Do you believe in GOD ?

[Rubber Bullets]

Originally posted by mr.Blacky
But also has the potential for good.

But even that is open to interpretation.

Mother Theresa is regarded worldwide as a saint, and will no doubt be cannonised soon if she hasn't already.

She was however so indoctrinated by her beliefs that she denied those people that she ministered too one of the fundamental things that could really have changed their difficult lives, i.e contraception.

I'm not saying that she was a bad person, just that even in doing so much good and selfless work she was blinkered, by religion, into doing the wrong thing for the people she was trying so hard to help.

s

 

[pcg79]

by the way, what is Pascal's Wager?

 

[mr.Blacky]

Again the free choice to make up your own mind. She had the choice what to believe what was right, as does everyone. Also you seem to blame her for the fact that she doesn't believe in contraception but you seem to forget that the people have the choice: sex aint manditory unlike breathing.... well for most people
Also she gave medical treatment...does that mean she is also responsible for everything??? Is a doctor responsible for the deaths if he/she heals a future murderer?
I for one believe that if you live in your own opinion right (well follow most of the commandments dont even know most hehe) you are a good person. Does this mean there is a god? nah but I like to believe there is one.

/edited for better reading.

 

[Any]

Originally posted by pcg79
by the way, what is Pascal's Wager?

Pascal was a brilliant mathematician. Had he not not devoted his later life to religion then he would probably have achieved so much more.
Pascals wager basically says that if you belive in God and he doesnt exist then you have lost nothing, if you dont belive and he does exist then you lose everything.

Im sure Wij could explain it a lot better than I.

 

[Sawtooth]

Religion is mad as a bag of spanners.

 

[Anasyn]

Originally posted by Scooba Da Bass
To start off with it'd be nice for you to name ANY major religion which promotes genocide, murder or being harmful to other people as I'm sitting here trying to think of one let alone several.

I seem to recall one frined telling me at college that infact his religion (can't recall if it was Islamic or something else) basically saying that strictly speaking, everyone following that religion had the right to kill just about everyone for one wrong or another, even for not believing as they do or some such shit.

Originally posted by Scooba Da Bass
Seriously? What on Earth are you on about? There is not a single serious religion whose tenants are 'Let me rob you'. For example please point to where in the Bible it requests that you give all your money to those in charge? Surely that'd be the logical place for it given that it's a fundamental cornerstone of Christianity.

Really? what about that strange American christian-offshooty one that claims to have some whole new testament.. Mormon, that's the one, they even try to claim 10% of your wages for the "cause"
Aswell as in the middle ages, in England certainly, "voluntary" payments (read mandatory) to the church to assist the priests, and monks etc etc in "spreading the word" etc

Originally posted by Scooba Da Bass
Again, who? Taking the example of Christianity who are we meant to follow with the exception of a God? Virtually every religion encourages you to worship with the aid and direction of a holy man of some kind, not to give them all your money and follow their every command.

You seem to forget about the whole Middle age "Divine Right" to rule employed by several kings throughout Europe? I'm taking perfectly legitimate historical details. Remember that the middle ages, in terms of brutality were probably even worse than now, just less numbers to count.

Originally posted by Scooba Da Bass [/B]
What modern religion has committed "most twisted atrocities mankind has ever seen"? Before you answer please bear in mind that fundamentalists DO NOT represent religions, much the same way that people who kill people whilst drunk do not represent the majority. [/B]

So the Crusades slipped conveniently by too? The slaughtering of innocent people in the name of the Catholic church for not succumbing to the wishes of the "emissaries" from the church?

Spreading the word wasn't enough for these bigots, who probably still didn't follow the word of religion anyway. As I say, these are legitimate examples.
And not even following fundamentalists, otherwise Osama Bin Laden and his followers anybody? Although they're all nuts.

 

[Sharma]

Originally posted by Wij

However I'm quite tolerant about other peoples' beliefs these days. It used to rile the fuck out of me but I'm more chilled and mature now

Should have seen the arguements i had with my RE teachers in school, would involve me standing up and having a shouting match with him over religious beliefs, how i would always say they were complete crap and he would always shout back, was fun

 

[Cdr]

Personally, I dont subscribe to the idea of God, Heaven, Hell etc.

If other people do, then thats fine, I have nothing against them - as long as they're not forceful about it, and they do everything they can to 'make' you believe - I hate people like that.

*sits back on the fence*

 

[Xtro]

Religion is bad, but arguing over it just kind of proves the point

The only one true religion is Newcastle Brown tbh.

 

[mank!]

Originally posted by sharma
Should have seen the arguements i had with my RE teachers in school, would involve me standing up and having a shouting match with him over religious beliefs, how i would always say they were complete crap and he would always shout back, was fun

I got kicked out of an RE lesson for saying that "once you're dead, you're worm food" when we were discussing the afterlife. gg free speech!

 

[Quige]

Originally posted by ECA
Its not that god is an evil bugger then?

I seem to remember reading somewhere that certain early Gnostic Christians believed that man has no direct experience of the real creative force and that any experience of 'God' (old testament) is actually the devil standing between man and the divine light and fooling us all. By this reasoning Jesus was a messenger/avatar from the real God to spill the beans and stop us listening to the bad one.

Personally I started as an atheist and have moved towards agnostiscm. I tend to feel that as long as people believe in gods then there is always some subconcious assumption that 'we will be rescued' from the mess we make. I'd rather people had faith in mankind and got down to sorting out the problems we all face, like the environment, or inequality and poverty (that drives people into extremism).

Though I don't deny that faith gives people strength in all sorts of adversity, I worry about the amount of religious extremism and zealotry, leading to intolerance and violence that seems to be sweeping the world, and which always, always seems to end in attempted genocides. When it gets to the fundamentalist level I always think of how beliefs and ideas, memes, can be classed as viruses/virii of the mind.

Oh well better go back and read the rest of the thread!

 

[Quige]

Originally posted by Wij
However I'm quite tolerant about other peoples' beliefs these days. It used to rile the fuck out of me but I'm more chilled and mature now

..likewise ... just believe what you want but don't try and make me or others believe it to ... not even to "save me" thanks

 

[Anasyn]

Although it may not come across so well in my 2 posts, I don't care that people believe in God, as long as they don't let their religion rule them, if they want to get on with life as an intelligent, normal person (the whole Mrs Brown on Farthing Street, Nowhereville scenario), then that's fine with me, but when they start being idiots and thinking that religion can save us all? no, I feel that's just wrong. Believe what you believe but for pities sake leave everyone else out of it. Pushing it on people just makes you as sad as those who say... I dunno, decorate their homes to look like the interior of the Enterprise.
Most of the time I sit on the fence audibly about religion, just felt like getting off and ranting/raving/making my feelings known

 

[Tom]

Follow the 'lifeline' to eternal happiness!

 

[dysfunction]

Originally posted by Anasyn
makes you as sad as those who say... I dunno, decorate their homes to look like the interior of the Enterprise.

That would be pretty cool though...tacky as well mind so I guess it'd be pretty crappy kind of cool

 

[Uncle Sick(tm)]

Seeing is believing.

I will start believing in a loving, benevolent god as soon as I hear the first report about a child fiddling priest getting smitten down by lightning bolts...

 

[Sawtooth]

Humbug.

Religions cause wars famine, cruelty, genicide.
Why should people tolerate that?

Mad as a bag of spanners.

 

[mr.Blacky]

So you would say that, people kill people and guns don't?

 

[Tom]

Originally posted by Sawtooth
Humbug.

Religions cause wars famine, cruelty, genicide.
Why should people tolerate that?

Mad as a bag of spanners.

Replace 'Religions' with 'Stupidity' and you're spot on.

 

[echo]

Originally posted by icemaiden
I believe in the principles of the Wicca religion, although i was brought up in a Catholic family. Guess i just got sick of being told to fear "the big bad god" type of thingy.

Agree, 'cept I wasn't brought up a Catholic..

No holy book, no heirarchy, no 'commandments' and rules, sounds good to me.. Read any of Cunningham's books on the subject?


I studied Philosophy (of Religion) as an A-Level so yeah I do sort of know my stuff, and I'm very open minded about it all, but quite a fair proportion of the 'major' religions aren't my thing.

 

[Scooba Da Bass]

Originally posted by Anasyn
Spreading the word wasn't enough for these bigots, who probably still didn't follow the word of religion anyway

This pretty much sums up why your entire post is pointless. You can't distinguish between people who take part of a religious belief (fundamentalists) and use it to build up fervour and those who truly follow a religion. Not being able to distinguish them apart is as bad as suggesting that all of the Middle East should be nuked because Osama Bin Laden was supposedly funded by some Arabs.