I mean this quite seriously

reply to post by UrsusMajor


It is unfortunate that some (or most) people are disrespectful of others. It's so common that it's mostly overlooked and even accepted as standard behavior.

But back to the OP, it was written to offend, even if the target of the offense was a group that may by 180 degrees to the opposite of your belief system. Insulting people or groups of people you don't agree with will only bring continued conflict, never peace.

God is a man made invention to create propaganda and indocturnation. Just another abuse of beliefs and violence. Too bad people had to die though. those who question reach self actualization

Religion is the downfall of humanity. At it's core lies our worst values such as greed and hunger for power. Religion has been a huge setback and will continue to be atleast 2,000 more years. It's absolutely shocking.

reply to post by contemplator


I completely and utterly disagree with all of those slating religion. You are quite right that religion has a bad reputation, the crusades and what not. HOWEVER, that is due to mankind, NOT THE BELIEF IN A DEITY.

Please, do get some educated perspective, grow up and think before you comment.

Otherwise, your ignorant and naive responses will only serve to annoy and insult.

Brad

We do what we do and experience the consequences. Repeat,. We may not have a choice in anything after all...we respond to stimuli, perhaps with greater hardware and or software, and perhaps with inferior or damaged equipment. Causation may even be at play in the undetected dimentions as well. Eat, drink, and be merry if you're able...that's all!

[edit on 20-5-2009 by plainmike]

reply to post by plainmike


I do not believe in hard determinism. Soft-determinism is more reasonable. If we were simply cause and effect, people would not be able to starve themselves, for protests etc.

reply to post by WickettheRabbit


You know I think I have seen just about everything questioned on this site, Aliens, UFO's, NWO, Monsters, Ghosts, timetravel, and the list goes on forever. But as soon as someone questions or even asks questions about religion they are instantly attacked. They are either ignorant, blashphemis, have an agenda or uneducated. Everyone is so sensitive to the topic, by all means doubt the hollocost, but don't dont dare question the fact of someone living in a whale for 3 days.

Religion is like professional wrestling, Some ppl know its fake and dont follow it, some ppl dont know its fake and are oblivious, and some ppl know its not real but still follow it. Good vs. Evil stories,drama, scandal. MONEY. I guess Vince and God could be compared to each other, the big guy in charge that no one dare questions.

reply to post by stereovoyaged


Wow you really dont get it do you. You are stating that religion is fake. Please ellaborate, enlighten me o wonderful enlightened one. I have many discussions about this topic, and whilst religious texts can be argued over their fallibility, they are none the less good literature to read and learn some spirituality. There are Kernels of truth contained within the texts, behind all of the social influences, writers influence etc.

Learn to appreciate that whilst coming to your own understanding of a God.

Unless you think the idea of a God is silly. In which case, prove it.

¬_¬

reply to post by Toughiv



If you go back through my posts, you will not find one instance of where I say that god is not real. Never once did I say I didn't believe in higher power or some sort of spirituality. There is a big difference in organized religion and God.

reply to post by stereovoyaged


Still,

Don't both camps have to appreciate that either of the views can be the correct answer though.

The only way to logically approach a subject is to believe that point A may or may not be true as well as point B.

If you're (anyone) is devout ANYTHING, then sincerely, they don't belong in a debate (an opinion yes, but not a debate) in which they try to substantiate their belief without the ability to keep an open mind to the other possibility.

If there truly IS a god, let me question you (everyone) what is it precisely you think he/she would prefer; that we use the gift of the mind given us (that being able to feel/sense/taste/question/doubt) and use it intelligently, or complete dogma (blind faith) even in the word of mere men? What do YOU think?



AB1

reply to post by stereovoyaged


Oh ok, well if it comes down to organised religon then i agree with you. Their infallibility is definitely questionable. I feel personally, that organised religion is a form of control.

How can somebody tell you the true nature of a limitless being? I believe our understanding of God has to be subjective. Not determined by (at the end of the day) someone else's views!

Thanks!

If you're (anyone) is devout ANYTHING, then sincerely, they don't belong in a debate (an opinion yes, but not a debate) in which they try to substantiate their belief without the ability to keep an open mind to the other possibility.

I agree completely, excecpt when these beliefs leak its way into my life in the form of politics, censorship and the holding back of medical advances. Don't you agree that someone's beliefs should be thier own and not the a govts or even a countries?

If there truly IS a god, let me question you (everyone) what is it precisely you think he/she would prefer; that we use the gift of the mind given us (that being able to feel/sense/taste/question/doubt) and use it intelligently, or complete dogma (blind faith) even in the word of mere men? What do YOU think?

I would hope that he would want his people to think objectively and doubt things. Use the brain that they were given by him. Not just believe something that has been drilled into thier skulls by TPTB

A dude walks on water

Lol! that's priceless. I'm not gonna mention what I believe in. But know this...There most certainly is a hell. And you're all going there soon enough.
Henceforth, enjoy all the years of your vain life, you came from the Earth to her you will return. Imagine that, all those worms and maggots, crawling out your eyeballs and whatnot. When and if TS actually does HTF, maybe some of you clowns will finally have your lips stapled. And in the aftermath of the utter destruction brought on by our 'great leaders'(phony ass Barack rofl) maybe then we will continue on with our true destiny.

I love how everyone has an opinion on our origins in this universe/dimension/reality whatever the hell it is, yet have failed to take the time to actually..you know; research it with an objective mind?

And before you say you have done your homework on the subject, think again...You probably missed alot, if not all of the point, try considering the "Big Picture" try, just once to think outside the box. Without personal belief, ego, etc.

I love how everyone has an opinion on our origins in this universe/dimension/reality whatever the hell it is, yet have failed to take the time to actually..you know; research it with an objective mind?

If this post is directed to me, I love you must not have read all the posts in this thread, like the one where I said I live by the "I dont know" and "Logic" system. If not, please disregard this message.

reply to post by stereovoyaged


This is your mistake. You weren't questioning. You made a statement. You said that belief in the stories you pointed out in the Bible were silly.

If you post that belief in any of those other topics, i.e. UFOs, ghosts, etc., were silly, you would be at fault for angering the people that do believe in those.

You are not asking a question or even asking people to question things for themselves. You told them that if they had those beliefs, they are silly.

How does this strike you?

Believe in Jesus. Belief in anything else is silly.

Not too appropriate, right?

Edited for spelling.


[edit on 20-5-2009 by WickettheRabbit]

reply to post by WickettheRabbit



The first two sentences I wrote in this thread were questions (sorry for lack of question marks,( blame MSN chat for that) Where I do see your point that I am leaning towards one side in my personal opinion, this thread was started with believers in these stories to weigh in on if they think they sound silly.

I don't find the stories in the Bible to be silly at all.

How about we look at some of the other beliefs or theories?

Don't you find it a bit silly that all of a sudden there was born this mutant fish that then moved on to the land (probably to get away from the ridicule of the other "normal" fish) who then had more mutant little fish which over time mutated into other life-forms. All I might add at random.

The shoe, I believe, is firmly on the other foot now.

lets see.. on a boiling volcanic rock.. there seeps some mystical un named ooze into a primordial pool... and by stroke if luck ( or a bolt of lightning.. Im not kidding here) basic life begins,.. and from this lifegrows into a fish, who crawls to land and grows into a "lemur" ( he he) who growns into people?


and you think the bible is silly.. lmao.

you know.. the whole primordial soup theory has never been actually proven.. or understood.
it's only by a leap of faith that it's taught in schools today.

BTW, Im not fond of organized religon..but lets not be arrogant.
no one has all the answers.

The THEORY of Abiogenesis DOES sound completely ridiculous! It SOUNDS ridiculous but it is based off of OBSERVABLE EXPERIMENTATION.

Taking it all in at once sounds UNBELIEVABLE BUT BUT BUT if you look at each SMALL LITTLE PIECE of it and see how they work (which believe me is really hard for a layman like me) you will start to get the bigger picture. Some of the theories that humans have come up with are genius! Me personally I like the aspect of how bubbles act as a cell wall.

I mean it is REALLY hard to understand some of it. I am quoting something that is supposed to be easily accessible to people but it really IS hard to understand here read this.

"The first organisms were self-replicating iron-rich clays which fixed carbon dioxide into oxalic and other dicarboxylic acids. This system of replicating clays and their metabolic phenotype then evolved into the sulfide rich region of the hotspring acquiring the ability to fix nitrogen. Finally phosphate was incorporated into the evolving system which allowed the synthesis of nucleotides and phospholipids. If biosynthesis recapitulates biopoesis, then the synthesis of amino acids preceded the synthesis of the purine and pyrimidine bases. Furthermore the polymerization of the amino acid thioesters into polypeptides preceded the directed polymerization of amino acid esters by polynucleotides."

Sauced from en.wikipedia.org...

When I read that it is basically like me attempting to translate Smart People language. I am completely and utterly lost.

I guess what I am really trying to say is it is like a guessing game. Scientists are throwing out guesses. Well it COULD be this. See these things always do this every time. So MAYBE it could lead to this. Since we KNOW these do this lets try it with this.

Creationists are saying Well it IS this. Why are you trying to recreate it? You will fail. God made it. You can't do that. That is pointless.

What happens when scientists can actually make abiogenesis happen in a lab? What happens when we show all these little things working together make something bigger and better?

At least TRY and find out what it is. If you believe that a God created it it is NOT a reason for mankind to give up and not do it. Maybe we can even do it better? Maybe there were some chemicals not present on the Earth during life's creation that we can throw in the mix and make life even BETTER!

Originally posted by balrathamir
I don't find the stories in the Bible to be silly at all.

How about we look at some of the other beliefs or theories?

Don't you find it a bit silly that all of a sudden there was born this mutant fish that then moved on to the land (probably to get away from the ridicule of the other "normal" fish) who then had more mutant little fish which over time mutated into other life-forms. All I might add at random.

The shoe, I believe, is firmly on the other foot now.

Was there anywhere in this thread that you seen me "beating the drum" of evolution?? I have stated several times that I believe that we don't know how this world started. So don't go assuming that I have an agenda.

So for the record, I do believe we evolved, its proven, its a scientific fact, how we started life to begin with is still up in the air for me. At least science is TRYING to prove their theories, not just saying, here this book is absolute truth, but we have no way to confirm our stories true, provide any evidience to back up what we are saying, OH and we also wont' hear of any arguments to prove otherwise. AND even if you do prove what we are saying to be wrong, we will deny it or just say the devil makes it appear that way to lead man down the wrong path to hellfire and brimstone.

I am not anti God by any means, or anti creator. And really not anti organized religion either, as long as they could keep it tho themselves. They do a lot of good work, its when they get the holier than thou attitude and try and mold OUR world the way they want it. With the specifications they see fit. And I hope there is not anyone bold enough here to say that organized religion, NOT JUST CHRISTIANITY, ORGANIZED RELIGION does not try to do that.