Poll: Do you believe in a higher power?
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No,no,no,no. I'm absolutely, 110% sure that I'm an atheist and I actually don't respect other peoples religions but I don't say it out loud and I have no problem with a persons traditions even though it's often religious traditions in example go to church or want to swim in Ganges.
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SwiftVengeance1224
Sure it's great that people are nice to each other, but they're doing it for selfish reasons in example go to heaven or stop being reborn.
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SwiftVengeance1224Sure it's great that people are nice to each other, but they're doing it for selfish reasons in example go to heaven or stop being reborn.
Wavering between Agnostic and Atheist. I used to be really hardcore Christian, but I changed a lot over the last summer...which put a wedge between me and a few of my friends.
I actually loathe most religions as well, and even people who are overzealous, but since that's just a personal problem of mine, I keep my mouth shut. I only say something offensive if someone says something stupid about my beliefs first or when we're in school and kids are complaining about how something we're learning is offending them.
EDITed again: I seem to agree a lot with solid_snake here.
I actually loathe most religions as well, and even people who are overzealous, but since that's just a personal problem of mine, I keep my mouth shut. I only say something offensive if someone says something stupid about my beliefs first or when we're in school and kids are complaining about how something we're learning is offending them.
EDITed again: I seem to agree a lot with solid_snake here.
Aye, people are arses. Anything that scares em into doing good ain't so bad (for causing the goodness, at any rate. Religious genocides, etc, cause a lot of lost brownie points methinks) in my opinion.solid_snake said:No,no,no,no. I'm absolutely, 110% sure that I'm an atheist and I actually don't respect other peoples religions but I don't say it out loud and I have no problem with a persons traditions even though it's often religious traditions in example go to church or want to swim in Ganges.
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Sure it's great that people are nice to each other, but they're doing it for selfish reasons in example go to heaven or stop being reborn.
Edit: And Swift, is your post not kinda agnostic in itself? As in, bugger if I know how they exist and what they're like, but I reckon God does exist? I'm just asking cos your post had a tone of grouping agnostics and atheists together in mutual pillockhood.
Actually I care. Sure it's a thousands times better to walk around the streets and do good things because you want to go to heaven than watching TV all day long and don't care about you're fate. But a person who is good because it's so much nicer when people are nice to each other is in my opinion better than a person who is good because he/she wants to go to heavenSwiftVengeance1224 said:Well according to your beliefs, whose going to care that they're being selfish? God? Seriously, if they're doing good, who cares what their inspiration is?solid_snake said:No,no,no,no. I'm absolutely, 110% sure that I'm an atheist and I actually don't respect other peoples religions but I don't say it out loud and I have no problem with a persons traditions even though it's often religious traditions in example go to church or want to swim in Ganges.
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Sure it's great that people are nice to each other, but they're doing it for selfish reasons in example go to heaven or stop being reborn.
Agnostic for life. Started not caring about God when I was ten. I don't really believe in any supernatural force aside from Karma and Yin Yang actually.
Higher powers don't really makes sense to me, but if God was to come along and say "hey, by the way, I exist", then great. I dislike the concept of faith, anyway, since it breeds thinking like, say, "these are my personal views, refute or pick apart whatever I say to your liking, but just remember: nothing you say will convince me that there isn't a God." It's no fun to debate with someone with a fixed viewpoint. You may as well argue with a book.
The human brain isn't a two-state digital system- I don't think anyone out there is altruistic purely and 100% because 'it's nice to be nice' or 100% 'I don't want to go to hell'. I like to help out where and when I can partly because a dude in a dress tells me it's what God wants for us on Sunday mornings, partly because I read too many superhero comics and want to be one of the 'good guys', partly because, well, sometimes people need help and if our situations were reversed I'd want someone to help me, and partly because most of my friends and relatives do similar stuff and I go by their example. So... I'd take issue with it being an ideological either/or situation, though I'm sure the odd extreme case does exist.solid_snake said:
On the subject of the existence of God, yes, I'm fairly sure there is a creator out there. I don't think He (for want of a common gender pronoun in the English language) is as active in our lives as your average thumper of holy texts will claim but I do think we get the occasional nudge in the right direction from on high which does the job for a few hundred years until the new movement becomes popular, sells out and the whole shebang turns to shit before the inherent power and wisdom of its foundations eventually digs its way out through the layers of nonsense that have built up over it and a renaissance of sorts is reached, like the Reformation, Vatican II etc. I reckon we're about overdue for another one, although it won't be easy for the Catholic church with an octogenarian with a reputation for stubbornness wearing the Big Hat. Mind you, he did at least get shot of Limbo, which was a barmy idea when it was first established and has not improved over time. Ah well, he can't live forever.
Speaking of living forever, one admittedly selfish reason for my belief in a life beyond this one is that our allotted span seems to piffling and insignificant. I mean, there's hardly enough time to learn anything about anything before our feeble organic brains run out of space or our bodies run out of time. I'd be really pissed off if this was all we get.
-Nick
Atheist. There's no evidence of God's existence and I feel no spiritual need for there to be a god, so I don't believe in one. Most of the time I don't think about it, but when I do, it seems rather silly to me. Then again, I know that some people just need the comfort of spirituality and I don't, so I'm less of a harsh judge of people who are religious. Just don't try to convert me, and don't use religion as an excuse for being bigoted. I can't stand those hyper-religious gay-bashers. Other than that, I have no problem with other people being religious. I think Dawkins, while certainly intelligent, is also a bit of an ass.
I'm going to go with 'Maybe'. And while I do like to stay out of these kinds of topics (for the obvious reasons), I'll at least explain myself.
To me, God is the unknown. Created to explain the things we could not and can not fathom on our own. As we go about our human lives of fathoming things, as is what we do, the things that God is said to dominate is lessened. Not because Science is stealing God's job, but because what Science is showing was never God's domain anyway. As long as there is the unknown, the darkness of a Black Hole, the area before time, a spot we can not go, see, or touch; There shall be God. And as we explore those things, because that is what we humans do, they shall only open up more questions, more dark places we can not tread, and there too shall be God, to make the unknown a lot less scary. After all, a 'Steve' is a lot less frightening then some giant, unending, perfectly straight bush thing. Right?
God is in His Heaven,
And all is Right with the World.
EDIT: I want to know I answered using the "Question's God": ie- A God, not a specific God. I certainly don't buy into the human concept of organized religion.
To me, God is the unknown. Created to explain the things we could not and can not fathom on our own. As we go about our human lives of fathoming things, as is what we do, the things that God is said to dominate is lessened. Not because Science is stealing God's job, but because what Science is showing was never God's domain anyway. As long as there is the unknown, the darkness of a Black Hole, the area before time, a spot we can not go, see, or touch; There shall be God. And as we explore those things, because that is what we humans do, they shall only open up more questions, more dark places we can not tread, and there too shall be God, to make the unknown a lot less scary. After all, a 'Steve' is a lot less frightening then some giant, unending, perfectly straight bush thing. Right?
God is in His Heaven,
And all is Right with the World.
EDIT: I want to know I answered using the "Question's God": ie- A God, not a specific God. I certainly don't buy into the human concept of organized religion.
You're reasoning is that you accept as fact that which you can know nothing about? If we know nothing about a higher power, how can you state that you beleive said power exists? If man is unable to know anything about God, then how do you know he exists?Syrio Forel said:
Moving on, my primary beef with religion is it's horrible rationalization and justification techniques. In the Bible, they repeatedly praise genocide and rape and state that the perpetrators are virtuous. Should you replace Ancient Israelites and Canaanites with Nazis and Poles, then the situation changes and the devout call them monsters. It's like saying: "Killing is bad, unless God says so, then it's a virtue."
Then you've got the arbitrary rules of morality and what is good and evil. When a religion begins to spout things like "Gays are bad" and "Don't eat pork on Friday" what you have is a collection of arbitrary rules set forth by a select (often self appointed) group of individuals enforcing their own prejudices on you. This leaves no room for challenge because if you don't prepare your food a certain way, you've sinned and are going to hell. When you use Hell to threaten people into submission, and then tell them that only your ways are acceptable to the divine, you've taken an initially benign thing like religion, and turned it into a tyrannical organization.
Now for Free Will. If how can God be an omnipotent creator, and still make sinful people? If I sin, isn't it God's fault for making me able to commit a sin? If he's omnipotent, why not carry out his will on Earth directly instead of going through the cloudy medium of prophets?
Finally, we have the concept of Hell. When a religion preaches love and kindness, no problem. When it preaches love and kindness, and then goes on to say that unbelievers are sub human and damned to the worst torment for eternity, then you have a glaring hypocracy. Many Christians will assert that Jesus is the only way to God. This means, the kindly Buddhist/Hindu/Muslim/etc. who devoted their life to helping the poor and sick, will play poker with Hitler in a pit of fire for all eternity.
There is no answer. Period.
Why?
There is no proof a god does exist.
There is, thus, no proof he does not.
Start of the universe? Lets go there. There is no way a big explosion at the start of time poofed us all up. It's a rather silly idea. But so is a big magic guy poofing us up.
Death? There can just as easily be no heaven, or a heaven. Since, after all, dead men tell no tales.
It's an imposible question. So I say stop trying to answer and go on living life as you jolly well please.
...That said, gay bashers, jenovas witnesses, and so on, really need to go die in a hole where no one can hear their screams as I stab them with the pointy corner of their own holy bible.
Why?
There is no proof a god does exist.
There is, thus, no proof he does not.
Start of the universe? Lets go there. There is no way a big explosion at the start of time poofed us all up. It's a rather silly idea. But so is a big magic guy poofing us up.
Death? There can just as easily be no heaven, or a heaven. Since, after all, dead men tell no tales.
It's an imposible question. So I say stop trying to answer and go on living life as you jolly well please.
...That said, gay bashers, jenovas witnesses, and so on, really need to go die in a hole where no one can hear their screams as I stab them with the pointy corner of their own holy bible.
I'm an agnostic, because I cannot have faith in the existence or nonexistence of a higher power without scientifically verifiable proof. However, when I do theorise about what a god might be like, I tend to envision them (I can't see what reason, other than sentiment/personal preference, they would have to be gendered) as more like a human playing an RTS than an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent being; I prefer gods I can at least partially relate to, I guess.
I do have a handful of spiritual beliefs that aren't really aligned with any particular religion, though; for example, I believe that there's some kind of afterlife (although I can't claim to know what it is for sure, even though I'm partial to the concept of reincarnation), and I believe that souls may exist but am rather speculatively agnostic about those too. I also believe in ghosts and the possibility of psychic powers -- as barmy as the latter sounds -- but those are more paranormal than religious.
Basically, I have a ton of speculation and opinions about probabilities but very few things I'm certain about. Oh, and for the record, I try to be respectful of everyone's religious beliefs, even though I vehemently disagree with a lot of them (as opposed to the ones I simply don't share), so long as those beliefs aren't hateful.
I do have a handful of spiritual beliefs that aren't really aligned with any particular religion, though; for example, I believe that there's some kind of afterlife (although I can't claim to know what it is for sure, even though I'm partial to the concept of reincarnation), and I believe that souls may exist but am rather speculatively agnostic about those too. I also believe in ghosts and the possibility of psychic powers -- as barmy as the latter sounds -- but those are more paranormal than religious.
Basically, I have a ton of speculation and opinions about probabilities but very few things I'm certain about. Oh, and for the record, I try to be respectful of everyone's religious beliefs, even though I vehemently disagree with a lot of them (as opposed to the ones I simply don't share), so long as those beliefs aren't hateful.