I Am An Atheist

HippyJoe, what is the basis for your claim that “everything does not evolve from nothing”? (as an aside, in what sense are you using the word ‘evolve’... do you mean ‘arise’?)

Likewise, what is the basis for your claims that “order does not arise from chaos” and that “life does not come from nonliving”? (I assume that you have some or other basis for making such claims, other than convenience).

“The fact is you have no idea what 'God' is”
The fact is… nor do you.
Before you go making a series of unsupported claims about its characteristics, you first need to establish its existence. In fact, you need to establish that there’s a compelling necessity to even postulate its existence. You have done neither of those things, so all that follows is mere conjecture and pretence. It’s not even coherent

If it were in any way valid for you to claim that your magical entity has always existed, then it would be equally valid to claim that the universe has always existed. A universe that had always existed would also be beyond time (since spacetime began with the expansion of the universe).
Any claim that the universe has always existed, besides being equally (in)valid, also carries the advantage of being simpler, since it removes the necessity to postulate the existence of a ‘middle-man’. After all, if the universe has always existed, then what need of a creator for that universe?

You claim omniscience and omnipotence for your magical entity, yet it would not even be able to change its mind. When we change our minds, we surprise ourselves, but it would already know that it was going to change its mind, so where’s the surprise? If it did in fact surprise itself, then omniscience is gone. Hmm… apparently self-awareness also needs to go.

“Purposelessness does not beget purpose”. Where does this ‘purpose’ come from? Does it come from a magical entity that has not been shown to exist? There is no compelling necessity to even postulate its existence, yet you now claim that it has a purpose. Aren’t you rather getting ahead of yourself there?

"Non living matter does not beget life"
Again you make an unsupported claim... this time about abiogenesis.
Would you like to discuss abiogenesis in more detail? I'm happy to do so.
As always, perhaps we should begin with definitions.
I would propose defining 'life' as 'a self-sustaining chemical system that is capable of Darwinian evolution', but perhaps you have an alternative definition on which we can base our discussion?
Let me know.

That's what I love about this age, spirituality is blooming full force. Even if various religions have shortcomings in answers or fullfilling our needs (not saying that's the case for all) it seems spirituality is on the rise. The acceptance and openmindedness is moving into a united care for humanity despite beliefs. What an age it could become. There is something to place faith in.

It was reading the Bible when I was 8 that made me a nonbeliever. When I was 7, my family left the Baptist Church for the Presbyterian. That Sunday the Baptist preacher announced that my family was going to Hell. Not long after that, the Baptist church burned to the ground. The Presbyterians offered to share their church. If course, the Baptist preacher accepted. That made me a little suspicious, and even more so when I wondered why God burned down his own house.

HippyJoe, how are you defining 'nothing'?

Perhaps you have in mind in the complete absence of matter. But even then, something remains. Virtual quantum particles still pop in and out of being, and we still have the basic scaffolding of existence: space, time, and quantum fields.

Perhaps you have in mind a quantum vacuum… no matter, no radiation, no energy, no spatial curvature? Yet even in this ‘nothing’, virtual quantum particles pop in and out of existence.

Perhaps you have in mind that ‘nothing’ that creationists seem to be referring to… a ‘nothing’ that would require some sort of magical entity. But of course that isn’t a definition. It’s a trivial, self-serving circularity to say that ‘nothing’ is something that requires a magical entity. It is driven by a need to justify the postulation that magical entities exist... mere sophistry from the intellectually challenged and the lazy.

Perhaps you have a different definition entirely? If so, please share it with us.

What makes you think I haven't read your nonsense and many others like it? The FACT is that everything does not evolve from nothing. Order does not evolve from Chaos. Life does not come from nonliving. Materialism, which you are advocating answers nothing. The fact is you have no idea what 'God' is and you likely envision a little old man sitting on a cloud listening to harp music. Yet the Jewish/Christian God is held to be Eternal (Beyond time since time is part of His creation). He is held to be omnipresent (that means the entire universe is within Him). He is also held to be Omniscient (That means He is all knowing and is fully capable of doing the infinitely fine tuning of material to enable life forms to exist) He is also held to be Omnipotent (which means He is unlimited to power and thus is fully capable of bringing into being the entire universe with all that it contains). Finally He is completely Self Aware. His very name, translated into English is I AM. There can be no greater declaration of existence than those two words. Now here is the problem while you and your favourite books love to say "oh it just happened" which is completely contrary to all observation and logic, I have come to realize that nothing doesn't beget something. Purposelessness does not beget purpose. Non living matter does not beget life. Now don't get me wrong I understand that you don't want to believe that a Being such as the One I describe exists and I am not going to try to force you to believe otherwise but please be aware that your belief system is so full of holes as to be laughable.

HippyJoe: "nothing happened to nothing for an eternity.."
The concept of 'eternity' is relative to, and dependent upon, time, but before the expansion of the universe, there could not have been time (in fact, it's not even valid to speak about 'before' in that context).

Some difficult questions arise when we examine what we might mean by the concept of eternity, and it might be productive for us to do so here.

For example, how long is half of eternity? Wouldn't it necessarily be... eternity? Wouldn't the same answer apply if we asked 'how long is a billionth of eternity?

Hippyjoe1955, you are the one claiming things. To boil it down as simply as I can you claim there is a god and I am skeptical of that.
You are the one claiming this all powerful, all present, all knowing, all...everything 'being'exists and you have absolutely no proof for it at all.
My claim is that IF there was a beginning to everything then chances are the beginning will be as basic as you can get. That is reasonable. You are claiming, with apparent certainty, that this all...everything 'being', god, is eternal. Um, evidence? You have nothing to support your claim but an old dusty book.
It is apparent you haven't read the book I referred to, you made no comments directly relating to it.
I look at your belief system and see nothing but holes.
Don't get me wrong, I respect your right to believe anything you want to as long as that belief doesn't harm others but I certainly don't have to respect what you believe. If you look at it with a skeptical mind you see ho ridiculous it is.

Varrus, I recommend you reading a book by Lawrence Krauss "A Universe From Nothing". That offers a solution for energy being created.
Hunkalove, reading the bible is the best way to become an atheist. Strsngely enough, atheists seem to know the bible far better than believers, hang on, that's WHY they are atheists. ;)

I agree religion is far fetched.

There is good in it, it's not to answer all questions but guide you into a way of life. Unfortunately the balances of dominance and hierarchy skew the messages a lot of times. The faithful follow blindly and condem the far thinking at times it reminds me of the witch hunts. It does bring good though anything that enhances ones tendencies to think about thier place in the world, thier actions, and how we all relate to one another is good. It brings awareness that we are all connected. If everything in the world is made up of energy and energy cannot be created or destroyed how can we not be connected if we simply exchange and transform the energy we already have as a world. Food for thought.

@MarkCaesar I will pick that book up thanks for the tip. It is funny how atheists tend to know more about many religions and more in depth than some of the believers do 😇

And thus we come to the never ending regressive question of where did god come from? Hippyjoe1955, I suggest you read "A Universe From Nothing" as well. Not a definitive answer but it offers a possible answer.
If there was a start to everything don't you imagine it would have been from the most basic of building blocks rather than this perfect, all powerful thing you call God?

Well you see there was nothing and nothing happened to nothing for an eternity until suddenly, for no reason or purpose whatsoever, nothing exploded and became everything. Then some bits of everything, again for no reason or purpose, organized themselves and became dinosaurs. For the intellectually challenged or lazy atheism makes sense.

Hipp, there is obviously an intelligence in the universe that is part of everything. Call it "God" if you want, but I don't think any mystical magical being created or designed this mess. It just happens.

Varrus, it's a lot of hard slog to begin with and a whole lot of new science that I'd never considered, worth it in the end.