I have been studying different religions for a while, and atheism as well, but i have a problem. I like them both!! I guess a breakdown is in order;
Atheism: I love how it enables me to feel like an individual, how it puts my destiny, in my hands. It makes me think of a utopian society in a way, like a world without religion would be without a large percent of the violence, hate, rebellion, murder, and other horrible things it now contains. Although, i am a big believer that without evil, there can be no good.Taking that into account, its time to move on to religion.
Religion: What can i say, its a nice thought. Although i have a feeling that may be all religion is, a thought. Starting with heaven, lets assume everything is true about the christian faith. I am not going to go into islam, hindu, judaism, or any other now, but i am open to conversation. Heaven seems like fun. All the good people hangin out, just relaxin, enjoying good wholesome family love and enjoyment. But then there's that whole hell thing, which personally i loathe the idea of. Hell seems more like half delusion, half bedtime story to scare you into paying a tithe, or being extra generous in the collection plate. But hey, I'm a good person, i love my family, and it would sure be nice to get to be with them forever.
So I'm stuck i guess. I need some third party opinions here, or its back to being a soldier without an army. On a side note, i want you to take into account the possibility of america going under, and realizing that being on the good side of a big church, with big money, land, and power may be a good thing.
By the way, what religion are you again? I assumed you are a christian, do to the little I read (Wish I could have read more, but my last post was late at night waiting for resources to be transferred), but you seem to be a deist, agnostic, or theist looking for a religion now...
exactly what i was saying? without evil, there can't be good. therefore everyone and everything would be neutral.
Since morality is a subjective matter the ideas of good and evil would also be subjective based on an individuals perspective.
near impossible, not impossible. in other words, you have no proof that religion is wrong, just as they have no proof that they are right. a god not being needed is not a reason that he can't exist.
We can prove specific claims of religions wrong.
the rules of life were different back then. they didn't know any better,
So they didn't have "thou shalt not kill" back then?
wouldn't that make good people that do bad things bad people?
I always found this to be an interesting dilemma for those who think good always triumphs over evil.
besides, i know a lot of both christian and atheist that do both good and bad things. yet again the only difference between them, is faith.
That would seem to be at least one point in favor of the atheist to not buy a story before having concrete evidence.
not sure what the second part meant, but the first part is easily answered. i am married, with two daughters. and everything that me and my wife do is discussed thoroughly period. every discussion and choice is a family decision.
This video would outlines my suggestion for how you handle the situation with your kids. Raising Kids Who Can Think
i do believe in something bigger. perhaps there isn't a name for it, or even a form, maybe even not a personality. but i think that everything works too well for this to all be some sort of coincidence.
It doesn't all have to all be a coincidence nor does it take something higher for everything to work well. It could simply be the way it is by nature.
to me, science only proves that whatever designed all of this, is far greater than we could ever comprehend.
You presume it was designed. That wouldn't be a concept attained from science, but from your self. If we could point to anything and call it a "designer" it would be the environment in which that thing exists in.
exactly what i was saying? without evil, there can't be good. therefore everyone and everything would be neutral.
Not really. What I mean is that without evil there would be passive actions (you don't do anything) and positive actions (you do something good, extra)
