Religion is the cause of all problems...

[Silk]

about which god is the right god, or if there are one or many.

I see. Well I don't have figures to hand but it's generally accepted that Christians, Jews, and Muslims believe in the same God. That must be a pretty big chunk of the population.

 

[beorhthelm]

I see. Well I don't have figures to hand but it's generally accepted that Christians, Jews, and Muslims believe in the same God.

really? because there's an awful lot of argument and fighting between those groups on this issue. or hadnt you noticed. really its a rather good proof that none of them are right otherwise their god would either back one group and smite the others, or tell them all to just get along and stop the suffering.

 

[Silk]

really? because there's an awful lot of argument and fighting between those groups on this issue. or hadnt you noticed. really its a rather good proof that none of them are right otherwise their god would either back one group and smite the others, or tell them all to just get along and stop the suffering.

The disagreements aren't normally about whether there's a God or not.

 

[Phat Baz 68]

If there is a god which IMHO there is not, why would he create monsters like Roy Whiting, Robert Black, Peter Sutcliffe, Myra Hindley, Kim Jong **** Pig, Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Liner etc etc etci if he is supposed to be such a loving caring god
Utter shite that's what religion is utter shite.

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

Religions only decided to go monotheistic in recent times once they thought polytheism sounded ridiculous, can you predict the next step? People believe in the god or religion they do because they have been socialised and taught to lets be honest. If you were from the middle east you'd probably be a muslim, from Thailand a Buddhist, south America a Christian. Why do people believe? Theyve been taught to.

Exactly. Once you realise that religion is merely a consequence of when and where a person was born it is very difficult to take it seriously.

It's like karma - wishful thinking.

 

[Silk]

If there is a god which IMHO there is not, why would he create monsters like Roy Whiting, Robert Black, Peter Sutcliffe, Myra Hindley, Kim Jong **** Pig, Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Liner etc etc etci if he is supposed to be such a loving caring god
Utter shite that's what religion is utter shite.

You missed out Hitler.

 

[SIMMO SAYS]

once you allow yourself to know, truly know that god does not exist, that you are the sole charge of your destiny, that true love can exist between people without the conduit of religion, that nobody can judge you, you will never be punished by the celestial, an all seeing father, karma or any other dogma, once you have the courage to face life without having to believe you are being watched over, then and only then will you ever start to see life for the self contained, amazing, dumbfounding, beautiful realm it is. Ave the courage and wisdom to believe in your own, self nurtured ability.

Amen to that

 

[Wrong-Direction]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEhtOhwL8xk

 

[SIMMO SAYS]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEhtOhwL8xk

Wrong Direction's account has been hacked

 

[LamieRobertson]

Once you allow yourself to know, truly know that god does not exist, that you are the sole charge of your destiny, that true love can exist between people without the conduit of religion, that nobody can judge you, you will never be punished by the celestial, an all seeing father, karma or any other dogma, once you have the courage to face life without having to believe you are being watched over, then and only then will you ever start to see life for the self contained, amazing, dumbfounding, beautiful realm it is. Ave the courage and wisdom to believe in your own, self nurtured ability.

what a load of balls

 

[symyjym]

what a load of balls

Thanks for your detailed contribution to the thread

 

[LamieRobertson]

Thanks for your detailed contribution to the thread

..maybe i was a bit blunt

 

[Nibble]

what a load of balls

I was taking the piss.

 

[father_and_son]

A weekend off the site and the debate has moved on a pace...

Time to weigh in with my personal belief structure...

God (all of them) is merely man's attempt to communicate with the weather (well, the world as a whole but the weather in particular).

"Please God, make it rain" when the crops need to grow.
"Please God, stop it raining" when the crops have grown.
"Please God, make it warmer" so my family will survive the winter.
etc etc

Man is extremely good at overlaying a "cause and effect" explanation to chaotic (in the mathematical sense) situations. Religion, superstition, luck, etc are all constructs of a desire to apply a "pattern" to something which inherently has no pattern.

If I pray for rain, then God will make it rain...
I prayed and it didn't rain = I didn't please God in some way.
I prayed and it rained = God answered my prayers, isn't he great.

Atheist Rain = chaotic pattern with very little predictability (I'm looking at you Mr Fish)
Religious Rain = God's will.


This isn't unique to humans. Experiments on Rats and Pigeons (among other creatures) show that both creatures will repeat pointless behaviours in the belief that it somehow influences a purely random event - eg if you drop food into the cage at random intervals, both creatures will start to repeat a pattern of behaviour which coincided with a food drop in the belief that the behaviour CAUSED the drop. So this behaviour is hardwired into us at an extremely basic level - it is not part of our superior intellect, it is very instinctive.

Now, add in some basic superstition and a lot of population control techniques and you have today's organised religions. Each Religion is following books written, copied and re-written by people with a vested interest in what the book said - even if it were the "Word of God" in the first instance it is very unlikely to contain any of his original instructions!


Now I'm not saying that these books (and the Religions created from them) have no value, but they do not prove the existence of any Gods, nor do they even come close. They give hope to the sick, justification to the grieving and comfort to the dying but not evidence (conclusive or circumstantial) of intelligent design, an afterlife/heaven/hell/eternity or any other the other trappings of a supreme, all-seeing deity.

 

[LargeHadronZugzwang]

As has been said before, if God exists he/she likes beetles.

There are 300,000 catalogued; estimates vary but there is almost certainly 1,500 varieties to every mammal. Out of the six million species that live on Earth, conservative estimates suggest there are one million different types of beetle. Alone, there are over 30,000 different types of Dung beetle.

 

[symyjym]

A weekend off the site and the debate has moved on a pace...

Time to weigh in with my personal belief structure...

God (all of them) is merely man's attempt to communicate with the weather (well, the world as a whole but the weather in particular).

"Please God, make it rain" when the crops need to grow.
"Please God, stop it raining" when the crops have grown.
"Please God, make it warmer" so my family will survive the winter.
etc etc

Man is extremely good at overlaying a "cause and effect" explanation to chaotic (in the mathematical sense) situations. Religion, superstition, luck, etc are all constructs of a desire to apply a "pattern" to something which inherently has no pattern.

If I pray for rain, then God will make it rain...
I prayed and it didn't rain = I didn't please God in some way.
I prayed and it rained = God answered my prayers, isn't he great.

Atheist Rain = chaotic pattern with very little predictability (I'm looking at you Mr Fish)
Religious Rain = God's will.


This isn't unique to humans. Experiments on Rats and Pigeons (among other creatures) show that both creatures will repeat pointless behaviours in the belief that it somehow influences a purely random event - eg if you drop food into the cage at random intervals, both creatures will start to repeat a pattern of behaviour which coincided with a food drop in the belief that the behaviour CAUSED the drop. So this behaviour is hardwired into us at an extremely basic level - it is not part of our superior intellect, it is very instinctive.

Now, add in some basic superstition and a lot of population control techniques and you have today's organised religions. Each Religion is following books written, copied and re-written by people with a vested interest in what the book said - even if it were the "Word of God" in the first instance it is very unlikely to contain any of his original instructions!


Now I'm not saying that these books (and the Religions created from them) have no value, but they do not prove the existence of any Gods, nor do they even come close. They give hope to the sick, justification to the grieving and comfort to the dying but not evidence (conclusive or circumstantial) of intelligent design, an afterlife/heaven/hell/eternity or any other the other trappings of a supreme, all-seeing deity.

I hope to God you are right, so I will keep my fingers crossed.

 

[Mellotron]

A weekend off the site and the debate has moved on a pace...

Time to weigh in with my personal belief structure...

God (all of them) is merely man's attempt to communicate with the weather (well, the world as a whole but the weather in particular).

"Please God, make it rain" when the crops need to grow.
"Please God, stop it raining" when the crops have grown.
"Please God, make it warmer" so my family will survive the winter.
etc etc

Man is extremely good at overlaying a "cause and effect" explanation to chaotic (in the mathematical sense) situations. Religion, superstition, luck, etc are all constructs of a desire to apply a "pattern" to something which inherently has no pattern.

If I pray for rain, then God will make it rain...
I prayed and it didn't rain = I didn't please God in some way.
I prayed and it rained = God answered my prayers, isn't he great.

Atheist Rain = chaotic pattern with very little predictability (I'm looking at you Mr Fish)
Religious Rain = God's will.


This isn't unique to humans. Experiments on Rats and Pigeons (among other creatures) show that both creatures will repeat pointless behaviours in the belief that it somehow influences a purely random event - eg if you drop food into the cage at random intervals, both creatures will start to repeat a pattern of behaviour which coincided with a food drop in the belief that the behaviour CAUSED the drop. So this behaviour is hardwired into us at an extremely basic level - it is not part of our superior intellect, it is very instinctive.

Now, add in some basic superstition and a lot of population control techniques and you have today's organised religions. Each Religion is following books written, copied and re-written by people with a vested interest in what the book said - even if it were the "Word of God" in the first instance it is very unlikely to contain any of his original instructions!


Now I'm not saying that these books (and the Religions created from them) have no value, but they do not prove the existence of any Gods, nor do they even come close. They give hope to the sick, justification to the grieving and comfort to the dying but not evidence (conclusive or circumstantial) of intelligent design, an afterlife/heaven/hell/eternity or any other the other trappings of a supreme, all-seeing deity.

I would posit that what you're referring to are what we would call "super spiritual" Christians/believers. Probably not in the majority in the UK, but I acknowledge plenty of them exist.

Regarding the lower paragraphs I agree overall.

 

[Withdean11]

As has been said before, if God exists he/she likes beetles.

There are 300,000 catalogued; estimates vary but there is almost certainly 1,500 varieties to every mammal. Out of the six million species that live on Earth, conservative estimates suggest there are one million different types of beetle. Alone, there are over 30,000 different types of Dung beetle.

View attachment 56780

It's statistics like that, that make me think the story of Noah's Arc isn't totally accturate..

 

[LargeHadronZugzwang]

It's statistics like that, that make me think the story of Noah's Arc isn't totally accturate..

Must be, haven't you seen the film? Not sure about those rock monsters though....

 

[Nibble]

If someone is feeble and un- imaginative enough to need a god to explain the world I wish them luck.