No Evidence For God, Why Still Believe?

Where did I presume certainty of what is good and evil? To tackle this we have to debate within the Philosophy of Morality and Ethics which I am very comfortable with.

‘Evidence’ in this case refers to empirical evidence as in Science but in addition subject to philosophical rational justifications.

Private mental states are at best beliefs and strong personal conviction without objectivity.
Such private mental states could belong to the mentally sick, the average person and the genius.
To be credible all claims from private mental states must be verified and qualified to the Framework and System used.

The point is, it is very common for the idea of a God and experiences of God to arise from the mentally sick and due to other perversions from norm, e.g.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIiIsDIkDtg[/youtube]

If the above guy had those experiences of God 2000 years ago, he or a group could have claimed he is the messiah then.
But in 2017 a psychiatric diagnosis inform us his problem is due to Temporal Epilepsy.

Einstein as a human also had his private mental states to hypothesize E=MC2 but to maintain credibility, his theory has to be proven with empirical evidence, which was done. This is the same type of evidence which is lacking for a claim God exists.

Note in my thesis ‘God is an impossibility’ it is not about evidence yet.
I am questioning the hypothesis ‘God exists.’
I have demonstrated that such a hypothesis ‘God is an impossibility’ is not feasible at all, thus moot and a non-starter.
For the sake of even theory, such a hypothesis cannot be raised in the first place.
Since there is no hypothesis the question of evidence do not arise.

The only reasonable option for the idea of God to be raised is for psychological reasons.

That God does not exist has not been proved here beyond a reasonable doubt. So why not believe?

A giant tea pot orbiting a star does not exist has not been proved here beyond a reasonable doubt. So why not believe?

Anyone can make any claim, say X.
Whatever-X does not exist has not been proved here beyond a reasonable doubt. So why not believe?

A murderer [on death penalty] can claim an alien-X in outer space took control of his mind and body to kill 100 people.
So he pleaded,
Alien-X does not exist has not been proved here beyond a reasonable doubt. So why not believe and clear him of any guilt and set him free.

People [except the deranged] will not make the above claims because it is ridiculous so why theists are doing that for God.
I am sure theists will ask for proofs if they are accused of murder in a court of law.

The only reason why only theists [from the majority] make the above very unconventional claim is due to desperate psychology.

What makes psychology desperate?

One can think anything about God.

The question is : how do those thoughts affect your life and the lives of others?

Does your belief improve your life? Does it improve other lives? (You need not even care about others, but that’s another discussion.)

Nothing desperate about it. It’s just how thinking works. Thinking is a tool for navigating through the world. Usually thinking wrong stuff will get you in trouble, but not always. Since one always has many thoughts, the right thoughts may more than compensate for the wrong thoughts.

Try to find out why Abraham was so spontaneous in agreeing to kill his own son when God ‘demanded’ he do so? Why?

An further exploration into the above will lead to the so called ‘desperate psychology’ linked to a belief in God [illusory but useful psychologically].

And note the following;

What is the basis why SOME theists are so worked out that they will kill anyone who ‘insult’ their God or even drawing cartoons of God’s chosen prophet. This is so evident.

Why do SOME theists kill non-theists merely because they do not believe in God?

Why do so many theists go on a murderous and violent rampage in the name of God as if God need protection.

Why do so many theists commit all sorts of evil on non-believers [oppression, hinder the progress of knowledge, limit freedom of speech, cultural genocide, etc.] in the name of God?

The answer is the idea of God provided desperate psychological existential security and when such security is threatened with the slightest ‘perceived’ threat theist [significant SOME] will try to get rid of the perceived threat by whatever means.

Agree with the above.
Note the whole load of cons of believing in a God and notably the following [32,344] which is directly linked to God’s commands in his holy book sent to a prophet;

Besides the above which refer to only incidents with deaths, there are many other theistic based evils and violence.

I do not deny there are ‘good’ benefiting from a belief in God but the trend into the future is the cons of theism are outweighing its pros. As such we need to address this potential threat to humanity NOW.

Why? What makes you think humanity is worth saving? If your posts, filled as they are with fear and loathing of something you don’t understand, are an indication of human nature, the universe would be better off without human beings.

I read Kierkegaard’s work on Abraham when I was a young man. It also troubled me. But God has never asked me to do anything horrendous; and I would not respect a god who did. Thoughts of what God is like have evolved over the centuries.

You’re right, of course. The God-concept has evolved over the centuries. And like everything else that evolves, there’s an overlap between the old and the new. The old doesn’t just disappear overnight.

Prismatic’s posts seem to be written by a psychotic.

Come on, guy. That’s so inappropriate.

I disagree. “Psychosis” is defined as a mental disorder in which contact with reality is lost or highly distorted. Prismatic fits that description very well.

It’s inappropriate to make such comments in a philosophy forum.

Tell that to Prismatic. The word isn’t used but he says the same thing about theists all the time. Or is there a double-standard I’m supposed to abide by of which I am unaware?

He didn’t make the post, you did.

He didn’t say it about you specifically, did he?

Atheists around here have often said that theists are delusional or mentally ill. I have called them out on it.

The forum admin does nothing. You can press the “! Report this post” button but it won’t amount to much.

You can either raise the standard of discussion or lower it. It’s up to you.

Raising is better. O:)

You are right. I have always address that to theists-in-general and advise theists whoever it may be to take note of that point.

In addition I have always provided evidence to support my point from neuro-psychological, neuroscientific and other sources., e.g.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIiIsDIkDtg[/youtube]

There are many supporting evidence from various sources that link various experiences of God to the mentally ill and other psychological reasons.

My main point is the basis of theism is most likely to have a psychological basis and I am not imply all theists are mentally ill.

My point re “Kierkegaard’s work on Abraham” was in response to your question 'what desperate psychology" and to highlight the link of theism to psychology, i.e. the real effects of fears, trembling and psychological angst.

Obviously the Story of Abraham and Killing of His Son was not meant to be literal but to test the faith of believers to God. But the ultimate analysis is there are real desperate psychological impulses within the believers.

What is real is the desperate existential psychology. The Eastern Spiritualities has recognized this fact thousands of years ago and addressed this psychological problem directly without any potential evil theistic baggage like those from the Abrahamic religions.

Note the “Religion of Peace” [starting with “I”] condones the killing of even one’s kins [sons, daughters, parent, near-relatives] if they are a threat to the religion.

Thus my point is, humanity whilst accepting theism is inevitable and unavoidable at present should nevertheless focus [from now to the future] on the ultimate root cause of theism which is the psychological elements rather than on God which is illusory and impossible.

There are many problems with this analogy, but let me focus on one area. If you have visions of a teapot (etc.) and this experience leads to emotional states and even practical approaches to life that seem, to the best of your knowledge beneficial, then you are beginning to move into an area that parallels some theist’s belief in God. Beginning to move in that direction. People have beliefs, all people, that work for them, seem like good heuristics, despite the fact that science has not confirmed it (yet, possibly). Atheists and skeptics often think they have no such beliefs, but I notice that in situ they have beliefs (which guide their actions) about the opposite sex, what having ‘a good attitude is’, political truths, how to succeed (name the life area), that have not been accepted within science to be accurate. They work with these heuristics until some overwhelming fault is demonstrated, though many follow these to the grave. None of this means they are true, though some of them may well be. And good for us humans for using heuristics and not always waiting around for science to give strong evidence it is the case. Hell, scientists thought it was irrational to speak about the emotional, intentions, desires [that is states of consciousness or the experiencing nature] of animals until the 70s. Laypeople of all kinds assumed that animals were experiencers and this heuristic was even useful. Nevertheless it could actually damage your career if you spoke in those terms in scientific contexts, let alone submitted a scientific article working with that set of assumptions.

Don’t play innocent. You’re the one who started the acrimony in these threads by calling posts “shallow” and “narrow”. You have been feeding it continuously with words like “shallow”, “narrow”, “ignorant” and “immature”.

You’re reaping what you sowed.