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Something thats been bothering me lately...

 
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TheBozzy
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Joined: 17 Feb 2008
Posts: 74
Location: Morganton, NC (USA)

PostPosted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 10:38 pm    Post subject: Something thats been bothering me lately... Reply with quote

Well, lately I've been really thinking about religion and its meaning, so I asked the question to myself -- What is religion? All I can really think of is that people many years ago didn't have science like we do, and they wanted a way to keep order (10 commandments) and a way to explain the afterlife. I've been really thinking about the whole Christianity vs. Science (and I know that its religion in general, but I classify myself as a Christian) and it just doesn't seem logical. I know that I've been brainwashed all my life, because my parents have always drug me into church, and convinced me as a child that God is the source of everything...But is he? Let me explain...

When someone invents a useful tool, lets say, the car. Everyone is like "THANK JESUS!!!" But in reality, we should be thanking the person who invented the car. Or if a person makes a miraculous recovery from an illness, we shouldn't be thanking God -- Because God alone wouldn't have been able to spare their life. We should thank medicine.

I have these kind of thoughts that make me wanna lead toward Atheism (I've never been a really religious person anyway) and they seem much more logical. But then the thought of when we die, we just go away...Thats very depressing, and makes me feel like I have no use in life. Sure, science says that we are just animals with one common goal, to reproduce, and die. But I want to be more than just a damn animal.

Thoughts like these are probably the reason religion was created anyway.

What do you guys think?
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I don't really know what this world is coming to, I think the world would be so much easier if we all were high, had long hair and beards, and lived in vans. That would be the life.

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area51newmexico
Goddess
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Joined: 08 Jul 2005
Posts: 10598
Location: East Yorkshire, England

PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 10:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
What is religion? All I can really think of is that people many years ago didn't have science like we do, and they wanted a way to keep order (10 commandments) and a way to explain the afterlife.


I think you got it spot on there. As I kid, I was explained that thunder was only God moving his piano about upstairs and I shouldn't be scared - and I liked that story. It is a damn sight easier than trying to explain the weather to a small child! Stories are good, they help explain things which otherwise would be scary and uknown.

Have you ever heard of the watchmaker analogy to explain the universe? Although I'm an atheist, I do appreciate that thoughts behind the theory. To sum, if you were talking in the woods and you found a watch lying on the floor, you wouldn't question that someone had made it - you would just know that someone had made it and you would know that it wasn't there by accident. The theory states that the universe is the same - in short - intelligent design.

Personally, I reckon that everything can be explained by science - we just might not know what the answer is yet (or may never know!)
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AVARiCE
Lowering the Tone Since 2005


Joined: 23 Sep 2005
Posts: 5780
Location: London, England

PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 11:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

No-one can answer that for you, religion is to you what you want it to be.

If it's a basic moral code then it's a basic moral code. If it's a meaningless system for control, it's a meaningless system of control. And so on.

While I'll congratulate you on breaking the thought pattern and recognising some level of brain-washing, I'd urge you to think about it the other way as well. Global warming's been outed as a farce (note how it's been kept under wraps though?) and when you think about it - is the existence of everything from a singe atom really that much more credible than a creator just creating everything?

It's all too often people think that discovering the negative side to religion means they become blinkered to the negative side of science.

Hopefully I've managed to get the point across here, I'm tired.

~ AVARiCE
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TheBozzy
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Joined: 17 Feb 2008
Posts: 74
Location: Morganton, NC (USA)

PostPosted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 2:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

You guys have made great points, its just I'm confused about it all. Theres a part of me that says I should do what I've done my whole life -- or I could accept thing the way that is the most believable.

Something I've been thinking is that I can mix Christianity and science together. For example, it took millions of years for the earth to be created, but the bible says it was only 6 days -- How long is six days to God?

Honestly, that is what I've been doing, and it gives me more of a satisfaction than one of the other. I'd rather look at something, use science to imply how it was created, but also remember that some sort of God made it. I think that will set my mind at ease.

Really, you guys must think I'm really weird haha.
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I don't really know what this world is coming to, I think the world would be so much easier if we all were high, had long hair and beards, and lived in vans. That would be the life.

~TheBozzy
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area51newmexico
Goddess
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Joined: 08 Jul 2005
Posts: 10598
Location: East Yorkshire, England

PostPosted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 11:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Really, you guys must think I'm really weird haha.


Nope, we think you're great for actually thinking about the world and questioning it and not just simply believing everything that has been fed to you.
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