It bugs me that the science was the main arguement for you not believing in God, but moving on...I don't know about Christianity but I know in Islam the importance of knowledge and understand is highly recommended..I mean if it wasn't do you think the Muslims would have been able to build all these beautful mosques and buildings you see in muslims countries?! The architecture and the calligraphy you see on some of these buildings is mind blowing.....haha okay I'll stop now but bottomline you can believe the science and still believe in God...
Science isn't the only reason i don't believe in God...i just never have, and probably never will. Even when i was as young as 6 or 7, just didn't make sense to me. I only see religion as a product of human invention. That is the most logical answer for me. I merely use science as a way to explain the natural world around us.
Islamic? I have seen people praying in public...felt bad for the guy who had to kneel on the mall floor...ick. We have a tv show in Canada, called 'Little Mosque on the Prairie' :lol: Its a really funny show, about a muslim community....very popular too.
Religious ignorant people are usually quite convinced that their religion is the right one and the only one to go with (that includes muslims, christians AND atheists). Which brings me to my next point: intolerance.
well, there are nut bars in every walk of life.
What I find interesting here, from my prospective, is that some of the people who no longer believe in God were raised Catholic. And I also can see that some of you are our future scientists
and good for you
. But is the reason you don't believe in God anymore a failing on your churches part to not let you have an open mind.
that sounds about right, the catholic church is very good at chasing people away :lol: I think catholics are just more progressive, and the whole thing about birth control, divorce, oh and the high rate of child abuse from priests..which they do nothing about. Lets face it, religions need to update their policies a bit, sometimes i feel like we are talking huge steps backwards with human societies.
behaviour evolves just like physical traits. especially as a social species that lives in family units, there is more group selection. i once had someone ask me since i dont believe in god, what stops me from stealing and murdering people? probably the stupidest question i have ever been asked. other social animals have expected behaviour and consequences when these 'rules' are broken. we merely call them morals, ethics, or laws because we have the language to do so.
i did not abandon my faith because the catholic church failed me in some way, i just never had it. i was in catholic school from kindergarten to grade 4, and i never believed what i was being taught. in church, i never prayed, never thought there was anyone listening who cared. i also never kneeled when you are supposed to in catholic mass, i refused to do it. but my mom made me when grandma was with us.
while i couldnt care less what other people believe, im not gonna lie, i do have a problem with the way some people interpret their religions. im not going to be accepting of people who use their religion to hate and discriminate a person for something they cant change. unfortunately this happens much too often. also people who use their religious texts to change or discredit science. sorry, but if you can push your id movement but ignore the fact the bible says the world is flat and pi=3 im not going to take you seriously. but im not going to bother you either.
Allmaple, you are my message board doppelganger :lol: That is my identical thoughts...you must read
www.fstdt.com too.
I have seen the argument many many times...that if we don't believe in God we will suddenly turn murderous and rape and kill babies :lol: Talk about fear propaganda to get people to stay in their religion. It doesn't work that way...we aren't free to do these things, because of our society, and biological urge to be apart of one. Not to mention, in US prisons, atheists only represent about 7% of the prison population. In the general population, they are around 17%. So statistically, atheists are more peaceful and less likely to break the law. Oops, there goes their argument.
I think it's pretty clear. The Bible wouldn't condemn someone to death and then let them into heaven.
Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable (Leviticus 18:22, NIV)
If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. (Leviticus 20:13, NIV)
Nowhere does it say that smoking is a sin, but you're supposed to worship the body that God gave you
It isn't that clear. There are problems with people using this argument against homosexuality. Leviticus is in the old testament, which also says its a sin to eat shellfish, women to cut their hair and slavery is ok! I was taught that only the new testament, ie Jesus message, is what the we should be listening to. Jesus never really said anything about homosexuality. You can't just pick and choose what things to follow in the bible.
Also, i have seen arguments that those lines don't mean homosexuality, but adultery. Language and phrases were different back then. Also, the bible wasn't written in english, its been translated. Never mind the fact that it was written by MAN, who always has another motive. So who knows what God really thinks (if he were to exist)...it just seems like such a small thing. Plus the bible was written in a time when scientific knowledge was so limited.
So far there haven't been any Catholics in here saying that as long as there's no proof as to what caused the Big Bang (only speculation, which it is), then they'll believe it was by God's hand and it's the "easy way out" to just accept whatever the scientists shove down our throats.
There's some theist-phobia going on in here and I'm sick of it. Being progressive isn't shooting down other people's beliefs.
er...we are not really talking about the posters in here, more about the fundies who DO actually do this. And that is a big turn off of religion for some people. Scientists shove down our throats? That sounds intolerant
Scientists don't shove anything, they merely experiment and present the findings. They don't care which way the research goes (for the most part, there is corruption in the scientific community), just what the evidence tells us.
