Forums / Discussion / General

You must post it.

+1 Southern Baptist here.

GOD MODE- No bagging on eachother's religions/Athiest vs. Theist arguments.

Edit: Now realizes the irony of "God Mode"

athiest.
i want proof.
solid proof like him/her/it slapping me in the face

What could go wrong?

I've started my own cult.

But don't think of joining because it's for me and bikini models only.

But seriously I'm unreligious out of laziness more then anything else.

Same as the captain here… minus the "I've started my own cult" part of course. I'm not awesome enough to create cults like "Capitaine Blubbé" does.

Someone certainly does not like this thread.

Can't we have an intellecual discussion about a subject?
Sheesh.

+1 Roman Catholic here.

Sure, sure.

Religion means different things to different people, some use it for inspiration, others use it for guidance and other use it to justify terrible things.

But I never bothered to join any type of church or mosque, temple, etc.

Also:

lol @ "intellecual"

the thread's title mislead me into thinking this was a thread about the Flying Spaghetti Monster!

+1 The Force

I don't believe in (a) God, but I don't consider myself an atheist since I celebrate Christian holidays.

Though, I keep it a secret from everybody.

+1 I dont really care

"I’ve started my own cult.
But don’t think of joining because it’s for me and bikini models only."

Charlize would not approve.

I plan on starting a religion where galatic space overlord came to our planet many of years ago. He would strap everyone to volcanoes and kill us all. After leaving, the souls would freze into clams, and somehow, WE develop. In the religion, we would all have to pay for nothing……oh sorry, i just took my crazy pills :P

Pastafarian for 2/3 years.

Atheist. I see no reason to be religious, it's a waste of energy as far as I'm concerned. Plus it's far more interesting to search for answers than to say that a supernatural entity did it, in my opinion.

+1 Christian here. It's about time a thread like this came up :)

@Frketson

I thought you of all people would understand Charlize Theron is always the exception.

Oh come on.
Somebody minused all the posts but Memedude's.
Chill,anonymous minuser.
Anyhoo, I'm an Athiest. I just can't imagine a,or any god. That,and I don't like condemners.
On a seperate note,I think we should see who minuses/pluses posts.

@Tomberry:

Yes, this is mine. I even got the one with galleon.

Jewish here, but at heart I'm agnostic. I don't think there is one out there, but never say never. I truly believe that science and logic are the answer to all things. The reasons I identify myself as Jewish are:
A. I was born and raised in a Jewish household. It just comes naturally. I can't really shake that.
B. Unlike other religions (espacially Christianity), Judaism encourages you to study and question everything. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, even the Torah (what you call the Old Testament) is taken at face value. Everything is questioned many times over.
C. Judaism is DIY. We do not expect God to do everything for us (if there is one out there.) It actually says in my Siddur (prayer book) that "Pray as if everything depended on God. Act as if everything depended on you." God is almost like a helper; you pray to him/her, and he helps you get into the right situation. Jews prayed to God during Holocaust, but I'm sure no one expected God to just come out of the sky and kill all the Nazis. We prayed to God for OTHER PEOPLE to help us, not God itself.
Anyway, I am truly agnostic by heart, but these are the reasons why I like Judaism.

@JoeFilms

Intriguing. It's ironic, tho, that you use a buddha as an avie, dont you think?

It would be like a Scientologist using a cross, etc. >=3

@JoeFilms yeah me too. my family is conservative.

@ Blubz,

I'm looking out for you, i just dont know how she is going to react.

@Dave I do see the irony in that. I like Buddhism because it encourages peace, meditation, and the fact that the Buddha was a real person. Since he is the main person in Buddhism, yet he is human, and not some unreachable god, makes you rethink the concept of a deity. Are we really that far away from the divine, or are we the divine ourselves? This also applies to enlightment, but I like specifically that part. A non TL;DR version: I like the concept that we are our own gods.

Ok Joefilm, you're not really 12 years old

In body maybe, but not in mind

so many Atheists in the tube and in my school. To be frank I think half the pastafarians out there at least the ones I know, are just doing it for three reaseons:
1) to lazy to be religous
2) It's a fad that makes some people beileive they're intellects because the must have SOME kind of reason not to beilieve in a religion
3) It's to make a cult to impress Charlize Theron
 
 
 
 
 
interesting side note: I am related to Martin Luther:

who's last words make me think of something I would say

“I am fed up with the world, and it with me. I am like a ripe stool, and the world is like a gigantic anus, and so we’re about to let go of each other.”
-Martin Luther

and i'm also +1 protestant
(yes I know that Protestant is not a religon but a branch of christianity, but I don't Know what part of protestantism we are….)

By Christian lore, we're all related to Martin Luther, since it's been incest ever since Adam and Eve. And, I'm not trying to be any more inflamatory than the anti-Pastafarian comments.

Maybe a beer volcano and a stripper factory aren't for you. That be yer call, matey.

I said most "atheists" not all, some are actual intellectuals that have a profound reason as to why they believe that shit just happens, but the few that do have a profound reason, i applaud that they actually know what they're talking about. . . but too all athiests on this thread: if there was solid evidance that they're is a god/omnipresent entity, would you just thinkit was just an impressive light show?

100% Catholic. :P… Wait, 50% Lutheran 50% Catholic. >_>

>> I like the concept that we are our own gods.

+1 Mormanism ;D

@skankin I was talking more specifically about the Pastafarian bit than the atheist commentary, since I myself have been touched by His Noodly Appendages.

But, to play the Devil's advocate, I'll take the bait. If we could think something was just an impressive lightshow, it wouldn't be "solid" evidence, would it?

I know this is a pretty subjective subject, and I'm certainly speaking only for myself, but I think the idea of being atheist out of laziness is ridiculous. Are you saying somebody that actually believes in the presence of a god, a greater being that is omnipotent (which inherently implies the capacity for omnipresence and omniscience), would actively deny faith in that god so they didn't have to…pray, or go to church? In what manner of laziness would they fall? They would be willfully accepting their damnation to avoid the labors of this already shitty life? I cannot see this being a wide-spread occurence.

Further, the thought that a person can, within themselves, on a whim, believe or not believe that an entity so great as a supreme being exists is completely foreign to me. I have to wonder if religious people think that atheists just don't want to believe in God to make them mad. I know for a fact there are atheists that have tried desperately to believe in some greater being just to hope that there's a spark of hope for the afterlife because of what this life has brought them, and they can't. Not because they don't want to, but they just can't. It's like a disillusisoned child trying to rebelieve in Santa after he finds his parents putting out the gifts and mom and pop sit him down for a sad talk.

That is not to say that people cannot believe in a god if they do not, but I would be willing to wager that it is, quite literally, NEVER the case that somebody decides to believe in a deity for the sake of believing. It simply seems to me too great a leap of (buzzword) faith to make without some great event or revelation in one's life.

Furhter, those agnostics and atheists that label themselves as Pastafarians have a valid point to make. Christians (not exclusively, but primarily) have asserted their religion in increasing forceful ways, with the claim that it should be taught and believed on account of its inability to be disproven. On the same token, you cannot prove that there is not a giant invisible monster made of spaghetti that created everything. It sounds ridiculous to you, perhaps, but you have to try to understand that, to a great many people, an invisible, all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present being that would allow the catastrophes of the world while asking that mankind spend an hour each week in church while giving money to the building fund and praying before meals and confessing the sins (that he already knows) is laughable. I mean, complete bonkers. So it's not a matter of deciding "today, I believe in God." It's a complex process that many people never consider, largely due to what they were told when they were born. A quick questionaire I like to give:

1. What religion are you, and your parents?
2. What religion do you think you'd be if you were born in India, to Indian parents?
3. Why?

I really don't want this to be a flame war, and don't think I won't start a thread to hug out any issues that arise from this, but I see people all too often being nonchallant about the beliefs of others. I respect that you believe what you do, and I do not think it was your intent to be as belittling as your post seems, to me, so consider this my effort to fix that.

One more thing: I do not think anything that could be misinterpretted as a light show would be proof of an omnipresent being. Omnipotent, perhaps.

EDIT: Wow, I did not mean for this to be this long. Internet discussions: srs bsnss.

ITT: People who disregard the first post about how this is not a debate.

I come from a long line of Calvinists, but over time I learned to stop believing in magic wish powers and embrace pragmatism.

EDIT: At first I thought Georgivs post was TL;DR. But I agree with him.

@Chris

I could not agree more. (about the thread)

What this thread was intended for:

What this thread became:

I am also a big fan of Spengblorg.

I swear to all that's Noodly my first idea for a post was going to be Greek gods just for the lulz, but LOOK WHAT HAPPENED TO ME! Sorry everybody. Feel free to sage me.

@Georvis

While atheists (some) surely do not come to the conclusion by pure laziness, I can see where skankin is coming from. Many atheists that I know call themselves such simply because they do not care enough to take a side. While it is no small decision, I'm sure, the concept of a greater being almost seems an uncomfortable subject with them, while I am quite comfortable with the idea that there could be no God.

What I think it is, is this: If there is a God, I lived my life well. A horrible example, but it's like Santa Claus. Even if he's not real, who cares? Everyone seems so happy at Christmastime. Sure, we can still study the polar caps, we can do all the science we truly want. But simply the positive reinforcement, the feeling of joy, should not be squashed.

Does Santa exist? No. However, I love the idea of Santa, the idea of a jolly man who rewards people's kindness. Whether he exists, or God exists, isn't important to anyone except those who use religion as an excuse to belittle others, which it should NEVER be used as, from any side.

The point I'm trying to make is, while Skankin did make a rather rude comment, you must realize that (from both Atheists AND Theists), a concern about deity(ies) simply isn't commonplace, and when we talk about it, we should keep an open mind and ear to both sides of the argument.

I am a Baptist.

@ joefilms
I'm a little curious about Judaism. Where you raised as an orthodox Jew?

@Everyone:
I retract my earlier statement
atheists and pastafarians are not the same, i did not realze this and I apologize,
Second: after reading what you have written georgivs, you make me rethink what I have said, and I realize how assinine i sound saying that some people are atheists b/c they are too lazy too be religious. furthur more, I also recongnize how assinine I sound saying basicly the entirety of the first post. I sound like an ignorant asshole. but I am leaving it up so i can learn from my mistake which was to not think about what I was typing. Everyone is entitled to their own oppinon about how everything came to be. And believing is becoming increaseingly more for myself as I walk down the road of becomeing a scientist all the reasons and explanations that are in the bible become more and more transparent and shakey as I mature, and gain knowledge about the world around me. I want to beilieve there is a higher entity and there are somethings that science has yet to give an explanation on, and I hold these few things dearly to my heart that science will not be able to find an explanation. Because these area the few things I can hold solid that God created them, or at least played a hand in it.

@Chris

What does ITT mean? I never found out. :(

ITT = In This Thread

ITT: Hugs all around.

I think there have been some good views expressed here, and some valid points that I'd respond to in a different thread, but I think I've derailed this enough. We've circled around to a good place, so I'll let the waters calm.

Pastafarian/ Agnostic