The unpopular or otherwise, question thread.

[Danielle]

How can people believe in religion? ._.

 

[Blobbenstein]

How can people believe in religion? ._.

People have different reasons....for me it is just part of my understanding about how the world works..

 

[thefadedone]

How can people believe in religion? ._.

I think it's because they NEED something to believe in.

 

[Wolfie]

Why do people care whether someone else is religious?

 

[beancounter]

Why do people care whether someone else is religious?

Because it often involves said person being in your face about their beliefs.

 

[Danielle]

If religious people didn't try to force others to live according to what they believe and I didn't have to hide in an atheist closet, I wouldn't care.

 

[Blobbenstein]

people need water too; it doesn't mean that water isn't real.

 

[Danielle]

people need water too; it doesn't mean that water isn't real.

Not sure what point you are trying to make, but you can prove the existence of water.

 

[Blobbenstein]

you can't prove that water exists...I use the Matrix idea, that we could all be in a virtual reality, but only as a metaphor. I don't think we are in a computer program, it is just an argument.
Sure you can get a bottle of water; test it, drink it, but all you really have is input from your nerves into your brain...for all we know that is an illusion too. Perhaps we don't have brains....all we have is the knowledge of what we think we can see, hear etc...

Anyway, I doubt you can test the supernatural world with instruments made with ordinary matter...I think the 'ordinary' world made of atoms came from the super natural world..the supernatural world came first, always existed, and sort of outranks the atomic world.

 

[Danielle]

If I'm in a virtual world, why doesn't "rosebud" give me actual cash? If there is an afterlife, great. But unless I see it for myself, I can't believe it even if I want to. No matter what people say. Anyway, I can drink water - virtual or real - but I can't see any Gods. Oh, right, you're supposed to have blind faith without any actual evidence

 

[das_nut]

If religious people didn't try to force others to live according to what they believe and I didn't have to hide in an atheist closet, I wouldn't care.

I suspect religion is like veg*nism. Most people are pretty quiet about it. But the arsewipes are the most vocal.

 

[Wolfie]

Because it often involves said person being in your face about their beliefs.

But that can go both ways. I've had people get in my face about their atheism.

For the record I've never tried to convert anyone. I couldn't care less what others believe or don't believe.

 

[Second Summer]

I don't mind a little evangelism, personally, be it the religious, atheist or vegan. I want honest exchange of ideas.

Of course, it would be a different matter if it went beyond that, e.g. if I lived in some backwards place that wanted to put "intelligent design" into my child's school science books.

 

[Blobbenstein]

I saw that Russell Crow is in a new movie about Noah.....I don't believe in the great flood, but I have always been sort of interested in it as a story.....I had the idea a few years ago, that if one were to build a giant ark from wood, it wouldn't look like a ship, more like a big crate, and that looks like what they have done in that movie..

I don't know if Crow believes the story is real.

 

[beancounter]

you can't prove that water exists...I use the Matrix idea, that we could all be in a virtual reality, but only as a metaphor. I don't think we are in a computer program, it is just an argument.

So what you're saying is that all of reality (as we perceive it) is an illusion. If that's the case, then everything we believe is an illusion...including the belief in dieties.

 

[Blobbenstein]

well, there obviously is something, but in the end all we have is our experience.

 

[Danielle]

Is it obvious?

 

[Blobbenstein]

I mean there obviously is some sort of world that we are in; that it's not all an illusion, even if it isn't quite what it appears to be.

 

[alligatortears]

Because it often involves said person being in your face about their beliefs.

And often involves them indoctrinating their children
(personally I would have rather not have been taught Christianity as a child, as I was told demons and the devil existed, which is scary for any child)

 

[Moll Flanders]

I remember being really scared when I was about 5 being taught about the devil as my first school was very old fashioned and religious now I think back to it. This was the early 80s though.