lazarus1983
Posts: 828
Joined: 2/25/2006 Status: offline
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: bipolarber Sugar, Well, you make a good case. Nicely thought out, well written, and to the point. But you do kind of miss the whole point. I'm not articulate enough to be able to refute your argument, so I'm not going to try to. Instead, I think I'll paraphrase Terry Pratchett: "Belief is something that humans need in their lives, in order to remain human. They need to believe in little lies, like Santa Claus, or the Easter Bunny, so that they can find it within themselves to believe in the BIG lies later on in life. The lies that keep them from going off the deep end into insanity. Take the universe, grind it up into the finest powder and sift it through the finest sive, and show me one molecule of justice, one atom of mercy, a shred of love. No, these things do not exist in the material universe at all. If they are to exist, they do so because human minds have chosen to imagine them, and to believe in them. Without belief, how can these things ever be?" -Death, in Terry Pratchett's "Hogfather" God is just an anthropomorphic representation of these concepts. God may not exist in the judeo-christian conception of him/her/it, but some sort of belief in god-like qualities is absolutely nesseccary! Belief is something humans need? We MUST believe in god-like qualities? Perhaps. But why does that belief HAVE to be in some kind of deity? I believe in myself, and I believe in the human race. I believe the good we can and have accomplished; I believe in the limitless potential of the human race, and I also believe in our failings, our evils. I believe that I alone am morally responsible for my own actions. I find belief in the human race and its potentials and pitfalls to be all the belief I need. And besides, since we rarely if ever manufacture gods that are bigger or better than ourselves, belief in humanity can be construed as belief in a deity.
_____________________________
The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. - Ayn Rand
|