Are you religious?

PostRe: Are you religious? by **Superking** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 5:36 pm

Fatal Exception wrote:
Pancake wrote:The root problem with Christianity is that their god is supposed to be all powerful and benevolent. It sounds like an easy sell but when life turns completely to **** you have to come up with all kinds of whacked out reasons for why kindly old Jehovah saw fit to run over little Timmy with a combine harvester and leave him in a state of vegetative, limbless agony for 18 years.

Apparently god is into free will now, rather than old testiment smiting.

Free will is all well and good so long as God never intervenes. Unfortunetly if you have a God that could intervene and allows say the Holocuoust to occur then you have to question what sort of moral character God is. Then you get idiots like Swimnburne trying to justify the Holocuost given this fact.

PostRe: Are you religious? by **Extralife** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 5:44 pm

If there is any kind of god then it's certainly not the one in Christianity. Most religious can be historical traced and the process of their invention understood though their origins from and borrowings from other religions in the past (they sort of 'evolve' in sociological sense, just with memes instead of genes). In order for a religion to be credible to me it would have to be free from all that and have an origin uncontaminated by other religions. Without that it seems very contrived and not a good candidate for position as the one true faith. You could argue that it got mix up by human interpretation over the years but then how can I trust anything it says? They are literally incredible.

PostRe: Are you religious? by **Igor** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 5:49 pm

Anung Un Rama wrote:
Igor wrote:
Mind Crime wrote:
Igor wrote: Drop a ball, and it can be concluded that it will fall. Doesn't mean that it definitely won't fall up.

Erm...

*snip*

The only way the ball wont fall up though is if its some kind of anti gravity ball or some kind of gravitation shift causes it to rise. it wont just fall up for the sake of it.

I don't think I'm explaining too well what I'm trying to get at. You pretty much said (forgive me if I'm wrong) that you want 'cold, hard fact' to base your beliefs and ideas on. I simply said that fact ≠ truth, and used a shoddy analogy to explain it. It is fact that the ball will fall, but not necessarily truth.

Website · PostRe: Are you religious? by **Tragic Magic** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 5:54 pm

I'm not religious. But I wouldn't call myself atheist either as to me, that seems like just another belief.

PostRe: Are you religious? by **Superking** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 5:56 pm

Sounds like you're losely describing the Problem of induction to me. A fascinating little logical puzzle if not a little pointless (Like most of Philosopical Logic)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_induction

PostRe: Are you religious? by JK » Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:00 pm

For all practical purposes I'm an atheist, but technically I'm more of an agnostic in that, if I was presented with cold hard evidence that prooves that God exists, then I would believe in Him/Her/It. It's all about the evidence, people!

PostRe: Are you religious? by **jamcc** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:00 pm

Nah, can't be arsed with religion to be honest.

PostRe: Are you religious? by **Prototype** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:01 pm

Yes The Bible Is True

PostRe: Are you religious? by **Clarkman** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:06 pm

I'm very religious whilst being an Atheist. I'll sit this debate out though.

PostRe: Are you religious? by **Igor** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:08 pm

Anung Un Rama wrote:
Mr Plough wrote:Sounds like you're losely describing the Problem of induction to me. A fascinating little logical puzzle if not a little pointless (Like most of Philosopical Logic)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_induction

Right i get it!

Kind of... Taking the example from the Wiki page, it was a fact that all Swans were white (not truth), as no other colour swan had been observed. Moving round to the subject at hand, Anung will never get cold, hard fact when it comes to God, as fact is derived from observation. Science can never determine 'truth'.

PostRe: Are you religious? by **Drawlight** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:36 pm

Tragic Magic wrote:I'm not religious. But I wouldn't call myself atheist either as to me, that seems like just another belief.

But....it's not. Atheism isn't a belief of any kind. It's a term used to describe people who have no belief in God. BobbyDigital mentioned that one has to study and reject all world religions before one can be a 'proper atheist'. What constitutes a 'proper' atheist? We don't have meetings and membership cards!

To restate: atheism is not a belief. Everyone is born an atheist, and if you do not belive in or worship a God (in all the wide uses of the term) you are an atheist.

PostRe: Are you religious? by **Carlos** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:41 pm

'The only constant in every hotel room across the world is the holy bible' - Richey Edwards, Manic Street Preachers.

PostRe: Are you religious? by **Prototype** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:50 pm

Carlos wrote:'The only constant in every hotel room across the world is the holy bible' - Richey Edwards, Manic Street Preachers.

FAO Richard Edwards and Carlos: :fp:

PostRe: Are you religious? by **FatDaz** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:53 pm

Where is the poll option for none of the above / dont care about religion?

PostRe: Are you religious? by **chalkitdown** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:58 pm

FatDaz wrote:Where is the poll option for none of the above / dont care about religion?

This.

I think religion is dumb. And that's my one and only contribution to this thread.

PostRe: Are you religious? by **Drawlight** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:59 pm

That'll be 'Agnostic' or 'Atheist'. Or simply that big arrow facing left in the top left hand corner of your screen.

PostRe: Are you religious? by **Osito** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 7:18 pm

Raised as a catholic, but I've outgrown that now.

PostRe: Are you religious? by **Stig** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 7:18 pm

Clarkman wrote:I'm very religious whilst being an Atheist. I'll sit this debate out though.

Sorry what?

Religion usually involves some kind of theism. You can't be both.

PostRe: Are you religious? by **Drawlight** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 8:14 pm

Freak Out Requiem IV wrote:
Drawlight wrote:Atheism isn't a belief of any kind. It's a term used to describe people who have no belief in God.

Think you've confused yourself there. a-the-ism, noun; the doctrine or belief that there is no God. ie. an active disbelief in any deity, so as much a belief itself as any deity-centric faith.

You can't be an atheist when you're born... you'd be a nontheist if anything. Can't really describe a baby as atheist, since it's too stupid to formulate any sort of relevant opinion.

Very good point, but I haven't confused myself, just used language sloppily. I don't actually like the term atheism as it implies exactly what you said, but is generally used to describe people who simply have no belief in God, for whatever reason, including an active disbelief- actually, I beilve 'anti-theist' is creeping into common use to describe those with an active disbelife or dislike. Like, I said, I don't like the term because it implies that one is defined by their non-belief.

So, yeah, sorry if I confused you- I maintain that by the broader definition, which is how I use the term, however incorrectly, everyone is an atheist at birth (like you said, a better term must be available) for exactly the reasons which you stated- kids can't form a reasonable, informed judgement and analysis of the evidence before them.

PostRe: Are you religious? by **FatDaz** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 8:19 pm

Drawlight wrote:
Freak Out Requiem IV wrote:
Drawlight wrote:Atheism isn't a belief of any kind. It's a term used to describe people who have no belief in God.

Think you've confused yourself there. a-the-ism, noun; the doctrine or belief that there is no God. ie. an active disbelief in any deity, so as much a belief itself as any deity-centric faith.

You can't be an atheist when you're born... you'd be a nontheist if anything. Can't really describe a baby as atheist, since it's too stupid to formulate any sort of relevant opinion.

Very good point, but I haven't confused myself, just used language sloppily. I don't actually like the term atheism as it implies exactly what you said, but is generally used to describe people who simply have no belief in God, for whatever reason, including an active disbelief- actually, I beilve 'anti-theist' is creeping into common use to describe those with an active disbelife or dislike. Like, I said, I don't like the term because it implies that one is defined by their non-belief.

So, yeah, sorry if I confused you- I maintain that by the broader definition, which is how I use the term, however incorrectly, everyone is an atheist at birth (like you said, a better term must be available) for exactly the reasons which you stated- kids can't form a reasonable, informed judgement and analysis of the evidence before them.

Im simply void of all religion. Im not an atheist, because they believe there is no god. I dont believe or not believe. I simply live my life without religion, i respect other people views but have none myself.

Are you religious?

Are you religious and if so which one?

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