Burglar,You have a FOOL for a friend. He's not a true reflection of Christ,just a lazy borne ass waiting for manna from heaven. Tell him to get up early and go toil like everyone else or else he will die poor while singing 'maisha yako yakikulemea mwachie yesu'.
Now do not blame OUR GOD for your friend's miserable life. He rewards those who work hard regardless of whether they believe in him or not.
Wealth comes by working hard,it's not a miracle except you are a fake.

Please tell your friend to stop being lazy under the disguise of serving God.
You have become his god because you feed him,which makes you feel superior.

The disciples worked hard,even Jesus's earthly father was a carpenter.Can't give enough examples but don't use him as ref. to prove your ignorance of God because he's a let down.

@Hamburglar, if I may ask, do you have any other causes in your life that you 'fight' for?

I think you wear spects. Most atheists do.

Can studies on how the human mind works resolve the question as to whether God exists or not? So far my experience is that it can, but paradoxically the answer is it depends on survival of the human species and in extension, the eternal being and becoming of the 'universe'.

As such, there are instances when both answers are true in the whole but mutually exclusive in particular persons and systems.

I'm basing my thoughts on my experience on for example, how artificial intelligence compares to what fields like cognitive neuroscience and psychiatry and related studies have to offer. For example, the use of 'ideology machines' programs that are designed to predict what a person will say, or how a person will react, offer a glimpse of how the brain is and can be programed.

Let's use the instance of a computer winning a game of chess over a grand master as an instance of a machine passing the 'Turing test'. If the test is true, then the human mind can be modelled with reasonable certainty. And my experience is that I indeed use such models - here I have relied on 'mindfulness practice' to draw analogies. For example, I can predefine 'start' and 'stop' times of any activity and any other behavior and have it run automatically at a later time. Or, I can reverse engineer my behavior.

Belief can be structured. Some have used 'elements', 'atoms', 'molecules', 'generic events', 'plans', and 'scripts'/'super scripts' to model beliefs.

Using such a model, can we predict or explain posts on this thread? The answer is, 'we can do so with reasonable probability.

Information encapsulates energy. So by exchanging energy information is exchanged.

Using these key assumptions one is able to draw diverse conclusions, and provide scientific explanations to what we have so far called 'Spiritual experience'. Nay, we can establish mutually beneficial relations among diverse ideas and promote peaceful coexistence and survival of the human species.

Let's consider one of his questions:

A wise man is to ask why most atheists are richer than theists. Let's say the wise man hypothesizes that 'Not believing in God, makes someone, per force, rich'. The wise man would then have at least, to show that believing in God lowers the probability of wealth considerably through certain factors deemed essential for wealth. What factors would the wise man use? How would he test the hypothesis? How would he explain North Korea, which is both poor and atheistic? Wouldn't he alter the conditions of observation?

Whatever he chooses, the wise man will be contending with other minds, and factors and the answers are not as simple to derive as Hamburglar would have the wise man think.

In fact, maybe we should consider which questions are valid or not valid and when valid. Like if Hamburglar's wise man is poor, and is certain of his faith then the book of Job could provide some answers. If the wise man is rich, then we could wonder if he isn't engaging in a fallacy.

For me, valid questions are those rooted in the questioners experience and are focused on meeting experiential needs. Coexistence and flourish are political results.

I think Hamburglar's questions have a lot to be desired, though they appear to create cognitive dissonance in many theists.

For those who want to ponder further, somebody had posted this "scaling" a while back.

@burglar, now you can imagine yourself standing somewhere on the earth, then mignify it and please keep tracing yourself. And here you are so arrogant!

Scale of the Universe

@impunity, I would love to engage with him reasonably and humbly. By the way, I don't mean to offend no one in these discussions, so take it easy bro!

You are a brilliant man Masukuma. Unfortunately you are arguing with a deranged fanatic known as guru267. Please spend your intelligence elsewhere. It is heart breaking to keep reading this.

@masukuma, true you mentioned 100 generations ago?

1. It is true more than 1400 years ago, he taught that world was round, and it took 20th century to prove that right. Catholic Church persecuted Galileo for abandoning the idea that earth-is-at-the-center of universe. They had to apologize to him just a few years ago!

2. It is true more than 1400 years ago, he taught that the heavens is above the clouds. Consult your dictionary or encyclopedia to know the meaning of heaven. Don't confuse heavens with paradise.

3. And God was not absent minded when He created the swine, same way He was not absent minded when He created the Vulture. Both have spacial role in this ecosystem. Former, scavenge domestic territories, while the later scavenge the wild. They both have been given special features to resist any harm from diseases from carcasses. It is your choice to leave the good meat of goats, sheep, cow etc and go for the swine. But does not mean God didn't warn you.

4. It is true we take the advice from someone who came along 1400 ago, the same way we take advice from someone who came along 2000 years.

Nothing he said have been proven wrong. In fact most of the scientific stuff he mentioned are being proven right, one by one by scientists. What remains unproven is just a matter of time. So be his guest and learn from him!

And we don't call human beings God, because this is the name and attribute of the Creator. And that humility in us to respect that.

“The most beautiful names belong to Allah: so call on Him by them.” (Quran, 7:180)