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Originally Posted by Jentsu  The vast majority of atheists are agnostic as well. The two are not mutually exclusive.
Also, I'd never say that those who believe in a god are stupid. I know many intelligent, otherwise rational beings who believe in a god largely because you were brought up told that they must believe in a god, and have not come back to question the belief in the time since then. |
I agree, and I'm glad you are not calling anyone stupid.
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You cannot believe that the universe existed forever, but you can instead believe that a god existed forever? Also, the basis of belief simply upon what is comfortable is not necessarily what is right. I'd love to believe I'll be receiving a check for $10million in the mail tomorrow, but I doubt it will happen.
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The universe is what I know. It doesn't make sense (that is, it doesn't make sense to me, I'm not saying it's irrational) that it existed forever. A God, on the other hand is outside this realm and has his/her/its own rules and is therefore welcome to exist forever if he likes.
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Also, just because neither side can be proved due to the unfalsifiability of a god does not mean that one side is not more logical than the other. One side clings to old traditions and beliefs simply because that's what it was brought up with and that's what makes it comfortable. The other side rejects the beliefs because they are silly, irrational, and make no sense.
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Just because you think something is irrational, does not make it so. Many of the beliefs which some religions hold are irrational, but by no means all of them. You made a large, bold statement and gave it no support by the way.
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In what way? Please do explain this to me as though I had no idea what entropy was or how it relates to this at all. I'm quite interested in hearing the reason.
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Entropy is the notion that all things in the universe tend toward chaos. The universe is not in a state of total chaos. That means that at some point in the past the universe had lots of order. The only two ways that could happen is for the universe to give itself order -- which would violate the idea that it tends toward chaos -- or that some outside force (call it God if you like) acted upon it. Thus, since God is outside the universe He is welcome to violate the law of entropy, so He can create order. The universe cannot generate order in itself without violating the law of entropy. Aside: The law of entropy -- like all scientific laws -- was proposed to try to explain what we observe around us. That does not mean that it is set in stone or that it must hold everywhere and always.