Religion, who, what and how do you believe/practice

[billvon 3,120]

> Ah, but hops flower

And springs hop eternally.

[Zenister 0]

religion binds men together, often seperating them from God (of course that is the intent with some religions it gives them the ability to control their followers...)

God doesnt care what religion you are, only your fellow man does...

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Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed.

[Muenkel 0]

Born, baptized and educated in the Catholic faith. Never had a desire to leave the Catholic faith at all. I do my best to follow the teachings, but I am human and definitely make many mistakes. I have studied other faiths and have many friends of other faiths. I find them fascinating, but I have never had a desire to convert. One significant thing I like about my faith is that it is extremely sinful to judge others and how they live their lives. I admit, this is hard sometimes. I just believe that when my time comes, I will stand before God alone and only I will be judged for my actions/omissions at that moment.

Chris

[Botellines 0]

It is not the mind that injects energy in to the system, it is the brain. It is actually the whole body. That energy comes from ATP cells and those ATP cells come from glucose (if i remember correctly)
The construct called mind doesn´t exist phisicly, it is a virtual representation of the Nervous Central System.
To put it in a another way the mind is the equivalent of a program, and the Nervous Central System is the equivalent of a microchip. we can say our mind runs on our brain.
I agree with you though, that Darwinism doesn´t answer all the questions (where does the first inorganic element come from so we could develope from that?, but to me the bible (just to put a name to the religion) not only answer less questions but also add more questions to a very complex matter (who created God? a meta-God?

[brits17 0]

I see religion as man's attempt to get to God, I prefer having a relationship. If I must classify, I'm a Christian, go to a Baptist church. I'm totally in love with Jesus, I'm far from perfect, but thankful for the grace of the One who is.

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aerialkinetics.com

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

Wow, 14% atheist leads the pack, as of my posting!

I answered Atheist and Other.

I sure realize that there is a great mystery as to how all of existence came to be, and what set down the very rules by which existence governs itself (gravity, energy, matter, physical laws -- even the concepts of these things -- where did they come from?).

But I certainly don't believe that a "god" did it. I don't know what did, or IF anything did.

I tend to view "atheism" a little differently, I think, from the common sense of the word. I tend to regard it, personally, as a rejection of any and all existing notions of religion and deities. I think they're all a bunch of crap. I'd have put agnostic, but I am skeptical about the existence of a deity at all, so I think I fit more with atheist.

I put "other" to account for the fact that my mind is not 100% made up about exactly what I believe about the nature of reality.

That, and I tend to be a little "mystical," without edging into what I would call "religious." I also would not call myself "new agey." I am simply myself. I suppose that if anything, I worship knowledge, truth, beauty and love.

Blue skies,
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-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

[RoadRash 0]

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Let's see...was baptized Catholic as a baby, "converted" to Baptist when I was 7 and went to Baptist school for 5 years, became a non-practicing Baptist, went to a non-denominational church for awhile, and am currently a non-practicing Christian (i.e. don't go to church).

Bwahahahahahahaha...this sort of sums it up for me too...Except make that baptized Catholic when baby, raised Baptist (my mom is Baptist, and my father Catholic), was given the choice to attend church in 4th grade, did so for a while...now currently very wishy-washy on beliefs, but...

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I believe strongly in 1 Corinthians 13:13: "And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love." Mainly because I'm in charge of how much I love; I'm in charge of the others, too, but the criteria for faith are so fought-over that I don't want to nitpick in them.

Having love as the greatest makes it clear to me that this life is important to us in the grander scheme of things. So I might as well take it with respect, and give others' lives respect.

That is an awesome point-of-view and I agree whole-heartedly!...


~R+R...I would have to describe myself as agnostic, 'cause I just don't know...

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Fly the friendly skies...^_^...})ii({...^_~...

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

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Amazing how that just randomly happened, ain't it?

You have a fairly misguided notion of darwinistic evolution if you think it just happened randomly, or more to the point, if you think that's what darwininian evolution is about.

What I think is funny is that at the same time as many religious people say that the nature of our creation is for god alone to understand, and it's way beyond any of us, they still claim to have it knocked when it comes to understanding how we're supposed to live, and what god wants of us. I think they're trying to have it both ways.

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-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

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Me? I went to Catholic School 1-6, 7-8 was public Jr High, High School was a college prep seminary and College was a seminary as well. Yup, I studied to be a priest - quite a few on here already know that.

That much exposure to religion, studies and exposure to other religions and the politics and anger associated with them has led me to believe that religion is the bane of humanity.

WOW.
With all that we disagree about, I am awestruck that we agree so strongly about this! And I think it is a very powerful statement that someone who went to school deliberately to study religion now has such disdain for it. I think this is a good thing, since I see religion and religiousness as a bane, too.

Blue skies,
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-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

[skydyvr 0]

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Amazing how that just randomly happened, ain't it?

You have a fairly misguided notion of darwinistic evolution if you think it just happened randomly, or more to the point, if you think that's what darwininian evolution is about.

I think darwinian evolution is a fantasy.

. . =(_8^(1)

[skydyvr 0]

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To order your body into action, your mind must inject some sort of energy into the system; but if the mind isn't part of the physical realm, that input is essentially coming from nowhere,thus violating the law of conservation of energy. (You science types understand what I'm talking about.) Ergo, you don't have a mind separate from the belching, sweating rest of you. You're meat that thinks. Want to argue that ? Then come up with a cogent explanation that doesn't rely on superstition.

I can't argue this with you, but I can note that what you describe as superstition, others know as faith.

Also -- try entertaining the idea that there just might be forces operating in the universe that go beyond our understood laws of physics.

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As for objection to the Wiccan rede, what's wrong with it ?

It doesn't prompt people to learn, grow, get better, or anything of the sort. It just prods us to seek pleasure, or "do our own thing". Inadequate, presuming you expect to exist forever.

. . =(_8^(1)

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

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I can't argue this with you, but I can note that what you describe as superstition, others know as faith.

Also -- try entertaining the idea that there just might be forces operating in the universe that go beyond our understood laws of physics.

If that's the case, it's time for religious people to stop going around proclaiming that they DO understand everything, how god set it up, and what we're supposed to do with it. For all any of them know, god wants a certain number of us to not believe in him so that we go on ever searching for answers.

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As for objection to the Wiccan rede, what's wrong with it ?

It doesn't prompt people to learn, grow, get better, or anything of the sort. It just prods us to seek pleasure, or "do our own thing". Inadequate, presuming you expect to exist forever.

[jakee 1,596]

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I think darwinian evolution is a fantasy.

I've never met anyone that disagreed with evolution who actually had a clue how it works. Do you know what evolution actually involves or are you judging from a position of ignorance?

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[rehmwa 2]

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. . . or are you judging from a position of ignorance?

Trick question - how would an ignorant know?

It's like executives' questions at large technical meetings - e.g., 'give me a list of every problem you haven't thought of'..... Wasted oxygen

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[gjhdiver 0]

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I can't argue this with you, but I can note that what you describe as superstition, others know as faith.

Also -- try entertaining the idea that there just might be forces operating in the universe that go beyond our understood laws of physics.

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As for objection to the Wiccan rede, what's wrong with it ?

It doesn't prompt people to learn, grow, get better, or anything of the sort. It just prods us to seek pleasure, or "do our own thing". Inadequate, presuming you expect to exist forever.

Nope. Physics is it really. We're living in a closed system. If you can't understand something about it, inventing imaginary outside forces to explain them away isn't faith, it's superstition and lazy thinking. Ancient cultures thought the sky moved on a great wheel. It doesn't as we are well aware. We became educated and more aware, as we do so, we reject the idea of a god more and more. This can only be a good thing IMHO, YMMV etc etc. Evolution is proved beyond any reasonable doubt, to all execpt those that would use "faith' to deny iy. It's not my problem. If you're going to argue with science, you better have a better rebuttal than magic.

As for the Wiccan Rede, you're free to grow as much as you feel you want to. If I live a life of pure pleasure, and harm no-one, who's to say that I haven't got out of the game on top ?

A peculiarly American and puritanical thing, this uneccessary self denial of innocent pleasure.

[jakee 1,596]

Interesting point, but I've found that most people who deny evolution are ignorant because they have never made any effort to understand it. If someone has made an effort and come away with the wrong end of the stick then you're right, how would they know? Usually though they haven't made any effort and don't even want to understand, so ignorance is obvious even to them.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[skydyvr 0]

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I've never met anyone that disagreed with evolution who actually had a clue how it works.

Do a google search on "science against evolution" and enlighten yourself to the world of scholars and scientists who question evolution.

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Do you know what evolution actually involves or are you judging from a position of ignorance?

I am eductated enough not to be speaking from a position of ignorance, thanks.

. . =(_8^(1)

[Zenister 0]

make sure you check the religious affiliations (and funding sources) for those 'scientists' too...

____________________________________
Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed.

[billvon 3,120]

>Do a google search on "science against evolution" and enlighten
>yourself to the world of scholars and scientists who question evolution.

Yep. Lysenko, for one. That didn't turn out too well - religious faith is no substitute for science when you want actual results. The scientific method produces much better results than just believing what you want and then praying you are right.

[billvon 3,120]

>I think darwinian evolution is a fantasy.

A friend of mine developed an MRSA infection a while back; it was really nasty for a while. I don't think she thinks evolution is a fantasy. She had real, firsthand experience that it isn't.

[skydyvr 0]

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Also -- try entertaining the idea that there just might be forces operating in the universe that go beyond our understood laws of physics.

If that's the case, it's time for religious people to stop going around proclaiming that they DO understand everything, how god set it up, and what we're supposed to do with it.

You may be right about some "religious people", but I don't personally know any Christians that claim to "understand everything". In fact, the Bible makes it clear that we do not and are not meant to understand everything (whatever that means).

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Something wrong with seeking and having pleasure for eternity? I'd settle for that...

Well, if you admit that you're an imperfect being, and I'm sure you would, then going about your journey through life just having a good 'ole time wouldn't really do anything to improve that situation, would it? In this life, I believe it is more important to learn, grow, etc., all in the seeking of perfection. Not that we can't have fun or make plenty of mistakes along the way, of course, but there has to be more to life than just seeking pleasure. Or not -- we all have that choice.

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By the way, if anything "doesn't prompt people to learn, grow, get better, or anything of the sort," it's thinking that all we need to know about our universe is set down in the bible. Fossil record? No need! The bible tells us how old the earth is, and everything on it. Space exploration? No need -- the earth is the center of the universe!!

I see nothing in the Bible that tells us not to go out and explore our surroundings. Quite the contrary, the Bible tells us to have dominion of the earth and everything in it. Am I missing something?

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"Mr. Scientist, you found proof of life on another planet? It must be decoy life placed there deliberately by god to test our faith in the notion that the earth is the center of the universe!"

I know that some churches hold the ideas you mock dear to their hearts, but I don't know where they get them. Genesis has to be pretty narrowly interpreted to maintain the notion that life just can't exist anywhere but here.

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All of it is utter hogwash. Easily destroyed myth and superstition.

What's more, it is harmful to any attempt at unity between humans. Divide divide divide, because MY non-disprovable god is the right one and YOUR non-disprovable god is false!

If god really gave a shit-crusted fuck about humanity, he would long ago have simply stepped in and said, "YO! Here I am! I love you ALL, and you can finally stop FIGHTING over me all the motherfucking time!"

That's one theory, but the other theory is that God set things up like this so we could learn to love him without the impetus of KNOWING he's here.

If you KNEW God existed, and was sitting in an office downtown, you would absolutely do his bidding out of complete and total fear. In other words, you wouldn't make your life choices because they're the right choices, you'd make them out of fear or for other wrong reasons.

In the current scenario, you have True Choice. You can do whatever you want, unfettered by your creator breathing down your neck. You will be a good person because you really want to be one, not because God is down the street ready to whack you for being bad.

. . =(_8^(1)

[skydyvr 0]

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make sure you check the religious affiliations (and funding sources) for those 'scientists' too...

Well sure. You wouldn't expect anyone but a "believer" to spend time, money and effort on dicounting evolution, would you? Who else would even have the motivation?

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[Zenister 0]

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not because God is down the street ready to whack you for being bad.

or hiding behind a bush waiting to jump out and punish you for doing exactly what he created you to do.....

____________________________________
Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed.

[Zenister 0]

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make sure you check the religious affiliations (and funding sources) for those 'scientists' too...

Well sure. You wouldn't expect anyone but a "believer" to spend time, money and effort on dicounting evolution, would you? Who else would even have the motivation?

its not science if you start with a conclusion and look for evidence to support it.

that is religion.

perhaps your 'sources' should change their name to "Believers against Evolution" it would be much more accurate...

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Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed.

[skydyvr 0]

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Yep. Lysenko, for one. That didn't turn out too well - religious faith is no substitute for science when you want actual results. The scientific method produces much better results than just believing what you want and then praying you are right.

Only an idiot doesn't take their child to the hospital when needed, so yea, faith is no substitute for science. I'm surely not trying to make that argument.

I am one of those hopeful sorts that looks for agreement between faith and science such as the classic example:

God said Let There Be Light, and . . .

. . . boom bada bing BANG boom . . . there it was!

. . =(_8^(1)