Well, here's your chance, Atheist, defend what you believe...bear in mind that I am questioning the reason behind what you believe...why do you disbelieve in the existence of God?

1.I feel a God is not needed for life to start......................2.Time has seemingly disproven all that he has supposed to have done so why assume his followers got the remaining bit right i.e. that he existed at all..............3. There seems to be a human predisposision to believe in god so why put it down to anything else?.............4.I've nether seen him or anything that would seem to be caused by him so why believe someone elses word, If someone said the moon was made of cheese I wanna see that edam!. Thats all I can think of right now

1) Man came up with the idea of "God", effectively making it a wild guess.

2) As I'm sure the people of Jonestown would tell you (if they were still alive), blindly following a belief based on a wild guess is probably a bad idea.

3) Lack of proof (and the convenient excuses for it) does not give a valid reason to blindly belief in something.

4) Likewise, the psychological need to believe that we don't just cease to exist when we die also does not give a valid reason to blindly believe in something. To blindly hope, yes, but not believe.

5) Atheism isn't so much a belief, anyways. It is more of an "observation". Unless you place your faith in mankind, in which case you're a "secular humanist".

For reason 1...you mean to say that God is not necessary for life or sentient life to start? Do you acknowledge a difference between Life and Sentient Life?

Hodge...Atheism is defined as 'the disbelief in God' and is considered a noun...therefore a 'belief'

both
yes. I don't believe all life is sentient- bacteria is a example of this

Why do you believe that God is not necessary for the start of sentient life? How might life become aware?

When it is an evolutionary advantage to.

Good question. And just to show you what I'm all about, I'll answer your question without making up some reason to make myself feel better!


I don't know. Neither do you. None of us do. I suppose we'll learn more about it as computers become more complex... If some big supercomputer becomes self–aware after it's latest upgrade, we'll be able to determine how our brains became self–aware. If we make computers as complex as our brain and they don't become self–aware, then we'll know that something else causes it.

Until then, I'm not about to make something up to explain it all.

Why would a computer need to be self aware?, it has nothing to fear, it has no emotions and has no need to hunt for food or a mate.

No Einstein...I asked how it becomes aware...not why...

Hodge I'm not asking you to make anything up...I'm just asking if there are any sceintific facts to back up your belief in the statement 'God is not necessary for life or sentient life to start'

What does god mean? I mean the definition seems so broad, and subjective, that you'd almost need to ask someone for their definition before you state your disbelief for it.

Also, how could we ever say for certain that a computer is self aware, at least in the context that we are. If it was programmed to respond to as if it were aware, does that make it so?

What does it have to do with need? My computer doesn't need to know how to play solitaire...


If consciousness arises naturally from a large network, then a very sophisticated computer would become self–aware. Actually, I just came up with a fucking amazing idea...

A part of the brain is created to make the animal become self aware.

Tutu... This is called entrapment. Not nice :mad:


There are no scientific facts to back up that statement because there are no scientific facts to support God, and because of that, any catalyst in our evolutionary history could be perceived as "divine".

In all likelihood, self–awareness is evolutionary, because a self–aware creature is able to have a sense of purpose, which makes survival and proliferation more likely.


To be fair, though, I'm open to the possibility of a God.

A part of the brain...which part would this be? Do you mean to say that the body determines that it needs a part...a mechanicism...to make itself self aware? But wouldnt that very determination by the body imply awareness of itself anyway?

Well if you are talking about a computer becoming self aware by its self like a living entity it would have to have a need for it like an animal would, but if you are programming selfawareness into it, is it really self aware?.

Hodge! Gasp! You mean to say that your disbelief is an 'assumption'? I'm certain that you are aware of Argumentum ad Ignorantiam, you cant prove your statement by shifting the burden of proof...you cant say your claim is true because your opponent has no proof

No. when there is a external need for an animal to develope self awareness i.e. the need to map out a route say, then the animal needs to know where it is in relation to that map. Theres alot of other reasons for its developements such as being aware of its possition in a social group.

No Einstein...I'm not asking why it would need self-awareness...I am asking how it becomes aware of itself?...You also implied that the body determines that it needs to be self-ware...thus a part of the brain is created to make it self aware...but I asked if that if the body is able to determines that it needs to be self-aware...isnt it already self-aware? Else how would it know it needs awareness?