[Poll Closed] What Do You Believe?

[Onion]

Wow I'm surprised to see how many of us have been raised with a religion and turned agnostic/atheist. I didn't think it was this common.

[IVIYTH0S]

Atheist or agnostic?

 

Many people are really agnostic, but call themselves atheist anyway. Atheism denies the existence of any God or gods. Agnosticism simply states that we're all completely clueless and there's no real way to know one way or the other...but it's likely that there isn't a God or gods.

I flip flop, depending on who I'm talking to. I guess more towards agnostic (I'll change my vote ya jerk) because I'm willing to believe something that can be *proven*, the problem is that the ladies and gentlemen of the faith don't seem to be searching for the almighty but rather they're convinced they've "found him"...ok then show me lol

 

My friend is an example of someone I'm selectively atheist with. He says that god is the reason he has an Acura Integra,as it was his will and influence that pushed the engineers into make it... not the time tested struggle of research and the developments made in automotive science and more importantly the *hard work* of *real people*....and that's the kind of person/kinds of people that make me turn off my interest in wanting to believe there's an almighty being, WE are the almighty beings lol

[Tjj226_Angel]

Well I have learned my lesson. After writing three pages of what was basically a research paper, I decided to erase it all because I knew no one would get the main idea of it. So I will spare all of us from a very long and pointless headache.

 

I have kept this extremely bland so that no one will be offended. SOMEONE took off my George Carlin video which is really weird since he was right. So hopefully I can sum up basic logic and not step on anyones feelings.

 

I am totally against religion.

 

Why: Well pretty much all of human history.

 

What does that mean: Religion has changed the face of our earth several times over and never in a good way. Crusades, struggle between the middle eastern countries, genocide in Asia, and probably something terrible in south America and Southern Africa but I have not gotten that far into history because I am still trying to study the Asian continent a lot more, so my apologies for not having a good example. And then you have the universal struggle of people not being able to accept people who aren't like them and you end up with a very wide range of general persecution.

 

End result: What I believe in is people and their own potential (notice the careful use of the word potential). The potential to do good, persevere though hardships, and live freely all on their own without any sort of given structure. It might take a couple generations of weeding out some outliers for that thought to becomes as viable as I want it to be, but it is certainly a much more humanistic approach then clinging to a religious title that will only cause emotional walls and conformity, that in the long run will only lead to more human separatism and bloodshed.

 

Proof of me not being logical rather than opinionated if anyone cares (I want to say it is by the history channel. It is extremely non bias and it explains A LOT about the middle east):

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqK-RuntywY

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pOPz5xPFTo

[_TheAlexO]

Nice to see everyone being civil. These type of questions can turn real nasty real quick.

 

Voted Atheist.

Edited May 30, 2012 by _TheAlexO

[Onion]

Nice to see everyone being civil. These type of questions can turn real nasty real quick.

 

Voted Atheist. It's amazing how much it seems religion is holding back society, it makes me sick.

 

I'm agnostic, and even I see how that last sentence can be more than inflammatory. If you want everyone to remain civil, I'd suggest editing that.

[Deathmineral]

[clownshoes]

Well I don't see my religion there - Agnostic apathist as in I don't mo and I don't care.

[_TheAlexO]

I'm agnostic, and even I see how that last sentence can be more than inflammatory. If you want everyone to remain civil, I'd suggest editing that.

 

Doesn't seem inflammatory to me. I'm not attacking anyone. but if you insist.

[Onion]

Doesn't seem inflammatory to me. I'm not attacking anyone. but if you insist.

 

I'd just err on the side of caution on a topic such as this.

[Tjj226_Angel]

I'm agnostic, and even I see how that last sentence can be more than inflammatory. If you want everyone to remain civil, I'd suggest editing that.

 

Actually I would assume that to be just on the borderline. Anything beyond that would be inflammatory. The only reason I say that is because it is indeed holding society back. I mean seriously. When I was in the 5th grade we could not bring in Harry Potter books into school because it "preached paganism" . I am not joking. If western based religion has a hard time accepting Harry Potter, can you fathom how much free thought, choice, and expression it must have suppressed over the years? I can't even begin to wrap my head around how much religion has crippled peoples minds.

 

Here is the story that always gets me. My history teacher always used to tell us that as a catholic child he would have to sit in a glass box in church with other children along with nuns. Whenever the children asked questions they would be slapped with a ruler until they stopped asking questions and submitted to their faith. That is text book brainwashing. Not to mention that beyond the churches intent to manipulate children, but then there is an incredible amount of pressure put on the child to be the same religion as their parents as well. An example would be the girl down the street had catholic parents and she decided to become more secular. She was kicked out of the house at 14. Thankfully we were able to arrange something to give her a place to stay, but if that happened to one girl, how many other people has it happened to? How many people have not followed their minds and just decided to submit.

 

Then you start to wonder how that is affecting children as they grow older. Maybe they have been hardwired not to ask too many questions. Maybe they are so conformists they might as well be robots. In the end you have children who grow up to be mindless and submissive. Now I am certainly not saying that all religious people are mindless, I am simply stating that such a sometimes unforgiving system can create massive constraints on developing minds. Thankfully I am seeing that sort of mentality on a rapid decline. We as people need to challenge EVERYTHING in life and find our own way of understanding life and existing within it, and that certainly does not come from a clergy man telling you what to think.

 

Once again I would like to reiterate that my main idea that I want to convey is that people should start believing in themselves before they rely on a god.

[Deathmineral]

Once again I would like to reiterate that my main idea that I want to convey is that people should start believing in themselves before they rely on a god.

I don't think it works that way. Most people don't have what it takes to believe in themselves.

 

How many times have you had someone offer you cake and how many times did you refuse? It's like that, but religion is the cake, they both have the good and the bad, and let's face it, people have trouble weighing the good and the bad in cake.

[Tjj226_Angel]

I don't think it works that way. Most people don't have what it takes to believe in themselves.

 

How many times have you had someone offer you cake and how many times did you refuse? It's like that, but religion is the cake, they both have the good and the bad, and let's face it, people have trouble weighing the good and the bad in cake.

 

I think most people short change themselves a lot. If there was a guy who lost his job and was given a choice between relying on himself to try and get hired and relying on god to answer his prayers for a new job which one would he most likely chose? Probably relying on a god. But here is the trick. No matter what course he took, he still had to take it upon himself to apply to jobs. In the long run it did not matter what path he chose.

 

In this sense I see religion as more of a placebo effect more than anything else. Because you believe someone is there helping you, it is easier to pick yourself up and push to achieve your potential when really all you had to do was skip the middle man and go straight to the end result.

 

Another example I hear.....a lot. People always say "god gave us this child". No he didn't. You did. You created life. Not god, YOU. People have the ability to create their own little miracles both on a humanistic level such as a kid, and even on a scientific level by creating life saving medicine. The human race has the potential to totally replace god and all of his miracles, we just choose to ignore it. In this sense we short change our own selves a ton.