What is THE question that could be asked

[Ferrets are Cool]

of a pastor on Sunday, in the middle of the congregation, that would cause him/her to stutter and be unable to give an answer?

This one is kinda weak, but how about, "If god is all powerful, why does he need OUR hard earned money?" Or maybe more to the point, "If god is all powerful, why does he need YOU to tell us about him? Why can't he do it himself?"

Or, "Why did god have to murder millions of children with the flood to prove a point?"

There are hundreds of questions that have no answers other than "faith". What would yours be?

[Walleye]

1. Is god male or female?

Or the classic, Where did Cain’s wife come from

[Butterflylady]

23. Yep, that was the question I asked my grandma

When I was an eight year old. She was a hard Baptist an
D she said "you have to have faith." Well as an eight year old that wasn't an answer so I knew then the bible was not to be believed.

[nightwing1240]

2. Can anyone say with one hundred percent certainty

That the sun will rise tomorrow morning? We can all make that claim over experiencing it day in and day out. But there is still that teeny tiny possibility that it won't. What would you chalk that up to other than faith?

I am not saying you do not have valid questions. I am saying faith is a very real thing.

[Ferrets are Cool]

3. I would argue that the sun rising tomorrow

has nothing to do with faith.

[nightwing1240]

4. then how do you accept that it will rise?

That is the question. If not faith, then what?

[MiHale]

5. Science.

[LakeArenal]

8. Science is real.

[Ferrets are Cool]

17. ...

[Srkdqltr]

6. If the sun doesn't rise tomorrow that means the earth and all in it are gone.

Then it won't matter.

[czarjak]

12. Fuck fake faith.

[Voltaire2]

16. What? I chalk it up to probability.

As in I’m 99.999999% confident that the earth will continue to rotate and the sun will continue to do its thing for the next 24 hours. Actually for the next few billion years as well

That has f-all to do with ‘faith’.

Also your fallacy is: equivocation.

[Farmer-Rick]

28. The sun rising has happened every day for my entire life

I have seen it with my own eyes. I have experienced it in a very physical way every day of my life. That's not faith. That's fact.

I guarantee you if I actually saw this invisible god the way I see the sun, I would believe in a god. But I have never seen a god do anything.

Faith is believing with absolutely no evidence. Because if you have evidence, you don't need faith.

I can have faith in anything. I can have faith that people who are different from me are bad. Or I can have faith they are just simply different. Faith can be used to believe both something true or something false. It is not a good tool for figuring out what is true or false.

So, faith is rather useless as a tool if you want to know the truth.

[edhopper]

45. It's not faith

that we understand how the solar system works.
The sun does not rise, the earth spins on it's axis. Now there are several events that could change that like the sun going nova or the earth hit buy a planetoid. But as we see no evidence of those about to happen, I anticipate seeing the sun tomorrow. No faith needed. Faith is belief without evidence. And science doesn't deal in 100% certainty only probabilites. QED

[MiHale]

7. Once again an "all knowing god" question...

Since god “knows all”, god obviously knows religion is one of the most divisive things for “god’s people”, it starts wars…etc., it in all reality kills innocent people.

Why doesn’t god prove to us it’s reality? Put an end to the suffering caused by not knowing.
If we knew for a fact god existed it would go a long way to end that suffering.

[LakeArenal]

9. My question..... How can any human let alone a deity allow the torture of children?

god could fix that in a minute. Should have never allowed it.

All because god holds a 2000 year old grudge against a woman who ate a piece of fruit.
god’s creation. The woman and the fruit.

Fruit of knowledge no less.

Edit to add: IF the sun didn’t come up tomorrow, science would know why? Would god?

[Farmer-Rick]

32. Yeah, that's the real killer question

Children are horribly abused, suffer and die everyday and what did god do about it?

Where were those children's saving angels?

[LakeArenal]

35. Where was Jesus. A lot of talk no saving.

[cloudbase]

10. If there was one absolutely true religion,

why would it not be so obvious that everybody would subscribe to it?

[gibraltar72]

11. Why is Dick Cheney alive when innocent children die?

[Farmer-Rick]

42. Because he's richer and more powerful than those children

And god seems to save the rich and sneaky much more often than the innocent and less powerful.

And he's got better medical insurance than you and I will ever have. So much for fairness.

[nightwing1240]

13. Since the OP mentioned the word faith

I've only been trying to point something out. I am not trying to prove there is or is not a deity that is not my intention. The definition of the word faith (it has usage beyond religion) is the firm belief in something for which there is no proof.

Hope that explains what was meant. thank you

[Farmer-Rick]

29. Yeah, that's why faith is useless

If you had faith you don't need evidence. But faith can be had for anything. I have faith big foot exists. Since you don't need evidence, it is more an excuse for believing something with no proof.

[Warpy]

14. Nothing, I haven't set foot in a church in 58 years.

If any god turns up at my death I'll ask it why it felt the necessity to hide itself away like a frightened child, allowing loonies and charlatans to speak in its place.

I don't expect it, after all, none of them bothered to turn up when I was doing LSD in the 60s.

[Mr.Bill]

15. Bottom line is,

this god I hear everyone talk about sounds like a real asshole.

[Ferrets are Cool]

18. And a sadist

[joshdawg]

19. Have the pastor explain, if he can, god's "will."

Is it god's "will" that the holocaust happened?
That hitler damn near destroyed the world?
That over 20 million people died in WWII?
That serial killers do their thing?
Or is it that god's "will" allows a football player to catch a touchdown pass?
Or a baseball player hits a grand slam home run?
I could go on, but the message is there.

god's will, like the idea of god itself, is nothing more than bullshit.

I'll step down from my orange crate now.

[Ferrets are Cool]

20. Yeah, if players on both teams are praying

for victory, who does god answer?

[RussBLib]

21. I don't have a question for the pastor

That pastor has gone through the same questioning as I have and did, and was likely troubled by their own questions. I turned my back on that crap. And yet, they found some salve, some palliative, some particular phrasing in the Bible to help soften the doubt so as not to upset the applecart.

There is likely no question that I could ask that the pastor had not already considered. That is, if the pastor ever really examined their faith. Their answer is likely to be pablum, or yammering on about how faith is needed.

They can have their religion. They can chant their chants, pray their prayers and cast their sacred spells all they want, and all I want is to keep their crap out of the public square. Our Constitution and Founders gave churches the right to exist, but also seeks a separation of state and church. That's what I work towards.

[Ferrets are Cool]

22. +1

[Random Boomer]

24. What's the point of this question?

I don't go into people's home and bully them, and this sounds incredibly belligerent and disruptive. Why would you do this, even as a thought experiment?

If a religious person steps on my toes, I respond. But I don't go on the offensive to attack them when they're in their own place, minding their own business. If they stay there, I leave them alone.

[Ferrets are Cool]

25. This is a dicussuon board. If you don't like a question,

don't click on it. It's really simple.

[Random Boomer]

26. It's "questions" like this that give atheists a bad name.

I'm "discussing" this post because it's just this kind of aggressive attitude that distorts the image of atheists. As a gay person, I wouldn't appreciate some Christian homophobe coming to a gay rights meeting with the same motivation to disrupt and aggravate. It works the other way, too.

That distorted perception of atheists makes my life as an atheist more difficult than it needs to be. That makes it my business, too.

[Ferrets are Cool]

27. You are entitled to your "opinion".

As I am entitled to mine. Asking a question doesn't mean one would actually commit to action. My life as an atheist is not difficult at all. I am sorry if yours IS. AND, your business is your business. It is no concern of mine.

edit to add: Your analogy is nonsensical. Gay people do not stick their beliefs into MY life and the lives of others trying to control how they live their lives. So-called christians do this on a daily basis.

[Farmer-Rick]

30. The problem is religious people don't stay in their lane

That's the whole reason women in almost half the states can't get abortions. Because some silly man thinks he knows that a god wants us to think human life is magically sanctified when a sperm wiggles its way into a human cell.

That is Catholic doctrine that the silly Protestants have embraced because god. If my wife thinks gods are a bad joke why should she be forced to birth a zygote against her will? Human life is not sanctified. The state, governments and religions kill human life every day.

You do know this is the Atheist and Agnostic group forum you are posting in right?

[Random Boomer]

33. You're preaching to the choir

If religious people step out of their lane to impinge on other people's rights, slap them down. I'm absolutely on board with making sure they don't impose their irrational, rabid beliefs on anyone else.

But that's not the context of the OP. The proposed context is to go into a church and try to make fools of the people there. It's not about holding firm on human rights, it's about poking Christians with sticks just because they're a supposedly easy target.

Honestly, I find that sort of behavior to be rather vile, even hypothetically. I have no interest in making fun of Christians or any other religion. I don't believe in their claptrap, and I never have. I've been an atheist for nearly 70 years now, but I don't find sport in taunting the religious, no matter how delusional I believe them to be. They are entitled to their obsequious obedience to their skygod, as long as they don't mandate that I join them.

[Farmer-Rick]

34. OK, gotcha

I misunderstood.

Though I really want to make a joke about poking Christians with sticks. But I won't.

[Ferrets are Cool]

36. No, it wasn't.

YOU are the one who misinterpreted.

[Farmer-Rick]

31. But the real question I have for some preacher

Is why does a god need us to worship him?

It's kind of creepy and sounds like a very insecure man. Bow down to me or I shall smite you. Why????

Why do we have to bow to gods? I don't bow to or worship my parents who brought me into this world. I don't bow to or worship the filthy rich or political leaders just because they may have power over me.

Why do gods demand worship?

[Ferrets are Cool]

37. +1

[nightwing1240]

38. I said nothing about god or religion

I have asked about the use of a word. Nothing more and nothing less.

[Martin Eden]

39. I m going with George Carlin, from "Class Clown"

If God is all powerful, can he make a rock so heavy that he himself can't lift it?

[Ferrets are Cool]

40. ...

[Martin Eden]

41. OK, here's a serious question I might ask a pastor

Do devout Muslims, who worship the God of Abraham, go to Heaven?

My parents were not religious, so I was not indoctrinated as a child. As I grew up and and became more aware of the workd's religions -- nearly all claiming to be the one "true" religion -- I concluded none of them were.

[Mr.Bill]

43. If Notre Dame Beats Loyola in football,

Does that mean god hates Loyola?

[Ferrets are Cool]

44. LOL

Or vice versa.

[edhopper]

46. Why did God

never condemn slavery? He used a commandment to stop people from making art about him, but said nothing about human servitude. Why?

[Ferrets are Cool]

47. Exactly. I also want to know WHY

he had to murder every single living thing on earth, except for what was on Noah's Ark. Those babies and animals were not guilt of anything. He is supposed to be ALL POWERFUL...why not use that power to single out the bad "apples" murder just them and let everyone/thing else alone?