The Faith & Religion mega Thread

A few days ago I read that the pope spoke about religion being the only way forward in the times of wars and atheism, the only hope for the future, etc. It was in the same newspaper where I read about some mad and brainwashed people in sudan who want death penalty for naming a teddy bear 'mohammed'. Well, nevermind...

It didn't make me think about how dangerous religion can be (that I already know). I thought about something else. Just imagine, the vatican, the pope with his gold ring and sacred ceremonies, all the wise and holy books, all the wealth, one of the biggest and most influential imperiums, thousands of employees in vatican, millions of priests all over the world. if you just imagine how huge it is... unimaginable amounts of people's work and money and dedication throughout 2000 years... and (possibly) all in vain.....all in the name of something that doesn't exist.... It's kind of sad.

Originally Posted by rsashok I think no one can't deny that religion played it positive role in history of the mankind. The notion (or invention) of a single omnipotent god was far superior to the multiple ever struggling gods. Besides other, it provided people's responsibility for their deeds and obligations to lead moral (in religious) definition lives. It might explain why human civilization, as we know, started just about 2.5 thousand years ago, and previous 30 thousand years of modern biological humans were, probably, filled with "Conan barbarian's and destroyers". But even greater inadvertent religious invention was simple "Cesar Cesar's, and God god's", which allowed separation of state and religion.

Christianity really just replaced the old gods with new one's, of course and is not actually monotheism. The jewish monotheism likely rose out of the brief monotheistic period in Egypt anyway. Now we have the christian gods, most notable with catholics. It's again a family with mum, dad and virgin son (sound familiar?) and other mortals elevated to godhood and prayed to. Then angels and other godlike figures...

As for ancient history, other cultures have existed with morals and 'gods' for long periods, such as the Australian Aboriginal... And look what they went through in the name of jesus for being the heathens they were...

Interesting stuff tho, eh...

Deist. Closest, anyway.

Wait, wtf, I'm the only one that voted Deist? But the founding fathers of the United States of America were Deists!!!! You are all unamerican!!!

I find it hard to believe that we only have "firm believers" and not "theists". I guess nobody wants to be a "Bad Jew" or "Bad Christian", so it's kind of understandable. But I get the feeling people were confused by the options.

You are all unamerican!!!

I am certainly un-american - I am an Englishman living in New Zealand. You are in an international forum.

I'm issuing no vote - the poll is bogus.

What would "firm believer" mean?

The other options are divided according to the philosophical responce to the proposition "God exists".

Theists accept the proposition as true, and add that this is the God of the Xian Bible.
Deists accept the proposition as true, without drawing other conclusions.
Agnostics consider the truth of the proposition to be unresolved.
Atheists reject the proposition - it is false: there is no God.

We also have
Polytheists - there is more that one God.
Pantheists - everything is divine
Pagans - God exists, but is not the God of the Xian Bible.
(Need a better name for this - it is included to avoid the Xian slant in the standard uses of the above terms.)
... etc.
So the poll options are incomplete.
The option "firm believer" would seem to indicate a deist or a theist... perhaps one who dosn't feel that accepting the proposition needs to be on rational grounds. (And OP didn't want an option: irrational believer" nor "blind faith".)

Lets see... in those examples, polytheists would vote "theist", and so would pagans. This on the caveat that "God" can refer to any divine being. Pantheist would need to go agnostic or even atheist - as they do not believe in any personification of the divine - anf divine being.

There is also no working definition of "God" offered, so it is ambiguous exactly what we are talking about. Not everyone who considers themselves a theist would agree with the definition offered by, say, Anselm of Canterbury.

There is also a note of caution to add here: what will the poll results be used for?

And, it's all been done before: 45.56 percent of geeks are reported to be atheists.

Further reading:
http://m4th.com/Articles/Why-are-gee...n-atheists.php
... thoughtful article on why geeks tend to be atheist (technically: why they tend to vote "atheist" on religion polls.)
http://web.tickle.com/tests/religion...on%2Findex.jsp
... an attempt to get you to register for a tickle account, by running a questionairre to see if your stated religion matches your stated beliefs. i.e. If you don't think that adulterers should be stoned, you are not a fundamentalist xian.
http://www.survey.net/rlg1c2.html
... the interesting part of another survey - what people have meant when they put "other" under "relgion" in a survey.

Geek Religion blog articles:
http://thepetitegeek.blogspot.com/20...ligion_02.html
http://journeyofageek.blogspot.com/2...spiration.html
http://blogumentary.typepad.com/chuc...ion/index.html

Conclusion: grow up! There are more important questions, like: vi or emacs? <ducks>

There are more important questions, like: vi or emacs?

You didn't state your position. Are you a firm vier, a viist or an aviist?

I bet that majority vi-ers belong to atheist camp, and emac-ers are most likely religious, because they all conviced in divine power of connection between emac-gdb duelty.

I'm a Vignostic - I know Vi exists but I won't be drawn as to it's superiority or otherwise to Emacs. (Now I just know that's going to find it's way into somebodies sig...)

Viians and Emaccians unite against the scurge of the heathen Notepadders ... but where do they stand on the Geditite heratics? But what of the "K"-ite conspiracy - and their nefarious plan to control the World by replacing innocent consonants with a K and even prepending a K where it doesn't belong.

Gnomes stand short: your Time is at foot!
<dribble>

ok , seems to me people have touched upon "morals" ... thats a big and "standing" one and everything else "below" ... just let it "happen" as nothing will go "wrong" ...

a village can actually a big thing ... its about imagination in people's mind especially when they can see(or foresee) the seriousness of what is going to happen at hand ...

that was/is when things started breaking up at speed , most probably this had to come by force and coercion ... get people out of the "bigger" family to faraway land but just at the point of beyond comfortable distant ... the point is to make people lazy going back too oftently or even not thinking of going back at all(can save the guilt to yourself , doesnt matter) ... see , that was management ...

darker(always) pagans men bathing together with their kids in streams or not , having meals with their bare hands or not , men and women going around half naked or not , all didnt matter ... but all seemed to need something else as time went by ... especially if certain "differentiation" was needed and better let it be as obvious as possible ...

all in all , as long as they dont block my flows of ways ... land or sea ... i think its ok ... if not , i will give away heavenly robes and put them onto some of the "luckier" ones(who are sort of my own people anyway) ... if not , i might just as well bring them back and had them beheaded ...

probably "religious" conflicts had once actually been solved effortlessly ...

a somewhat impersonal consious managing style of moralistic "anarchy" ... ?? and ofcause , its also something personal right down in the individuals minds ... and probably this can only be of something conceivable to certain people ... and they are so many of them ...



.

alred: put your analyst on danger-money baby, now!

I beleive in God. That strong Baptist upbringing. I don't believe in angels or demons though not even as a child.

Originally Posted by Simon Bridge I'm a Vignostic - I know Vi exists but I won't be drawn as to it's superiority or otherwise to Emacs. (Now I just know that's going to find it's way into somebodies sig...) Viians and Emaccians unite against the scurge of the heathen Notepadders ... but where do they stand on the Geditite heratics? But what of the "K"-ite conspiracy - and their nefarious plan to control the World by replacing innocent consonants with a K and even prepending a K where it doesn't belong. Gnomes stand short: your Time is at foot! <dribble>

LOL

As of Now:

62 Atheist/Agnostics (Either do not believe or dont have an opinion about what to believe)

29 Religious (Believe in some kind of good or religion)

I am Atheist my self.

Originally Posted by Kittie Rose Wait, wtf, I'm the only one that voted Deist? But the founding fathers of the United States of America were Deists!!!! You are all unamerican!!!

Thank you for the Compliment

I am a Canadian, with New Zealand citizenship by descent. My ancestors were Ukrainian, Scottish, English, etc and as far as I know NO American*. As has been said before, this is an International forum.

* This is pretty hard to do. I have a bit of Mongolian in me even.

Originally Posted by Simon Bridge Conclusion: grow up! There are more important questions, like: vi or emacs? <ducks>

On the first day $DEITY created vi and it was good.

Having read the Bible, the Koran, and the stories of the ancient Greek and Norse gods, I see similarities in all of the stories, and in the way they say you should live your life.
Because of this, I firmly believe that people believe, although I don't. In times past, when times were hard, people needed to believe that there was something better than the interminable day to day toil and struggle of normal life (and also something worse!)
Lots of fights, murders, genocides and wars have been started just in the name of an alleged omnipotent being, just look at what is happening in the world today.
Look at some of the supposed rewards that 'God' will give out to the faithful- if a man follows Islam, and leads a good life, he will be rewarded in heaven by an eternal 'easy life' with stacks of virgins to keep him company (paraphrased). But what sort of a heaven is that for the women?
Buddhists, live good life, and you will be reincarnated, 'a level up' ie. closer to 'God' but if you don't live a good life, you will be demoted, possibly all the way back down to an earth worm!
At the end of the day, some people need an almighty being to believe in, so they can have something to look forward to - but I don't.

Oh yeah, Vi all the way!