Is religion rational?

[blankgabriel]

I guess religion is pretty rational, in some cases..

It gives people an explanation to why things are the way they are. It makes people comfortable knowing that they aren't alone, or that they won't rot in the earth when they die.
It also brings people together, and bringing respect for one another as well..


...Too bad no religion that I know of works like that..

i lol'd. Well put.

 

[Bertram]

If it were rational it would be called science and not religion.
Nuff' said

 

[Jamis]

Faith is itself unrational. That is what faith means. Beleif despite proof against.

 

[Kubanator]

I can turn that around though.

Science: the belief that at first, absolutely nothing existed, after which nothing exploded which by chance happened to create millions of galaxies filled with millions of stars on which in turn millions of living beings have lived and evolved over millions of years for absolutely no reason at all.

Actually, we've proven that the universe can spontaneously come into existence through quantum mechanics. Also, to me it makes more sense then an individual with unlimited power, when infinite energy is something never observed in the universe, while singularities have been observed in various locations.

Yeah, thats nearly as stupid as the guy who though the world was ROUND. Just because we cant prove something doesn't mean it isn't true.

Greeks proved it.

 

[Raven's Nest]

I agree...

What are we questioning the rationality of here? Faith or religious teachings?

Good call on my definition, I edited the initial post, and we can talk about both, separately if you'd like.

I just think it's important to differentiate between the two. After all, faith doesn't just apply to religion. And there is also much much more to religion than just believing in God.

If you want this thread to survive, I'd suggest you keep a close eye on it. Flames are almost certainly imminent.

 

[Romblen]

Christianity: the belief that a cosmic Jewish zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree.

What's irrational about that?

I can turn that around though.

Science: the belief that at first, absolutely nothing existed, after which nothing exploded which by chance happened to create millions of galaxies filled with millions of stars on which in turn millions of living beings have lived and evolved over millions of years for absolutely no reason at all.

I was about to say something along those lines, but you pretty much summed it up for me.

 

[Kubanator]

I agree...

What are we questioning the rationality of here? Faith or religious teachings?

Good call on my definition, I edited the initial post, and we can talk about both, separately if you'd like.

I just think it's important to differentiate between the two. After all, faith doesn't just apply to religion. And there is also much much more to religion than just believing in God.

If you want this thread to survive, I'd suggest you keep a close eye on it. Flames are almost certainly imminent.

Let's go with religious teachings, as true faith is the belief without evidence, something which is irrational in itself.

 

[NIHILHATE]

No. No it is not. Not the fundamentalist ones anyway. But the ones based more on philosophy than gods can be okay, if a little patronising.
Lord Vader is my God. He's more real than god ever was, anyway. People actually know what he looks like.

 

[HandsomeJack]

I find post like these really distasteful. I get the impression that the poster just wanted to make an anti-religious statement phrased safely as a question. Post like these seldom produce anything but anger and bile from all sides. I have my thoughts on it, being a religious man, but I would rather discuss such things with people who I can interact with personally and respectfully. Otherwise I am likely to come off as slamming those who I would be dissagreeing with. Seriously, this post is a broad stroke invitation to bite at eachother's throats, why cater to it.

 

[Jenkins]

I guess it really just depends on the subject matter you speak about, for example, Christianity teaches you (I am pretty sure) to love thy neighbor, dont fight, be helpful to people in need so on and so forth, THAT is rational thought I feel.

however, suspending your belief for Metaphysics, is Irrational.

Religion helps keep people in line, especially if they fear going to hell.

yes but they keep people in check by Irrational thoughts of damnation and eternal hell, But if they are good, then it they get sent to god and etc etc. just because it keeps people in line does not equal rational.

 

[Raven's Nest]

Faith is itself unrational. That is what faith means. Beleif despite proof against.

No that's just futile madness... Faith is believing in something that you cannot yet prove or cannot be proven.

 

[Kubanator]

I find post like these really distasteful. I get the impression that the poster just wanted to make an anti-religious statement phrased safely as a question. Post like these seldom produce anything but anger and bile from all sides. I have my thoughts on it, being a religious man, but I would rather discuss such things with people who I can interact with personally and respectfully. Otherwise I am likely to come off as slamming those who I would be dissagreeing with. Seriously, this post is a broad stroke invitation to bite at eachother's throats, why cater to it.

Ironically, this is the most hateful statement in this thread. It's a question of philosophy. If you don't like this kind of thread, just don't post in it, ignore it.

 

[ottenni]

Yeah, thats nearly as stupid as the guy who though the world was ROUND. Just because we cant prove something doesn't mean it isn't true.

Greeks proved it.

True, they were a smart bunch, they also invented some truly delicious salad. Anyway i only use that example because its so well known. I cant think of any others at the moment, but i'm sure there are lots of very important scientific theories that were laughed at.

 

[Dorian6]

Yeah it is. Most religions would be well described as a hypothesis, but then it would be hard to prove them as anything more. But of course there are the more interesting things like Buddhism.

Christianity: the belief that a cosmic Jewish zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree.

What's irrational about that?

Yeah, thats nearly as stupid as the guy who though the world was ROUND. Just because we cant prove something doesn't mean it isn't true.

but believing in something just because there's nothing to disprove it is just....retarded.

also i'm fairly sure that when people started making outrageous claims about the spherical nature of the earth, they had evidence to support it.

 

[Kubanator]

Yeah, thats nearly as stupid as the guy who though the world was ROUND. Just because we cant prove something doesn't mean it isn't true.

Greeks proved it.

True, they were a smart bunch, they also invented some truly delicious salad. Anyway i only use that example because its so well known. I cant think of any others at the moment, but i'm sure there are lots of very important scientific theories that were laughed at.

There are a couple that are laughed at, but scientific theories are always backed with proof. The good ones anyways. One good example would be the Big Bang theory.

 

[Mozared]

Actually, we've proven that the universe can spontaneously come into existence through quantum mechanics. Also, to me it makes more sense then an individual with unlimited power, when infinite energy is something never observed in the universe, while singularities have been observed in various locations.

Yes, but that doesn't change anything =P. My point was that it's not that hard to make something look completely ridiculous if you phrase it the right way and that while funny, Dorian's statement doesn't work as an argument.

 

[CrafterMan]

I find post like these really distasteful. I get the impression that the poster just wanted to make an anti-religious statement phrased safely as a question. Post like these seldom produce anything but anger and bile from all sides. I have my thoughts on it, being a religious man, but I would rather discuss such things with people who I can interact with personally and respectfully. Otherwise I am likely to come off as slamming those who I would be dissagreeing with. Seriously, this post is a broad stroke invitation to bite at eachother's throats, why cater to it.

I doubt his intention was bad my friend, but the outcome from these threads is always bad.

-Joe

 

[ottenni]

but believing in something just because there's nothing to disprove it is just....retarded.

Thats why its called faith, you need it. Your betting on the underdog these days, when it was founded it probably made the most sense, but now its a bit harder (or at least its being made harder by the religions themselves).

also i'm fairly sure that when people started making outrageous claims about the spherical nature of the earth, they had evidence to support it.

I hope they did, but they still got mocked. The point is for a species that occupies such a tiny space in such a huge universe we make allot of assumptions about knowledge.

 

[Raven's Nest]

I find post like these really distasteful. I get the impression that the poster just wanted to make an anti-religious statement phrased safely as a question. Post like these seldom produce anything but anger and bile from all sides. I have my thoughts on it, being a religious man, but I would rather discuss such things with people who I can interact with personally and respectfully. Otherwise I am likely to come off as slamming those who I would be dissagreeing with. Seriously, this post is a broad stroke invitation to bite at eachother's throats, why cater to it.

The OP wasn't written in an offensive way, nor is he trying to force his views across. Here is your chance to convince some people here that not all religious people are "nut jobs" or irrational or backwards...

I think most peoples beef with religion is that they can't comprehend the point of it, if you can't prove the existence of God. As I've stated earlier, there's a whole bunch of rational reasons to follow a religion. But these reasons are often spoiled by extremist behaviour. I'm not religious at all but I'd like to convince people who are religious that not every non belivers hate religion. I'm fascinated by it.

 

[ottenni]

Yeah, thats nearly as stupid as the guy who though the world was ROUND. Just because we cant prove something doesn't mean it isn't true.

Greeks proved it.

True, they were a smart bunch, they also invented some truly delicious salad. Anyway i only use that example because its so well known. I cant think of any others at the moment, but i'm sure there are lots of very important scientific theories that were laughed at.

There are a couple that are laughed at, but scientific theories are always backed with proof. The good ones anyways. One good example would be the Big Bang theory.

Yeah i cant say i really know anything about that, i just like to keep and open mind to new theories and to be a huge skeptic towards anything becoming a fact. But ill take your word for this one.