Cyprus-Forum.com

[Paphitis]

I have just finished reading a Richard Dawkins' novel called, "The God Delusion", and it would have to rank as one of the best books I have ever read.

Now, religion has been extensively covered throughout this forum, and I find it quite disturbing that amongst us are some religious zealots who seem to believe that Hellenic culture and Christianity are consummate. This however, excludes many amongst us that are non practicing and those that class themselves as Atheist. Some of us may even truly believe that religiosity has been very destructive to the true Hellenic and Cypriot culture.

I have much stronger views and thoughts about religion, too numerous to publish here. But I open this thread, in the hope that you will all find the topic interesting and thus contribute with your thoughts and ideas.

I hope everyone participates in the poll by contributing in a constructive manner, offering their own point of view and reasoning.

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Richard Dawkins developed what he termed, "The Spectrum of Probabilities", with 2 extremes of opposite certainty.

This spectrum, is represented by 7 milestones, as outlined in the above poll, for your view on the existence of "God". The 7 milestones are as follows:

1) Strong theist: 100% probability of God - 'I do not believe, I know'.

2) De facto theist: very high probability but short of 100% - 'I strongly believe in God and live my life on the assumption he is there'.

3) Higher than 50%, but not very high. Technically agnostic but leaning towards theism - 'I am very uncertain but I am inclined to believe in God'.

4) Impartial agnostic: exactly 50% - 'God's existence and non-existence are exactly equiprobable'.

5) Technically agnostic: lower than 50% but not very low. Technically agnostic but leaning towards atheism - 'I don't know whether God exists but I'm inclined to be sceptical'.

6) De facto atheist: very low probability but short of zero. 'I cannot know for certain , but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption he is not there'.

7) Strong atheist: 'I do not believe there is a God because I know he does not exist'.

The poll applies to to anyone who was raised in any Monotheist religion (Christianity, Islam or Judaism).

So which group better describes your thoughts about the existence of God?

I hope the discussion turns out to be interesting, with plenty of twists and turns....

[AWE]

Strong atheist - I was after the death of my father in '90 and still am.

One of the many bits I liked about "The God Delusion" is when he talks about belief as a evolutionary trait and how this has been exploited by the priest kings of early civilizations through to religions of today.

[Paphitis]

Strong atheist - I was after the death of my father in '90 and still am.

One of the many bits I liked about "The God Delusion" is when he talks about belief as a evolutionary trait and how this has been exploited by the priest kings of early civilizations through to religions of today.

So you know that God does not exist.

How can you be so certain?

@ ADMIN - I posted this in Cyprus Problem by accident. Can you please move the topic to the General Section?

[Oracle]

I am certain there is no God.

But, I am more certain about my certainty than I am about the certainty whether God exists or not.

Hey, I just made that up! .... I'm a genius!

Ergo, there is a God after all?

Certainly, the possibility exists ... or not!

Who am I to say?

God knows!

Hey, I can dialogue with myself like this all day long.

But, I'm listening to you, Oracle!

Oh my Gawd ... who said that?

[Tim Drayton]

Strong atheist - I was after the death of my father in '90 and still am.

One of the many bits I liked about "The God Delusion" is when he talks about belief as a evolutionary trait and how this has been exploited by the priest kings of early civilizations through to religions of today.

This must be true. It must have - or have had at some stage - a survival value. But what is it?

[Tim Drayton]

I am intrigued by the thought that it is a short step from the kind of polytheism practised for example in Ancient Greece and the modern scientific world view. Thinking of the world in terms of gods that are neither particularly malign nor beneficial to mankind but just get on with what they do such as the god of fire, god of the earth, god of the air etc. seems not to be so different from using scientific concepts like mass, energy, space and so on which simply have the properties they do and exist independently of us.

[Get Real!]

Looking at the dismal situation on planet Earth is the wrong way to go about contemplating the existence of a God, and the right way to see why man needs and had better have a God!



PS: Your poll sucks Paphitis… you didn’t have to write up a paragraph for each option!

[Paphitis]

GR! wrote:

PS: Your poll sucks Paphitis… you didn’t have to write up a paragraph for each option!

That was the only way of adequately explaining the 7 options so that people can fully understand what they're voting for...

[Paphitis]

Looking at the dismal situation on planet Earth is the wrong way to go about contemplating the existence of a God, and the right way to see why man needs and had better have a God!

George W Bush is a Strong theist and saw his invasion of Iraq as "fulfilling God's will".

Of course, there are many more events which killed innocent people "in the name of God", so do you think that religiosity has proven to be destructive to mankind?

[insan]

I defacto believe that God exists. A several times I felt the existence of God but I've never have been a traditional believer who practice the 5 pillars of Islam or practice of any other religions.

As for what this issue has to do with solution of cyprus problem... I don't know.