Spirituality, Religion, Faith & Beliefs

[stayclassy]

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Special_K wrote:
I do know the gist of my **bleep**. I'm not studying religion in detail but I am studying ancient cultures which is why you very more detailed information than I do. Beats the ignorance of believing in this book. Cool? Cool.
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Not cool. Lets not try to shove what is or is not "ignorant" down others throats, because you OBVIOUSLY don't have the secrets to the universe. The bibles various writings are called excerpts for a reason. No one group of people sat down under a time crunch to write the bible, and it's ignorant to walk around talking crap when the "gist" of your shiit is wrong. Whether the writings are true or not, the history of how the bible book became to be is all fact.

People can think what they want, and they do. Hence why I said that some people who are Christian believe that the "good book" was deffinatly written with Gods guidance. While others (like you) believe that the book was "deffinatly" written by a bunch of people who deffinatly had nothing to do with God. It IS all about what someone believes in, because whether you or anyone else likes it or not, no one can prove or disprove God and his doings that may or may not have made the bible possible.

Bottom line, no one on the face of the earth has the right to walk around saying the the bible deffinatly is or is not based off of god. There is no deffinatly in this situation, and those who try to act like there is are being intolerant of others opinions and very ignorant.

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No. I expressed my opinion. When people who believe express their opinion they say god DEFINITELY exists. I don't know if god exists (although it makes more sense to me that he doesn't) but I definitely don't believe in the bible.

I think it's ignorant to bash on me for expressing my opinion and my beliefs. I didn't "shove" anything down anyone's throat in this post. Bottom line, I have the right to walk around saying whatever I believe in the bible, besides people literally walk around in the streets trying to convince you about their god and religion.

[flamingoccm]

I do know the gist of my **bleep**. I'm not studying religion in detail but I am studying ancient cultures which is why you very more detailed information than I do. Beats the ignorance of believing in this book. Cool? Cool.

If that's the case and you're actually studying acient cultures, I'm quite appaled by what you're calling "knowing the gist" of this information. I wasn't giving you a religious view. I was giving you a rather historic view of the Bible. This information didn't come from a class on religion. In fact, it came from a World History class. If you paid attention at all to history, you'd know that religion had an incredibly impact on world history. 

I would expect you to know the importance of being an accurate historian and to understand how important it is to look at history within the context of its culture. I completely understand skepticism. In fact, I respect skepticism because it is a sign that you're responding to new information intelligently rather than just accepting everything you're told. It's especially important when looking at history because it's hard to find history told from the viewpoint of those who lost the wars and battles; the world couldn't possibly be as full of heroes as textbooks might like to suggest. What I don't understand is the blatant disrespect and ignorance. I'm not asking you to believe the book for its religious purposes. But to assert that the Bible is something written in a short period of time by people who were forced by some Church isn't a sign you understand the gist of anything. Quite frankly, that's just willful ignorance and using your own prejudices to justify berating people for their religious views. In short: the ignorance is yours.

[stayclassy]

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flamingoccm wrote:

I do know the gist of my **bleep**. I'm not studying religion in detail but I am studying ancient cultures which is why you very more detailed information than I do. Beats the ignorance of believing in this book. Cool? Cool.

If that's the case and you're actually studying acient cultures, I'm quite appaled by what you're calling "knowing the gist" of this information. I wasn't giving you a religious view. I was giving you a rather historic view of the Bible. This information didn't come from a class on religion. In fact, it came from a World History class. If you paid attention at all to history, you'd know that religion had an incredibly impact on world history. 

I would expect you to know the importance of being an accurate historian and to understand how important it is to look at history within the context of its culture. I completely understand skepticism. In fact, I respect skepticism because it is a sign that you're responding to new information intelligently rather than just accepting everything you're told. It's especially important when looking at history because it's hard to find history told from the viewpoint of those who lost the wars and battles; the world couldn't possibly be as full of heroes as textbooks might like to suggest. What I don't understand is the blatant disrespect and ignorance. I'm not asking you to believe the book for its religious purposes. But to assert that the Bible is something written in a short period of time by people who were forced by some Church isn't a sign you understand the gist of anything. Quite frankly, that's just willful ignorance and using your own prejudices to justify berating people for their religious views. In short: the ignorance is yours.

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Well actually I never said that religion did not have an impact on where we are today. If it weren't for christianity, we would not have labels for homosexuality, bisexuality and heterosexuality and having sex outside of marriage would be normal in our society, for example. However, ancient civilizations believing in multiple gods and explaining the world based on the gods' moods seems ridiculous and ignorant (seeing as we love using that term around here) to us today, so our future civilizations will look at us and believe we were stupid to follow a book or believe in a god or whatever. You have more info, good for you, educate instead of trying to belittle another person and maybe you will truly earn "poster of the day" or whatever.

[Special_K]

No. I expressed my opinion. When people who believe express their opinion they say god DEFINITELY exists. I don't know if god exists (although it makes more sense to me that he doesn't) but I definitely don't believe in the bible.

I think it's ignorant to bash on me for expressing my opinion and my beliefs. I didn't "shove" anything down anyone's throat in this post. Bottom line, I have the right to walk around saying whatever I believe in the bible, besides people literally walk around in the streets trying to convince you about their god and religion.

Well actually I never said that religion did not have an impact on where we are today. If it weren't for christianity, we would not have labels for homosexuality, bisexuality and heterosexuality and having sex outside of marriage would be normal in our society, for example. However, ancient civilizations believing in multiple gods and explaining the world based on the gods' moods seems ridiculous and ignorant (seeing as we love using that term around here) to us today, so our future civilizations will look at us and believe we were stupid to follow a book or believe in a god or whatever. You have more info, good for you, educate instead of trying to belittle another person and maybe you will truly earn "poster of the day" or whatever.
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I cant even believe your serious with what you've said thus far in this thread. Other people are belittling/bashing YOU? It seems to me that your the one doing the belittling because apparently everyone who is a believer in your eyes are ignorant sheep! Im not down with ANYONE acting as if what they think is the ONLY way. Believer or not. I find it amusing that in your first few posts on how the bible came about, it was FACT, and now its just your OPINION. All Flaming and I were doing was giving you the accurate facts, and actually standing up for others who have an opinion on the matter. According to you (in the beginning of your posts), It was bogus that God had anything to do with writing the bible, and it was ignorance on others parts to believe this. I as well as Flaming stood up for their opinons, but we are belittling and bashing? Im actually a little disappointed with the way you chose to participate in this thread, because your posts are usually very helpful and understanding of others views.

Im also appalled that you decided to try and crap on Flamings poster of the week award. Maybe there's a reason she is poster of the week versus you -.-

[echojax]

^ 100% agree. VERY rude and pathetic for slamming Flaming's poster of the week award. Her posts are honest, kind, and never opinionated but factual. She gives educational and responsible advice. 

[leahd1]

sorry guys i didn't want to start any drama by posting that question just wanted to get others opinions!

[amyy.xo]

I completely agree with you, leahd1.  My entire life I went to Sunday School, Church, etc. Now as I am evolving into an adult and my own personal views on the world, I have a really tough time believing in a higher power.  I believe in science, because science is science and there is NO WAY science is wrong once something is proven.

However, such theories as The Big Bang and whatnot, they are just theories.  But because the earth has been around now for some 6.5 billion years, there is sadly no evidence to ever prove this theory, so forever it will remain a theory  

I think everyone is entitled to believe in what they want, and no one is "wrong."  

None of us will ever know until the day that we pass. I personnally believe in recarnation.

I hope you enjoyed my post Take care!

[illusione]

Nothing in science is ever really 'proven'. What science does is come up with models of reality. A good model will fit with everything that has been observed so far, and can predict what will be observed in the future. It will therefore be correct to an extent, but most models can be improved.

For example, Newton's law of gravity is a model. It's correct in the sense that it accurately describes what gravity does in our everyday experience of it and can be taken as fact in most situations, but it is a simplification, and it breaks down in more extreme situations. Einstein's theory of general relativity is a much better model of gravity, in that it is able to explain a lot more of what is observed, but it is still not perfect and it has yet to be fully reconciled with certain aspects of quantum theory. So somebody designing a rollercoaster would be fine to take Newton's laws as 'fact' because it predicts exactly how a rollercoaster would behave, but for a theoretical physicist trying to understand black holes, they would be no help at all.

The big bang theory is really no different to the theory of relativity in this sense. It is a model that explains all the observations we have made about the state of the universe, and has been able to predict future observations (that is actually what the term 'theory' means). This ability to successfully describe the universe provides very strong evidence in support of it. Of course, it isn't 'proven' in the sense that it isn't a perfect description of exactly what happened beyond all question, but it's a good enough model that we can assume it to be 'fact' for most situations. 

Science is a method for understanding the world. It doesn't give absolute answers, it gives our very best approximations, but these days, they're usually pretty good. People are just fighting over the details.

[allsmilebrat23]

 hi.Leahd1 I think your question is very good. but I have a question for you. what makes you lean more towards the scientific  theory vs believing in God? and have you ever read the bible?

[karamelkissiz23]

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stayclassy wrote:

Most people believe because like you said "it's comforting". There is no evidence showing whether or not there is a god, but the bible is definitely just a book written by people without god being a part of it. Believe what makes sense for you. Science is not perfect and it is executed by humans but it's the closest we have to figuring things out. Religion isn't.

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Stayclassy, I understand what you wrote but I do disagree.

I don't think believing in God is all about "comfort" because believing in the unseen requires great faith. In fact, it requires you to STEP OUT of your COMFORT ZONE and to trust in a Higher Being. It's hard to trust in the unseen because you will never have all of the answers. Therefore, I'd argue that believing in God can be rather uncomfortable as well as hard to explain. Following God can be uncomfortable because it requires believers to make many sacrifices and to change their way of living in order to appease God and to be a blessing to others. It's not always comfortable or convenient putting others in front of yourself, but that's what God calls His people to do. Being a Christian is rewarding, yet challenging...and I don't think that many people understand that.

I think for many people they've come to realize that living for God is the best way because they've already tried living on their own...and for many - if not most - it does not work out that well.

Also, I believe that God participated in writing the Bible. It was recorded by man yet inspired by God.
After all, God was the One that gave Moses the Ten Commandments on slabs of stone.

You're right: Science tries to explain things and to figure things out. Religion is about having faith that things will work out like God said.

Science and religion don't have to counteract each other...but they often do because people are so focused on "disproving God's existence."