Comments by "Dennis" (@Dennis-nc3vw) on "" video.

  1. Free association begins now: This is my biggest obstacle to being religious: God's silence. But I did think of an interesting analogy recently. I teach programming and I try to avoid answering too many questions from students. They're supposed to learn to figure things out on their own. Maybe this is why God doesn't constantly tell us what to do. But on the flip side, the reason we want them to figure things out on their own is because we won't always be there to guide them. But God is supposed to be omnipresent and have infinite energy, so why couldn't He be? However, AFAIK the Bible actually never says God is all powerful. There is one quote "Nothing is impossible with God" that is used to support this, but that probably wasn't even meant to be taking literally (It's like saying "You can do anything you put your mind to"). However, it seems to me a lot of ideas that seem fundamental to Christianity have very little textual basis, like Hell being an eternal torture chamber (as opposed to the Annihilationist view), and were simply invented to motivate compliance in a more heavy handed fashion. The biggest reason I reject Christianity is the idea that God only presented Himself to one nation in the Middle East, so that it would take 1500 years to Christianity to make its way to the other half of the world.
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  2. But why does God want us to have "faith"? Why not simply belief? It seems like a very convenient coincidence that "God" wants us to have something that someone who was hoaxing you would also want you to have, ie trust without evidence.
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  3. I won't deny that a lot of this sounds like delusional mental gymnastics, but I also kind of vaguely get what they're saying. It's vaguely intuitive. For example, as someone who's learning coding, I don't think you could really learn coding if you always had a teacher standing over your shoulder, always answering your questions. But then my mind rebounds and I think "Well, why do we need to understand God if God is all powerful? We don't need our own understanding because it would cost nothing for God to make us fully dependent." But then I think about what I they said about freedom. You can't be free and totally dependent. God wants us to make our own decisions. But then I think "Why would God want us to make our own decisions if His judgement is perfect?" Meh, whatever. I need to stop thinking and get some sleep. God's silence is the biggest reason for I don't subscribe to any religion. I think Deism is pretty plausible, but the Christian preception of God as an omni-present, all powerful, loving, caring deity is a lot harder to swallow.
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