Are you religious?

[jessb]

That's about what i'm implying, but it is an important thing to remember when ur debating a creationist. It is one of the first things they will throw at you "Evolution can't be proved, ergo Creation is true." Like it is the only other possibility.

:lol:

so you were stirring all along, right?

 

[Adzo]

Did I mention I'm a PhD candidate in psychology?

You would think a student of psychology would know better.
What would you say to people that have seen ghosts or U.F.O.'s?

Interesting read, at least no-one has employed the "Banana Argument" yet.

And just to lighten the mood a little...
http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1406#comic
http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1061#comic
http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1356#comic
http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=911#comic

Hover your cursor over the red dot under the comic.

 

[DanTheMan]

Thankfully, the fact some people have jumped to an unevidenced conclusion that God does not exist does not make it so. So my questions to our friendly diagnosticians run something like:

Unevidenced? I guess I wont bother, as I suppose you think that all these fossils and what not were all planted to prove you wrong. Pff, scientific evidence... who needs hard facts when you have a story book that tells of magic stories that once happened, but happen no more!

I should really mention that your opinion that god does exists is also unevidenced.

 

[HoffOff]

- Of this thread

 

[missllama]

lmao dylan!!!

no one answerd my questions tho... if there are any jehovas' on here if u dont want to post pm me because im genuinly wanting to know what you would do in that situation...

 

[Ishah]

The watchtower!!!!!!!!!???????? So all this is from the point of view of a jehovas witness.............. hmmmmm....... NOW this is getting good. I wouldn't give anyone from that faith time of day, nor take note of their ramblings, you see.....I believe in preserving life, NOT taking it. There is no way I would stand by and watch my child/brother/parent/husband die, simply because a PIECE OF PAPER tells me I cannot save their lives by allowing doctors to do what they can to save them, even if it meant blood transfusions and transplants. I don't CARE how much I might be preached to that it is not "god's will" or whatever the excuse is. Where is it ACTUALLY stated?? Which PIECE OF PAPER??

Someone earlier said that religious people who , in my opinion, spend their entire lives preparing to die, will be very disappointed when their time comes. AND, I add, realise just what a mistake they made in killing their own families.

Who is to say that is was NOT this gods will that peoples lives SHOULD be saved...... otherwise, why were they given the knowledge in the first place?? (and please, DON'T insult my intelligence by citing this free will rubbish. IF this god was supposed to be SO caring, he would do all he/it could to releive suffering)

I feel that is one of THE most disrespectful and rudest comments I have read so far on this thread! So JUST because they are JW's you are going to fob them off and not listen to a thing they have to say? Even if that means they may be the most knowledgeable person to date on reptiles and your only chance at saving one of your beloved pets OR your entire collection??? (Not saying that a JW is, but if they WERE...) I think that is one of the most discriminatory posts to ever see light of day! This is WHY it wasn't a public poll! Haha what if you found out that your best friend on here was a JW? Would you immediately stop ALL contact? From what you've said, I'd nearly think you most definately would!:shock:

You do realise that YOU are preaching your anti-religious and more-so anti-JW crap to them right? And you may be offending them with your harsh views and ideals, but do you see them going off at you and bringing you down? NO... They are obviously more civilised than you! And don't insult YOUR intelligence? YOU are just one person! Imagine all those JW's you are insulting right now! I seriously can't believe your level of intolerance and discrimination towards these harmless people!

Don't get me wrong, I'm of no religion/atheist, but I can still manage to be civilised and take what they have to say in a civilised conversation, just as they are taking in and accepting our views... Up until your posts came in here it was a civil healthy discussion! I just find it extremely irritating and frustrating.....If you hate it then don't post! Like many people I'm sure who share the same hate for this topic as you! Leave it be and stop bringing the thread down! If you don't want to look at it on your screen, then don't scroll down that far, or just don't look at it or even still don't log in? Or do you want everyone to be discussing your "another accident" thread or something instead and it is out of jealousy you want this thread closed?

Lana, read my post just before yours!!!!!

My true belief is, that if we indeed DO have free will, then why do we have to be cajouled and scared into believing something, just because other misguided souls do.

If we were to embrace anything, it would be so hard to choose.... now let me see.... if I don't become a catholic, I'm condemned to burn in hell for eternity. Not Anglican?? You'll NEVER be saved....... To avoid the Jewish faith condemns one to similar fates..

ohhhhhhhhhhh ........ SUCH choice!!!!!!!!

Why do you have to be so harsh in your posts? Be civil! Can you do that? YES you obviously are passionate about your anti-religiousness, but then so is everyone else with their stance... the difference is, that they can still keep their cool and restrain themselves from going all out nutty on us!
But in reference to your post... If you are any religion and not another, you will always be offending someone and be "going to hell" for not being of another or you will be doing right by one religion which is seen as wrong to another... Hence being of none, you aren't really offending any and you are doing right by you...which is all that really matters... No need to result to name-calling and shunning people for their beliefs... You wont and cant change their stance, ESPECIALLY carrying on the way you are! And YES! The choice IS actually yours to make! No one is saying otherwise! Lucky there is so many for you to choose from, I'm sure there HAS to be one that caters to YOUR needs, or maybe there isn't and this is just you voicing your dismay at not being able to belong to one like everyone else? Is Non-religion/atheism not good enough for you? I would have thought it would have been perfect for you!

Abbot, this thread was destroyed from the first post!!!!!!

WHat's your reason for not wanting it closed? Opportunity to preach and gain followers would be lost??

All I had to say I have already said, for fear of getting an infringement, or suspension, but I will say this, if ANY religion was SOOOOOOO good, no one would have to try to convert others, because they would all be there anyway, it wouldn't HAVE to be pushed down peoples throats. And here endeth the lesson from a former, confirmed "christian"!!

This thread was only destroyed from the first post to YOU as religion is something you are not capable of discussing in a civil manner, nor are you open to the opinions and views of others....Many people are actually enjoying the civil discussion! And actually want the thread to stay open... Just because YOU don't like it doesn't mean it has to be closed because you said so or want it to be! You aren't the most important member on this forum, nor is anyone else!

Just a question here, based on your "theory"... HOW would people know which is a/the "good" religion if no one is allowed to talk about it or teach people about their religion aka preach to people as you so affectionately call it? There would be NO followers of ANY religion if they did not get the word out in some way, shape or form!

I quite frankly am surprised you have not yet got an infraction/suspended yet for your intolerant comments and hateful posts towards certain religions/religious views of others! If I were a JW (the ones you have targetted in particular in your attacks), I would be deeply offended by you and what you have said! If you don't like the topic and the thread was destroyed from the very first post, then WHY CONTRIBUTE TO A DESTROYED THREAD IF YOU HATE IT SO MUCH????


To answer some of the questions of "If god is so good and blah blah blah, then why hasn't he saved these people and stopped all the killing and pain in the world...(or something to that tune)?"

As I understood it, Gods turn to rule was ages ago and when the devil/satan confronted him and everything saying that he isn't running the world right or something like that... god said, "Ok, I will let you rule for a period of time and in that time I will stand back and watch, not interfere, but I know you will not succeed and all hell will break loose etc etc... But when you have reeked enough havoc to cause the destruction of the world causing much pain, suffering and death, and everything is destroyed, and you have had your turn, you will no longer exist and I will start over and all my true followers and the truely goodhearted people will be reincarnated and all creatures big and small will live in peace and harmony with each other, and nothing will be killed, no one will feel pain or suffering ever again etc etc etc..." Or something to that tune, its all a bit fuzzy as its been so long...LOL! My mum is a JW and she has preached to me many times about it and that's what helps her cope with all the pain, suffering and destruction in the world... and for some people that piece of mind is what they need to get through life. She would be able to quote that part of the bible or whatever to you all off by heart I'm sure! I know I haven't got it exactly right, but then who can blame me? This is coming from a non-religious person going off stuff they learnt/got drilled into them for years, since they were 4yrs old... I think the last time mum told me that particular story was a year or two ago...She tries not to preach to me or dad as she knows we are not religious, and every time we have a discussion about it, she kind of gets a little offended and says "I try not to offend you by preaching my religious views on you guys, yet you're still preaching to me your non-religion" Or something like that... It kind of makes you think... And it IS really true...

So please try to be more tolerant and understanding Dipcdame, they are of you!....Even some of the athiests/non-religious people like me, are! Give them that same respect back instead of blindly dishing it out!

My rant over...

 

[Ishah]

i dont mean to ask personal questions but i have always wanted to no someones opinion and i dont really have religeous friends etc that i can ask this

have u ever been in a situation where u have had to choose if someone lives or dies? and if u were in that situation say ur child or ur partner was going to what would u choose?

is it classified as a sin to let them have the transplant or is it just the views on life? im not sure how it all works

and do u guys have the same bible as christians or lutherans etc?

shows how much i learnt about religeon back in my school days lol!

Not sure about christians or lutherans, but catholics have an "edited" version of the bible from which they teach from... it is changed to suit their needs etc and apparently it says on it something like "Catholic version of the bible, not the real bible" or something like that... its been soooo long since school... Will ask mum about it tomorrow, she knows...

I'll also ask her about the blood transplant/transfusion thingo tomorrow for you if you want, I'm sure ur not the only one wanting to know a JW's POV...

She isn't a baptised or "true" JW, but has been learning and going to readings etc for YEARS...since I was like 7 or something...She tries her best to live by it, but she's not perfect, and she's definately not a hardcore follower taking everything as *can't seem to think of the right word...its on the tip of my tongue i swear it!...mind blank at this time of nite lol* "do as I say or you shall die!" type thing... She still occasionally swears and drinks one or two, maybe more every day depending on her stress levels lol etc but she IS trying as much as she can to do the right thing by her religion which is the important thing...She knows God knows not everyone is perfect and it is hard to try and reprogram yourself after years of doing it a different way and as long as she is doing her best and genuinely trying, god will see that and forgive her for her sins...and he knows I am a good person deep down same with my brother etc. and I try to do the right thing (by me and most people) so me being non-religious he will forgive too I think thats what she's counting on...hehehe

Sorry rambled on a bit there lol...

 

[natrix]

I sometimes wonder about the 'dumb' (for lack of a better word) human need for religion.

The main problem as I see it is that as soon as there are more than 1 member , the trouble starts & the concept of hierachy comes into play pretty quickly.

Reading over the posts , there are a whole bunch of people that want to sign-up to
"The Church of Snakeology" ---that's a fun idea of-course , but............

If there is that 'dumb' need , I reckon the best way to go is for each individual to make up their own . You name your god , write your own scripture & tenets etc , decide on the components of your rituals & your clothing or whatever & Bob's your uncle.
But don't tell anyone else , coz they might wanna join & that's where the trouble starts.

I'm an Atheist these days ; But I was once a member of 'The Church Of BHP' and worshipped the Deity Melacephalus while wearing a black hood & sacrificing a garden
skink . Then I'd snort a big line of powdered BHP urate & curl up on my electric blanket &
going into a sort of dream state where I'd imagine myself biting Steve Irwin in the eye.

The Christian , or Old Testament thing must be a bit of a dichotomy for Herpers .
Here we are knowing that reptiles have been arounf for a few hundred million years & the Old Testament says that the Universe was created , what , 6 thousand yaers ago ! ?

Anyway , Just got home from a gig & felt like babbling a bit .

 

[gman78]

Good to see there is still some sane people out there.
63% is a good number of non believers

 

[Ishah]

Gman, don't forget that some who put "other" are in that 63% of "No religion/atheism" as "No religion/atheism" wasn't an option when the poll was first made... It was only after 10-20 people had already voted and asked where the "No religion/atheism" option was that it was added...Making it actually MORE than 63% that are sane lol. And given that you can only vote on a poll once, and you can't change your vote once you click "vote now", A few of us were stuck with "other" and hence the statistics went out the window to a degree...

 

[natrix]

Their is only one true God. His name is Sir Alex Ferguson.

Or George Best !

 

[Earthling]

Thankfully, the fact some people have jumped to an unevidenced conclusion that God does not exist does not make it so. So my questions to our friendly diagnosticians run something like:

1. Does God exist? (You don't know and proposing to answer "No" in the absence of any data to support such a conclusion is nothing other than a confession of your own unevidenced bias and weak intellect)
2. Is what I said I saw and heard possible? (Yes it is because you don't know if God exists and if God does exist then what I say I have seen and heard is perfectly possible)
3. Am I hallucinating? (You don't know because you don't know whether God exists and therefore whether what I have seen and heard is possible).


I can just hear my colleagues at work now:
"We think he's hallucinating because if he's not then God exists ... and we weren't counting on God existing so we really hope he's hallucinating ..." :lol:

.

Please reread:

Thankfully, the fact some people have jumped to an unevidenced conclusion that my Garden Fairy out the back does not exist does not make it so. So my questions to our friendly diagnosticians run something like:

1. Does my Garden Fairy out the back exist? (You don't know and proposing to answer "No" in the absence of any data to support such a conclusion is nothing other than a confession of your own unevidenced bias and weak intellect)
2. Is what I said I saw and heard possible? (Yes it is because you don't know if my Garden Fairy out the back exists and if my Garden Fairy out the back does exist then what I say I have seen and heard is perfectly possible)
3. Am I hallucinating? (You don't know because you don't know whether my Garden Fairy out the back exists and therefore whether what I have seen and heard is possible).


I can just hear my colleagues at work now:
"We think he's hallucinating because if he's not then my Garden Fairy out the back exists ... and we weren't counting on my Garden Fairy out the back existing so we really hope he's hallucinating ..." :lol:

Isnt it interesting your 'argument' can be proven very weak, simply by substituting your 'god' for another creature of mass delusion.

 

[redbellybite]

EARTHLING ...me personally would of gone with them garden gnomes, more popular and they seem to turn up in the most unusual places other then in your garden .....like say on a ferry or on a boogie board at Manly beach...even at the local police station ( and sorry for all the hurt I caused for taking the garden gnome and getting pictures and sending them to you MRS GRAHAM but we was kids and it was the 80's,see ya cant trust good honest catholic school girls:evil::evil::evil

 

[Moreliaman]

I'm afraid I couldn't face reading your entire manifesto Kane Mortlock - sorry! But I will say that hearing voices is commonly recognised as a sign of mental illness.

Are you calling my imaginary friend a liar ????:shock::shock:


(its ok freddie i know your real)

 

[Jewly]

Genesis 2:15-17: "And Jehovah God proceeded to take the man and settle him in the garden of E´den to cultivate it and to take care of it. And Jehovah God also laid this command upon the man: “From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die."

Seems pretty clear to me

From reading that, what is clear is that he lied to them because they did eat from the tree and they didn't die, they were given a completely different punishment which again is not fair. Who knows...maybe they wanted to die. Some people do make that choice in life.

Also, like I said previously, not only did he punish them but he punished every person who came after them. How is that fair? Should I be punished for the sins of my great grand-parents, people I never even knew?

Anyway, IF there is a god, he certainly isn't someone that I respect or would want to worship.

 

[Jay84]

I also cant believe ur HATE and aggression DIPCDAME. is it really necessary? i dont think it is. this thread has been a great debate, why bring it down?

as for you comments about preaching that if ur bad ull burn in hell for eternity, you'll be pleased to know that Jehovah's Witnesses (JW's) DO NOT preach this. In the bible it does not say anything about that. from dust you came and to dust you will return, im sure you remember that line?

as for blood transfusions, im not entirely clear. as iv said before it has been some 6 years since i stopped goin to the meetings (church). but what would you say to the parents of the little girl on tv about a month ago. she wanted to stop taking her medication. i cant remember what her illness was, but to stop takin her meds she was going to die. why dont u all go and make hate comments about that poor girl and her family?

please, before u make HATE comments, ask questions to know the facts first. if you then find it disagreeable feel free to say so, in a diplomatic way.

 

[abbott75]

I'll have to make this quick because I have to go.

i dont mean to ask personal questions but i have always wanted to no someones opinion and i dont really have religeous friends etc that i can ask this

have u ever been in a situation where u have had to choose if someone lives or dies?

Personally, no.

and if u were in that situation say ur child or ur partner was going to what would u choose?

Remember, we believe that if you happen to die faithful, we will be rewarded by God. Death is not scary when you believe it is not the end of everything.

Taking that into account, we would not accept the transfusion.

is it classified as a sin to let them have the transplant or is it just the views on life? im not sure how it all works

There are numerous scriptures on the sanctity of blood, I don't have time to quote them right now but can come back with the later if you'd like.

and do u guys have the same bible as christians or lutherans etc?

We are Christians

We have the 'same' Bible, but we use a different translation than most. All the content is the same, just translated into modern English. Much easier to read!

WHat's your reason for not wanting it closed? Opportunity to preach and gain followers would be lost??

Dipcdame - I'm going to disregard the rest of your intolerant ramble and answer that one question. I want that thread to remain open because myself and a few other members are enjoying a healthy debate of each others views. I don't think I have "preached" at all on this thread, all I have done is answer questions other members have put forward.

Now, I wont be back home til about 7pm. Can you guys please not get this thread locked?

 

[jessb]

Are you calling my imaginary friend a liar ????:shock::shock:


(its ok freddie i know your real)

Hey, my 3.5yo daughter's imaginary friend Henry seems to be responsible for a lot of the stuff that goes on around here - I can't discount the possibility of his existence, as I have no hard evidence that he isn't eating all the biscuits and insisting that we play Hungry Hungry Hippos again.

 

[missllama]

thanks ishah and abbot makes a fair bit more sence now

what i wanted to know is sif i die a jahovis, and it turns out that the big man up theres ways are really ment to be the catholic ways would that mean i go to hell according to what is taught by the jahovis people?

or does it not really matter if ur christian anglican or jahovis either way u belive in god so ur doing the right thing?

i really dont get what the difference is between all of them

i mean at the end of the day its one person up there so does it honestly matter which one u are? or is it just because u have a few different ways about life or something

all i know is that back in school i was taught that if u dont ask him into ur life ur going to burn for ever
pretty wierd that they would tell tiny kids that but still i dont get it if thats just what the lutherans belive or maby the jahovis' are different?

i might be confusing everyone im just trying to work out if there is really any differences between them all

ARGH RELIGEOUS TALK CONFUSES ME!

 

[Moreliaman]

wow...i never realised how many atheists there were...just looking at the poll shows a clear majority...people (like my family) would always say that i was bad for being atheist and that i should follow the right way and be christian...hmmm...

It is a proven fact that atheists far out number people with religion, but because its a silent majority it never gets noticed.

I also disagree with anyone forcing their children or another person into a religion, they should present them with the options & let them decide.