Morgan Freeman "I think we invented God."

Originally posted by Chamberf=6
Imagination (I can't believe you left out this BIG factor) and a need to find "explanations" for natural phenomena like rain, lightening, day/night progression, etc.

Something/someone all powerful, they may have thought, was doing these things. Over time stories, legends, led to "beliefs".

I lean towards that thinking myself.

edit on 6/10/2012 by Chamberf=6 because: (no reason given)

We as sentient, self aware, problem solving creatures have a tendency to WANT to explain things. If its in a positive way, all the better.

I dont think man suddenly imagined up a being all powerful and all knowing, I tend to think it was the only way for them to explain contact from ET'.s

BUT, if you dont want to buy into that, a more believable answer for those who are more close minded would be this:

Group of cavemen are out hunting, forraging for food. Suddenly a sabretooth tiger jumps out of no where and takes one of them down by the throat. They all run and scream and retreat to their camp. Everyone is shaken up, sad, angry, afraid. The leader, or elder realizes something must be done to boost morale or they will all starve to death. So, he comes up with this story; " Do not feel sadness for your fallen friend, for he is in a better place now. He is up in the stars with our ancestors, looking down and watching over us. Do not be afraid, because it was just his time. Some of us will leave this world sooner than others, but we will all meet again."

Strange how people get so bent out of shape because of one famous person's opinion. People are so quick to tear the man down, even resorting to quoting national inquirer type sources about negative gossip. He thinks man invented god, which is probably correct, since no evidence anywhere suggest a god or creator is present. Don't take it so personally. Admit you don't know the answer to everything and move on.

Originally posted by Bob Sholtz
all concept of morality falls away without a higher power. "without god, all things are permissible".

Without law, all things are permissible. It's easy to make laws that say "don't hurt me". Most of us can agree to that. The golden rule tries to say "don't hurt anyone". That's the only religion you need. It's part of law, but law goes into when to stone your children. Oh......wait

You can easily expand the "don't hurt anyone religion" with, "don't encourage others to hurt themselves" or "don't hurt yourself". You can also add "alleviate hurting".

Of course this religion doesn't provide an origin of everything. That's for science to figure out. Science is not "Well, we create things, so we must have been created". It doesn't give you a person or persons to put above yourself. We're all equal members of a wonderful species. This religion doesn't give you a new life when you die. Nothing will. No matter how scared or angry that makes you, wishful thinking will not make it come true.

What God are we talking about here? The one that makes your face work or the one from the Bible? Clarification perhaps..

Originally posted by michaelbrux
reply to post by NorEaster

 

"If you study creativity and inventiveness, you discover that creativity and invention are reconfigurations of existent notions, and that even the most novel concept has logical linkage with a previous notion or concept. Well, except for this very inexplicable concept."

So, even though every idea has a source, a belief in God does not have one, for if it did, one must eventually accept the existence of God as fact; this notion, unlike every other thought or idea humanity as ever had appeared from nowhere?

That makes perfect sense, although it made sense to me differently than it did to you. You assume that man came up with the idea of god first and that creativity and invention made everything else using the idea of god as basis.

I think that god was invented or created at a later time using some previous belief as a start. I mean, imagine cave man ages ago, just becoming intelligent enough to start thinking about that family member they buried outside the cave. I would imagine man invented ghosts and apparitions far earlier than he would have invented man in the sky or demons. God is a reconfiguration of an earlier notion of a developing human mind.



Khar

reply to post by NorEaster


Your premis is wrong. Apophenia exists. It's probably what makes us (our brain) human.

Source: en.wikipedia.org...

Originally posted by FlyersFan

So when Morgan Freeman dies, and is standing before his Creator, he's going to say ... 'you are a figment of my imagination .. go away'. I'm wondering if God will be amused at the arrogance of Freeman.

I could have picked any of these to quote, but my question is why Morgan Freeman, an actor, is given any particular credence on theological matters. Actors, with a few exceptions, are not particularly well-educated and, when they are, it is usually in the fine arts. Yet they can wax eloquent on any subject they know less about than anyone else in the audience, and we suck up their words like gospel. I really don't care about some actor's politics or whether he likes Obama or not. It's completely irrelevant. Of course, he's the celebrity with the big bucks.

More to your point, Flyer. I've wondered the same thing. I'd love to be a fly on the wall when people like Richard Dawkins, or, indeed, any loud-mouthed atheist wakes up dead, but still conscious and finally realizes, "Oops! I f'd up!"

reply to post by schuyler


Which god? Zeus or Odin?

reply to post by schuyler


have some faith , and imagine the faces of the wrong-uns too .

its how survivors at Banda-Ache accepted the tsunami . and they will never have it any other way ever again , unless another generation forgets the (true) wisdoms of the foregoing .

Originally posted by john_bmth
reply to post by schuyler

 

Which god? Zeus or Odin?

I never mentioned a God in my post. I never suggested there was a God. You may be making assumptions here. All I'm suggesting is that we survive death. I ascribe to no holy books or religion.

reply to post by schuyler


You said:

I'd love to be a fly on the wall when people like Richard Dawkins, or, indeed, any loud-mouthed atheist wakes up dead, but still conscious and finally realizes, "Oops! I f'd up!

(emphasis mine)

So you did mention god, albeit in a round about way.

reply to post by Havick007

I think it makes people crazy, not moral. People don't need religion to be moral.

If religion tells people that eating nuts is a sin, then that's crazy.

The bulk of religion isn't rational. It's crazy. Period.

I think people do it because of deep interlocking existential fears: death, disease, misfortune, etc. They want to believe there's more to reality than dogs eating dogs to be king of the hill.

You know how parents hide the truth from children and make things appear better than they really are? This is what religion does but for adults, not children. It makes adults feel empowered.

Reality is a whole lot of bad things. Religion helps us pretend it's not as bad as it looks. The reason the religious don't like atheists is because they're afraid atheists are right.

Think about it.

A universe of evil that has no god to make things right or to inflict punishment on the guilty. A universe that's supposedly destined to expand until everything is stretched so madly apart that life, if it exists at all, is isolated and trapped. A universe where time and space guarantee that huge chunks of the universe will always be off limits simply because we will never ever be able to reach them unless we somehow travel faster than the speed of light. A universe where death and disease and misfortune and permanence ensure despair persists. A universe ruled by physics and mathematics.

Some of this is true, but most of it's just coming from their prejudiced perspective.

Originally posted by john_bmth
reply to post by schuyler

 

You said:

I'd love to be a fly on the wall when people like Richard Dawkins, or, indeed, any loud-mouthed atheist wakes up dead, but still conscious and finally realizes, "Oops! I f'd up!

(emphasis mine)

So you did mention god, albeit in a round about way.

edit on 11-6-2012 by john_bmth because: (no reason given)

Good Lord. Do we have a face palm icon? Where is "God" in my post that you quoted? I find it absolutely frustrating that even after I explained myself, you are still claiming that. I didn't claim "God" in a roundabout way. Atheists do not believe in God. They do not believe we survive death. I believe the latter. All I said was that I believe we survive death. How, sir, does that in any way equate to "God"? You bolded "atheist" so if I mention "atheist" that actually means I mentioned "god"???? If I said "sugar" does that mean I mentioned "salt"?

1. I believe we survive death and move to a different state.

2. I DO NOT believe in the Christian or any other "god," Jesus, Allah, ar any other jacked up religion invented by humans with no basis in fact.

Now stop trying to put words in my mouth and pay attention instead. I think you are willfully 'misunderstanding' me, though for what purpose I have no idea.

reply to post by schuyler


Atheist = "a rejection of the belief in a deity or deities". Do why exactly would an atheist remark "opps, i f'd up!" in the afterlife if deities did not exist? What exactly is your point again?

Originally posted by schuyler

Originally posted by john_bmth
reply to post by schuyler

 

You said:

I'd love to be a fly on the wall when people like Richard Dawkins, or, indeed, any loud-mouthed atheist wakes up dead, but still conscious and finally realizes, "Oops! I f'd up!

(emphasis mine)

So you did mention god, albeit in a round about way.

edit on 11-6-2012 by john_bmth because: (no reason given)

Good Lord. Do we have a face palm icon? Where is "God" in my post that you quoted? I find it absolutely frustrating that even after I explained myself, you are still claiming that. I didn't claim "God" in a roundabout way. Atheists do not believe in God. They do not believe we survive death. I believe the latter. All I said was that I believe we survive death. How, sir, does that in any way equate to "God"? You bolded "atheist" so if I mention "atheist" that actually means I mentioned "god"???? If I said "sugar" does that mean I mentioned "salt"?

1. I believe we survive death and move to a different state.

2. I DO NOT believe in the Christian or any other "god," Jesus, Allah, ar any other jacked up religion invented by humans with no basis in fact.

Now stop trying to put words in my mouth and pay attention instead. I think you are willfully 'misunderstanding' me, though for what purpose I have no idea.

edit on 6/11/2012 by schuyler because: (no reason given)

1. A worthy hope. Though basically unprovable.
2. An atheist after my own heart.

So, if I may, from whence comes the belief that we survive death and to what state do we move ?

This is an honest inquiry. Having no beliefs, as such, beyond "Enjoy what you have for it is all you get."
I find the system of (often blind, unquestioning)belief in others (guess it's why I am driven to question the religious) fascinating.

reply to post by NorEaster

I don't believe in the god Morgan Freeman doesn't believe in either.

The real God is not a figment of my imagination ... I am a product of His imagination.

reply to post by NorEaster


This man is nothing more than an actor. His opinion has no greater worth than your average person. That said, I've boycotted every movie this idiot has made ( avoided seeing it in the theater) in over a decade and if it was something I really wanted to see it is a bootleg.

Originally posted by schuyler
I'd love to be a fly on the wall when people like Richard Dawkins, or, indeed, any loud-mouthed atheist wakes up dead, but still conscious and finally realizes, "Oops! I f'd up!"

OK, if they wake up in this afterlife that you say is not part of a god's judgment, how have they screwed up? I would think that they only had held an incorrect thought. Where is the harm?

Also, where are the scientific studies that prove we are conscious after death? Is it more of a theory based on evidence? What is this evidence? What is the proposed length of time we remain conscious, and how was that determined?

Originally posted by luciddream

Originally posted by openminded2011
I do not understand the arrogance of atheists who vehemently attack any form of a belief in God, rationalizing a strong position due to lack of proof of God, when they can give NO proof as to the NON existence of God. I recently saw a documentary about the search for extraterrestrial life, where a scientist stated "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence". This also applies to God. So please, someone indulge me, please present your PROOF of the non existence of God.

Turning the table are we..? first provide that your god exist, THEN we can DEBATE on testing your method to see if we can disprove that god doesn't exist.

Prove me Santa Claus doesn't exist.(not the st, but the fat guy with red suit that coco cola made, which children belief, which i will believe for this argument sake). while you are at it, Tooth Fairy, Leprechauns, Dwarfs, Elves... etc..

If you warns proof, go look in a mirror. If that doesn't suffice, there is no proof I can possibly give you that will.