>>69
And yeah, I am agnostic about the Christian God. But who cares? Now I don't even know why we're arguing. Neither of us believe in gods, theists are the real problem, so can we just give it a rest?
Now that's awfully hypocritical. You say theists are the real problem, but you tolerate them by assuring them of the feasibility and rationality of their beliefs.
In any case, as I said before, if you're agnostic about the biblical God, you're just ignorant. There is a mountain of evidence against His existence, and as I explained time and time again, "God works in mysterious ways" is not a refutation of this. Nowhere does the Bible mention God's intention to remain hidden, and everywhere does he have humans praise him for his wondrous (falsifiable!) accomplishments.
We might never answer these questions, but we can still wonder and put meaning (even if artificial) into our pathetic existances.
When you're wondering about unfalsifiable things, you're wasting your time. We're trapped in our reality, so pondering about two different causes for reality is meaningless; we end up with the same reality, so what's the point? These things make for great fiction, but it's foolish to take it seriously or to talk about believing one or the other. A rose is a rose is a rose.
However, isn't the whole point of religion/its imitation products to ponder about what is out there/why we exist?
No. The point of religion is most certainly not to ponder about what is out there or why we exist; religious people already know these things. The point of small-scale religion is to polarize humans into tribal warfare; it's to create a feeling of belonging to a group to the extent that you're willing to slaughter everyone who doesn't agree with you. This is a huge evolutionary benefit. We can see this in the beginnings of all religions; take a read through Genesis sometime and read about the endless stories of villages slaughtering each other and raping their women, all condoned by God.
The point of large-scale religion is simply to enslave the masses. You've got your billions of people brainwashed by your teachings; now you can do whatever you want with them. For a thousand years, the entire world was run by the Christian clergy (and they didn't call it the Dark Ages because it was dark). Even today, for over a billion people, what the Pope says goes unconditionally.
One aspect of philosophy is to wonder about what is out there and why we exist. As I said above, this is pointless; these people should be called authors and writers, not philosophers. Philosophy is a much stronger field of study when it leans towards anthropology.
If you really want, we can just give up, not care, and chug a couple of bottles of vodka.
This fucking pisses me off. It's downright insulting. It's one of the most elitist arguments against atheism: the notion that atheists just want to sit around and get drunk, and not care about anything.
There is so much to learn that CAN be tested, and that IS falsifiable and knowable. We shouldn't waste our time with philosophical bullshit when we can perform real science and learn the real physical laws of our universe. Way to trivialize science, dickhead.