God doesn't seem to exist!

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Tai Chi is not my thing either actually. If I do it properly it releases so much emotion that I laugh and cry at the same time leaving me emotionally drained. Nothing remotely mundane about that outcome

Meditation to me is to listen to the wind. It's the only time my brain allows me some peace...

Spiritual experiences are subjective. To claim any different is speculation...

Arthur, you may have some idea of my beliefs, but do you have any idea of my spiritual experience? It seems to me that you have decided that the human mind can understand all things. That is obviously not the case and you must know it. Please excuse the contradiction of words. Are you are telling me something which is outside the limits of human comprehension cannot exist?

Perhaps we needed to define our terms here. I felt the need to separate the natural power and the glory from the spiritual. Many people will see the natural power of the Church and think that is it.

Atheism is just not believing in God. Even though there are atheists who also don't believe in free will, that does not link the two beliefs. I don't have to check in with a group mind to align my beliefs.

So how would it work? Free will is just the ability to choose between different courses of action. It requires consciousness, which seems to be an emergent property of brains that are at a certain level of complexity (I'm carefully leaving out what the level is because I don't know which other animals are also conscious). When a being (person, dog? dolphin?) makes a decision, neurons conduct electrical impulses. That is purely natural and doesn't need the intervention of a God. It is also (to me) free will. There are constraints: you can't just decide to think in a way that goes against your neurology (or WP wouldn't exist) and you can't decide to do things that are impossible for you even if you think very hard (as probably every person who woke up out of a coma and discovered paralysis has probably tried to will a hand or leg to move).

The existence of hormones, neurotransmitters and other chemicals can influence but they aren't absolute. I can will myself to do something even if I don't have much energy for it, but the sudden presence of adrenaline sure makes that a lot easier. Even so, willing myself to do something even in the absence of adrenaline is free will.






It is a hindrance because it causes some people, such as you, to assume I have certain beliefs I don't have just because other people also having the same label have those beliefs. The assumption that as an atheist I wouldn't believe in free will is an example of that baggage. It is a hindrance in that I have to cut through other's assumptions: that I think everybody is a predetermined automaton, that I must not actually love anyone and other absurdities. The tight clinging to this belief that all these things are bundled with atheism is a hindrance.





Would energy be a consequence of material entities/processes/phenomena? Does the electric charge of subatomic particles mean that "electric charge" is a material consequence? Somebody stronger in physics than I am can tackle that. But since I am not sure, "natural" as an umbrella term covers it more firmly for me than "material".





So? You keep forgetting that atheism isn't a religion and so there is no canon I have to follow.

there is no god to speak, if there was the world would not be the way it is now.

...plot-twist ! The world is the way it is because of that god !

I guess that's one of the differences between the two of us. Personal, first-hand experience for me is just as important as empirical evidence, but you seem to think that if something cannot be demonstrated to be true 'empirically', it by default is non-existent which, on the face of it, is patently absurd if only because that claim itself - i.e. only that which can be demonstrated empirically - cannot itself be demonstrated empirically. It is a philosophical proposition, not a scientific claim, and it is one that I do not accept because it doesn't make any sense to begin with.



No, this isn't true. Now you are just whining.



In other words, you have nothing to offer that can actually counter any of the claims I have here made, and have therefore decided to just quietly slink away from the discussion. Okay, Good Bye!

Energy is only ever physical, and is simply that which is required for work to be done either within, or upon, a system. The answer to your first question within what I quote from you above is 'yes'. The answer to the second one about charge is also 'yes'. Classical physics, relativity and Q.M. are all examples of purely physical (a.k.a. material, natural) descriptions of how the natural, physical reality we are all so familiar with works, and why.

This is straight from the Richard Dawkins school of apologetics, for he also seems to think that he could have given God a hint or two when it came to creating the universe. So, in your view, how should our reality be if we accept the proposition that there is a God?

Actually, I never did forget that atheism is nothing more than an absence of belief in god(s), but I have observed a disturbing (in my view) consistency of belief in other things that the vast majority of self-styled atheists have, and this can be attributed to the logical consequences that follow from the belief that God is not real. For example, a complete absence of an acceptance of the intrinsic value and sacredness of human life, which leads them to accept as being normal the abominable practices of euthanasia and abortion.

Actually, I never did forget that atheism is nothing more than an absence of belief in god(s), but I have observed a disturbing (in my view) consistency of belief in other things that the vast majority of self-styled atheists have, and this can be attributed to the logical consequences that follow from the belief that God is not real. For example, a complete absence of an acceptance of the intrinsic value and sacredness of human life, which leads them to accept as being normal the abominable practices of euthanasia and abortion.

Sorry about the double post. It does that for some reason.

Obviously, it's His fault because He made you free to be what you are.

Tut tut! If He was only as smart as you are you'd be a robot.

^^^

Just popped up to say Hi;

Me and God ALL THAT IS;

That's short for Haiku...

And proof THAT GOD exists..

It's become very quiet here. Where have all of the cocky, self-righteous atheists gone? If it is, as so many of them claim, easy to show that the concept of God is itself incoherent, illogical and invalid (and that therefore God obviously doesn't exist), then why have they not thus far succeeded in demonstrating this?

Oh well, tearing apart their arguments (if I can actually call them that) was fun while it lasted

It's not our need or desire to disprove something that doesn't exist. You're the ones making extraordinary claims. Hence you have to provide extraordinary evidence...

Also, if you want a debate, you could go to this link and debate atheists to your hearts content. Be warned though, they'll tear you up.
http://www.thethinkingatheist.com/forum ... ism?page=2