Before I start this post I wanna say that I'm not out to say people can't practice religion, believe in god etc. There might be another thread asking the exact same thing but ah well, I'm too lazy to check. I don't believe in god but I want to know how people can. It seems like more and more people are tuning to science for their questions and answers and when you hear about theories some people have about god (creationists mostly) they seem really stupid, in my opinion anyway. How do people still keep their faith and follow something blindly? This is a video showing how stupid some theories are.. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4yBvvGi_2A"]YouTube - Atheist Nightmare[/ame]
There are many theories on both camps (atheist/theist) that don't abide by logic. For instance, you cannot prove the existence of God. Only God can prove His own existence. I believe many people follow certain religions because they believe they can earn their way to paradise or heaven. It's something they deserve. I disagree with this, but I don't negatively judge them for their beliefs. Everyone has faith in something, such as the universe being eternal. Science cannot prove this primarily because they can't reproduce eternity. -mrgoodsmoke ^ that is why religion and faith seem so irrational to people who only believe in science.
I think people believe in god because it gives them comfort to speculate that this life is not all there is; it may give believers hope and meaning as well by relating to the stories of the sacred texts. Also, there is a lot of negative things that go on in this world, and I think people feel that there has to be a final judgement for those who are considered evil.
Fair enough, thanks for the reply. It made me think for a while. If you don't mind me asking, do you have a belief in an 'All-powerful god' and that he created all life or do you incorporate science into your beliefs like god created the 'Big Bang'? Or is it just that you follow the guidelines set out in holy books like the 10 commandments? Also, something that strikes me about a lot of religions is that in history they have caused a lot of wars fighting over the right religion to follow even though they are meant to be peaceful religions. Another example could be the extremists which must be in every religion but what about extremist muslims who think its right to kill for their god. (Don't quote me on the details like but its something along those lines) What is your view on the people who believe in their religion so much that its worth killing innocent people?
I personally believe in the God of the Bible. Many people have misconceptions of what that means. I follow Jesus Christ, that's it. Yeah, I tend to not judge a religion by the religious (to me that's a form of ad hominem). Instead of attacking the religion by the religious, attack the religion itself. Their doctrine I'm actually studying Islam right now and they believe they get rewarded for martyrdom. I don't agree with that, but I can't change their beliefs so I don't worry about it too much
I simply cannot reach a conclusion in regard to this question. I am an agnostic, so I do not think that the existence of god can be proven or dis-proven. However, I personally think it highly improbable that a god does exist. And I also believe that science has many flaws. Many people think that science is an unbiased process. This is very far from the truth. Scientists are human beings, and, as we all know, humans always approach situations with different goals and biases in mind. In the end, science is just another ideology just like religion. This cannot be ignored. I think these people are mentally unfit to live on this earth.
Not speaking for everyone obviously but alot of people believe in a god because they feel it furthers their understanding in life, science and reality in general. To understand that this reality was designed and created is to understand that you can go out and figure out how literally every single thing works eventually given enough time because everything will follow some pattern of design which is (usually) easily recognizable to us, depending on it's complexity. It also brings you to a new sense of awareness and understanding. To look out in nature and see all the incredibly complex and ingenious engineering that went into designing even the smallest of organisms, it really makes you stop and ask what kind of mind was actually capable of this?
Do you believe that god put everything on this earth (including fossils to test people's faith) or can you believe that everything happened by chance and earth was just a perfect accident? Either way the earth (and the universe) can be seen as amazing things, imo.
It could also make you stop and think at how amazing it is that the world was created by complete accident and that nature itself created amazing things by having to adapt and evolve to their surroundings. (From a scientific viewpoint)
Most dont believe that, just like most believers of the bible dont believe that stoning children is pardoned by god, or we'd have nearly 2 billion suicide bombers and over 2 billion child stoners. heres a link explaining jihad, which is related: The concept of Jihad in Islam and like many religions, the books contradict themselves. i believe, as i research and make my way through the Koran, that it preaches love. according to a speech i watched, another verse says to kill a single person is as if youve killed the entire human race. ya gotta pick, and the crazies will do what they do. so, in effect, to judge the barbaric practices of middle eastern islam on islam, is the ad hom you mentioned. heres a video, if you have 20 minutes, on the difference between culture and religion are in islam: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tUn_uoYKoE]YouTube - Mustafa Akyol: Faith versus tradition in Islam[/ame] good luck on your research to briefly answer the OP, creationists are generally so because they dont listen. i believe they should'nt be taken seriously in political or social discussions. facts tend to fuck creationists shit up, but they just protest science ever more.
haha, I suppose if you want to be extremely pessimistic about the obvious design presented to us in nature then yeah sure, why not? lol I just wonder, have you ever seen a painting without a painter, or a book without an author, a musical piece without a composer? Why would you ever assume there's a creation with no creator?
Those examples are irrelevant because we have seen people actually create these things, and we didnt see god create earth. We dont assume theres creation w/out creator, we don't believe untill we see the creator create something. on the question of how evident a creator is: How blind salamanders make nonsense of creationists' claims. - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine also, read a few of these pages. it should start with "the real 'miracle' is": http://books.google.com/books?id=bO...&resnum=2&ved=0CCQQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
It seems more believable (both of them seem pretty abstract) that it happened by accident instead of by a creator. How was my last post pessimistic? I find it amazing that nature has developed different ways to survive by using the simple method of trial and error (the survival of the fittest). Ultimately i think we are here to further the next generation, which does seem pessimistic but is more realistic than we are here for a different reason to any other species in the universe. That goal could be achieved by furthering the human race's understanding of the universe and finding out every single detail about our surroundings, like you said. Again, this is all my personal opinion.
This whole existence is indeed amazing however way you look at it. You either believe that you are the chosen creation of god (theism), or you believe that you are incredibly lucky to be alive (atheism). Being a skeptic, I am mystified all the time by the fact that I am very lucky to exist on this planet at this time. Not to mention that I exist as a higher-thinking human being. This is icing on the cake.
Yeah, I understand how divided the Muslim faith is, Sunni and Shia or Shiite are two huge sects. This does not change what the Quran and Hadith say about martyrdom. (4:74) (2:207). I don't make opinions based on 9/11 or other terrorism. I forge my opinions from their doctrine
Yet we don't have 1.8 billion martydons and over 2 billion kid killers, strange that the actions of modern humans are different than a couple verses of an ancient document... really? You've read the bible and are still christian? thats intense dude, god does some fucked up shit and u pray to him.
.a perfect accident. I'd have to be dumb, deaf and blind before I believe that. .this planet and everything on it is one huge coincidence. How convenient?
Yeah, some people say "there's too much suffering/killing/negatives going on in the world and if there was a God he wouldn't allow it." Bullshit. According to the Old testament he wiped out nearly everybody on the planet with a flood. He set up his only son for crucifixion. These are ruthless acts. What's the alternative? Pray to Allah? Pray to Darwin? Pray to the Sun? Pray to Stephen Hawking? lol