The Faith & Religion mega Thread

As long as we keep it real. ;P

Demons spawn demons, you want to be a part of that?

At least reincarnated you'd have a chance to be some "lower life-form..." (or get karma) or, you learn how to live now unlike apparently,,, how much of the world is religious ie bullied I mean blind to change?

Again not that that we aren't all born to change 200 years from now!

Originally Posted by jamison20000e As long as we keep it real. ;P

But it is real..sceptics simply have their own reasons. I think this quote fits more:

Maybe the atheist cannot find God for the same reason a thief cannot find a policeman. ~Author Unknown

So i have question for atheists : What would happen if one day they would find God exists afterall?

Human nature is such that we tend to favor comfort over discomfort. We are constantly trying to make our lives more comfortable while we shun discomfort like the plague. But it is important to remember that being uncomfortable is often evidence that we are making progress. It is akin to exercising and being a little uncomfortable so that we can get more fit. We can apply the ‘no pain, no gain’ adage here because, very often, we cannot improve ourselves and accomplish our goals without experiencing some discomfort. When we embrace discomfort and remember that it is for a good cause, we develop more confidence in our ability to handle it. What does not kill us really does make us stronger, and this applies to our self-belief, too.

These quotes fit well together. It is more comfy and cozy to do whatever without consequences then to behave properly.

Originally Posted by jamison20000e {...}At least reincarnated you'd have a chance to be some "lower life-form..." (or get karma) or, you learn how to live now unlike apparently,,, how much of the world is religious ie bullied I mean blind to change?{...}

Reincarnate into lower life-form? Why would anyone..? I would not. Then better live as is. Then i not see point of reincarnation apart from karmah. I thought the whole point of evolution is to move forward not backward.

I believe in God, I just don't trust anyone who works for him. ~Author unknown, from a stand-up comedy routine on television Religions are like farts. Yours is good, but everyone else's stinks. ~Picket Fences

But i have suspicion that someone waits|creates|uses hijack..that is not consent.

Good quotes, Arcane. May include a couple in my quotes jar (assume they're not copyright protected).

Originally Posted by Arcane So i have question for atheists : What would happen if one day they would find God exists afterall?

I can't speak for anyone but myself and for me if I assume that in someway unknown to me objective proof somehow became possible, I would have to accept that... but that "IF" is a huge "IF". I have nearly as much trouble comprehending what possible evidence there could be as I do in having Faith in the first place. Since the most fundamental issue will still exist that no information passes through the singularity of Big Bang, there can be no evidence from outside our SpaceTime. That rather precludes any objective evidence making this question quite absurd since it appears there can be no condition in which that is true, at the very least while we are live.

BTW while in some ways this is a good question it is also a rather common question because as might be imagined Believers have as hard a time comprehending why non-believers don't believe as vice versa and it all boils down to having Faith or not having Faith. I don't have faith in anything. I do have varying levels of confidence in everything I trust in but that depends on evidence, or track record in the case of trustworthy people. I suppose on one level it could be seen as a kind of Faith that I put out a basic trust until proven otherwise but I consider that simply proactive living. One can't ask the fireplace to deliver the heat and then "I'll put in the logs". Pay it Forward is a good practice IMHO. I don't see it as faith at all though others might.

All right, let's make it more concrete. Suppose one day you had (quite unexpectedly) an overwhelming religious experience, something like Paul's experience on the road to Damascus. Would you simply conclude that it had to be illusory and continue on your merry way? Or would you feel the need to integrate it somehow into your life?

@dogpatch
No problem. I do not claim copyright cause i found them on internet using search engines myself.

@enorbet
This is what i was writing before.."having to accept that" in kindish depressive format. Some people prefer life without(can't blame them cause it is kinda no choice situation) God|Devil|w/e instead of but then you can't be true scientist if you not have faith in reality. Science is pursuit of truth whatever it might be regarldess of BIAS and it can include Religion if it would turn out to be included. And your second text paragraph contradicts first. Do you think we would have computers if some would apply same logic that back then no computers existed so it never can be achieved. Same with truth. The more we live the more we find and figure out. Rome was not built in one day aswell. I already wrote that since i am truthseeker i not care if there is God|Devil or if there is no God|Devil but i won't argue with reality in both cases. I just hope there is some kind of Deity out there cause this planet needs help..

@hazel
Stuff like that does happen. Those people are considered crazy or on drugs or alien lunatics.

Arcane, there is a difference between Faith and Confidence. I do not have Faith in Reality. I have confidence in what adds up to real as well as confidence that some things are not real. That's how I draw the line. It is based in objective evidence. I do speculate on things but by definition that means there is a lack of data/evidence so the firmness of a solid conclusion cannot be made. I don't think there is anything I currently trust in that can't be altered by enough evidence but some things are obviously exraordinarily solid and require extraordinary evidence to alter. An example of that might be "One must breathe, eat, and drink water to survive as a human being".

Originally Posted by hazel All right, let's make it more concrete. Suppose one day you had (quite unexpectedly) an overwhelming religious experience, something like Paul's experience on the road to Damascus. Would you simply conclude that it had to be illusory and continue on your merry way? Or would you feel the need to integrate it somehow into your life?

Not exactly... somewhere in between. I would conclude it had to be illusory but I would be compelled to understand how and why that happened. I would be genuinely concerned with the state of my health and would need to know if it was a one-time thing from, say, having ingested something causing such a reaction or if it was some more or less permanent condition. Since you brought up Paul, that he was apparently blind and didn't eat nor sleep for days, if I had such an event of such an extreme nature , I would be very concerned and worried and seek medical aid. I most certainly would not "continue on my merry way". With that internal experience (Paul's friends saw nothing) there is no way I would consider that valid evidence of external affairs. It would take a lot more than a flash of light and a voice in my head to conclude "Yup. There must be a SuperNatural Creator of the Universe and everything in it, including me" Occam's Razor applies.

If we were never taught about "pain," would we ever cry?

Mommies of the world unite... faith in reality is onething but faith in what some lands believe in to make the world the way it is,,, f that! Lands believe in stupid sh!t all the time until of course common sense is: fairy tales get fairy tales.

Hey Arcane ! I think I have something that will interest you and cause you to wonder and think and it's on the subject of "Ancient Aliens". This was a Television series created by The History Channel which has now been combined into a single 3+ hour movie that anyone can view and consider.

Check this out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9w-i5oZqaQ

EDIT: Correction - I mistakenly thought the above video aired on The History Channel and it now appears it did not. Only the original "Ancient Aliens" show did. My apologies for my error but it doesn't affect the content at all except maybe to cast some sidelong glances at the standards of the The History Channel. After all, anyone who places any confidence whatsoever in Erich von Däniken should be laughed out of the room.

Originally Posted by jamison20000e Perhaps we could all be gods, mwahaha!

This idea is interesting..what if immortals are humans before some-sort-of-transformation afterall. This book is for women but i see no difference even if it would be wrote for men aswell. Being humans is being one of both.

Originally Posted by Arcane This idea is interesting..what if immortals are humans before some-sort-of-transformation after all.

That's hardly original! It's precisely what the Mormons believe. They think that God/Jehovah was once a human being on another planet ruled by another god. He was a good boy so He eventually got promoted to godhead and was given this planet to rule and populate with His spiritual children. Mormons believe that they too will eventually become gods and rule their own planets.

Originally Posted by enorbet I would conclude [a religious experience] had to be illusory but I would be compelled to understand how and why that happened. I would be genuinely concerned with the state of my health and would need to know if it was a one-time thing from, say, having ingested something causing such a reaction or if it was some more or less permanent condition.

Personally, I'd consider that anyone who would rather believe he's going mad than accept a religious experience would certainly have a psychiatric problem, although not in the sense you mean. Can you not see just how irrational that would be? The context is different, but to refuse to accept evidence because it conflicts with your beliefs would put you in the same camp as evolution-deniers, anti-vaxers, and conspiracy theorists. And that's why I generally manage to resist the temptation to post in this thread

Originally Posted by DavidMcCann Personally, I'd consider that anyone who would rather believe he's going mad than accept a religious experience would certainly have a psychiatric problem, although not in the sense you mean. Can you not see just how irrational that would be? The context is different, but to refuse to accept evidence because it conflicts with your beliefs would put you in the same camp as evolution-deniers, anti-vaxers, and conspiracy theorists. And that's why I generally manage to resist the temptation to post in this thread

As I'm sure you would guess, I don't see it this way at all. It has long been noted that while most people don't think it is insane to "talk to God", most think it is rather questionable if you hear God talking back to you. Scientifically, so-called "eye witness evidence" is one of the least reliable sources from which to draw any conclusions. That's why magicians can make a living with sleight of hand. In my frame of reference and standards for evidence, disembodied voices and seeing things nobody else present can see is far more likely to be an aberration of some kind than good, objective evidence and by it's very definition. How is that irrational?

There are mountains of evidence regarding hallucinations, fugue states, sleight of hand and all manner of other mistaken or misinterpreted sensory experience. There is absolutely zero reliable evidence of ghosts, spirits, angels or God, let alone interpreting a mere flash of bright light (especially a flash not even visible to anyone else nearby) as The Supreme Being and Creator of All Things. To me drawing that conclusion from such a non-specific experience is what would be irrational. To me that anyone would seems yet another example of anthropomorphic conceit and projection.