If religions were real

And an amusing video it was.

Were you ever "religious," Water? As a child, perhaps?

Though I'm not convinced children can be religious. Myself, I was baptized in the Catholic church and spent the first 12 or 13 years of my life going to Sunday school and mass, gave confession, took communion, The whole nine yards. When my family moved to California, the whole church thing pretty much evaporated. I do not regret or resent the years spent in church, I feel they provided me with a good moral compass so I do not consider it time wasted. On the other hand, I do now believe that there is, where children are concerned, a degree of indoctrination is involved with the whole church thing. I understand that parents wish to pass on to their children their beliefs and values, and to some degree that will involve religion for many parents. I am of the opinion that children should be allowed to determine the own religious future, or lack thereof, at say, the age of 13.

The real turning point for me, the moment that sealed my religious destiny, was the day as a freshman in high school, my English teacher showed the class the movie Inherit the Wind. It's based on the Scopes Monkey Trial. I found a lot of truths in that filmed, as well as a lot of questions. From that day forward I have identified myself as an Agnostic, though I believe the right push could send me into Atheism.

Sorry, didn't mean to ramble on like that...

I know you would ban them all if you could, but we both know that isn't going to happen. And I know you seem to have a contempt for religion that I do not, so what, short of banning all religion, do you propose?
 
Thank the LORD for she-bears. Killing all those Agnostics who don't like a shaved head. I especially liked the high-five head explosion...

Although, I will note there was nothing in the Bible about his "shiny-headed vengeance" wish and they wouldn't have been curb stompin' for Jesus, considering he hadn't been born yet.
 
Damocles said:
Thank the LORD for she-bears. Killing all those Agnostics who don't like a shaved head. I especially liked the high-five head explosion...

Although, I will note there was nothing in the Bible about his "shiny-headed vengeance" wish and they wouldn't have been curb stompin' for Jesus, considering he hadn't been born yet.
Click to expand...

Plus; it said MAULED, not KILLED.
 
Norman Paperman said:
And an amusing video it was.

Were you ever "religious," Water? As a child, perhaps?
Click to expand...

I went to a fundamentalist independent Baptist church as a child. They were biblical literalists, and they talked more about politics than God. Unlike most people, my faith didn't really fade slowly. I lost it in a single day, when I was 14, hilariously while I was playing a game called Diablo.

I think it was mostly because by that time I had begun to really understand all the naturalistic explanations of the world, and how God really wasn't necessary and just made things more complicated. It just seemed so arbitrary, so much like something a human would make up.

Norman Paperman said:
Though I'm not convinced children can be religious. Myself, I was baptized in the Catholic church and spent the first 12 or 13 years of my life going to Sunday school and mass, gave confession, took communion, The whole nine yards. When my family moved to California, the whole church thing pretty much evaporated. I do not regret or resent the years spent in church, I feel they provided me with a good moral compass so I do not consider it time wasted. On the other hand, I do now believe that there is, where children are concerned, a degree of indoctrination is involved with the whole church thing. I understand that parents wish to pass on to their children their beliefs and values, and to some degree that will involve religion for many parents. I am of the opinion that children should be allowed to determine the own religious future, or lack thereof, at say, the age of 13.
Click to expand...

Most religions believe that a child who dies without being "saved" is not punished anyway (besides the Catholics, who sometimes preach that such children went into permanent limbo). In light of that, IMHO, there's really no excuse to force your children into a religion at a young age. Besides indoctrination...

Norman Paperman said:
The real turning point for me, the moment that sealed my religious destiny, was the day as a freshman in high school, my English teacher showed the class the movie Inherit the Wind. It's based on the Scopes Monkey Trial. I found a lot of truths in that filmed, as well as a lot of questions. From that day forward I have identified myself as an Agnostic, though I believe the right push could send me into Atheism.
Click to expand...

I don't really believe there's that much difference between most atheists and agnostics. Not many atheists completely and totally deny the possibility of God, they just consider it very unlikely.

The "new" atheists, like Dawkins, although falling into that "agnostic" atheism category, are much more hostile to religion than has been the norm though. They really only started to come out of their shell in the post 9/11 environment, where they could justify their evangelism by saying "See! It's not so harmless, is it?"

I'm not honestly sure the hostile way is the best way to approach it. I will only admit this when I'm not angry. O_O

Norman Paperman said:
Sorry, didn't mean to ramble on like that...

I know you would ban them all if you could, but we both know that isn't going to happen. And I know you seem to have a contempt for religion that I do not, so what, short of banning all religion, do you propose?
Click to expand...

I don't want to ban religion. That would require a reign of terror.

The best way to combat religion is education about the world. The natural conclusion to come to after reading all of the natural explanations of the universe is that we don't need God for all of it.

Also, while there are certain arguments for the existence of God (arguments I consider weak), there is really no argument for the Christian or Islamic or Hindu God explicitly. One of the biggest things that annoyed me about my faith as a child was the way that religion seemed confined to geography and culture, much more like an ideology than the natural way of the universe.

The only way to skirt around this, IMHO, is using the argument of very liberal universalists like Captain, deists or pantheists. Which is where rational debate is possible.
 
I really think I should start calling myself a pantheist instead of an atheist. It avoids most of the negative reaction to atheism that most people have, and the differences between the ideologies are trivial.
 
Watermark said:
I went to a fundamentalist independent Baptist church as a child. They were biblical literalists, and they talked more about politics than God. Unlike most people, my faith didn't really fade slowly. I lost it in a single day, when I was 14, hilariously while I was playing a game called Diablo.

I think it was mostly because by that time I had begun to really understand all the naturalistic explanations of the world, and how God really wasn't necessary and just made things more complicated. It just seemed so arbitrary, so much like something a human would make up.



Most religions believe that a child who dies without being "saved" is not punished anyway (besides the Catholics, who sometimes preach that such children went into permanent limbo). In light of that, IMHO, there's really no excuse to force your children into a religion at a young age. Besides indoctrination...



I don't really believe there's that much difference between most atheists and agnostics. Not many atheists completely and totally deny the possibility of God, they just consider it very unlikely.

The "new" atheists, like Dawkins, although falling into that "agnostic" atheism category, are much more hostile to religion than has been the norm though. They really only started to come out of their shell in the post 9/11 environment, where they could justify their evangelism by saying "See! It's not so harmless, is it?"

I'm not honestly sure the hostile way is the best way to approach it. I will only admit this when I'm not angry. O_O



I don't want to ban religion. That would require a reign of terror.

The best way to combat religion is education about the world. The natural conclusion to come to after reading all of the natural explanations of the universe is that we don't need God for all of it.

Also, while there are certain arguments for the existence of God (arguments I consider weak), there is really no argument for the Christian or Islamic or Hindu God explicitly. One of the biggest things that annoyed me about my faith as a child was the way that religion seemed confined to geography and culture, much more like an ideology than the natural way of the universe.

The only way to skirt around this, IMHO, is using the argument of very liberal universalists like Captain, deists or pantheists. Which is where rational debate is possible.
Click to expand...

I'd give you rep for this if I could.
 
Mr. Spite said:
I really think I should start calling myself a pantheist instead of an atheist. It avoids most of the negative reaction to atheism that most people have, and the differences between the ideologies are trivial.
Click to expand...

LOL. Pantheism means you believe every idiotic system of lies out there. That makes you the biggest dolt on earth.
 
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