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Religion:
If even one is wrong, does that make them all wrong?
I don't pretend to have an answer to this question , which made me wonder, does anyone?
All the "Old Gods" have so few believers, the number is pretty much 0, does this mean they vanished in a puff of apathy?
The "One God" has many followers, locked in a seemingly endless battle of dogma, trying to prove they follow him best, what the heck is that about?
I have more questions, but I think this is enough for one day.
I am eager for your views, let the games commence...
Oh, life is bigger
It's bigger
Than you and you are not me
The lengths that I will go to
The distance in your eyes
Oh no, I've said too much
I set it up
I believe there are signs of intelligent design everywhere that we consciously ignore and chalk up to coincidence or other factors.
I don't know why that statement in and of itself, tied into no specific theology - is so triggering to so many people. If you have that much FAITH and devotion to your LACK of faith - it starts to look incredibly similar to theist faith, from my perspective - in practice.
Beyond that though - I think the questions at the top - people want simple binary "true/false" answers to those questions.
But we've got 2000 years of recorded history, tens of thousands or more of LOST history before that, and mankind INTERPRETING scriptures and documents through a veil of ignorance and bias that entire time.
So... it is no wonder it is a confusing mess.
2020-09-07 14:40 from arabella
I remain convinced that God was made in man's image
I don't believe that....
People are inherently selfish creatures. We'd have made a God that encouraged our selfishness.
I believe that there is something larger than us, but not a god. We are just too small to see it.
OR... Our universe might be in a petri dish.
Tue Sep 08 2020 06:59:00 PM EDT from Ragnar Danneskjold2020-09-07 14:40 from arabella
I remain convinced that God was made in man's image
I don't believe that....
People are inherently selfish creatures. We'd have made a God that encouraged our selfishness.
I don't believe that...
People do want the best for themselves, and a hefty number try to attain that selfishly, but there are also a great many people who would like to live in a world which is better for everyone, and many of those people do not follow a God, or gods.
I prefer to think that people are inherently good, but easily led, and that anyone can be good without having to reference Religion
I thought Bell Jar, because otherwise we'd escape into the wild, (perhaps we did)Mon Sep 14 2020 05:04:29 PM EDT from zooerI believe that there is something larger than us, but not a god. We are just too small to see it.
OR... Our universe might be in a petri dish.
Trey Parker one of the creators of South Park said,
> "All the religions are superfunny to me," Parker adds. "The story of Jesus makes no sense to me. God sent his only son. Why could God only have one son and why would he have to die? It's just bad writing, really. And it's really terrible in about the second act."
> But Parker says atheism is more ludicrous to him than anything else.
> "Out of all the ridiculous religion stories -- which are greatly, wonderfully ridiculous -- the silliest one I've ever heard is, 'Yeah, there's this big, giant universe and it's expanding and it's all going to collapse on itself and we're all just here, just 'cuz. Just 'cuz. That to me, is the most ridiculous explanation ever," he says.
Atheism is a religion.
Atheists meet regularly in groups to discuss Atheism.
Atheists try to impose their views on everyone else sometimes through laws.
Atheists tell you that you are foolish for believing what you believe and you need to believe what they believe to save yourself.
There are books on atheists and atheists encourage people to read those books.
All this for something they don't believe in. If it wasn't a religion they would just go about life.
"I've always said, there's nothing an agnostic can't do if he really doesn't know whether he believes in anything or not."
Agnostics do care. Many if not most of us straddle a line between agnosticism and atheism, at least if you define it as above. And we're no less sick and tired of any form of insanity committed in the name of any religion (incl atheism I suppose) and people trying to cram their beliefs down our throats.
And there's the rub: militant atheists refuse to acknowledge that "absence of religion" and "absence of belief in god[s]" are NOT the same thing. That's how you end up with people like Dawkins and Curly and the entire FFRF who are absolutely militant about forcing their atheism religion down people's throats.
Now of course, any religion (including atheism) has people who proselytize militantly and people who don't. Sensible people can witness non-forcibly, can "be the light" without being obnoxious about it simply by demonstrating how much their faith is working for them and sharing it only when asked.
"Sensible people can witness non-forcibly, can "be the light" without being obnoxious about it simply by demonstrating how much their faith is working for them and sharing it only when asked"
This is pretty much how Humanists are, it's a thing I discovered by accident, and quite like.
2020-10-04 02:25 from arabella
"Sensible people can witness non-forcibly, can "be the light" without
being obnoxious about it simply by demonstrating how much their faith
is working for them and sharing it only when asked"
This is pretty much how Humanists are, it's a thing I discovered by
accident, and quite like.
I don't know about that.
Most of the time I meet somebody who describes himself as a Humanist, he is a totalitarian using a benevolent disguise.
Among these, a significant chunk is like Asimov's Robots following a particularly strong Law Zero and Law -1 of robotics. They will sacrifice the rights of individuals and groups in order to achieve their goals for the Collective and will tell you so straight.
It reminds me of Skeptics for some reason.