If you hate religion and don't believe in God, why?

[Mr Danksworth]

Here is a debunking of the PEAR experiments with random number generators and imaginary psi phenomena.
http://www.skepdic.com/pear.html

[zzontar]

I believe in the big bang theory and in God. It's funny how some won't believe God has existed forever with no beginning, yet they must assume all the elements that make up the universe have existed forever with no beginning, either that or they all appeared from nothing... how scientific is that? I believe there must have been an outside force to start the big bang in motion as time supposedly didn't even exist until it started. To think the big bang started on it's own seems again a bit too unscientific for me.

If God appeared and made whales fly, some people would then have faith he exists, but it wouldn't be true faith, which is what any leader would prefer.

[Nebula]

To think the big bang started on it's own seems again a bit too unscientific for me.

Does it seem scientific to you that there is some super being out there that waved his magic wand and caused the big bang?

[zzontar]

Does it seem scientific to you that there is some super being out there that waved his magic wand and caused the big bang?

Yes Neb, a magic wand and a big beard ... a simple flashlight would be considered a magic wand to the primitive tribes in the Amazon. Just because one doesn't understand how something works doesn't automatically make it magic.

[Captain Awesome]

Does it seem scientific to you that there is some super being out there that waved his magic wand and caused the big bang?

[fluffy]

Discussions like this always end up pretty strongly polarized, there are passionate beliefs at both the "believer" and "non-believer" ends of the scale. I find it a source of some humour that when it's obvious that there is so much we don't know that people can be so sure of themselves. The words "I don't know" are conspicuously absent from the vocabulary of many.

[Nebula]

Yes Neb, a magic wand and a big beard ... a simple flashlight would be considered a magic wand to the primitive tribes in the Amazon. Just because one doesn't understand how something works doesn't automatically make it magic.

Yes, I was being facetious, zzontar. The emphasis should have been on the word 'scientific'. You can believe there is a god that started the big bang, but does that seem 'scientific' to you?

[Mr Danksworth]

How about 'I don't know for sure, but to the best of my knowledge and according to the information and evidence presented, the answer is most probably 'no'.

This is subject to change if suitable evidence becomes available.

[zzontar]

Yes, I was being facetious, zzontar. The emphasis should have been on the word 'scientific'. You can believe there is a god that started the big bang, but does that seem 'scientific' to you?

There's a whole lot of everyday things we use today that would have been considered magic or witchcraft a few hundred years ago, so I'd imagine the technology we'd have billions or trillions of years from now would have the same effect. Does it seem more scientific to you that something started the big bang as opposed to nothing?

[Nebula]

There's a whole lot of everyday things we use today that would have been considered magic or witchcraft a few hundred years ago, so I'd imagine the technology we'd have billions or trillions of years from now would have the same effect. Does it seem more scientific to you that something started the big bang as opposed to nothing?

I certainly didn't say nothing started it. I am not a physicist, but I suspect it was some kind of process.

I find it difficult to put 'god' and 'scientific' in the same sentence.

[zzontar]

Ah, so nothing existed, not even time... then a "process" happened... now I get it!

[Nebula]

Ah, so nothing existed, not even time... then a "process" happened... now I get it!

I didn't say that. I don't know what happened.

My point is not to debate how the big bang happened, if it did at all. My point is that I don't find god to be the least bit scientific.

[zzontar]

And the primitive tribesmen don't find a flashlight to be scientific... life goes on.

[Nebula]

And the primitive tribesmen don't find a flashlight to be scientific... life goes on.

They had no concept of science. A wee bit different.

[zzontar]

You don't think that there are things now that wouldn't seem magical to people a couple of centuries ago either?