Home » General Discussions » Heated Discussions and Debates » When did you become a Insert-Religion-Here?
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| Re: When did you become a Insert-Religion-Here? [message #443005 is a reply to message #442990] |
Thu, 20 January 2011 07:43   |
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GEORGE ZIMMER
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| R315r4z0r wrote on Wed, 19 January 2011 21:59 |
Religion was used to bring hope where there previously was none. That is what helped a lot of people get through tough times in the past. In the face of peril, they still had something to bring them hope.
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because animals are depressed not knowing where they came from, right?
Toggle Spoiler| Scrin wrote on Sat, 24 January 2009 13:22 |
| cAmpa wrote on Sat, 24 January 2009 12:45 |
Scrin, stop pming people to get the building bars.
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FUCK YOU AND THIS SHIT GAME WITH YOUR SCRIPTS!!! I HAVE ASKING YOU AND ANOTHER NOOBS HERE ABOUT HELP WITH THAT BUILDING ICONS FEATURES FOR YEARS, BUT YOU KEEP IGNORING ME AND KEEP WRITE SHIT, SO BURN YOU AND YOUR ASSLICKERS FRIENDS, THIS TIME I'M NOT COME BACK!!!!!!!!!   
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| Re: When did you become a Insert-Religion-Here? [message #443009 is a reply to message #443008] |
Thu, 20 January 2011 10:37 |
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Spoony
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animals don't really know they're going to die.
the idea of being judged by a god after death certainly doesn't seem a hopeful idea to me, especially given the absolutely monstrous depiction of that god in both the bible and the quran.
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I believe religion explains how we came to be, at its core. But then it has been twisted, and used to control, when in reality, I think it should liberate us, and instill a unifying commonality amongst humanity.
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What do you mean by "at its core"?
and may i suggest a simple thought experiment. whenever you find yourself making a statement like this, or reading one, swap the word "religion" for any of the following
Scientology
Wahhabi Islam
the Westboro Baptist Church
the worship of the Emperor Hirohito
the personality cult of Kim Jong-Il
and see if it still sounds the same
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Many creation stories, ranging from aboriginal to Abrahamic share so many similarities, that I am inclined to think there is a supreme being or creator out there.
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and the idea that the idiots who wrote those demented babblings actually discerned something supernatural makes more sense than that they - to throw another possibility out there - plagiarised?
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Renedrama [ren-i-drah-muh]
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| Re: When did you become a Insert-Religion-Here? [message #443012 is a reply to message #443011] |
Thu, 20 January 2011 10:52 |
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Spoony
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only when they're dying. not when they're well, unthreatened and a long way away from the end of their natural lifespan.
Unleash the Renerageâ„¢
Renedrama [ren-i-drah-muh]
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| Re: When did you become a Insert-Religion-Here? [message #443020 is a reply to message #443009] |
Thu, 20 January 2011 12:32 |
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nikki6ixx
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| Spoony wrote on Thu, 20 January 2011 18:37 |
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I believe religion explains how we came to be, at its core. But then it has been twisted, and used to control, when in reality, I think it should liberate us, and instill a unifying commonality amongst humanity.
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What do you mean by "at its core"?
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At its core, religion teaches us that all humans are children of one creator, be it the Abrahamic 'God' or the Haida's 'Raven.'
War, poverty, and all the evils of the world would likely not be the problems they are today if humans believed we were all the same.
Unfortunately, because the 'word of God' has been twisted by people who used it to serve their own selfish purposes, which has only lead to war, and greater poverty.
| Spoony wrote on Thu, 20 January 2011 18:37 |
and may i suggest a simple thought experiment. whenever you find yourself making a statement like this, or reading one, swap the word "religion" for any of the following
Scientology
Wahhabi Islam
the Westboro Baptist Church
the worship of the Emperor Hirohito
the personality cult of Kim Jong-Il
and see if it still sounds the same
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Which is why I said in my first post, and just above that the word of 'God' has been twisted to suit the purposes of individuals.
I'm only approaching the subject from a pragmatic point of view. People want to know where they came from; however, being humans, they simply cannot rationalize that they originated from a single-celled bacteria in a scummy pond, because that explanation is not fantastical enough. Humans think they're totally 'hot shit.' Perhaps it's just self-fulfillment, although aboriginal religions do place equal weight on humans, and their surroundings.
My take on the creation story is that humans then, and still today are not mature enough to realize that our 'creator' was either through chance events, or some kind of extra-terrestrial being.
Hence why I'm slightly religious or spiritual. I think there was some sort of alien component, and seeing as our planetary backyard is only a microcosm of 'space,' I cannot rule out that possibility as that'd be foolish. Maybe I am a victim of that self-fulfillment prophecy too.
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Many creation stories, ranging from aboriginal to Abrahamic share so many similarities, that I am inclined to think there is a supreme being or creator out there.
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and the idea that the idiots who wrote those demented babblings actually discerned something supernatural makes more sense than that they - to throw another possibility out there - plagiarised?
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It's entirely possible, and the likely answer.
But it's also amazing that such a story could weather tens of thousands of years of migrations out of Africa, and into Europe, Asia, and then the America's. This is why I'm fascinated with this aspect of religion because even if it was all made up, it has carried with us up until this day. That says something about humanity, for better or for worse.
Like I said previously, 'God' may very well be when 'humanity' finally matures and finds itself.
Renegade:
| Aircraftkiller wrote on Fri, 10 January 2014 16:56 |
The only game where everyone competes to be an e-janitor.
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[Updated on: Thu, 20 January 2011 12:45] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: When did you become a Insert-Religion-Here? [message #443021 is a reply to message #443020] |
Thu, 20 January 2011 13:27 |
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Spoony
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| nikki6ixx wrote on Thu, 20 January 2011 13:32 |
At its core, religion teaches us that all humans are children of one creator, be it the Abrahamic 'God' or the Haida's 'Raven.'
War, poverty, and all the evils of the world would likely not be the problems they are today if humans believed we were all the same.
Unfortunately, because the 'word of God' has been twisted by people who used it to serve their own selfish purposes, which has only lead to war, and greater poverty.
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oh yeah? which religion? the bible and the quran contain a great deal of hate speech and warrants for violence. these aren't put there by the bin ladens of this world; they're right there in the holy books.
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| Spoony wrote on Thu, 20 January 2011 18:37 |
and may i suggest a simple thought experiment. whenever you find yourself making a statement like this, or reading one, swap the word "religion" for any of the following
Scientology
Wahhabi Islam
the Westboro Baptist Church
the worship of the Emperor Hirohito
the personality cult of Kim Jong-Il
and see if it still sounds the same
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Which is why I said in my first post, and just above that the word of 'God' has been twisted to suit the purposes of individuals.
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oh dear. check the five examples i mentioned.
scientology - the original founder L. Ron Hubbard very obviously was a conman. it's plainly a racket and was originally meant to be.
wahhabi islam (the saudi arabian strain) - of all the islamic denominations, this one is pretty much the closest interpretation to the quran and hadith. if you wanted to make a list of all islamic sects in order of how much they've "twisted" the original "word of Allah", this one would probably be most innocent of the charge.
westboro baptist church - their beliefs, absolutely despicable as they are, are firmly rooted in the bible. read the old testament; god is very quick to slaughter innocent bystanders on a whim, often because someone nearby was "sinning" - and it certainly defines homosexuality as a sin.
cult of emperor hirohito - well, the emperor claimed to be a god, literally, so you can't really say this is twisting the word of god... similar deal for kim jong-il and kim il-sung. it's officially claimed that they're divine beings.
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Many creation stories, ranging from aboriginal to Abrahamic share so many similarities, that I am inclined to think there is a supreme being or creator out there.
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and the idea that the idiots who wrote those demented babblings actually discerned something supernatural makes more sense than that they - to throw another possibility out there - plagiarised?
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It's entirely possible, and the likely answer.
But it's also amazing that such a story could weather tens of thousands of years of migrations out of Africa, and into Europe, Asia, and then the America's. This is why I'm fascinated with this aspect of religion because even if it was all made up, it has carried with us up until this day. That says something about humanity, for better or for worse.[/quote]
if you remember the despicable way most religions propagate - by targeting the unformed minds of children and by threatening non-believers with extravagantly violent punishments - the mystery vanishes.
and we're not talking about a story surviving all this time; look how many times the major religions have schismed in the last few centuries.
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Like I said previously, 'God' may very well be when 'humanity' finally matures and finds itself.
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i'm not sure why you would call such a process 'god'.
Unleash the Renerageâ„¢
Renedrama [ren-i-drah-muh]
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1. the inevitable criticism one receives after doing something awful
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| Re: When did you become a Insert-Religion-Here? [message #443064 is a reply to message #443059] |
Fri, 21 January 2011 21:54 |
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Dethdeath
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| HaTe wrote on Sat, 22 January 2011 02:35 |
If there truly is a god....I dare anyone to tell me why he's letting people quite obviously destroy the earth at a spiraling rate (compared to that of other animals and their timelines). Seriously though, I'm not religious at all, so don't give me any bullshit from the bible, just give it to me straight up in modern english....why is this?
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Because god doesn't exist.
Evolution has all the answers anyone needs. The human race is here because out of all of the millions of animal species that inhabit our planet, the right circumstances and the right actions on the part of early human beings caused them to develop language. Those right circumstances include climate stabilization and the move to the top of the food chain because all of the more dominant species got wiped out.
After the circumstances allowed for it, human beings started living in increasingly larger groups and complex social interaction caused their brains to grow over the span of thousands of generations. Eventually their brains were large enough to permit a more complex language to be learned. The same part of the brain that handles language handles logic, which gave them the ability to try and make sense of everything they didn't understand. That's also the reason why throughout human evolution spirituality has always played a major role in human lives.
However, as technology improved, less and less spirituality was needed to make up for what humans did not understand yet.
So why does religion still exist to this day?
Ever since human beings developed the ability to think in logical terms, they have been trying to explain the world around themselves in a "story" that was supposed to make sense of their lives. Everything in this "story" had to make sense and as such the blanks were filled in with acts of god(s), until eventually only one god remained, the life and death god.
The purpose of this god is to give every life meaning. This meaning is so important that it cannot be taken away by death itself, which explains the need for an afterlife.
Religion is still here because many people do not find evolution to be a satisfying answer to the question of "why are we here" or "how did we come to be". The answer evolution gives to those questions is chance or randomness. Evolution being true means there is no special meaning to life and all of the memories you gather throughout your life are lost upon death. To a lot of people that is a very depressing thought, one they cannot relate to, because their life has to have a meaning.
Do I think religion will ever cease to exist?
Technology has enabled us to live good and meaningful lives without the need for a religion. Unfortunately religion is a stubborn beast and I suspect it will exist for many decades to come. Even if humanity finds out how the universe was created, there will still be plenty of people that need a supreme being in their lives to give it meaning.
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| Re: When did you become a Insert-Religion-Here? [message #443139 is a reply to message #443137] |
Sun, 23 January 2011 15:18 |
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Spoony
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it's alarming how much power religions have in this country. control over a school? wtf?
i've said all that before, of course.
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Renedrama [ren-i-drah-muh]
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| Re: When did you become a Insert-Religion-Here? [message #443147 is a reply to message #442594] |
Sun, 23 January 2011 17:29 |
bmr_71
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you should move to a real country then
oh and to answer the topic question, i became an atheist after 8th grade world history class (e.g. evolution, age of the planet, the thousands of religions that existed prior to christianity). i believed in god my entire life up until that point, where it just stopped making logical sense.
[Updated on: Sun, 23 January 2011 17:31] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: When did you become a Insert-Religion-Here? [message #443148 is a reply to message #442594] |
Sun, 23 January 2011 17:35 |
bmr_71
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oh as an FYI to anyone with a remote interest in the subject of religion... the oldest written text story known to man is the epic of Gilgamesh. the similarities between this story and the bible are gigantic. for those of you with any doubt or uncertainty in their religious standing, read the epic of Gilgamesh and learn that the bible is actually a modified fairy tale.
And I know that the existence of one story can't technically negate the truth value of the bible, but when something's staring at you in the face in this way you can't help but jump to the seemingly most logical conclusion.
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| Re: When did you become a Insert-Religion-Here? [message #443158 is a reply to message #443139] |
Sun, 23 January 2011 19:41 |
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snpr1101
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| Spoony wrote on Sun, 23 January 2011 16:18 |
it's alarming how much power religions have in this country. control over a school? wtf?
i've said all that before, of course.
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Cool story bro inc: TL:DR I was almost kicked out of a Catholic High school for refusing to give money.
Yessir. I first started at public school, moved to a Christian school from years 1-7. I then did 8-12 at a Catholic school. This was all due to the fact that my mother is religious and the highschool had a good rep.
At this catholic high school, the head of religion was a complete nut. I felt like I was in church all over again with the continuous attempts to get money from the students.
Every wednesday we had "assembly" or "parade" (whatever you guys call it, the whole school sits in an area and listens to announcements etc)
Every time the head of Religion got up to speak, it was always about giving money to the school for one cause or another.
The school would have a spring fair once a year; and every single student was given 5 raffle tickets they had to sell to anyone who could then use them to win prizes at the fair etc. The money was returned to the school to buy better equipment (so the story goes). Bear in mind that private high school fees are fucking ludicrous, not to mention the funding they also get from the government. They also sold artwork painted by students, with no money returned to them.
I was quite inclined to sell the tickets and be done with it; yet the way the school goes about the whole process annoyed me. Every assembly day, the head of religion would get up there and badger the students to death about selling the tickets. As if that wasn't enough, if you hadn't sold yours in the first week, you got called up to his office to explain why you hadn't sold them yet.
The conversation went something like this: (Condensed thoughts etc)
Teacher: So why haven't you sold your tickets yet?
Me: I don't like how I'm expected to automatically sell the tickets regardless of my choice in the matter.
Teacher: Do you have a problem with helping your fellow students?
Me: No I don't, but...
Teacher: Then why won't you sell the tickets?
Me: Because I don't have to sell them if I don't want to. I would sell them, but I don't like feeling forced to do so.
Teacher: Are you catholic?
Me: No, I'm not.
Teacher: Then why are you here? Why did you choose this school?
Me: Because it has good facilities etc etc.
It went on and on like this; he kept avoiding the fact that I did have a choice in the matter, and I did not have to sell the tickets if I did not want to. He began to question my "moral compass"; and eventually he concluded that I was a selfish person who cared not for others; and my enrollment at the school would be reviewed.
Relevance: This, among many other experiences have persuaded me to stay away from religion. Scientific fact and logic have played their part in the "Does God exist" debate.
If you choose to devote your life to a God or Religion, go your hardest. Just don't impose upon my life.
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| Re: When did you become a Insert-Religion-Here? [message #443161 is a reply to message #442594] |
Sun, 23 January 2011 20:53 |
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R315r4z0r
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You should have told him "not everyone is a master in the art of salesmanship"... just to see how he would react.
Or it would have been funny if you just gave the tickets away instead of selling them. Then you tell him that you gave them away and see what he would say. Cause he can't call you selfish for not demanding money from these people.
[Updated on: Sun, 23 January 2011 20:54] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: When did you become a Insert-Religion-Here? [message #443410 is a reply to message #443148] |
Sun, 30 January 2011 07:53 |
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Starbuzzz
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| bmr_71 wrote on Sun, 23 January 2011 17:35 |
oh as an FYI to anyone with a remote interest in the subject of religion... the oldest written text story known to man is the epic of Gilgamesh. the similarities between this story and the bible are gigantic. for those of you with any doubt or uncertainty in their religious standing, read the epic of Gilgamesh and learn that the bible is actually a modified fairy tale.
And I know that the existence of one story can't technically negate the truth value of the bible, but when something's staring at you in the face in this way you can't help but jump to the seemingly most logical conclusion.
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QFT
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| Re: When did you become a Insert-Religion-Here? [message #444447 is a reply to message #442594] |
Mon, 28 February 2011 12:24 |
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JohnDoe
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I wasn't baptized as a child because my parents wanted their children to make their own choice once they were old enough. We occasionally went to the Lutheran mass and I attended Lutheran classes until the 9th grade. In elementary school it was mostly stories from the bible, later on the curriculum focused primarily on general morality and learning about other religions. I went through the "religion is for the weak-minded and causes all the problems in the world" phase during puberty, which some grown folks here and elsewhere seem to be pitifully stuck in. Consequently, I switched to the ethics class, where we continued to learn about religions and morality, but with a much larger focus on philosophy. Kant's work on morality impressed me as most of it coincided with how I already felt, but lacked the eloquence to express.
So basically, I was never pressured to join any religion and had positive experiences with religious institutions. I'm trying to live a moral life to the best of my abilities and would consider myself spiritual to a degree, but I've never felt the need to be part of a religious community. I might still join one, but the existing ones always contain some major/minor aspect I don't agree with and it feels disingenuous to make such a deep, personal commitment if I'd need to add an asterisk.
I guess that makes me agnostic, because I'm definitely no atheist talking about evolution and then claiming to already know enough about body and spirit in the year 2011 to give a definite answer on what we are or can be. 
If there's one religion I really despise it's virtually every school of Islam for punishing apostasy with death...that's a tier worse than the "you're going to hell" Christlover crowd.
lol
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| Re: When did you become a Insert-Religion-Here? [message #444460 is a reply to message #444447] |
Mon, 28 February 2011 16:35 |
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Spoony
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yes, and islam says hell AS WELL AS death... it's axiomatically worse than just hell.
Unleash the Renerageâ„¢
Renedrama [ren-i-drah-muh]
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