First, OP, you need to stop visiting sites which have stories like this.
The story for one thing seems to not understand why barbers work. To paraphrase Adam Smith, a barber does not cut your hair out of altruism, but to make a living. So, the analogy might work for that old variety of deity who only did things for people when they barbecued various bits of livestock for him. Current God, no.
Now, the story would be a bit more accurate if the barber grabbed people, gave them lopsided horrible looking haircuts and half shavings, and then had his supporters explain why these haircuts are the best haircuts possible.
Wayyyy back when I was very religious…I had problems with this. You can reconcile it easy with a omnipowerful god…or a loving god…but not both. The way I dealt with it was to sacrifice omnipowerful…well God was omnipowerful but voluntarily limited himself. You know…hoops.
If his was meant as a proof of God rather than a glurge, it is absolutely retarded. At best, the customer allows for a God that sits on his throne and waits for people to come to Him, but certainly doesn’t prove it through the imperfect analogy.
I was racking my brain to find the logical fallacy. I know it’s in there somewhere. I’d go with the old Absence of Proof fallacy. The person just discredited their “proof” that God doesn’t exist and therefore concludes God does exist.
OK, fine. The metrosexual in me wants to assume that all else being equal people would want to look good and the omnipotent barber could take that for granted, but maybe he’s showing courtesy to the bikers or something.
Good one. That’s like the barber (maybe) setting up shop, but in the neighborhood there are 50 - 60 other barber shops. Some stab you through the throat when you sit down, some give you the Emperor’s new haircut and charge you a ton for it, some will only cut you hair if you hang upside down from the ceiling. Our real barber, who is also the mayor, does nothing to close these places down, even by advertising. He doesn’t want to prove that he is the real barber, it seems.
I see a couple of things here. First off, I don’t think the OP knows what an ‘anecdote’ is. Secondly, is the assumption that an ‘anecdote’, even if used correctly, proves anything. Thirdly is that THIS ‘anecdote’ (which I’d redefine as ‘folksy story’) ‘proves’ anything at all, regardless. And lastly…does this OP have a thing about starting these God threads and then never coming back, or is that just my impression? The name looks familiar.
(Also, ‘a couple of things here’ is being defined, by me, as more than 4 ;))
This study seems like a good place to start, given the 9 pages of citations. A quick read seems to indicate that the news is not good for secular/atheistic individuals, but it’s far from a complete picture. From the paper:
Comparisons between countries presents a more positive view. Again from this paper:
From a rough reading (just because I haven’t had the time to read thoroughly) it seems that religion acts as a psychological buffer/protector for the individual, but tends to have deleterious effects on societies as a whole.
I present this paper with the understanding that it’s not a complete picture, and I haven’t looked into the studies it references; frankly, it was the first Google hit that seemed to be scholarly in nature and well-cited. Also, I think it’s important to note that whether atheists are happier/better educated/richer or not does not, inherently, prove or disprove the existence of God. Also, for perspective sake, I’m essentially an atheist myself.
This story is actually solid evidence that an all powerful God either does not exist or doesn’t care to reveal himself. If he did, and was really all-powerful, he would not need such immature, poorly thought out evidence to convince people to beleive in him.
A better analogy would be a barber who hides in the back of the shop and never shows his face. Then, whenever anyone wonders into his shop, he berates them for their choice of hairstyle and then ties them up and tortures them forever.
Eh? I may be dumb, but I simply don’t get it. How does it prove anything?
It’s a claim about God, not a proof of him. It’s a claim that those who go to him end up happy, and those who don’t end up homeless. It’s also a verifiably false claim, since I know plenty of successful atheists, and unfortunate believers.
If anything, this would be evidence against the existence of God, not for it.
lol, this kind of logic is ridiculous.
Even within that screwed up framework, the analogy still fails because we can point to plenty of people who suffer in the world who still believe in things like God and Jesus, etc.