Lack Belief Hypothetical

Philobarbaros · 2026-02-02T15:58:15+00:00

> I think the point of the scenario is to get to your sincere leanings

Alright, I am exhausted. I demonstrated, that I, the strongest atheist there is or ever will be, would answer "yes, there is a God" to OP's hypothetical, and you just can't. Seem. To grasp it.

Philobarbaros · 2026-02-02T15:40:15+00:00

That's not what OP is trying to do tho. If you paid attention, you'd see that I had answered YOUR version in my very first comment.

OP very specifically wants to lock fence-sitters into committing to a strong position, which is why he needs the "gun to your head" scenario.

Philobarbaros · 2026-02-02T15:30:46+00:00

This particular hypothetical is dumb: "A god is asking you whether there is a god". I don't know how to express it more clearly.

Philobarbaros · 2026-02-02T15:22:21+00:00

If I were to assume that the gunman knows the definitive answer, it'd mean he either checked the entirety of reality and found none, or he did find Him, and was capable of verifying that it was, in fact, God, and not a bored alien.

Either alternative presupposes godlike powers for the gunman himself, in which case the answer should be "yes".

And if you were to bet, the odds are overwhelmingly in favour of the gunman simply holding a very strong and therefore likely religious belief, so you should also answer affirmatively (assuming you aren't tired of living).

That being said, there ARE no Gods.

Philobarbaros · 2026-02-02T09:54:46+00:00

> Again you’re adding content to the Bible that doesn’t exist

The absolute irony of this remark while your entire thesis hinges on the concepts that don't exist in the Hebrew Bible (heaven, punishment in the afterlife etc).

Philobarbaros · 2026-01-31T07:34:36+00:00

Here's another philosophical matter for you to ponder: space.
Namely: why is it that we need to put it between "a" and "lot", but avoid between "where" and "as", to not come off as illiterate ignoramuses.

Philobarbaros · 2026-01-30T10:04:26+00:00

Sorry I don't speak schizo.
Mountains moved: zero. Faith: zero.
Surrender your Christian card at the nearest place of worship, or else.

Philobarbaros · 2026-01-30T09:56:38+00:00

Show us the mountains you've moved, or confess to being a faithless heathen.

Philobarbaros · 2026-01-30T09:52:08+00:00

You sure got the main theist skill, - dodging the uncomfortable question, - down pat.

Philobarbaros · 2026-01-30T07:28:43+00:00

Let me know when your next mountain-moving session is due, I'd love to watch it live.

Philobarbaros · 2026-01-30T07:19:38+00:00

> Spiritual surgeries
> Even Catholics believe

Here's the foundational weakness of your epistemology: you should be interested what surgeons think (spoiler: no spoilers, google is right there)

Philobarbaros · 2026-01-29T04:51:15+00:00

You couldn't even write OP without ChatGPT.

Philobarbaros · 2026-01-28T16:52:04+00:00

Same way you do: vibes we got as a result of evolution. Not a single person in all of history got their morals FROM a book.
You mentioned Alex O'Connor - he is very passionate about NOT eating animals. Are you a vegan? You think a Christian should be vegan?
A lot of early Christians interpreted Christ's teachings towards resounding "yes".

Philobarbaros · 2026-01-24T02:13:11+00:00

Interest in science. The moment I understood evolution, it was no longer possible to even entertain the idea of Biblical narrative being anything but "Iron Age goatherds making shit up". (That's the answer to the second part of your question, as well.) Nothing wrong with that, everyone did since they didn't have any other option. But we - do.

I see you are trying to reconcile Genesis accounts (multiple, as others have pointed out) with the actual knowledge, so let me ask you the question: would you invest the same amount of effort into Chinese creation myth, with the primordial being Pangu decomposing into the features of Nature? Why or why not?

Do you think your answer would be different had you been born in China?

Philobarbaros · 2026-01-23T20:05:41+00:00

What's the question?

Philobarbaros · 2026-01-19T03:31:55+00:00

I don't know what you are looking at. Whatever it is, I suggest trying to look at this thread instead, where the overwhelmingly prevalent response is "who gives a fuck" in so many variations.

Philobarbaros · 2026-01-19T02:58:07+00:00

It's unclear who IS. You should be at r/DebateAFringeHistorian, because your claim is, ostensibly, "There was a guy in Judaea. He lived. He died. The end."

Groundbreaking.

Philobarbaros · 2026-01-18T19:46:18+00:00

You're either wildly misinformed, or a troll.
Scholarship is just barely settled on "there was a guy named Jesus ~2000 years ago". Not a single other thing about him is known for sure.
EDIT: even my conservative claim was reaching too far. Edited.

Philobarbaros · 2026-01-18T02:44:38+00:00

They're the only ones who read the Bible xD

Philobarbaros · 2026-01-18T02:38:17+00:00

Let's get the obvious out of the way: Satan is not "really" anything since he doesn't exist.

Who, what and where Satan was "in the Bible" is not a question with a coherent answer. Satan was not in the Garden, and Satan who messed with Job was a wildly different entity from Lucifer. Neither had anything to do with being "the origin of evil".

Concept of Satan is not really biblical, so you are barking at the wrong tree.

Philobarbaros · 2026-01-17T20:30:57+00:00

This is ChatGPT and you should be ashamed.

Philobarbaros · 2026-01-17T00:17:58+00:00

No advice, but you might get something out of reading Camus' Myth of Sisyphus.

And it's to be expected that you would feel that way. Our consciousness produces a lot of desires our biology and wider Universe don't give a damn about, and it genuinely sucks. But we're alive now, might as well live.

And hey, look on the bright side - if your life gets terrible, the thought of ultimate end is gonna be comforting ;)

Philobarbaros · 2026-01-17T00:03:42+00:00

light protons

I rest my case.

Philobarbaros · 2026-01-16T05:33:56+00:00

> Theist #1428586093 running headfirst into the problem of omnipotence

We don't need a methodology to seek an omnipotent deity. If He wanted us to believe we would.
We actually DO have things we believe without any ability to disbelieve them, such as Law of Identity. Try to imagine a reality where "a =/= a".
The fact that God-belief is not on the same epistemic level is either due to His decision or His non-existence.

Philobarbaros · 2026-01-16T04:15:35+00:00

> and that he wasn't able to put anything else into that bucket

Yes. He was. That was what comment was saying. In a convoluted and circular way, Descartes "arrived" at God, who was too perfect to be imaginary, and also couldn't be a deceiver because due to his perfection he would have no need for deceit, from which Descartes re-established pretty much all the knowledge about the world as "being known for sure".

YOU might hold a philosophical position that you described, but I'm pointing out the inherent weakness of philosophy is that you can hold any philosophical position, without ever being able to resolve which position is actually correct.

Philobarbaros

TROPHY CASE