seankane said:
a lot of you are saying a lot of dumb shit here, so i'm not going to bother with it. i'm going to respond to danny's shit since its actual based in logic.
And how is it stupid to not believe in a God?To me, I don't see how anyone can possibly believe in a God. I don't see how someone could believe in a God that kills millions of people in their holy book (Christianity), that is a proponent of martyrdom and tells you to fight and start wars over your religion in your holy book (Islam), I don't see how someone could believe in a God period. I understand the argument, "well where do we come from then if there's no God." This is where we need to be humble and work towards discovering that truth, when you're satisfied with the belief that God made humans and all living creatures in his own image, then that leaves no reason to pursue DNA study, to pursue projects like the Human Genome Project, it makes a mockery out of science and as a result will hinder our knowledge of the world around us. If Christianity bigotry and dogma was never around, we may have discovered the structure of DNA 500 years, we may have had a complete understanding of Darwinism in the year 1,000. Religion superstition hurts our progress in science and medicine, and it is dangerous.
I think that's an excellent theory. Yet, it would never satisfy Christians. The idea of an afterlife ultimately helps people cope with their present life in hopes of a perfect afterlife. For instance, a mother who loses her children has that hope of being reunited with her children in the afterlife. The rich business man who loses everything and is poor the rest of his life has that hope that he will have a perfect afterlife. However, this is false hope, just because something sounds good and comforts us does not make it even remotely true. There is absolutely no evidence for an afterlife.
But why believe? Why do you have to believe? There is no basis, no evidence, and no reason in religion whatsoever. As the two famous quotes say, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, therefore what can be asserted without proof can be dismissed with proof.
1. why is it so hard for atheists to understand the concept of faith? you don't have to have blind faith in things, but you have to accept that other people do. that's what faith is...
2. this is probably my biggest issue with your argument and the argument of many atheists: GOD DID NOT WRITE THE BIBLE. do not quote the bible, torah, quran, or any other religious text saying how fucked up christianity is. PEOPLE WROTE THOSE BOOKS, NOT GOD, so obviously they're flawed. atheists citing the bible as false are just as wrong as christians citing the bible as true.
3. whats your issue with the idea of an afterlife giving people hope? i don't get what point you're trying to make. i agree, the idea of going to heaven floating on a cloud and having eternal life, in the literal sense, is bullshit. but if christians want to believe them and it gives them reason to live a good life, i think that's pretty awesome. false hope is better than no hope. a christian may live their whole life attempting to be a good person to get to heaven. say they die and there is no heaven, what has happened? one person lived a good life instead of being a dick like most of society. what's the issue here?
4. why not believe? there is no proof or evidence god doesn't exist. so if belief in a higher power will make your life better, i think you'd have to be a masochist not to believe in god.
5. the whole argument of religion is COMPLETELY FUCKED. who gives a shit what other people believe? to each his own. if you believe in god, good for you. if you don't believe in god, good for you. all that matters in life is that you're a good person no matter what you believe (also one of jesus's main teachings, by the way).
so everyone needs to respect what other people believe and not try to force your opinions down each others throats. that goes for christians, jews, muslims, atheists, everyone. life your life, believe what you want, and don't criticize the beliefs of others.
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1. of course I accept others faith, I accept whatever anyone wants to believe, I don't accept it when it hurts the progress of medicine and when it's used to justify war, when I say the world would be better without religion, i mostly mean organized religion, i would never discriminate against someone because of their beliefs.
2. your right, God did not write the bible, but others wrote down what God supposedly did. If you read a history book and it says Hitler killed a million people, just because Hitler himself did not write those words down on paper the fact still stands that others are recording what supposedly happened.
3. again, if someone needs that hope of an afterlife to live a moral life, then by all means religion is doing good in this sense. however, i think it's sad that others need to cling to something like that to be happy and live a good life. our world is beautiful and incredible, i don't know what else you could want.
4. why not believe that there's an teapot floating around the sun that's so small you cannot see it? if i tell you this, you can't prove me wrong, just as I can't prove it's true. this is where reason comes in and we must make decisions based on what we know about the world.
5. as I said before, i have complete respect for others and their beliefs, but come on man, this is a religion thread on SR haha, i don't feel the need to be as sincere as I am with an adult i'm discussing something with.