Which religion are you?

@ Bizarro

Sure, all the time when playing poker. As the saying goes, the difference between a poker player and someone at church is that, when they pray, the poker player really means it. However, that is just me hoping to get lucky, or not get unlucky if I'm ahead, but all the hoping and wishing in the world won't change the order of the cards in the deck. That was determined when the deck was shuffled, a process that is essentially random.

A person can hope or pray but the actual act won't change the outcome of an independant event. Example, my hoping that a club comes on the river won't effect the suit of the card in the deck that will end up being the river card. Maybe if I am wishing allowed while the dealer is shuffling I might make him shufle differently than if I said nothing, but doing so will not increase my odds of hitting my flush.

The same could be said for any instance where you or I hope or pray for something to happen. Praying for a sick relative to get well will not in itself help them get better. That is not to say giving someone moral support is not helpful, but there is no God or other entity which will mysteriously cure their cancer or whatever illness the person has just because you want it to happen. There will be instances of seemingly miraculous recoveries from disease in which people were praying for the person's recovery, however these are flukes. Just take the number of people with seemingly terminal diseases, the number who recover for some reason or another, and the number of people with terminal diseases who are prayed for. Then compare that to the number who are prayed for but don't recover. Then look at the number who weren't prayed for but recovered anyway.

It is merely the law of large numbers.

 

Haha...you're such a ray of sunshine Quanta ;D haha jk. I personally like believing in the supernatural...makes the world more interesting, stuff set in stone just feels boring to me. Haha! Whenever you get those jackass Atheists who tell me stuff like "Everything you believe is stupid, you're ignorant and nothing happens when you die" I always tell them, "Well...if nothing happens in the end, why does it really matter then if I believe in a God or not then, and quite frankly why do you care?" Usually they don't have much of a rebuttle after that.

My belief is this...a jackass is a jackass no matter what side you're on. Wether you're an atheist or a zealot, you're still a jackass.

Hehe, I have a good amount of agnostic friends. I always joke around with them and tell them stuff like "Thank God! Well...you guys can half thank him." and stuff like that. Not to be mean, just messing around with them

 

Hows this,

Most religions state that if you do know support their church and beliefs your going to hell, now multiple religions worship the same god. The problem with this is that if you belive in a god and 3 other religions worship it and state that if you don't support them your going to hell, so technically everyone is going to hell.

And thats why i belive that i am my own god.

 

Nifty thing here.....The Mormon church believes that if you attain the highest level of glory, you become a God and get to make your own little existences and stuff.

 

That's why I don't like associating myself with a specific religion, I associate myself with different religious IDEAS. It personally doesn't matter to me whether or not Jesus was the son of God or not, or if Muhammad really did get a visit from the archangel Gabriel...if what they teach is good and makes me a better person, then I don't see anything wrong with it.

I thought I heard somewhere that the Mormons think that God's just kinda chillin in heaven getting nasty and fathering souls...and we are LITERALLY God's children...I found that quite special

 

That's a Mormon belief? O_O, I always took that as granted

 

-Quanta-
Oh, I completely agree. No amount of crossing your fingers is going to change the flop and no amount of praying is going to remove the suited AK from your opponents hand ;D. I'm just wondering what on earth we're talking to, despite knowing it can't actually do anything. What have we got in our heads that lets us hope against hope like that?

-Daseti-
I've heard alot of people claim that they're their own God, and I still don't understand it. Like... your own God how? You have a shrine to yourself? I just never got how that worked.

-Praetor Fenix-
Psch, I can already make my own little existences. Like yesterday, I built an army base out of Legos.

Then, giant Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles invaded it and smashed it all to pieces. But it's okay, because all the Lego men were saved by Transformers skating on Hot Wheels. It was awesome!

Seriously though, you get to make your own existence? That's sick. But hey, what if you created an Atheist existence? I.E. What if you created an existence that DIDN'T HAVE A CREATOR? :O Sort of an advanced version of "Can he make a rock so big he can't even lift it?"

On a side note, Chuck Norris can make a rock so big, even Chuck Norris can't lift it. Then, he lifts it anyone, just to show you what the f*ks up.

 

It least we are all mature in how we view other people's religious beliefs. I think that as long as you think their is some higher power and work to help people, you are an ok guy and deserve to be in heaven or however your religion calls a peaceful afterlife.

 

Bizarro~~An atheist world is not one where there is no God, but one that believes there's no God.

But yeah....It's funny, cause I piss off my seminary (Church school XP) teaches by claiming we're polytheists cause of this XD

 

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! That is the funniest thing I've heard all day Praetor Fenix XP

Anyway, a core belief that I have about God actually comes from Futurama. You guys see that episode where Bender becomes God and later he meets God and God says that it's not easy and "If you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."? Well when you think about it, it does make sense, if you put yourself in too much, we become dependant, and if you don't do anything at all, they lose faith. It just seems to make sense really.

Kinda sounds odd really, but hell, if it works it works.

 

-Praetor Fenix-
Aye, but there's the rub. An atheist world would be one that believed that there was no God, surely. But I said an atheist EXISTENCE.

This would mean that everything that existed would believe there to be no God. If there WAS a God in this existence, that would mean he exists, and therefore would not believe that he himself exists. This would create a logical paradox, presumably making him explode in a variety of flashy colours.

Of course, all this does is define an Atheist Existence. Once we put it into the actual scenario that I put forth, where we know that you created it, it sort of makes the whole idea explode in a variety of flashy whats-it.

-Itsmyship-
God I love that show. That idea has to have been around before they came up with it, sure, but I highly doubt anyone cared before they had a beer-drinking robot have a heart-to-heart with God about it.

 

It was really nice reading this thread without seeing any bust ups

My religion is Judaism which has a lot in common with most of the monotheistic religions like christianity etc. There's quite a Starcraft following in Israel, sorta like the Koreans but a lot smaller. I Live in the UK and never came across any Mormons, are they mostly in the states?

Sikhism wasn't in the list but I really like Sikhs. Very peaceful people.

PS: Twat is an England expression. It's a s3xual swear word

 

Mormons are all over actually....There's nothing really defining about us, 'cept we don't swear as much (heh, whoops), and we don't drink alcohol, coffee, tea, and we don't smoke.

 

Yeah, Mormon homebase is the States, but they really are everywhere...hell I know a Mormon who's in Madagascar on his missionary trip thing

 

Religion was originally created as a tool to unite and control the masses. This doesn't mean it has a negative connotation or impact, but it is what it is.

Ych9 and I discussed theology last night for about an hour when I should have been sleeping, and we generally came up with a few points about religion and its effects.

The first thing I must make clear is that religion must be a secondary logical system to that of science. It must be. A scientific law is a theory that has been supported by so much information and testing that denying it can only be done on an irrational basis. There are two examples of these laws that are extremely important:

The Law of Gravity and The Laws of Physics in general (believe it or not a lot of religious fanatics do not acknowledge Newton's laws).

The Law of Evolution (most people refer to it as the "theory of evolution" like that makes it less credible...)

These two should be accepted facts no matter what religion you believe in. Denying them is an irrational thought. Religions should choose to bend around these laws rather than trying to deny them. Sure, they'll lose credibility because it will create contradictions, but its a lot better than being irrational.

Now that that's been established, I can go into a bit more detail. Like I said before, religion was created with the intention of uniting and controlling the masses. It's all fine and dandy to be loyal to your country or nobleman, but unless you have a common bond with him (and let's face it, you're not going to have a "class" or financial kinship with him) then your loyalty can't really be that solid. Religion is the perfect answer. Through the use of clergyman, or themselves, leaders could directly control the populace and their moral behavior through the use of ostracism rather than brutal enforcement. People in general are happier because of it. Differences in religion can be heavily attributed to both different cultures, but also different nationalities. If your enemy's country is mostly of a certain religion, it would be unwise for you to adopt their same religion for the simple reason that the peoples of your nation will share a similar bond. So while religion can be a peaceful mechanism, it is also a powerful tool for use in War. It is much easier to direct an underling to slay someone whom they are convinced is fundamentally "different" from themselves than someone who has similar beliefs. And even when their religions are the same, it is possible to twist their theological values so that they appear different (e.g., Hitler and his doctrine that only the Aryans, and thereby the Germans, were fit to live on the planet in the name of Jesus).

Another reason that religion came into being is that, let's face it, some people aren't as intellectually stable as others. For a large portion of the population, simply contemplating that we are not the center of the Universe is just too much to comprehend. They can't deal with the fact that there is a vastly empty space containing an unspeakable number of planets, any number of which could get just like our own. This isn't to say we're not the only sentient beings in the Universe, but it is just as likely that there are. In fact, it's equally likely that there is a race in a similar technological position as our own, or that they're behind us, or in front of us by a couple of million years.

So religion has a dual purpose as a "roof," if you will. It sets safe limits for human beings to live by. It gives us a sense of boundaries, outside of which we do not belong. There is no need to strive outside of this boundary, so it is okay when less extraordinary individuals stay within it. There's nothing wrong with it, but frankly, it tends to limit, or even completely suppress, some of the more brilliant minds with its illusions. What we end up seeing is some of these "minds," usually great composers or philosophers, scientists, etc., rising above the mist of religion and making a contribution that cannot be denied. Often they do so from within this "mist," but at the same time challenge the very foundations of their own faith in the process. This goes for people like Plato, Aristotle, Darwin, Martin Luther, Galileo, etc...

Religion has carried this same purpose into our own time. Beliefs can now be used as a powerful political tool on top of its other uses. The Bosnians and Serbs found ways of killing each other over "religion" when the real reason was a power struggle between their leaders. Even now, though the real reason that Islamic extremism has become popular in certain regions of the Middle East, their "true" aim isn't the destruction of the "West" for religious beliefs, but rather because they're, for lack of a less derogatory word, jealous. They're jealous of our lifestyle and success and they know they can control their people's will by directing some of that jealousy and hatred toward "heathens" when they truly have no quarrel with us.

Of course, I'm not contributing the cause of racism, descrimination, and hatred to religion. Those are inherent traits of the human race and will still remain even if religion were to disappear over night. Humans, as a group, will always cling to those most similar to them. However, religion adds another dimension to this "similarity" and only deepens the gap that stands between us. The more divisions of likeness that we have with our neighbor, the more distant we will feel with them, or the more chances to hold something against them.

For example, say you live in a neighborhood with an African-American man on your left and a Caucasian man on your right. You are yourself Caucasian. The African-American is a Christian, much like yourself, and the Caucasian neighbor is a Buddhist. You feel a kinship to the Caucasian because he is white, like you, but you feel a difference because he is Buddhist. You feel a kinship to your African-American neighbor because he shares your beliefs, but you feel a difference because he is black.

If religion wasn't a factor in this instance, you would have both positive and negative effects. You would no longer have a division between yourself and your Caucasian neighbor, but also, there is a good chance that you would share less of a common bond with your African-American neighbor.

This instance doesn't suggest any positive or negative effects, but rather just shows the many dimensions that our cultures already possess without the addition of religion as a classification. Throw that into the mix and you have potential for good, but the more categories that are defined within religion, the less chance there is for there to be a positive effect.

In short, if there was one global religion which everyone shared, then religion would be a positive influence on the world. However, this is not the case, so it will be just as detrimental to the peaceful nature of society as it will be helpful.


Holy monkeys that turned into a long post. But it is well thought out, so I hope it gives a few people some insight. Remember that whatever your religion you share a common bond with all of your neighbors, you're both human. There is no reason to dislike someone for a difference of opinion, religion, skin color, culture, or sex. There is no reason that we can't all strive toward one common goal.

 

why did i bother making this thread...

i did expect that much athiest/agnostic people...

the internet dont really have much Christians...as far as i know

 

This is probably gonna cause a bit of a bust up among christians but ohwell.

I think it's christianity that states that there are a set number of souls and souls of the recently departed are trasnfered to the body of an infant or something like that, so if there is a set number of souls why is our birth rate at the highest it's ever been? wouldn't we have run out of souls?

 

Mainstream Christianity doesn't believe that, they believe souls leave earth forever and go to either heaven or hell. A protestant group may believe about souls returning to earth, but both Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox don't. I've never heard of that belief before, though it sounds almost like a cross in beliefs in reincarnation and a protestant belief of only a certain number of souls making it to heaven though.

 

Daseti, I think maybe you should do a little more research on the different religions.

Christians do not believe that humans are reincarnated. If I'm not mistaken that is Hinduism.

 

I said i think... any way its some random religion and i proved them wrong