Are you religious? Yes/No and Why

[Lady Vulpix]

Ah, I see. Well, as much as it may hurt some people, it's impossible to get to understand absolutely everything, so there will always be things that are beyond our understanding. If they choose to believe that there's nothing to life other than the interaction of chemicals, that's still a belief, not something they can know for certain.

It makes sense to try to explain things with the tools we have at hand, and when researching it's very common to start off with as few variables as possible because the simpler the object of study is, the easier it is to analyze it. But just because you've chosen a set of aspects to begin your analysis, it doesn't mean that nothing else exists. Things you can't measure or fully comprehend can't be easily studied, but there's no logic in denying their existence just because you can't understand them.

So if anyone claims that logic says God/the afterlife/souls/anything doesn't exist, you can tell them that logic says nothing about that, and that it's just a belief like any other.

[Asilynne]

Ah, I see. Well, as much as it may hurt some people, it's impossible to get to understand absolutely everything, so there will always be things that are beyond our understanding. If they choose to believe that there's nothing to life other than the interaction of chemicals, that's still a belief, not something they can know for certain.

It makes sense to try to explain things with the tools we have at hand, and when researching it's very common to start off with as few variables as possible because the simpler the object of study is, the easier it is to analyze it. But just because you've chosen a set of aspects to begin your analysis, it doesn't mean that nothing else exists. Things you can't measure or fully comprehend can't be easily studied, but there's no logic in denying their existence just because you can't understand them.

So if anyone claims that logic says God/the afterlife/souls/anything doesn't exist, you can tell them that logic says nothing about that, and that it's just a belief like any other.

I agree I've always said that in a way science is rather faith based, because while science uses evidence and the scientific process to arrive at their conclusions, the bottom line is it takes a bit of faith to believe that nothing about their process is flawed in any way. When it comes to things that happened in the past, everything is a guess no matter how educated that guess is, for e sheer fact that since no one alive was actualy there to see it with their own eyes, you can't be 100% sure.

I believe that anything created by man is inherently flawed, and to believe in anything requires faith that you are right, since no one can be 100% sure of their beliefs being true.

[Dryk]

I've always said that in a way science is rather faith based

I very much agree with you because how do you know that humans are able to 'know' things?

You can't, and it is an assumption made by all scientists that things are knowable.

[Lady Vulpix]

You can't, and it is an assumption made by all scientists that things are knowable.

I'd say it's an assumption made by most people. Perhaps everyone but Socrates and a few others.

[Dryk]

I'd say it's an assumption made by most people. Perhaps everyone but Socrates and a few others.

From what I understand, this was actually one of the first questions philosophers turned to but I may be wrong.

Evolution does not contradict religion at all. Evolution does contradict Creation stories that were cultural, rather than religious, but were since adopted by religions as a means of explaining why they were there and, more importantly, indoctrinating other cultures into their religion (for example, both cultures believe that they were created by the force that ripped apart the sea, earth and skies, but one culture is religious and says that God was that force, and then tells the other culture this in order to indoctrinate them). After all, being a thinking species that demands an answer for everything, coming up with a brilliantly colourful fairy-tale when your culture or civilization puts forward the question 'How were we created' is a much better answer than saying 'I don't know, stop thinking about it and get back to building pyramids' or some other equally true answer.

Bingo.

[Jay Umbreon]

Get watching some of this guy

he talks the kind of total sense that I enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/patconde...19/y4mWiqkGy-Y

Nope, don't believe in a God
Don't really take a 'holy book' (in fact, an incredibly archaic, man-made load of bullshit) as possessing enough proof to sway me.
Also, each and every religion (hundreds) claim they're the RIGHT one...
how can this be so?

I believe we don't know enough about anything to be certain,
but that science provides the most convincing answers, for me.
and I get my good morales, simply from being a good person.
Religion serves me with nothing but a wishy-washy answer and light comfort
that we all live forever and have someone who loves us; but I'm a big boy, I don't
need to feel that comfort, if I can't see hard evidence for its truth.

e.g. ,The bible says the world is 6,000 years old
science has proven that to be wrong.

To me, organised religion is SO obviously a tool for controlling the masses
the greatest tool in fact, it works wonders.
or perhaps, a dillusional way of thinking to provide people who are scared of 'not knowing' and scared of dying with pathetically simple and 'reassuring' answers.

But I like cold, hard, truth.

And I can't see any in any religion.

So I say, we just dont know every answer (agnosticism), but that I definitely don't agree with any of the religions out there (atheism). And science, for me, is the true pathway we we should be rallying behind, in finding out where we all came from. Science constantly endeavours to provide us with new answers, based on empirical research and observation; the answers that old religious scripture provides, will never change, never update itself, yet will sadly brainwash the masses forever.