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Religion IS crazy!

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pavilion103 said:
I find it highly amusing that people who believe that there is no God spend so much time in these sorts of threads debating.

It's like if I didn't think a purple unicorn existed. I'd question my sanity if I spent countless hours and days debating its existence. I'd simply say "hmm ok you can believe that. I'm not going there. It doesn't exist and I won't waste my time talking about it."

Yet this is not the case. We all have an intrinsic knowledge that there is a God (who that God is is a separate discussion).. I don't know why so many people spend so much time fighting it. It's almost hilarious. Here fishy fishy...
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Speak for yourself. Intrinsic blah blah blah.

I like throwing pebbles into the pool though.
 
pavilion103 said:
I find it highly amusing that people who believe that there is no God spend so much time in these sorts of threads debating.

It's like if I didn't think a purple unicorn existed. I'd question my sanity if I spent countless hours and days debating its existence. I'd simply say "hmm ok you can believe that. I'm not going there. It doesn't exist and I won't waste my time talking about it."

Yet this is not the case. We all have an intrinsic knowledge that there is a God (who that God is is a separate discussion).. I don't know why so many people spend so much time fighting it. It's almost hilarious. Here fishy fishy...
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Not all of us PAV.
 
pavilion103 said:
I find it highly amusing that people who believe that there is no God spend so much time in these sorts of threads debating.

It's like if I didn't think a purple unicorn existed. I'd question my sanity if I spent countless hours and days debating its existence. I'd simply say "hmm ok you can believe that. I'm not going there. It doesn't exist and I won't waste my time talking about it."

Yet this is not the case. We all have an intrinsic knowledge that there is a God (who that God is is a separate discussion).. I don't know why so many people spend so much time fighting it. It's almost hilarious. Here fishy fishy...
Click to expand...

I do not wish to get involved in the debate because I know that there will be no outcome whatsoever and no ones opinion will be altered due to the nature of the topic.

However the thread is labelled "Religion is crazy!" so I think that will provoke people to get involved on both sides.
 
Hodgie said:
I do not wish to get involved in the debate because I know that there will be no outcome whatsoever and no ones opinion will be altered due to the nature of the topic.

However the thread is labelled "Religion is crazy!" so I think that will provoke people to get involved on both sides.
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Well mine was changed when I realised how insignificant the human race is in the scheme of existence.

We have only been here for a few hundred thousand years.
We wont be here that much longer relative to the scale of existence---and who will know OR CARE!

That's us at the Bottom!

Life.png



How we can have the audacity to think "WE" know how--what and who created all this in the past--now---and future (When we are not here)---is CRAZY, fanciful and delusional!

When we join this lot.

Life 1.png
 
tech/a said:
Well mine was changed when I realised how insignificant the human race is in the scheme of existence.

We have only been here for a few hundred thousand years.
We wont be here that much longer relative to the scale of existence---and who will know OR CARE!

That's us at the Bottom!
Click to expand...

This is very useful info, imo. We are insignificant and not nearly so special as we believe. Paradoxically, to realize our insignificance is a very spiritually powerful thing to do. Quite a few religions have used this sort of technique to open up the mind to Truth (or God if you'd like to call it that). For example, the American Indian shamans recommended talking to little plants or pebbles on the ground as if they are your equal! I'm not kidding around.

The most spiritually powerful realization is not just that we are little specs on a planet flying around a vast universe, but that we don't even exist. If anyone is interested, http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2011/05/psychological-self-vs-no-self/ This is a Buddhist link, but I'm not a Buddhist, nor do I recommend anyone becomes one. My religion is of my own making, and I cherry pick from the best of all of them.

[link edited]
 
bunyip said:
But as I started growing up and thinking more for myself, it became obvious to me that the power of prayer was a myth. I lived in rural communities where ‘pray for rain’ meetings were held during severe droughts.........but the droughts continued unabated.
I heard prayers being said in church for congregation members who had terminal illnesses......but they died anyway.
I could give dozes of other examples, but suffice to say that I lost all faith in the power of prayer after seeing it fail over and over and over again.
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I'm just passing on what I have read here; keep in mind I have no personal experience of this particular topic.

For this sort of intentional prayer to work, ie. *making stuff happen*, it's said that one needs to first be able to enter a very deep state of meditation or prayer (specifically 4th jhana). Jesus was probably the guy who was most famous for doing magical stuff, but in terms of the literature, the Buddhist and shamanic literature will give you specific instructions for doing it. I imagine you'd need a good few decades of solid practice, if it's possible at all. I have no idea if it is, and I have no idea if Jesus walked on water or not. Seems incredible, but you never know.

Patanjali's 3rd chapter on "powers" is probably something to read if you're interested. I can imagine it would be possible to waste one's entire life trying to master this sort of thing! http://hermetic.com/vivekananda/raja-yoga/powers.html
 
pavilion103 said:
I find it highly amusing that people who believe that there is no God spend so much time in these sorts of threads debating.

It's like if I didn't think a purple unicorn existed. I'd question my sanity if I spent countless hours and days debating its existence. I'd simply say "hmm ok you can believe that. I'm not going there. It doesn't exist and I won't waste my time talking about it."

Yet this is not the case. We all have an intrinsic knowledge that there is a God (who that God is is a separate discussion).. I don't know why so many people spend so much time fighting it. It's almost hilarious. Here fishy fishy...
Click to expand...
That seems a rather simplistic view of a debate. And perhaps unnecessarily scornful. Most rational people will take a stance of agnosticism in light of the reality that there's no objective proof of either the existence of a god or equally non-existence.
It's nonetheless an interesting topic, even in so much as thinking about why some people feel the need to believe in some greater power.

I sometimes vaguely envy people with religious convictions - they seem to find comfort amongst life's miseries by believing God has a plan for them and it just ain't all good stuff.
Death is made easier for many who believe they are passing on to some glorious after life. And it might be so. I have no idea.

But I don't think any of us should rubbish people with or without religious convictions. There's surely a case for revulsion about the many abuses committed amongst practitioners of religion, but that would seem to have more to do their own inherent evil (or in some cases enforced celibacy) than necessarily the influence of their church.
 
If you have faith you don't need evidence and if you have reason you don't need faith.

If believing is based on evidence and not faith, produce this evidence which can then be verified.

And why the need to go back in time to the dark ages of science, philosophy etc? Merely because a belief is ancient does not give it any more credibility.
 
We can know how because Jesus came to earth to reveal it.

Who do I listen I about how the world was created and for what purpose? Well I will listen to the one with the most credibility.
Who is that?
The one who prophesied that he would die and be resurrected 3 days later AND BACKED IT UP!

You can research the many examples of those who tried to disprove the resurrection and came to believe because the evidence is completely overwhelming. Including a lawyer with 255 consecutive murder acquittals!!!!!


Those who don't believe it tend to apply an inconsistent standard of evidence on different historic events based on whatever they choose.

I find that those who don't believe that the resurrection even occurred are those who have not even tried to research it. You need to go wherever the evidence takes you, even if that is uncomfortable.

There is NO evidence for macro evolution yet people cling to that religion because it satisfies them in how they can live.

With trading, with this, with most things, I've found people don't base their research on sound principles. They believe what is convenient!
 
pavilion103 said:
We all have an intrinsic knowledge that there is a God (who that God is is a separate discussion).. I don't know why so many people spend so much time fighting it. It's almost hilarious. Here fishy fishy...
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God you're sanctimonious.:rolleyes:

I could care less if you believe in a purple unicorn, it's only when the purple unicorn believers start trying to force their stupidity on me that I care. And religion certainly has a long glorious history of doing that.

It's religion and its drones that burnt heretics at the stake, that accuses young children today of practising witchcraft, that blows up aeroplanes, that murders doctors who perform abortions. And that covered up the disgusting crimes of the Catholic Church against children.

Get off your soap box.
 
McLovin said:
God you're sanctimonious.:rolleyes: I could care less if you believe in a purple unicorn, it's only when the purple unicorn believers start trying to force their stupidity on me that I care. And religion certainly has a long glorious history of doing that. It's religion and its drones that burnt heretics at the stake, that accuses young children today of pratising witchcraft, that blows up aeroplanes, that murders doctors who perform abortions. And that covered up the disgusting crimes of the Catholic Church against children. Get off your soap box.
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And none of those things take away from the credibility of Christ.

Maybe thread title should be "those who live by a philosophy that inflicts harm on others are crazy".

So silly to think someone who is living the true Christian life is doing those horrible things.
 
Wars and harm of others are cause by going AGAINST what Christ taught ( true Christianity)

But they are caused by going FOR what evolution allows. Survival of the fittest. No purpose to life. No objective right or wrong. No accountability for the good of others.

So while you're at it McLovin maybe you should start becoming more concerned about evolutionary philosophy which allows for the above. But no, that wouldn't be convenient for you?

Blatent inconsistency!
 
pavilion103 said:
But they are caused by going FOR what evolution allows. Survival of the fittest. No purpose to life. No objective right or wrong. No accountability for the good of others.
!
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Some religions and philosophies say that there is no meaning of life, at least none that the mind can conceive. They also say that the deepest truth has it that there is no good/bad, right/wrong - such things are relative, not Absolute. I'm not trying to provoke you with this comment, just saying there are some very clever dudes who have different understanding of how things work.
 
Gringotts Bank said:
Some religions and philosophies say that there is no meaning of life, at least none that the mind can conceive. They also say that the deepest truth has it that there is no good/bad, right/wrong - such things are relative, not Absolute. I'm not trying to provoke you with this comment, just saying there are some very clever dudes who have different understanding of how things work.
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Of course. That isn't a provoke as all. Valid point.

But if there is no meaning, no good or bad, no right or wrong then there is also no truth! And someone who claims there is truth is just stating a personal opinion.
 
pavilion103 said:
But they are caused by going FOR what evolution allows. Survival of the fittest. No purpose to life. No objective right or wrong. No accountability for the good of others.
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That is a blatant misrepresentation of what the biological evolutionary process is which is the change in the characteristics of living organisms. It is not the development a bad attitude or refusal to cooperate peacefully with other entities as you infer.
 
Judd said:
That is a blatant misrepresentation of what the biological evolutionary process is which is the change in the characteristics of living organisms. It is not the development a bad attitude or refusal to cooperate peacefully with other entities as you infer.
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I'm not saying that's what it is. I'm saying that if we are cosmic accidents evolved from pond scum and there is no objective moral law giver then everything is subjective. Whether I choose to feed a homeless man or put a gun to his head, it doesn't matter. There is no good or bad ultimately, only as I define it.
Sure I'll go to jail and by society's perspective it will be a 'bad' act. But then again if Hitler took over the world then gassing Jews would be by consensus a 'good' act.

But this is not how life is and we know it. We know that there are objective morals. E.g. The rape and murder of an innocent child is always wrong. We are given a conscience.

Moral absolutes are one of many strong arguments for the existence of God. These moral absolutes do exist intrinsically regardless of culture. We often know right and wrong because we have a God-given conscience.
 
pavilion103 said:
Moral absolutes are one of many strong arguments for the existence of God. These moral absolutes do exist intrinsically regardless of culture. We often know right and wrong because we have a God-given conscience.
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Illogical theory. It is not necessary to have any belief or interest in any sort of god to possess a sound moral philosophy.

The self-righteous tone does become irritating, pavilion.
 
It's subjective Religious morality, Julia, which depends crucially on faith. If God had commanded the opposite then we would all be morally obliged to kill, rape, lie, steal etc.

Society doesn't view that proposition as "good" as it would no longer function effectively as a group.
 
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