Ifyoulikeitsomuchwhydontyougolivethere?

[oracleslave]

quit dodging, even a child could understand that question

If it's that simple then you should have no difficulty articulating it in a concise and meaningful manner then.

[NotAllThere]

I don't understand your question - do elaborate.

I got a child to explain it to me.

With reference to Occam's razor. Why is there something rather than nothing, since "nothing" is simpler than "something".

But IR35avoider has already shown that the Occam's razor argument is irrelevant as it applies to theories which are otherwise equivalent.

[NotAllThere]

I don't know, something from God obviously then he allocated the sun as the light from day 4

OK, but that doesn't answer the day question. "The evening and the morning were the first day". How can you have an evening or a morning without a sun?

[TimberWolf]

With reference to Occam's razor. Why is there something rather than nothing, since "nothing" is simpler than "something".

Why should that be true? Nothing is probably impossible.

The sheer existence of the universe proves it

[NotAllThere]

If your argument was valid then that would mean that these arguments are valid too:

The sheer existence of God proves he exists.
The sheer non-existence of God proves he doesn't exist.

Not really very helpful!

[Diver]

This thread has become really silly in my absence

I had such great hopes for it too

[TimberWolf]

If your argument was valid then that would mean that these arguments are valid too:

The sheer existence of God proves he exists.
The sheer non-existence of God proves he doesn't exist.

Not really very helpful!

Nope, unless 'God' is a synonym for the universe, since we that know the 'universe' does exist.

But getting back to nothing, that is not a simple concept at all. Something is easier to comprehend than nothing.

[TykeMerc]

Originally Posted by TykeMerc
An educated and enlightened society has no need for superstitious mythical nonesense irrespective of what the religion is called.
Religions have always represented the single most effective form of political and cultural control available especially in populations where the majority are poorly educated, fear of being branded a heretic (social isolation, torture and horrible death) or being damned for all eternity are hugely effective scare tactics.
The power of religion as a tool of political control has been understood for thousands of years it's clearly visible in Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Myan, Aztec, Persian, Chinese, Middle East (including Eastern Med) African, Indian and any other ancient civilisation you care to name that maintained a written or artistic record.
It's also clearly visible throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance up to the present day through the more "modern" religions i.e. Christianisty and Islam and those that survived from more ancient times like Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism.

When it comes to the educational credentials of most religions those are watered down somewhat by the requirement for conversion to and worship of the "educating" religion.

More people have killed and been killed in the name of religion than any other causes put together (I include rabid atheism as a religion here), over the centuries religions have perpetrated the vast majority of the atrocities committed on the planet.

My personal opinion is religions of all types have absolutely no place in the modern world, morals and ethics aren't don't belong to religions, they belong to rational human thought.


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how many atheist schools have been opened? where are all the atheist charities?

Most of the schools in my local area were built and instituted by wealthy Victorian businessmen not by any church. Who can say what their motivations were, but the fact that they retain the names of the individuals and often statues of these bygone pillars of society may tell a tale.

I notice that you conveniently failed to tackle the other points raised in my post........

There was an argument put forwards in this thread about the Christian Bible being older than the Quran and therefore taking precidence, does that argument apply to Egyptian, Greek, Hebrew, Hindu or even cave painting texts which pre date the Bible by a large margin?

As the Christian churches would have us believe that the only route to god/heaven/salvation/paradise (add or delete as appropriate) is via belief in their approach exclusively, what has happened to all of the billions of souls that existed prior to Christ? Are all these people damned for eternity because what the Christians term God couldn't be bothered to send salvation via Jesus for thousands of years. Even the Creationists claim that the Earth was populated for at least 2k years prior to Christ.

For that matter what happened to the poor buggers who lived and died before Christ was crucified but during his life, did they arrive at the pearly gates and get told to sod off because they were a few years/months/weeks/days/hours/seconds early?

Religions are tools of political control, precious little else.

[sasguru]

I got a child to explain it to me.

With reference to Occam's razor. Why is there something rather than nothing, since "nothing" is simpler than "something".

But IR35avoider has already shown that the Occam's razor argument is irrelevant as it applies to theories which are otherwise equivalent.

On reflection, you're right, Occams Razor doesn't apply here.
On the one hand we have a perfectly good theory with plenty of evidence to explain why humans beings and other creatures on this earth are as they are. On the other hand there is some supernatural mumbo jumbo that involves human beings being created on one day of the week that it took to create everything else.
So no we don't need to invoke poor old Ockham.

As far as the OP's question goes, it is of course simpler to have nothing, hence we have no God ( qualified to "no God who intervenes any more even if something we call God which is beyond our comprehension made up all the laws of physics and maths which comprise the rules of the universe").

It is perfectly possible that the Universe is an experiment started by some greater intelligence much as we would breed flies in a petri dish or program a game of life.
Which of course leads to the question - what is beyond the Universe?

[Bob Dalek]

Nope, unless 'God' is a synonym for the universe, since we that know the 'universe' does exist.

But getting back to nothing, that is not a simple concept at all. Something is easier to comprehend than nothing.

No we don't. The universe is a creation of my solipsistic existence.