Let's talk about beliefs.

Lord Grey II wrote:Quitter. ;3

Think what you will. I actually never intended to get involved with such a long discussion, just state what I thought and then see what everyone else wrote. Guess that was kind of unavoidable considering the topic tho...

Aggressive Lord Grey is aggressive

Well, I created this thread specifically for the debate of beliefs, and said right at the beginning what I was gonna do.

Grey, no one knows if the bible is fiction / non fiction.
I respect others beliefs, even if they differ from my own.

Lord Grey II wrote:Everything has a reason, everything can be explained. We can't explain everything right now, but eventually we will. There is no reason to have a god figure anymore; the human race has enough knowledge now to not need that psychological crutch.

So you BELIEVE that anything will be explained eventually, and you have FAITH that someone else will answer the questions. So you have both belief and faith.

I hadn't thought of that, that's a very good point. But I don't think it qualifies as a belief. It's just following Cause and Effect. Effects must have a cause. Newton's second law and all that.

Blackwolf wrote:Grey, no one knows if the bible is fiction / non fiction.

Well, I'll re-examine my position on that. Let's see, there are discredited portions of the bible in several different branches of Christianity, falsifying parts of it. There is an abundant amount of evidence that points to a different origin to the Earth and the human race than what is described in the bible. There are many things that a simply not possible and/or hearsay/gossip. Very few, if any, of the events in the bible have any evidence for having happened.

Yeah, that says fiction to me. And, with a bias speaking, I personally studied it as a work of fiction back in high school.



It's important, I think for a person to be able to argue the both sides of an argument before selecting a position. I can easily argue against my own views, as I know which evidence is weak, and where to attack. It astounds me that people don't find out what the opposition thinks.

Well with your inputs we're getting a pretty good idea.

Please, attack away. I enjoy defending my own views just as much as attacking someone else's.

Hey, hey. No one's attacking here- at the most, you can call it a heated discussion. Although you do seem to be enjoying this...

No one? I'm certainly attacking. Although I suppose the term has negative connotations.

And yes, I enjoy debate.

I believe in the flying Spaghetti Monster. A tasty God is my kind of God.

gizagiza wrote:I believe in the flying Spaghetti Monster. A tasty God is my kind of God.

Sign me up. I can't argue with this. :3

Blackwolf wrote:On the subject of religion, anyone here a fan or even watched Red Dwarf ? specifically the epsiode "Better than Life"
During the section with the hologramical newsreader theres a intresting joke about a lost page of the bible being found
What if the bible was a work of fiction taken as a religious book ?
Raises a few questions doesn't it ?

I've heard of Red Dwarf. Dante told me about it. XD

And were I stand with the bible is that it was written by man, so I don't take it seriously anyway. Aside from that, it has been translated from ancient languages over hundreds of years. Translated and re-translated. Along the way, there have been changes to it, accidental and on purpose (the Catholic church seemed to do that a lot before Martin Luther came along and essentially gave them a religious finger) so it's very, very possible that there are parts of the original writing that are gone.

The problem about religion is the diffrent interpretations of it. Many religions boil down to the same thing and it's just people who frankly use religion as a means of controling the masses.
Another good example of religon by Red Dwarf
- Series 1 epsiode "Waiting for God". Lister discovers that the cat's have formed a religion around his dream to go to Feji and start a farm/savoury snack hut. The cat's split into 2 camps which believe almost EXACTLY the same thing, just differ on the colour of the hats worn by the staff (and thus the chosen ones). The irony being both where wrong.
Also in the same episode
- The remaing cat's build a pair of arks to search out the promised land - Fuchal using an ancient holy text as a starmap. The map read "Seven Socks, 2 shirts....etc". Lister had lined his cat's basket with his laundry list before being caught. The first ark followed the holy text and flew straight into a asteroid.
My point with the second qoute is, it is easy to take something as something else to make it fit what is needed. We all do it everyday without relising it. So many in the past have twisted religion to suit thier personal power trip.

Oh, I agree. It's very apparent in some of the radical Christian sects that try to use the bible to take away all gay rights. All that has accomplished, in my opinion, is proving that the bible contradicts itself. It says "love thy neighbor" and also says to hate certain people at the same time. So which is it? Love or hate? Depends on who you're talking to.

Pandora wrote:Oh, I agree. It's very apparent in some of the radical Christian sects that try to use the bible to take away all gay rights. All that has accomplished, in my opinion, is proving that the bible contradicts itself. It says "love thy neighbor" and also says to hate certain people at the same time. So which is it? Love or hate? Depends on who you're talking to.

I'm not a radicalist like some, but it says to hate the sin not the person. Although in our culture, that doesn't happen often and people just end up shunning entire groups.

Nilo Kaal wrote:

Pandora wrote:Oh, I agree. It's very apparent in some of the radical Christian sects that try to use the bible to take away all gay rights. All that has accomplished, in my opinion, is proving that the bible contradicts itself. It says "love thy neighbor" and also says to hate certain people at the same time. So which is it? Love or hate? Depends on who you're talking to.

I'm not a radicalist like some, but it says to hate the sin not the person. Although in our culture, that doesn't happen often and people just end up shunning entire groups.

Which is your interpretation. Some people would, and do, think otherwise.

Pandora wrote:Which is your interpretation. Some people would, and do, think otherwise.

Well yes. This is all no more than speculation, seeing as no one can prove anything.

There are a lot of contradictions in the Bible, but there is a good chance that they arose due to bad translations. The first line in the English translation is "In the Beginning, there were monsters." The Hebrew version, the first line is "In the Beginning, there were dragons." And couldn't dinosaur bones be though of as the bones of a Dragon?

Also going by the English Bible, "Thou shalt not suffer the witch to live", as I see myself as a witch, I'm to be put to death by any Christian that meets me, but doesn't also say in the Bible that it is a sin to kill "Thou shalt not Kill*...

My favourite is Christanity is a bloodless religion, my response is two words : The Crusades

It astounds me that people can follow an internally inconsistent ... anything, really. (I was tempted to put ideology for the alliteration. :3 )

It further astounds me that Christianity is the most prominent religion in the world. Of course, I realize why, and I understand that is has more to do with why people don't think about what they believe in or why...

To top the cake, though, is when people try to use religion to bash science. I can't see why the two cannot exist side-by-side, if you must believe. It has always been my opinion that science ought to cover all that we know, and that religion ought to cover all that we do not know. Thus, as science increases, religion should decrease, or at least modify itself. Religion, by in far, has refused. Why can't the two mesh? I submit for your consideration:

Blackwolf wrote:My favourite is Christanity is a bloodless religion, my response is two words : The Crusades

The Crusades...Exodus...Jericho...the list goes on and on.

Just goes to show you that people will overlook unpleasnt things.
Crap look at the removal of the holocost from history.....

Oh yeah, people are more willing to shove their heads in the sand and say "That didn't happen...not us!" than admit to any shortcomings in their belief system. Sh*t, even the Hindus and Buddhists aren't perfect. I know that much.

Well, since I have not said what my religon is, and I know a lot of the regulars have posted their views and religons, I might as well join in on this topic...
(Don't expect me to nitpick what other people believe.)

My religon is Christianity, don't ask what type, I still can't answer that one.
I have read some of the Bible, I think there is more to what is written than what is there.(Also because of generations after generations of langauges changing, a lot can get lost in translation.)

I know this post lacks a lot, I have never been good at describing.

As far as personal belief, I do believe in spirits, I don't believe in magic, I don't know about reincarnation, but I am keeping open about that, I beleive in consciousness, and I am into meditation, and in somes ways I believe in spirituality.

At times I will act more foolishly, sorry it is the truth that I know, and maybe one or two others.