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Dylan
The concept of time is purely man made and is only used as a form to keep track of how we observe the passage of events.
Time is not constant in how fast it passes. When you fly in a plane because you travel so fast, less time will pass for than for the people on the ground. Experiments have been done in which a timer in a plane has shown that you can gain a few seconds while in flight.
I think I will have to do a full post in my 'Workings of the Universe' to try and explain it all. It can get a little confusing, although I can say that I did understand Steven Hawking's 'A Brief History of Time' and other books that I have read dealing with the subject. I would recommend finding 'A Brief History of Time' if you seriously want to understand some of these ideas better.
posted by
kooka_lives
on February 10, 2006 at 8:36 PM
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I don't sufficiently understand the theory of relativity of time to address
this. Someone once explained an aspect of it to me, and I only vaguely understood. To me, time only has meaning if it is linear, if effects can be traced to causes occurring previously. If what is past is actually future, then it's like, what's the point of the concept of time?
posted by
Dyl_Pickle
on February 10, 2006 at 6:33 PM
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Dylan
I use the term 'Believers' to refer to those with a belief in God. I agree that atheism is a form of beliefs.
I do not really agree with your logic about there having to be a God because there had to be something that did not need something to create it. For one thing, we know that time is relative and in some ways it would be possible for the beginning of what we know as the universe to happen in the future and so it does become possible that we ourselves become God and complete a circle of existence.
There are just too many unanswered questions about the universe and existence as whole. I very much feel the God idea is just a cheap answer that many people use in order to not have to think about it too much and in the end it really gives no reliable answers.
posted by
kooka_lives
on February 8, 2006 at 6:59 PM
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No, atheism IS a belief. That's the point.
And a leap of faith, actually. To not be sure whether or not there is a God or are gods is called agnosticism. That's non-belief -- not believing one way or the other. Atheism says, in contrast, "We believe there is no God."
In the case of aliens...ghosts...etc... if someone says they exist and it turns out they don't, we can prove so by saying, "Look, that's not a ghost -- that's a cloud. That's not a UFO -- it's an old Russian satellite."
In the case of God, however, no such disproof is available. We don't say, "Look, there's God, an old man with a long beard in the sky." We say he is not necessarily visible or verifiable, not by human means.
Plus, there is an intellectual argument that suggests God's existence. All life forms have to depend on some previous life form to give rise to them. At some point, there must be a life form that does not depend on a previous one for its existence; that is, a life form that is original, independent and creative. We call this God. Whether this God is personal, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, this argument does not address. But it recommends faith as more than an arbitrary postulate.
posted by
Dyl_Pickle
on February 8, 2006 at 6:35 PM
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Dylan
So you are saying if you do not believe in Aliens, then that is a nonbelief and is negative? Or what if you do not believe in monsters in the closet?
Sorry, but that logic does not really work. Atheism is not a non-belief. Being unable to believe in God is the same as being unable to believe in ghosts and myth and so on.
I believe in a while lot of things. Did you not read my list? I have very strong beliefs and I would challenge anyone to try and claim they are negative in anyway.
This is such misguided logic that causes a lot of wrong preconceptions about atheists. Just because we are unable (We really have no choice in the matter after all) to believe in God or the Bible, does not mean we believe in nothing. God is not the end all and be all of belief .
I have yet to see anything to prove to me that nature is not naturally neutral. Positive and negative (Or good and evil) only come into play one man's motivations are present. Without the motive, all things are neutral. Through that religious beliefs are neither negative or positive, but it is the motivation behind them that shape them. Christianity, Muslim, Atheism, Buddhists, The Church of Satan and so on, are all neutral belief. They become positive or negative by the motives you put into them and what beliefs you hold about them.
posted by
kooka_lives
on February 6, 2006 at 7:54 AM
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Well, atheism is a negative belief, a belief in something's non-existence,
while Christianity (and other religions) is a positive belief, a belief in something's existence. It does not mean atheists cannot believe in something positive, but when most people believe in something, those who do not believe in it will get their own negatively-defined category.
I do not agree with you about the positive/negative aspect of religion, but I accept your proposition that atheism need not mean pessimism.
posted by
Dyl_Pickle
on February 5, 2006 at 7:39 PM
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So you're a believer, you believe things will work out for the better
through your positive outlook and personal effort. You use the word believer but really most "believers" do there best to disbelieve a heck of a lot of things.
posted by
SuccessWarrior
on February 5, 2006 at 2:11 PM
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you accentuate the positive
and elliminate the negative
looks to me like you have a postivie side of life
certain aspects of Christianity, however, . . .
posted by
Xeno-x
on February 5, 2006 at 1:28 PM
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