Highly religious base on ATS = a conspiracy?

I am new here but find it.. hmm what is the word... unimaginable, gobsmacking, astounding... that there is a frothing at the mouth religious base in here. How can anyone be into conspiracy and be religious? I am seriously and honestly perplexed about this. It has led me to the conclusion that this in itself is a sitewide conspiracy of some sort. Are we being watched and studied, are they keeping an eye on us... are they worried that ATS will eventually be ground zero for extreme events debunking the bible so best to have some operatives here? I consider (good) conspiracy theorists to be highly rational in thought, non-conformist in nature and in a relentless pursuit of the TRUTH. Religious have cast the truth aside for faith, formed their rigid opinions of the world via thier bible. How can someone on this forum search for truth at the same time believing I am on my way to burning in hellfire for eternity? I'm just baffled, I can not get my head around it. This has got to be one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen.

Let me be the first to say welcome. I'm new here as well, despite my high post count (down-time at work helps in those regards).

As for your post...

Not all of us religious folks remove our brains when we accept the faith. I was raised in a Christian house, rebelled against it in my late teen years, then came back to it in my early 20's. Why? It wasn't a 'comfort zone' effect, as being religous did tend to cramp my partying.

I returned to my faith out of objectivity, and I honestly believe and feel that I am a better and more well-rounded individual because of that.

People who refuse to question anything after accepting a religion or faith are scared. They are hiding behind their so-called 'beliefs' because they know of no other way to handle things they cannot understand.

Please keep in mind that I am in the minority in my religion, it seems. I do believe in ET, intelligent life, conspiracy theories, and I readily acknowledge that the Bible we have (the King James Version), may not be the Bible we were intended to receive, thanks to Constantine and the Council of Nicea.

So, welcome to ATS, I look forward to sharing many more thoughts with you, and have a nice day, wherever you may be.

From a distant it is bizarre.

I've always presumed that people of religion are granted that from their parents teaching, I opened a thread you can view by clicking on my profile its the first one, asking how they chose their religion. To see if I was correct or what caused them to believe it.

I would expect conspiracists to evaluate their own day to day lives, and what affects that more then religion, religion controls nearly every aspect of your life, from sex to food. It controls it, but only if you choose that religion, in another religion Pork is just fine!

If you've preached that religion for years, and you decide it's ok to have sex, well just change denominations like this priest did, he decided it was ok to have sex, and changed parties.

www.foxnews.com...

[edit on 29-5-2009 by Republican08]

I'm not religious, and even though I'm sure some people here do work for certain churches, most of America is religious in some form or another. My problem is that extreme views are often given more attention on ATS than moderate...

On a side note, despite my distaste for religion and religious dogma, I won't watch American Idol because I think it's Idolatry...Go figure huh!

I see as many anti-religious threads as I do pro-religious threads in the recent posts pages. This particular site isn't exactly a hotbed of common ideals and run of the mill thinking. How can you be suprised that some of the pro-religious actually will debate the anti-religious?

Moderate thinking isn't exactly a core attraction here on the webs biggest conspiracy site.

I think there are plenty of us 'others' to balance out ATS, we are just perhaps a little bit more quiet.

If you look around, ATS is teeming with various forms of spiritual belief and non belief alike. What's truly wonderful is how well we generally get along and respect others rights to believe or not believe.

What I am trying to comprehend is how someone can cast aside truth for faith, then come here in search of truth. I find it a twisted hypocrisy of sorts.. The beauty of a well run forum is that those with agendas are kept at bay in their desire to control a forum. I have no agenda to run off the religious but I do think their presence here is extremely detrimental to 'the cause' ATS represents. My best advice is for ATS to keep close watch because in the last week I have seen countless posts by religious that subtly derail or distract free thinking within complex threads. Anyway, I am looking into the tools here to see if there is a method by which I can place users on an ignore list to filter this out. It is my view that there can be no such thing as a religious conspiracy theorist, and this static should be removed allowing me to focus on highly charged free thinking. I would encourage others to do the same and you will see ATS expand in scope before your eyes.

Well, I may be a Christian, but that does not mean I do not accept the 'TRUTH' as you so put it. Let me remind you, alot of what we 'know' in science is only theory, if you really wanted to you could argue that requires fatih in the people who thought of such theories.

I believe in evolution, etc etc Where specifically does it say in the Bible (Though never actually reading it I may have not heard something) All I remember is 'God created the animals' being written in some form. Most, if not all of the Bible I believe is written to provide simple stories of something much more complex in nature.

We can be both religious AND seek the truth.

You would think it is odd at first, but just because you would think that conspiracy theorists are more even minded and logical, doesn't throw away the fact that us humans do not know everything (quite little in fact) about the universe and how we got here and why.

Did you know your eyes can only pick up Infrared to Ultraviolet light waves? There are plenty of things us humans are very unaware of. For instance the color black in fact may not be black it may be another color our eyes just can't pick up, it may reflect a light wave we cannot see.

But why rely on only just your eyes to perceive your world? See my thread, "If Seeing is Believing What about Blind People?". Put yourself in the perspective of someone who cannot see.

Faith is not illogical, because everyone has faith in something. Einstein had faith in his theory of relativity. Conspiracy theorists have faith in ET life, the NWO, and so on.

[edit on 29-5-2009 by asmall89]

Originally posted by contemplator
What I am trying to comprehend is how someone can cast aside truth for faith, then come here in search of truth. I find it a twisted hypocrisy of sorts.. The beauty of a well run forum is that those with agendas are kept at bay in their desire to control a forum. I have no agenda to run off the religious but I do think their presence here is extremely detrimental to 'the cause' ATS represents.

I used to feel like this when I first joined ATS and was very anti-religion.

I was convinced like others that religion clouds thoughts etc.

Keep looking into conspiracies and you might find yourself finding that their is indeed a god.

When you dig that much and find out who is actually at the top or rather bottom of all the things that are going on then ask yourself if you deny ignorance. You will then find that to deny the existence of god is to live in ignorance.

I disagree that religion is a threat to this site, if anything ATS has a great variety of life in its members and that is what makes it so special. Where else can you find such a variety of topics??

I thought I would say that as I can relate to your point but at some point you will begin to come across what I am speaking about.

Dont get me wrong here, I am not saying follow blinding cults etc I am saying if you find an answer that is logical, do not ignore it.

reply to post by contemplator


Not ALL religions cast aside faith for truth and believe in burning for eternity. Don't generalise. If you mean Christianity, say Christianity.

Its funny that you're essentially implying that the religious are closed mind when you come off closed minded and judgmental. I'm not religious but I don't for a second consider myself to be superior to the religious. Maybe you can do some research on religion before you decide what types of people are conspiracy theories, now how about a slice of humble pie?

Originally posted by contemplator
. . . How can anyone be into conspiracy and be religious? I am seriously and honestly perplexed about this. It has led me to the conclusion that this in itself is a sitewide conspiracy of some sort. Are we being watched and studied, are they keeping an eye on us... are they worried that ATS will eventually be ground zero for extreme events debunking the bible so best to have some operatives here?

Are you aware there are more religions than just Christianity?

Are you aware that Buddha instructed his disciples to search for truth?

When I started going to the local church, the vicar expressed surprise. I pointed out his was the church of St. Thomas, who set us all a wonderful example by insisting he poke his fingers into Christ's wounds before he would believe it was Jesus.

The story I look on as a myth, but it contains many truths. Yes, the emphasis is on belief, but the sceptical Thomas was just as much a Christian as were those who did not question the words of Jesus.

I'm not a believer, I'm a sceptic. But I have had a lifetime friendship with god, and I've experienced heaven during an NDE. I presume that anything that has happened to me is likely to have happened to many others. So don't be too sure of your superiority over "believers". Some of them might know things that you don't.


On the other hand, anyone who tries to force the precepts of their religion onto others or use religion as an excuse to spread hatred, should be put onto an island with similar believers so the rest of us can live in peace.

reply to post by contemplator

What I am trying to comprehend is how someone can cast aside truth for faith, then come here in search of truth.

ATS has a number of people who do just that, and religion isn't a necessary part of it.
Religion is a means to an end, it can be a guide for people to find their satisfaction, and it can also be a post they can lean against for support.
The problem comes from when they view religion through their own prejudices.

reply to post by contemplator

As mentioned in the movie contact, most ppl on the planet have
some kind of belief in a supreme being.

Religion has been around a long time, and it is going to take a
long time to get rid of it barring aliens show up and tell us
they genetically engineered it in us for a hope of unity...
there is some irony...

As much as you may dislike Christianity, trust me you will like
Islam a LOT less.

You get a chance read the Koran and then think about you having to
live under that law.

Women who think Islam is ok obviously have not visited the
Islamic republics of the middle east, or read the Koran.

Wafa Sultan a woman who formerly lived under the yoke speaks
of it here, it is worth a listen even thou it has been around for years.

Wafa Sultan

She is an incredibly brave woman, her life is basically forfeit.

Until her ideas are mainstream we are going down the same damn
dumb road we have for centuries, because most ppl want it that way.

I think the only real break from it is possible if a group were to
pool their resources and start a colony in the south pacific that
was about advancement of humanity and technology with great
caution in some areas of both.

All the great advancements were due to some type of technology
like electricity, medicine, aircraft, telephones, transfusions,
the wheel, the printed word, etc etc.

The problem is those who seek power typically are ego maniacal,
and some curb to that would be needed like random lottery for
leadership and a minimum IQ of 110 for admittance, after a decade
or so it goes up to IQ of 120, etc and go from there.

The test would need to be peer reviewed that it is truly accurate.

Any throwback children are raised to 18, and they and their parents
can leave as they wish, but the throwback is not staying.

The colony could then set itself apart and try to move past the
insanity that grips the rest of the world.

Odds of it happening are near zero thou, most ppl want their latte's,
sports, TV, religion and so on.

So things will continue much like they have.

reply to post by Ex_MislTech


I'm spiritual and have an IQ that is higher than 95% of the population. I don't believe there is a god, I plain out know it for a fact. I understand my experiences are not valid and shouldn't be accepted as fact. But I know what I've experienced and nothing you can say makes it false.

There is also a difference between faith and blind faith. Blind faith = organized religion most times and history has shown it to be bad. However, I have faith that the understandings and experiences I've had are true. There is a difference.

I'm your huckleberry. You want to equate spirituality and religion as meaning the person is dumb, well lets go at it. What happens when you are dumber than the one who is spiritual?

And please, the entire aliens manipulating DNA is going to unite people? Ok, so who created them? Sorry, but that isn't very bright at all.

As well, unity sucks. People don't need unity, they need to learn how to respect others as individuals. Trying to mold everyone into being the same for "unities" sake doesn't even begin to address the issues.

The problem with most religions is people focus on the literal. That goes toward people for or against. And it's about like arguing over if the matrix movie is real or not. It doesn't matter what side of that argument you are on, you missed the point. It's not about the literal, it's about the understanding.

And the reason religious people have been able to do all the hypocrisy they do is simply because they lack that understanding. They just accept what they are told. And atheists do that as well. It's not just a problem of religion, extremist religions are merely a symptom of the real cause.

Couldn't agree more OP. As far as i am concerned, if you believe in any religion and your no longer a child, there is something fundamentaly lacking in you.

As far as I've been able to see those that follow a religious order, not to confuse it with having some religious beliefs, those people seem to be the skeptics around here. Try posting a religious conspiracy thread and watch as people come using the bible itself to attack your opinion.

Originally posted by contemplator
What I am trying to comprehend is how someone can cast aside truth for faith, then come here in search of truth. I find it a twisted hypocrisy of sorts..

i love this stuff,

atheists believe themselves to be the supreme beings in the universe and that gives them the awful habit of going around assuming that, like the traditional supreme being, they are omnipotent.

what in the world made you believe that you the mental capacity to understand my belief in god, never mind judge the truth in it.

personally, i can't understand how people without the imagination and wisdom to at least admit to the possibility of a god can claim to be into conspiracies, so i guess that makes us all fairly puzzled.

If it makes you feel better to think that then so be it.

What I am trying to comprehend is how someone can cast aside truth for faith, then come here in search of truth. I find it a twisted hypocrisy of sorts.. The beauty of a well run forum is that those with agendas are kept at bay in their desire to control a forum. I have no agenda to run off the religious but I do think their presence here is extremely detrimental to 'the cause' ATS represents. My best advice is for ATS to keep close watch because in the last week I have seen countless posts by religious that subtly derail or distract free thinking within complex threads. Anyway, I am looking into the tools here to see if there is a method by which I can place users on an ignore list to filter this out. It is my view that there can be no such thing as a religious conspiracy theorist, and this static should be removed allowing me to focus on highly charged free thinking. I would encourage others to do the same and you will see ATS expand in scope before your eyes.

Well, those who are religious don't necessarily come here in search of spiritual truth, they come here in search of other truths.

Furthermore, why couldn't there be a religion conspiracy theorist? Someone could believe one religion and try to prove a conspiracy in another religion in which I don't believe.

I've been on your other thread about banning any kind of religious discussion (except atheism, of course) and it sounds extremely similar to this one. You are obviously prejudice against theists. You can ignore whomever you want but you will have a hard time on ATS if you cannot accept the fact that others have views different from yours.

[edit on 31-5-2009 by Totakeke]