Nonbelievers, how did you lose your religion?

Zaehet Strife said:
I think this is my favorite part;

"If you think you know, then all you have done is think that you think you know…a veritable screaming madhouse of un-sanity staring back at you, laughing while you convince yourself that whatever it is that you fancy is the “truth.”
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Mine was immediately after: "if you think you know, then all you have done is think that you think that you know". certain ambulatory avians might do well to meditate upon that point. cn
 
bud nugbong said:
god was invented to keep the poor people from bieng savages. shit is being taken too far... I think if every church was turned into a garden center the world would be a much better place.
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God was invented so rich people could act savage in said god's name.
 
god was invented to be the highest standard we can imagine in our hope for a less violent world.
 
wait one...as i have opined before, religion atttempts to define these highest, undefineable aspirations. They don't own it.

But, this concept is not religious. Religion is a highly organized cult of power. God was invented (or discovered) long before religion.

So, baby and bathwater? Don't pluck the eye to spite the face?
 
Some people aren't quite right in the head, Some people need to have a reason to be, a reason to stick through the hard times when everything around them has turned to shit, Some people like to have a reason for things that they don't understand, Some people need to fit in to a group, Some people like rigid structure in their lives, Some people listened to the voice in their head and it saved them from a tragedy and instead of thinking that they may have had good instincts or they were just lucky they attribute it to a higher power...


And also if you kill all of your enemies then of course the world will be more peaceful, Y'all are just looking at it from the wrong angle...
 
Shannon Alexander said:
Some people aren't quite right in the head, Some people need to have a reason to be, a reason to stick through the hard times when everything around them has turned to shit, Some people like to have a reason for things that they don't understand, Some people need to fit in to a group, Some people like rigid structure in their lives, Some people listened to the voice in their head and it saved them from a tragedy and instead of thinking that they may have had good instincts or they were just lucky they attribute it to a higher power...


And also if you kill all of your enemies then of course the world will be more peaceful, Y'all are just looking at it from the wrong angle...
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What's the difference between religion, which might give someone comfort, and a drug like heroin, which might also give someone comfort?
 
poor pad, no wonder your rants against religion are so juvenile. one of the hardest things people ever deal with is a loss of faith. not just religious faith, but the loss of any of our illusions. some never quite recover from the experience. it's so much easier to deal with the denial of religion when you were never taken in by it in the first place. my earliest recollections regarding religion are recollections of doubt. when i was in school god was still allowed there and it never made any sense to me. perhaps before i turned five or six there may have been some glimmer of infantile belief, but they disappeared as soon as i realized that first hint of reason.

the real world was never hidden from me and i never hid from it. the concept of omnipotence seemed a childish fantasy before i left the first grade and dr. seuss seemed more realistic than the tall tales of the family bible. it wasn't that religion was absent from my household, my grandfather was a minister who did missionary work around the world. it wasn't even that i started rebelling early against the beliefs of my parents, religion was never shoved down my throat. i simply could never accept the absurdity of it all. maybe that's why i can't seem to muster such an all consuming hatred as you continually exhibit. i find it a bit sad and backward at times, but i look at a lot of society's foibles in the same way. i sometimes feel a bit sorry for those that are trapped by it, but i've found that only a very few use it to the disadvantage of the rest of us and i certainly can't manage any ill will toward the vast majority of the faithful. my disgust and occasionally something close to hatred is reserved for those hypocrites who attack this relatively benign phenomenon with the sort of fervor that can only be described as "religious". i find it childish and inexcusable that any supposedly enlightened individual would see it as acceptable to mock and categorize huge groups of people simply because they choose to believe that a force for goodness exists somewhere out in the uncaring universe.
 
Padawanbater2 said:
What's the difference between religion, which might give someone comfort, and a drug like heroin, which might also give someone comfort?
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This is a very good question and one that I'm guessing a lot of the religious people in here and everywhere may get offended by...

I have no definitive answer for you Padawan, I've never sat down and thought about it...
 
The minute I learned about carbon dating is when I lost my religion to Jesus but I'd like to stay agnostic. I always liked faith itself because most of them teach good things, so I figure I'll continue to be kind and respectful to people and ride the rollercoaster till the ride is up.
 
Padawanbater2 said:
What's the difference between religion, which might give someone comfort, and a drug like heroin, which might also give someone comfort?
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Its not about religion, its about your relationship with God. The difference Between God and heroin, is God does not just offer comfort but hope, strength, peace, etc... I can go on.
 
undertheice said:
poor pad, no wonder your rants against religion are so juvenile. one of the hardest things people ever deal with is a loss of faith. not just religious faith, but the loss of any of our illusions. some never quite recover from the experience. it's so much easier to deal with the denial of religion when you were never taken in by it in the first place. my earliest recollections regarding religion are recollections of doubt. when i was in school god was still allowed there and it never made any sense to me. perhaps before i turned five or six there may have been some glimmer of infantile belief, but they disappeared as soon as i realized that first hint of reason.

the real world was never hidden from me and i never hid from it. the concept of omnipotence seemed a childish fantasy before i left the first grade and dr. seuss seemed more realistic than the tall tales of the family bible. it wasn't that religion was absent from my household, my grandfather was a minister who did missionary work around the world. it wasn't even that i started rebelling early against the beliefs of my parents, religion was never shoved down my throat. i simply could never accept the absurdity of it all. maybe that's why i can't seem to muster such an all consuming hatred as you continually exhibit. i find it a bit sad and backward at times, but i look at a lot of society's foibles in the same way. i sometimes feel a bit sorry for those that are trapped by it, but i've found that only a very few use it to the disadvantage of the rest of us and i certainly can't manage any ill will toward the vast majority of the faithful. my disgust and occasionally something close to hatred is reserved for those hypocrites who attack this relatively benign phenomenon with the sort of fervor that can only be described as "religious". i find it childish and inexcusable that any supposedly enlightened individual would see it as acceptable to mock and categorize huge groups of people simply because they choose to believe that a force for goodness exists somewhere out in the uncaring universe.
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I used to be a Christian, I know exactly what Christians face. Why do they deserve sympathy for not learning themselves out of it? I did, why couldn't they? They had every opportunity I had. Should I have sympathy for illiterate adults, too? Because that's the logic you use when you tell me you don't understand why this group of peoples beliefs should't be criticized.

I have a hatred for ignorance because all the problems we have are a result of intellectual laziness at every conceivable corner. I've told you dozens of times before, religion is one of those big parts of society that's hugely responsible for it.

Very few manipulate the masses using tools like religion, but it's the masses that allow/accept it. If they weren't collectively so stupid, it wouldn't be possible. The war on drugs, wars against national security, fiat monetary systems, public education, public health, public politics, the world over would be better off with a more educated population and organized religion is standing in the way of that goal. I'm pissed off billions of people decided being comfortable is more important than what is true, that's not accepting life or existence, it's living inside a bubble shielding yourself from reality. I wouldn't give a damn if all of that didn't prevent me from experiencing my own life the way I personally see fit, but it does, so I do.

I see public criticism as perfectly acceptable when a person expresses a belief in a public forum. This is the idea of free speech, isn't it? Why is it my fault if you can't properly defend a belief and get offended by something I say? Maybe you shouldn't exclaim a belief as a fact if you're not ready to accept that maybe it's not a fact.

How else do you see any kind of realistic change happening? I don't agree with violence, so harming theists is out. Words are clearly stronger than any violent act ever could be because they have no recourse, the only thing theists can hope to fall back on is faith. The argument breaks down to 'you either have faith or you don't'. Those that do are religious, those that don't, aren't.
 
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