Gonna toss my two cents in here, might as well.

This might seem a bit nerdy but my life motto is "Nothing is true; Everything is permitted" (It was an actual phrase, historically). I am a Deist, not sure what to make of life. Even when I was as young as 8 I had existential thoughts, "Why am I viewing things like this, why am I this young boy and not something else? Why do I have these conditions and not everyone else does? Why am I on Earth, what else is out there?"

While my schools did do all those Christian hymns (I live in the UK, so I went through what was described in the OP), my parents decided that I wouldn't be baptised so I could choose my own beliefs. I didn't find this out until I was thirteen, so before them I assumed that I was Christian. While in many ways it's made me feel lost and questioning a lot of things, I am thankful for that decision. It did also make for a few problems in my second-secondary school, which was a Catholic one. I kept questioning things in Religion class and getting no answers.

I'm completely fine with other people having beliefs, however they should not force their own on to others. You should not brainwash others into your way of thinking and if there is a belief that is questionable ethically-speaking, then you can bet your ass I'm going to question it. I can see the values of Religion but I can also see the warts.

All I know is that there are different movements from the Christians out there that we are seeing now a days. Me living in Canada you wouldnt see Christians protesting about anything, or if they do it would never be as big as the ones in the states.

I was raised with 2 loving Christian parents. I guess I would have to call myself a Christian seeing that I was baptized and believe in Jesus. However, curiosity always lurks around my head since I was little and I've questioned about many things whether be it general life or what people believe. I've never ever went up to someone's face and they are going to hell because they aren't a believer. Nor would my family do that at all despite of them being really religious.

The problem I'm seeing now, especially in the states, Christianity wise is that they are using their beliefs as a tool to stop anything that will go against with what they believe is wrong. They claim that they are doing it in the name of "God". But how is it so that they are certain that this is truly what the Bible is all about? Especially when they've ignored a lot of passages that pertains to not judging people and loving one another??? I'm actually sad that there are many people out there today believes that the Christians in the states pretty much defines what Christianity is today.

I have atheist friends and they are great people. They know what I believe in and they have no problems with it nor do I have any conflicts with their position and thoughts. I don't see any kind of sign from God nor do I feel obliged to convert them. Because it's fucking wrong. For the past few years I've simply learned the philosophical parts within the Bible that can actually help me or anyone on a daily basis and most of it have nothing to do with imposing people with what you believe, it deals more with self reflection, finding yourself and dealing with issues, people or yourself. There are passages that also helps you how to be happy and ignoring all the negative things in life, in the most simple way. Which is an important thing because now a days, I know enough people who are depress because they don't know who they are nor do they know where they are. So they turn to anything that has to do with hurting themselves, mentally and physically. I'm not saying only the Bible does btw. All religion have some kind of philosophical content in them. And they all can be helpful and interesting.

At the end of the day, as a Christian I do believe that the government shall not have any kind of religious system being implemented. I have no problem with the gays whatsoever (as long as they respect me of course). Abortion is no problem for me especially if the person would die due to health issues with having to have a baby. However I do feel like abortion is one way to escape your own responsibility and mistake... especially when you know what the consequences are

I love everyone equally whether you white, black, yellow, (purple?? ) Hell, I'll even love thy enemy or even someone who is very disrespectful to me. It just causes less problems for me if I keep thinking it that way. Other wise I might as well end up in Jersey Shore and have beef with everyone else just because it's somehow entertaining for the masses...

dafox wrote:

That was a fun vid.

I read up more on DInesh D'Souza and I simply cannot believe some of this shit he spews, like blaming extremist Muslim rage and 9/11 on liberal culture in America.

Cilogy wrote:

dafox wrote:

That was a fun vid.

I read up more on DInesh D'Souza and I simply cannot believe some of this shit he spews, like blaming extremist Muslim rage and 9/11 on liberal culture in America.

If you liked this video I recommend looking up Sam Harris who like Hitchens is a very entertaining and articulate speaker. D'Souza is one of the more respectable Apologists although he's currently trying to uncover a conspiracy on Barack Obama.

Religion stems from early man's inability to comprehend the complex nature of the world/universe around him. The big three - Christianity, Islam, and Judaism - are literally and inherently ignorant because they were established and developed centuries before the philosophical era of the civilizations of which they stem from. The human brain has always speculatively pondered the nature of existence, but because of societal influences, has relied too much on accepting answers that have not been proven or worse, stem from questions that weren't properly formulated. In the end, regardless of what argument you make in favor of religion, it all comes down to one simple truth - how can you believe or argue something of which the very nature of it's deity is to be incomprehensible? That's like me trying to explain how a black hole works when my very understanding of it is limited to my observations, of which, defy the parameters of my basis of comprehension - The Laws Of Physics. Thus, because its illogical to make any ignorant assertions about something I don't understand, I must strive to learn. To educate. To evolve my limited understanding and expand the parameters of my mind. THAT is what philosophy teaches. Even if you can find no questions, continue to ponder, to question. Religion does no such thing. It teaches that what you do understand (or think you do), regardless of how absurd and stupid it is live by it. Live by it and denounce any and all that contradict it. Which in the case of religion, ANY and ALL do in fact contradict it. And when you come upon these BLATANT contradictions, instead of pondering, questioning, and striving for answers, instead just accept what you're told and submit that god is beyond understanding so *shrug*. Religion is literally the philosophical darkness of ignorance - and therefore must be illuminated and eventually eradicated by philosophy and...well...just plain common sense. :leoface:

Religion is a defence mechanism for those who cant handle reality. And there will always be those who can't deal with the real world, there will always be people who will think of god(s), afterlife and other superstitious non-sense as something real.

The_One_Who_KNOCKS wrote:...and therefore must be illuminated and eventually eradicated by philosophy and...well...just plain common sense. :leoface:

I think, you put way too much faith in humanity. As great as it can be, in some cases it is greatly overrated. I don't think religion will ever die. I mean I hope so, but so far there's no evidence that such thing could possibly happen in the (near) future. It's in human nature to lie to ourselves. We all do it - nobody is an exception to this. But I could be wrong - in some one hundred years who knows - people may be looking upon the Bible, Jesus and every other religious story just as a myth, just as a legend - like Zeus, Thor and etc. The way it should be interpreted - not as real.

Science is the only reasonable way...!

Just like to add- I am non-religious and pro-religion (in some regards anyway).

BeHappyAndStupid wrote:Religion is a defence mechanism for those who cant handle reality. And there will always be those who can't deal with the real world, there will always be people who will think of god(s), afterlife and other superstitious non-sense as something real.

The_One_Who_KNOCKS wrote:...and therefore must be illuminated and eventually eradicated by philosophy and...well...just plain common sense. :leoface:

I think, you put way too much faith in humanity. As great as it can be, in some cases it is greatly overrated. I don't think religion will ever die. I mean I hope so, but so far there's no evidence that such thing could possibly happen in the (near) future. It's in human nature to lie to ourselves. We all do it - nobody is an exception to this. But I could be wrong - in some one hundred years who knows - people may be looking upon the Bible, Jesus and every other religious story just as a myth, just as a legend - like Zeus, Thor and etc. The way it should be interpreted - not as real.

Science is the only reasonable way...!

Lol I guess I forgot to mention that I actually have no faith in humanity or at least just a little. Everything you said I totally agree with except that it'll take so long for people to wake up. I mean (based on my limited understanding and research), Scandinavian countries are pretty damn impressive when it comes to not being retarded. They along with the Czech Republic, Azerbaijan, and Estonia are continuously listed as the world's most progressive countries for years. The majority of their populations are non-religious/agnostic, believing there may be a higher consciousness/being out there but choose not to define it by rudimentary human definition and there's a lot of other things they implement that I've always agreed with and was overjoyed when I stumbled upon them and their societies. And (even though I don't believe it offers definite proof to the argument but still think it interesting and worth noting nonetheless) they have higher IQ's, education standards, income, life expectancy, and literacy rates, with lower crime rates, poverty, and unemployment. It just seems those guys are more forward thinking than everyone else not only in religious aspects but, life and politics in general and have benefited greatly. America treats socialism like its the end of the world (which for such a heavily capitalistic and douchey country like us it kinda is) but Sweden is doing fucking great. I'm not saying America should just up and switch to socialism because we took advantage of our capitalist freedoms and fucked ourselves so now we gotta figure a way out of it using those same capitalistic ideals because if we began implementing socialistic policies in our current state of economic unrest all hell would break loose - not just from the inexperience of the new economic regime but the fear among the public it would cause. Like I said, America treats socialism like fucking armageddon. Now of course there are some countries (like U.S.) or Canada that aren't so irreligious, that also have high marks usually when it comes to development, not progression. Of course some may think the two are interchangeable until you realize that the U.S. is and has always been rich and powerful (which some would argue but if we aren't then damn it at least we do a good job of faking it - which again some would argue) which would lead to us being very developed. However when you look at how we are progressing/moving forward you realize we're blitzing by at a snail's pace. Everything stays the same or gets worse. Never better. I'm not even just talking politically, I mean socially as well. We are stuck in limbo. Things you'd expect us to excel at we don't. Hell, often times we don't even come close! We have a large influence sure, but as religion can attest, influence does not equal validity. To conclude, obviously the most developed countries are doing something we aren't (or maybe doing something we are, just better), but whether that can be attributed to religion or not is anybody's guess. In my opinion, considering the massive detrimental effects of religion, I say......in the words of the great HEISENBERG YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT