Unscientific survey of 'poly religious beliefs

[Mrs. Tuberski]

If thats the case, a swamp it is, then dont visit the ones in the us Those from what I have seen are nasty dirty and only have crocodiles living in em.

[Nostromo]

You have to remember that he's the child of the mighty Thor

[child of Thor]

Hey Pops! (although he doesn't look so mighty these days, having lost his Hammer an all.......still hopefuly someone will find it and with the power of Mjollnir(the hammer) he can get back to his old self)

And yes a tropical swamp is quite different from an Irish peat bog for example - still i spent time in croc infested swamps in papua, and apart from the mosquito's and crocs they were ok. didnt have that vibe of a peat bog, but were still very 'natural' and thus beutifull in their way.

[Mrs. Tuberski]

I find rolling rivers more soothing the swamps but I have never been to an irish one either.

[child of Thor]

rivers are great too

We have alot of atheists(unless they are many agnostics) here........i can't imagine not having a belief. It must be depressing sometimes?

[MOBIUS]

I'm sort of supposed to be an agnostic (you know, just in case...), however since starting this science degree atheism has been looming large! About the only thing I could even begin to believe in right now is the Gaia Hypothesis - but that is a sort of non-sentient 'super organism' type theory anyway...

Anyway, one thing I do think is that anyone believing in organised religion espousing the following of some kind of all-powerful 'creator(s)' is still living in the dark ages of superstition - most of them are too preposterous to mention, quite how anyone still believes in that junk in the 21st century is quite beyond me...

Not that I hold that against them. Everyone is entitled to their beliefs no matter how vacuous and misguided they might be.

[Moral Hazard]

We have more Christians who participate on this board than have voted here, so I believe that many of them aren't bothering to answer the poll.

Really I thought ~20% was high for Christian participation in an godless place like Apolyton.

Y'all mentally unstable athiests should stop complaining; I don't like being lumped in with popish idol worshippers, bible re-writing Lutherans, Robotic Calvinists, or Moron(i) worshipers but you don't see me complaining. I guess I just did.

[Provost Harrison]

Give in MOBIUS, you can feel the temptation of the, erm, colourless side

[Moral Hazard]

What is Episcopalian?

Essential American Anglicans, but they threw out the British king. I'm sure there are theological differences but I'm not sure what they are.

[child of Thor]

Originally posted by MOBIUS

edit...

Anyway, one thing I do think is that anyone believing in organised religion espousing the following of some kind of all-powerful 'creator(s)' is still living in the dark ages of superstition...

Well the problem i have with it is when it gets all exclusive and intolerant to other belief systems.

Still Gaia and agnostic mix quite well.

They had a show on TV a while back in which one of the uk's current leading scientists explained how science had turned him from an atheist into a beliver of something. It was quite interesting.

[Mrs. Tuberski]

I was raised to believe there was a god but for recent happnings Im starting to doubt that. Nature is nice mankind is less nice, I figure once something has let you down you lose some belief in it.

[Nostromo]

We have alot of atheists(unless they are many agnostics) here........i can't imagine not having a belief. It must be depressing sometimes?

Because you're an atheist doesn't mean you don't have any beliefs at all. I'm basically an hedonist and a scientific humanist. According to the philosopher Rudolf Carnap, you are a scientific humanist if you believe three things:

.". . the first is the view that man has no supernatural protectors or enemies . . . Second, we had the conviction that mankind is able to change the conditions of life in such a way that many of the sufferings of today may be avoided . . . the third is the view that all deliberate action presupposes knowledge of the world , that the scientific method is the best method of acquiring knowledge and that therefore science must be regarded as one of the most valuable instruments for the improvement of human life. In Vienna we had no names for these views; if we look for a brief designation in American terminology for the combination of these three convictions, the best would seem to be 'scientific humanism.'"

What's so depressing about that? Because there's no afterlife? If you think about it carefully, you'll come to the conclusion that heaven and the immortal soul either don't exist, or they're not something worth caring about.

[Moral Hazard]

Actually it's alway been my opinion that a better split for the non religious would be humanist / hedonist / *ist rather than agnostic / athiest. What you believe has little consequence if it doesn't effect your actions. Hence why all the various Christian denominations are rather inconsequential to the average person.

addendum: Of course most people would claim to be humanist when they are actually hedonist. In the same way I claim to be Christian when most of my actions are to please my self.

[St Leo]

Originally posted by child of Thor
rivers are great too

We have alot of atheists(unless they are many agnostics) here........i can't imagine not having a belief. It must be depressing sometimes?

I am not an atheist because it's pleasant, and I am not an atheist because it's unpleasant. I am one because all religions are false fictions.

[child of Thor]

prove it then

not for example that the world according ot the old testement was created in 6days etc. This stuff, the written stuff, the stuff that man has had a hand in is full of holes.

But prove that there is not a divine creator or some such force in the universe. How did it all start. How does the universe that we know all come from nothing, scientificaly speaking? I dont think its possible to disprove the existence of a 'God' type thing, but it is possible to disprove individual stories from various religions.

I tend to look on those as more like fables than real truths, like robin hood for example. There might be a kernal of truth in the story to a real event, but over time the story may have changed in the telling.

I feel we are not alone, that there is something responsible for our being here. I cant prove that either of course