What RELIGION are you?

[young]

God is by definition perfect, coz otherwise he'd not be GOD!

Have you met God?? Than you can't really say god is perfect without actually metting them.

 

[young]

No, it isn't.

You state that I must have faith in myself to have faith in something else, but that is not obviously so.

I don't have faith in my ability to climb Mount Everest, but I have faith in other peoples ability to do it. That simple example seems to contradict your sweeping statement.

If you had faith in yourself before you put your "faith" in someone else climbing a mt. you'd be climbing it instead.

 

[cLavain]

If you had faith in yourself before you put your "faith" in someone else climbing a mt. you'd be climbing it instead.

No, I can't even climb a ladder for more than a couple of meters! 8O It would never work... My point though is that if mountain climber X wants to climb Everest, then I can have faith in him or her regardless of whether I have faith in myself or not.

 

[Forsaken]

I'm not very religious, though I think I might lean a bit towards some eastern ideas.

 

[young]

Why does there only have to be one religion? Why can't there be more than one? Unless you follow christianity who say they are the only real religion, and everyone else is possessed by the devil.

 

[SongOfSongs]

Why does there only have to be one religion? Why can't there be more than one? Unless you follow christianity who say they are the only real religion, and everyone else is possessed by the devil.

Because truth is exclusive. Reality is reality. All religions cannot be true because there are points at which religions disagree.

That being said, by no means do intelligent Christians think that all non-Christian religions are equal. There are undoubtedly some non-Christian religions that come closer to the truth than others.

 

[SongOfSongs]

About dogma: no set of beliefs can exist without dogma. A set of beliefs without dogma is not a set of beliefs. The belief that a certain philosophy is correct is, in and of itself, a dogma. Any and every philosophical, theological, social, political, economic, or academic philosophy has its own dogma. Even skepticism.

 

[SongOfSongs]

This is why religon should never be spoken of in forums..everyone ends up fighting Not everyone is ever going to come to the same conclusion(belief). So it should be just let be.
I believe in what i believe in..but i don't need to tell everyone about it.
Use each one's own religon for themselves only!!!!!

Because one's faith/spirituality is the most important thing. To say no one should discuss religion with others because it is impossible for everyone to agree is like saying the study of medicine should be abandoned because it cannot keep all men from dying. It is not about convincing everyone of the truth because that is impossible; it is about convincing everyone that is willing to believe.

 

[SongOfSongs]

But to me is contradictorial. Since what they say is fact today, tomorrow they'll come out and say that they were wrong.

But that is the greatest strength of science! It is dynamic and self-correcting, evolving ever closer to a true explanation of reality. Classical physics was close, quantum mechanics closer still.

Unlike religion which is static and generally ignores new evidence until it becomes so embarrassing that religious "scholars" have to yield (as with the heliocentric world view). By being so dogmatic they paint themselves into a corner.

And damn you for luring me into posting again!

There are some things that cannot be proven with empirical evidence. Science is the study of nature, not of super-nature. Science fails as a religion because it deals only with the physical world and can tell us nothing of the metaphysical one.

As an aside, trying to broadbrush all Christianity by pointing out the mistakes of a few Catholic officials from the Middle Ages is ludicrous. Let's not forget that Galileo, Kepler, and Copernicus were Christians themselves.

 

[SongOfSongs]

However, following your definition of Agnosticism, let's think about this.
There's no evidence that the Flying Spaghetti Monster exists, but there's no evidence against it either. So would it be irrational to not believe in it?
How about Zeus and all those other greek gods?
How about a gigantic invisible cheese ball that watches over us?
See what I'm getting at?

A flying Spaghetti monster cannot exist because a monster is, by definition, a living creature and spaghetti is not.

A gigantic invisible cheese ball cannot watch over anything because it is inert organic material without consciousness or sensory perception.

Zeus has just as great a likelihood of existing as Yahweh does. Unless, Zeus is just a quasi-polytheistic perversion of the God of monotheism, in which case the question of greater likelihood of existence is mooted.

 

[SongOfSongs]

Thanks to Dancer for clearing that one up!

I guess I'm an agnostic atheist. A creating force can not be completely ruled out, but since there is no available evidence, I see no point in believing as I would basically just be guessing.

My quarrel is not with deists, but with those who claim that their religion is the right one. Christianity is no more likely than Islam, Hinduism, Norse myths, the flying Spaghetti Monster, the Invisible Pink Unicorn or NeoPlatonism. They are all based on circular reasoning and a number of unwarranted assumptions. I have repeatedly asked why someone should believe in one religion and not any of the others, but - tellingly - no one feels like picking up the gauntlet.

I'd like to end with this quote:

Atheism is a belief in the same way that not collecting stamps is a hobby.

*Edited*

"They are all based on circular reasoning and unwarranted assumptions"- this is an unwarranted assertion. If you truly believe this and want to convince us all of it, tell us why you think so.

*Edited*

And also, an Invisible Pink Unicorn is intrinsically impossible. If something is invisible, it cannot have a color; color is a quality of light, which is visible.

 

[cLavain]

Agnosticism and atheism are incompatible. It is asserting that God cannot exist while saying that He may. You are probably better described as an atheist with doubts.

Please read the original link...

"They are all based on circular reasoning and unwarranted assumptions"- this is an unwarranted assertion. If you truly believe this and want to convince us all of it, tell us why you think so.

Have you read the thread!? *sigh* Okay, how about this: God's existence is an assumption, The connection between God and the Bible is an assumption. There's two assumptions right there to get Christianity going. How about this: The Bible is the word of God because the Bible says so. That's circular argumentation right there.

Convince you? I suspect you do not really seek truth at all, so I'm probably not capable of doing that.

In my humble opinion (I admit I don't know a lot about the subject), belief in a Creative Force is completely justified for the following reason: All matter and energy decay and entropy with time. If matter and energy were not created, they had no beginning: they are eternal. However, eternal things would have progressed through an infinite amount of time. An infinite amount of time implies an infinite amount of decay and entropy: they would have ceased to exist. Furthermore, decay and entropy can only exist if there was once a period or instance of maximal efficiency. However, that instance of maximal efficiency would have been at the beginning of time: the beginning of matter and energy. In saying that there was no beginning, we say there must be a beginning.

That makes no sense at all. Please read about entropy, physics and astronomy and try again.

And also, an Invisible Pink Unicorn is intrinsically impossible. If something is invisible, it cannot have a color; color is a quality of light, which is visible.

Maybe the unicorn interferes with your eyes so that you don't see it? IT IS THE WILL OF THE UNICORN! See how easy it is to come up with unlikely explanations to support weird theories like Christianity or pink unicorns? There is no limit to the amount of rubbish one can spew in order to obfuscate lack of actual evidence.

 

[dpr]

jeet kune do

 

[oNecoOlazN]

Roman Catholic
<3

 

[NothingElseMatters]

i tihnk all relegions have a sort of truth and a sort of lie.i am searching for it so i wouldn place myslef in any religion side cause when u reach a curtain age u have to search for your own and not follow blind

 

[sabbath92002]

Rape, D.U.I., assault and battery
These are the things that will bring you to me
Murder and theft and all of the above
You can bet your life I know what your thinkin' of
I've taken you and I'll take your friends
Don't you worry we'll all meet in the end
Cause life's a bitch and then you die
Trust me baby cause I don't lie

I'm the goddamn devil, this job pleases me
I'm the goddamn devil, and I do it for free

I know the story about your life
If you killed your brother or you beat your wife
And I am here to punish you
You can't fool me cause I ain't no fool
The time has come to say goodbye
The end is here for those who cheat, steal and lie
There will be torture and there will be pain
Cause this is hell baby, die in flames

I'm the goddamn devil, this job pleases me
I'm the goddamn devil, Satan if you please
I'm the goddamn devil, this job pleases me
I'm the goddamn devil, and I do it for free

I don't care about you, don't care about your life
Don't care about your children or about your wife
I'm here to do my job so if you've broke the law
You're checkin' in with me
And you can never leave

There's one way out if you dare
We'll make a deal, you'll grow your hair
As satan's child you'll start a band
And spread the word across the land

 

[raylite]

Buddhist Psychology - The Science of Human Mind.

 

[limetree]

Buddhist/agnostic
I also like some Taoist and Hindu ideas...anything that will provide insight into the most humane values and way of life.

It's all so relative and it's not as though we choose our beliefs without predisposition, so it might not matter as much if we can't prove the "right" stance.

I advocate unity of religions as outlined in the Bahá'í Faith; we can extract which ethics/morals are universally desired among humanity and focus on them.

I don't view cafeteria style picking and choosing as something to be avoided if we're questioning and discerning for ourselves.

 

[Thelema]

Carlin had it right

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeSSwKffj9o

RIP

Penn and Teller can also be relied upon to be the voice of reason (at least one of them)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RV46fsmx6E&feature=related

 

[weak]

atheist