State Your Religion

[BlueFire]

Originally Posted by Bond

Ironically I got the idea of a revival of the religion debate from Angrist "leaving."[/url].

*ahem*

Originally Posted by Typhoid

I'm nothing.
Not agnostic, not athiest.
I dont think there is a god, I dont think there isnt one.

Wouldn't that put you under being an agnostic? You know.. the whole apathetic agnostic... Yeah, I think so. O.o



As for me, I have a weird set of beliefs. I was raised Catholic and I wasn't very fond of it. I believe that there is a god. Sometimes it just seems undeniable that he exists. I think humans have a spiritual nature and decide whether they want to keep it or not.. blah blah. I think Jesus was an amazing man but I can't really decide if he's the son of God.
I think Buddhism makes a lot of sense.. but to me it's more of a way of life than a religion. I'm not very decisive about religion.. but I doubt many people are. But I think religion/spirituality is amazing and I love reading about it.

PS: I abhor church.

[Typhoid]

Originally Posted by BLueFire

Wouldn't that put you under being an agnostic? You know.. the whole apathetic agnostic... Yeah, I think so. O.o

I meant in the sense that religion takes up none of my life whatsoever, so it holds no merit to me. I dont like labels as it is, I think they're tacky, and just demean the majority of society, however since religion is nothing to me, I give myself no title.

I dont see why religious folk give non-religious folk a catagory. Can we not just be ourselves? Why catagorize us for demeaning by other groups, just because some groups are in bad light from others?


So I dont believe in your imagionary friend. Whoop-de-doo. There are tons of religions. Why not pick on the ones that are stating other giant imagionary people exist and are better than yours, other than harping the people who believe there arent any.

And none of that was personal towards you, except the first chunk. Sorry if you took it that way.

[Jonbo298]

I have no set religion. I don't want to conform myself around something that isn't proven legitimate. I have my own little bits and pieces I believe in but there's no way you'll get me to conform my life and my beliefs around something else that I don't feel is even remotely right.

[BlueFire]

Originally Posted by Typhoid

I meant in the sense that religion takes up none of my life whatsoever, so it holds no merit to me. I dont like labels as it is, I think they're tacky, and just demean the majority of society, however since religion is nothing to me, I give myself no title.

Heh, I was just naming what I thought I saw. I'm very lax about religion and I don't ever push my beliefs (whatever they tend to be) on anyone. However, the funny thing about your comment is the fact that the "non-religious" people tend to label themselves.
When I visited Seattle last month, there was a fair going on. Seattle Atheists had a booth up and I was kinda dumbfounded. I mean.. They had a newsletter and brochures. I just didn't get it. What are they advertising? The fact they don't believe in anything.. It just sounded dumb.
Their motto was: "SEATTLE ATHEISTS: A NON-PROPHET ORGANIZATION". It was odd. Wouldn't atheists not want to parade around like that?

[manasecret]

Originally Posted by BLueFire

Heh, I was just naming what I thought I saw. I'm very lax about religion and I don't ever push my beliefs (whatever they tend to be) on anyone. However, the funny thing about your comment is the fact that the "non-religious" people tend to label themselves.
When I visited Seattle last month, there was a fair going on. Seattle Atheists had a booth up and I was kinda dumbfounded. I mean.. They had a newsletter and brochures. I just didn't get it. What are they advertising? The fact they don't believe in anything.. It just sounded dumb.
Their motto was: "SEATTLE ATHEISTS: A NON-PROPHET ORGANIZATION". It was odd. Wouldn't atheists not want to parade around like that?

The way I see it, until the world has no religion (which I think is never), then atheism might as well be a religion, too. It's the religion of believing in the greatness of mankind by itself, without any heavenly help or non-help.

[Typhoid]

Originally Posted by BLueFire

Heh, I was just naming what I thought I saw. I'm very lax about religion and I don't ever push my beliefs (whatever they tend to be) on anyone. However, the funny thing about your comment is the fact that the "non-religious" people tend to label themselves.
When I visited Seattle last month, there was a fair going on. Seattle Atheists had a booth up and I was kinda dumbfounded. I mean.. They had a newsletter and brochures. I just didn't get it. What are they advertising? The fact they don't believe in anything.. It just sounded dumb.
Their motto was: "SEATTLE ATHEISTS: A NON-PROPHET ORGANIZATION". It was odd. Wouldn't atheists not want to parade around like that?

I think that would just be to piss off the religious people.

I dont think anyone is that stupid.

[Jason1]

I was raised Catholic, although very loosely, as I never went to Cathloic school or anything like that. I very seldom go to Church anymore, and I cant say I really agree with a lot about the Cathloic religion. But if anyone asks, I still say im Catholic.

[BlueFire]

Originally Posted by Typhoid

I think that would just be to piss off the religious people.

lmao, I don't think so. Seattle is liberal city. The booth wasn't really popular.. because.. well, I guess it was kind of boring. Really plain looking.

The other funny sight was the pro-life booth which was virtually empty and the Planned Parenthood booth (which was 2 booths away) with a heavy crowd.

[Bond]

I picked up this book today:



Of course we can never really answer the question of whether God exists. And of course it would have been highly unlikely for Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis to discuss this question in person, considering that they were born in different countries and a generation apart. Nonetheless, The Question of God allows readers to listen in on one of the most articulate debates possible by creating a virtual meeting of Freud and Lewis. For the past 25 years, Armand M. Nicholi has taught a similar course at Harvard, where he compares Freud’s atheist-based reasoning against the atheist-turned-believer C.S. Lewis. Both men were considered brilliant, highly educated thinkers who profoundly influenced 20th-century thought. And both men presented compelling arguments for and against the existence of God.

At the core is Freud’s assertion that God is a figment of the imagination (more accurately, God is an outcome of our deep-seated need for protection, stemming from the helplessness of early childhood). Lewis, on the other hand, did not see the belief in a higher power as a childish need for comfort. In fact, he wrote, "rendering back one's will which we have so long claimed for our own, is, in itself, extremely painful. To surrender a self-will inflamed and swollen with years of usurpation is a kind of death." Nicholi never take sides. Instead he gives both men a chance to eloquently answer the big questions of humanity: why is there suffering? What should be our guiding belief? How do we form a moral compass? Surprisingly, this debate turns out to be a fascinating page-turner, with most of the credit going to Nicholi. Because he understands these men's arguments so well and respects their beliefs so thoroughly, believers could begin to have doubts and atheists could start to wonder. Regardless of where you ultimately land on the question of God, this stellar book will deeply enrich your understanding of humanity.

[Neo]

Just for fun allow me to summarize the Religion v Science debate.


Originally, religion told us the Bible was the literal truth and that we were at the center of the universe. The first two humans, Adam and Eve, were materialized out of thin air.

Then came Galileo who theorized that the sun was at the center of the solar system, and the earth revolved around it. Oops! Bad choice. The church quickly put him to death.

After the evidence finally became too great the church caved and said "okay okay, earth isn't at the center. But God still created man and the stars are tiny lights hanging from the ceiling of heaven." Of course they eventually lost the star debate as well.

Then came evolution which the church also denounced. But eventually after overwhelming evidence they said "okay okay, evolution exists but it was guided by God." Okay....

Then came near death experiences. Finally! Evidence of the afterlife! Ah but then scientists were able to reproduce this effect in the lab, showing it to be biological in origin. "okay okay", said the church, "maybe it's not a mystical experience. Though what you've found is simply the the physical mechanism though which God works." Wholly unecessary, but whatever...

Then the church said "many people can FEEL God inside them, we know God exists because we can tell the spirit is in us." Oops, wrong again. Turns out those are hormones. New studies show that a person's tendency to be religious is linked to a certain area of the brain. The more developed is this area of the brain, the more likely the person is to have a sense of a higher power or a belief in a supreme being. It's a survival characteristic. "Okay okay" says the church, "maybe it's not the spirit in us. But it is the physical mechanism that God uses to let us know his presence."

Do you see a pattern here? Religion has been on a constant retreat from science and will continue to be in the future. The fact is that science doesn't need God to explain the existence of this universe or anything in it. There are even theories about why there is something (anything at all) rather than nothing. No they are not complete, but they give a glimpse into the kind of understanding that is possible through science (specifically physics). God is continually being pushed to the side and is becoming less and less necessary for explaining this world.

I maintain that if you put a universe with God (as the Christians personify him) next to a universe without God, you would not be able to tell the difference between the two.

Now before you label me as an atheist or an agnostic, know that I'm not saying God does not exist (I have my own beliefs in this area). I actually hope that a personal God does exist. Afterall who wouldn't want that? Nobody wants to die. We all want to live forever and be reunited with our loved ones. Unfortunately wishing for something doesn't make it so, and we must guard against our desire to believe in something just because it is comforting to us. I am desperately looking for a way to make it true.