Do you have a religion?

[Hakulyte]

I don't think Mina is wrong, I just think we don't see the same topic the same way.
I believe he was more targeting the concept of being religious which is by definition not flexible.

I guess it's just me being dumb with semantics and not realizing that having a religion doesn't necessary makes you religious as someone who invest a lot of time into the religion related to them.
Just because you don't have a lot of devotion, doesn't mean that you're going to reject your own religion still.

I personally think religion is not religion anymore if you force religion into someone.
Depending on which religion we're talking about, this may become a nonsense because there's definitely religions that wants you to fully believe in them.

I think we both just didn't take the time to further define what we were talking about.

Also, being smart has little to do with religion.
It just means you have a certain talent at giving yourself the tools to go through school properly.
I'm pretty sure you're aware that intelligence has multiple facets and that you can be really good at certain things while not at others.
I have friends who destroyed university like it was a joke and there's many fields where they can't compete at all even with the average person.
They just had a way of thinking that was very efficient at dealing with whatever school was throwing at them.

[MinaciousGrace]

i mean the op reeks of the same moral and ideological superiority complex that plagues most modern organized religions

you didn't make a post indicating you wanted to survey the theological landscape of users on the site, that's one thing, it would still probably devolve into what this had but at least I wouldn't have been a part of it

YOU made a post intended to stir up a conversation so you could ram down your hipster religion ideologies into other people's throats using your "ivy league friends" as some sort of ridiculous overpowering authority and you expected everyone to just sit back and let you lecture them on how their perception of the world is unenlightened

and i understand that i pissed you off because i intended to, but you're not pissed off at me, somewhere deep down inside you realize how ridiculously shallow and hypocritical everything in this thread you've said has been and you resent the fact that i made you reckon with it

[MinaciousGrace]

Originally Posted by Hakulyte

I think we both just didn't take the time to further define what we were talking about.

i made it pretty crystal clear that selectively choosing which elements of a religion to believe in disqualifies you for being of that religion, and continuing to identify as that religion in order to impose your altered version of the belief system unto others voids the entire purpose of it

in case you missed it- christians are commanded to proselytize, it's part of the christian duty to serving god, you can't abandon that responsibility and then still claim your soul is going to be saved

[Walrusizer]

Originally Posted by Funnygurl555

EDIT: Also LOL dude I didn't realize you spent so much of your post saying, "ivy league ppl are dumb tho!!!" Nah dude. My friends are actually way smarter than you. They didn't get into Princeton because of their parent's money, because most of my friends are on hella financial aid.

Retards also can't get straight A's at the Ivy League school known for grade deflation too, sucka. I have a brain. Ooooweee

fuckin lmao

[Hakulyte]

I see your point. I'm just afraid this thread will get boring fast if we remove the potential thinking freedom.

Originally Posted by Funnygurl555

DO NOT FLAME RELIGIONS HERE DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT

I cannot see how this will not happen if we try to justify beliefs in something without proof. So, if this is the thread direction, I'm out of here lol.

[Travis_Flesher]

God awareness is the most basic chakra power generator you guys should know that by now.

[Funnygurl555]

Originally Posted by MinaciousGrace

oh right sorry i'm wrong because i make assumptions about your friends but it's ok for you to make assumptions about my friends because you hold the moral high ground here... because religion!

...
you do realize im not religious, right? i also made an appropriate inference for your one friend who's a pompous dumbass

i gotta show soon so ima deuce for now. didnt read most of what you said. should i?...

edit: mods, you can lock this if you want lol im sorry i derailed this thread. i normally try to keep my cool, but minas just really annoying.

[MinaciousGrace]

Originally Posted by Funnygurl555

an appropriate inference

again, defending your use of something while chastising mine

or even more accurately using something you attack me for doing to justify doing another thing you also attack me for doing

next time don't pick fights you can't win and won't concede

to reiterate the shitty condescending op was picking a fight

[lofty rhino]

•Oh, and you shouldn't use only one em- dash in a sentence, my dude.

-You're wrong. You absolutely can use an em dash on its own, and it functions as a semi-colon with a slightly longer break in the sentence.

I have a terminal degree in creative writing, and teach English; maybe you should stop there.

Here's a quote to back my previous statement: "[Em] dashes can be used in pairs like parentheses—that is, to enclose a word, or a phrase, or a clause—or they can be used alone to detach one end of a sentence from the main body."

Poets, and by the way, I've worked with the last poet laureate in workshops (just to humor your elitist tendencies), use the latter function quite frequently.

If you would have even bothered to look up em dash usage on google images, both usages would have come up. Do they not teach you how to utilize even the most simple of resources at your school?

•I think you're friends with MinaciousGrace because I don't know you, but I'm probably right.

-You're right, but I don't need to defend him. He is more than capable. I said what I said because you're perpetuating nonsensical elitism. Also, I'm three years and change older than you--not that age has anything to do with this.

*A note: sometimes, em dashes are stylized by typists as two hyphens.

•Retards also can't get straight A's at the Ivy League school known for grade deflation too, sucka. I have a brain. Ooooweee

Haha, whatever dude.

[rushyrulz]

Originally Posted by Hakulyte

Does God exist ? No ? Prove it ? You can't.

Just gonna pop in here to say that people who reject a claim do not hold the burden of proof. People who make (extraordinary) claims are the ones who are required to prove those claims, and it is not the responsibility of rejectors of the claim to prove it false. This is especially important when said claims are unfalsifiable. See: The Dragon In My Garage.

[Kr1sp]

Im a Mormon. I was born into the church. i kinda like it, not only does everybody there give me support that i really need, i know God is there for me. its very comforting. It is also a really good way too keep my morals and shape me into possibly the best person I can be, and i am very grateful for it

[MixMasterLar]

Originally Posted by Haku

but keep in mind that the Bible and everything it says wasn't made for this generation. There's a gap that creates itself as society evolves and humanity is evolving fast right now. So, it is important that religion also evolve as well to stay relevant until things are proven one way or the other.

Actually, you're suppose to keep your life relevant to religion not the other way around. I don't know of a major religion that's like "yep might as well change so that people can have an easier time with it"

If we're sticking with the Christian Bible, then everything the New Testament says is still the rules until the earth ends or we get the Neo New Testament (which I'm pretty sure is not going to happen); how that jives with the zeitgeist is pretty much our problem and not God's.

Originally Posted by MinaciousGrace

YOU made a post intended to stir up a conversation so you could ram down your hipster religion ideologies into other people's throats using your "ivy league friends" as some sort of ridiculous overpowering authority and you expected everyone to just sit back and let you lecture them on how their perception of the world is unenlightened

I'm extremely sure this never happened.

[MixMasterLar]

Originally Posted by rushyrulz

Just gonna pop in here to say that people who reject a claim do not hold the burden of proof. People who make (extraordinary) claims are the ones who are required to prove those claims, and it is not the responsibility of rejectors of the claim to prove it false. This is especially important when said claims are unfalsifiable. See: The Dragon In My Garage.

I want to go on record and say this is absolutely true

Originally Posted by Kr1sp

Im a Mormon. I was born into the church. i kinda like it, not only does everybody there give me support that i really need, i know God is there for me. its very comforting. It is also a really good way too keep my morals and shape me into possibly the best person I can be, and i am very grateful for it

I have a high level of respect for how Mormons carry their lives. Although I won't claim to be of their faith/in agreement with their beliefs, their churches do good work.

[rushyrulz]

I think funnygurl is actually a gurl but u rite ninja

[Mahou]

Now kids

It’s okay to disagree sometimes.

[Travis_Flesher]

The power of christ compels you.
Exorcise these demons boys.
Think about it....

[devonin]

My primary input into this thread right now is to warn everybody to stop using "retarded" as a pejorative. If you keep doing it, you'll start getting infracted.

[Hakulyte]

Originally Posted by rushyrulz

Just gonna pop in here to say that people who reject a claim do not hold the burden of proof. People who make (extraordinary) claims are the ones who are required to prove those claims, and it is not the responsibility of rejectors of the claim to prove it false. This is especially important when said claims are unfalsifiable. See: The Dragon In My Garage.

I don't have the knowledge needed to justify if God exist or not.

I'm just following a feeling instead of reason to follow an ideal instead of reality because I believe that's an interesting take on the world and I'm cool living my life around that hypothesis. Also, how we see the world/universe etc. is constantly evolving too. We're not at a stage where we can sit down and be like "this is the absolute truth of all the questions we had, there's no point to debate about anything anymore".

The difference between Religion and the Dragon in the garage is that the Dragon doesn't have books dedicated to it with an entire segment of population preaching it + history marks left over multiple centuries.
Maybe that part of the population is crazy, but I like to think there's potentially more to it.

Originally Posted by MixMasterLar

Actually, you're suppose to keep your life relevant to religion not the other way around. I don't know of a major religion that's like "yep might as well change so that people can have an easier time with it"

If we're sticking with the Christian Bible, then everything the New Testament says is still the rules until the earth ends or we get the Neo New Testament (which I'm pretty sure is not going to happen); how that jives with the zeitgeist is pretty much our problem and not God's.

Christianism is in decline where I live and this is like the natural consequence of the newer generations not caring about religion in general.
Grab a time machine and go back to like 1950 and religion was a center part of lives.
It is no longer a rare sight to see churches close/get replaced by other buildings and the trend for apatheism is real.
Everyone is becoming more self-centered and religion dropped heavily from the priority list as it gets less and less exposure.
It's difficult to care as much when this is happening.
Traditional values haven't exactly been in the spotlight of life in a long time either.
So yeah, my fault I guess.

I wouldn't be surprised if I wasn't approaching religion right, but I still thought this counted as a stance somehow.
Apparently, I can't even qualify as a believer if I'm skeptical about my own beliefs.
I mean cmon, it's not like you can fully erase doubts with this. Questions need to be answered to fully believe into something.
The point of beliefs is that you no longer have doubts about it.
There's no way you can do this here fmpov unless you want to live in an hypothetical stance.

Edit: My bad, I pretty much said every Christian is agnostic by default. If you're a believer, don't take that personal. I'm just trying to keep things simple.

[Nick012]

lol this thread

EDIT: I'm gonna add something cuz why not
I was raised catholic, but I've grown to be mostly agnostic (Stopped believing in the catholic god ~ when i was 14 yrs old, but i was never a fervent believer).
I don't really think there's some kind of dependency or direct correlation between very smart people and religion.

[Funnygurl555]

About the dash thing, ya actually still wrong duder

Originally Posted by devonin

My primary input into this thread right now is to warn everybody to stop using "retarded" as a pejorative. If you keep doing it, you'll start getting infracted.

I'm really sorry about that.

GONNA KEEP GOING THRU THIS THREAD

Originally Posted by MinaciousGrace

again, defending your use of something while chastising mine

or even more accurately using something you attack me for doing to justify doing another thing you also attack me for doing

next time don't pick fights you can't win and won't concede

to reiterate the shitty condescending op was picking a fight

but... I made the inference based on the thing your friend said. Like, material things. There was a reason for me to know he's a dumbass, because he made two dumb posts

Do you *know* my friends? Have you ever talked to any of them? Then how do you know they're stupid?

I also wouldn't call this losing.

Originally Posted by MixMasterLar

I'm extremely sure this never happened.

Thank you...

Originally Posted by MinaciousGrace

i mean the op reeks of the same moral and ideological superiority complex that plagues most modern organized religions

you didn't make a post indicating you wanted to survey the theological landscape of users on the site, that's one thing, it would still probably devolve into what this had but at least I wouldn't have been a part of it

YOU made a post intended to stir up a conversation so you could ram down your hipster religion ideologies into other people's throats using your "ivy league friends" as some sort of ridiculous overpowering authority and you expected everyone to just sit back and let you lecture them on how their perception of the world is unenlightened

and i understand that i pissed you off because i intended to, but you're not pissed off at me, somewhere deep down inside you realize how ridiculously shallow and hypocritical everything in this thread you've said has been and you resent the fact that i made you reckon with it

I'm literally agnostic. Like... I don't think about religion. I don't care about religion. I'm fascinated by people of faith. I look up to people on this site, and I wanted to know their take on religion, since the people I met at college really surprised me with their beliefs.

I actually really like people on this site. That's why I met a lot of you at AN. That's why I still play TWG.

But I don't like arrogant pricks like Mina. I never did. I don't give a shit what "picking a fight" will make me look on this site. I'm doing a new thing called, "calling out bullshit."

Also, as one of my friends said, this is exactly the issue that I want to address: You guys are supporting Mina because of his status (whatever it is o.e) on this site, and not because of the actual content you provided. And I think that's wrong. I won't back down from a fight with Mina because of who he is.

Originally Posted by NinjaSM

Funnygurl, with all due respect, im pretty telling someone to not make assumptions about your friend and then making assumptions about Mina's friends makes you look like a total hypocrite.

see above
Also, Mina's one friend, lofty rhino, who insulted me. That's how it's an appropriate inference.

Originally Posted by NinjaSM

You also kinda need to tone down your ivy league elitism a bit dude, it makes you sound really, REALLY, arrogant. Especially your comment on how "retards can't get Straight As"

EVEN THO YOU CALLED MINA OUT FOR CALLING PEOPLE RETARDED AND IDIOTS.

dude do you not hear yourself.

Actually, the comment I said about retards not getting straight A's are shitty on my part. People who aren't neurotypical can get straight A's. I'm not neurotypical myself. That was wrong. That was really wrong. I'm sorry.

However, you're calling ME arrogant and elitist? And not Mina? Are you sure? I mentioned that I go to an Ivy League to provide some sort of objective metric to measure my intelligence. I never mention I go to an Ivy League school here (well, unless it's appropriate. I made a thread about the mental health project I wanted to do, for example. I'm aiming for a Princeton-specific scholarship.)

You're also the person who shot down a completely legitimate thread on this site because you were annoyed by his post history, even if many forum regulars have made way worse threads. If anything, that's more elitist than what I've done. That being said, based on the other posts I've seen from you, I think you're cool and really mature for your age, but these posts you made AREN'T cool.

Originally Posted by rushyrulz

I think funnygurl is actually a gurl but u rite ninja

Yep, I is in fact a girl

I'm going to say one more thing: I want to repeat that I really look up to you guys. That's why I made this thread.