11 Things the Bible Bans, But You Do Anyway

[TheVCRman]

Re: 11 Things the Bible Bans, But You Do Anyway

Police Officer: "So, tell me again sir, why did you chop off you're wifes hand?"

M@5t3rPastor212: "THE LORD SAID IT WAS TO BE SO!"

[rushyrulz]

Re: 11 Things the Bible Bans, But You Do Anyway

M@5t3rPastor212 rofl

[Mans0n]

Re: 11 Things the Bible Bans, But You Do Anyway

Anyone who took that article serious is a joke. and needs to stop wasting their life away, and maybe do something good for once. Instead of insulting a large number of people's religion.

[speeddemon]

Re: 11 Things the Bible Bans, But You Do Anyway

As opposed to them insulting other people's religions? It's wonderful when the pot calls the kettle black, but settle down and don't be so touchy about it. Unless of course you mean everybody should stop insulting everybody else's religions, in which case you could go about it in a less abrasive, dickheaded fashion.

[Reincarnate]

Re: 11 Things the Bible Bans, But You Do Anyway

I have no problem calling out religious people on the retardation of their beliefs. Yeah, you're free to have whatever beliefs you want. But that doesn't mean I have to respect them or pretend like they hold any validity or intellectual merit. I consider it a good thing to be blunt about just how insane religion is. Pretending like it's anything more than that is not progress.

[Zageron]

Re: 11 Things the Bible Bans, But You Do Anyway

I have no problem calling out religious people on the retardation of their beliefs. Yeah, you're free to have whatever beliefs you want. But that doesn't mean I have to respect them or pretend like they hold any validity or intellectual merit. I consider it a good thing to be blunt about just how insane religion is. Pretending like it's anything more than that is not progress.

I have to agree with this completely.

[~kitty~]

Re: 11 Things the Bible Bans, But You Do Anyway

I have no problem calling out religious people on the retardation of their beliefs. Yeah, you're free to have whatever beliefs you want. But that doesn't mean I have to respect them or pretend like they hold any validity or intellectual merit. I consider it a good thing to be blunt about just how insane religion is. Pretending like it's anything more than that is not progress.

Do you think you know there isn't a God? Or do you not care and wont say one or the other, but generally lean towards believing in cause and effect (to the extent of which the time-space continuum exists)? Did I word that correctly? lol

[Reincarnate]

Re: 11 Things the Bible Bans, But You Do Anyway

Do you think you know there isn't a God? Or do you not care and wont say one or the other, but generally lean towards believing in cause and effect (to the extent of which the time-space continuum exists)? Did I word that correctly? lol

Personally I am an agnostic atheist -- which means "I don't think you can know for sure that there isn't a God, but I don't believe that there is one."

It's always bad science to say something is impossible. You can't ever disprove God, much like you can't logically disprove something that could exist outside the scope of your influence.

The problem is that it doesn't really do us much good to wonder if such things exist. It's a lot like Carl Sagan's Dragon -- a dragon that leaves behind no trail or evidence of its influence and isn't detectable by sight, smell, taste, touch, or sound. There's no difference between such a dragon and a dragon that doesn't exist in the first place. It calls into question what it means for something to "exist."

And so when there's no evidence for something's existence, there's no reason to assume one possibility over another. God could exist. The tooth fairy could exist. Peanut butter demons could exist. And so on and so forth. But what good does it do to pick one and hold it as true over all others? If truth is what you seek, then you can't find it in religion, since there's no way to acquire justified true belief when there's no evidence for the justification. So you have to remain agnostic about those possibilities until something comes forth.

However, I am atheist as well because I say that even though God can't be disproved, I think it's extremely improbable that he does exist.

For one, it's hard to define God. Many like to think of God as something supernatural and sentient -- something with a mind that can process logic and decisions but perhaps on greater capacities. The less you anthropomorphize God, the more you have to call into question "Why call it God? Why not just call it another aspect of the universe/existence?" For instance, if String Theory turns out true, why not call the superstrings "God"? If you do want to anthropomorphize God, then ask yourself why. This question becomes even more obviously-silly when you consider how and why our minds evolved the way they did in the first place. “If triangles had a God, it would have three sides" is a good quote to summarize that problem.

Past that, there's just so much evidence that our universe is exactly consistent with a universe that didn't need a God to jumpstart it or control anything. God is an unneeded variable just like you don't need pixies to explain why ice cream melts. Yeah, it's possible that pixies are influencing things, but we have perfectly good science to explain the phenomena instead.

But understanding why God isn't needed is a lot harder to intuit. It really takes a decent grasp of cosmology, physics, chemistry, biology, evolution, mathematics, statistics, philosophy, psychology, logic, quantum mechanics, and so on. And handling all of that stuff is a tall order that even the best minds have trouble grasping firmly.

As for cause and effect, right now quantum mechanics kicks causality down a few notches because it incorporates randomness at a fundamental level. It's a bit of a simplification to put it that way, but the short story is that causality is suspect. There are particles that pop in and out of existence without any observable cause whatsoever. We can logically rule out locality and see that on some level, randomness governs individual particles (even though the wave function may be arguably deterministic in its setup).

"The most I learn about the universe, the less convinced I am that there's any sort of benevolent force that has anything to do with it, at all."
— Neil deGrasse Tyson

[00Razor00]

Re: 11 Things the Bible Bans, But You Do Anyway

Derailed religion thread #98238721

[Reincarnate]

Re: 11 Things the Bible Bans, But You Do Anyway

it happens. but it's no secret that the Bible is full of stuff that even the most extreme of Christians will admit they don't follow or take literally.

[~kitty~]

Re: 11 Things the Bible Bans, But You Do Anyway

Personally, I would like to believe there is a God. Some benefits may come out of it, but believing in an organized Religion comes with lots of logical flaws, such as the fact that I was taught that God loves all things, God knows everything, and God can do anything. According to the Bible, if this all was true, God doesn't exist. I'm pretty sure it states that if God isn't all of those things, he doesn't exist. That, or I heard it from somewhere else. However, if I say it benefits me to not believe in a God (non-traditional), then I would be a bit more stressful. However, this does bring up the "you don't really believe in God, you're just psychologically reacting to the environment by deluding that such a thing exists." I've thought about it, and I struggled over what to believe because I prefer to believe in something and believing in no theism makes the point of life less valuable, thus less enjoyable, and I want to enjoy my life. This really seems like I'm just trying to be deliberately delusional, or maybe I'm right.

A problem I've encountered numerous times, however, is how people die sometimes. If God exists and there's a soul, what about the people with mental disorders or what about all these organ functions that actually make us live? If we had souls and God existed, why do we die so easily? It just becomes a complicated mess. Anyway, I just think, from a point of view of actually being inside the Religious circle, that people are "retarded" about religion because rejecting these ideologies destroys their purpose of life, and they want to stick to it no matter what. Probably means nothing can change them. I don't know, I'm rambling now.

[MrGiggles]

Re: 11 Things the Bible Bans, But You Do Anyway

fuuuuuuuck i'm starting to hate these threads

I mean, they're good, but they were better the first forty times around
there's no tread on these tires

[eastsideman09]

Re: 11 Things the Bible Bans, But You Do Anyway

I've thought about it, and I struggled over what to believe because I prefer to believe in something and believing in no theism makes the point of life less valuable, thus less enjoyable, and I want to enjoy my life. This really seems like I'm just trying to be deliberately delusional, or maybe I'm right.

Elaborate, why would a lack of theism make said point less valuable? Is there even really a point to life? Why would we need one in the first place? Why even worry about it anyway?

[~kitty~]

Re: 11 Things the Bible Bans, But You Do Anyway

Elaborate, why would a lack of theism make said point less valuable? Is there even really a point to life? Why would we need one in the first place? Why even worry about it anyway?

You were probably raised differently than I was. Just living isn't really enough for me. I, for some reason, need to have some further purpose because my life generally sucks. If that sounds cheesy or stupid, then whatever? I'm just saying what I think.

[Reincarnate]

Re: 11 Things the Bible Bans, But You Do Anyway

A problem I've encountered numerous times, however, is how people die sometimes. If God exists and there's a soul, what about the people with mental disorders or what about all these organ functions that actually make us live? If we had souls and God existed, why do we die so easily? It just becomes a complicated mess. Anyway, I just think, from a point of view of actually being inside the Religious circle, that people are "retarded" about religion because rejecting these ideologies destroys their purpose of life, and they want to stick to it no matter what. Probably means nothing can change them. I don't know, I'm rambling now.

The answer is again "Because we don't need God to explain how the body works." We can understand everything about our form and function through our physical makeup. Everything you are is your body -- and it would make more sense to think of your brain as your "soul," if anything. Everything that comprises you as a person resides in your brain.

As for the latter point, all I have to say is that "meaning" is a human construct. "Purpose" is entirely human-defined. If Earth had no life, what would the "purpose" of the universe be with all those planets and galaxies and stars aimlessly wandering about? You don't need a religion to have purpose. As an atheist, I make my own purpose/meaning and live life the way I want to live it.