Do you believe in God?

[Famine]

Yes, billion is a hard number to grasp.

But so is everything about both evolution and creation.

No, not really - but this is also not a terrific support for your argument that billions of years is too little time for everything we see today to have happened.

In fact, by presenting both as things that are equally "hard... to grasp", it counts against your point by demonstrating that you're equally ignorant of both concepts.

 

[PaMu1337]

Either this is cosmic satire of Young Earth creationism or you meant seconds.

A billion seconds ago is in the 90s though. It's equal to just under 32 years.

 

[Denur]

A billion years ago was sometimes during the 1950's.

To me a year is defined by the time it takes the Earth to circle the our Sun. What is your definition?

 

[m355y]

Almost exactly 50-50 split between yes/maybe, and no way. That’s quite interesting.

 

[Liquid]

Almost exactly 50-50 split between yes/maybe, and no way. That’s quite interesting.

For a long time no way was just under 50%. It being an outright majority happened a year or two ago.

 

[UKMikey]

For a long time no way was just under 50%. It being an outright majority happened a year or two ago.

More proof either that reason and logic are winning out, or that these are the end times with many false prophets walking among us, according to one's point of view.

 

[Liquid]

For a long time no way was just under 50%. It being an outright majority happened a year or two ago.

Okay I was wrong, the majority of one vote was in 2015:

And now it has become a majority vote. This screenshot shows that majority as one. One.

Why I am remembering eight years ago as two years ago must be the 2016-2020 blur.

 

[TRLWNC7396]

To me a year is defined by the time it takes the Earth to circle the our Sun. What is your definition?

Oops. Didn't proofread....

Yeah... Seconds...

 

[HenrySwanson]

Say you encounter enough experiences that resemble what happens to the protagonist in 1408, only they're less overtly paranormal.

What would be the threshold for when you logically conclude there's more to the universe than random chance occurrences.

Okay, so arriving at a hotel at 14:08 local time is a bit creepy.

 

[HenrySwanson]

Coming from the Russell Brand story, was thinking of an explanation for this:

Phoebe says “And I saw something come over his eyes, I swear to God, like, black, his eyes had no more colour, they were black, like the devil. Like a different person literally entered his body.”

But he did have a whole glazed-over look. He does this thing when he glazes over — and I don’t know if he’s listening, I don’t know what’s going on in his head . . . It was fine — but it was a weird first-time experience with someone when you’re having sex with them for the first time.”

The second one - yes glazed-over eyes are quite common, so I can see it. But in the first, that his eyes literally lost their colour....the only thing I can think of is extreme dilation of the pupils, but it must have been a frightening experience.

 

[Liquid]

Drugs.

 

[Ghost Lap]

There is an ancient Eastern philosophy which suggests that we are all like waves in the ocean, with us basically being each individual wave and the entire universe being the ocean. Each wave is merely a consequence of the greater will of the ocean, no individual wave has any control in the ultimate sense, only the ocean as a whole does. Essentially suggesting that whilst we might feel like we each have free will and control over our actions, we are each merely just an expression of what the universe wanted us to be.

 

[Danoff]

what the universe wanted us to be.

The ocean doesn't have a mind for what its waves do.

 

[UKMikey]

I don't know, but as a theory this all sounds a little bit on the oddball side to me.

 

[RikkiGT-R]

I fear a very large debate could emerge from this question....

I don't personally believe in the same God the Christians do, but I do feel there could be a higher power up there of the same kind.

Well you were right on the money.
15 years later this thread remains ongoing 😬

 

[Def-Infinity]

I used to describe myself as atheist and now I have a new term to describe my stance on religion or the metaphysics surrounding it: apatheist.

Even if I think any given deity is unlikely to exist, the answer to the question of whether or not they exist is unknowable and not really worth spending time on.

With that said, I don't think I am a nihilist. Not yet, anyway.

 

[MatskiMonk]

I used to describe myself as atheist and now I have a new term to describe my stance on religion or the metaphysics surrounding it: apatheist.

Even if I think any given deity is unlikely to exist, the answer to the question of whether or not they exist is unknowable and not really worth spending time on.

I'm not really sure I understand this. If you believe it's unknowable, wouldn't you be agnostic? I get that might make you apathetic towards the question, but Apatheist seems to suggest that you don't care about the answer also. If some of this stuff turned out to be real in some fashion*, I think most people would care, no matter what their original stance was.

*I have no time or tolerance for teachings of organised religion but that doesn't mean to say that some of the traditional hypotheses religion has been used to answer don't need serious scientific consideration, research and understanding.

 

[sw3g005]

"Do you believe in god?"
cuz that is what I'm sellin'
and if you wanna get to heaven
I will set you right!
(this was legit the first thing I thought of when I saw that question )

On a serious note, I don't really care. It'd be cool if god existed, but I have no interest in prayers or going to church or anything like that. I do however despise how often its used to control people and their thoughts, even if that isn't necessarily the fault of the religion itself, only power-hungry monsters.

 

[TRLWNC7396]

True religion, and undefiled, is loving and gentle. It never results in or is affected by greed.

It is truly horrible and saddening that so many "religions" have become farces of love, kindness, and caring.

But we shall see.

 

[Imari]

True religion, and undefiled, is loving and gentle. It never results in or is affected by greed.

It is truly horrible and saddening that so many "religions" have become farces of love, kindness, and caring.

But we shall see.

Sounds like No True Scotsman to me. A religion can have any moral system it likes. Including greed.

 

[HenrySwanson]

True religion, and undefiled, is loving and gentle. It never results in or is affected by greed.

It is truly horrible and saddening that so many "religions" have become farces of love, kindness, and caring.

But we shall see.

Is this true for all religions?

List of wealthiest religious organizations - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Daz555]

True religion, and undefiled, is loving and gentle. It never results in or is affected by greed.

It is truly horrible and saddening that so many "religions" have become farces of love, kindness, and caring.

But we shall see.

Which religions today fit your definition of "true religions" ?

 

[UKMikey]

Which religions today fit your definition of "true religions" ?

Are there any prominent examples of Buddhist greed? This isn't a rhetorical question as I'm ignorant on the subject. The opulent temples in parts of China might fit the bill but I don't know.

 

[Imari]

Are there any prominent examples of Buddhist greed? This isn't a rhetorical question as I'm ignorant on the subject. The opulent temples in parts of China might fit the bill but I don't know.

There's a 5.5 ton gold statue of the Buddha. At pretty much any point in history that's a staggeringly immense amount of money.

Golden Buddha (statue) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Ghost Lap]

I don't think root of the problem lies within religion so much, as it does within human beings themselves. Humans are imperfect beings by nature, can anyone here truly claim that they are perfect in any sense?

 

[MatskiMonk]

Humans are imperfect beings by nature, can anyone here truly claim that they are perfect in any sense?

And since religion is a man made construct, you can see why people should be suspicious of it.

 

[TRLWNC7396]

Which religions today fit your definition of "true religions" ?

You have to understand what I mean.

A religion that is an organization is merely an organization.

And that can create chances for bad things, including greed and so on.

I'm not talking about a group or organization or evil.

I'm talking about how ONE person treats themselves, others, and their relationship with all of the above. Including their higher power (or what I called God).

That is what I mean by true religion.

Check out this explanation from 1978: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1978/10/true-religion?lang=eng#title1

 

[Liquid]

That's still very No True Scotsman.

"I'm a nice guy, I haven't been corrupted, I follow it the right way. It's those big groups that don't."

What you're describing to me just sounds like personal belief. One person believes, many people organise it as a religion.

 

[Imari]

I'm talking about how ONE person treats themselves, others, and their relationship with all of the above. Including their higher power (or what I called God).

You think ONE person can't be unloving, not gentle, or greedy? Have you ever met or interacted with another human?

Because if you have, then you'd know that they absolutely can be. You must just be making excuses as for why all those people don't count, which I'm sure is a fallacy of some sort.

That is what I mean by true religion.

Check out this explanation from 1978: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1978/10/true-religion?lang=eng#title1

The article implies when it says "In short, James tells us that true religion is a devotion to God, demonstrated by love and compassion for fellowmen, coupled with unworldliness" that you must be a Christian to have true religion. Or at least follow the Abrahamic God.

To your meaning of true religion, can someone who is follows a non-Christian faith have true religion?

 

[Ghost Lap]

And since religion is a man made construct, you can see why people should be suspicious of it.

Very true, but if you really want to break it down I suppose you could apply that same idea of thought to almost anything and say that people should be suspicious of anything that arises from outside of their own consciousness. Anything else will always require a degree of faith to it one way or another.