95% of Humans are Spiritual

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Dixie - In Memoriam

New member
The other day, some pinhead challenged me when I said this... Dixie, where do u get this 95% bullcrap? I never responded, but I wanted to take this opportunity to thoroughly explain it. Really, it's quite a conservative estimate, when you think about it.

The only people who practice absolutely no form of spiritual belief, are nihilists. Nihilists make up less than 5% of the world population, and that is being generous. We don't really know how many nihilists are being honest about their innermost personal beliefs regarding faith, we have to take their word for it.

Many people are uncertain about what they believe, and so they adopt the "safe" viewpoint of claiming they don't believe in anything. To them, life is a never-ending journey to search for what they do believe, and to others, it is more comfortable for them to live in a state of denial, and refuse to acknowledge what they believe.

95% of all human beings believe in something greater than self, some greater power than man, something of a spiritual nature. It does indeed take many different forms, and it doesn't always result in positiveness, but this is a substantial fact of human nature we should learn to acknowledge. By and large, we are spiritual creatures.
 
Exoendo said:
prove it. you have not proven anything.
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he's close....this study would make it around 92%

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http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html
 
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Dixie said:
The other day, some pinhead challenged me when I said this... Dixie, where do u get this 95% bullcrap? I never responded, but I wanted to take this opportunity to thoroughly explain it. Really, it's quite a conservative estimate, when you think about it.

The only people who practice absolutely no form of spiritual belief, are nihilists. Nihilists make up less than 5% of the world population, and that is being generous. We don't really know how many nihilists are being honest about their innermost personal beliefs regarding faith, we have to take their word for it.

Many people are uncertain about what they believe, and so they adopt the "safe" viewpoint of claiming they don't believe in anything. To them, life is a never-ending journey to search for what they do believe, and to others, it is more comfortable for them to live in a state of denial, and refuse to acknowledge what they believe.

95% of all human beings believe in something greater than self, some greater power than man, something of a spiritual nature. It does indeed take many different forms, and it doesn't always result in positiveness, but this is a substantial fact of human nature we should learn to acknowledge. By and large, we are spiritual creatures.
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Your final paragraph alone has value. You appear to be spinning the concept of 'spirituality' and 'faith in a deity' together.
It might be more accurate to state that, in all probability, 95% of all human beings accept that they cannot know everything and are prepared accept unproven stories so that they can, temporarily at least, divest themselves of the desire to know and concentrate on simply staying alive.
That gives the concept of spirituality little credence and allows those who hold power to continue to govern. If we could, by some imposition, force all men to question and actively to seek answers to their place and function in time and space then we might, finally, see the demise of religion. But, in its place might come panic!
 
AssHatZombie said:
This is classic argument ad popularem. Just because a majority may believe lies, doesn't make lies the truth. *shrug*

Learn to think.

Those who insist on god do it to reinforce worldly hiearchies of abuse.

We don't need god for morality.

Everyone knows what being an asshole is.
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Ass, it isn't an argument ad popularem because it isn't presented to convince you to become spiritual, it was presented to answer the specific question of what percentage of people are spiritual....certainly even you can see the difference.....well, maybe not you....but at least the guy sitting next to you who HAS a brain.......
 
Dixie said:
The other day, some pinhead challenged me when I said this... Dixie, where do u get this 95% bullcrap? I never responded, but I wanted to take this opportunity to thoroughly explain it. Really, it's quite a conservative estimate, when you think about it.

The only people who practice absolutely no form of spiritual belief, are nihilists. Nihilists make up less than 5% of the world population, and that is being generous. We don't really know how many nihilists are being honest about their innermost personal beliefs regarding faith, we have to take their word for it.

Many people are uncertain about what they believe, and so they adopt the "safe" viewpoint of claiming they don't believe in anything. To them, life is a never-ending journey to search for what they do believe, and to others, it is more comfortable for them to live in a state of denial, and refuse to acknowledge what they believe.

95% of all human beings believe in something greater than self, some greater power than man, something of a spiritual nature. It does indeed take many different forms, and it doesn't always result in positiveness, but this is a substantial fact of human nature we should learn to acknowledge. By and large, we are spiritual creatures.
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Yes, I questioned your 95% number. The reason is you made the claim yet provided no evidence to back up the number. Hence, I asked for your evidence. Because surely you wouldn't just pull a number out of your ass.... surely you have the data to support your number....

As for your second to last paragraph...

"Many people are uncertain about what they believe, and so they adopt the "safe" viewpoint of claiming they don't believe in anything. To them, life is a never-ending journey to search for what they do believe, and to others, it is more comfortable for them to live in a state of denial, and refuse to acknowledge what they believe"

What a crock of shit... you pretend that they are somehow in a state of denial? Based on WHAT evidence? is it simply because they do not believe as you do and that gets your panties in a bunch?

As I stated, I am agnostic. Not because I want to 'play it safe', nor because I am in 'denial about what I really believe'. I am agnostic because I can neither prove nor disprove the existence of an all powerful being. Thus, I choose not to believe one way or the other based on FAITH. I would imagine others feel the same way.... despite your pathetic attempts to belittle them.
 
AssHatZombie said:
This is classic argument ad popularem. Just because a majority may believe lies, doesn't make lies the truth. *shrug*

Learn to think.

Those who insist on god do it to reinforce worldly hiearchies of abuse.

We don't need god for morality.

Everyone knows what being an asshole is.
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Conversley, just because someone does not believe in God does not make him nonexistant, nor does believing in religion make it merely a weapon of power. Has religion been so abused, absolutely. So has every institution known to man from marriage to parenting; politics to religion; charities to corporations; etc etc etc. Why is that? Because man, not institutions are corrupt. Laws do not neccesarilly prevent mans corruption, but provide a means to apply justice and a societal compass that reflects our values. How we as a society determine those values cannot be divorced from the spiritual aspect of man. To claim otherwise is absolute Nihilism...as to the Atheist, I believe he is nothing more than a scared Nihilist unwilling to follow his thinking to its logical conclusion. This is not meant in any way as an insult to Nihilist's or Atheists only an observation.

An interesting paper on Nihilism if anyone is interested.
http://web.mit.edu/ducktape/www/nihilism.html
 
Dixie said:
The other day, some pinhead challenged me when I said this... Dixie, where do u get this 95% bullcrap? I never responded, but I wanted to take this opportunity to thoroughly explain it. Really, it's quite a conservative estimate, when you think about it.

The only people who practice absolutely no form of spiritual belief, are nihilists. Nihilists make up less than 5% of the world population, and that is being generous. We don't really know how many nihilists are being honest about their innermost personal beliefs regarding faith, we have to take their word for it.

Many people are uncertain about what they believe, and so they adopt the "safe" viewpoint of claiming they don't believe in anything. To them, life is a never-ending journey to search for what they do believe, and to others, it is more comfortable for them to live in a state of denial, and refuse to acknowledge what they believe.

95% of all human beings believe in something greater than self, some greater power than man, something of a spiritual nature. It does indeed take many different forms, and it doesn't always result in positiveness, but this is a substantial fact of human nature we should learn to acknowledge. By and large, we are spiritual creatures.
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I'm definitely not a nihilist. In Christian belief, the spiritual world is all of meaning, and the physical world is meaningless. However, I'm not a Christian. It's absurd to pin your philosophy onto me that way and say that since you believe the physical world is meaningless I should as well, and that since I don't believe in the spiritual world that means I believe in nothing.

The phyical world has meaning, or at least whatever meaning anything can have, and I disagree that spirituality would impart any more meaning than only believe in a natural world.
 
Superfreak said:
Yes, I questioned your 95% number. The reason is you made the claim yet provided no evidence to back up the number. Hence, I asked for your evidence. Because surely you wouldn't just pull a number out of your ass.... surely you have the data to support your number....

As for your second to last paragraph...

"Many people are uncertain about what they believe, and so they adopt the "safe" viewpoint of claiming they don't believe in anything. To them, life is a never-ending journey to search for what they do believe, and to others, it is more comfortable for them to live in a state of denial, and refuse to acknowledge what they believe"

What a crock of shit... you pretend that they are somehow in a state of denial? Based on WHAT evidence? is it simply because they do not believe as you do and that gets your panties in a bunch?

As I stated, I am agnostic. Not because I want to 'play it safe', nor because I am in 'denial about what I really believe'. I am agnostic because I can neither prove nor disprove the existence of an all powerful being. Thus, I choose not to believe one way or the other based on FAITH. I would imagine others feel the same way.... despite your pathetic attempts to belittle them.
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Being an atheist does not necessarily mean that you believe god is absolutely impossible. I would be very surprised to find many people who did believe it that strongly. I think it's better to say that you think that God is so improbable that you pretty much go through you're life as if it were impossible.

I basically think that chance that there is a god is about the same as the chance that there are fairies. It would be trivial to call me an agnostic though. I think "agnostic" should be reserved for those that believe there's a very strong and real possibility of god's existnece.
 
We don't need fables and made up god figurines to give value to human life. Even atheists eat and go to to work to stay alive, and try to avoid being murdered and such.
 
Jngreznex said:
I basically think that chance that there is a god is about the same as the chance that there are fairies. It would be trivial to call me an agnostic though. I think "agnostic" should be reserved for those that believe there's a very strong and real possibility of god's existnece.
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i used to call myself agnostic, until I realized how foolish I was being. Yes, I technically can't disprove of a non-falsifiable claim. I can't disprove that there is a magical unicorn in the center of our galaxy. But it would be ridiculous for me to call myself a galactic unicorn agnostic. Just as ridiculous as it would for me to call myself an agnostic in relation to god. There is no evidence for either, and they are very much fairy tales. And thus, I choose the atheist label.
 
Superfreak said:
Yes, I questioned your 95% number. The reason is you made the claim yet provided no evidence to back up the number. Hence, I asked for your evidence. Because surely you wouldn't just pull a number out of your ass.... surely you have the data to support your number....
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I just explained how I arrived at my number. The only people who have absolutely no spiritual belief whatsoever, are nihilists, and they make up less than 5% of the population. This number is based on people who claim nihilistic belief, we have no way of actually discerning if they are being honest about it. At the very best, only 5% of the population doesn't have spiritual belief, the rest have something they believe in.

As for your second to last paragraph...

"Many people are uncertain about what they believe, and so they adopt the "safe" viewpoint of claiming they don't believe in anything. To them, life is a never-ending journey to search for what they do believe, and to others, it is more comfortable for them to live in a state of denial, and refuse to acknowledge what they believe"

What a crock of shit... you pretend that they are somehow in a state of denial? Based on WHAT evidence? is it simply because they do not believe as you do and that gets your panties in a bunch?
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Not at all, my panties never get bunched because I go commando. ...Based on the fact that humans often assume a state of denial when they do not want to face the inevitable. I don't pretend this is a fact, it just is. It is very difficult for a person to rationalize how 95% of the rest of human civilization believes something and they don't, so denial becomes a way for them to justify what they want to believe instead.

As I stated, I am agnostic. Not because I want to 'play it safe', nor because I am in 'denial about what I really believe'. I am agnostic because I can neither prove nor disprove the existence of an all powerful being. Thus, I choose not to believe one way or the other based on FAITH. I would imagine others feel the same way.... despite your pathetic attempts to belittle them.
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It's exactly because you want to play it safe. Or, you are in denial. One or the other. I just got through explaining that you are taking the safe way out by claiming you don't believe in anything, since you can't determine what you do believe. Thanks for completely confirming what I just posted.
 
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