whats your beliefs?

pottssteve

I'll be an agnostic until the day I die......

cee

pottssteve wrote:

I'll be an agnostic until the day I die......

or until proved otherwise

pottssteve

cee,
That's the point - it might be the day I am proved otherwise!

robmanic1

I believe the children are our future

Greg T

I'm a dyslexic atheist.

In a fit of bravado I sold my soul to Santa.

I regret it now.

Big Shoes

Greg T wrote:

I'm a dyslexic atheist.

In a fit of bravado I sold my soul to Santa.

I regret it now.

LOL, thanks for that, i almost cried

pottssteve

I believe I can fly...


Think about it every night and day...

switchback18

Christian, but that can mean almost anything these days, so I'd have to say follower of Jesus, just because that means something definite. 'Christian' can mean following a 'man made' system of beliefs, but Jesus said what he said, was what he was & that's it.
Much is said by religious people about science without actually knowing any science & much is said by athiests/agnostics about Jesus without reading what he said 1st hand. So much of what's said is quotes of quotes.

I have a sort of scientific background, and science explains a lot. But it doesn't go near the subjects of what is good, who is good, how to be good, what is success, what is valuable etc, and higher education only seems to come up with the answer that no one can ever know.

I've found that God does actually do stuff in day to day life, and I know that left to myself I'd be much more selfish & angry. I think life's better run by God.

The 'why is there suffering?' question is a hard one, but this is where I get to with it; assuming there is a God, in general people want to be free to make up their own morals, and often it's the 'I'm not as bad as so and so' argument. So, in general, people want their independance, which God gives, but people don't like the results of this independance when exercised by others.

The 'risk' is in giving up independance. For me that took a long time, but was/is worth it.

Shutting up now...

Greg T

switchback18 wrote:

I've found that God does actually do stuff in day to day life.

My lawn's shocking - any chance he could pop over and give it the once over with the mower?

stjohnswell

Church on Sunday for me - unless I'm doing a sportive.

I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me a cyclist. And when I ride I feel His pleasure.

With Apologies to Chariots of Fire

.

pottssteve

To add to the quotes,
"much is said by athiests/agnostics about Jesus without reading what he said 1st hand. So much of what's said is quotes of quotes."

Whoever wrote the Bible did it years after Jesus was alive, so even they didn't get anything first hand....

airborne_warrior

Religion (mostly Christianity) has caused more death, destruction and misery than everything else in the world combined.

pottssteve

But is evil "the absence of God"?

switchback18

pottssteve wrote:

To add to the quotes,
"much is said by athiests/agnostics about Jesus without reading what he said 1st hand. So much of what's said is quotes of quotes."

Whoever wrote the Bible did it years after Jesus was alive, so even they didn't get anything first hand....

Only if you believe it isn't true. The ones who names are on the books of the NT are mostly the ones who were there.

Airborne Warrior wrote:

Religion (mostly Christianity) has caused more death, destruction and misery than everything else in the world combined.

Yep, but the same people would have done the same things and just picked a different excuse if there wasn't a religion to hang it on. That's why I felt I had to clarify what I mean by 'Christianity'

switchback18

Greg T wrote:

switchback18 wrote:

I've found that God does actually do stuff in day to day life.

My lawn's shocking - any chance he could pop over and give it the once over with the mower?

lol

I thought I'd say it anyway despite inviting many comments like that!

pottssteve

switchback,
How do you know?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking your faith. It's just that I find it difficult to subscribe to any organised religion. If there is a "God", surely it's just a simplification of what God really is? God as I understand is consciousness, empathy, understanding, tolerance and hard work. God is not wearing your best clothes on Sunday and going to confession. You don't need the religious pantomime if God really does exist, because it is in you all the time. The religion provides a reassurance that you are right, it doesn't provide God.

BeanPole

Airborne Warrior wrote:

Religion (mostly Christianity) has caused more death, destruction and misery than everything else in the world combined.

Not strictly true but I agree with the sentiment.

World's biggest killer of all time = communism:

Stalin circa 43 million,
Mao well over 50 million
Pol Pot and all the other 'minor' ones 10s of millions

When you consider that there are more people alive today than have ever lived before then you can see how communism has killed more than all religions combined throughout history.

Don't believe me? A good example is to Google Britains population size during the English Civil War and how many were actually killed.

BeanPole

As for me:

I'm pink therefore I'm Spam

(I'll get my coat)

Mithras

Favourite religeous quote:

Your God was nailed to a cross......mine carries a hammer...figure that out!

mmitchell88

gergusmcbergus wrote:

mmitchell88 - are you a buddhist by any chance?
teagar - okey dokey then :P well then, sir...what am i??

Bloody hell, 3 pages already. What have you started gergus? I now feel I have to answer properly!

Am I a Buddhist? Sort of no. More a Christian having studied Buddhism in detail some time ago.

My main problem with the atheist stance is that I read a lot of glib comments and my immediate response is 'oh yeah?'. I'm 37 yrs old. A trained chemist. None of this biology crap (joke!) - chemistry from age 14 to 28. Spent a lot of time examining the science v religion debate. But when I read comments like 'been an atheist all my life', my reaction is almost always 'you haven't thought about this really, have you?'. I mean, really.

Oh. You have. Ok.

finchy

BeanPole wrote:

Stalin circa 43 million,
Mao well over 50 million
Pol Pot and all the other 'minor' ones 10s of millions

A bit like Christianity then. These regimes were a million miles away from communism (ever read Marx?), just like the Spanish Inquisition and all the other "Christian" wars were nothing to do with Jesus.

teagar

Ah religion doesn't kill people! Neither does politics! People actually killing people kills people! Whatever they say it in the name of is arbitrary!

Religion, politics. Meh. When it comes to killing in the name of it's just the same sh*t, different name. If people want to kill, they will, in the name of religion or politics, or just because they hate their fellow postal workers...

Similarly most muslims do not intend on bombing people, regardless of whether they have sympathy to the cause (as opposed to the act), or not. Those who do are probably mentally disturbed and would probably have ended up doing something similarly bad, in a different name!

Blaming religion or politics is just scapegoating!

teagar

mmitchell88 wrote:

My main problem with the atheist stance is that I read a lot of glib comments and my immediate response is 'oh yeah?'. I'm 37 yrs old. A trained chemist. None of this biology crap (joke!) - chemistry from age 14 to 28. Spent a lot of time examining the science v religion debate. But when I read comments like 'been an atheist all my life', my reaction is almost always 'you haven't thought about this really, have you?'. I mean, really.

Oh. You have. Ok.

I have no idea what you mean by that. :? You don't believe people who have never believed in gods/god or anything supernatural? Or do you think that those who do say that havn't given it enough thought? Or you do think that?

synchronicity

My belief:

You can't reason anyone out of something that they haven't reasoned themselves into.

antfly

teagar wrote:

Ah religion doesn't kill people! Neither does politics! People actually killing people kills people! Whatever they say it in the name of is arbitrary!

Religion, politics. Meh. When it comes to killing in the name of it's just the same sh*t, different name. If people want to kill, they will, in the name of religion or politics, or just because they hate their fellow postal workers...

Similarly most muslims do not intend on bombing people, regardless of whether they have sympathy to the cause (as opposed to the act), or not. Those who do are probably mentally disturbed and would probably have ended up doing something similarly bad, in a different name!

Blaming religion or politics is just scapegoating!

I don`t think the above statement bears up to any close examination.

johnfinch surely you are not saying communism is worth another try because it hasn`t been done right yet.Give it up,people run countries not dead authors.

Mithras is surely a viking.

teagar

antfly wrote:

I don`t think the above statement bears up to any close examination.

.

Explain yourself. 8)

antfly

I don`t believe the Muslim extremists who bomb are mentally ill or that they would still kill without Islamic extremism.Inadequate malcontents,some of them yes,but then others are doctors or well educated with families and good lives.It is their beliefs that make them do it.

teagar

antfly wrote:

I don`t believe the Muslim extremists who bomb are mentally ill or that they would still kill without Islamic extremism.Inadequate malcontents,some of them yes,but then others are doctors or well educated with families and good lives.It is their beliefs that make them do it.

Then I think our views on Islam are quite different... :roll:

Then again, you think I'm a psuedo intellectual bore, so perhaps that's not surprising!

antfly

You have a good memory.I hope you weren`t too offended,your other posts are quite readable.

teagar

Either that or I bear grudges. Just because you don't understand doesn't mean it's wrong .

Anyway, I think you've got it wrong here. Becoming a doctor and having children doesn't make you otherwise immune from killing people. Shipman did a fine job killing people as a doctor.. If you can find a cause that can justify and legitimise your need to do something extreme and unacceptable ( say, killing people), then of course it is going to be attractive. That need to do something extreme however is the driving force.

Edit: Therefore, I think blaming religion is a scapegoat. Most people who consider themselves religious are not extremist, and don't intend to kill etc. So is it really the religion that is making those who do want to kill etc do it?