This is an exerpt from The hitchikers guide to the Galaxy. It is a funny book that you probably shouldn't take even remotly serious, but non the less I find that this Quote is extremely interesting.

"The Babel fish is small, yellow and leech-like, and probably the oddest thing in the Universe. It feeds on brainwave energy recieved not from its own carrier but from those around it, It absorbs all unconscious mental frequencies from this brainwave energy to nourish itself with. the practical upshot of this is that if you stick a Babel fish in your ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any language.

Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anhthing so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see as a final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God. The argument goes like this : "I refuse to prove that I exist", says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."

"But", says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway isn't it? it could not have evolved by chance. it proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED."

"Oh dear", says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.

"Oh that was easy" says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.

Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation."

Now if you use this logic, but insert evolution instead of the fictional "Babel Fish" it makes things a little more interesting.

There will never be proof or disproof about the existence of higher powers in this universe Just a bunch of talk

Oh I think there will be proof and everyone will discover the proof upon their own demise! If there is no afterlife, persons of no faith in God won't be smug because they will have been right, there is nothing. If there is no afterlife persons of faith won't really care, will they?

On the other hand if God does exist and there is an afterlife, persons of no faith might have some explaining to do while persons of faith might be curious to hear their explanations.

The upside of having faith in God is that believers have everything to gain and nothing to lose while non-believers are in a lose/lose situation.

Im not trying to make anyone beleive anything I am just playing the devils advocate

Neither am I. I'm just making point of what we can expect after we die, whether we be believers or non-believers.

with your reasoning the best thing to do would be to believe in every religion world wide. That way you would not be surprised when you met the real God.

Interesting thought! Still, in my own opinion, it's better to believe in something than being entirely humanistic. If what I believe is incorrect, at least I can say "Oops, my bad!".

No one else gets to say "my bad"?

If a person is only believing in a certain religion because they think it might appease a God should that God happen to turn out to be a reality,....

Then they're viewing religion entirey in the wrong light.

I doubt that any God would view a crap shoot belief as having much spiritual value.

If I'm going to believe in something, it has to be because I genuinely believe in it.

To just pretend to believe in case an angry God might need to be appeased would be living a lie.

And even the God itself would know that my make-pretend belief was a lie. Just to shoot craps (just to be on the safe side?)

What an empty faith that would be.

Is that what I wrote? That no one else gets to say that, but me? Please show me where I said that? Ahhh, reading into what I say? A few people love do that here, don't they?

"Oops, my bad!" is something anyone/everyone can fall back on with humility. What statement will you fall back on?

wait..believers have nothing to lose!? what if you are in a life/death situation? the person with faith will wait for angels, while the independent thinker will make their own move and save their own live. the religious person lost that situation if they are wrong about an afterlife.

When your DEAD pilgrim! "upon their own demise! If there is no afterlife" is what's written. Did I say life/death situation? Read what's written will ya, and quit reading what isn't there!

Geez!

I am very confident that I won't need to say a thing. If there is a loving God that is like a father then he is probably a father like me and more interested in the things I succeeded in as opposed to concentrating on my failures.

I think you posted this in another thread. Got any different ideas?

But I have to add that if you are dead, your not going to prove anything to anybody. ~~You're dead.

I don't think people care about proving things like that when they are dead anyway.

JB

So I am in a lose/lose situation because I choose not to take faith in something that is yet to manifest itself to me? In your statement you seemed to miss the in-between, I don't believe but I also do not disbelieve...agnostic.

The 'what if' argument does not hold up from an atheist point of view.

Simple value placement and arithmetic shows clearly that an atheist has nothing to lose, except living life as they see fit.



A non-believer does not fear death without belief, therefore there is no reason to appease a non-existant entity. This would lesson their quality of life simply by doing so.

Thats a great take on one of my favorite pieces of literature ! I raise my glass to you!

Im not sure it matters that much if "God" exists or not. I know people exist, and people believe in "God". Peoples beliefs in "God" have a direct consequence on the world. You can live or die for "God" whether he's real or not. Many already have. So whats the difference really?

Good point Mirror.

Whether "God" is real or not, what is known is that "God" is real enough.