Religion

[DarkstaR]

This thread is a discussion thread. This means that you are free to discuss the said topic of religion; you can state your opinion and argue it. In this thread, please try and keep your posts valuable, relevant and readable. Normal forum rules apply.

What religion are you? Do you believe in God? Is religion right for the world? Discuss. Don't flame (but argue your point, gently).

These questions are just examples. Please feel free to post whatever idea/views/opinions you want about religion.

This is a very touch topic - If you are going to post insulting or prejudice comments [e.g. "Anyone who beleives in god is a moron!" or "Athiests should burn in the hell that they dont believe in!"] then please dont post at all. The reason I posted this is because TPForums has a generally intelligent community and I sense we can all make intelligent and interesting arguements instead of just "I am christian because parent take me to church, god is real bb!" or "Jesus isnt real cause my life sucks"

Aight, I'll start off.

I'm agnostic. I do believe there may possibly be a higher power out there, but I'm not sure.

Some religious people will make you question yourself with stuff like this

1.
You may not see God, or feel God. But you dont see air, or feel air. Whats the difference? So should not being able to see or feel God keep you from believing?

My thoughts:
I am told air is what I breathe, which keeps me alive. If I clog my intake of air (stop breathing, duh), then I can feel myself slowly blacking out. If I do this long enough I pass out, then eventually die. So as I'm told air keeps me alive, I can feel it take me closer to death the more I dont breathe it. I could also watch someone suffocate (Though I wouldnt want to, thats cruel), this proves to me that air infact does keep a human alive.

On the other hand, I am told the belief of God will bring me to heaven. Well, the only way to test this is to believe and then die. Theres no feeling yourself going to heaven as you can feel yourself suffocate. Theres no watching someone go to heaven, as you can watch somone suffocate. So while this doesnt prove anything, it doesnt disprove anything. Its just a strawman arguement.

2
Religious person: If theres no God, how did we get here?
Gullable Non-Religious Person: Science can explain that. We all evolved from a base species.
Religious person: Where did that base species come from, then?
Gullable Non-Religious Person: Oh, good point!

Now with a Logically Thinking Non-Religious Person...

Religious person: If theres no God, how did we get here?
Logically Thinking Non-Religious Person: Science can explain that. We all evolved from a base species.
Religious person: Where did that base species come from, then?
Logically Thinking Non-Religious Person: You may bring up a good counter to my arguement, but you do to yours as well. Where did God come from?
Religious person: Simple, hes always been there!
Logically Thinking Non-Religious Person: Maybe the single celled organism of the base species which made way for all evolution has always been there as well.

As you can see, these are all just strawman arguments that try and prove God, and that people who dont use their minds and think for themselves will easily let persuade them into faith.


I have alot more to say but I'll stop for now because I'm really tired and cant think.

[asta]

I think that god doesn't exist. The churchs and the religions, in general, are a big business, to keep the people scared for life, making them to go every sunday to the church, making them to pray. The religion sell faith, an emotional support, and they want a reward.

For me, discuss about god its like to discuss about flying pigs, or flyings donkeys. Its just senseless to start a discussion about that, such things doesn't exist.

The religions causes a big damage to the humankind. In my oppinion, its another way to control the people. You only have to see the pope: in its last visit to africa, he told to the people to don't use condoms, that's a very dangerous declaration, because a lot of people will get AIDS cause of this. And there are many others examples.

I think that the religious people simply do not think about the option that really theres no god. They accept it, as they were told since they were kids, but its big fail. The religion made them unthinking beings (in the matter we are), unable to start an own discussion to themselves about the possibility that religions its only a lie.

Thats why I think that religion its harmful. It removes the critical reasoning from the people, making them slaves, not free persons.

[Jesper_Kladden]

Religions are failing.

There is no evidence that God exists. The only religion that I believe is the most correct one, not the correct one, but it makes more sense than the others, it's the buddhism.

They believe in no gods, they do not believe in hurting themselves, the only thing that they believe in is the spirit and some other random stuff.

[Erra]

All I ever want to know is, how was the world created? I don't believe it was a God, but really, how was the world created? It's got me thinking really deep.
We only live in our consciousnesses, we all perceive the world differently.
But how was the world created? I don't believe in either a God, or a "Big Bang". A "Big Bang" implies that there was something before the world, but then, how was that created? Why was it created? Why do we live? We could not have been, and we would not know. It's a paradox, because as I see it, everything must have been created by something else. So how was the first thing that was ever created, created? It's really weird to think about, because there's just no end to it. Somehow, we just exist, for some reason we don't even know about. The big bang doesn't explain what was before, nor what created the atoms of the big bang.

This question has no answer really, what made the first atoms of the world? Did they just appear for no reason? It's inexplicable. Don't try to figure out the answer, because there really is none, for some (or no) reason, we just are.

God may or may not exist, there's no scientific proof of it, so I'm indifferent of it.

[DarkstaR]

All I ever want to know is, how was the world created? I don't believe it was a God, but really, how was the world created? It's got me thinking really deep.
We only live in our consciousnesses, we all perceive the world differently.
But how was the world created? I don't believe in either a God, or a "Big Bang". A "Big Bang" implies that there was something before the world, but then, how was that created? Why was it created? Why do we live? We could not have been, and we would not know. It's a paradox, because as I see it, everything must have been created by something else. So how was the first thing that was ever created, created?

We are Human so we will always think something has to be created by something else. We cannot grasp the idea of infinity, because we have not seen (bad word to use I know) infinity. However, we see creation all the time and figure thats how everything has always been. But this is not the case, it cant be the case. But being human all our intelligence can tell us is that this is not the case, but not what is the case.

This question has no answer really, what made the first atoms of the world? Did they just appear for no reason?

So far science has proved matter finite, so this question is a fallacy. Matter cannot be created nor destroyed, so we were forever here, or something that exists without matter had to create us. I'm not saying there is or isn't a God, I'm just trying to get you to put your thinking cap on.

This question has no answer really, what made the first atoms of the world? Did they just appear for no reason? It's inexplicable. Don't try to figure out the answer, because there really is none, for some (or no) reason, we just are.

God may or may not exist, there's no scientific proof of it, so I'm indifferent of it.

Just as am I

[Grob]

My problem with religion is that their only arguments is 'why not?', instead of trying to prove the existance.

[BobbyVanoo]

I remember reading about an experiment done in the '50s where a scientist had a completely closed environment with nothing but 4 simple gasses (I think they were ammonia, hydrogen gas, carbon dioxide, and something else) all of which were found in earth's early atmosphere. He sent large amounts of electricity (like lightning) through the mixture and it created amino acids, the parts that make up DNA.

If you have a large enough grouping of amino acids with the right amount of energy, they can form the DNA of a cell that is able to reproduce. It is obviously worse than a 1 in a billion shot that any random string of DNA will produce a viable life form, but... if you have this happening all the time in each square inch of a giant planet, its bound to happen eventually.

The truth is that the Earth is 4.6 billion years old, as dated from meteoroids that solidified during the creation of the solar system. Life on earth started shortly after it cooled enough to be inhabitable, and for 87% of the time that there was life on earth, it was all microscopic.

I think that most Christians really just don't get it. I've noticed that most people who really just don't understand science, move more towards Christianity. A simple non-formal gathering of facts from TheAmazingAtheist on youtube.com shows that the states with the highest church attendance are also the ones with the highest murder rates, and the state with the lowest church attendance has the lowest murder rate. I don't think that Christianity causes murder, but I do think that they are both symptoms of the same problem. Stupidity.

[asta]

The problem is that the believers are too scared to reason. When the opportunity to think about something is there, they automatically switch off their brain in order to don't discover something that could damage their faith. They are like blinds or, if they reason, do not apply the logic arguments correctly, adapting them to their religion.

That is why digital electronic and classical logic should be learn in the school.

[Jakubxx]

In my opinion the chance that god does NOT exist is much bigger than that it does. And even if it existed, the chance that he would be like we pictured him to be is close to zero. After all, I am not sure if I am believer or atheist...better to believe all your life just to find out that god doesn't exist than not to believe and find out you were wrong. Perhaps it's more calculation than believing but you know, better safe than sorry

Another thing is that if we don't know the answer God made it this way is an easy explanation. I just think my teacher wouldn't buy it on test

[BobbyVanoo]

The problem is that the believers are too scared to reason. When the opportunity to think about something is there, they automatically switch off their brain in order to don't discover something that could damage their faith. They are like blinds or, if they reason, do not apply the logic arguments correctly, adapting them to their religion.

That is why digital electronic and classical logic should be learn in the school.

"Faith is believing what you know ain't so."
-Mark Twain