Religion (moved)
Discussion
Moved from Engines and Drivetrain.
Also try telling all the people who religion persecuted or killed over the years that it does not matter. People like Giordano Bruno who was burned at the stake in 1600 for correctly, and brilliantly, surmising that the stars were suns rather than just painted dots on the canvas of the night as religion claimed, perhaps even suns with their own planets and their own people living on them. Or Galileo who was subjected to house arrest for 10 years for discovering the 4 largest moons of Jupiter.
Religion is a pox and a plague. I'm mildly pleased to hear you don't actually believe in it but then I'm aware that the topic never came up with you or your first wife Mary and neither of you ever evidenced any interest in it as far as I recall. Notwithstanding of course that Mary ended up retiring from the world to an abbey but I think that was more for psychological than religious reasons. Anyway at least she seemed to have found some sort of contentment there.
PeterBurgess said:
I am an atheist Dave, I respect the rights of theists and admire the way most try and be good people, I am trying to be a better person because I want to be. I still think it is a shame you get so angry about what, if it doesn't exist, does not matter one jot.
Yes it does matter because as I have said, the mindset that allows belief in things for which there is no evidence also allows disbelief in things that do have evidence if those things conflict with religious dogma. We would not have Trump in the Oval Office if it were not for religous right wing nutters voting for him who know perfectly well he's a vile man telling themselves that it's god's will and god can use bad men to do good things.Also try telling all the people who religion persecuted or killed over the years that it does not matter. People like Giordano Bruno who was burned at the stake in 1600 for correctly, and brilliantly, surmising that the stars were suns rather than just painted dots on the canvas of the night as religion claimed, perhaps even suns with their own planets and their own people living on them. Or Galileo who was subjected to house arrest for 10 years for discovering the 4 largest moons of Jupiter.
Religion is a pox and a plague. I'm mildly pleased to hear you don't actually believe in it but then I'm aware that the topic never came up with you or your first wife Mary and neither of you ever evidenced any interest in it as far as I recall. Notwithstanding of course that Mary ended up retiring from the world to an abbey but I think that was more for psychological than religious reasons. Anyway at least she seemed to have found some sort of contentment there.
PositronicRay said:
The thing that surprises me about religions is every society has at least one, even the deepest rain forests, and they all seem to broadly similar.
I've come to conclude that it's just an artifact of the putting 2+2 together that makes us human. We infer meaning from everything. The same thing that makes us develop a theory of gravity after seeing an apple fall makes us view other races as obviously inferior, or disasters as divine retribution.PositronicRay said:
The thing that surprises me about religions is every society has at least one, even the deepest rain forests, and they all seem to broadly similar.
Most are just variations on the 'parent silently watching over you and will punish you if you do something wrong' theme though.PositronicRay said:
The thing that surprises me about religions is every society has at least one, even the deepest rain forests, and they all seem to broadly similar.
Humans have always had a spiritual need. Something inside us that makes us believe there is something else out there. We also have a conscience and find it hard to accept death.Its hard to believe we here because of a fluke and our life is inconsequential. So from that has spawned multiple thoughts, idea and faiths.
Many good, many bad and many bonkers.
Mignon said:
We would not have Trump in the Oval Office if it were not for religious right wing nutters voting for him who know perfectly well he's a vile man
Blaming religion for Trump getting into office is all well and good, but in a world without religion you'd just have the above. PositronicRay said:
The thing that surprises me about religions is every society has at least one, even the deepest rain forests, and they all seem to broadly similar.
Whilst I agree that religion seems to be one of the prerequisites that all civilisations develop, like currency, mathematics and other basic developments. However I disagree that they're all the same. Western religions, often called Abrahamic religions such as Judaism, Islam and Christianity are very similar because they all grew out of the same root religion, ancient Judaism. Eastern religions are quite different, Buddhism is an atheistic religion (there's no god in Buddhism), the relationship Taoism and Hinduism have with gods is radically different. Even ancient western religions (Greek and Roman) had very different gods which were more like petulant children rather than the father figure we associate with Abrahamic religions.
If people want to believe in some magic fairy in the sky then good for them, as far as I'm concerned it is complete BS gobs
te. Look at all of the problems religion creates in the world, completely nonsensical all because someone thinks theyre sky fairy is better than someone else's. Oh by the way im atheist if you hadn't noticed. However I do try and live by the saying of live and let live PROVIDED it doesn't negatively affect me or others for that matter, sadly I feel religion is something that negatively affects lots of people. All in my opinion of course, genuinely not meant to offend I just find religion baffling for more reasons than i can list.
te. Look at all of the problems religion creates in the world, completely nonsensical all because someone thinks theyre sky fairy is better than someone else's. Oh by the way im atheist if you hadn't noticed. However I do try and live by the saying of live and let live PROVIDED it doesn't negatively affect me or others for that matter, sadly I feel religion is something that negatively affects lots of people. All in my opinion of course, genuinely not meant to offend I just find religion baffling for more reasons than i can list.Edited by Berkshire bred on Tuesday 11th September 13:20
captain_cynic said:
PositronicRay said:
The thing that surprises me about religions is every society has at least one, even the deepest rain forests, and they all seem to broadly similar.
Whilst I agree that religion seems to be one of the prerequisites that all civilisations develop, like currency, mathematics and other basic developments. However I disagree that they're all the same. Western religions, often called Abrahamic religions such as Judaism, Islam and Christianity are very similar because they all grew out of the same root religion, ancient Judaism. Eastern religions are quite different, Buddhism is an atheistic religion (there's no god in Buddhism), the relationship Taoism and Hinduism have with gods is radically different. Even ancient western religions (Greek and Roman) had very different gods which were more like petulant children rather than the father figure we associate with Abrahamic religions.
Big GT said:
Humans have always had a spiritual need. Something inside us that makes us believe there is something else out there. We also have a conscience and find it hard to accept death.
Its hard to believe we here because of a fluke and our life is inconsequential. So from that has spawned multiple thoughts, idea and faiths.
Many good, many bad and many bonkers.
Humans have evolved to see patterns in things. Its hard to believe we here because of a fluke and our life is inconsequential. So from that has spawned multiple thoughts, idea and faiths.
Many good, many bad and many bonkers.
We often make spurious connections between unrelated events or see faces in inanimate objects (Pareidolia).
It's also very difficult for humans to conceptualise 'nothing'......so we fill that nothing with something to make it palatable.
PositronicRay said:
The thing that surprises me about religions is every society has at least one, even the deepest rain forests, and they all seem to broadly similar.
In that they attempt to impose rules, and explain the origins of the world to a pre-science audience, yes.When you get down to the detail, though, even the stops (major and minor) on the monotheistic Abrahamic timeline seem to be dissimilar enough to cause quite a bit of friction, even before you get past the rest of monotheism and off to polytheism or animism.
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