Religion & Theology (& should we respect beliefs)

[Pleepsie]

look around you folks this world is wonderful and its not by chance.

 

I quite agree, its not by chance... but by the amalgamation of Dust and Gas, a few million years of time and then good old evolution stepped in and the rest, as they say, is History.

[paulb]

look around you folks this world is wonderful and its not by chance.

 

I quite agree, its not by chance... but by the amalgamation of Dust and Gas, a few million years of time and then good old evolution stepped in and the rest, as they say, is History.

and were did the dust and gas come from.

[Ertieiddabanks]

Here's a good quote....

 

Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.

[Ertieiddabanks]

and another...

 

Belief gets in the way of learning.

[Guest posiedon]

Ooo good, were doing quotations

Mark Twain

Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.

Those who seek consolation in existing churches often pay for their peace of mind with a tacit agreement to ignore a great deal of what is known about the way the world works.

 

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,

To believe in God or in a guiding force because someone tells you to is the height of stupidity. We are given senses to receive our information within. With our own eyes we see, and with our own skin we feel. With our intelligence, it is intended that we understand. But each person must puzzle it out for himself or herself.

 

Sophy Burnham

And one of my favorites.

With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

 

Steven Weinberg

[Ghostrider]

look around you folks this world is wonderful and its not by chance.

 

I quite agree, its not by chance... but by the amalgamation of Dust and Gas, a few million years of time and then good old evolution stepped in and the rest, as they say, is History.

and were did the dust and gas come from.

 

That's rather the point, they had, in human logic at least to come from "somewhere", you can name that "somewhere" "God" if you like, but it doesn't alter the fact that no-one knows the origins of the gas and dust.

 

I think most folk would acknowledge that all that there is probably had to start from a set catalyst, you can name it "God" if it pleases you, but you are naming an unknown phenomenon. Personaly I'll stick with calling it "something unknown", and as such I "don't f*** with what I don't know".

[Ghostrider]

Seeing as we're quoting....

 

All gods from time immemorial are fantasies created by humans for the welfare of humans and to attempt to explain the inexplicable.

 

Sir Ludovic Kennedy.

 

[paulb]

“Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bog-gglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as the final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God.

 

The argument goes something like this: `I refuse to prove that I exist,' says God, `for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.'

 

`But,' says Man, `The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED.'

 

`Oh dear,' says God, `I hadn't thought of that,' and promptly vanished in a puff of logic.

 

`Oh, that was easy,' says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets

 

himself killed on the next zebra crossing.â€

Douglas Adams

[JAStewart]

One might be asked "How can you prove that a god does not exist?" One can only reply that it is scarcely necessary to disprove what has never been proven. - David A Spitz

[paulb]

thats what faith is about. you have faith god does not exsist and that man is the ultamate being.

 

An atheist was walking through the woods, admiring all that the "accidents" that evolution had created.

 

"What majestic trees! What powerful rivers! What beautiful animals!" he

said to himself.

 

As he was walking alongside the river he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. Turning to look, he saw a 7-foot grizzly bear charge towards him.

 

He ran as fast as he could up the path. He looked over his shoulder

and saw the bear was closing.

 

Somehow, he ran even faster, so scared that tears came to his eyes. He looked again and the bear was even closer.

 

His heart was pounding and he tried to run faster. He tripped and fell

to the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up but the bear was right over him, reaching for him with its left paw and raising its right paw strike him.

 

At that instant the atheist cried, "Oh my God...!"

 

Time stopped. The bear froze. The forest was silent. Even the river stopped moving.

 

As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice came out of the sky,

"You deny my existence for all these years, teach others that I don't exist and even credit creation to a cosmic accident. Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer?"

 

The atheist looked directly into the light, "It would be hypocritical to ask to be religious after all these years, but perhaps you could make the bear religious?"

 

"Very well" said the voice.

 

The light went out. The river ran. The sounds of the forest resumed.

 

..and then the bear dropped his right paw, brought both paws together and bowed its head and spoke: "Lord, I am truly thankful for this food which I am about to receive.."

[Ghostrider]

^^ He deserved to be breakfast the silly beggar, he should have suggested the bear become vegetarian.

 

I'm afraid the way my head is wired, faith of any sort needs to be preceded by tangible supporting evidence. I'll wait till the bright light comes on, and the burns stop running. I'd hate to annoy her after all by doing something I was led to believe would appease her, and then it turn out it had the opposite effect, because of the well-intentioned but misguided and erronous advice of some mere mortal.

[paulb]

thats the point it does not matter what we each belive or not as the case maybe its the attitude we have. as long as we are happy with what we belive then we are not going to mind what someone else does and we will possibly end up with a nicer world. the trouble comes when we are faced by someone who thinks they know what is right and they want you to follow them. ive never been an extremist in what i belive but ive seen some very scarly believers.

[ArabiaTerra]

Some more quotes:

Christ died for our sins. Dare we make his martyrdom meaningless by not committing them?

If by any possibility the existence of a power superior to, and independent of, nature shall be demonstrated, there will then be time enough to kneel. Until then, let us stand erect

The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.

And my personal favourite, from that great wit, Unknown:

Instead of being born again, why not just grow up?

[Styles]

Im so glad that muslim is not a colour of skin, so glad u can be corpse white to the river niger dark, so glad as well that I dont belive in all that turd so all my hate, spite, pure destruction has been in built into me by pure natural selection, allways good to know the best bits of anyone have got this far. I love god, but jesus was a woose. God kicksa ass!

[Ertieiddabanks]

Thought this was good...

 

http://img.moonbuggy.org/its-ok-as-long-as-you-believe/