Ye Religion Thread

[Art]

Well, regardless anything that's been presented here, Muhammad is the greatest example of morality we have. Jesus had nothing on this guy. Just google "muhammad khaybar" and read for yourself.

[jägermonsta]

I'll keel you for mentioning Muhammad's name in a Quake2 forum!!! DIE! 

[QuakeDuke]

Looking at the most rececent posts perhaps we have need of a definition of religion, and what we are talking about when we refer to religion.

For example, when we speak of religion are we speaking of the plethora of "spiritual" definitions or can one be religious about performing totally "secular" actions that have nothing to do with "spiritual" things or beliefs? Maybe this would help keep the discussion from breaking down into a "mine's bigger than your's and you'll never change my mind" type of thing help us to meaningfully dialog.

thanks...

QD

[DaHanG]

i think it's clear we haven't been talking about religion in a secular sense at all. it is the mainstream concept that we've been discussing (indoctrinating children when they are young and don't know any better).

 

[quadz]

when we speak of religion are we speaking of the plethora of "spiritual" definitions or can one be religious about performing totally "secular" actions that have nothing to do with "spiritual" things or beliefs?

I think "secular" is safely out, as by definition it excludes both the religious and the spiritual.

However, I stand by my viewpoint that religion has no more to do with spirituality or metaphysics than any good song or poem.

[reaper]

well.
first off , coming from the perspective of an engineer
i don't really believe in accidents
i'm not religious, i think religion can be bad or good
meaning i don't go to church, follow the trends etc..

i think you have to ask yourself
who are you, what are you here for etc..
and at that point you can say,
i'm a man in a society, it's good to do the right thing even if you die doing it

now i don't necessarily believe in a higher power
however i'd put my money on it

dahang
it really doesn't matter if science hasn't proven there to be "god"
there'e s a big part of human existance
like the other guy said
even stephen hawkings (a master of understanding what we can observer) says he believes in a higher power
science knows nothing, and there going to uncover a lot
these knew dimensions, and understanding of everything is going to change dramatically

just saying i believe in a higher power, and i liked readying a lot of this
: )

[[BTF]Sigma]

Scientology for all!!!!

* [BTF]Sigma runs out of thread

[cyberneticimplant]

I do not believe in a god or any spiritual life whatsoever because there is no evidence supporting it. Also, I think the idea of being judged based on our morality in an after-life is absurd. Also, I think that morality is relative, and not absolute.

even stephen hawkings (a master of understanding what we can observer) says he believes in a higher power

Stephen Hawking is atheist/agnostic. Could you provide a citation of that comment?

[quadz]

I've wondered on occasion: http://matrix-tesseract.net/



[Edit:03dec06:: added first-draft hypothesis via -->next link]
[Edit:04dec06:: first draft cleaned up a bit]

[DaHanG]

dahang
it really doesn't matter if science hasn't proven there to be "god"

of course it doesn't matter. i don't even know what you were looking at from my posts, but if it's anything it's simply that there is absolutely no evidence of his existence (especially that of a personal god who hears all of our thoughts etc.). my lack of belief in religion has much less to do with science than the silliness of the religions alone .

 

[haunted]

Agreed. If god exists wouldn't he be pretty angry with Haunted regulating the universe 

[paradisel0st]

Agreed. If god exists wouldn't he be pretty angry with Haunted regulating the universe 

.

[reaper]

circuitry
i find it odd that you would discount the possibility of a higher power, yet alone call it absurd

i remembered what stephen hawkings said from reading " a universe in a nutshell"
i didn't fee like digging up something, but his beliefs were similliar to this
"Einstein ultimately gave grudging acceptance to what he called "the necessity for a beginning" and eventually to "the presence of a superior reasoning power." But he never did accept the reality of a personal God. "

not those thoughts exactly but somewhere in the realm

as far as dahang not believing in god, that's how you feel great.
but because there is no evidence to support a god isn't saying much, because there is no evidence against a higher power
from a basic level i think there is more evidence to support a higher power, because i don't think the creation of the universe happens on accident

i don't belief in religion, i basically boil things down to a higher power, which entails the possibility of an afterlife, reason for creation etc..

but i don't believe in a higher power, i'd just put my money in it ; p

[reaper]

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=178f89d3d9987efabcf31c6fb8364fd6.654968
*pretty cool, although i don't buy into the global warming hype myself

[DaHanG]

as far as dahang not believing in god, that's how you feel great.
but because there is no evidence to support a god isn't saying much, because there is no evidence against a higher power
from a basic level i think there is more evidence to support a higher power, because i don't think the creation of the universe happens on accident

what a classic yet flawed argument. i don't think scientists who have investigated this matter would call anything in nature an accident. if you want god to fill in your gaps of knowledge, you're welcome to it. if we're going to make up a supernatural being into existence simply because we can't understand why there's something instead of nothing, i think who created god and how should be addressed as well. shouldn't the infinite regress of time be applicable to god? "oh, well he exists outside of time" - isn't that just too easy?. when god is assumed to exist, other assumptions must follow and even the most reasonable ones are irrational in my opinion. as hard as it is to accept that matter/energy/etc. was always in the universe, it's harder for me to accept that nothing created god, but he was always here/exists outside of time/is clearly very intelligent/everything else that goes with it etc.

this is my simple reasoning, not science. it helps to show that once again science and rationality, although very good friends of each other, can be distinguishable.