Why do you guys think people argue so much about religion or whether or not there is a God? I mean, what difference does it make really? Is it because it would change your life? Is it because you really want to know? Or maybe, is it because you really don't want to know? Or is it that you want to be right?
One side thinks the other is being unintelligent and not representative of the status they enjoy on the planet. For each side this becomes quite disturbing, to know that your peers have lost their ability to reason. Each side is embarassed for the human race and seeks to restore the dignity believed to have been lost.
so if it's b/s, then why do people make such a big deal about it? wouldn't it make more sense to just ignore it?
I don't know what my next door neighbors religon is and I really don't care. As long as we can be friendly with each other I don't see how anyones religion or lack of religion can interfere in anyones daily lives. :shrug:
that's why i'm asking these questions. it seems to me that people attach the ego to the belief and everything goes to hell. it seems on both sides, nobody really cares what the truth is, they just care about being right. it's a shame.
in order for people to argue and war this way, they have to be so sure that they're right and that bothers me because i think it only serves to blind them. people who think they know everything aren't interested in learning anything else. they have their paradigm in place and if some new information comes along that doesn't fit, they at best disregard it, and at worst start a war over it. and especially with a topic like god and spiritual law being so nebulous and vast, how can people be so sure of themselves, and thinking they know everything there is to know? it's insane. that's why i base my beliefs on what i've experienced. this is what god has shown me first hand. and even that i don't think i understand completely, and who cares if i don't? i mean, i don't want to be ignorant or negligent. i'm paying attention because i think it matters to try to have good intentions, but i also trust god to teach me what i need to know, and to handle the rest without me.
Which is why your beliefs should never be the topic of war or argument. Discussion or dialog - sure. But religion, is not the same as god. It is a belief formed not from personal experience, but from the minds & words of others. When a person seeks to impose on others, a belief which is impersonal to them...arguments are bound to arise.
I am lately not all that interested in issues of God anymore. But my main reason for getting involved in discussions about God was my attempt (albeit not a successful one as it later turned out) to face the fear of what it would mean for me if God really exists, if I am his creation, and if the only way I could truly be happy, is with him. Because if God exists, has created me and my true happiness is only with him, then I am doomed, because everything I do is for naught. - A person who realizes this will likely rebel against it in any way they know and can, those who claim to believe in God being the first targets of this rebellion.
For me its because, I hate when people tell me that I will go to hell if i dont belive what they believe.
Bingo. If people just, you know, go to church or read a bunch of new age crap just to make themselves braver about death - GREAT. When they try to "push it" on others (A power play pure and simple), they can fuck right off.
It is statements such as these that I was alluding to earlier. At first glance it is obvious Lori is a believer but her reasoning seems flawed. Her beliefs are base on experience and surely we are all going to experience something in life, it's a given. Are we to believe that without Lori experiencing whatever it is she experiences, that she would not believe in God? This is what she is saying. However, the intelligent creatures we are, recognize the fact that we are going to experience things whether God exists or not. Surely atheists base their conclusions on experience also. Sorry Lori, I don't mean to centre you out in particular because there are plenty of statements made every day by people who claim they know God is there.
i don't understand why you think that you would be doomed and what you do for naught. can you explain the logic behind that to me? let me ask you too if you believe in a reason for living if not to commune. not necessarily with a god, but with anybody. would you want to live if you were completely alone?
the people who say that apparently don't even understand what they believe or claim to believe. and for the life of me, i can't understand how that's even done. what they're saying is that you're supposed to say you believe even if you don't really know for sure, out of fear, just in case it happens to be true. that's f'ing absurd.
well i lived a good long time before i believed, and none of my experiences up until then prompted me to. i think that part of it, or the start of it, was that i really wanted to know the truth, no matter what it was, for the first time in my life...i was attentive, and open, in my mind and in my heart. and it's been a cummulative experience, but also, i've had some pretty freaky sheit happen to me. things that once experienced, there's just no going back to normalcy. so, i think atheists base their conclusions on a lack of experience rather. the kind that i'm talking about anyway. to be an atheist, you can not be of open mind and heart, for you've already made up your mind, and are not willing the change to take place. but let me tell you...if an atheist had been sitting with me on my couch one very strange afternoon, while things on my coffee table were moving about on their own, they would have a difficult time explaining it away. though they would explain it away. i mean, they would have to right?
If it is true that if God exists, has created me and my true happiness is only with him, then this means God has the upper hand in everything, and so it ultimately does not matter what I do. If doesn't matter what I do, then everything I do is for naught, and I am doomed. Yes.
Maybe it's a catch 22 situation in which you don't experience anything unless you believe at the very least there is a higher power. This belief in itself allows the mind to open up to 'potentiality' and 'possibility', without this mindset one cannot see the bigger picture or experience anything that would bring them closer to their higher purpose or truth. It is a big deal if God exists because if so then they would have given us the gift of life and consciousness, in which case we should give them bucket loads of respect, not necessarily in the form of worship but rather furthering oneself and achieving at the very least internal harmony so that when it comes to entering the kingdom of God you will be ready and prepared to receive the awesome wonder of unhindered potentiality. A weak or unprepared mind such as that of an non-believer would simply go mad if it tried to take it all in.
