Lord, liar, lunatic, legend?

[Nikolai]

Your timeframe is wacko Ben, mildly put.

[Ben Kenobi]

No offense Ben, but I take this as proof that you aren't human. Guess that you are a fugitive from Area 51.

None taken. It's been my experience that most people don't want to belong to a religion. They prefer to chart their own path. I don't see this as a particularly controversial assertion.

[Ben Kenobi]

Your timeframe is wacko Ben, mildly put

I don't really see the shift from Modernism to postmodernism until the first world war.

I don't see modernism until about 1840. Before that you have romanticism, and then the enlightenment.

What would your timeframe be?

[Nikolai]

That is one big group, no? People like to belong to a group. It's fundamental human nature.

[Nikolai]

I don't really see the shift from Modernism to postmodernism until the first world war.

I don't see modernism until about 1840. Before that you have romanticism, and then the enlightenment.

What would your timeframe be?

For starters, the golden age of modernism is post 1914.

[loinburger]

IIRC about 15% of the world identifies as non-religious. Either most people want to belong to a religion or there's an awful lot of coercion going on.

[Ben Kenobi]

People like to belong to a group. It's fundamental human nature.

I was referring to 'religion'.

Everyone is a maverick these days.

I see lots, "I'm a Catholic, but I don't really believe in that nasty ol' wrinkled up pope or that god botherer business." They see adhering to a religious tradition as 'conformity', and a rejection of individuality and individual thought.

[Imran Siddiqui]

None taken. It's been my experience that most people don't want to belong to a religion. They prefer to chart their own path. I don't see this as a particularly controversial assertion.

Just because they don't want to belong to a religion doesn't mean they don't want to belong to a group... they'll just find another group to join.

[Nikolai]

The West does NOT equal the world. We are not the norm religiously.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I was referring to 'religion'.

Everyone is a maverick these days.

I see lots, "I'm a Catholic, but I don't really believe in that nasty ol' wrinkled up pope or that god botherer business." They see adhering to a religious tradition as 'conformity', and a rejection of individuality and individual thought.

Doesn't that indicate they WANT to belong to a group... even if they don't agree with the group?

[Imran Siddiqui]

The West does NOT equal the world

LIES!

[duke o' york]

Nothing wrong with calling them truths.

Saying that they can be scientifically proven is wrong.

There is a large difference.

JM

Casting back a long way to the philosophy options I took at uni, knowledge is defined as "justified true belief." Religion simply depends upon belief, so no-one can claim that they know Allah or Vishnu exists. It's simply a bet that believers are taking that if they perform the right way and their beliefs turn out to be true and justified, then they are the big winners and will get a huge pay-off when they die, whether that be life in heaven, with or without a given number of virgins, or reincarnation as a sexy Bill Gates. That they must behave in a way that benefits others on earth to gain these advantages can only be to everyone's benefit, whether their belief is true or not. It's only when religion is used as the justification for harm against others that the problems arise, but these acts are not preached by the majority of religions. So I believe that religion is a good thing, although I don't believe myself, but it is far too easily used by fanatics to act against the tenets of religion, and this causes the problems, massacres, what have you. The Inquisition, the Crusades, the suicide bombers, the countless examples of religious hatred, are all caused by people using the messages to their own ends, and countering their own religion. This is downright dumb, as well as harmful to humanity as a whole, because if you really believe then why would you act in such a way as to shift the odds of your gaining the benefits of your gamble against you? I fully believe in the ends of religion, but not the structure in which they are maintained.

[/tldr]

[loinburger]

Not meaning to get all relativist up in here, but people have different standards for "justification" - one person may consider their belief in god to be justified if, e.g., they locate a missing tea cup after praying to find it.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I prayed for you to post in this thread and LOOK! It's a MIRACLE!!

[loinburger]

Which probably means that god doesn't exist or, if he does, then he's kind of a douchebag.