Is anyone here... - Page 4

I don't really have a religion

I prefer to just listen to others' opinions or beliefs and make my own judgment calls (:

i liked glow sticks response. Her mentality is one that will lead you closer to "religious truth" it is nearly impossible to reach nirvana or heaven because of our tribal (cultural) prejudices and our scholastic lazieness. what i meen is if i have not studdied and understood the religion of islam I can not dismiss it. If I have not read the bible and am not familiar with christian thought i can not dismissof it this goes for every religion in the world. people learn differently so one person may find christianity to be a good religion to ascend with while his neighbor will choose bhudism.
i was exclusively christian my self but the reason why i was exlclusively christian was because my parents were like wise and their parents and their parents before them. I was lucky enough to realise this and sat down to really study religious thought around the world as well as a healthy grasp of science and philosophy. I am not saying that i will necasarely reach heaven in this life time but I think that i am making good intillectual and spiritual progress.

in an infinite reality nothing is impossible

Oh... So I see.

I might have misinterpreted your previous statements about religious truth claims to that of being strictly impossible to tell if any are true. I would refer to this as being a strictly agnostic viewpoint that we 'cannot' know.

It seems to be that you're actually saying it's not really impossible to know the truth, but that it's difficult to search through 'all' religious truth claims with the short allotment of time we have to do so. Am I correct?

no religion is completely true though there are some that seem to come remarkebly close so searching for a true religion is folly while searching for truth within religion is a worth while pursuit. its very unlike for one to discover truth in regards to religion with out taking a some what dispassionate indiscriminate fashion.

while some of my views seem agnostic I couldnt call myself strictly agnostic although i think i once was I have been many things but never strictly one thing.

i my self dont worry so much about discovering religios truth any more I am imperishable i have never not existed. religious thought for me is more of a healthy mind expanding hobby.

I'm a muslim but believe in all three holy books, so really the term is monotheist. I know some of you are not down with muslims (her), but anyways im totally fine with the judeo-christian angles cuz its almost the same.
I guess your question was: Do u believe or not?

I am atheist or an atheist i forget how you say it, but have been now for 4 years and have no intention of changing my beliefs anytime soon, I used to be christian but then I started studying the bible more and decided why do i believe all this an have been atheist ever since

I used to be a fundamentalist christian, not any more, now I'm an evil atheist and I have unborn babies for breakfast.


now seriously... why do you ask?

Tibby asks who among us is a christian.
I offer a short dissertation on this question as I see it.

From: Biggles MSN Groups: Theism vs Atheism Sent: 12/3/2008 2:31 PM

                     PRIMISM is based upon the legitimate premise that all gods, ghosts, demons, spirits etc appeared as the desperate last resort of a primitive but burgeoning imagination in a hominid primate like Homo sapiens a few hundred thousand years ago.
                     Prior to this, the Universe was a pristine example of pure chaos evolving to cosmos that we perceive according to the laws of physics with no supernaturality about it, within it or supporting it. There was nothing but matter/energy, the space it occupied and the physical laws that they abided by. This was the original and prime condition of the Universe
                     This view is simplicity itself and therefore wears the imprimatur of William of Ockham. Religious belief in gods etc can make no such claim. This view is subject to scientific falsification or verification. Religious beliefs in gods etc here also is barred from such a claim. This conviction has a precedence measured in billions of years over that of religious beliefs in gods etc which is measured in a few hundred thousand years.
                     Humankind has not outgrown its primitive superstitions. In the deep recesses of its brain, inherited from our non-human ancestors, are instincts and dark things of which it is quite unaware and which rarely surface over our more conscious self. Religious belief plumbs those deep recesses. It is the expression and recognition of fear of the unexplainable. That fear was exploited by a low pecking order opportunist and he rose rapidly to the heights of that order.
                     Humankind is not as far removed from its primitive genesis as it would like to think. It has some distance to travel before it can shuck off the yoke of obsequious religiosity. The result is as inevitable as is the occurrence of life all through this Universe. If our genetic diversity is sufficient to the task we have an untold number of years to become those gods that we dream of and yearn after today.
                     Religion as a human phenomenon will have an age assigned to it in human history but there will be little of significance to mark it.
                     From thence forward all civilisation will be atheistic or PRIME. Providing we survive the primitive superstitious fears we inherited, we will continue into the original and prime condition of the Universe having survived a great test of our worth to endure and progress into the Cosmos. It is interesting to speculate rationally and logically. It is vital to our interests that we so speculate. It is the only way that our progress can be assured. It will not be accomplished on our knees tearfully beseeching guidance from a figment of shackled imaginations.
 
Biggles, Prime
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I have been known and am known as Biggles, and as Biggles, Prime in several other discussion groups. I no longer contribute to the above group as it is dominated by a couple of hysterical fundamentalists who don't even know the rules of conduct as they apply in FvA [Fundies vs Atheists], though I have not terminated my membership.
I subscribe to the principles and aspirations of EXTROPIANISM [try a Google] as well. I see it as the only rational path of progress for humankind.

WORSHIP THE ALMIGHTY HUB-CAP!!! lol
I'm Catholic but i had very good theology teachers who tolds us about other religions and of the short comings and mistakes of the church throughout its history. But really why are you asking? I just want to know is all.

(as some of the older members here may already know)

I was raised christian myself and bought every word of it hook, line, and sinker. And that myth/delusion/whatever you like to call it, served me well until I was sixteen. I know some people can take years to move away from religion, but I gave it up fairly quickly (over the course of a couple months). At first it was because I recognized that religion was a stumbling block on humanity's path to progress. And from there it was no stretch to recognize that the christian dogma I had been fed as a child was a load of crap (creation, the great flood, etc..., take your pick, I had read about them all). I have always been driven by an incessant need to discover what is true. To learn all I can about the reality in which I find myself. And while there is no shortage of holy men with their holy books who claim to have all the answers to the questions that I may ask, I find that science, with it's simple ideal that the truth is never embarrassed or offended by honest inquiry, is the only place to turn with questions.

In short, I am an unrepentant and proud atheist. Giving up religion was one of the most liberating decisions I have ever made. To be able to answer "I don't know" when faced with a question has made me much wiser.

quote:

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Humankind has not outgrown its primitive superstitions. In the deep recesses of its brain, inherited from our non-human ancestors, are instincts and dark things of which it is quite unaware and which rarely surface over our more conscious self. Religious belief plumbs those deep recesses.

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quote:

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It is vital to our interests that we so speculate. It is the only way that our progress can be assured. It will not be accomplished on our knees tearfully beseeching guidance from a figment of shackled imaginations.

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In the top quote you advocate religious belief and in the bottom one you condemn it. I agreed with your post up until the last paragraph which seems to be contrary to the rest of the post.

It makes sense to me. I think what he is saying is:

We still have needs and fears and psychological aspects of our minds that are at worst unevolved. At best vestigial.

And that at this point in time we still suffer from so many irrational needs, fears, wants, desires etc from our primitive darker self. And religion is one of the main ways we use to deal with them.

But in order to advance and evolve, we have to work hard to expunge those primitive, vestigial elements deep inside us.

And we will never do so so long as we chain ourselves with imaginary entities and allow them to guide our lives.


Its easy to not need to think, when you have a manual which is so "right" and so beyond scrutiny that all you need to do is follow it and never question anything, as all the answers to life are already written in it.

Its easy to not better yourself, when this life means nothing and the "real" life begins only when we leave it.

Its easy to not be accountable for your actions, when you can justify them as the will of an all powerful entity whose word is above all others.

Its easy to not need to better yourself, when you have a book/ books with self proclaimed experts telling you that habitual actions and lip service are the only things you need to do to live a good life.

Its easy to evolve no deep conscience or feelings toward others, if all you have to do is say sorry to someone who may or may not exist for actions against those who do exist.

These are all a result of that deeper darker side to us. The side that no matter what logic and no matter what proof is given to to us- will STILL believe the earth was built in seven days.

I'm Agnostic...But slightly slopping towards Athieism... So many flaws in so many religons its hard to say that any of them are true.

I disagree chained. I want to embrace my primitive aspects - I want to unlock them. I think a lot of us today repress these parts of ourselves - that are a part of all of us. We have the unique opportunity to be CONSCIOUS during these primitive feelings/instincts.

I've heard about studies done in primitive tribes and in this one the people, every morning, would either spit or blow into their hands and offer it to their god who they believe is the rising sun. When the person doing the study asked them what they were doing, they were confused. It was done unconsciously for them - there was no thought or recognition given to this practice - they just DID it - they weren't conscious of it.

This religious impulse in the primitive man is very much still with the "civilized" man but in the latter it is mostly repressed because it's not "civilized."

Did you know that a fetus developing in the womb goes through all the evolutionary stages that brought humans to the advanced state we're in? Don't you think also the psyche goes through the evolutionary stages as well?

What happens when you repress something that's a part of your being? It starts oozing out wherever it can in the form of a neurosis. In extreme cases of repression, a dissociation can occur between one consciousness and the person can flip in and out between the two. The primitive man would say this type of person has lost their soul.

Why are most of us either semi or unconscious for 1/3 of our lives? Why do people who are very bored and depressed tend to sleep more than others? Why do dreams tend to be fantastic compared to our mostly mundane, unmagical, scientific waking lives?

Can you name ONE thing in this universe that doesn't exist or happen for a reason?