Many atheists have done exactly that, having been raised in or around religious social groups. I realize how silly it is to pretend you were making an actual point and not simply using the opportunity to call "logicalness" folks "nerds."
Religion, spirituality, God are something to be experienced with your heart and your soul. What is stopping you? Do you go to church and count how many times the pastor says, "praise the lord"? That's probably the problem.
Is that a euphemism for blind faith? Because that's what it sounds like. "I know it's ridiculous, and all the evidence is against it, but if you shut off your brain and just take it all in there's a peaceful numbing quality to it!" Thanks but no thanks. My intellect. Well, that and having the emotional maturity of a full-grown adult. I'm not addicted to any substances and I don't have any crisis that could be easily solved by absolving myself of responsibility and pretending there is a celestial father-figure who will make all the bad stuff go away. I don't go to church.
What I bolded was interesting. If religion is an improvement over current realities, then people will flock to it. The real question is: does science make our lives better than what faith provides? That's the real question.
God is a proposed system of undefined dimensions and with undefined properties. Does anyone have a problem with that? Religion is attempt to understand this system, but so far has been causal to mortal disagreements.
Huh? Do you mean that people kill each other over religion? People will kill each other over anything that is considered valuable: land, resources, money, love, ...
It depends on if you're speaking purely philosophically, or if you're referring to particular gods within our existing pantheon. And I still see no point in defining God as anything other than a persona. That makes it sound as if religion is an earnest attempt to understand a philosophical concept, which is patently untrue. Religion is dogma, a set of assumptions. Its currency is revealed truth. That's the opposite of understanding; that's obedience.
Which is strong evidence that religion is very important to people. There is a God shaped hole in our hearts that is filled by the spirit of God. I don't know why you don't feel the spirit of God in your heart, maybe because you put rocks there.
Science does not claim to make your make your life better, it only claims to make it easier, whereas faith does claim to make your life better but in general fails to deliver on the promise. And, Mazulu, as usual you are making unsubstantiated assumptions about the ability of atheists to live full rewarding lives, filled with joy, cooperation and good will to others. Your assumption is just one example of hypocrisy which has given religions such a bad name in general, even as there are sincere joyful, cooperative religious people of good will. But I would bet that these people would be that without religion, just like atheists.
Or, maybe it's because the heart only pumps blood and it is our brains you refer. So, tell us all, what exactly does the "Spirit of God" feel like?
In regards to your God and religion, that is true. The only experience we all have is the one where religious nut cakes run around telling us what to believe.
Do you like that computer you've got? How about air conditioning? The medical advances over the last century? None of those are products of faith.
OTOH, ghoulies , ghosties, and things that go bump in the night abound, along now with a bunch of soulless zombies. All with such very spiritual messages. What happened to our good old exorcism movies about religion saving people from the real demons. I miss them.
Isaiah 10:15 ESV Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? As if a rod should wield him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood!
