I've actually got my own opinions on religion
Though they're best explained while heavily stoned, or on some form of halucinogenic. It makes them sound far more profound than they actually are
(Godwin's Lawyer is more evil than Hitler, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:14, 2 replies, latest was 15 years ago)

You sound like my kind of person. If I'm honest with myself I would label myself as a hopeful agnostic.
( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:17, Reply)

I'd label myself as someone who doesn't think about it very often
because it has no bearing on my life
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:18, Reply)

I get jealous of people who have faith in something like that because I just can't do it myself. I think it's an attractive quality.
( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:20, Reply)

really?
it depends on just what they believe.

I was at a wedding the other weekend where the vicar was suggesting in no uncertain terms that without God our actions and achievements are meaningless, and that our purpose is to worship God.

If there is a God like that, then he is an insecure and selfish cunt.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:22, Reply)

I think that's part of the fun. Man's interpretation of 'God'. It's not what the person has faith in so much but that they have made the conscious choice to accept that there is a higher power and to live their live to a moral code. I know that's a huge sweeping statement but B3ta isn't the place for religious debate. I don't mean people who have been pretty much brainwashed by parents etc but people who had a need and filled it with faith.

I don't have that capacity and sometimes it can be a bit shit being a nihilist.
( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:27, Reply)

That's part of the gist of my belief
If there is some kind of 'creator' being (not even necessarily a creator - let's say a 'higher power'), it will be, by necessity, so much more complex than ourselves that we could never truly understand it. It would be like giving an ameba consciousness, and asking it to imagine us. It would just think of a giant ameba, possibly with a beard, who would care about ameba issues and think ameba-like thoughts.

It really does sound better on halucinogenics - throw in a couple of 'mans' and long pauses to stare at your hands for the full effect
(Godwin's Lawyer is more evil than Hitler, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:32, Reply)

I think I might just be lonely.
( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:34, Reply)

I like this amoeba description
probably because I'm also a horrible stoner
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:46, Reply)

"I get jealous of people who have faith in something like that because I just can't do it myself"
I don't mean to be quite so rude, but if you pick that argument apart you are left with:
- Some people have it in them to believe in something physically implausible and unsupported by evidence as the the answer to most of life's difficult questions
- I do not have it in me to believe this (presumably due to the lack of evidence, etc?)
- I envy these people's blind faith.

Unless your argument is basically that "ignorance is bliss"?
(LongJohnBaldry, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:26, Reply)

it is

( Roota zweeeeeoooooowm, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:29, Reply)

I wouldn't say ignorance is bliss but apart from that pretty much spot on. I would like to be able to believe in a higher power so that when life was shitty I could take comfort in it. I would say I was definitely jealous of that.
( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:29, Reply)

But the rational part of your brain tells you that these people are, in all probability, deluded
and that in those times of dire need, there isn't actually anyone or anything listening to them or watching over them, let alone waiting to intervene.

Are you really that jealous?
(LongJohnBaldry, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:34, Reply)

True,
But the thought that there is someone there can have powerful effects. It's like the placebo effect - it can give someone a reason to go on, to beat a disease that would otherwise have claimed them. Our minds are powerful things - deluding ourselves is not always necessarily a bad thing
(Godwin's Lawyer is more evil than Hitler, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:37, Reply)

Not necessarily
But if it starts to affect your whole life, makes you waste time on silly weekly rituals and turns you into a self-righteous dick, then one could argue the effects are adverse.

This is, of course, a huge, sweeping generalisation, and the placebo effect can have peculiar and far-reaching benefits in the right contexts. You've got to draw the line carefully though.
(LongJohnBaldry, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:54, Reply)

Most people who believe in God aren't like that
Most just get on with it.
A lot don't even go to church.
Don't tar them all with the same brush as that prick next door to your folks.
( Roota zweeeeeoooooowm, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:59, Reply)

Haha, yes, you can probably spot the chip on my shoulder from where you are
As you can probably guess, he's not the first one to have riled me.
(LongJohnBaldry, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 15:01, Reply)

It must be ACE
Look, if I don't know my husband is fucking the nanny, then he's not fucking the nanny. You dig?
( Roota zweeeeeoooooowm, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:37, Reply)

my husband DJ the nanny Al the nanny Al
(wellgroomedwookiee is a filthy-minded hobgoblin, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:43, Reply)

I thought I'd hidden it well
*sadboatrace*
( Roota zweeeeeoooooowm, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:49, Reply)

I honestly honestly am
I think I am smart enough to realise that they probably are deluded but I am not arrogant enough to think I have all the answers and that I haven't been conditioned by my life experience and surroundings. So I could be massively wrong. And to be honest I hope I am.
( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:37, Reply)

I hope so too
Not sure there's a god, but I can deffo do magic.
I made Ioan Gruffudd come to my street.
( Roota zweeeeeoooooowm, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:40, Reply)

I am convinced at some point my Sith powers will unveil themselves them to me

( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:41, Reply)

Horatio Hornblower? on land?

( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:42, Reply)

EGGZACKLY

( Roota zweeeeeoooooowm, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:43, Reply)

Oh, I would never presume to suppose that I did have all the answers. That would, indeed, be deeply arrogant
But I choose to accept the gaps in my knowledge rather than trying to fill them with a fairytale explanation.

I also won't deny that it would be lovely to find myself in some sort of idyllic afterlife once I pop my clogs in about 25 years' time. However, given there is not a shred of evidence to support this figment of someone's imagination, I find it much more soothing to pragmatically assume that death is the end of it, and, to paraphrase the side of the number 156, to stop worrying about it and enjoy* the life I have.

*_{Well, I should probably stop being such a cantankerous git, but I've time to work on that...}
(LongJohnBaldry, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:43, Reply)

Yeah
It made my great grandma really happy and nothing freaked her out because she had God and her Pope Idol. JP2 was her favourite evah of all the popes. I think she'd have bought Pope Pannini stickers if they'd been available.
( Roota zweeeeeoooooowm, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:35, Reply)

Pope swapsies! class
( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:38, Reply)

"got... got...NEED!.. got..."

( Roota zweeeeeoooooowm, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:38, Reply)

in Benedict's case
don't you mean

'Gott, Gott, nein.. Gott' ?
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:41, Reply)

^ class

( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:42, Reply)

I'm going for gold

( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:47, Reply)

what with my estranged father
Henry Kelly?
( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:50, Reply)

My Nana wants him dead

( Roota zweeeeeoooooowm, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:43, Reply)

That may count against her in the long run? Wanting Gods' representative on earth dead.
( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:46, Reply)

She said there's been a mistake
and she can tell God doesn't like him
( Roota zweeeeeoooooowm, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:48, Reply)

I reckon your nana is right

( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:49, Reply)

^what she said
( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:50, Reply)

dead naked and in her bed
( Agnostic Antichrist Baltimora, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:47, Reply)

I'm sure they are available
amongst the kind of tat they sell outside novena masses.
(Zoz prayed for twink on, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:44, Reply)

This reminds me of the time
my father forgot my mother's birthday (it fell on a Sunday) and he bought her a missal. He has a) never been allowed to forget it and b) paid for it for a long long time, possibly in diamonds
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:45, Reply)

I had this boss book called My Guardian Angel and I

( Roota zweeeeeoooooowm, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:51, Reply)

I think I lived your childhood

( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:56, Reply)

People are just looking for an answer to the question.....why are we here.
We are here to MTFU and then enjoy the sweet release of oblivion.
( girlinthehole, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:30, Reply)

And you can prove that can you?
( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:31, Reply)

Well I can after your dead.
All this 'well you can't prove there isn't a God' is just a pile of wank.
( girlinthehole, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:34, Reply)

haha
you knew what I meant though I hope. I agree with you I think I don't think anything happens after you die. But wouldn;t it be comforting to be on your deathbed thinking, 'I did alright, I was a decent human being, I practised my religion well and now I will get the reward.'

rather than 'shit I'm dying, what was it all for?'
( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:36, Reply)

No.
I am looking forward to not existing. I can't think of anything less stressful.
( girlinthehole, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:38, Reply)

go in peace

( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:38, Reply)

I intend to.

( girlinthehole, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:40, Reply)

only to other people who are stoned.
To the sober you're most likely saying "you know, man, you know? You know"
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:30, Reply)

Yeah, man, totally
But it's like...you know? Man, totally man
(Godwin's Lawyer is more evil than Hitler, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:33, Reply)

dude, totally. That's deep.

( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:35, Reply)