I'm an atheist and have been since I was very young. I always had a great argument due to being brought up in a religious home, but never had the answer as to how religion came into play. My friend brought this video over to my house and it seemed a little boring at first, then about ten minutes into it, I realized this may very well be the answer to my question!! I've researched arguments against the facts here and have found none that out weigh the obvious. The thing is, I'm shocked at how it was in my face and every ones face all this time. Please watch this segment and tell me what you think and if you can see another truth. Best regards, Greg Q

Zeitgeist - The Movie, 2007

workerbee

Hey Greg, I am going to tell you what i know about God, HE DOES NOT EXIST. there are thousands of gods, which one do some of the people that responded believe in? Zeus, how about Apollo? People beleive in the God od their community. No one can prove Jesus even existed. He was mentioned never during his life only after. if he did miracles he should have attracted many contemporary writers but did not. Also he never left any writings in his own hand why not? that should have been something he would have wanted to do. Some think if he did exist he was illiterate that's why no writings. As I have stated in other threads Prayer does not work at all.
this is not just my opinion it is a fact. The AHJ did a 3 year 2.4 million , 1800 patient study
there conclusion was that Intercessory prayer doesn't work, that should tell you something
There is so much more I want to say but I don't want to make this too long. Go to my signature, there you will find a forum that will help you understand in more detail

workerbee

BMI

Wonderful, another thread about the existence of God. I should know better but here is my take.

First off, one can post thousands of movies, books, articles, about the existence of God, supporting it or refuting it. Also, its intresting to note that all the non-beleivers here like the film and find it "concrete" whilst beleivers here seem to be against it. So really this is just another argument about religion, there are tons of them on this site.

What I do find interesting about the whole thing is that the OP, stating that he has been an atheist his whole life, would be researching and watching movies about whether God exists or not. Don't get me wrong, I'm not implying there is anything wrong with that in the least, although most people who have a firm beleif in something need not search for supporting evidence if indeed they were 100% satisfied with that beleif. Most beleivers, most I say, do not entertain every theory or article written to base their faith upon, to support what they beleive or question themselves. Thats why not everyone would feel the need to watch the video, it would make very little difference.

Myself being a beleiver, I can say that it is more of a feeling, a faith that cannot be swayed by any argument against the existence of God or reinforced by any argument supporting the existence of God, it's just my own personal beleif. One writer, whom I cannot remeber his name, many ages ago, wrote that he beleived in God but found it useless and wasteful to explain why. His reasoning being that we as humans cannot possibly understand God, why he created Earth and so on. So his view was that he just beleived, but he could not logically explain why, I think that is very applicable to many a beleiver.

Gernald

just wanted to point out the zeitgeist is a the german word for spirit of the age, I'm kind of curious why they used this title and not something else? Any ideas?
I guess spirit of the age could be the modern religon of atheism, but atheism dosen't beleive in a a spirit, right?
Confused!!!

RickJ

Even most atheists agree that Jesus was a person who walked the earth. The evidence from history is only very weakly arguable.

Allheart

So beautiful said. One of the best, and there have been many good ones on this site, but one of the best.

It is a struggle for belivers to voice their love as most don't want to offend and when asked for proof, faith is hard to capture into words or events and is not something you can point to.

All I can offer is if you were here, I would take your hand and ask you to look into my heart. I just don't know how to share it better then that.

BMI

Oh one more thing.

For all the testiness that is involved in such arguments I do findit amusing that those who do not beleive in God are very adamant about expressing this beleif, BOLD LETTERS AND CAPS LOCKS STATING THAT GOD DOES NOT EXIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quite the enlightened fellow that can claim that with the utmost beleif. Not that there is anything wrong with feeling that way, just seems comical that the beleivers are labelled "touchy" and thatalot of this argument is based on beleivers not being able to PROOVE the existence of God, while the non-beleivers can PROOVE he does not exist with......a.......video?

Greg Quinn

Thanks Scott!

Greg Quinn

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'll take a look, thanks for your input.

ScottGem

What I think Greg wants is someone to refute the facts as stated in that documentary. For example. Is what they said about Horus correct? While there is a difference between truth and fact, one can deal with hard facts.

That being said, there is one issue I have with one of the points that were made. They referred to the virginal birth of some diety on Dec 25th, but December 25th has not always been the same. Different societies have had different calendars. The western calendar that we use today was instituted by Pope Gregory XIII in the late 16th century. At the time 10 days were eliminated during October (see: A Brief History of the Western Calendar) So it would appear that its impossible for all those deities to have been born on Dec 25. Now if the documentary had said all those deities were born 3 or 4 days after the Winter Solstice, I would find it more credible.

On the other hand, I've long believed that Christianity incorporated a lot of pagan and naturalist symbology. Therefore, I accept a lot of the points made about the zodiac and astrology being at the core of a lot of these beliefs.

I've said, on several occassions, that I do not beleive in organized religion. I believe religion was created by man to explain things he could not explain otherwise. I believe it was also established before strong national governments came into being to provide a framework for morality.

One other point the documentary seems to be making is the similarity between the tales of the Bible and other religions. For example, the event of a flood. The fact that a flood story exists in several different religions tells me that something likely did occur.

And the use of one of George Carlin's diatribes on religion was very apt. One should listen to Carlin's routines on God and religion. Those have the ring of truth to me.

ScottGem

[quote=workerbee]Hey Greg, I am going to tell you what i know about God, HE DOES NOT EXIST. /quote]

Hate to split hairs here, but you do NOT "know" he doesn't exist. Anymore than a christian "knows" he does exist. If there was conclusive proof one way or the other, it would have been found by now. What you mean is you BELIEVE he does not exist. And you are entitled to that belief and there are many factual and logical arguments that can support your belief and vice versa.

But this debate has raged for millenia and will rage for millenia to come because there is no absolute proof one way or the other.