but which you didnt actually see because your brain has invented an image covering that area. My vision was particularly bad in that the macula which is the area affecting directly forward vision was affected too so looking at a photograph looked normal until I tried to focus in and realised when I looked at someones face their eyes were missing.

Fortunately all my vision has returned to pre attack levels which is a huge relief but it did give me an insight into the workings of the brain.

 

[LastMagicBean]

blurry grey texture which you cant see as they are off centre and when you move your eye so it moves.

Could explain the concrete blocks you saw in the middle of the road, when in fact they were comfortably in place as kerb stones.

 

[mdf290]

blurry grey texture which you cant see as they are off centre and when you move your eye so it moves.

Could explain the concrete blocks you saw in the middle of the road, when in fact they were comfortably in place as kerb stones.

Fortunately for me my vision is actually back to better than 20/20 as it always was. In fact I actually covered my eye because I knew I could not trust what it was telling me. Sadly a trip to boots the chemist asking for eye patches only brought up some BLACK yes black bloody patches and I did not want to look like a soddin pirate so I effected my own eye covering.
I have always been a very keen sportsman over the years on wheels of various kinds from cycle racing to 10 years club racing karts so my vision was always very important to me. I had a ski holiday booked and decided to still go on it. I had mastered judging distance with only one eye and fortunately my skiing was barely affected but I can remember suddenly noticing when going back to the airport after the ski trip that my 3D vision had suddenly returned. It was a great day.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

Let us not forget fossil evidence alone cannot be relied upon as ultimate truth, as there are many forces at play that can shape our planet, uproot things from one place and plant it at another, such natural forces like floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, land slides, volcanos, movement of continents, erosion, meteors, comets, and sand and dust storms, and other interference by wild animals and man himself could easily manipulate such evidence.

 

[Space cat]

-- and man himself could easily manipulate such evidence.

The more obvious answer, from a creationist's point of view, is that 'God' put them there for us to find.

 

[JBR]

Too long again. Can't you boil it down into a couple of sentences?

That's a good point. It's sometimes difficult, when you have a lot to say, to say it succinctly. Unfortunately, though, a lot of people (myself included) tend not to read a very long missive, or at least not to read it properly.

I have found that one partial solution is to break it down into relatively short paragraphs, then provide occasional contentious statements* to encourage people to read on.

*This doesn't mean insults, AS and Joe.