Why Don't You Believe?

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Anji
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January 5th, 2008 at 05:05am
Kurtni:
Anji:
It helps us understand and gives us reason. It is a very useful tool.

I don't think so. Believeing in god doesn't help you understand how physics works, it doesn't explain gravity. It makes nothing more clear at all, it just makes it ok for us to not understand and I don't think that's useful at all. Religion has hindered science multiple times due to things like that.

But I do agree it gives us a reason, the wrong one. Mr. Green
Believing in God does help me understand more, and it doesn't make me any less scientific. I can accept that there is a higher being who has made the laws of phyics work as such and who has created the universe.

The times religion has hindered science, it's because of extremists who take it too far. Like any belief, religion can be taken too far. And before, religion didn't hinder science at all. It was the science. Religion was the most appropriate model to explain the apparent chaos in nature. Just like how the String Theory may now be a more suitable model to explain microphysics. I mean, that's all it really is, a model to explain stuff. Right now, to explain the beginning of the universe, it's the best model I've got.
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January 5th, 2008 at 05:15am
Is it possible or logical I should say to believe in God and follow the bible even if you think it is inaccurate? I had a teacher last year who taught World History and with history comes the different religions, no matter what it was we were studying he compared his beliefs to something else but he stated that the bible was inaccurate and he thought it should be revised.

I didn't really care. I could care less about religions because I don't have the time nor devotion for something that isn't simple and many others question. I always figured maybe if the bible is inaccurate, i belive my teacher meant dates and years, that whoever wrote it were jsut really bad at math and keeping track of things......
Anji
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January 5th, 2008 at 05:37am
Of course the Bible is inaccurate. That's why there are so many different versions, and so different sects.
Mycophobia
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January 5th, 2008 at 04:50pm
Anji:
Of course the Bible is inaccurate. That's why there are so many different versions, and so different sects.
it can be interprated in so many ways, it's confusing.
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January 5th, 2008 at 04:56pm
Kurtni:

I don't think so. Believeing in god doesn't help you understand how physics works, it doesn't explain gravity. It makes nothing more clear at all, it just makes it ok for us to not understand and I don't think that's useful at all. Religion has hindered science multiple times due to things like that.

But I do agree it gives us a reason, the wrong one. Mr. Green

But humas can't explain everything, there is no scientific proof of what the meaning of life is or anything Coolio. It also gives people hope, even if it's something unproven. Like the felling that someone watches over you and cares about you.

On the other side, it makes me very scared of hell, It's hard to say "oh a place like that dosn't exsist" and mean it. There are alot of things your not supposed to do that I always do, I think if there is a place like that I might go to it even though I intend well due to the fact that alot of times I do bad stuff without relizeing it or being able to control it. Molly
Kurtni
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January 7th, 2008 at 03:00pm
Memory Lane.:

But humas can't explain everything, there is no scientific proof of what the meaning of life is or anything Coolio. It also gives people hope, even if it's something unproven. Like the felling that someone watches over you and cares about you.

On the other side, it makes me very scared of hell, It's hard to say "oh a place like that dosn't exsist" and mean it. There are alot of things your not supposed to do that I always do, I think if there is a place like that I might go to it even though I intend well due to the fact that alot of times I do bad stuff without relizeing it or being able to control it. Molly

So.... because humans can't explain it, we need some god to do it for us?Like you said, we have no prove about anything.... there isn't any logic. We just like the thought of being "watched over" even if what we think is watching over us is totally illogical. We just like the thought of having a reason for everything. And as soon as we find a better explanation, we do away with that part of religion. Look at mythology, they had god to explain virtually every aspect of life and nature, but as science advanced and we got real explanations, those gods disappeared and became less practical. The same thing will happen with Christianity in good time File No offense to anyone; if you practice Christianity just enjoy the fact that I'll be buring in hell for this later. Con
Anji
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January 8th, 2008 at 09:02am
The human condition is totally illogical. So what if some people attempt to use a higher being to try and rationalise it. In Christianity there is a belief that if one could see all truth, they would be blinded. And this could even be proved through science, that our brains and our nerves are built to withstand only so much stimulation for our environment, in this way, God shield's the truth, and so forth rationalises everything.

Damn it, I had another really interesting thing to say about religion that I said earlier today, but I can't remember what it was. It'll come to me.

Anyway, humans really can't explain everything. Science can't explain everything either, sometimes it is necessary to create fabrications in order to make sense of the irrationality of the human condition, things like taboo for instance. People do like the feeling of being watched over, because it's been conditioned in ourselves. Many atheists do choose to have religious funerals for example.

But what humans love even more than that feeling of security, and indeed more than almost anything else, is to be able to justify things. To be able to place blame and find guilt through the justification of our natural environment, it's what we strive for. Nowadays we use science to find this stuff out. But it simply cannot explain everything.



You see, science explains the how but is cannot explain the why.
Why do you think that the 2004 tsunami happened?

Being an atheist, you would relpy that it was the tectonic plates, but really, that explains the how if you think about it. It explains how hundreds of thousands lost their lives and how so much damage and devistation took place. Humans know all these objective facts, you cannot escape them, it is scientific fact. But we strive for the subjective, we need feeling, we need emotion, we need to find blame and feel guilt. We need the why.
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January 8th, 2008 at 01:09pm
Why is almost everyone on this thread thinking that God and religion are something created by the human mind? Why can't it be the other way round?
If you think how huge everything that surrounds us is,we look so tiny and unsignificant, it's not possbile to know everything.
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January 8th, 2008 at 02:20pm
Micro Sheep:
Why is almost everyone on this thread thinking that God and religion are something created by the human mind? Why can't it be the other way round?
If you think how huge everything that surrounds us is,we look so tiny and unsignificant, it's not possbile to know everything.

But humans can't except that, we need an explanation for everything, which is why we have religion. If we can't explain something, some god can.
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January 8th, 2008 at 02:26pm
Anji:
The human condition is totally illogical. So what if some people attempt to use a higher being to try and rationalise it. In Christianity there is a belief that if one could see all truth, they would be blinded. And this could even be proved through science, that our brains and our nerves are built to withstand only so much stimulation for our environment, in this way, God shield's the truth, and so forth rationalises everything.

Damn it, I had another really interesting thing to say about religion that I said earlier today, but I can't remember what it was. It'll come to me.

Anyway, humans really can't explain everything. Science can't explain everything either, sometimes it is necessary to create fabrications in order to make sense of the irrationality of the human condition, things like taboo for instance. People do like the feeling of being watched over, because it's been conditioned in ourselves. Many atheists do choose to have religious funerals for example.

But what humans love even more than that feeling of security, and indeed more than almost anything else, is to be able to justify things. To be able to place blame and find guilt through the justification of our natural environment, it's what we strive for. Nowadays we use science to find this stuff out. But it simply cannot explain everything.



You see, science explains the how but is cannot explain the why.
Why do you think that the 2004 tsunami happened?

Being an atheist, you would relpy that it was the tectonic plates, but really, that explains the how if you think about it. It explains how hundreds of thousands lost their lives and how so much damage and devistation took place. Humans know all these objective facts, you cannot escape them, it is scientific fact. But we strive for the subjective, we need feeling, we need emotion, we need to find blame and feel guilt. We need the why.
The kind of stimulation you recieve directly from your environment and mental stimulation are not the same. Humans can handle knowledge, religon just gets in the way of us being able to. It's hindering scientific advancement.

I never said humans or science had to explain everything, I said we try to. We don't need to, we don't have to know everything, and making things up like religion to fabricate things as you put it is, in my opinion, totally stupid and making humanity ignorant to the world around us.The atheist funeral is a perfect example of how we use religion to sugarcoat life. it isn't needed, it just shelters people in ways that aren't needed.
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January 8th, 2008 at 04:02pm
Kurtni:
The kind of stimulation you recieve directly from your environment and mental stimulation are not the same. Humans can handle knowledge, religon just gets in the way of us being able to. It's hindering scientific advancement.

I never said humans or science had to explain everything, I said we try to. We don't need to, we don't have to know everything, and making things up like religion to fabricate things as you put it is, in my opinion, totally stupid and making humanity ignorant to the world around us.The atheist funeral is a perfect example of how we use religion to sugarcoat life. it isn't needed, it just shelters people in ways that aren't needed.
I completely agree with you.

I understand that people need a God to fulfill some spiritual side or maybe because they believe that there is more than just this world we see, but when sometimes religion gets in the way of logical and reasonable thinking.

Its not that people use God to explain everything that still doesn't have a scientific explanation, but that there are still many people who wont even consider a scientific explanation of evolution and beginning of life on this planet. We have theories and experiments that can give a great explanation and even though we don't know if it really happened that way it is still a thing everyone should look into. A boy in my class said that he believes that God made life on Earth because his religion says so and that he wont acknowledge any other option, now I call that kind of behavior ignorant and narrow-minded and it wont get us anywhere.
Anji
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January 9th, 2008 at 04:51am
[quote="Kurtni"]
Anji:
The kind of stimulation you recieve directly from your environment and mental stimulation are not the same. Humans can handle knowledge, religon just gets in the way of us being able to. It's hindering scientific advancement.

I never said humans or science had to explain everything, I said we try to. We don't need to, we don't have to know everything, and making things up like religion to fabricate things as you put it is, in my opinion, totally stupid and making humanity ignorant to the world around us.The atheist funeral is a perfect example of how we use religion to sugarcoat life. it isn't needed, it just shelters people in ways that aren't needed.
But it is needed. It's embedded in our genes even. Humans around the world, before international interaction, almost all civilizations believed in a higher being, not just magic, but actual gods who controlled things. It is human nature to have to explain everything, if it wasn't then scientific advancements of the past wouldn't have made any progress what so ever. Ever since an accidental gene made our jaws weaker and our brains grow larger, humans have advanced thinking in every possible way, creating the human condition which we have to live with. Religion is a fact, in reality, because it exists. There exist people who do believe in a god, and it's fact, and this has been done for tens of thousands of years maybe. It is needed to feel comfort for many people. Too many people would be no where without religion, it is of use. Maybe not to you, but to many others it is.
Anji
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January 9th, 2008 at 04:53am
mondo bongo.:
Its not that people use God to explain everything that still doesn't have a scientific explanation, but that there are still many people who wont even consider a scientific explanation of evolution and beginning of life on this planet. We have theories and experiments that can give a great explanation and even though we don't know if it really happened that way it is still a thing everyone should look into. A boy in my class said that he believes that God made life on Earth because his religion says so and that he wont acknowledge any other option, now I call that kind of behavior ignorant and narrow-minded and it wont get us anywhere.
That's just religion taken too far by stupid people. Evolution is fact, but maybe the creation of our intellegence could be supernatural.
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January 9th, 2008 at 07:56am
Anji:
mondo bongo.:
Its not that people use God to explain everything that still doesn't have a scientific explanation, but that there are still many people who wont even consider a scientific explanation of evolution and beginning of life on this planet. We have theories and experiments that can give a great explanation and even though we don't know if it really happened that way it is still a thing everyone should look into. A boy in my class said that he believes that God made life on Earth because his religion says so and that he wont acknowledge any other option, now I call that kind of behavior ignorant and narrow-minded and it wont get us anywhere.
That's just religion taken too far by stupid people. Evolution is fact, but maybe the creation of our intellegence could be supernatural.
Well I agree there, but it isn't simply a "just." That kind of opinion is to appears to often to just be ignored. I think thats the real problem that is perhaps stopping us. I think that we could have been more evolved in many ways if the church wasn't meddling about in everything. Dno
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January 9th, 2008 at 08:32am
I agree. My main problem with religion is God. LOL. I suppose that's a pretty big problem.

I caught the end of a program on Buddhism the other night, and I never knew much about it, and I still don't really, but what it seemed to offer was more a set of morals to live by, not a person to worship or to live in fear of. It was more to do with loving the earth and the animals and each other and never intentionally causing harm. That is the sort of religion that would appeal to me.

However, I think I have missed the part of the program with details about Buddha.. Coolio
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January 9th, 2008 at 08:47am
mondo bongo.:
Anji:
That's just religion taken too far by stupid people. Evolution is fact, but maybe the creation of our intellegence could be supernatural.
Well I agree there, but it isn't simply a "just." That kind of opinion is to appears to often to just be ignored. I think thats the real problem that is perhaps stopping us. I think that we could have been more evolved in many ways if the church wasn't meddling about in everything. Dno
Sorry that I wasn't being frugal enough with my words. That is religion taken too far.
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January 9th, 2008 at 02:10pm
Anji:
Too many people would be no where without religion, it is of use. Maybe not to you, but to many others it is.

They think it helps them, they think it is useful, but it isn't. It creates a false motivator that people don't need, they just want it. Humanity would have been just fine without religion, it would have avoided alot of conflicts.
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January 9th, 2008 at 03:58pm
Kurtni:
Anji:
Too many people would be no where without religion, it is of use. Maybe not to you, but to many others it is.

They think it helps them, they think it is useful, but it isn't. It creates a false motivator that people don't need, they just want it. Humanity would have been just fine without religion, it would have avoided alot of conflicts.


are you trying to tell someone how they feel? You can't leap into someones mind so it may well be helping them and for many problems all you need is motivation.

Doubtful seeing as the father of modern politics are the romans/greeks and the basis of their system comes from religion. so our humanity and the moral code of all atheists still comes from religion.

I'm agnostic so i come from middle ground so i don't hold religion in the shining light that i use to but i still see it's importance. Many a war has been started without religion, it's just an excuse to fight not a reason.


(p.s. I bolded modern because the system we use today comes from greeks, there were other cultures before them but we don't use that set up, didn't bold to be annoying Laughing )
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January 9th, 2008 at 04:05pm
lets find the middle ground hold hands and repeat what we all know.


''scienctologists are fucking nuts''

The only group of people that take both religion and science and royally deserve an ass kicking.
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January 9th, 2008 at 07:04pm
NeoSteph:

are you trying to tell someone how they feel? You can't leap into someones mind so it may well be helping them and for many problems all you need is motivation.

Doubtful seeing as the father of modern politics are the romans/greeks and the basis of their system comes from religion. so our humanity and the moral code of all atheists still comes from religion.

I'm agnostic so i come from middle ground so i don't hold religion in the shining light that i use to but i still see it's importance. Many a war has been started without religion, it's just an excuse to fight not a reason.


(p.s. I bolded modern because the system we use today comes from greeks, there were other cultures before them but we don't use that set up, didn't bold to be annoying Laughing )

The thought of having a god might help them, I never said it couldn't, Im saying that there isn't anything actually there, it's only a thought. That's all religion is, a way for people to make an artificial safety net. And really it isn't that hard to tell someone how they feel and why, hello psychology!

I never said that it didn't come from religion, I said it wasn't needed. I think humanity would have developed just fine without religion. We would have still developed morals without some gawdz telling people how to live their lives. To be quiet honest, I don't agree with multiple morals certain religions teach, and I think society would have been much better off without it.

Im glad you brought up the greeks, because they're a perfect example of just how trivial religion is. They had gods for basically everything, what they couldn't explain, the gods can. However, the greeks also happened to be a pretty smart bunch of people, and they did start to figure things out and how the world functioned. That eliminated their needs for gods and they slowly started to lose their importance. That happened with most ancient religions. Now, most religions have one god to explain the things we can't, we don't need 0492035680 anymore. Just that one to comfort people so they feel like they have an explanation for everything. Humanity needs to realize that we can't explain everything, and we just need to accept that. We don't need to make up gawdz to do it for us.
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