Do you have a religion?

[MinaciousGrace]

Re: Do you have a religion?

in case anyone missed it if god is what created us and informs our lives and actions at every point in time then god is the collective scientific laws of the universe and those (scientists, researchers, etc) who seek to discover and understand these laws are those who are really 'closest to god'

this is why many eminent intellectuals come off as religious or spiritual

then it gets twisted by pseudo intellectual retards who think that being smart means being 'hipster religious' and its actually really fucking sad

[ormix]

Re: Do you have a religion?

Thanks for the insight owa :v

I just look at life as a trial - it would be easiest to believe that we as humans are capable of true moderation if we set our mind to it, but being born into sin as some one like me chooses to believe, this is not so. It sounds counter productive to embrace being fallen from conception but it's never been more complicated than some thing is as it is for me.

edit: on a personal note :subsequent reality: the trial is a freebie

[the sun fan]

Re: Do you have a religion?

The Bible and Qu'ran both have something along the lines of "God created man in his own image", so people are just following the book here.

The Qu'ran does, in fact, not say this.

EDIT: Ok, gonna need to explain more. It does say that God created Adam in his image, however, it says many more times than that that there is nothing resembling God in any way, so most people just take it to mean that God gave Adam some of the traits (the ability to hear, see, think etc) that God has.

There are, as always, other interpretations.

[Travis_Flesher]

BRAIN


BRAINI am intrigued by this topic.
Everyone are very 'fired up' to talk and think about religion no matter their belief
All in all, I think religion has always been a heated topic. A source of power, a source of inspiration
What really interesting about religion is the power, not the humble beliefs.

[XelNya]

Re: Do you have a religion?

I related to this a lot two years ago and sought religion to find meaning in my life. Now, my life is driven a lot more by goals, and that has made my life seem meaningful enough for now.

See, the issue I take, is that there's certainly better options to fill the void of a meaningless life. Screw living for an omnipotent ass wipe who literally allows / brings about wars, crusades, shootings, and suicide bombings. There's literally never any justification for why you would praise a presence that does this, or lets it happen.

"It's a test of faith" is not a good answer either because you're effectively saying their lives were to serve a purpose of testing someone else, taking away the value each life is supposed to have.

To clarify that last part: I think all life has no original meaning, and no value, unless you personally assign it one. (Which is the only reason I'd never say life is meaningless is a fact.)

I value certain people I'm friends with, and I treat people who I don't know with complete disregard. They don't matter to me.

I dunno how to really explain it any better than that.

I feel kinda bad for people who were heavily indoctrinated. Instilling the fear of eternal punishment for finite wrongdoing into children is very effective for getting them to follow your religion and stay with it until they die.

You can't have this one thing because someone translated a book (likely wrong) said so.

i'll happily criticize your acquaintance pool-

it sucks and they're all stupid

I don't believe in god, or follow any religion.
Lack of evidence, and I find it ridiculous

I agree with these more or less in the long run though.

I wouldn't say a person who is religious is outright stupid, but I'd maybe change it to I think they have a belief that is stupid (to me.)

[Mahou]

Re: Do you have a religion?

Religion is a good example of a concept I hold a high degree of respect for and can see how it helps many people, and has done a lot of good (bad too, I know), but was just never for me. If I had to answer, I'd say I'm happily Agnostic, though technically if you asked my family they'd deem me Lutheran. That said, my mom works for catholics, and my late grandfather was an atheist, so in general distinctions as such have never impacted my directly immediate family and such.

I've experienced as a third-party both positives and negatives due to religion. It's largely due to religion (well, and the Beatles) that I'm cut off from a portion of my immediate family; it's also thanks to religion that a few people I hold very dear to me have been helped in significant ways over the years. I've seen religion guide people to a terrific way of life, be it Christianity, Catholicism, Muslim ideologies, and everything in between.

While there are holes in each religion, I don't think it's either important nor beneficial to judge due to them. I see it as a way to help people, and to provide support and answers where there may otherwise not be. Whether or not it's "correct" or "logical" is irrelevant with my stance; if there's nobody getting hurt then I see no harm in following a path that can cause great benefit.

Of course, there's radicals and extremists that twist the purpose of religion, they can suck a dick and such etc. But for the most part, I think religion has potential to be life-saving, and can greatly help many people.

Agree with a lot of this.

[MixMasterLar]

Re: Do you have a religion?

There's literally never any justification for why you would praise a presence that does this, or lets it happen.

I think this perspective comes from viewing God as a very personified entity who controls the universe as one would control a modded Sims 3 program.

I feel as though he's a little more of an hands-off intelligent energy wisp then that. Chances are, wars are started by greedy fuckasses who don't follow his teachings (even if they say they are COUGHCRUSADESCOUGHWEEZ)



Also

The thing about creating man in His image likely refers to the fact that man has a soul/something about them not totally physical (Animals are thought to have no soul and be more biological robots then humans are. At least, that is what I have always been taught. There is no way I believe God looks like how we physically do because in all honesty evolution is a real thing and we probably don't look / function the exact same as Adam anyway)

[XelNya]

Re: Do you have a religion?

COUGHCRUSADESCOUGHWEEZ

Deus vult

[Dynam0]

Re: Do you have a religion?

I think this perspective comes from viewing God as a very personified entity who controls the universe as one would control a modded Sims 3 program.

I feel as though he's a little more of an hands-off intelligent energy wisp then that. Chances are, wars are started by greedy fuckasses who don't follow his teachings (even if they say they are COUGHCRUSADESCOUGHWEEZ)

Why would God choose to reveal himself, delegate prophets, bestow divine wisdom etc. to an illiterate part of the Middle East a mere 2000 years ago when it's been shown through evidence humans have been around for over 100,000 years? He sat idly by watching humanity suffer through terrible predation and average life expectancies of 20-25 years for literally THOUSANDS of years and then one day said, "hey guys I'm here sry computer took forever to boot up everything's fine tho lol"

The concept of a deity or the supernatural to explain things yet explained by science can give you a warm fuzzy feeling and that is harmless so long as this remains a personal truth.

I don't have a religion (if you can't already tell) because as many others have said there is no compelling evidence to suggest a God exists. Making the argument that a form of existence or reality needs a creator is a circular one because you would need someone to create the creator and so on; it has no logical conclusion or end point. The only thing I can rationalize is a continuum of sorts which is really not much different than the concept of a multiverse. Even granting that there was a creator they would be a slave to causality from the previous creator and so on.

[Hakulyte]

Re: Do you have a religion?

I'm Christian.

I personally consider religion a mentality at this point and time.

I'm not going to tell you guys that God exist etc.
I'm just going to say that "I want to believe" it is the case.

I hope you see the subtlety.
It's an ideals vs reality thematic.

If I had to take a stance, I would say that religion is outdated.
That it needs to find its place in modern society.

I don't think religion should cease to exist, but I feel like philosophy should become the next big thing in early education.
Once you've been introduced to philosophy to the point where you can start arguing instead of just presenting an opinion; I believe this is when and only when religion should be introduced.

Well, that probably raise the question; "If you have your own interpretation of religion, are you still religious or you're no longer the real thing ?"
Is religion a box that has to fit a pile of expectations ?
Why did they change the old Testament to a new one ?

I'm simply not up to date anymore with where religion is now, but I feel like the questions people tend to have comes in conflict with what religion itself is supposed to be.
May legit need an expert here or some research before getting deeper in that topic.

[MinaciousGrace]

Re: Do you have a religion?

I'm not going to tell you guys that God exist etc.

sorry then you aren't christian

[MinaciousGrace]

Re: Do you have a religion?

christians are commanded to proselytize

you don't get to selectively choose what tenants of your religion you want to follow, i mean you can i guess because this is what spawned the bazillion offshoots of christianity and other religions and varying orthodoxies

religion is a tool that exists for 2 purposes

1) to placate literal plebs (ruling class pov)
2) to rationalize illogical behavior (pleb pov)

but this belies how fucking retarded organized religion actually is

religion is a set of beliefs and ideals to which all members ascribe to, the only thing that sets it apart from any set of non religious beliefs and ideals is that all members are supposed to believe the exact same shit

if you can convey an idea or a concept via religion you can do it without religion

if you can live your life by a moral code and set of rules commanded to you by your religion then, wow, surprise

you can do it without religion

do you see where im going with this

you aren't christian you are just using christianity as a pretext for living your own life with your own rules and beliefs anyway, so no, you aren't fucking 'religious' and this is what makes the collective world religions a shining example of how unbelievably stupid humanity can be

the idea that religion must evolve in modernity is ridiculous, it serves no functional purpose in a modern society, it needs to go extinct

[MinaciousGrace]

Re: Do you have a religion?

ok i'll blunt my own statements with 2 anecdotes since we weren't supposed to be religion bashing

1) religious charity organizations (or at least the members of those organizations doing the actual work) are by far the most committed and least corrupt I've encountered
2) My dad converted to judaism after being diagnosed with both stage 4 prostate cancer and stage 4 renal cell carcinoma. Every doctor consulted in the tristate area wouldn't even consider operating on him, except one. His prognosis was 3 months at best. That was 10 years ago and he's the healthiest and happiest he's ever been, minus a prostate and a kidney. I don't 'thank god', I thank one of the best cancer surgeons in the area along with the sense of purpose and inclusion in a community that his conversion to judaism provided that supported his inherent desire to fight and survive.

could he have achieved the same if he converted to islam, hinduism, buddism? probably

could he have achieved the same if he joined a cancer patient support group? probably

if we woke up tomorrow and religion no longer existed would anything change? probably not

[blanky!]

Re: Do you have a religion?

I've always seen religion as some sort of "coordinate system" for which life can be viewed through, in order to promote well-being. There's some example about a geographical community of Seventh-Day Adventists far outliving their neighbors, even those who did smoke/drink/etc.

Of course, this is only the ideal.

[rushyrulz]

Re: Do you have a religion?

I love you, Mina.
And not in the weird way that Christians go around telling people that they love them either.