What you believe in

[Byronazriel]

You're thinking about it all wrong, the Judeo-Christian god might believe that he's the one true god, or some other such things... But that doesn't make it so, the bible makes a lot more sense when you think of God as you would any other person.

What..? The Muslims get no cake..?   And what does Torah have to do with Biblical god..? (I know the answer, just poking flawed wording leading to a flawed argument)

He's probably just a narcisist. And Zeus is most definiately not playing with a full deck.

How about Sutekh? What's wrong with his deck? Or Quetzalcoatl? If nothing else, he has a cool name. Why can't he be a true god?

Generally I don't like making statements of any sort about books I've never read, or people/gods I'm only dimly aware of.

[Asmodean]

Darn those mind reading viruses! Now, where did I put my tinfoil hat?  :|

[Byronazriel]

Why shouldn't I believe in everything? I'm an all or nothing kind of guy, and believing in nothing is boring.

You can. But then one day someone may come to you and tell you that you've just won a lottery and that your prize is in a house across the street. What they fail to tell you, is that within the said house, there is a bomb rigged to a door. Believing in goodness of humanity, which is a part of "everything", you go in and... End up a quad. That's what believing gets you.

I do believe in the goodness of humanity, and also in the evil of humanity... Which puts me right about at a cool, even neutral.

[Asmodean]

Generally I don't like making statements of any sort about books I've never read, or people/gods I'm only dimly aware of.

You are happily assuming left and right though... Never stopped you before  

In general, Sutekh is no more ridiculous a concept for a god than Jehova. Neither is Quetzalcoatl. And both parent peoples of the named gods built big pointy pyramids that had some stellar significance. On two different continents, no less. With like... An OCEAN of water inbetween. For someone who is ready to believe in nice, yet poorly substantiated fantasies, is this not a potential treasure trove..? From there you can jump to the space invaders, the sunken Atlantis, true gods... Whatever your mind may conjure up. I'm surprised you have not discovered those myths yet.

[Asmodean]

You can. But then one day someone may come to you and tell you that you've just won a lottery and that your prize is in a house across the street. What they fail to tell you, is that within the said house, there is a bomb rigged to a door. Believing in goodness of humanity, which is a part of "everything", you go in and... End up a quad. That's what believing gets you.

I do believe in the goodness of humanity, and also in the evil of humanity... Which puts me right about at a cool, even neutral.

...The point of the metaphor was not addressed, so I guess I'll let it go.

However, please note that there is a thing called multiple quote system. Click reply, then mark the first bit of text you want quoted, click quote button, click enter after the quotation brackets, type your comment, repeat until done. Saves you from making a hundred posts to answer one inquiry.

EDIT: You might want to remove the original quote commands before you begin.

[Byronazriel]

Generally I don't like making statements of any sort about books I've never read, or people/gods I'm only dimly aware of.

You are happily assuming left and right though... Never stopped you before  :drool

World, and historical religions always make for an interesting read.

Besides, Aquaman got me into the legend of Atlantis ages ago.... And of course Space Invaders got me into space invaders.

...The point of the metaphor was not addressed, so I guess I'll let it go.

However, please note that there is a thing called multiple quote system. Click reply, then mark the first bit of text you want quoted, click enter after the quotation brackets, type your comment, repeat until done. Saves you from making a hundred posts to answer one inquiry.

Righto, sorry.

[Asmodean]

and the occasion novel.

At the risk of derailing this thread and never getting comments on my and others' yet unaddressed points, what exactly is it you write..? As a fellow author, I'm mildly curious.

[Byronazriel]

and the occasion novel.

At the risk of derailing this thread and never getting comments on my and others' yet unaddressed points, what exactly is it you write..? As a fellow author, I'm mildly curious.

Epic fantasy, poetry, steampunk, westerns... the occasional instruction manual, columns for the local newspaper. That sort of stuff... Oh, and the occasional fan fiction.

[Asmodean]

Epic fantasy, poetry, steampunk, westerns... the occasional instruction manual, columns for the local newspaper. That sort of stuff... Oh, and the occasional fan fiction.

I do the first two myself. Can't stand number four though... Nor be bothered with number six  :hmm: )

EDIT: Actually, scratch the forum somewhere thing. Laid Back Lounge is the correct one for that. A new thread is a good thing though.

/End derail

[Byronazriel]

Remember folks, young Byronazriel is only around 21 years of age.  He has never NOT known computers, the internet, cell phones, or Star Trek/Star Wars.  His reality has been influenced heavily by a very strong fantasy reality in Hollywood and to the young anything technological seems possible.

I remember being young and wanting to believe in many things, and as I grew older, the probability of their existence diminished until the reality of what is and what one wants to be, came more and more into focus.

Now, as for me, I believe in what can be proven for the most part; however, I do leave open a belief in some rather "spiritual" things like LOVE, and BEAUTY,  realising that both are subjective and open to individual interpretation.

Just a humble opinion from the Left.  LOL

I live in a dirt-poor, middle of nowhere backwoods town... I've only had a computer for six years, and reliable internet access for three of them, and cell phones don't work here.

Also you're thinking of the wrong kind of nerd, I was always more into comic books, anime, DnD, philosophy, and literature.

Hollywood fantasy... I get my fantasies from the proper sources: From books, the elders in my village, and from my own head!

Anything is possible, but improbable. I recognize that my beliefs are absurd, and I like it that way... The absurdities in life are what makes it interesting.

It's a big world out there, and it's part of a bigger galaxy, and a bigger universe... Which may, or may not be apart of something bigger, and so on.

I also recognize the spiritual in the mundane, see more about my posts on magic

[Byronazriel]

Looking at your last statement that you believe in everything, that you are an all or nothing kind of guy, doesn't really work in reality.  You can't believe in Santa, unless you are speaking in terms conceptual belief, like one might "believe" that a cartoon character exists in the realm of fantasy.  Belief in reality does have certain limits, such as one might "believe" that one could exist in outer space without the assistance of a pressurized suit and oxygen, but we KNOW that isn't possible as we have limits imposed on us by our evolution and our dependence on our own planet.

I believe in everything, or rather that anything that can exist does in some fashion. So really I believe, in the possibility of anything. The concept of everything.

Howerver, for the purpose of keepign me out of any loony bins, I have devised a simple mental checklist for things.

Two catagories: Fiction/Non-fiction.

I define fiction as: Anything imagined or feigned.

I define non-fiction as: Anything presented as fact.

Anything that can be thought of, or imagined exists in some for somewhere. This belief of mine serves me very poorly when dealing with society. Thus the two catagories, and I put things that exist elsewhere into group one.

Everything else goes into group two. Namely: Things which exist here and now, in my objective reality... Which happens to include stick indians, and bigfoot. I've seen them, really. Also kappa, though it may have been a weird eel or something... or a beaver, maybe an otter.

[Byronazriel]

I don't believe that consciousness ends with death.

Why?

Hmm, mostly wishful thinking.

Of course some of it is that I don't know what's on the other side, just the ocassion ghosty that decides to bother me.

I honestly haven't a clue what goes on after death, I just find the idea of Summerland to be an appealingly romantic thought.

[Byronazriel]

I believe that anything that can be dreamed up, and deemed a god, is a an aspect of some greater force of reality.

"Greater force of reality"..? Define that, will you?

God, but also not God.

A being, or at least a thingie that makes stuff happen. Forces! The gas that makes science work.

[Martin TK]

Looking at your last statement that you believe in everything, that you are an all or nothing kind of guy, doesn't really work in reality.  You can't believe in Santa, unless you are speaking in terms conceptual belief, like one might "believe" that a cartoon character exists in the realm of fantasy.  Belief in reality does have certain limits, such as one might "believe" that one could exist in outer space without the assistance of a pressurized suit and oxygen, but we KNOW that isn't possible as we have limits imposed on us by our evolution and our dependence on our own planet.

I believe in everything, or rather that anything that can exist does in some fashion. So really I believe, in the possibility of anything. The concept of everything.

Howerver, for the purpose of keepign me out of any loony bins, I have devised a simple mental checklist for things.

Two catagories: Fiction/Non-fiction.

I define fiction as: Anything imagined or feigned.

I define non-fiction as: Anything presented as fact.

Anything that can be thought of, or imagined exists in some for somewhere. This belief of mine serves me very poorly when dealing with society. Thus the two catagories, and I put things that exist elsewhere into group one.

Everything else goes into group two. Namely: Things which exist here and now, in my objective reality... Which happens to include stick indians, and bigfoot. I've seen them, really. Also kappa, though it may have been a weird eel or something... or a beaver, maybe an otter.

In my profession, I would call you a young man with a vivid imagination, but without much in the way of direction.  Having imagination can be immensely helpful and in today's world quite profitable; but without direction or the ability to pull it into a single vision, you tend to drift and jump from idea to idea, as I see from you on this forum.

As for the rest of what you said about how you grew up, I will assume you attended school, and you were introduced to ideas there, such as literature and science, and even science fiction.  No matter where you grew up, your life was influenced differently than a generation ago, although you could have been one of those influenced less than others.  For instance, I grew up before color television was the norm, PC's didn't come along until I was in college; the calculator that you grew up using or having access to, I didn't see until I was in middle school and then the calculators were prohibitively expensive to own.  In just the last fifty years, there have been more advances in science and technology than there were in the previous of all history.  I was born before man went to the moon, before man flew into space, before the passing of the Civil Rights Act, and before Star Trek.  I say this simply to give you a reference for what I said, not because I was trying to belittle your age, in fact I envy young people today, mainly because I think you will see things in your lifetime that were just a dream during mine.

I am a skeptic by nature, but I will admit that I have hopes that there are things out there that we can't explain, like ghosts, and big foot, and so on.  So, like I said, keep on believing and keep on searching, and we'll debate the things I think are bunk, and respect each other's views.

[Martin TK]

[quote="Byronazriel]
God, but also not God.

A being, or at least a thingie that makes stuff happen. Forces! The gas that makes science work.[/quote]

So you mean your god is basically science and reason.?  Or is it???

I was wondering how much reading you have done on the subject of god and atheism?  Read any Dawkins or Hawking or Hitchens?  Of course there are a lot of older atheists that are good reading, too.  I can give you ideas on others to read.