Does God Exist (making the rounds on Facebook)

[LuckyTheDog]

Run time: 01:19 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldHF6PFUukw   Posted on YouTube: May 07, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: September 27, 2009 By DU Member: LuckyTheDog Views on DU: 2422

 
One of my cousins posted this on Facebook, where it is making the rounds. Here was my response:

The existence of God cannot be proved or disproved through rhetoric or science. It would be silly for any teacher to say that God does not exist. I also like the idea that evil is, essentially, the absence of good and not a "thing" unto itself.

But... I still don't want school officials writing prayers and forcing kids to recite them as a group. I don't think schools serve kids by imposing the religious ideas of the teacher (or the school board) on the kids.What if the teacher is a Muslim and your kid is a Baptist?

Because religion is such a deeply personal thing, religious education belongs at home and at church. There is a lot school can do in terms of teaching ethics. But schools are not qualified to wade into issues like the divinity of Jesus or the meaning of the Book of Revelations.

Religion never left the schools. The only difference between now and the past is that kids now are expected to bring their religion to school with them, not pick it up in class.

[laconicsax]

1. Yes! Definitely! More religion in the schools!

I want to see kids learn that the Abrahamic god spoke the earth into existence on October 23rd, 4004 BCE. Teach the controversy!
I want to see kids learn that Marduk created the sky and the Earth from Tiamat's body. Teach the controversy!
I want to see kids learn that Odin created the Earth from the body of the frost giant Ymir. Teach the controversy!
I want to see kids learn that the Damballah created the earth by slithering across the waters and shedding his skin. Teach the controversy!
I want to see kids learn that the sky and the sea collided, creating three gods and the Earth is the aftermath of the battle between them. Teach the controversy!
I want to see kids learn that Atum masturbated, his ejaculate had sex with itself, and gave birth to the sky and the Earth. Teach the controversy!
I want to see kids learn that the water beetle created the Earth from mud brought to the surface of the water. Teach the Controversy!
I want to see kids learn that the sky came down to have sex with the Earth and the other gods got the sky to back off by smoking tobacco. Teach the Controversy!
I want to see kids learn that Lake Titicaca sprang out of darkness along with Con Tiqui Varacocha and the first humans. Teach the Controversy!
I want to see kids learn that the first humanity separated sky and earth so they could have some breathing room. Teach the Controversy!

[lib_wit_it]

3. Let's suggest this to our local schools. No, actually, we should demand it. Like the RW does,

[Turbineguy]

8. An impressive curriculum.

But I'd be satisfied with some basic math and language skills.

[laconicsax]

9. More religion could help there too!

The Bible is a veritable treasure-trove of basic math and language.

For example, 1 Kings 7:23 gives the value of _TT as 3, Ezra 1 shows that 2499=5469, Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7 show that 21,818 and 31,089 both equal 42,366.

As far as language is concerned, requiring students to learn the Bible in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, and German. Plus, the King James Bible is sort of written as prose and can take some effort to decipher the sentence structure if you're not used to it. They could also learn the Qur'an in Arabic, the Hindu texts in Sanskrit, the Book of the Dead in ancient Egyptian, etc. would give students a mastery of several languages.

[opihimoimoi]

2. Does She exist....? But of course,,,Mother nature has been there all along...

we have yet to listen...

[MrModerate]

4. Interesting . . . but to a nonreligious person, merely that.

Just suggests that Einstein was smart as a kid and could frame a cogent response to a flawed argument. IINM, this event never took place and the quotes are from his adult writings. And were made entirely outside any school context.

As propaganda, it's not bad -- certainly not as thumb-fingered as most pro-religion piffle -- but merely not bad. And their concluding argument -- that there should be more religion in school (and by that you can be sure they mean public schools, not private, religious-sponsored ones) -- is frankly preposterous. If anything, the commercial highlights the need to keep religion out of schools -- unless you want to increase the incidence of divisive and useless discussions like those portrayed in the clip.

[GillesDeleuze]

10. einstein and spinoza believed in the same god: none

[stlsaxman]

5. "Religion Is Knowledge, Too"? No, it is NOT- it is the manipulation of knowledge and

the manufacturing of facts to stifle an individuals thought process and inquiry into the world around them.

[stlsaxman]

6. here is a YouTube reply from someone who wants religion in schools...

"I think The reason religion isn't allowed in school is because a class discussion only stimulates someones desire for truth and wisdom...and as we can see evil is in the lead, leading those listening to their mind instead of their heart to our demise, change you thoughts so you can change your live... every month a space shuttle leaves earth but we remain oblivious to what is leaving earth, reducing the mass of the earth... no watering you grass when its the grass that cleans are atmosphere..."

Obviously, they didn't take their face out of The Bible during grammar class.

[stlsaxman]

7. "Evil Is An Abstract" Deleted scene from Dogma...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9qAqwIW704

[Mari333]

11. that was so lame.

my argument to the idjits who attempt to promote such drivel is to ask them "which goddess or god are you talking about?" , and then I proceed to reel off about 300000 names of gods and goddesses known to mythology. They get red faced and start yelling at me around that point, because in their closed off BUBBLEWORLD , they havent actually READ anything or learned about the myriad forms of 'god' that have been touted for 400,000 or more years in human mythology. No , they are little minds who sit and listen to their preachers and dont learn anything for themselves.
I dont suffer fools easily.

[Bucky]

12. That is such a total rip off of the awesome Chick Tract "Big Daddy" (link)

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0055/0055_01.asp





















It just keeps on getting better, until...

[Bucky]

13. By the way, that's a pretty powerful doctrinal statement: "Evil doesn't exist"

Consider how many groups--just among Christian denominations alone--strongly believe that evil is an active and tangible force in the universe. Trying to get religion into schools, if this is the philosophy behind it, would mean having the power of the state attacking the teachings of all of those doctrines that that taught that Satan is real. If I were a preacher, I'd consider this intrusion of the state into my beliefs to be a direct attack on my congregation and our free worship of God.

[JDPriestly]

14. Every question about God depends on your definition of God.

If you define God as the creator, then God created everything, the darkness (the absence of light) and the light (the presence of light), heat (the presence of warmth) and cold (the absence of warmth). We humans define darkness as good or bad, etc. It isn't good or bad. It is just energy.

I understand God to be an energy -- a creative force.

With arrogance and narcissism, we ascribe to God a human personality. We describe God as loving (us, but not, for example, ants or termites). We describe God as all powerful. We assume that God can create in the way that we can make a stool from the wood of a tree and destroy at whim, the way that we can smash the stool. That is all our imagination and our human narcissism.

I understand God to be the force of creation that is beyond our understanding, that is not human at all. The Bible states otherwise, but it was "written" by primitive people and was handed down orally from generation to generation probably for a long time before being written down. People read it in a translation of a translation and think they are reading God's word. But in fact, God's message is not in words but in the natural world around us and in us.

So, the teacher and the little girl in this video are asking and answering an irrelevant question. Does God exist? Some force created the world. Some force smashed the atoms together and created light and dark. Was that force like us humans? Probably not at all.

So where do we stand in relationship with God? Exactly as we stand with our environment including the people and natural world around us. So, that is why wise, spiritually advanced people like Jesus teach us that "God is love." Because through love, we can work together to make our world a safe place for us during our earthly lives.

. . . .

My husband adds that his answer would be: "How can God, who is omnipresent be absent?" Or, conversely, "How can God who is absent be omnipresent?"

[BREMPRO]

15. Einstein never said this. This reenactment is pure fiction. Snopes debunked it.

http://www.snopes.com/religion/einstein.asp

Einstein also has been associated with a belief in god, also untrue. Richard Dawkins debunked this.

Einstein is spinning at the speed of light in his grave.

[BREMPRO]

16. anyone who sees this sould call the station and tell them to take it off the air

it's a distortion of the legacy of a great thinker and scientist. HE NEVER SAID ANY OF WHAT IS IN THIS REENACTMENT-it's internet myth perpetrated by fundies- pure fiction. See my other post for link to Snopes debunk.