[Closed] Religion. I'm not buying it.

This seems like a Monday morning kinda thread.

Is this because God created Bono?

There are 4200 different religions in existence. This tells me 2 things.

A. Followers of any particular religion have a 0.02% chance of being right.

B. It is part of human nature to want to believe in something.

This leads me to conclude the existence of any gods/supreme beings is highly unlikely.

Oh come on, it's two more months before you get to start your Christmas threads folks

I'd buy it for a dollar.

Reckon on making a profit by the end of next week.

Is this because God created The 'boro?

Has the heartless fiend no mercy or humanity ?

Is this because God created Bono?

Wasn't it the other way around?

Don't much see the point, not being a servile knee-dragger who wants to live as a slave to an imaginary celestial control freak.

I mean, fair enough, but neither do I and I'm religious.. Not sure which religions you've scoped out, you're really selling it to me though 😆

Sure,i'd love an omelette right about now.

True story....

My 6 year old son said to me

'I don't think the Google stories are real, are they?'

After some head scratching realised he meant Bible stories (very proud atheist dad moment)

Asked him why, ' because it says god created the earth and people but there were dinosaurs for a long time before people. '
My son knows a lot about dinosaurs.

(he's at a non religious state school btw, but obvs they teach some religious stuff, which I didn't know)

Allways been careful not to try and force my beliefs on him end never discussed God or anything.
So that he came to this conclusion himself very much pleased me.

Had a really good chat about God, Gods and why some people believe in them & some don't.

But I explained that the Google stories were very old, some from long before Christianity existed and that they were good stories anyway so worth listening to.

We live in a Godless universe and the world would be a better place without religion.

They have created some pretty epic and enduring literature, some nice architecture and even possibly some interesting mindfulness practices and music.
The festivals are pretty dated by modern standards though.

As for the sky fairies and the belief in your chosen doctrine's superiority?
I think that's only for the crazies.

My boys aren't that impressed by God, they seem to prefer Thor. Can't really blame them.

This leads me to conclude the existence of any gods/supreme beings is highly unlikely.

I'm not sure that conclusion is particularly accurate. I have no problem believing that humans are pretty low down on the "intelligent life spectrum" and there's likely to be others who are smarter than us in what is a really big universe.

No, my concern, if I was religious, would be whether I've got the right one/ones. I mean imagine spending your life worshipping Jehovah (or other god/gods), only to realise after it's all over that there's someone else above them? How do they ever know that the supreme being they worship is the one at the top of the pile, i.e. the supreme one?

Turtles all the way down, gods all the way up IMO...

I don't buy it either, but religion is the main reason for our ascendency to the top of the food chain.

I've never understood the fascination with a deity which may or may not exist and the cognitive dissonance required to explain away stuff like fossils, the big bang, evolution and that a bloody great piece of engineering works because it was designed and built properly, not because a supreme being has intervened.

I also get very annoyed with politicians who proclaim to be members of a faith, pretending that they have some sort of moral compass while they enact policies which spread misery, conflict and outright injustice. Like Theresa May and Dubya for example.

i suspect being able to stand on our hind legs and having opposable thumbs may have more to do with our success as a race than religion.

I also get very annoyed with politicians who proclaim to be members of a faith, pretending that they have some sort of moral compass while they enact policies which spread misery, conflict and outright injustice

It's a brilliant, probably the best, excuse for power hungry folks to grab and hold on to power. 'Twas ever thus.

I don't buy it either, but religion is the main reason for our ascendency to the top of the food chain.

It's more of a food web really, where you start and finish is up to individual perspective.

I'm not really sure we are that successful anyway, viruses/micro-organisms for example kill millions of people, animals, insects and plants. Insect species are vastly more successful than humans in terms of individual numbers and biomass. We're pretty good at messing things up for one species, only to realise that nature abhors a vacuum and makes up for it by providing shed loads of another species to fill the gap!

Religion is certainly a powerful tool to control the populace, whether that's beneficial to society or not is debatable. In some cases may well be, we do like order & structure in our lives, but the way is open for obvious abuses of power, organised religion, seems so much about having power.

The allegorical nature of religious texts is a brilliant way of ensuring that things can be interpreted to suit whatever agenda you want to push.

Watching the Handmaid's Tale at the moment, pretty horrifying, even more so as it's not so far far from the truth in some parts of the world.

Woppit, your God finds this thread most amusing:

[img] [/img]

🙂

Do not anger him, or thy foot shall stop tapping and thy DIN sockets shall oxidise.

Is that all religion? Norse mythology is pretty good - it's all about drinking and getting into fights. Die with a sword in your hand and you get into Valhalla - days are spent fighting and preparing for Ragnarok and the evenings feasting and drinking.

Is this because God created Bono?

hH did also give rock n roll to us.

Is this because God created Bono?

Judas Iscariot: "The trouble with this Jesus fella is that he thinks he's Bono".

' because it says god created the earth and people but there were dinosaurs for a long time before people. '

Because it's a well-known fact that religion = alternative to science, right?

On behalf of all the crackpot fundamentalists below, I thank you for the enlightenment.

[img] [/img]

I don't buy it either, but religion is the main reason for our ascendency to the top of the food chain.

There was me thinking it was because we hunt in wolf packs, but with tools eg rocks, spears, bows, muskets, rifles, machine guns.... nuclear weaponry etc etc.

But no, our ascendency to the top position of thr food chain - is because we like going to church on a Sunday.

Saxonrider... all those people either were or are closet atheists or just deeply confused and in denial. 😆

what gets me is that, if people are so religious and so certain there is a god/heaven, then why do they mourn so much when there is a disaster, like the recent one, and they are sure their relatives have taken an early route to paradise.

Being an atheist and mourning for fellow atheists is justified, but seeing loads of wailing [insert religion of choice] seems like they are being selfish and just mourning for their loss.

There are 4200 different religions in existence. This tells me 2 things.

A. Followers of any particular religion have a 0.02% chance of being right.

B. It is part of human nature to want to believe in something.

This leads me to conclude the existence of any gods/supreme beings is highly unlikely.

Pastafarianism FTW

I tried to pick off a (long-ish) toenail with my (short-ish) fingernail. My fingernail lost. Lessons. Lessons everywhere...

My boys aren't that impressed by God, they seem to prefer Thor. Can't really blame them.

I also get very annoyed with politicians who proclaim to be members of a faith, pretending that they have some sort of moral compass while they enact policies which spread misery, conflict and outright injustice. Like [s]Theresa May[/s] Tony Blair and Dubya for example.

"You're thor? I'm tho thor I can't even pith"

wrecker - Member
"You're thor? I'm tho thor I can't even pith"

It was free the last time I checked.

How much do you value your time, given how much you devote to threads like this?

Religious fatalism is the worst enemy of the developing world - a politician loots the country's money or a child dies after being given fake drugs in hospital? "It's God's will - what can I do about it?"

And so the abuse continues.

I don't buy it either, but religion is the main reason for our ascendency to the top of the food chain.

Err, what made you come to this conclusion? As others have already said, you have to go pretty far down s long list to reach this conclusion. Being cunning, smart and pretty ruthless as a species plus thing like the development of agriculture leading to larger social groups are more sensible reasons.

Religion was just a way to control the masses, give them a moral framework / code of conduct, explain things we hadn't yet figured out, a pyramid scheme and a way to frighten people. Modern religion is basically like having a mullet. It's for people that live in the past, refuse to move on and can't understand that what they have is now just plain silly.

My nephew said to me the other day, "Uncle Badnewz, don't you think the world would be a better place, if there were no religion and people didn't hurt each other over it. Then we could all get on and live in spaceships!"
It bought a tear to my eye.
Not because I found it particularly wise, but because he's 34 years old.

I don't buy it either, but religion is the main reason for our ascendency to the top of the food chain.

Err, what made you come to this conclusion?

If somebody asked me to argue the case, off the top of my head religion leads to division and fanatical devotion, this has lead to wars around the planet for centuries and war is good for innovation???

There are also arguments presented very well by Dawkins in the god delusion that are around religion has been used to keep public health and other things in check through "moral codes" back in the dark ages and people in line and motivated through fear.

And that would be a sound argument if we weren't already top of the food chain before any of those things came in to play. We've been top of the pile for a long time. Wars have been fought for lots of different reasons. As I said there is an extensive list of reasons we are where we are as a species. It's my belief that religion doesn't break the top 50.

Sorry very true, with the exception of a few predators hitting top of the pile happened way before organised religion got going

funkmasterp - Member
Religion was just a way to control the masses, give them a moral framework / code of conduct, explain things we hadn't yet figured out, a pyramid scheme and a way to frighten people. Modern religion is basically like having a mullet. It's for people that live in the past, refuse to move on and can't understand that what they have is now just plain silly.

That.

Capitalism is the new religion, with money as the deity. Who here worships your money? Mortgage? Salary? Loans? Credit cards? Stuff? Possessions?

Time for some self reflection kids 🙂

The Big Bang (year 0) supports the Christian account of Creation, The Big Bang (year 1986) supports the Christian idea that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
The Big Bang (2013-) is an increasingly mediocre TV comedy which has no bearing on these Ultimate Questions.

I don't recall Professor Hawking supporting the idea that light existed before the means of creating it.

As far as I'm aware, "evil" (according to religion) is caused by another invisible fairy known as "satan" (or whatever local variant thereof).

Haven't watched it.

I've no time for religion. Many people get hurt by it and people excuse this oppression of others by claiming "it's gods way.'