Religious Discussions Thread!

[Selfsurprise]

I'm not comfortable being in the position of philosophical uncertainty that you've described, but I like the implied idea of tolerance in your views. I don't suppose you're a reader of Charles Fort?

Whilst I've never read any of his books, I am an avid reader of the Fortean Times and his philosophy and subsequent following heavily influences my own thinking.

[Heliocentrical]

I'm not comfortable being in the position of philosophical uncertainty that you've described.

But that uncertainty is why I feel it's closest to the truth. With theism/atheism there's isn't anything more you can explore because your already believe god does/doesn't exist and therefore you take comfort in what you believe to know. It depends on what you want to get out of the thing you believe in. I personally would rather be immensely uncomfortable than wrong and if I'm wrong then I'll just change my opinion to whatever is the right answer if such an answer exists.

 

@SelfSurprise would Ignostic be an accurate description of someone who believes that whether god does/doesn't exist is irrelevant or that it can't be known?

[GolfClubNinja]

When I saw this topic, my first reaction was "Well this is going to go to shit"

 

has not turned out as bad as i thought, but i'll keep waiting.

[Selfsurprise]

When I saw this topic, my first reaction was "Well this is going to go to shit"

 

has not turned out as bad as i thought, but i'll keep waiting.

The best analogy I can come up with is that we are about halfway between the Royal Society circa 1770 and the comments section on the Angry Video Game Nerd's videos, in terms of the "reasonable conduct/stark raving lunacy" spectrum.

[AP_Pastor]

I'm an agnostic theist, but I've been raised as a Catholic.

 

Believe it or not, while I've read up on Protestantism before, I was never aware of other Christian sects like Born Again, Evangelical Christians etc. until I started college 3 years ago, when I started meeting people from other Christian sects. I find it intriguing that even if we believe in the same God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, we are separated into different sects.

 

This one's for BTG (If you've studied in a Catholic school before): What's it like in the US? Just wanna know how it compares to Catholic schools in the Philippines.

[BTGBullseye]

This one's for BTG (If you've studied in a Catholic school before): What's it like in the US? Just wanna know how it compares to Catholic schools in the Philippines.

I only got Catholic school up to the 1st grade... I was considered the 'bully' there because I refused to share, usually with teeth and fingernails. For those 2 years, it was almost exactly like all other schools, just without the constant pushing of 'evolution theory is actually fact, so dinosaurs are millions/billions of years old' as soon as a child can understand that dinos are awesome.

[AP_Pastor]

^I started out in 1st grade. Still at it in college now. It was alright, didn't go through any of those Catholic school stereotypes i've heard of. Aside from rules about school uniforms and haircuts, It's pretty much liberal.

[BTGBullseye]

Then again, I was also homeschooled from the end of 3rd grade... Got old college books for learning stuff. That was quite the fun learning method. (self teaching) It was in a Catholic home, so I still got a lot of the Catholic teachings. (and even for a year in highschool got a nice course with one of the world's top Catholic apologists, that was really fun)

[Descriptor]

Then again, I was also homeschooled from the end of 3rd grade... Got old college books for learning stuff. That was quite the fun learning method. (self teaching) It was in a Catholic home, so I still got a lot of the Catholic teachings. (and even for a year in highschool got a nice course with one of the world's top Catholic apologists, that was really fun)

Oh cool, who was it?

And also, why was he teaching high school of all things?

[BTGBullseye]

I don't recall his name.

 

He wasn't teaching highschool, he was doing a small 'class' for local Catholic teens while he was in the area, (I can't remember why he was there) so I joined in. He even had an interesting experience with an accidental exorcism:

 

He and a priest friend were walking down the street in (I think) Rome, when they passed a music store that had a lot of decidedly satanic cover art plastered up in the windows. The priest, without thinking, said a prayer to get rid of the demons of the place, and they both continued on to their destination, a restaurant. When the waitress was in the process of serving the apologist, her hand shot out to the pitcher of water behind her, and upturned it over the priest's head. She didn't have any control of it. There are consequences for exorcising when you weren't invited to.

 

When we met for the 'class', it was always outside in a park, and we always seemed to find a really nice shaded area with comfortable seating. (hard to do in central Phoenix area)

[Kirkreng]

xD

[Psychotic Ninja]

Christian, born one, everyone in my family's one, when I was around 18, my dad told me that now that I was an adult, I could choose whatever. Christian just felt right, so still am. We're pretty open minded, however, we still stick to what we believe. It's like you have a very trusting family doctor, so why bother going to a crystal healer, or voodoo doctor?

[AphoticScourge]

I'm personally an atheist, but probably more leaning to being an agnostic. Although, I feel like I am part of the small minority... as someone who doesn't get annoyed when somebody attempts to 'convert' me. It's actually rather entertaining - fascinating to see the different kinds of arguments. But not because I think they're silly. You can believe in whatever you'd like. I'll only get annoyed if your belief makes completely zero sense; In other words, I'll take you more seriously if you are a Catholic, rather than a flat-earth believer.

[Alyxx Thorne]

I'm personally an atheist, but probably more leaning to being an agnostic. Although, I feel like I am part of the small minority... as someone who doesn't get annoyed when somebody attempts to 'convert' me. It's actually rather entertaining - fascinating to see the different kinds of arguments. But not because I think they're silly. You can believe in whatever you'd like. I'll only get annoyed if your belief makes completely zero sense; In other words, I'll take you more seriously if you are a Catholic, rather than a flat-earth believer.

Probably because flat earth believers believe in something that has been factually proven wrong, while you still can't prove that God does or does not exist so it remains an abstract concept.

[Jeb_CC]

I have a question for atheists... As far as my own views are concerned, it seems that the majority of people on the internet are atheists, which is actually kinda daunting at times. Do you guys feel the same way? Or do you feel as though there are more religious people?

[Forgot_My_Account]

I don't think it's true. You can subject it to a statistical analysis in most cases, as it has no bearing on the discussion - and then you'll probably see clusters forming, or groups which are all or mostly comprised of atheists.

Being that it doesn't have any bearing on the discussion at most times, it's hard to tell if someone's religious, especially since religion is a spectrum. How can you tell if someone Sikh, Buddhist or Christian over the internet? There are even sects within each religion that make that even harder - for example, Judaism, which is pretty small has Jews for Jesus, Hasidic Jews, Reformists, Orthodox, Ultra Orthodox, Masortim, Hilonim, etc.

 

However, I can tell you from experience that I see far more religious talk in local groups rather than in global groups, as it's something that influences their day-to-day lives - opening a 7/11, or running certain bus lines in an Orthodox Jew neighborhood will lead to an outcry and a lot of religious talk, as it desecrates the Sabbath. If you look up local news in religious countries, such as Israel, you'll see this topic coming up a lot - as it can gain traction nationally and not just locally.

However, in most cases, these are confined to local disputes and preferences, and therefore mostly hidden.

 

Also, if taking things to the extreme - global Jihad, terrorist groups and ISIS communicate through the internet and have their own version of Facebook, only with better encryption. Again, hidden - but not because it's local. Some other extremist religious groups communicate through Facebook with code words and private groups, so it's hidden in plain sight if you know what to look for.

[Alyxx Thorne]

Either people are atheists, agnostic or just not that blatant about their religion. Personally I belong to the latter camp. I just don't talk about religion unless someone shows interest in talking about it because I don't feel it's my place to force people to talk about it, or force my views on them. I always assume people have made up their mind one way or the other.

[BTGBullseye]

I tend to not talk about it unless the topic comes up... Otherwise it usually ends up with a couple people saying a few minor things about why their religion feels the way it does about something, (extremely rarely in anything but a respectful manner) and then you get a small crowd forming up and screaming that "you're horrible people for even being part of that religion because [insert nonsense extremist view that even the religion they claim to be part of 'condemns' them for]".

 

If the non-religious/atheists weren't such assholes about it, (on average, there are notable exceptions to the rule) there might be more discussion.

[Collective Foal]

I don't preach to anybody because how can you preach a lack of belief. I'm agnostic. I have no concern for whether there's a heavenly power or not. I'm just gonna live a good life and assume that it's good enough for whatever is up there, if it's up there, to judge me as a good person.

 

I do like hearing about religion from people who use it positively. Faith is a beautiful thing when you're practicing it in a positive way.

[Alyxx Thorne]

I don't preach to anybody because how can you preach a lack of belief. I'm agnostic. I have no concern for whether there's a heavenly power or not. I'm just gonna live a good life and assume that it's good enough for whatever is up there, if it's up there, to judge me as a good person.

 

I do like hearing about religion from people who use it positively. Faith is a beautiful thing when you're practicing it in a positive way.

Faith is like anything. In moderation it's healthy. It's when you let it consume your entire life it becomes bad.