It's funny how your almost never born atheist, you become atheist. I personally think the whole religion thing is far fetched. Why cant we just be dead after we die? Why does there HAVE to be an afterlife? Dont get me wrong i respect others decisions, I just don't believe in it, who's with me? I'm going to be some grass fertilizer one day And home to some maggots + worms.
This is where I take my break. I don't care enough to get to the nitty gritty of it all. I would rather just make sure you all keep your polite faces on, and continue with your debate.
Than* and I don't really believe in anything. I used to though. And a believer has the one thing you will never have, and that is faith. Just like love makes you do stupid and irrational things, so does faith.
Examined, but you haven't really believed in anything the way a 'true believer' would.
If a kid reads a book and then an adult reads it, both of them will see the book in a different way. If the kid likes the looks of the book, he will only remember the good parts of the book and even if he didn't like certain parts, he won't really admit it. That's because his emmotions are playing a bigger role then his analizing skills. Now if the adult reads it, let's say the adult is in a passive state, he will be able to distinguish what was good, bad, BS or true.
The book is the bible. The kid is a religious person and the adult is an atheist (or atleast someone who is doubting)
Can we really say that Christians worship the same god as even Jews?
What I'm thinking is that the Christian god has a property - that of being identical to Jesus - that the Jewish god does not. Now I happen to think that Leibniz's Laws of Identity are pretty effin' sweet. And I'm awfully convinced that if 2 objects do not share all the same properties then there are not identical. But could it be that both groups are referring to the same entity, even though they believe it to have different properties? Could a Christian comes to terms with the idea that a Jew is praying to the Christian god but simply believes that the god has different properties? I'm trying to think of an analogy, having trouble. Perhaps if you refer to my remote control, which controls my TV and satellite. But you think it only controls my TV. It seems like we can still make sense of the situation. But when religious dogma enters into the equation, things start getting weird. I can't figure out why.
Depends who you're talking about imo. If I need to trust a real person with something I may have enough faith in them to actually do it. It's just that the word is tainted with religion written over it.
What I'm thinking is that the Christian god has a property - that of being identical to Jesus - that the Jewish god does not. Now I happen to think that Leibniz's Laws of Identity are pretty effin' sweet. And I'm awfully convinced that if 2 objects do not share all the same properties then there are not identical.
Let's say a fan didn't accept one of the the Star Wars movies as canon, does that mean they like a different Yoda then the fan who accepts all the movies as canon?
Could a Christian comes to terms with the idea that a Jew is praying to the Christian god but simply believes that the god has different properties?
I would imagine some could.
Depends who you're talking about imo. If I need to trust a real person with something I may have enough faith in them to actually do it. It's just that the word is tainted with religion written over it.
Wouldn't that be based on past experience either with the person or the group the person associates with?
The thing about faith is that it is a belief in something/someone typically based on experience. I have faith that my chair will hold me when I sit in it, and that is the same faith that one has in their particular deity. The primary difference is that my faith in my chair is based on empirical evidence while faith in a deity is based on opinion, emotion, and often due to an underlying faith that loved ones or respected authority figures are correct and thus we accept their teachings.
often due to an underlying faith that loved ones or respected authority figures are correct and thus we accept their teachings.
Very true. I think that people should let their kids decide for themselves what is true, and not try to interfere with that choice. It would make a world of less bigotry, and dispute over which god is correct, because people will have been able to decide for themselves and not have parents or parental figures decide for them.
I apologize, I haven't read every post so I might be out of the loop here, but I wanted to say something about the whole atheism thing. I think that religion is man's way of coping with the stresses of life. Thus, it's not really a bad thing, but it's not exactly a necessary thing either. So I do not appreciate it when either atheists or really religious people are all up in my face about "God sucks!" or "YOU'RE GOING TO HELL" It's pretty ridiculous. As long as Atheists and Religious people aren't hurting anyone, I think the whole thing is fine. And I agree; people are born as atheists and are raised into whatever religion they end up believing in. And also, I think that there are less religious people now than before because of all the new scientific explanations and stuff.
I apologize, I haven't read every post so I might be out of the loop here, but I wanted to say something about the whole atheism thing. I think that religion is man's way of coping with the stresses of life. Thus, it's not really a bad thing, but it's not exactly a necessary thing either. So I do not appreciate it when either atheists or really religious people are all up in my face about "God sucks!" or "YOU'RE GOING TO HELL" It's pretty ridiculous. As long as Atheists and Religious people aren't hurting anyone, I think the whole thing is fine.
It is the last thing, the "Hurting anyone, that is the problem here. Avoiding stress can be easily defeated by less harmful means, for example video games, alcohol, or a million other outlets could easily replace the "removing stress" part, without the causing war or poisoning minds part.
