Something I found pretty funny

[Greenplease]

So apparently religious people don't know much about their chosen religions. What a joke!

This is the definition of blind faith, the world needs to wake up. These religious preachers should really get their heads out of their asses.

Here's the link: http://www.stuff.co.nz/oddstuff/4177887/Atheists-top-religious-knowledge-survey

 

[poopoo1964]

And how much do you know????

 

[Greenplease]

I know enough to not be religious.

I am 100% athiest, so I am not at all obliged to know anything.
But I have a fairly good knowledge of the main religions. I have read parts of the bible, and read books on buddha. I mean, i'm no acolyte but my general knowledge isn't that bad.

But what I claim to follow, and like to read and research, I do know. I just find it ammusing that so many people are so rigorously religious, but don't know why, or what it means, or even the history of thier religion. It just seems so shallow. Religion is the biggest scam of them all, and this just proves it even more so.

As you can see though, I am totally against religion in the first place so that probably doesn't help much.

 

[Kodank Moment]

Bro this has been this way since religions creation by man. Some are sheep others are wolves. How it goes. Let em all believe what they want. We know the truth...or do we? Wouldn't it be hilarious if there was a god...lol.

 

[Greenplease]

Bro this has been this way since religions creation by man. Some are sheep others are wolves. How it goes. Let em all believe what they want. We know the truth...or do we? Wouldn't it be hilarious if there was a god...lol.

Seriously, if someone could truely prove to me that there was a god, I would shoot myself in the head and go to heaven. Hahaha.
Actually wait, if I commit suicide I go to hell don't I? Well, I dunno, I would be happily proved wrong then

I know it's been like this forever, it still fucks me off though...........people just don't seem to have a grip on reality.

 

[poopoo1964]

You focus too much on man. Man will always let you down because they are mere men.
It is YOUR personal relationship with Christ that matters. Focus on GOD.. It is a one on one deal for all of us.
As for proof, well it really don't matter My Greenplease friend. He believes in you just the same and if time is willing you may get alittle tug at you heart some day. Just the same, I'll keep you in my prayers my new friend.

Your right. If you shoot yourself in the head you will go to the lower level seating.

 

[blazin256]

i thought god mad man in his image? if this is true, i contend that it was actually the devil that made us in his image.

 

[LightningMcGreen]

You focus too much on man. Man will always let you down because they are mere men.

Well, although we're nowhere near a Godlike stance, I don't think you're giving humans the credit we deserve. While it's obvious that there are an abundance of people who seem to be making a waste of their lives, or just totally failing at it, we have done some amazing things. We've captured lightning in a bottle with the lightbulb....we can literally move mountains, or destroy an entire city with the push of a button...anything you could ever want to know or see, is possible with just a few keystrokes and click of the mouse...things that would appear simply as mere magic to our 1000 year old ancestors.

Yet most people choose to take such a useful and progressive tool such as the internet, and abuse it for nothing more than mild mind dumbing youtube videos and the notorious social networks...so I could see why you might feel the way you do, and its true in a "shade of grey" sense. Turn on the tv on any given channel, and there's bound to be someone doing something stupid to try and get their 5 minutes of fame...rediculous. All the while they could use the internet for more useful things, like attaining knowledge.

But it also wasn't any suprise seeing those study results. I lived in the bible belt for the most part of my life, and I'll say that really, only the older generation churchgoers really knew their way around the book....teens to middle aged adults, a fraction of the part.

This isn't the result of the clergymen though. It's a combination of both advancement (we're getting smarter, starting to open our eyes a bit wider, though this still is only a small portion of the general population) but also a nasty sideffect of the coming of age with new technology (the internet being the key component). The fabrics of family values are coming apart at the seams, with less and less dinners at the table and interface, and more texting/myspacing with friends and staying on the go. Back 40-50 years ago, for most people, it was work, family, sleep, church on sundays.

Theology has worked well through the ages, and to a small degree I think it lays out a decent (but vague) guideline on how to generally be a good person. But the fact that we're really starting to dig for the answers more and more, let's me know were still progressing as a species. If there's one thing I have faith in, it's that we'll be able to come to a conclusive answer sometime, whichever it may be.

 

[The Mastermind]

Of course they don't know much about their religion. Religion is similar to genetics. There is the perception you should take your parent's religion without thinking about it and live your life accordingly, and their children will do the same and so forth. Religion also creates a band of individuals that rely upon one another, a social group that is hard to infiltrate. When many of your social needs are met by a group, the bond between them becomes strong. Not only that, but when the bond is created by a much higher, all powerful authority it leads to fear and irrationality and intolerance. When the way of their life is being rejected and not adhered to, they become defensive and make public outcries. They dabble further with one another and what they believe the world should be, which ends up destroying their ability to think for themselves and be able to make logical considerations regarding issues.

 

[Kodank Moment]

Religions is a VERY VERY necessary evil....just think of some of those crazy religious fanatics....now take away the religious...and you just have crazy fanatics. Crazy about what? Murdering. Cause now they have nothing keeping their shit straight.

I am glad we have the power of free will...we can choose what to believe and what not to believe...it just seems the people that happen to have more opened minds tend to not be very religious because they see it for what it is. A fake made up bunch of bullshit that's used for power and greed with the sole purpose of taking over weak minded individuals and using them to propel you forward.

Touche' religion....touche'.


Fuck religion but thank god it's here.....oh the irony!

 

[The Mastermind]

Religions is a VERY VERY necessary evil....just think of some of those crazy religious fanatics....now take away the religious...and you just have crazy fanatics. Crazy about what? Murdering. Cause now they have nothing keeping their shit straight.

I am glad we have the power of free will...we can choose what to believe and what not to believe...it just seems the people that happen to have more opened minds tend to not be very religious because they see it for what it is. A fake made up bunch of bullshit that's used for power and greed with the sole purpose of taking over weak minded individuals and using them to propel you forward.

Touche' religion....touche'.


Fuck religion but thank god it's here.....oh the irony!

The belief that religion is required for the ethical and "moral" sake of a society is complete horse shit. You make it sound without the guidance of some book that is over 2000 years or the fear that committing such a heinous crime will result in not just a blacklash from man, but an even bigger one in terms of eternal suffering, whether it be in Hell or being born a cockroach in your next life.

You need to understand the amount of violence in this world has dropped considerably from where it came from. In addition, the current state of our legal system rests upon social contracts built between people over a very long time. Do you actually think that the disappearance of religion will actually lead to an increase in murder rates and rape cases and physical assaults. That is complete bullshit.

I am 100% atheist and have been since I was about 12 or 13. I have never been in trouble with the law. I do not, by any means whether it is personal or capital, endorse the killing of anyone. For you to sit there and believe personal violations will occur on such a grand scale because people won't have a "code" to live by is preposterous. Just like LightningMcGreen said, you and your like don't seem to give enough credit towards human beings. Our accomplishments have been great. The fact a single sentient entity, through the process of evolution, has been able to manipulate the world around them is remarkable.

Watch this regarding violence: http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violence.html

Btw, violence has be perpetrated more in religion than anything.

 

[Kodank Moment]

Considering a majority of people don't do things based on instinct and more on morals I would say yes. If religion wasn't around today I think there would be a large increase in violence. I don't have a religion and I don't commit crimes and I know "christians" that have done far worse then I have. But I think a lot of people are restrained by the thought of "If I do this I will go to hell" more then "If I do this then I will go to jail" but I guess jail and hell go hand in hand. I am not saying all people who practice a religion now would riot on the streets if otherwise just that it helps restrain thoughts some people might have if they weren't always "believing" in god. Religion goes away...and crime goes up. I promise.

It isn't required for anything to continue...but it helps things flow. Just because you are an atheist and you don't commit crimes doesn't mean Mr. Christian doesn't have those same thoughts and want to act on them but doesn't because of fear from "god" not the fear of the law.

 

[Heisenberg]

The idea of religion is funny, the history of religion is tragic. The real question isn't about your personal relationship with blah blah, it's a question of reality. Humans are not all that great at interpreting reality, but we are pretty good at eventually understanding things. One thing we've understood for a while now is that humans are prone to mistakes of perception, memory and logic. To help counters those faults we developed the scientific method. The scientific method attempts to avoid and correct for mistakes humans are prone to make. Essentially it boils down to rules of evidence. When we present the evidence of things like ghosts or god to the scientific method, it becomes clear there is nothing to it. It's really as simple as that. There is no creditable evidence of god.

You can go further and point out all the hypocrisy and contradictions religion makes, (that can be an enjoyable activity) but it really isn't necessary. The question of god's existence is pretty easy to answer from a scientific, reality seeking stand point.

One interesting difference between science and religion is the fact that science is constantly changing it's mind and views according to newly discovered evidence. Religion never changes it's mind. Religious people like to point to the fact that science changes it's theories as some sort of weakness, but the real weakness is not correctly interpreting evidence, and then making excuses for it.

But people with faith are not interested in critical thought. As Doctor House says, if you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people.

 

[LightningMcGreen]

But wouldn't the existence of "God" be subjective only to the viewer's definition of what "God" is?

 

[Heisenberg]

But wouldn't the existence of "God" be subjective only to the viewer's definition of what "God" is?

Exactly McGreen, you've cut right to the heart of the matter. The question of god's existence can not even be applied to the scientific method, because it is not falsifiable. In other words, we have to be able to ask, If god created everything, how would we expect it to look. What evidence would we expect to find? The answer is of course, it would look any way god wanted it to look, which for all we know is exactly the way we see it. So when we go looking for evidence of god, everything becomes evidence, and therefore it can not be falsified. That basically means, it's a silly question to be asking in the first place.

Reality is not subject to opinion or popular vote. If everyone believed the moon was made of cheese, it would still in reality be made of rock.

 

[The Mastermind]

Considering a majority of people don't do things based on instinct and more on morals I would say yes. If religion wasn't around today I think there would be a large increase in violence. I don't have a religion and I don't commit crimes and I know "christians" that have done far worse then I have. But I think a lot of people are restrained by the thought of "If I do this I will go to hell" more then "If I do this then I will go to jail" but I guess jail and hell go hand in hand. I am not saying all people who practice a religion now would riot on the streets if otherwise just that it helps restrain thoughts some people might have if they weren't always "believing" in god. Religion goes away...and crime goes up. I promise.

It isn't required for anything to continue...but it helps things flow. Just because you are an atheist and you don't commit crimes doesn't mean Mr. Christian doesn't have those same thoughts and want to act on them but doesn't because of fear from "god" not the fear of the law.

The fact individuals don't commit crimes in the matter you say they do is not so much a reprisal of fear in God, but rather because they have been conditioned in some way or another to do. The act of stealing is one that is conditioned throughout our lives to where we understand from school to the outside world that stealing will not be tolerated, and be met by a punishment created by man. Moving towards an extreme such as murder, the same holds true not so much in that "I really want to kill this person, but I fear God will let me burn in hell," but rather because a lot of human beings are very incapable and more humane than you believe to actually kill someone. The first punishment that is thrown at a criminal is that made by humans. Generally when there are some very heinous crimes that are committed, the perpetrator usually takes his or her life. The case of Columbine, the case of the recent UT-Austin shootings, work-place shootings, murder-suicides at home, and shootings at military camp bases to name a few. Those that actually commit murder or rape or something along the lines of that usually have no sympathy for their victims because 1) they're incapable of it 2) they have some kind of resentment or bias against them. The ones incapable are psychopaths and those that have a resentment/bias can be religious extremists ranging from al-Qaeda and KKK to loaners such as those as Timothy McVeigh or von Bismark or whatever his name was with the Jewish-Holocaust museum shooting.

But to believe that before every action that occurs that this nation, with its poor understanding of religion in general, comes to ask the question, "What Would Jesus Do????" is a joke.

 

[LightningMcGreen]

Exactly McGreen, you've cut right to the heart of the matter. The question of god's existence can not even be applied to the scientific method, because it is not falsifiable. In other words, we have to be able to ask, If god created everything, how would we expect it to look. What evidence would we expect to find? The answer is of course, it would look any way god wanted it to look, which for all we know is exactly the way we see it. So when we go looking for evidence of god, everything becomes evidence, and therefore it can not be falsified. That basically means, it's a silly question to be asking in the first place.

Reality is not subject to opinion or popular vote. If everyone believed the moon was made of cheese, it would still in reality be made of rock.

Well played sir!

 

[Greenplease]

It seems as though we are mostly on the same wave length, I mean, isn't god totally relative? Also, god being almighty and the "creator" where do other gods, and other religions fit in? If there is only one god. How can there be dozens of religions each with it's own story and history of events?? That in itself is ample evidence that it is all a crock of shit!

And kodank, about you argument on violence and religion, I think in many situations, people may not commit crimes or acts of violence because of fear of repentence, but I think in the majority of these cases it is human recognition and common sence that stops most of us from doing illegal or immoral things. I mean look back through the years, religion has created so much bloodshed and so many wars that it's just becoming rediculous, The Crusades, the wars in the middle east. It all comes down to personal preferance, religion teaches to love thy neighbour (some do anyway) but many of these religions are at war with each other simply because they disagree. To me that is one of the most primitive of behaviours that exists and is far from the evolved and educated human beings we have come to regard ourselves as. Your brother fucked you off, so you smacked him in the head!

Also, the bible........I really do appreciate it moralistic values, but it is nothing more than a book full of realistic teachings, guidlines. And is maybe one of the few good things to come out of religion. But people (usually religious ones) misenterpret the readings, which confuses things even further.

To me, science is the heart and soul of our existence, everything is or will be explained I believe, people say that they feel positive and negative energy coming from people or objects, but this is totally natural, how do you think a horse can tell that a human fears it or not? I myself can feel the energy of my wife when she lays next to me at night, whether she is stressed or happy, sad or angry, humans are so full of energy that we don't actually know what we have within ourselves. I don't really know where I'm going with this but, to me there is so much unknown information out there that we are only now starting to discover what we are capable of.

In my opinion, while religion may have STARTED with good intentions, it has become a simple form of control, and considering a huge part of the worlds population believes in some sought of religion, it is becoming increasingly easy to control us.

 

[Greenplease]

Exactly McGreen, you've cut right to the heart of the matter. The question of god's existence can not even be applied to the scientific method, because it is not falsifiable. In other words, we have to be able to ask, If god created everything, how would we expect it to look. What evidence would we expect to find? The answer is of course, it would look any way god wanted it to look, which for all we know is exactly the way we see it. So when we go looking for evidence of god, everything becomes evidence, and therefore it can not be falsified. That basically means, it's a silly question to be asking in the first place.

Reality is not subject to opinion or popular vote. If everyone believed the moon was made of cheese, it would still in reality be made of rock.

Nice one man!
But that is one thing that totally pisses me off with religious fanatics, because god created everything, in his way, all that we see, hear and do is in the way he wants. I think this way because HE created me to be like this, wars are a result of HIS doing, it all has a reaosn and is all to do with HIS master plan. It really gets on my nerves, when some fuck wit preacher comes along and starts rattling on about this crap, because reallythere is nothing you can say to it. "science is why we are here" - "that is gods plan, he created science" fuck!!!!!

I dunno, I'm a man that firmly believes in the philosophy of "when I see it, I will believe it" and until now I haven't seen jack shit!!

God is a creation of man, designed to make us feel as though we have a purpose in life, a use in the grand plan of the universe, but it is all bullshit, when I die, I will become part of the earth, and my ions, atoms, protons and electrons will transform into a different peice of subject material. My energy will pass on to some other form of mass. And so the word will continue. Not stopping for one second to worry about what happened. Just like everything else in this world.

 

[Greenplease]

The idea of religion is funny, the history of religion is tragic. The real question isn't about your personal relationship with blah blah, it's a question of reality. Humans are not all that great at interpreting reality, but we are pretty good at eventually understanding things. One thing we've understood for a while now is that humans are prone to mistakes of perception, memory and logic. To help counters those faults we developed the scientific method. The scientific method attempts to avoid and correct for mistakes humans are prone to make. Essentially it boils down to rules of evidence. When we present the evidence of things like ghosts or god to the scientific method, it becomes clear there is nothing to it. It's really as simple as that. There is no creditable evidence of god.

You can go further and point out all the hypocrisy and contradictions religion makes, (that can be an enjoyable activity) but it really isn't necessary. The question of god's existence is pretty easy to answer from a scientific, reality seeking stand point.

One interesting difference between science and religion is the fact that science is constantly changing it's mind and views according to newly discovered evidence. Religion never changes it's mind. Religious people like to point to the fact that science changes it's theories as some sort of weakness, but the real weakness is not correctly interpreting evidence, and then making excuses for it.

But people with faith are not interested in critical thought. As Doctor House says, if you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people.

You got some good stuff man! hahaha congratulations.
And that house quote is totally true.

Science constantly changes its theories, totally because the world is constantly changing, the world is a petty turbulent place, I find it amazing that just through the power of thought and research that scientists have descovered the things that they have. It's incredible! But as I have said before, we have soooooooo much more to discover, we hardly know what goes on inour own oceans, we hardly know exactly how the human brain works, we have and entire half of our brain that we have no idea about, it's astounding, but it must be used for something......right?!

Religion never changes it's mind because what ever happens in the world was and is all part of the "original plan". It's easy to not change your mind with a philosophy like that. Unfortunately there is nothing to back the "original plan" up.