Because we can't find one the friggin' Bible thumpers will leave us alone in, the smug self righteous sonsabitches.

Um, rant off. Working nights, you get tired of being awakened in the middle of the day by people who ignore your "Do Not Disturb" signs because they figure the Bible in their hands gives them a pass.

 

Religion is for those who are afraid of going to hell. Spirituality is for those who have already been there.

 

I tire of hearing christians say they get moral guidance through their religious beliefs, implying that those that don't follow a religion have no morals, well going by what Devious D as posted it seems the atheists have the moral high ground. Strange that isn't it, maybe god told them to commit the crime.

As to the OP it seems to me that a lot of people just jump into the religion of their choice, or more likely get pushed into the religion of their parents choice without giving it much thought beyond the fact that they believe in god, they then study the nicer prophets and celebrate the nicer holy days.
It's rather like buying a car you can all drive but how many of you can strip the engine and transmission then rebuild it, plus all that fernickity (is that a word, I dunno but it sounds nice) electrical wiring. Much easier to leave it to a mechanic, the same way most religious folk leave the difficult questions and tenets to the priest, vicar, iman, rabbi, guru or what other spiritual leader they go to.

Just my thoughts, and again, what the fuck do I know, apart from my morals are more or less ok.

 

Yes! So many people confuse religion and spirituality. I am not religious, but I do acknowledge that there is a spiritual element to life.
We don't have to subscribe to any particular religion to search for universal truths.

 

says the lady with the dungeon

 

I think it is impossible for some to comprehend, that we don't care if god exists or not.
We allow others their belief and just carry on

 

It's all virtual, honey! If you can't exercise your imagination in an enjoyable way, life would be much less pleasant. You never know when I will hang up my virtual flogger and lock the door for the last time.....

 

so are we looking for virtual universal truths then

but seriously you are right if you strip moth belief systems down they share a common core of what most people would describe as common decency

 

can't decide...

Creationism or Evolution?

On the one hand fruit flies prove so much.

On the other hand ... only a maniacal egotistical deity would give us the Duck Billed Platypus.
*not_secure_link*library.thinkquest.org/J002754/jcplaty2.jpg

I'll keep punching that ticket just in ase.

btw, Jews don't believe in hell or damnation. Just heaven or reincarnation.

 

Ahem, someone already beat us to it, dear.

 

I'll discuss theology with you anytime sweetie - just keep the post length down to a paragraph or so, there's a dear

Edit - was directed at Arvin

 

No, no... please don't. :excited:

In the previous one I only mentioned that someone thought of manipulating the masses with religion, sex and consumerism way before we may have started thinking about it.

 

Dammit - I'm more versed in religion than philosophy

Topic of your choice, then

 

You are? Tell me about religion then - what's you innermost gut feeling, not just what you believe casually?

Mine - I think I already told it... but it's simply that all-there-is (Universum in its purest and broadest, not just limited cosmological meaning) is the unfathomable mystery, much more complex than we could even imagine - thousands of new little secrets popping out of every discovery we make.

I believe there is intrinsic order and sort of "intelligence" underlying it all, even when we are completely unable to decipher it. The fact is that everything must happen exactly as it happens - or it would happen otherwise. So even if there would be hypothetical multiverses and other dimensions, even if the events could happen in different variations in several streams of events - in each one of them they would again happen exactly as they did or they would happen otherwise. That's a simple logical conclusion that cannot be denied and that bares some wierd significance on my belief in "order".

I believe each one of us emerged out of infinity - constructed out of the "space material", guided by the code, and will eventually disintegrate into "space material" and disperse into infinity again. I have no belief what is consciousness and if it is independent of that process - I will wait until I die to learn about it or I never will - who will be there to care - it there's Nothing after this particular appariton I call "myself living now"?

Sorry, can't be very short in those topics... now I am late and I must run, damn it!

 

Me too - I'll get back to you

 

I believe much as you do - that we are incapable of understanding the totality of the universe. We are spiritual beings who happen to have a physical aspect, and most of us don't have any awareness beyond the physical, emotional and intellectual levels. We set huge stores by what our intellect tells us, which is fine up to a point, but ultimately it is difficult to go beyond that even onto en etherial level.

There are a few among us who have awareness of higher levels of existance who try to guide us in the right direction, but there are also others who think they know, but don't, and can lead us in the wrong direction entirely. There are also plenty of people who manipulate others into doing what they want in the guise of spiritual advisers - usually those who are high up in religious hierarchies. Unfortunately we only have our instincts to guide us as to who is helpful and who is not.

In my opinion, it is most useful to search for the universal truths that occur at the heart of each religion or spiritual practice, and try to follow those truths as far as we can.

 

I believe most people just stick with whatever religion they are brought up in when they are young, and just blindly follow along. Some might change to a different 'brand', from Baptist to Methodist, but generally they stay with something familiar, something fairly close to what they grew up with.

I believe most people who profess to be Christians have never read the Bible from cover to cover, let alone studied it or tried to understand it, thus have no idea what they really believe in. They get passed down to them what their religion, through its ministers, want them to believe, and accept it as gospel. Or what they hear from others, who heard it from others, who, intentionally or unintentionally, have taken what the scriptures actually say and distorted it to suit their own beliefs, rather than forming their beliefs around what was actually said in the scriptures.

I believe the reason atheists and agnostics did better on the survey is that we are constantly preached at by those well meaning people who wish to convert us, so we get more exposure to their arguments than even most of them do. Also, I believe if you look deepy enough, most atheists and agnostics had a religious upbringing, and probably did more reading and studying the scriptures than most others, before they became disillusioned and turned to agnosticism or atheism.

I have read and studied the Bible, from cover to cover, in several different versions. I probably have more Bibles in my house than most people do, again in several different versions, along with books and reference material and study guides for them. I was brought up by a deeply religious mother, and we were in church every Sunday, even when the car broke down and we had to walk almost ten miles to get there. At one time, I was on the verge of entering the seminary to become a minister. That was when I stopped to take stock of what I really believed, and after a lot of reflection, realized I could not go out and preach to others what I did not believe myself.

My interests, other than the Bible, have always been science and history. Let's just say that, for me, when you put the three together and compare notes, the Bible comes out on the short end of the stick.

I don't begrudge others their religion. I really could care less who or what they worship or pray to. If it gives them comfort in time of stress, or makes them feel better about themselves, I'm all for it. I have even gone so far as to give last rites to dying patients back in the day when I was cutting them out of cars at accident scenes, even though I have never been Catholic and was an atheist at the time. They were dying anyway, and it eased their passing, and if I couldn't keep them alive, that was the least I could do for them. I don't like to argue religion, because that usually just causes hard feelings. I don't go out trying to convert others to my beliefs, and I ask for the same respect from them.

 

Religion (all) is a dying art? Only used to make wars seem just. Thats my view based on years of not listening to any religion. If some religion wants me to learn about it, then should they not know more about others?

Enough said, am a non believe until the aliens come back and take us away again for live stock.

 

I found the recent Pew poll really interesting. As an agnostic, coming from a very religious family (father a minister) and doing a lot of thinking and reading about theories of God and organized religion, I know a lot about various religions but just can't get my mind brhinf any religious belief. I just don't know. and the subject (for me) is way beyond a normal human's understanding.