Religion

[Arkane 0]

First off I want to say don't turn this into a war, I just like to discuss religion to get an idea as to why people believe in, or don't believe in stuff. I'm personally an atheist mainly because I don't like the idea of not being able to prove something does exist. I believe that if it can't be proven there is no reason to spend you're life blindly chasing after it. Now if something were to happen and we were to realize some god(s) or another were in fact real then sure, I would follow their teachings but otherwise, I don't honestly think there is any need for religion. Correct me if I'm wrong, but all religion is would be teaching morals, which you can teach in a variety of ways. So w/o religion everything would be the same right? Well as I said don't turn this into a flame war (I know lots of people have very strong views on religion)

[Jeigh1405241495 0]

I'm Christian (Catholic) and have a lot of reasons to believe. I will not argue that the majority of why I ever believed to begin with was because of my family. They told me what was "right", took me to church, all that. I'm not stupid enough to think I would, guaranteed, still be Christian if my family hadn't been. However, I'm glad they were as the teachings just make sense to me. So I believe because for one, it feels right. Further I believe because the idea that we are here with absolutely no purpose, then die and its over, seems hollow and empty to me.Also I feel we owe religion the respect it has earned. Religion has molded society greatly as far as laws and general beliefs are concerned. Not in all ways but to a very large degree and personally I think the world could have ended up a much worse place without its influence.As far as what you say about only believing what can be proven... well to that I simply say that scientists have dis-proven many things that had been proven in the past, so I'd rather have faith then blindly follow "fact" based science since it isn't quite as infallible as scientists hope we think :ph34r:If this takes off I'll comment more later if I have time, this is just a quick spewing of thoughts to start things off.

[Arkane 0]

To me, it's not so much that there isn't anything after death, I guess I can't honestly say I'm 100% atheist due to the fact that I do believe something will happen after, I just can't really say what it is. Your definitely right that you can't blindly follow what is told as fact either, but I can't convince myself that anything else can be true, it just doesn't make any sense to me. A lot of people I know have very opinionated views on religion, mainly the quarrel of atheism to Christianity. I dislike the stereotype of both beliefs. My friend for example fills the stereotype for atheism, he despises all other religions and thinks that, for example, every Christian is a fanatic person who tries to convert everyone they know. Whereas I also know a person just like that, well knew, a person that was literally trying to convert everyone they knew. Well basically my point is, I hate the stereotypes of all religions, but when the people are just like you and I, I don't mind what religion they are.Sorry if this rambled on into something that didn't make sense, I'm rather tired lol.

[beatgammit 0]

I'm Christian (Mormon/LDS) and I believe wholly in my religion. My religion holds that human life is very important to one's salvation. We believe that the same ideas/passions will exist in the after-life as in this life, so if one is not in the frame of mind to accept our gospel, then they will not accept it in the here-after (but they WILL have an opportunity to do so). We also believe that certain ordinances must be performed, such as baptism, conferring of the Holy Ghost, conferring of priesthood, and many others (many are performed in our temples such as marriages). We believe that all religions are good and attempt to guide people back to Christ, but we also believe that we are the restored Church of Christ, the same Church as in Christ's day. As such, we believe that we are the "correct" Church, meaning we have everything restored. This is not saying that all other churches are wrong, just they they do not have the fulness of the truth as we believe that we have. I respect everyone's religion, and so does our Church. We believe that we have the truth of the gospel.If you have any questions regarding my religion (I know you probably don't know much about Mormons), feel free to ask, I will not be offended and will try to give as concise a response as possible.

[Killer008r 0]

I have to say one thing About religion. It's so streatched out from how it began... noah on a fully wooden ship that would have technically broke down if it were to try to actually float Not to mention with over 10 million different species... But then again Athesim is The belief in Not Believing... What's up with that? That's a contradiction. So I'm neither fully religious or an Atheist. Because 1. Religion is so full of lies than from what the original bible (the Koran if i'm not mistaken?) said. And 2. Athesim is a load of BS.

[Arkane 0]

I have to say one thing About religion. It's so streatched out from how it began... noah on a fully wooden ship that would have technically broke down if it were to try to actually float Not to mention with over 10 million different species...
But then again Athesim is The belief in Not Believing... What's up with that? That's a contradiction. So I'm neither fully religious or an Atheist. Because 1. Religion is so full of lies than from what the original bible (the Koran if i'm not mistaken?) said. And 2. Athesim is a load of BS.

How is not believing what isn't proven BS, you JUST contradicted yourself. By saying believing in whatâs proven true is wrong it completely contradicts that. As for the originally bible being different, there is no proof but I sure hope you're right about that because the one we have now its full of contradictions and lies. To people who don't like Atheism for one reason or another hereâs my reasoning on why I am on.
1.) I don't believe what isn't at least to some margin provable (example I can believe there are many more planets out there even though I havenât seen them.
2.) I can easily believe in what IS proven as, well itâs kind of proven =P

[Killer008r 0]

2 things. One Read this https://myspace.com/browser (A friend of mine and I wrote it) This is all about athiesm.

 

And Two Atheism is not truely a belief - it is the absence of a belief. The label "Atheist" announces one thing and one thing only: The disagreement, or rejection of, theism.

 

But what most recent Athiests say is it's their belief to "not belive" If that's not your view of athesim Congradulations you're one of few.

 

There is actually alot of proof of the old bible. I was watching the History channel about Noahs ark, and they were saying that stuff about the Bible saying that it was only the species in that area, and not all of them just some. They discovered ancient tablets of the old bible and it varied Majorly like for example Noah was just a pesant, a wine maker. And I searched that for hours if I get that site again I'll post it but until then.

 

Now don't have me mistaken Arkane I'm not saying your type of belief is wrong, people can believe in what ever makes them happy. I'm just simply saying that what I think now in days Athesim is contradicting.

 

I'm Agnostic since I don't really have a religion, and the only "religion" that holds closest to my beliefs is Agnosticism ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnostic to know what that is) I take this title because there is no visible proof that a god/gods exisist they could, maybe, but since there is no proof I can't go about believing it is true.

Edited April 11, 2007 by Killer008r (see edit history)

[Arbitrary 0]

I guess I can't honestly say I'm 100% atheist due to the fact that I do believe something will happen after, I just can't really say what it is.

Hmm.. But atheism has nothing to do with believing whether or not what will happen after death, rather, it's whether one believes in a god or not. Therefore, if you believe a god will cause something to happen after death, you aren't an atheist. However, if you believe that something that happens after death is independent of god, you are an atheist.
Me, I am an atheist. I won't bother to explain why because that would just take up pages and pages and I'm sure a simple Google search would describe my reasons well enough.

Now, to the proof discussion. If you read any creationist books, they do offer a bunch of proof for the existence of god. For instance, I believe there's one argument that says that there had to be a higher being behind the creation of life because the molecules of the universe simply do not arrange themselves in a certain way so that living things will be created. Someone (god) had to be behind that arranging because according to them, that arranging was too perfect if it were random.

Nonetheless, there also exists a lot more proof against the existence of god. Therefore, I'm inclined to say I agree with the latter simply because more proof points there.

And frankly, another reason for my being atheist is this: I view religion as a crutch. For instance, if I had problems, I'd turn to religion to solve them, I'd turn to praying to god to help me. But I don't like this feeling of dependency on anyone (even if in reality I'd have to solve my own problems anyway), I just dislike that feeling. So I resort to being atheist to avoid that crutch. I want independence, and I don't ever want to feel like I'm helpless without this supernatural being.

the original bible (the Koran if i'm not mistaken?)

No, the original bible would be the Old Testament. Frankly, I find the Old and New Testament Gods to be very very different from each other. The Old Testament god seems to be more of a vengeful creature than the New Testament one. So yeah, it is rather contradicting, in a sense.
I agree with Arkane wholly. Much of religion does teach morals, of which you do not need religion to learn. Just because someone is atheist does not mean they lack morals--that's a matter of what their parents instill into them.

[Killer008r 0]

Again Arbitrary, like Arkane, you sound like you're more Agnostic than Atheist Because As I explained Athesim is the Absence of Beliefs... So there for if you have even the slighest belief in god you're not Atheist. Agnostic is believing that their could be somthing out there, some higher power, some after life. But since there's no visable proof, and since there's such a streach in the current bible there might not be a god, and their might not be an afterlife... (The couple jewish preists who wrote the first bible wrote the old testaments?)...

[Arkane 0]

I have to say you are in fact right, I would fit in as an Agnostic Atheist. Never reall thought of it that way. Hmmm all the same I have to say I really hope there is an afterlife or w/e but I'd rather live my life not following something blindly. Killer seems to have hit a lot of my thoughts perfecty, even found a word for it! =P

[7Priest7 0]

I am a Christian...You're Posts are too long to read B)I suppose you are doing for the hosting...I collected that some parts of this posts are offensive...The ppl being offensive are evil/immoral , thus I take no care to what they say...Atheist if fine to me... "Judge Not Lest Ye be Judged"I dis agree with the atheist "no prayer in school" "no bibles allowed in school"I should be able to read the bible all I want...Its just as much my right as the atheist right to ignorance(no offence meant)By Ignorance I mean Ignorant to the fact Christians were the biggest influence in the Greatness of AmericaIf you want to be atheist Leave America.... This was supposed to be our promised land.

[Dalv87 0]

I dis agree with the atheist "no prayer in school" "no bibles allowed in school"I should be able to read the bible all I want...

It's not like they don't want you to bring a Bible to school and they'll search your bag to make sure you don't have one, and if you want you can go to a Christian school where they have religious classes, they just don't want required teaching of religion in publicly funded schools.

By Ignorance I mean Ignorant to the fact Christians were the biggest influence in the Greatness of America

A ) That statement is dependent on the idea that America is great.B ) So what if most of the founders were Christian? Every one of them was male too, should we require everyone to be a male?
Christianity happened to be the dominant religion in Europe, where most of the immigrants were coming from, so of course the British settlers would be Christian. It doesn't mean that the US would be worse if Christianity didn't exist.
C ) The First Amendment.

If you want to be atheist Leave America.... This was supposed to be our promised land.

The US is a promised land for Christians? That's an idea I've never heard before, what makes you think it?
I'm a deist. I don't have any reason to believe in any organized religion, but something had to come before the Big Bang, so right now I do believe in some kind of higher power.
Edited May 28, 2007 by Dalv87 (see edit history)

[7Priest7 0]

You're right...You demonics screwed up America...Let me present the facts... If you do not believe research and find copies of Original documents...America was founded by Christians for Christians1. Most quotes by the founders were from the Bible2. The founders were Christian3. We let immigrants come here who were atheist and are now screwing us over.4. We did not fall into sin until the supreme court redefined "church"Now think of the pledge... We would not have put "under God" if we were not Christian.Our Mint has "in God we trust" for a reason.I am going to leave America because of you evil Demonics screwing up this country...Also I will be Certified as a Computer personal before I graduate High School...What do you have?So shut up!!!Alex

Edited July 1, 2007 by 7Priest7 (see edit history)

[NeoTeemo 0]

Atheism is not truely a belief - it is the absence of a belief. The label "Atheist" announces one thing and one thing only: The disagreement, or rejection of, theism.

Originally, Atheism had been exclusively the belief that there are no gods. But with time, atheism has come to encompass other philosophical concepts. Now, there are two major types of atheism:

Active Atheism: which is the proof-supported belief in the non-existence of a god. And...

Passive Atheism: which is the mere disbelief in the existence of a god, but without enough supporting proof to his/her/its non-existence.

Of course, the two go by other labels, but the concept is the same.

 

I personally am an agnostic, since I find the available proofs to both the existence and the non-existence of a god rather insufficient. Agnosticism, I believe, is strictly a philosophical standpoint and has no direct relation to religion. For example, when I was a Muslim, I still was agnostic! I could philosophically neither prove or disprove the existence of the Islamic god (Allah), but I found the Islamic Holy Book, i.e. the Koran, too perfect to be a human invention and so had to attribute it to the divine. Of course, I was young :-)

[iGuest 3]

birth controlReligion

What is the rumor about Mormon's and birth control. I've heard that they don't believe in it and that is way they have anywhere from 4-5 kids, one on the way. And what is the thing with women not being able to wear pants/jeans. I have never seen a mormon female out in public wearing jeans. Is that just 'against the rules'? I'm just curious & like to learn.

-reply by S.D.