i have read other studies that show prayer as power of thought.

thoughts are energy which has power.

not as a god thing but enough people put their power of thought toward a certain purpose that purpose is more likely to happen.

you can look at it as folks in a church praying to their god or you can look at it as a group of hippies putting their energy toward something but its the same thing.

im not saying its true but its a nice thing to believe is true.

My definition of atheism is correct. Here’s Diderot and d’Alambert’s definition of it from Encyclopedie.

"the opinion of those who deny the existence of a God in the world. The simple ignorance of God doesn't constitute atheism. To be charged with the odious title of atheism one must have the notion of God and reject it."

You’re wrong about buddhism. There are fringe buddhist sects that believe the things you said, but it’s like saying “christians protest at soldier’s funeral with homophobic signs” because of the fringe christian sect that did that. The vast majority of buddhists do not believe in any sort of god.

a scientific review..... on prayer... lol!

this post is pure whataboutism and addresses nothing i said.

No, saying that many buddhists believe in deities and supernatural elements that help or hinder their path to enlightenment is exactly the same as saying "Most Muslims believe Mohammed was a prophet."

You clearly know very little about Buddhism, and I'd be shocked if you've ever met a Buddhist. Get out and live a little.

And once again, having faith in ANY form of supernatural element, OR the soul, disqualifies you from Atheism. And yes, Atheism IS a faith. You have faith that nothing exists beyond the natural. Which, honestly, means you believe something even more difficult to comprehend than ANY religious person, no matter how whacked out. It puts you on the same level as those who would burn people alive for claiming that the Earth is spherical. They haven't seen it, therefore it can't exist, and by the way, it's time for you to die for believing it.

Atheists are honestly the most hideous people on the planet. Jihadists aren't entirely wrong when the call them animals, though I highly disagree that killing atheists is a mercy. The whole "Thou Shalt Not Murder" commandment that Jews, Christians, AND Muslims believe in should kind of prohibit that.

imo not that i have a dog in this fight id say logically deities is the incorrect factor, as that's split among Buddhists. rebirth is afaik 100% a staple of all Buddhist believers. making all of them theists imo.

unless there is some uber logical sect of Buddhists that believe "rebirth" is scientific and simple refers to passage of nutrients from one being to another via the breakdown of organic matter after death. maybe they exist.

the label of Buddhists being "enlightened athiests" imo is largely a misnomer to explain to westerners that they have no all powerful god of their faith and do not in fact worship Buddha, but in fact strive to be like him in their mortal capacity.

Deities are completely logical in the context of irrefutable and separable human experiences/emotions and describe these things which do not materially exist - just off the top of my head some Greco-Roman deities come to mind: Janus, the god of new beginnings (the experience of starting a new job, moving to a new place, etc.), Venus, the god of love and beauty, Mars, the god of anger and war. Then going back further deities also represented more abstract ideas e.g. Appolo and Dionysus, who represented order and chaos respectively, which are both irrefutable immaterial truths.

This framework of divinity held for thousands of years and built the (second)-most advanced human civilizations in human history (the first most advanced being our Latin-Franco-Anglo-Germano Christian enlightenment societal present era), and in order for people of intellect to reject the logical support of deities the philosophical framework for monotheism had to be taught.

Now, monotheism of course is the theologically and philosophically logical position, but deities are just one step behind that. The case for monotheism is not simple and is a conclusion that requires some significant consideration and thought to arrive at.

To expand a bit on the Greco-Roman pantheon, which was a hierarchy of these deities based on their very logical and real importance. Jupiter was the chief deity who represented the sky (the entire universe/cosmos outside of Earth) along with fatherly wisdom and decisive action (Jupiter literally translates to Sky Father). The image of Jupiter, a white-bearded man in long white robes, is still presently invoked as a representation of the monotheistic God and Father Time. This image is also used in contemporary works of fiction, which includes World of Warcraft's Aman'Thul, the fictional version of Jupiter within the fictional Titan Pantheon, inspired of course by the Greco-Roman pantheon.

Second-in-command to Jupiter was Mars who was the protector deity of civilization. Again this makes complete logical sense, because without a strong military & force of arms your civilization would be immediately sacked and conquered. The hierarchy of the pantheon follows these logical ideas of importance.

Jupiter = Tyr

These things go way farther back than written history (that is revealed to us atleast) and are the most core root of indigenous European "religion"

In reality it came from oral tradition and were metaphors and allegories, not meant to be taken literally like there is a Sky Daddy

this is also a ragebait thread from an energy vampire, but I really enjoy reading your posts.

Yes, the deities are syncretic across all independent civilizations which is strong evidence for their validity. The idea and archetype of a wise father is universal, just as wisdom is understood universally as the trait at the very top of the civilization hierarchy. These indeed formed from oral traditions preceding the written word or carved symbol, which itself was begotten of free thought.

Jupiter quite literally means sky father. No one ever actually believed there is a robed man in the sky like atheists absurdly believe, the image of Jupiter is a symbol which represents an abstract idea.

This post was edited by El1te on Jan 9 2025 11:15am