Are you religious?

Owen

Sangre wrote:

The whole notion of organised religions and their God is so ridiculous as to be laughable.

It's not only that, it's childish. Bad people go to hell, good people go to heaven, it's okay to die because you live forever, pray to God, but don't expect him to talk back, because that's not what God's do ... lol. When the world grows up, leaves 'religion' behind, and comes together under a single goal towards better humanity, let me know. In the mean time, we'll let all the various religions knock the sh*t out of one another, and try to convince each other to convert.

OfflerCrocGod

I have common sense therefore I'm atheist.

iFight

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

I have common sense therefore I'm atheist.

QFT

Pepe LeFrits

Let people believe whatever gives them comfort. Beware the atheist calling theists stupid, and vice versa.

#6.

Nature Boy

qwertplaywert wrote:

aethiest.next q

What's your favorite colour?

A. Blue
B. Pink
C. Blue
D. Greeny blue

Steyr

Thaedydal wrote:

Yes I do believe in Gods , I have a religion and practice it regularly.

Im Curious, what Religion would that be? In fact what Faiths are the members of Boards members of? Im Roman Catholic.

Terry

I don't really think it's yours or anyone elses business what religion someone is, unless they wish to inform you. Here or in real life.
Although you could go over to the religious forums and have a look around.

Nevyn

What forums I mods may give you a hint.
there was what relgion are you thread with in the spirituality forum a while back.

Tar.Aldarion

I also believe in the Epoch Alliance.

InFront

How many atheist funerals have people been to?

Tar.Aldarion

Several. Why?

Red Hand

I'd say that many people would have a funeral in a church even though they were aethiest.

I know that I want to go for the full works funeral-wise, presided over by a Bishop and a brace of priests if possible, even though I have little or no belief in a God.

Sangre

Well the people who died are hardly organising the event are they? Unless stated all funerals revert to default i.e. a RC funeral.

koneko

Origin is the only true path. Hallowed are the Ori.

Gaspode

Sangre wrote:

Well the people who died are hardly organising the event are they? Unless stated all funerals revert to default i.e. a RC funeral.

Not for me - local PP has already told me to sod off, I'm barred! I think I'll be waked at home (for a fortnight maybe, or at least until I begin to smell and they're really sure I'm dead) then either cremated or my real preference, dipped in liquid nitrogen and milled to dust. linky: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23370243-details/Cremation%20to%20be%20replaced%20by%20eco-friendly%20freeze-drying%20of%20corpses/article.do Cool. Pity I wont be around to see that.

Zebra3

Despise religion.

I hate the way people put down that they are catholic or whatever on forms and put their kids into the religion and get married in a church even though they don't give a toss about it.

As for the gimps (mainly tossers in Celtic jerseys/tracksuits) who think being catholic is the same as being nationalist/republican. :rolleyes:

It also pisses me off the way established religions look down on cults and accuse them of brainwashing people and fleecing them of their money. Pot, kettle, etc. :mad:

InFront

Sangre wrote:

Well the people who died are hardly organising the event are they?

Why not? And where are all the atheist friends and wives and children organising atheist funerals for their loved ones?

Nevyn

Sangre wrote:

Well the people who died are hardly organising the event are they? Unless stated all funerals revert to default i.e. a RC funeral.

What even amoung the jewish communities and the prodestant communities and the islamic communities here in Ireland ?
Please :rolleyes:

Yes funerals tend to be for those left behind but yes you can stipulate what you want done in your will and book it before hand and make use that your next of kin who gets the respondiblity for your body disposes it in a way that is fitting.

There are many people who have humanist athiest funerals.

Owen

koneko wrote:

Origin is the only true path. Hallowed are the Ori.

Savage

humanji

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

I also believe in the Epoch Alliance.

Sucker, you chose the dud one! I bags the gods of Sex and Sexuality! Any women want to help with my worshiping can pm me here, or find me the back alley, in the red hopper bin with my trousers round my knees.

Kingp35

Im a proud member of The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Join now
http://www.venganza.org/

Sangre

I actually meant 'e.g' Thead. With the default being what religion you were born into.

I would imagine a lack of atheist funerals is more to do with compassion for relatives and friends rather then personal beliefs. If all your family at very religious I doubt many people would deny allowing them to give you a religious funeral, especially considering it makes sod all difference to the dead person.

Nevyn

humanji wrote:

Sucker, you chose the dud one! I bags the gods of Sex and Sexuality! Any women want to help with my worshiping can pm me here, or find me the back alley, in the red hopper bin with my trousers round my knees.

Actually there is a form of trantic budhism that believe every orgasm is a step on the road to enlightenment.

especially considering it makes sod all difference to the dead person.

Actually it would, I don't want people praying to try getmy sould into a christain heaven or hell and causing a conflict about my soul when I am gone; nor would I want christain religious rites preformed over my remains.

Sangre

Sod all difference to an atheist (and non-soul believer). I thought that was quite obvious. Stop making me clarify myself!

Terry

koneko wrote:

Origin is the only true path. Hallowed are the Ori.

Don't make me go Merlin on your ass.

Cordette

I saw a Shaman once who told me 'Religion is for people afraid to go to hell, spirituality is for people who've already been there.'

It's a bit of a sweeping statement but there's some truth in it. I was part of a strict religion for some time and the older I got the more I realised you can't beat people into submission using fear and punnishment!! Love is meant to be the driving force behind any kind of a God! But we ignore the spiritual side and get totally hung up on the rules......so I will never ever be part of an organised religion again............

Rb

Zebra3 wrote:

It also pisses me off the way established religions look down on cults and accuse them of brainwashing people and fleecing them of their money. Pot, kettle, etc. :mad:

Not exactly. Cults, such as scientology, do fleece their members (through brainwashing, conditioning etc.), can you name any organised religions that do the same?You'll find most are open for donations, and charge for services such as marriages and funerals, but they don't demand money, they don't make their members sign over all their assets to them and give up their lives to furthering the organisation, or have the attitude of "the more you give us, the higher up in the organisation you go!".

Mossy Monk

hell is a guilty conscience, i believe we are all there now

Terry

Terry wrote:

I don't really think it's yours or anyone elses business what religion someone is, unless they wish to inform you. Here or in real life.
Although you could go over to the religious forums and have a look around.

Hmm., I came across as a real dick head there. Sorry if I offended you, Steyr. You weren't exactly demanding an answer.

Steyr

Terry wrote:

Hmm., I came across as a real dick head there. Sorry if I offended you, Steyr. You weren't exactly demanding an answer.

Its ok.

Backtoblack

Agnostic.

Time Magazine

Sangre wrote:

The whole notion of organised religions and their God is so ridiculous as to be laughable.

ned78 wrote:

It's not only that, it's childish.

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

I have common sense therefore I'm atheist.

If it's so trivial, so ridiculous, so laughable, so childish, so lacking in common sense, why do so many intelligent people dedicate their lives (or at least part thereof) to it?

OfflerCrocGod, are claiming you that CS Lewis, René Descartes, Thomas Aquinas, Galileo Galilei, JRR Tolkien, Augustine Cauchy... I could continue... lacked common sense?

Thrill

I don't believe in gods myself. A load of mumbo jumbo imo.
What makes me laugh about religion is when people say that only humans go to heaven and every other life form on the planet just die and cease to be.
They find it impossible to comprehend that nothing exists beyond life for people and yet can easily understand it when it comes to animals.

Time Magazine

thrill wrote:

What makes me laugh about religion is when people say that only humans go to heaven and every other life form on the planet just die and cease to be.
They find it impossible to comprehend that nothing exists beyond life for people and yet can easily understand it when it comes to animals.

Very easy to explain. Humans have souls, dogs don't. We all have life, which can cease, but our souls can't.

Backtoblack

Ibid wrote:

Very easy to explain. Humans have souls, dogs don't. We all have life, which can cease, but our souls can't.

My soul died years ago.

But its interesting to see that you believe in your beliefs so deeply.

Backtoblack

Oh and if i were to believe in souls, i'm quite certain that dogs would have souls just like the rest of us..
I love dogs!! xx pouchy poo! I love you! xx

Time Magazine

You soul died with the rules regarding signatures.

Backtoblack

Ibid wrote:

You soul died with the rules regarding signatures.

Foook me, what a way to go!

nesf

Ibid wrote:

If it's so trivial, so ridiculous, so laughable, so childish, so lacking in common sense, why do so many intelligent people dedicate their lives (or at least part thereof) to it?

OfflerCrocGod, are claiming you that CS Lewis, René Descartes, Thomas Aquinas, Galileo Galilei, JRR Tolkien, Augustine Cauchy... I could continue... lacked common sense?

Intelligent people also believed that the earth was flat, that the world was created (word for word) as in Genesis. I could go on, but there's no need. Intelligent people believing in something is not necessarily a good reason to also believe it (look at Keynesian economics ).

Not that I consider organised religion childish or lacking in common sense or anything (the common sense point especially, it being seriously overrated). It's just that the above isn't a very good argument.

Dave!

Ibid wrote:

Very easy to explain. Humans have souls, dogs don't. We all have life, which can cease, but our souls can't.

What are you basing that on? Cos you're a human? Cos humans can speak?

I think religion is a psychological phenomenon, so reducing it to simply "smart people believe/don't believe therefore it's true/untrue" doesn't do anything for either argument.

Esmereldina

Ibid wrote:

Very easy to explain. Humans have souls, dogs don't. We all have life, which can cease, but our souls can't.

I don't have a soul. As a human, I just have a more developed brain than most other animals.

Regarding common sense, I believe I lack this in many ways but I don't believe in God. So, perhaps that's not such a good indicator either...

Sangre

Ibid wrote:

If it's so trivial, so ridiculous, so laughable, so childish, so lacking in common sense, why do so many intelligent people dedicate their lives (or at least part thereof) to it?

OfflerCrocGod, are claiming you that CS Lewis, René Descartes, Thomas Aquinas, Galileo Galilei, JRR Tolkien, Augustine Cauchy... I could continue... lacked common sense?

They lacked 'spiritual' common sense.

Crucifix

Ibid wrote:

OfflerCrocGod, are claiming you that CS Lewis, René Descartes, Thomas Aquinas, Galileo Galilei, JRR Tolkien, Augustine Cauchy... I could continue... lacked common sense?

I remember reading a quote from Voltaire, where he was mocking the beliefs of Newtonians, by comparing to them to the beliefs of Cartesians, which he believed to be far superior. Ironically almost all of the bits from Descartes were completely wrong, and while Newton's laws aren't considered as hard and fast as they once were, his stuff was alot more correct.
I guess what I'm saying is "Nobody's perfect".

Sam Vimes

koneko wrote:

Origin is the only true path. Hallowed are the Ori.

na, apophis all the way. he'll be back, you just watch

Ibid wrote:

Very easy to explain. Humans have souls, dogs don't. We all have life, which can cease, but our souls can't.

where is this soul? in my shoe? do we have souls because we wear shoes and dogs don't? if i put shoes on a dog, would he then have a soul? why would god create billions of species but only give one of them a soul? how do you know they don't have souls? because they can't tell you?


monkeys can communicate as can dolphins and many many other species, although monkeys are the only ones that have shown they can communicate with humans on a high level. what is the criteria by which you judge which animals have souls and which don't?

edit: when my cat wants to be let out, she stands next to the door and meows at me. i'd consider that communication. does she have a soul?

i'm going to guess your answer to the question. any debate on religion eventually comes back to this. you believe that we have souls and they don't because it says so in the bible. well the bible also says you will go to hell if you wear a garment made of two different threads*. it's not the most reliable of documents.

*leviticus 19:19

OfflerCrocGod

Ibid wrote:

OfflerCrocGod, are claiming you that CS Lewis, René Descartes, Thomas Aquinas, Galileo Galilei, JRR Tolkien, Augustine Cauchy... I could continue... lacked common sense?

No; but I do claim they lived in different eras and where products of their time.

Time Magazine

I'm knackered after football so ye'll have to wait before I bring in Bernoulli distributions into this .

Zebra3

Ibid wrote:

Very easy to explain. Humans have souls, dogs don't. We all have life, which can cease, but our souls can't.

What if you sell it to your geeky best mate for $5?

Zillah

Ibid wrote:

If it's so trivial, so ridiculous, so laughable, so childish, so lacking in common sense, why do so many intelligent people dedicate their lives (or at least part thereof) to it?

Childhood indoctrination coupled with an evolutionarily derived predisposition towards faith-based paradigms and unwarranted levels of respect for authoritiy figures.

To extrapolate, some prominent ideas for why so many people believe such ludicrous things are:

1 - Childhood mentality. Children believe what their are told by their elders because those that didn't got eaten by tigers or ate the wrong berries. This carried over in other subjects such as religion. So a parent can go "So little Billy, did you know that our Lord God was made flesh and came to earth to die for our sins so he could forgive us for the sins our two ancestors committed at the dawn of time?" and have the child nod instead of laugh out loud.

2 - "Social Glue". Religion evolved as a method of encouraging a group identity. In that case, it doesn't matter how stupid or ridiculous the beliefs are, as long as people go through the paces and rituals together it serves its purpose.

3 - Human based thinking and the illusion of design. The human brain is designed to think in terms of "why" and "who". When we look at the natural world, which may have no reason or cause as we understand it, we still assume it does and attribute its existence to a "God".

Incidentally, the third one is currently the source of a lot of controversy in the US. "Intelligent Design" is an attempt to prove that life was designed rather than came about through natural selection. Its complete nonesense, but it has the veneer of science, which is enough to convince a lot of people.

I don't go to church. I feel that I don't have to to be religious. I am in it my own way, I like to think there is something up there maybe looking over us when we need them.

I guess I'm an Agnostic -- it's the easiest option.

Terry

Ibid, this is something i would like to discuss with you in person. hopefully at the next boards beers. you may be surprised at my take on this whole thing.