Quote Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie View Post
Yes, I know about the concept of jinni and this time last year I spent some time being educated about the subject in Morocco.

As for your lack of appreciation as to why the subject of 'God' and gods are mentioned in the same thread don't worry about it. I'm sure some people see the obvious connection.

As for the subject about religion being beyond the understanding of any 'human man' I beg to differ and very strongly indeed.
Most religions are folklore built on preceding religions and there are so many strands that provide us with a very good audit trail. Most people in this world who are believers just take the religious flavour that they were indoctrinated in and religions travel along the same pathways as language e.g. speakers of Latin languages around the world tend not only to be believers in the Abrahamist god but also to the Papal flavour. It's just a cultural influence determined where one was raised in time and place and very few believers have an understanding how their so-called holy books were compiled, by whom, how they were edited, re-edited and the de-selections through time (as well as the fact that many of the stories were filched from elsewhere).
Most religions were established when the average person had very little understanding of the world in the way of science (a.k.a. knowledge) and the stories filled that gap and served as encouragement, a supposed moral code to adhere to, a comfort blanket and a threat of being denied a place in paradise if not adhered to.
Religions are absolutely fascinating as a subject and as part of studying humanity but to imagine that any particular deity is more than a figment of people's imagination and a product of indoctrination is twaddle.
The Abrahamist god is a relative newcomer to the scene but if you live in a country that was once occupied by the Romans or in a country that was once occupied by an Empire that itself had been occupied by the Romans it is likely that you will consider the Abrahamist god as 'God'. Considering that Homo Sapiens have been around for about 200,000 years the Abrahamist god is rather late to the party and the majority of mankind who have ever lived never had any exposure to it and they believed in other belief systems.
Tis just down to conditioning and cultural influence. Find out what someone's mother tongue is/was in any time in history and, you have a damn good chance of guessing what flavour of religion they either belong to or were raised in.
Free will, it ain't.

You clearly feel very strongly about all this, which proves that without God there could be no atheists, and that atheism is a kind of religion itself.
The reality is that you are no more capable of scientifically proving that God doesn't exist than I am of proving scientifically that He does. Therefore both beliefs require faith, albeit opposite versions of faith.

It seems to me that given this choice between a philosophy of hope and one of hopelessness , that anyone would choose the latter. In fact I somewhat doubt that such a choice is quite as independant or objective as its followers might imagine.
Thing is that if you were ever to be proven correct , all you would have proven is that desolation is our only fate or destiny , which I would imagine must be a dissapointing "victory".
If victory it is ,then it's not a victory for you or for humanity is it ? Victory for something I expect !

Yet, free will it certainly is, and you demonstrate it by excersising it in the views you have expressed. Up to you in short, and although I'd be pleased for you if you reconsidered the subject , I'm not angry with you or annoyed that you disagree with me. I can only offer you a suggestion to rethink these matters .