MestUp7

People use God as a crutch. People think if they believe in God he will protect them and help them through rough times. I compare this to the placebo effect.

__________________
"If it makes you feel right, its your own life" - Sublime
"Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds" - Bob Marley
"I have no consideration; Zero mutual respect; For billions who suffer from rational thought neglect" - NOFX

Raptor Jesus

Quote:

it's all about faith................either you have it or don't

Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence

Quote:

Hows this, if someone who believes in god wastes their entire life being nice to people, helping others, and being a good person and they are wrong, worst case scenario they die a happy person surrounded by their friends and family.

Is it better do do something good because you genuinely care and want to help, or because you think the creator of the universe wants you to?


With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion


I refuse to believe in a god who is the primairy cause for violence in the world, who preaches rcism, sexism, homophobia, and ignorance, and then sends me to hell if im 'bad'.


“When a man is freed of religion, he has a better chance to live a normal and wholesome life.”
by Sigmund Freud

goodgirl

"So you felt a presence, and then defined that feeling as being a deity to one of the popular religions."

Not exactly....


"Why did you choose that 1 religion, is it because that is one that you had been exposed to the most, either by attending church or seeing advertising."

I chose the religion that I was most comfortable in. Being raised around the trappings and rituals of Christianity it is the one that allows me the most freedom to be comfortable enough to focus on God rather than the relative strangeness of my surroundings.

Religion is a tool that can be useful to feeling close to God and for exploring ones spirituality. Even the term "God" however is one that I use loosely however. I use it because it is the simplest way to express my beliefs but that does not mean that I am limited by how either atheists or even others of my own religion choose to define it.


"As long as you dont do anything to stupid in the name of god (some religions use god as an excuse to do evil) and dont try to change the world to think like you (I dislike churches when they manipulate govt) then i believe you have the right to believe in your god."

Now I realize that you did not mean this in an insulting or condescending way but because it is a thought that I have run across repeatedly in my dealings in this forum I am going to try to express why it bothers me.

Every time I hear someone say "I have no problem with gay people as long as they don't try to hit on me or push their lifestyle on me" I cringe. Those that truly don't have a problem with homosexuality don't feel the need for the qualifying statement and the same applies to any other group of people.

Someone making unwelcome sexual advances or trying to push their beliefs or values on you would be unwelcome no matter what their sexuality or religious affiliation.

I don't have a problem with homosexuals. (Notice the period)

I don't have a problem with atheists. (Again....notice the period)

I do have a problem with people that mock someone else for their beliefs, their sexuality, or try to force themselves on me in any way (whether sexually or spiritually). That however is a separate discussion and one that is not limited to any group. By making the qualifying statements about my acceptance of an individual I am merely stating that I accept that those that fit my qualifications for acceptance are the exception to the rule....a "rule" that is based on a stereotype and it is insulting (whether intended or not).

__________________
"No one is free when others are oppressed."

joshpackr

1. It's hard for me to believe all this is just a matter of chance.
2. There have been times in my life that I know something supernatural helped me through
3. I find certain pieces of information in the Holy Bible to be a little too coincidental
4. I feel in my heart that God does exist
5. I feel a warm presence in a some churches that tell me that yes God is real

That's a few of the reasons. I don't live my life right and my maker isn't pleased with me but I don't deny that God exists.

__________________
"Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which are everything in this world."
-Blaise Pascal

pyromanizak

Haha you think preachers and Christians live their life right? no we are just as human as you, we just have accepted Jesus to save us from our failures and sins.

FreddyC

I am a happier, fuller person since I left Christianity behind. My wife is still a Christian and takes the kids twice a week.....and even she knows that my life has changed since I abandoned Jesus.

The Old Testament warns against false prophets and those who perform miracles. Maybe Jesus was a false prophet. He and Paul certainly made a mockery of the words God spoke in the OT. God said not to drink blood and said he is the ONLY way to salvation. Yet Jesus had people drink wine and told them it was his blood and that he is the way. Freddy

__________________
freddy'sopenmind.blogspot.com

Creed: That, is Northern Lights Cannabis Indica.

Dwight: (sighs) No. It's marijuana.

strutinshizz

So you just pile it on to Jesus? Sounds like running away from your problems to me, if you cant handle you´re own failure... And if nobody told you sex before marriage was a sin would you consider it a sin? Or is it just something to be worried about for no reason at all?

__________________
What if they made a war and nobody showed up?

To control you must create diferences - me

MemphisBBQ

By reading some of these threads i see an example of pluralistic ignorance, a case where "no one believes, but everyone thinks that everyone believes". There are many misconceptions about christians: Christians believe everyone who does not believe in God goes to hell, christians believe the earth is only 6000 years old etc etc.
Another misconception that bugs me is the whole "Christians are ignorant and simply use God as a crutch"

This is not true, many christians believe in God because of the personal relationship or connection they feel, others believe in God to have fulfillment. These christians (normal people, like you and me) have at many points in their lives questioned their own beliefs, some less than others. They usually find some kind of reasoning to rationalize why something happened, just like you.

You're making these assumptions but there are far too many who don't believe in these things also. Plenty of christians see the bible as symbolic, for example: Einstein says time is relative, who's to say, that if there is a God, a day for him could be 6 billion for us? After all, if he's God, then i don't see why not. I don't necessarily have my mind set on this, this is just simply an example.

To be honest when it comes down to it, we don't know where any of this came from. An explosion you say? How? The universe was born when? Did it just come to be also? was it the formation of dust or gases? Where did those gases come from? So on and so on. The same goes for both arguements, the concept of there being a creator behind the whole thing just appeals to me more. After all, what is logic? What is reason? They are simply ideas that we have created and added syllables to, after all, truth is just what we PERCEIVE as real, this may all very well be an illusion.

In my opinion we do not understand enough about humanity and this planet to understand where we came from or why we are here. We still have so much to learn.

We're all people here, atheists are no better than anyone else and vice versa. I've seen atheists cheat, lie and steal aswell as i have christians. Let's get these ideas of superiority and inferiority out of our heads and contemplate the possibilities of our belief systems rather than continue debating a question that may very well never find an answer.

-BBQMemphis

vvicked0471

No one can prove the existence of God, nor can anyone disprove his existence.

As for this:
Although this is about the weakest argument for belief in God that I have ever heard, it's also the most common.

Sadly, most people who use it don't even realize that, by Christian standards, those who believe for the reason above will end up in hell right along side those despicable atheists.

Lets all take a ride on the Christian logic roller coaster! Be careful though, you may get dizzy as it only runs in circles...

__________________
Sic Vis Pacem Parabellum

If pro is the opposite of con, what is the opposite of progress?

strutinshizz

Personally i dont believe in god as the christians describe god...
For me god is the universe it is everything it is the laws of phisics its what made big bang happen... but my god might just be an equation but its not something i rely on when im feeling down.
Thats the only good thing i see in religion is that it comforts people when something bad happens or when they´re feeling down...
But i also think that the Cristian God is impossible to exist like they say he does, they say that god is omnipotent and good right? Then why is there evil? Because if he is omnipotent and just decides not to abolish evil so he is not good, or he is good but he cant abolish evil so he is not omnipotent, and even like Einstein put it "Would God ever be able to make a rock so heavy he would not be able to lift it?" so basically even the term omnipotent is impossible making the christian god impossible to exist.
And still on top of all of that they say that god treats everybody like his children, would you put your son in hell? It´s just common sense and a bit of questioning, another defect of the Catholic faith is they try to keep they´re "believers" stupid, by telling them that they would never understand god so just do not think about it just accept it.

So really did God create humans or did Humans create God?

EDIT: I am not trying to deny the catholic beliefs, i´m just giving my opinion