| A religion thread with a difference | |
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Gil-Galad - Student  |
Quote: Its not a good idea to discuss religion in a philosophical way on these forums...so i will restrain myself from answering your question. I noticed mastas post on Jeramias thread in this forum, and he is right. But part of the reason he is right is because there isnt currently a thread for such discussion. There are threads that deal with the bible, which is a wholly different issue, and to me, an irrelevant one. So this thread is for more general discussion of religion, in a philosophical manner. And by philosophical I mean logical, reasoned, objective arguments. Please no emotive language, and no claims which you cant or aren't willing to back up e.g. 'All religious people are stupid!', or 'God exists because the bible says so!' If you want to try and back up your arguments then fine, no claims without support. Every claim you make must be justifiable, every single sentence, every word. And above all, lets keep the tone respectful  So, to get the ball rolling: Religion originated as a construct of the human psyche, a defence mechanism against the harshness and mysterious nature of the reality we inhabit. For someone thousands of years ago; lightning. Today; the afterlife. This is why we see the same features in ancient gods at opposite ends of the globes, and the same fables, when there is no possible way they could travel that distance: because wherever you are from, whatever language you speak, you share the same instinctive fears of the unknown e.g. death, with everyone else. This fear was the premise of religion, and continues to be a major draw to it today, and is what has been used by those in power for thousands of years to get the masses to behave in whatever way they wish them to. Thoughts? _______________ |JAA| since 02/05/06 Green for life |
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Gil-Galad - Student 
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Okay... so this thread got quite unphilosophical quite quickly. Let me try something different. Firstly in response to people who say that our human logic is incapable of understanding god etc, so whatever we say or think is pointless. People have used this kind of excuse for millenia for many different things. 'Oh no, my husband knows best, he can beat me, I won't question it'. 'Oh no, the King/Government knows best, I'll send my son to be killed at war, I won't question it'. 'Oh no, God lets a tsunami kill 200,000 people, but I wont question it'. Its a copout, and a sign that your fear of thinking for yourself and the conclusions you might come to, is greater than your fear of the consequences of not doing so. Questioning authority and logically examining beliefs is the only way humanity will ever reach any form of enlightenment. If we had never questioned God or the bible, imagine how homosexuals would be treated. It is because we have our logic, and do question authority that we can realise things such as 'actually, gay people are no different really, there is nothing 'evil' about them, they're just attracted to the same sex, wheres the harm in that?'. We would also have no contraception, would wear no man made fibers, would think masturbation a sin, and the immense suffering caused by christianity throughout the ages would be rampaging. It is only people questioning the people in authority, thinking for themselves, and questioning the bible throughout history that have prevented this state of affairs, and let us evolve into a society that has so many more freedoms than it used to. This progress will never be stopped, although it will always be slow. Wherever there are people questioning authority, preventing progress, there are those that will stand in the way. They always lose, but it takes a long time. Our logic and questioning of authority has brought down many authorities throughout history, and has brought down many freedom constricting institutions. In my opinion, in the last few centuries, a revolution has started due to the spread of freedom of speech, across the globe, and eventually it will bring down and kill forever the greatest authority and myth created by man, God himself. Only then, when this cloak of mysticism and fantasy has been stripped away will we see the world for what it is, begin to understand it better, and then we can start to right the wrongs in our society, on the basis of logic and morality. Those who have used God to disguise their prejudices will be stripped bare, and forced to confront themselves and their fears. Those for whom religion was merely a complex comfort blanket will see the world for the first time. Those who used religion as a motive for aggression, and a means to fulfil their greed will be exposed, and will no longer be able to use 'good' and 'evil' to divide the world into black and white, or to use their religion to fool people into seeing it the same way. And people who perform kind acts will do so because they care about people, just because they are people, not because of any reward/punishment system in the afterlife. Things will still of course be far from perfect, but we will start to see things clearer, when the shrowd of mysticism is pulled back and the harsh light of reality lays our follies bare before us. Only by questioning authority, no matter who or what it is, and using our limited logic will be ever bring about these changes. If people want to opt out, to have blind faith, thats their choice, but I for one will use my mind, my plodding and limited logic, to the best of my ability, because in the end, only good can come of it, and i encourage everyone else to do the same. Secondly, I noticed a little about the problem of evil and the free will defence in the bible study thread. Not wanting to hijack the thread, I'll ask the question here; what if I dont want free will? Putting aside the fact I don't think there are any logical grounds whatsoever for believing we have free will, what if i said to God 'yeah thanks and all that, this free will thingy is very nice, but tbh I'm fairly fed up of seeing starving people on my TV screen everyday, of children being beaten and wives being raped, and men killing eachother, so thanks, but no thanks'? Anyones thoughts? _______________ |JAA| since 02/05/06 Green for life This comment was edited by Gil-Galad on Feb 24 2005 04:51pm. |
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tarpman - The Tarped Avenger 
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With respect to Koyi's most recent comment, while I personally stand for complete equality (none of this women's rights BS, just straight up equality), that system quite possibly could resolve a fair number of domestic disagreements in advance. However, the Bible, like everything else, should be taken with a grain of salt (not as "gospel truth", pun intended  ). Even if the disciples themselves weren't, the people who were literate enough to write down their words were probably crusty old men who had no time for women at all. _______________ Saving the world, one kilobyte at a time. |
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JavaGuy - Student 
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Quote: Does anyone notice that people relate God to be a man. I mean just under 100 years ago woman could vote. The male has always been the dominant one. thousands of years ago female opression must have been huge, therefore the people or person who wrote the bible made god a man. if there is a god would he have a gender being the omnipotant one? A hundred years ago it was up to the states whether a woman could vote. Some states have allowed women to vote ever since the Revolution. Others did not. If there's only one God, the question of gender seems sort of nonsensical. If I were like the ancient Greeks and believed in many, non-omnipotent gods, I suppose I could imagine a god haning out at some god bar hoping to pick up gods of the opposite sex, but for a one-of-a-kind Deity the question seems moot. _______________ My signature is only one line. You're welcome. |
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Vasper Ba'xian - Student 
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LOL its funny but I'm gonna compare this gender thing to Star Wars. The Force has no gender, it just is. It is a part in everything that exists. The same way "God" is in my veiw. Now, Anakin was Concieved thru the force. It was the will of the force for himto be born. Much like it was "God's" will for Jesus to be born. Now jesus had a Mother, Mary. So that leaves a father figure, "God". He takes the title of Father because it's the only one too take. But I think God just is. Everything and nothing. _______________ Brother to: Tamal, Kavar, J.D.,Jermia, Devlin, Ulic, Xiabara, Seij,Tarron Mib,>>>ROCK ON .My Spacescapes art page.My Everything Else art page. MY FAV. Jedi Are: Qui-Gon Jinn, Corran Horn, and Anakin Solo. Unofficial Master to Tamal. and Kavar. Founder of the Wuji Hundun Jian saber style. Proud owner of Tamal's 200th comment!//Proud owner of Refl3x's 300th comment!>>>Proud owner of Tyrant's 800th comment>>>Proud owner of Lucky's 170th comment>>>Proud owner of BDKawika's 444th comment>>>To except Existance is to except Reality.
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Koyi Donita - Student 
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I'm not going to go posting scripture on here because I'm not too sure that will be taken quite that well, but I just wanted to touch on the question of God's gender. God doesn't really have a gender as far as the Bible is concerned, however He does call Himself the Father and refers to Himself as a He. God also says there is a chain of command with the woman being submissive to the male. Does this make the woman a slave of men? No, it doesn't because they are human beings who should be treated with respect. In the marriage relationship, the two become one loving each other as they would love their selves. If there was an arguement, the woman should submit to the mans will however because it is a picture of how man should submit to God. I'm not sexist in any way, shape, or form. I'm just trying to highlight some of the teachings of the Bible. _______________ For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Rom. 1:16 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Rom. 10:17 I love my babyface. Smilykrazy is my baby and I love her. ...Swimming through the void we hear the Word, we lose ourselves but we find it all... System Of A Down. 
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Masta - Jedi Council 
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Im sure that the christians wouldnt let their god get limited by something so trivial like a gender... But since it is indicated in the bible that god was jesus´s "father"...people have probably taken it literally and made god male.This is pure speculation though, since i havnt read the bible myself. _______________ Find out more about the Jedi Academy Aurochs here and more about Masta here! Married to Kain. This comment was edited by Masta on Feb 12 2005 11:04pm. |
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Plo Koon - Student 
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Does anyone notice that people relate God to be a man. I mean just under 100 years ago woman could vote. The male has always been the dominant one. thousands of years ago female opression must have been huge, therefore the people or person who wrote the bible made god a man. if there is a god would he have a gender being the omnipotant one? _______________ Free Tibet! Click this link,and learn Here too |
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Koyi Donita - Student 
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That's an interesting comment and I'm glad you have some type of faith. Just wanted to question you with this if I may. A man holds in his hand a bunch of straws all being the same length minus one. Each of them is numbered and a large group of people are instructed to pick a straw and they can all choose the same one if they wish. Now only one straw is the right one being the longest or shortest, but what does the individuals opinions/guesses have to do with making the others the right one? Let's just ponder the thought of there being only one true God out there. If that God sets up a system in which people come to Him, how does anybodies ideas/wills come into play determining if they will make it to that higher state of afterlife? Now I'm not saying listening to a preacher/pastor/priest or going to church will save anybody. In fact, the Bible is completely against those ideas. (Hoping the Bible is what you had in view with your statement) _______________ For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Rom. 1:16 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Rom. 10:17 I love my babyface. Smilykrazy is my baby and I love her. ...Swimming through the void we hear the Word, we lose ourselves but we find it all... System Of A Down.
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Vasper Ba'xian - Student 
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EVERYTHING I SAY IS AN OPINION! I believe in a "GOD". I Believe in maker of existance. When I think about the "why" factor, I don't think about "why am I here" or "why did God let that happen?" My answers to those questions are: 1. Your here because you exist. Period. 2. God didn't let that happen. Either you did, someone else did, or it was out of human hands. I guess having something to believe in is a good thing. Most religions teach good morals and most opperate within those morals,most of the time. We'll talk about the Catholic Church some other time. BUT. I feel that some people think that believing in a God gives them the right to lay down blame on god for their good old stupidity. I belive in Action & Effect. When Dorris says " Ohhh Lord, my daughter was murdered Lord, why? why? Why did you let this happen lord?" See what I mean. Religion can give us the means to deny ourselves the truth about ourself. We, humans, destroy. It is in our nature. The lord didn't let Dorris's daughter die. We did. One day this woman has a baby boy. She raises him around drugs, violence, sex. The whole time people seeing this as he grows up. He gets into trouble all the time, he quits school. Lives at home selling drugs getting drunk every night. One night he goes out and gets drunk. Sees this pretty girl. She doesn't want anything to do with a loser like that. He gets mad, follows her, rapes her, kills her. And what does Dorris say? After reading the above story, how many chances did we, anyone have to change the outcome of that situation? A caring Mother? Teacher? Social Worker? Justice System? My whole point is that I THINK people try to pass off responsibility for their actions. Well blame it on God, he let it happen. To me, religion will be a life long SOLO quest of my own. I wake up every morning hoping that I might gain some additional insight on life. Not the reason for my existance. Thats up to me. But the reason for exsistance itself. I don't need some priest telling me that I have to come to church to be saved and go to heaven. Why? Because someone wrote it in a book 2000 years ago? So that means that I can't think about that myself. It's either accept that or go to hell? If thats the case, what the hell is free will for? Noone in there right mind would say "Go to church or burn in hell......I'll take Hell!" There isn't just one path to the top of a mountain. I think everyone has the CHOICE to find their own if they feel the need. Or they can follow the masses. _______________ Brother to: Tamal, Kavar, J.D.,Jermia, Devlin, Ulic, Xiabara, Seij,Tarron Mib,>>>ROCK ON .My Spacescapes art page.My Everything Else art page. MY FAV. Jedi Are: Qui-Gon Jinn, Corran Horn, and Anakin Solo. Unofficial Master to Tamal. and Kavar. Founder of the Wuji Hundun Jian saber style. Proud owner of Tamal's 200th comment!//Proud owner of Refl3x's 300th comment!>>>Proud owner of Tyrant's 800th comment>>>Proud owner of Lucky's 170th comment>>>Proud owner of BDKawika's 444th comment>>>To except Existance is to except Reality.
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Koyi Donita - Student
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As far as the whole God creating something greater then himself things goes, I kinda believe it. It's hard to explain, but hear me out for a second. The Bible tells us that God created man along with everything else that has been created. He also created His son Jesus in the form of flesh that is man but also born of His Spirit which is God. God then tells us that He will put Jesus above all things which would even include God Himself, but Jesus never will cease to be God so God will never lose His power over all things. I believe that the Bible also states that Jesus would give that power back to God after everything has been placed under Him, (It's been an awefully long time since I read through those scriptures. I have nothing to back these up with so please don't put any trust into what I am saying.) Also, as you mentioned, God is outside of our reasoning, (being of spirit/afterlife) so why even bother asking some type of stupid question like that with our limited understanding and physical laws when we don't even have the basic structure of who or what God is in the spiritual sense? It's like something being born inside of a box questioning/telling/believing it knows what is outside of it when it's senses aren't keen to it. As far as me believing in God and loving Him, I don't know if I would buckle under the pressure of tremendous pain. Look at history and what the Bible records. Jesus went to the cross alone and all denied Him. After His death and resurrection came the pouring out of the Holy Spirit and great examples of men's love towards God. Do I believe I'm saved? No, not as of this moment in time to the best of my knowledge from what the Bible tells me. Again, what do I know. The Bible is quite clear to me that if a man loves God, he (being the man) will keep God's commandments. I still curse, lie, and even steal once in awhile although it's small little things that everyone takes advantage of at my job, it's still stealing. I just don't feel as if God's Spirit is working within me to will and to do of His good pleasure yet. Doesn't mean that I won't be saved, and it doesn't mean that it I will. I just wait upon the Lord and His wonderful mercy praying that I too can be made one of His children. That's where I am with religion and with nothing being set in stone in my mind or heart, it's really hard to say if I could hold firm to my beliefs under such torture. Jesus's very own followers couldn't go to the cross with Him, and I really don't think I would be able to take up my own if asked to unless God gave me the strength to. Very hard to judge not going through the pain either. :/ As far as the logic/chaos theory is concerned, when you look at the grand scope of reality as we know it. The entire universe including our very own planet is extremely well balanced and maintained. We, (being humans) are the only chaotic force ruining balance. Sure, there are natural disasters and all sorts of things I'm sure people would like to label as chaos, but I don't really see it that way. Again, my perspective and what do I know. Even the circle of life or the food chain is a marvel being as balanced as it is without something chaoticly killing off everything else and becoming the dominant species of the planet. It's hard for me to believe that plants and animals in there billions of different types could have come to the state we find them in without being created that way. Even with the first plants growing out of what ever they did, (in the evolutionists theory), would have began to take all of the nutrience out of the land and spread to cover the world far too quickly for others to develop. Evolution does supposedly takes billions of years after all and plants can spread rather quickly met with the right conditions. It's just hard for me to see evolution working that efficiently for everything to turn out the way that it did both in space and on this planet. That mixed with the dominant chaotic species in all nationalities reaching out for gods is more then enough proof to begin to question if there really is a God out there and what does He want with me or what is my role in His plan? I think I may try to find that book that was mentioned and give it a read through if not too big although I don't know how much trust I could put into it being written by man and their theories. :/ Very tough times. _______________ For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Rom. 1:16 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Rom. 10:17 I love my babyface. Smilykrazy is my baby and I love her. ...Swimming through the void we hear the Word, we lose ourselves but we find it all... System Of A Down.
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Masta - Jedi Council 
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Quote: As far as the "logical" questions about God being able to do something that He can't do when He should be able to do everything I find to be unanswerable. So, Koyi...do you believe in Gods omnipotence?Do you believe that he is able to create everything...including things that are more powerfull then himself? It is up to everyones own opinion if they want to believe things which doesnt even have to be logic."Peace of mind doesnt depend on knowing the truth, it depends only on what one believes is true." Quote: We can think we know something and have alot of answers and truth in what we study, but what do we really know? As you may have noticed, we humans are bound to the physical world which has its own rules.These rules limit humanity to a certain degree...we wont be able to know anything beyond this barrier of rules, but we are able to study within it.Therefore is our knowledge based and limited to the rules of mother nature.This includes science and all logical conclusions. If you are asking for the origin and "why" humanity used to believe in religion...then i would like to point you to the book Tarpman has been recommending.It includes a lot of scientifical proof about the origin of mythological "tales". Quote: Millions of people facing death because of their faith being sawed into pieces, burned at the stake, hanged, beheaded, stabbed, beaten, etc. never waivering from what their faith is one bit during the whole time they are tortured. That is not logical. Do you believe in love, Koyi?Since you are a strong believer, i take it you love your faith?Does love leave your mind in times of trouble and pain?Do you stop loving the ones that are precious to you, only because you are beeing tortured?I guess you pretty much would do the exact opposite of it...you would love them even more because it gives you strenght even in times of darkness. Quote: Millions of people claiming that they feel God's Spirit within them and lead beautiful lives even in the face of terrible accidents, mishaps, luck, etc. never swaying from being that awesome example of being for the lack of a better term, "good". That is not logical. This is a very good example for long-term happiness."Peace of mind doesnt depend on knowing the truth, it depends only on what one believes is true." And peace of mind (contentment) is one major factor in beeing happy. Quote: How does chaos exist inside a universe, or even our simple world, built on law? Not logical. We can logically conlude that there has to be shadow, where light is.There has to be evil, where good is.There has to be chaos, where order is. If one stops existing, the other one stops beeing a characteristic and becomes existance itself.If order would stop existing...chaos would become existance and we wouldnt be able to call it "chaos" anymore because the term would lose its characterstic function... Quote: If there is nothing after life, why live? Why should we die if we have the chance to experience things?Why should we choose non-existance over existance althought our meatbag tells us that it doesnt want to die? The will to survive is probably the base of all instincts we have...of course one may commit suicide although his instincts tell him not to.Its as much as reasoning can beat fear and be the better option then our instinctive defensive mechanism.But still...every human beeing sees a form of "meaningfulness" or "purpose" in his life.This "meaningfulness" could be all sort of things: goals, one may have set himself to achieve; love, one may get or give to/from its environment; or just "hope" is enough to keep ones life meaningful... If you talk to depressed or even suicidal people...then you will notice that most of them dont see any meaning in their lifes anymore. Besides, nihilism isnt as spread as it was earlier.Only because one doesnt believe in god, doesnt mean hes not believing in an afterlife. And while we are at the topic of afterlife... I would like to direct you towards a highly interesting source of information, which definately deserves at least a look. Here we go Oh and...i agree that evolution is a theory...and not a scientifical fact. _______________ Find out more about the Jedi Academy Aurochs here and more about Masta here! Married to Kain. This comment was edited by Masta on Feb 12 2005 12:10am. |
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Buzz - Student 
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Quote: The fact that religion denies evolution, which is scientifically proven, is slightly confusing. A blanket statement and an uninformed one at that. I'm a Catholic and even the pope has said you can believe that evolution is correct. All it takes is one little statement to make it fit together. God caused evolution to occur. _______________ When you are going through Hell, keep going. -Sir Winston Churchill. Those who seek power and control of others, no matter the level, no matter the intentions, should never be given it. |
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Koyi Donita - Student
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Quote: The fact that religion denies evolution, which is scientifically proven, is slightly confusing. Who, what, when, where, why, and how did this happen? I've never been blessed with this material if it is indeed true. I've been taught the educated guesses of our teachers and their books and that isn't enough for me. Could you please share this evidence that evolution does exist to everyone to back up your statement? That would be great for me because I seek the truth. As far as the "logical" questions about God being able to do something that He can't do when He should be able to do everything I find to be unanswerable. God is a spiritual being as believed by many so-called Christains and is therefore outside of our understanding and comprehention. For all we know, maybe in the afterlife when we are face to face with God, we will see Him perform such things as these being able while not being able and it will make perfect sense. We can think we know something and have alot of answers and truth in what we study, but what do we really know? There are billions of believers of all types of different faiths all over the world in almost if not every nationality. Most of which were created by them. Here is a question to think about. Since we are physical beings in a physical world, why are we drawn to believe in more then what our senses sense? Think about it, billions and billions of people from the beginning to the end living in a world of earth, fire, water, and air and a great many reach out, all in different directions but pointing to the same thing, towards something they can never prove? Now there's some non-logic for you to think about. I believe very strongly in a God and it is things like this that led me to do so. Millions of people facing death because of their faith being sawed into pieces, burned at the stake, hanged, beheaded, stabbed, beaten, etc. never waivering from what their faith is one bit during the whole time they are tortured. That is not logical. Millions of people claiming that they feel God's Spirit within them and lead beautiful lives even in the face of terrible accidents, mishaps, luck, etc. never swaying from being that awesome example of being for the lack of a better term, "good". That is not logical. We have people killing people because of the type of shoes they were, slight glances at the wrong person, bumping into the wrong person, all sorts of terrible things for the simplest things or sometimes nothing at all. How does chaos exist inside a universe, or even our simple world, built on law? Not logical. We also have paranormal activity going on in the world which have been noted and studied by a great many people. Things like hauntings, posessions, E.V.P., sightings which nobody can explain. Most just reject the idea because they have no proof, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. These latter things I would agree with most are probably more of a cleverly created ideas but who am I do say they never happened? Nobody can explain these things. A physical body dies, all the cells in that body dies, it stops all funtions, there should be nothing after death then, however hauntings, ghosts, E.V.P., etc. would tell us that there is something more. I know I'm probably going to get ripped to shreads for even typing some of this stuff, but I'm the type of guy who likes to question the questions. If there is nothing after life, why live? Why ask questions? You die and take none of this world with you. In this type of logic I see a bunch of people running around trying to have all that they can have for the very short amount of time that they have and for what? The grand prize to this equation is death and a whole lot of nothing for a lifetime full of suffering for most, so-so living for some, and well that was awesome!!! for a very select few. That is just not logical to me. :/ _______________ For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Rom. 1:16 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Rom. 10:17 I love my babyface. Smilykrazy is my baby and I love her. ...Swimming through the void we hear the Word, we lose ourselves but we find it all... System Of A Down.
This comment was edited by Koyi Donita on Feb 11 2005 03:33pm. |
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Gil-Galad - Student 
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Yes you are right, the school of thought in which the Judaeo-Christian God is not omnipotent is called Process Theology, which attempts to bypass several questions such as the problem of evil, by limiting Gods power. Your point about free will is right as well, in fact, it is possible to show that free will doesnt exist, whether God exists or not. Also, if you read the bible, there are several points at which God changes his mind, and the presumption that he can is the basis of prayer. However, for God to act in anyway whatsoever, let alone changing his mind, renders his perfection incoherent. The reasoning behind this, broken down simply, is this: 1. A state of acting is different to a state of not acting 2. Following from 1, A being is different when it is acting to when it is not acting 3. A perfect being, when it changes, is no longer perfect 4. Therefore, if God acts at all, he is not perfect. Of course, you can negate most of these criticisms by limiting Gods power, however, what you end up with then is a god of the gaps, whose power gets gradually less as we find out more about our reality through logic and science. _______________ |JAA| since 02/05/06 Green for life |
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Masta - Jedi Council
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It pretty much depends on how you define "God".There was a thread once here in the JA which contained some interesting definitions of "God". Im pretty sure that not everyone thinks of "God" as an omnipotent beeing...because as youve pointed out already, such thing would be not able to exist (at least in terms of logic). Well, in some definitions you will hear that "God" is omniscient...if this was the case, you could say "bye" to free-will."God" would already know (even before your own birth) if you would do a lot of "bad" or "good" things in your life...your whole life would be displayed in "God"´s omniscience.It would also mean that "God" would be able to know that you are going to be tortured, raped or anything like that, in your life. So all your actions, thoughts and emotions would be nothing more then a sequence of "God"´s omniscience...also known as fate. _______________ Find out more about the Jedi Academy Aurochs here and more about Masta here! Married to Kain. |
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Gil-Galad - Student
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Quote: I direct you to a book called "When the Gods Came Down", by an author whose name I've forgotten. Let this thread die until everyone who intends to post here has read it. Although I havent read this book, I have read several that cite it as a major source. The psychological reasons behind the creation of gods is fascinating in my opinion. And then how the features and rituals of different religions all serve the same psychological purpose. An interesting question, not so serious, but shows the logical contradiction inherent in the concept of omnipotence: can God create a stone he cannot lift? Or, put another way: can God create a being whom he cannot control? Many of you will have heard this question, it has various guises, but all it attempts to show is that the concept of omnipotence is incoherent, which philosophically speaking means it is impossible for an omnipotent being to exist. _______________ |JAA| since 02/05/06 Green for life |
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Kainz00r - Jedi Knight 
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I pretty much agree with Antinanco. _______________ Fervent supporter of duelling - leave a message if you would like to battle! Married to Masta. |
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Masta - Jedi Council
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Humanity is banished to beeing non-omniscient forever. ...or maybe blessed? _______________ Find out more about the Jedi Academy Aurochs here and more about Masta here! Married to Kain. |
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Raider - Student 
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Quote: The fact that religion denies evolution, which is scientifically proven, is slightly confusing. True, what is even more confusing(at least for me lol) is the question; what started it all? That's gonna be pretty hard to prove scientifically, i'm not saying it can't be proven, just hard _______________ Artificial intelligence beats natural stupidity. |
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The Dragon Reborn - Student 
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The fact that religion denies evolution, which is scientifically proven, is slightly confusing. _______________ Padawan to Solitude "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to... suffering" -Jedi Master Yoda "I shall not fear. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will allow it to pass over me and through me, and when it has gone i will turn my inner eye to see its path. Where fear has gone there will be nothing. Only i will remain." -Bene Gesserit Litany, Dune |
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Jacen Aratan - Student |
Quote: Its sad to see lots and lots of people calling themselves "believers" without knowing why they celebrate christmas though...ive met a few. sigh Pagan holiday! Hooray! |
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Masta - Jedi Council
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Same here, Aratan. Its sad to see lots and lots of people calling themselves "believers" without knowing why they celebrate christmas though...ive met a few. sigh _______________ Find out more about the Jedi Academy Aurochs here and more about Masta here! Married to Kain. This comment was edited by Masta on Feb 11 2005 08:29am. |
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Jacen Aratan - Student |
Your thoughts on religion pretty much sum up my opinion. |
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Plo Koon - Student 
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I was reading a chapter in the adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer said "there are elephants, genies from bottles,camals, and arabs down the hill!" but when they actually went down the hill there was nothing there. Tom also said "if you rub a lamp, a genie will come" So huck rubbed a lamp till he broke a sweat and no genie came. Just like the stuff they say in sunday School huck thought. The teachers there say theres an all powerful being, but does huck see one? no.  _______________ Free Tibet! Click this link,and learn Here too |
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tarpman - The Tarped Avenger 
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I direct you to a book called "When the Gods Came Down", by an author whose name I've forgotten. Let this thread die until everyone who intends to post here has read it. _______________ Saving the world, one kilobyte at a time. |
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