I've actually studying the Quran with a Quran scholar and I used to get with a group of around about 13 Muslims and we just studied the Quran together... I'm most likely know the quran better than you my friend because if you really knew the Quran you would not be talking the way you are right now.

you would have a nice response than i would. as if i were to die and find out any god that claims being all knowing, all seeing and all powerful my first response would be "do you stand by the descriptions of you and your abilities in *insert book/s here* and hold them to be true?" if yes were to be the answer then id reply with "then I cast you to hell for being the father and originator of sin"

No, i believe god has a plan, and your god , little g, ALSO has a plan, and you are his minions that do his bidding to deceive and take souls to hell with him, he is a loser and a lier and so are you, john 8:44, you are either extremely ignorant or working for him, either way your doing his bidding and you need repent if you indeed are human, if not keep on doing what your doing cause you know your time is short anyway, i still pray for you, you can't deny Satan and God are real, they are whether you believe it or not , yeah I'm righteously angry at this point seeing so many of my brethren fall for theoretical bullshit, perfect handle by the way, take these pridedul babblings down they've been up long enough, man how long does it take for one to come to the light, Jesus Christ of Nazareth is kind and full of mercy but you're running out of it, he has his limits and is also an all consuming 🔥🔥, it will burn you for ETERNITY

0:36 Wtf their username was epidemic2020. Talk about foreshadowing 😂

Fluff Pilowwww?

Hallo,are you here? Perché non fai più altri video? Ti stimo molto...

I pray for you Scott and all of your followers! Give your life to Jesus Christ before it’s too late!

It doesn't really describe me though. I do have a rebellious streak. In no small part caused by how badly authority figures have done me wrong or failed to uphold their end of the bargain.

I was a Christian for 40+ years, i left a couple months ago after having a crisis of faith, asking myself what actual reasons I had to believe. I just this video just now and it affirmed everything I have been expressing to myself lately. What a video.

God resists the Proud but gives Grace to the Humble...Jesus is Lord...Or God...

Since God is Omni Present the only way you can be separated from God is NOT to Exist...The Bible Teaches the Annihilation of the Lost...See 2 Pet. 2:6...

God is NOT going to Torment Human Beings for the rest of Eternity...The Doctrine of Hell is widely misinterpreted by Christians, Christians Scholars and Unbelievers...The Bible Teaches that the Souls of the Lost are Annihilated...See 2 Pet. 2:6...

13 years later and I am still rewatching this video. I follow along every time I watch it but I could not go anywhere near being able to argue as eloquently and fluently as Scott no matter how many times I watch this video and prepare to plagiarise his content as my own. Amazing my friend. Would love to chat over a beer some day

Ohh, wow, What a throwback? I remember this from the time you released it. 15 years already? 🤨

He's claimed to make his election the last as a democracy

I believe in God, but this is very thoughtful and eloquently stated.

Christians don’t care that it’s nonsense. That’s the really sad part.

I returned for another dose of reality. Thanks for your work.

Hi Scott, I watched your dialogue with William Lane Craig on Cameron Bertuzzi's *Capturing Christianity* channel, as well as this video, with interest. What follows is my understanding of your arguments, so please correct me if I am wrong regarding them or if you would change the wording of any of them. First of all, you provided a syllogistic argument that you claimed had parity with the KCA. (Going forward, I will refer to this as your parity argument.) 1) Everything that begins to exist has both an efficient and a material cause. 2) If God caused the universe, then it had only an efficient cause, but not a material one. 3) Therefore, God did not cause the universe to begin to exist. You provided some supporting arguments. These were: A. Causation can only exist within time. It is therefore invalid to claim that our universe began to exist except from a perspective WITHIN time INSIDE our universe, because time only exists within our universe. B. Your next supporting argument is a counter to the argument, "If the universe could pop into existence from nothing, what is to constrain anything from popping into existence from nothing at all?" Your counter argument is, "If nothing exists other than our universe, it is invalid to detract from my argument by claiming it suggests that something can pop into existence from nothing, because nothing is not a thing at all. Claiming that the universe exists without a cause is therefore not the same thing as saying that it came from nothing." C. Things do not pop into existence without a cause within our universe because of its particular qualities. But if there are realms outside of our universe, perhaps they could there. SOME PROBLEMS THAT I PERCEIVE WITH YOUR ARGUMENTS First of all, let me share with you how much I enjoyed heating your arguments and appreciated the thought you had put into them. But I do perceive some problems with these arguments that I urge you to take into consideration. Let's begin with the syllogism that you believe has parity with the KCA. The Aristotelian definition of the word "cause" is broader than the definition that later developed. Early Jewish, Christian and Muslim philosophers used the term cause to refer only to efficient causes. While I understand that your alternate argument grew out of the ex-Materia argument (that causes within our universe are always material), it really is an argument that uses a different definition of the word cause. So it does not have parity with the KCA in that sense. It is a different argument that uses another definition of the word cause. To claim otherwise or to fail to recognize this would be to commit the fallacy of equivocation. While I am not saying you are doing that, this should be recognized when comparing the two arguments. When we adopt the Aristotelian definition, Craig pointed out that at least the KCA claims that the universe has an efficient cause. But your parity argument would lead to the conclusion that it has neither a material or an efficient cause, which as he said would be even more counter-intuitive to most people (though I understand it does not seem counter-intuitive to you). I think Craig made a good point, but I would argue that the universe has BOTH an efficient cause and a material cause because the universe was not complete at its inception. At that point it was more like a lump of clay that a sculptor has not given any form to yet. God arranged the universe, giving it it's form, AFTER the start of time and AFTER He created the raw material that He formed it from. But could an immaterial mind create the material of the universe within it ex Nihilo (from nothing) rather than ex Materia (out of material)? He could, because an infinite mind can reserve resources to maintain the laws of a universe, just as a programmer can reserve resources to maintain the laws of a game universe within a computer, which is also a sort of computational mind. Also, I would argue that theologically, the term ex-Nihilo should be understood to mean simply creation from "no thing" in the material sense only. I say this because the Bible nowhere uses the term Ex Nihilo (it is an extra-biblical term), but rather says, "By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible." - Hebrews 11:3 The Greek word used here is αἰῶνας, which according to Thayer means the "aggregate of things contained in time" i.e, our material universe. So this verse is saying our material universe was not made from things that are material. As a modern analogy of this, consider a computer game world containing true AI characters and laws of physics. The material world that the AIs see is made of things that are immaterial to them - characters consisting of binary code. It is created by the “word” of the programmer - the words and commands of programming code that he or she has written. With a single command the programmer can execute pre-written code and voila! Something material to the AIs in the game world will appear without any apparent material cause. I am not claiming that we are merely a computer simulation or an imagination running within the mind of God. God is not merely a computer, but a living being, and the universe is very real. But God could have allocated resources within His infinite mind to sustain our universe according to consistent laws, and even separated portions of Himself from Himself, like a woman cutting hair from her head to weave a basket, to form the underlying quanta of the universe. So the computer game world is an appropriate analogy, because the Bible does teach that the universe is sustained by God within Himself: "He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." - Colossians 1:17 "For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ - Acts 17:28 Next let's look at your supporting argument A. I think that causation can exist without time. There can be logic-based causality, like an accurate, pre-written log of the flow of computer code that one plans to execute, rather than time-based causality. All of the time-steps exist at once on the sheet of paper. Place an AI consciousness within the code to observe each time-step, and it will perceive time and motion, when from the grand perspective of the programmer looking at the sheet of paper, there is no time. But even if causation cannot exist without time, there may be other forms of time outside of our universe. As Craig suggested, there could be non-metric time which does not have discrete quanta (units), but rather exists as a continuum of infinitely divisible units. There could also exist a form of divine hypertime in which thoughts within the mind of God propagate instantly across infinities of lower cardinality that are contained within an infinities of higher cardinality in which thoughts also propagate. The differences between the two could create a form of divine hypertime outside of time as we know it. Furthermore, who is to say that separate islands of time as we know it do not exist within the mind of God, and that our universe formed within such an island, or from a "bump" from one island of time within God against the island of time our universe is contained within, or from God dividing a single causative island into a new island containing our universe? Next, let’s consider your supporting argument B. I have already answered much of it above, but I find your counter-argument to be dubious because most of us *do not* think of nothing as something, but simply as *no* thing that exists. Besides, I could just as well side-step your counter argument by avoiding the word nothing. I could say, "But if our material universe could pop into existence without a cause, what constraint would there be to anything at all popping into existence without a cause? And why just a material universe? Why not a refrigerator or a Boltzmann brain (which is regarded as a problem) instead?" As to argument C, it multiplies entities unnecessarily, since an unthinkable number of universes would be required to make our low entropy universe theoretically probable. A single creator of a simple essence given to highly intelligent thought would be much less likely to be "nicked" by Occam's Razor. Lastly, doesn't it simply make more sense to suppose that all contingent things within time were ultimately caused by a necessary, pre-existent intelligence who transcends time as we know it and needs no cause, than to think that contingent material things within time ultimately came into existence without any cause? Time is perceived by us as the logical flow of cause-and-effect events as they execute. To deny that something contingent which couldn't exist without time has a cause is, it seems to me, to deny the very concept of time-based causation itself.

Good stuff

What can I say. Such a insightful man!

I left Christianity almost 30 years ago after spending 15 years in a miserable cult like sect of the church. I wish I'd had this video then!! I relied on Michael Shermer's books to dig my way out of the cognitive and emotional cesspool I was in, especially "How We Believe" which I think is a must-read for anyone recently de-converting. This video is fantastic and hits every important point that makes religious belief just ludicrous.

Scott, answer this truthfully.... Do you read Hebrew fluently? If not, then you have never personally studied the oldest most credible Hebrew Manuscripts for yourself, to come to a relative understanding of God in context. You come across contradictions because you have made a fundamental mistake, and that is to be taught by false teachers about God, and falsely conclude that Christianity and the Pope and corrupted English translations of the Bible presents an accurate teaching about God, which they DO NOT. So Scott, before you claim to have it all worked out about God, you better learn Hebrew ASAP and read only the Tanakh for yourself, then after that, I assure you, you will see this differently. Shalom.

Firstly, the Christian God is an error, as the New Testament seriously contradicts itself and contradicts the Tanakh (aka "Old Testament") I only worship the One and Only Creator, who is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Israel, NOT the fake Christians god. Scott, there was nothing wrong with your reasoning, because you simply did not WANT to believe in God, simple as that. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Israel, only seeks to spend eternity with those who WANT to believe in Him. Shalom.

I remember you providing this argument in a video: P1: Nothing which exists can cause something which does not exist to begin existing. P2: Given (1), Anything which begins to exist was not caused to do so by something which exists. P3: The universe began to exist. P4: Given (2) and (3), the universe was not caused to exist by anything which exists. P5: God caused the universe to begin to exist. C1: Given (4) and (5), God does not exist. And i strongly disagree with premise 1 it presupposes that existence cannot generate new existences which contradicts both observed natural phenomena and metaphysical principles. Efficient causality upholds that existing entities (causes) bring forth new entities (effects) And an efficient cause does indeed bring about an effect. for instance a potter (an existing entity) creates a pot (a new entity). this premise literally misinterprets the nature of causation by falsely suggesting that because something exists its inherently incapable of initiating new existence

Scott, now sure how often you keep up with comments, but would be curious to hear your answer on this - if a theist didn't believe in creation ex nihilo, but rather that God acted on some non-physical stuff to bring about the universe (you brought up this possibility in your discussion with Craig, suggesting ectoplasm or something), then what would be your response? It seems like that theist would be accommodating your principle (the universe will have an efficient and a material cause), and they will keep our intuitions that when concrete objects begin to exist, they have causes. It feels like your main disagreement is that you don't like when someone says "the universe had an efficient cause, but couldn't have a material cause" - but what if they just say it had both? I don't see why a theist can't satisfy both your intuitions and Craig's causal principle - they don't contradict each other - it's only once you get into Craig's theology of creatio ex nihilo that there's a contradiction.

You really should do this semi full time. You are awesome.❤

Do you have some links to this npage85? I had a run in years ago on the rational skepticism forum with a fella with the same handle. It was an argument about how the mind could not possibly be physical and he was kind of jackhole about it.

Omg do you even age??? I hope you start posting more. I love your stuff.

TAG is nothing but "It is so because I say it is so!" or "God is the necessary precondition for intelligibility... Because I say so!"

Yes, Liam God is good every day, and I like this image

According to Darth Dawkins it does entail a logical contradiction. STOP TALKING OVER ME! OK, now do you understand.?

That last quote from Craig in the debate with Craig Smith is just…..wow. Add that to his most recent “one-in-a-million” admission that he actually lowers his epistemic standard for Christianity because he thinks it’s worth believing, and you have all reasons you’d ever need to not take this guy seriously as an honest seeker of truth. Even when I was a Christian in my infancy of engaging with apologetics, I honestly did not understand why my fellow believers were so impressed by this guy. Even then I could recognize him misrepresenting his opponents to their faces. I came to the conclusion that he was either not very bright, or was trying to win people to Christ through dishonesty and I was having none of it either way.

oh to be 20 and thin again. Try writing your own book of religion that doesn't contain the very same things. The holy spirit comes to comfort you, the holy spirit comes to help you understand, the holy spirit comes to commend, the holy spirit comes to guide you with knowledge of the future, the holy spirit passes through among us as we speak, and the holy spirit puts everything into perspective. When you get a bruise shaped like a skull with an arrow pointing to it and a "..." air bubble next to it, you'll think maybe. When you wake up to a car that crashed in the middle of the night mere inches away from where your baby was sleeping, you'll think maybe. When a bird returns to make it's nest, when a pot of tomatoes grows from bad soil, you'll think maybe. When everyone turns against you and you feel like you have nothing else, you'll think maybe.

with Roe overturned this seems especially repugnant: "Deuteronomy 22 -28 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, 29 he shall pay her father fifty shekels[c] of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives"

yes, once you establish that your are playing chess(morality=well being..etc.) then there are objectively better or worse ways to accomplish the goal of winning.....theists only argument is to say we are not playing chess.

even primates demonstrate basic morality I don't see how that is not the basis and has the most explanatory power for the foundation of human morality ..?

Your right. I dont like the ontological either.

I like your definitions. God will use your dictionary on judgement Day

You should read your check list to someone in hospice receiving the Last Rites. You HESITATE? Interesting 🤔

Logic are like the rules of chess, man made. But in order to have a fair game of chess, both players have to agree on the same rules. You cannot ad hoc change the rules as you're playing without cheating. The origin of the rules are subjective. Yet somewhere out there is the Original chess master, whose name is lost to antiquity.

This is absolutely brilliant!

I was wrong. I have repented. Still a lot I don't understand, but Jesus is Lord.

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@Theorethical Bullshit, you go to great lengths to express that "This God should know all of the good and bad things I've thought, said and done in life & why...." That's a given but you string it out over a drawn out speech as if to try finding every reason in your mind to discount Him. After all, of the few videos I've seen of yours, you seem intent on "disproving those blasted Christians and their 'book of fables'." Clearly that is _not_ characteristic of someone "genuinely seeking the truth" but someone insisting "I'm _pretty sure_ I already know the truth because my own way of thinking suggests it!" You say you've, "...read the Bible and were horrified...." Did you read it out of curiosity or did you really "desire to know God?" What horrified you that you claim was, "...incompatible with a loving/just God who is supposed to ensure our salvation?" Don't make the mistake of conflating two different ideas Scott. God ensured an OFFER of salvation to mankind, He never "ensured all mankind would be saved." His OFFER of salvation was in allowing Jesus to be betrayed, in effect offering Him up as the "sacrificial Lamb who was 'spotless' as in -- without sin Himself." These references go back to the way the Jewish people had atoned for sins at the Temple through sacrificing specific animals under an elaborate process.... Do you realize that God's Word states that it PLEASED the Lord to "bruise Him" as in "bruise His own Son" for our sakes?! That work of salvation was completed at the Cross, it is then left up to each person to, by FAITH accept or reject that redemption that Christ paid for with His Life's Blood.... Clearly if you don't "believe in Him", then God and His Word is otherwise meaningless to you and your "sin debt" rests upon you. Christ did not lay down His Life to "give all of humanity an eternal _pardon_ from the consequences of their sin whether they believe on Him or not...." Salvation belongs to those who have received it, by faith in Christ. You're still _struggling_ with believing in God Himself.... I paused your video about midways to begin writing this out. But to suffice it to say, the things you've questioned are NOT unique to you and other "atheists".... Again, read God's Word through, for understanding which is best to have guidance. That's why the Church exists with a Pastor, generally those who've studied Theology & understand the intricacies, the "circling back" sometimes found in scripture. Then you need an understanding of what is actually being said, to whom and by whom and under what context. Otherwise as in literary work, inspired of God or man, CONTEXT is vital for the sake of proper understanding. There were many servants of God and Christ in The Old and New Testament who were "imperfect people" and failed God, YET He used them.... Do you realize that the "Great Apostle Peter" actually denied Jesus 3 times, even CURSING because he was trying to save his own skin when he was being confronted as "ONE OF THOSE WITH JESUS!!" David was said to be "A man after God's own Heart", yet David laid with Bathsheba and then had her husband Uriah moved up in battle to ensure he would be killed.... But David did repent. That is where it starts with the Christian faith, heeding the call of God's Spirit to repentance, receiving Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord BY FAITH. I'm not sure if you think you are exceptional in some way that "God must prove Himself to me else I'll never believe." I can't speak FOR God in what He will do regarding you but I would advise that it would be wise to seek out God rather than pinning your eternal destiny on "whether or not God does something _amazing_ to _make_ me believe in Him!!" Again, Idk you and your past etc., but have you EVER considered that God has been _trying_ to reach out to you throughout life through the people He has brought along a path where you meet.... That perhaps all of this time, where you're whip out your impressive vocabulary and begin to "thrust your _logic_ upon someone's ideas" that in fact this was God in each case, trying to reach out to you but you kept pushing Him away as you seek to dare I say, _persecute_ believers?! See that's what Paul had done, who was once Saul. He persecuted Christians just because "they preached Jesus and Him crucified." Then on the road to Damascus, a great light appeared and there Saul was confronted, "Saul...Saul...Why persecutest thou me?" That's in the Book of Acts, chapter 9. Saul would then become the great Apostle Paul who live for nothing but "to preach Christ and Him crucified." That's something I have shared with some very NASTY atheists who had nothing but vile language to spew at me and Christ. I explained to one that this FURTHER proof of God's existence and His goodness that He could take someone like "you" who was so hateful and vile in the things he said, and YET turn him 180° to become one of God's staunchest of witnesses. He was speechless. You don't have any idea what I've been through in this life nor others who YET proclaim "Christ and Him crucified, resurrected and seated at the right hand of God the Father...." You or no other atheist is any more "special" than the rest of us and if we believed without "seeing lightning shatter the skies, a voice of thunder shake the Earth" etc., then you can as well, if you choose. God does not _force_ us to believe, otherwise that would be unconscionable for a "loving and just God" would it not?! He gives us the freedom to choose to believe on Him and enter into a relationship with Him through faith in Christ. If your plan is to "try to understand and validate God first...." That my dear Scott is a futile exercise. The final thing I'll say is that, in my own struggling with "Why is this/that?! It doesn't make sense?! Where are You God?!" and on and on, I thought I was "special" and that God had to do more! Frankly, He did it all at the Cross! But I began to see the people I interacted with as more than just "people", I saw them as "God reaching out to me through them." There is just so much more to it than this superficiality but you're never going to know that if you waste your life fighting against Him. I say these things as another human being, who like you, had NOTHING to do with my existence. I did not command myself into existence, did you?! I did not hang the stars and planets in space, did you?! I didn't create trillions of stars, galaxies and planets and then ONE planet in particular where it is thus far the ONLY one we know of where human, plant and animal can and currently do thrive and yet you or someone else would want me to believe, "This is just totally random with no rhyme or reason and everything just appeared out of nowhere and nothing with all of it's complexities, apart from any 'God'." THAT my death Scott is the absolute absurdity.

Scott, I'm not a "Theologian" but where did the idea that _hell_ is a terrible place of torment for the devil, his demons and the wicked, go?! Where did it say in God's Word, "Hell is just a place where God ain't and that's all folks!" Let's see what God's Word says about that place in just a few versus. "So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, and cast them into the FURNACE OF FIRE. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 13:49-50. "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the LAKE OF FIRE and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be TORMENTED day and night for ever and ever." Revelation 20:10. "And anyone [whose name is] not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the LAKE OF FIRE." Revelation 20:15. Now, Idk about you, but those few verses alone referring to "FURNACE OF FIRE" and "LAKE OF FIRE" doesn't sound anything like "Well you'll just be somewhere alone where God and no one else is around." In fact it seems to suggest there will be a great deal of "company" with the devil, demons and all who are wicked being cast into "the lake of fire" especially given that God expresses that there will be many more who end up in that terrible place of _destruction_ rather than Heaven as it is written in Matthew 7:13-14, "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it."

What if God committed suicide a long time ago? Does He Necessarily exist?

Idk you guys but I certainly recognize you Scott as "Liam" from the daytime soaps. It stood out in a bit of a comedic way Scott when you said, "I listen to Christian radio all the time....shows how $@*& I am...." Could it be God who _compels_ you to listen or did that never cross the intellectual barriers of your mind.... My question is, who said it was ever "God's responsibility to _convince_ you?" Rather than it is up to each person to seek God that they might come to know Him IF THEY CHOOSE.... You don't expect the local University to "pursue you in order to fill your mind with a wealth of knowledge" do you?! Of course not, you must go to the University and make use of that resource that's been made available to you. God made available His Word -- The Bible and a body of believers called the Church. If your idea is that "I will refuse those things and go my own way", that's as ridiculous as suggesting, "I won't do the coursework my Professors at University instruct me to do, I'll do things my own way" and YET expect to receive your "degree." Idk your pasts and your broader beliefs etc., but it would be nice to know more about you guys....

How remarkable that, even 11 years before the phrase was coined by @misterdeity, WLC was demonstrating why he would earn the moniker of *_”Low Bar Bill.”_*

I am afraid 2 + 2 does not equal 4 in all worlds. It all depends whether in a different world "+" means something else, or in a different world we use base 10. If in a different world we use base 3 then 2 + 2 = 11. In fact that 2 + 2 = 4 or even 1 + 1 = 2 is very hard to prove even in our world!