For a while I thought about the existense of God and the various beliefs about God and superior beings within many religions. Then the questions of why people base such a large part of their life on these relgions emerged. Then it sorta became clear to me, perhaps all religion surrounds a common mystical experiance, which leaves the individual fulfilled. That experiance is an essential part of their pysche, a sort of natural feeling that must be satisfied. People with strong beliefs do often find happiness and fulfillment in life and maybe thats part of the reason for the belief. Whether their specific deity exists or not is irrelevent, if they have acheived happiness then their life long search for peace, if not complacentcy, is finished. Assuming, ofcourse, that essentially mans life goal is to reach happiness.
All respect for you being a skater but about this thread sometimes when things around you that cant be explained people always try to find something that will make things make sence but still not quite explained it i belive in god actully allah im muslim hahah so belive in god to save the trouble of you wondering *how* a lot of things happend read the bible or any holy book and you will find things that will help you out Cheers
All the more reason to accept people for who and what they are. Yeah, since when do religions have flags? I thought that was NATIONS.
Religion saves me the trouble of wondering how things happened? Personally, I love philosophizing about life. It keeps me entertained and I love learning things. I certainly don't want to believe something because it's going to save me the trouble of thinking.
You'll notice that that flag has the words "Praise God", in arabic. Religion, Nationalism... they both come from the same disgusting dogma. Besides, nationalism isn't what makes you think you go to a paradise when you die. It doesn't teach you that death isn't the end.
lol No, I won't. I don't speak or read Arabic. You'll notice that the boy is wearing a Nike shirt probably made by some little kids in a Chinese sweatshop for dirt pay. Yeah, instead it tries to suggest that paradise means looking out for yourself and others associated with you at random thanks to your birthplace between two artificial lines.
Yeah but at the same time (i do agree with you); isn't there something to be said about parochial interests?
sam_spade wtf is that photo dude thats not cool!! its not like muslims are like that wtf its even forbidden for us to try a suicied bombing
Meant to illustrate how the concept of religion as a docile human experience can be true, but is by no means isolated. Attached to it, is a very ugly line of validation. Rebuttle to the OP's statements, which I largely agree with, but I feel lacks some vital perspective. Sorry if I offended you. But I did not strap a bomb to a child or take that photograph. Didn't say there were. Many, nay MOST humans who call themselves muslims are wonderful human beings with much to give and contribute to a productive society. It has nothing to do with Islam specifically, I can find similar examples in most (if not all) faiths and religions. It has to do with dogma and the dangers of credulity. I assume you refer to muslims when you say "us". It's very dependent upon which sect you subscribe to, and which Hadith you call valid and how you interpret scripture. It's also against the very doctrine of Christianity to kill, but yet the Crusades occurred under theological pretenses (for the combatants at least). Overall I thought it was pretty effective. No malice was intended, sorry if you felt that way. Yours Truly, Sam_Spade
I was introduced to the presence of God at a very early age. I believe that God exists in everything, as evidenced by the delicious complexity that is our existence. Thinking this is an accident is interesting, considering the obvious construction of things.
"God" is irrelevant because it is only a metaphor...when people say they have truly found God, what they are finding is a part of themselves.... <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 10"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 10"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CJUSTIN%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><style> </style><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 10"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 10"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CJUSTIN%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><style> </style> God is not a physical entity, and is therefore beyond the physical realm of the universe. God in its most primal form was merely a thought. As human thought evolved, so did the idea of God. God became a comfort and an answer to the things which were incomprehensible, yet God was also beyond our understanding. To draw a parallel, let me now move on to the human imagination. Thoughts that come in and out and form perceptions of our experiences all add up to shape us and our imaginations. But can you imagine your imagination? Can you perceive your imagination? No. The imagination is immeasurable. It has no boundaries, no physical laws it abides by, and it is home to an infinite amount of possibilities. The only limits the imagination of a human has are those which have not been broken by the experience of whichever particular human is in question. For instance, a person cannot possibly imagine the smell of a skunk until he has smelled it. Before the experience of smelling it, the smell itself was unperceivable. Therefore, each experience we have as humans expands our imagination from what it was before that experience, and it always has room for more expansion. So both God and our imaginations themselves are immeasurable. [FONT="] [/FONT]<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 10"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 10"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CJUSTIN%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><style> </style>[FONT="]With that idea in mind, the two concepts become one in the same. The idea of God came from somewhere, like I said before, to explain things that are impossible to understand, yet God himself is also beyond any means of understanding. Our imagination forms perception through experiences to help explain our world to us, but the imagination itself is impossible to understand as well. So then what is God a metaphor for? Our imagination. More specifically, God is a metaphor for the epitome of self. What I mean by the epitome of self is simply, God represents the innermost core of our imagination, stripped of the Ego. The sum of all the experience that has shaped us, which is why the more experience we have as humans, the more prevalent the idea of God becomes.[/FONT][FONT="] People say that they feel God in everything, but this is only because they themselves are a a part of everything...but there is a displacement in their emotion and perception that leads them to a metaphor of God instead of leading them to themselves...in spiritual practices and meditation, the metaphor of God is replaced by the self...the practices are essentially one in the same, but devoted religious followers tend to be unaware, and this has caused incalculable damage[/FONT][FONT="] God was the only possible way we could begin to perceive our own minds....but these days it is different, and God is becoming much more a figure beyond dogma - God is the life force, consciousness, etc... in my opinion and in theory, I believe that to hold a religious dogma true to your heart is actually a sign of weak mental evolution - once the world sees God for what it truley is, a metaphor, we will finlly be able to move forward - but religion works extremely differently when you move from the individual level to the level of the masses, so it will be quite a steep hill to climb if the day ever comes, for obvious reasons that we observe in our world every day [/FONT]
Group of people created by the group divided individually + inferiority complex --> superiority complex enforced (a.k.a. god is on our side) Realization that I'm a person + Realization that people have desires --> Reasoning of need for human rights and a feeling of personal responsibility God as metaphor for imagination. Very nice explanation. I doubt it is an "imaginary" God that would lead one to committing a suicide bombing. Rather, I'd think someone doing that would be responding to perceived more practical and down-to-earth conditions. In other words, just as we would not let a (non-suicide) bomber justify her crime by saying "God made me do it", we also cannot truly believe that she really feels that "God made me do it". If that's the case, being Muslim has nothing whatsoever to do with the suicide bombings, or at least we should understand the principle behind that view. It's about the person and their "real" environment (whatever real is).
Doesn't matter if you genuinely don't care about others, or you somehow think you're better or will stand to gain by their loss. There have been lots of intelligent psychopaths in humans history. Pick up Machiavelli.
Of what relevance is age? A plutocracy if there ever was one. So many words to represent a long-held human social status. The fundamental function is society is still the same.
I don't know. Tell me about the Bible. That is entirely a personal opinion, and your argument is entirely an assertion.