We hope you enjoy your visit.

You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
What are your religious views and why
Topic Started: Nov 5 2004, 12:55 AM (3,357 Views)
SyringeX
Member Avatar
Cool.
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Sheex
Nov 6 2004, 11:35 AM
The only ones ignorant are those that accept what they have been told about creation without question. :blush:

I've questioned it, and I've let my mind view the possibilty of other beliefs and religions. Yet Christianity to me seems to be the one that seems right.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
IFZ
Member
[ *  *  *  * ]
If your a Christan. Ypu probaly can wait to et to heaven. But you have to live a life first!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Innocence
我 百鬼夜行を逝
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
SyringeX
Nov 6 2004, 12:27 PM
God does not need to show solid evidence that he is here. There is evidence all around, only those too ignorant and plagued by their own views to realize it.

That's not true. Those who are more analytical (which is not a bad thing to be) have a hard time believing in something that seems like a mere legend that is too good to be true. Your phrase "only those too ignorant and plagued by their own views to realize it" can be used against the religious zealots as well.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Lucius
Member Avatar
Thrice promoted, twice retired.
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
I am an atheist, and firm in my convictions.

I was raised without faith ever being even really mentioned by my parents- I didn't know my mother was an atheist and my father a Roman Catholic until two years ago. I was exposed equally to many different faiths, yet out of them all I was an atheist before I even knew the term. I sometimes wonder if everyone else would do the same if raised similarly.

Note: By reading the following invisible text you agree not to be angered, as these are my honest feelings and not a judgement of you.

I feel religious faith is for those who cannot come to terms with the fact that their life is meaningless, they have no purpose, and that they will die and be gone. I don't mean to say that religion is a bad thing; for many people it allows them to lead happy and productive lives. For some of the more analytical and logical minds, though, it just doesn't work.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
SyringeX
Member Avatar
Cool.
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Quote:
 

I feel religious faith is for those who cannot come to terms with the fact that their life is meaningless, they have no purpose, and that they will die and be gone. I don't mean to say that religion is a bad thing; for many people it allows them to lead happy and productive lives. For some of the more analytical and logical minds, though, it just doesn't work.

Einstein, Newton, and Pascal were some of the most intelligent men on this earth. They too believed that there was no force that could just create us. At the end of their lives, they started to realize that more than a simple "explosion" had to of created us. There are too many complexities in this world to be created simply by science. There is a point to life, and everyone has their purpose, whether there be a God or not.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Trav-man
Member Avatar
That's Travtastic!
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Sheex
Nov 6 2004, 02:02 PM
Even though the serpent Satan persuaded Eve into eating that all-important apple it was she alone who decided to eat it. Humans were engineered by none other then God to be curious, vindictive and lustful, along with the dozens of other "bad" traits all of us possess. Eve made up her own mind rather than taking what God had said as the truth and was punished severely for it. God cursed the life he had created because He no longer had complete control over the minds of His creations.

So much for "God is good", eh?


We've already made it clear that Adam & Eve made their own decision. But it is worth noting that the serpent was there decieving them, telling them that it would be ok, and that it would make them like God.

But, God did not instill these bad things into us!! When God created man, man was sinless! He was blameless in God's sight. God separates himself from sin. (just like he did after man sinned, and how he separated himself from Satan and the angels that went with him when they rebelled.) Notice how God is actually walking in the Garden where Adam and Eve are. God would not be with them if they had lust and if they had all of these other evil traits. Man put that into himself. (With Satan right there, of course.) Only when Adam and Eve ate the apple, did sin enter into the human race. This is why the Bible says that we are all 'born into sin'. And that, all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God. I believe that somewhere, it says that sin is passed on to us through the 'seed of man'. (Not sure where, but I know I read it.) And, this is why Jesus was born of a virgin! That 'seed' was not passed on to him. God planned it that way. We need Jesus to be the bridge to connect us to God. Jesus was not born into sin because it had never been passed on to him. This is what made him different than anyone else, and what allowed him to conquer sin, and become the ultimate sacrifice! But, remember, that he did have temptations too...just like Adam and Eve did to begin with. The difference is, he did not fall into that temptation. Perhaps it was because he knew what his purpose was?

God created man that so he would have control over his mind. He punished adam & eve because they sinned, not because they used free will.

Quote:
 
Uh-huh. We all have equal chances in life and all that, right?

No. But the Bible does say that God will never give us something we can't handle.

Quote:
 
Every time my life becomes even remotely fun to live something occurs that ****s everything up. I'd say that if there is a God he laughs in my face.


Or maybe it's Satan trying to turn you even more away from God. Nahhhh....he would NEVER EVER LIE to you, would he?????

Quote:
 
Ah. And who is God to decide what we may and what we may not do?


Try, Alpha and Omega. Beginning and End. Creator. Savior. Jehovah. Author & Finisher of our Faith. There's a ton more but it would take me too long to type them all up.

Quote:
 
I guess that is where you and I differ.

I refuse to be a slave or a guinnea pig to some higher power.


I am a follower. Not a slave. Not a guinnea pig.

Quote:
 
You guys keep saying that God created us and He is our ruler, but there is no hardcore evidence of this, is there? There are things that hint at it and lean in that direction, but there is nothing to say to those who don't believe "See this? This is solid proof that He is real and our sovereign ruler". All of the existing evidence is debatable, and the story of Christ is just too hard for most people to believe. It's just another form of mythology to them. Not everyone is going to believe what you believe, so your opinion that God is our creator and ruler, though fine for you to live by, may not be for the rest of the population.

And I'm not meaning offence by this, it's only the opinion I've developed over years and years of being forced against my will to attend church.


The point here is not to debate factual evidence, because then we'll just end up with a Creation vs. Evolution debate. Most the people here already have some faith to debate with. Meaning that we share the belief that there is a higher power or a God and that makes it a lot easier to debate.

Quote:
 
The only ones ignorant are those that accept what they have been told about creation without question.


Do you think we're all stupid? Do you think that we never take the time to think out what our faith really is? You are the ignorant one here if you think that all of us Christians just sit here and believe every little thing that is told to us.

Trav
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Glitch
Blasphemer
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
SyringeX
Nov 6 2004, 01:19 PM
Einstein, Newton, and Pascal were some of the most intelligent men on this earth. They too believed that there was no force that could just create us. At the end of their lives, they started to realize that more than a simple "explosion" had to of created us. There are too many complexities in this world to be created simply by science. There is a point to life, and everyone has their purpose, whether there be a God or not.

Newton spent the later half of his life with a telescope pointed to the sky searching for God. Needless to say, he never found him.

Back 5000 years ago, there were many things we could not explain. We could not explain what the stars were, we could not explain how birds could fly, we could not even explain why an apple fell to the ground when dropped. Religion was created to satisfy our curiosity, to provide a solution for those problems before technology could.
However, it is plainly ignorant now to deny science, which has been thorougly researched and tested for thousands of years, and accept religion, which has little or no basis behind it. A good friend of mine (very religious) once said that religion was based more on faith than fact. And it is the truth.

And there is a point to life. The point to life is to reproduce and spread the species.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
TeeSee
Member Avatar
fish and chips.. yummy
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Lucius
Nov 6 2004, 06:16 PM
I was raised without faith ever being even really mentioned by my parents- I didn't know my mother was an atheist and my father a Roman Catholic until two years ago. I was exposed equally to many different faiths, yet out of them all I was an atheist before I even knew the term. I sometimes wonder if everyone else would do the same if raised similarly.

I, too, have never really had religion mentioned to me by parents, apart from them explaining to me all the different religions out there. My mum's mum is muslim and my dad and his parents are christians, but neither of them wanted to force me into believing what they believe just because they believe it. But, like you, after exploring many different religions I chose to believe none of them.

I don't call myself an atheist, though, because I do believe that there may be something out there, like a god of some sort.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
SyringeX
Member Avatar
Cool.
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Glitch
Nov 6 2004, 12:25 PM
SyringeX
Nov 6 2004, 01:19 PM
Einstein, Newton, and Pascal were some of the most intelligent men on this earth. They too believed that there was no force that could just create us. At the end of their lives, they started to realize that more than a simple "explosion" had to of created us. There are too many complexities in this world to be created simply by science. There is a point to life, and everyone has their purpose, whether there be a God or not.

Newton spent the later half of his life with a telescope pointed to the sky searching for God. Needless to say, he never found him.

Back 5000 years ago, there were many things we could not explain. We could not explain what the stars were, we could not explain how birds could fly, we could not even explain why an apple fell to the ground when dropped. Religion was created to satisfy our curiosity, to provide a solution for those problems before technology could.
However, it is plainly ignorant now to deny science, which has been thorougly researched and tested for thousands of years, and accept religion, which has little or no basis behind it. A good friend of mine (very religious) once said that religion was based more on faith than fact. And it is the truth.

And there is a point to life. The point to life is to reproduce and spread the species.

Where in science does it claim that there can be no God? Where in science does it say how we have the ability to think? To love? And to have our own personalities? I find it impossible that science could give us some of those features to our lives, as I said before, we are much to complex to be created by one huge coincedence.

Religion is based on faith more than fact. Yet, there is some proof that there is a God, hence when miracles happen. You can continue to believe that some particle exploded and created life, but what proof of there is that? Most theorys on how science created life is one, big guess. The more complex these theories become, the less likely they are to be true. In my opinion, it is ignorant to believe that science could have effect for everything that has happened in this world. What created this science, and the rules that science abides by? I don't think that science can just "science" itself into the universe.
Quote:
 
Newton spent the later half of his life with a telescope pointed to the sky searching for God. Needless to say, he never found him.

One will never find God by physically looking around. You need to open your mind and spirituality to see what is beyond our knowledge. He will never lay a solid fact in front of you, you simply need to have faith. But if you rather spend your time believing in science, and risking an eternity in pain, so be it.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
TeeSee
Member Avatar
fish and chips.. yummy
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
SyringeX
Nov 6 2004, 06:33 PM
I don't think that science can just "science" itself into the universe.

So how did God just "God" himself into the universe? :angel:
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
SyringeX
Member Avatar
Cool.
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
pimptm
Nov 6 2004, 12:38 PM
SyringeX
Nov 6 2004, 06:33 PM
I don't think that science can just "science" itself into the universe.

So how did God just "God" himself into the universe? :angel:

The beauty of the religion allows us to accept the fact that God always was. With science, there must be some explanation of how it got there.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Necromantic
Reverence Lost
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
atheist. For one thing...it's the kinda distrust of organized religion and the conflicts its made...though that wouldnt influence my spiritual beliefs in anyway. It's mainly due to the fact that well...there is no proof that in fact there is a god. No religion except for christianity actually recognizes Jesus as the "son of god", islam recognizes him as one of the last great prophets. Meh...


Not to mention that religion was created primarily for social control. ;)
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Glitch
Blasphemer
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Quote:
 
Where in science does it claim that there can be no God? Where in science does it say how we have the ability to think? To love? And to have our own personalities? I find it impossible that science could give us some of those features to our lives, as I said before, we are much to complex to be created by one huge coincedence.

Science does not plain-out say that there can be no God. There may well be, one way or another. However, until we find solid evidence that there is a God then I think there is no use believing in him.
Thought is a complex brain function, so is our "personality". I can't explain them but there is probably some 300 page thesis out there explaining them if you really want to read it.
Love is nothing more than the urge to reproduce, and the urge to socialize. Humans are by no means unique in the sense that we "love".
And it is very possible we were created by a huge conicidence. I'll explain later.

Quote:
 
Religion is based on faith more than fact. Yet, there is some proof that there is a God, hence when miracles happen.  You can continue to believe that some particle exploded and created life, but what proof of there is that? Most theorys on how science created life is one, big guess. The more complex these theories become, the less likely they are to be true. In my opinion, it is ignorant to believe that science could have effect for everything that has happened in this world. What created this science, and the rules that science abides by? I don't think that science can just "science" itself into the universe.

There are clues everywhere. There are clues in the atoms that we are made of. If you really understand the Big Bang, then it all fits together in the scheme of things. You'll see how it connects to our compositions and everything that exists nowadays.
And science is not like religion. You cannot say "I believe in science". Science is a study, a study of all things that exist. Religion itself is a science.
A theory cannot be a theory unless it has been tested thousands of times and proven to be true every single time. Yes, if tested another million times it may be proven untrue, but it is a formulation of what we have based on what we know.
And nothing is a coincidence in life. There is a probability for everything, no matter how small. Our Universe is likely to be infinite, and the matter in our Universe is likely to have been there for an infinite amount of time. In an infinite Universe, anything is possible. No matter how strange or unbelievable it is, mathematically, it is possible, and it is happening right now on some planet or galaxy far, far away from here.

Quote:
 
One will never find God by physically looking around. You need to open your mind and spirituality to see what is beyond our knowledge. He will never lay a solid fact in front of you, you simply need to have faith. But if you rather spend your time believing in science, and risking an eternity in pain, so be it.

The part about opening your mind is kinda hypocritical, in my opinion. You don't seem to be opening your mind to science at all.
And also, I think it's just plain out greedy to believe in God "just in case".

Science is everything. Humankind is at the base of a pillar of infinite knowledge. We are in a library with billions of books available at our fingertips, yet we have only opened the first one. To deny that that knowledge exists and anything will never be explained is to impede the progress of mankind on our golden path of discovery.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Necromantic
Reverence Lost
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
I applaud that argument.

This debate can go back and forth with no progress because it is simply a matter of your own personal beliefs, and a songle person would find it difficult to change anothers beliefs. Thus you cant really say that someone is wrong in their beliefs, though it is not wrong to question why they believe that. It is also the same with when you try to force your beliefs upon another. As i stated, it is a case of a persons personal beliefs, just because they differ from yours is no need to argue the contrary.


Glitch provided his argument based on how he sees things, defending his own beliefs. It would be much the same with Syringe. You can say that either of these is wrong, but you cant reall prove that theyre wrong. Although my beliefs coincide with Glitch's rather than Syringe's.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
AgnosticAngel
Caelestis
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Quote:
 
I feel religious faith is for those who cannot come to terms with the fact that their life is meaningless, they have no purpose, and that they will die and be gone. I don't mean to say that religion is a bad thing; for many people it allows them to lead happy and productive lives. For some of the more analytical and logical minds, though, it just doesn't work.


I had a similar upbringing but I turned to the Christian Church on my own in 2nd or 3rd grade. There was a church near my school and I started going every tuesday (as my parents didn't go on sundays and tuesdays I could walk from school). I was very religious - I felt halloween was wrong (yeah I was a weirdo). My parents NEVER brought me up believing or 'convinced' me to go to church, it was all my choice. Once I hit high school I questioned those beliefs and eventually it all fell apart along with a lot of things going on in my life at the time, I turned to logic and reason and that's where I am now - studying genetics and such.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Join the millions that use us for their forum communities. Create your own forum today.
Learn More · Register Now
Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · Community Chat · Next Topic »
Add Reply