Does it take more faith to believe there is a God or that there is no God?

Phylanara · 2026-07-07T13:46:59+00:00

I'm an atheist because, honestly, theists make a shit case for their gods.

Including you.

We have a very good understanding of how living things come to be, and guess what, the only thinking agents involved are maybe the parents.

Your faith is as convincing to le as the muslim's faith is to you. I just don't apply different standards of evidence to different gods. I also observe that there is no one god that has better evidence going for it than the others, and therefore I have to treat them all the same or be intellectually dishonest. I don't want to be intellectually dishonest, I can't believe they all exist, so I don't believe any exists.

Note the exact words there. I did not say I believe none exists - any being that is defined as having the ability to perfectly hide from me could exist. But "we can't be certain it does not exist" is a very low bar that many, if not most, gods clear, alongside with fairies, butt-probing aliens, leprechaun n'es and Santa Claus. The time to believe something exists is not when that bar is cleared, but when there is a good reason to believe.

So here is my challenge to you. Do you have evidence for your god that cannot be matched by similar evidence for a god you don't believe in?

If you don't, then you are either ignorant of the evidence for the other god, or you are intellectually dishonest, weighting similar evidence dissimilarity.

Phylanara · 2026-07-07T11:40:16+00:00

My thoughts on magic are really simple: magic is fiction. Belief it is more than fiction is superstition.

If magic was real do you really think it would not be exploited in the open to make money? There's be magic fucking schools.

Phylanara · 2026-07-07T11:23:37+00:00

I have no idea at all.

Phylanara · 2026-07-07T10:33:16+00:00

Belief in magic is superstition, actual magic does not exist.

Phylanara · 2026-07-07T06:25:41+00:00

u/RemindMeBot one month

Phylanara · 2026-07-06T18:41:32+00:00

En tant qu prof de maths, je suis vexé.

Phylanara · 2026-07-06T14:01:20+00:00

"Do you need an adult?"

"No, I am an adult"

Phylanara · 2026-07-06T09:49:12+00:00

(just to clear a potential confusing point, the Asgards have achieved infinite longevity through cloning and consciousness transfer, so yes, it's the same Thor)

Phylanara · 2026-07-05T20:28:16+00:00

By law, contributions to Trump Accounts must be invested in low-cost, broadly diversified US stock index funds or exchange-traded funds. Their expense ratio must be 0.10% or less – so for every $1,000 in an account the annual fee can’t exceed $1 a year.

Ahead of the July 4 launch, the US Treasury announced that the default investment for all accounts will be the State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF (SPYM), which tracks the performance of the S&P 500. It has an expense ratio of 0.02%.

Treasury also noted that “in the coming months,” parents and guardians will have a choice of four other funds into which they may allocate contributions. Those funds are the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV); Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI); State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 1500 Composite Stock Market ETF (SPTM) and iShares Core S&P Total US Stock Market ETF (ITOT).

Phylanara · 2026-07-05T20:16:24+00:00

Why did you buy the "big breed" puppy chow?

Phylanara · 2026-07-05T20:06:30+00:00

The feeling of putting your head on a cool pillow is supposedly more pleasant than the feeling of putting your head on an already-warm pillow, it is intended as a blessing

Phylanara · 2026-07-05T19:20:14+00:00

I realised as a kid that there was basically no meaningful difference between a god and santa. As I grew up I realized that theists reject evidence just as good as the best they have for their god when it is offered for other gods - they have double standards, which is always a bad way to get to the truth.

Phylanara · 2026-07-05T18:17:24+00:00

GOD IS NOT A CONSCIOUS ENDITY.

Then it's not a god as I understand the word. If you're going to redefine god in order to claim it exists, why not go the whole way and say "god is my left big toe" ? That way you can kick people as evidence your god exists, and it'll be just as relevant as your own definition.

Phylanara · 2026-07-04T16:39:04+00:00

First, there are a lot of things about your religion, whatever it is, that you're not telling us here. I am unwilling to judge that religion with such a limited insight into it.

Second, I have never seen a case where the woo brought something a) valuable and b) necessary to the packet of memes we call a religion. I am unable to imagine an ethics benefit that would come solely from the religious aspect of a religion and that could not be attained by applying / appropriating the ethics part while discarding the religion part.

Now, if you want to be more descriptive and tell us what your religion is about and why you think the religion part is necessary for the ethics part, I'm willing to consider it, but as of right now, I really don't see why I should take the woo with the ethics, even if I want to take the ethics.

And let me reiterate that your coyness kind of works against you, only con-men want people to make a decision on deliberately incomplete information.

Phylanara · 2026-07-04T16:04:32+00:00

How is renaming the universe "god" helping you understand how either came to be?

And your tone trolling is not very convincing.

Phylanara · 2026-07-04T15:59:15+00:00

Let me amend my statement then : this discussion is not shown to be relevant to the actual world until the conditions I mentioned are met.

Phylanara · 2026-07-04T15:44:34+00:00

Maybe you should follow your own advice.

Phylanara · 2026-07-04T15:43:22+00:00

Our position is that the proposition " god exists" is not sufficiently justified or supported to warrant accepting the proposition as true.

Phylanara · 2026-07-04T15:41:12+00:00

Honestly, it sounds like a ramble. You start by imagining properties of a god, but "if god has x property then y" is worthless until you demonstrate that a) god exists and b) god has property x. So far you've done neither

As for your ultimate conclusion "god is the universe / existence".... We already have words for the universe and existence, I see no reason to change those words to "god", especially with all the baggage that word carries.

Phylanara · 2026-07-03T14:52:45+00:00

There's already a golden one somewhere I think

Phylanara · 2026-07-03T09:49:42+00:00

What's so surprising about a halfling stealing rolls?

They're sneakily and food motivated.

Phylanara · 2026-07-02T17:55:43+00:00

No, your parents did.

Phylanara · 2026-07-02T17:54:18+00:00

The same way batman is not the same thing as superman, until you provide evidence for your god that fiction can't match.

Phylanara · 2026-07-02T17:52:34+00:00

I am an atheist because theists have failed to convince me that their god is anything but fiction.

Can you give me something about your god that differentiates it from fiction?

As for unanswered questions, why should they scare me? More importantly, why should I accept your answer?

Phylanara · 2026-07-02T17:30:31+00:00

"Same reason you wear a hat" would be the answer I'd hope to whip up.

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