I blame Curtis LeMay.
Science could just as easily provide answers for the first and third of those questions, if it was willing to do what religion does and simply make up the answers. There’s no reason to think that there IS any “why” or “purpose” to our existence, beyond what we give to ourselves.
As for the other two; science has various theories as to how the universe began; all religion has are wild fantasies. And science does have an answer to “Is there any existence beyond death?” The answer is “No”. The evidence is overwhelmingly against such a thing being possible, much less true. And it isn’t the fault of science if people don’t like the truth.
Screw that. It’s a big huge mostly-empty universe that’s ours for the taking!
So? Getting answers isn’t what’s important: getting accurate answers is. Otherwise you might as well just use a Magic 8-Ball.
According to the armed monkey here, not unless you’ve some personal story to share. It is not intelligent to hate things that are oppressive unless you are personally oppressed. Make sense?
You gave yourself 3 choices and picked the wrong one. The correct one is ‘sense of injury’. If I may speak for him in this instance, he is angry because of the injuries he sees caused by religion, The same here.
I can say that religion has directly hindered research on stem cells which may hold a cure for MS (which my wife has). In no way did stem cell research affect any credophile in any way whatsoever. Yet, they felt it was their duty to stop the research for years. And all the time my wife deteriorates due to her condition. Essentially, they said ‘fuck you’ to her. People die because of what religion allows and for what it doesn’t allow.
See, I don’t have a problem if people came to a rational decision on things. I might be pissed about the decision, but I at least can understand it even though I may not agree with it. But how do I deal with the fact that my wife may become a cripple because many people base their decision making upon bronze aged superstitions?
But, honestly I’ve held these views for longer than I’ve known her. She has just made it more personal for me.
Pedophile priests, no condoms for Africans, gays are sinners and can’t marry, suicide bombers, female circumcision, burkhas, stonings, jihads, the list is endless of what the religious do to those who agree and don’t agree with them.
You aren’t quietly worshiping by yourselves, though. By believing in nonsense you provide the platform for those to convince you to vote against gay marriage. For those who want to stop stem cell research. If they didn’t have you to stand upon and follow blindly (you wonder why Jesus refers to ‘flocks’. You are sheep) they’d just be yelling in the wind and no one would take them seriously. But because some smooth talker has convinced millions that he speaks for god, now we have to have him sit at the adult table and have his views taken seriously.
That is a choice you make. Others choose differently. That is their right.
Some religions are like that. My quote from the Quo’ran upthread puts Islam in that camp, but Jesus never advocated anything of the kind.
That is how some interpret the edict. It is not the only interpretation. “Honor thy parents” might be said to mean “do not dishonor them”, but if they are behaving like asshats, they have already dishonored themselves, so you really can’t dishonor a dishonorable person.
You are merely asserting your thesis here. This is not supporting evidence.
That is your interpretation. Martin Luther King, who someone else mentioned, was certainly good at it. He started a movement that overturned racial discrimination that had existed for centuries in this country.
The religious would argue, tools for good.
Just because you are of an opposite political viewpoint, you have a problem with that. But some religions advocate voting for liberals. Many Democrats are Catholic, and their political philosophy springs from their religion.
I feel like **DT **and **Curtis **are battling for my possibly immortal soul here in this conflict. It’s like Obi Wan and Vader meeting off…
But is it wrong if I’m agreeing more and more with **DT **in this one? His points resonate more with me than Curtis’ at least right now. And I think I realized why-
I think I should modify my previous Religious stance. I guess I’m religious, but I’m wary and not a fan of extremism and* organized religion*. Of which, i think both **Curtis **and **DT **do a great job of representing, but I don’t get the hate- that’s the final piece I think that holds me off from Der- he’s got some good ideas, but his pure hatred on the topic is a turn off. I can see how others would agree that he means well but his extremist views can turn off more people than on.
Has anyone ever considered that the whole reason God sent Der Trihs was because things are out of hand and he is here to straighten things out so all you DT bashers and all the Worshipers of Nothing (theists) can be forgiven for their nonsense?
Seems unlikely to most, I’d assume… but many people back in Jesus’ time thought he was just a rabble-rousing, trouble-making, bullshitter too. Just like so many of you think Der is.
Shall we establish the church now? Or wait until long after Der Trihs is dead and put words in his mouth? You know… base our doctrine on mere hearsay and tall-tales.
Either way we lose. We would just be making the problem worse by establishing yet one more worship of myth. WWDTD?
No. He and people like him challenge the mindset of the deluded. It may not be pretty or nice but it is what they deserve. Everything can be explained by natural means. There is not one thing that cannot or will not some day be explainable. It is time for religion to be tossed into the trash heap of history. Der Trihs challenges believers and I have not seen one theist here refute any point he has made. We need to battle religionistas with every weapon.
Science has effectively killed religion. Being nice and respectful towards silly beliefs will not do anything. The religious should be forced to see the ugliness of religions and deal with it honestly instead of being able to chicken out and say, “but they’re not really…”. If a religion cannot stand up to criticism then fuck it. In any battle you need your peacemakers doing what they do, along with the rabble rousers.
You might find these links illuminating. But I’m guessing you’ll choose to stay in the dark.
http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2009/04/07/cherry-picking-and-a-bible-lesson-for-atheists/
Not to speak for Trihs, but that is one wild assumption.
Personally, any church advocating for any political leader I find disgraceful, no matter the political bent. But then, I believe firmly that public life in all matters should be wholly secular and that religion should not extend beyond family, friends, and church. Is that marginalizing religion? Compared to the current culture in the US, yes, but I don’t believe the current culture in the US is healthy. Faith is a private, personal thing.
Nonsense. There are plenty of things that are outside of the scope of science.
This is an unprovable assertion.
Such as? Anything in our day-to-day lives?
but science is far more likely to find an answer. Religion will just be stuck in the same pointless loop it has been since its inception.
That is true, I did not pick my words carefully. However, science and reason are far more likely to find the answer than some silly 2000 year old nonsense that some primitive desert dwellars believed
If you check your girlfriend’s bible, you will notice that JC said a lot of stuff like “Before Abraham was I am.” and “I and my father are one” which implied that he was standing right beside YHWH giggling with pleasure as the children of the Midianites/Cannanites/whateverites were hacked to death with dull bronze swords. And there’s the bit about jots and tittles and no change to the old laws, including the ones about “leaving nothing alive that breathed” and so on. ISTM that he (supposedly) was quite clear about his approval of the various slaughters “I and my father” ordered and oversaw.
ETA I see that as usual somebody beat me too it…sigh.
Would that religion confined itself to only those.
I don’t have much against religion attempting to explain the unknowable. However, once something becomes knowable, and is known, then religion needs to get its ass out of the way.
What does “outside the scope of science” mean anyway? And how does religion provide answers? Sure, “why are we here?” is currently unknown, but “Because God said so” is nowhere near an acceptable answer to me. What is God? What’s he made out of? Did he make the universe in the same way I make a sandwich? If not, how? Is it a process that can be measured? If not, why not? If it can’t be measured, then how can it ever be shown to exist? Etc…
No, the only answer that will satisfy me is one that is answered by experiment. If it’s not answered in my lifetime, or not ever, then that sucks, but there’s not much I can do about it. I can’t delude myself into just making up a vague answer that doesn’t even really answer anything, it just replaces it with a meaningless placeholder. It’s intellectually dishonest, and it’s just not satisfying.
I would, however, be in support of starting a religion deifying Der Trihs, due to the irony explosion it would cause.
This +10000000
It’s not so much Der Trihs’s views that bother me – it’s his attitude and the way he expresses them. Although I will say, he’s completely kicking Curtis’s ass here.