Padawanbater2
Well-Known Member
Hopefully you can recognize and understand why this line of reasoning isn't scientific. I asked you to define it because we need exact terms otherwise, how will we know what each other are talking about?Divinity - The creative force in the universe. Call it what you will - chaos and order, synchronicity, God, spirit, Mana, Prana, magic. It's what's responsible for the patterns that allow our universe to exist and harbor life.
I don't accept your definition of "divinity", it still doesn't make any sense to me. By the second sentence in your definition it would sound to me like you're describing the laws of physics, are the laws of physics your definition of "divinity"?
One's connection to the laws of physics?Spirituality - One's connection with divinity
It would benefit you to avoid making personal claims, you're simply wrong. You don't know me, it makes you look foolish to claim such things. 99% of the people I know in my personal life are religious, both of my parents are Christian.You have a problem with religious people even if they make no claims regarding evolution or the origin of the world.
I have a problem with the stupid things people defend in the name of their religion. I have a problem with the indoctrination of young children, perpetuating the cycle of ignorance. I have a problem with the bigotry and prejudice that stems from religion. I have a problem with the condemnation of completely normal aspects of the human condition. I have a problem with people justifying inhuman actions in the name of their faith. And I have a problem with people who sit idly by and let it all happen because it's someones religion.
You couldn't be more wrong. Like I said before, these beliefs reach much farther than your doorstep. And it's not so much the dismissal of beliefs, but the blind acceptance of certain beliefs that I think causes so much harm.A minority of people, from a single religion which is a minority in the world, deny essentially two theories that are put forth by science. Evolution and the big bang. The vast majority of people, religious or not, either accept these, are too stupid to understand what these theories entail. or too apathetic to give a shit. For the most part, it's far more important who got the most votes on this week's Idol. The beliefs of these people don't affect the advancement of knowledge.
The dismissal of the theories of evolution, the big bang, a-biogenesis, etc. have important implications that should be addressed, but I think it's more important to address the impact the acceptance of such dangerous faiths has on the population.
Homophobia, racism, sexism, inequality, murder, mutilation, cruel and unusual punishment, the list goes on and on.. all of them not caused by, but definitely perpetuated by organized religions.
Look back at the civil rights movement, whites justified their actions using the Bible, look back at the Nazi's, justified by religion, current Israeli/Palestinian conflict, justified by religion, Darfur - religion, random Middle Eastern civil wars/conflicts - religion.. IRA in the UK - religion, burning people alive - religion, stoning people, beheading people, burning people alive - religion. That's just off the top of my head, if I grabbed my history book right now, I could easily pull up 15 more examples, all of them justified by religion.
As long as your paper towels get rung out successfully, why does it matter if the wal-mart cashier understands evolution?
The Wal-Mart cashier gets to cast a vote, and there are a lot more Wal-Mart cashier's than there are atheists on marijuana forums, I assure you...
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Never mind the trillions of dollars worth of humanitarian aid given to third world countries and disaster victims, never mind that agoraphobic aunt Delores wouldn't ever leave her house and would continue to spiral ever deeper into mental illness if she did not get the social interaction that her once a week trip to church on sunday brings her, THAT GUY OVER THERE MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT HOMO ERECTUS!11!1!!!1! BURN THE CHURCH DOWN!!
There are ways to attain the same level of comfort for life via a more humane process, this is the beauty of logic and critical thinking, you can think your way to comfort and happiness if you're willing to try. The road there is treacherous, but when you reach the destination (I still haven't), you will discover the trip was worth taking.
No. You understand ONE reason of very, very many, and you think it's fear of the unknown. You don't understand why people are spiritual - even those who don't believe in any traditional form of deity.
Enlighten me.
Through experience. Through training. Through knowing what the fuck I'm talking about, knowing what I'm doing, and knowing what I'm seeing.
Anecdotal evidence ='s 0 in the game of science. Give me something to measure, test, observe...
Can you tell me what "stupid beliefs" you are referencing? How exactly are they holding us back? Please note, as stated earlier, what some fundamentalist Christian in Alabama thinks has no bearing on the work of a student of astrophysics or biology. Even if it did, whatever was presented would be quickly debunked in peer review.
-original sin
-Noah and his arc
-the entire account of Genesis
-life starts at the moment of conception
-chosen people
-chosen land
-inequality
-homophobia
Not to mention the process by which these beliefs are believed, that is completely by faith. A person who believes this stuff also thinks it's OK to believe other things without sufficient evidence in other aspects of their life... UFO's are aliens from another planet, Big Foot lurks in the woods, ghosts haunt their house, people can see into the future or talk to people's spirits who've died... that list goes on and on too. This process of acceptance of a belief without putting it through the test of what makes a fact a fact leads ignorant people to believe it's OK, it leads them to say things like "evolution isn't a fact, it's only a THEORY!", missing the irony of the statement completely, and looking foolish to everyone else whose thought about the process of establishing facts of reality for more than five seconds... It leads them to get conned into spending thousands of their hard earned dollars on tv preachers claiming they'll perform miracles...
These beliefs make people ignorant and keep people ignorant under the guise of being what's moral. People who believe in them are already too ignorant to see or understand why.