Religious debate - No flaming here...

haha msz.. he's growing up so fast ;(

You must've said that ignoring the countless typos. LOL

hehe yes but hey.. your pushing 13 I can't be too hard on ya!

I just decided to say whatever came to my head on the subject. I bet is all random and not in any specific order. I'll have more to say once I sleep on it. And get on IRC you fools.

honestly, i'm a devoted roman catholic, born in ireland, raised in san diego, california. Let me define that a little. I'm devoted in the fact that i live my life try to be a good person to others. I wouldn't think of myself as a bible-centric person, although the 13 years of catholic school i had prolly got that out of my system. ;P i go to church every Sunday, and celebrate mass, but i tend just to try and live my life well, regret the least the keast amount of things in life. moving to san francisco made me relize that there ARE alot of people out there who don't believe in a God/god, and thats fine. I'm not a preacher and i'm not someone to say he without a bible in thier hand at all times shall go to hell. i say let everyone have their own opinion, god or not, it shouldn't change the way we deal with others. Some of the nicest, more respectable people i know are not neccesarily catholic, some are atheist, and some are buddhist, etc.
what i'm really talking about is just becuase you believe or don't believe in god, shouldn't change people's perspectives on you. People's perspectives only (should)change from the things you say, and do

Alright. I agree with the whole, parents are there to guide, concept, BUT to guide a child to believe in something that no one person KNOWS exists just doesn't seem right to me. Alright, I thought this was going to be a nice discussion, I added my comments, I felt some tension in deker's last reply, I don't believe in god, don't hate me, and I don't hate you for believing. Just don't let it take over your life to the point where you can't have any fun, and it's good. No more comments by me unless it doesn't involve more than a paragraph of typing because I'm one lazy ****er. :D

You know it really blows me away everytime I see a religion thread. The amount of people that do not believe in God really surprises me (especially in the gfx community, it seems to be the norm). And I'm not coming down on anyone for that. That is what "free will" is all about. But it honestly does surprise me.

I know for a fact that some (not this one) threads I've seen over the years kids (mainly) for some reason think it's "cool" to bash people of faith or say they hate God. That personally makes me sick. They try to peer pressure people into joining them on their anti-God rants. I'm glad you guys are having an adult discussion.

People are free to believe what they want and I am the last one that would ever look down on anybody for their beliefs one way or the other. Just please keep the discussion on an adult level.


Now for me personally I was raised Catholic. CCD the whole deal. My faith is stronger in God than it ever was. Do I go to church, nope (although I'd like to go again someday). Do I preach to people, not really. Do I pray every single night, yup. I like my relationship with God.

I think all the rules and BS that goes on with some organized religion really gives it a bad name. Christ was not about rules. He was really about one thing. Peace. That is pretty much all he preached. Love, peace, etc.

The rules came later. There are some good debates I've seen about some of the rules and where they came from. The majority of the rules came from a former Christian killer. Something to think about.

And while I was raised Catholic I don't claim to be Catholic. If somebody asks me what religion I am I just say Christian... So yup, my faith is strong and always will be. There will be tests, but when it comes down to it "I" know I have a soul. And I know where that soul is going in the end. And I'm perfectly at peace with that.

You guys who don't believe in God that is 100% your choice. Who knows. Maybe someday something will happen and you will. Maybe you won't. The great part is that it is nobody's decision but your's....

"BUT to guide a child to believe in something that no one person KNOWS exists just doesn't seem right to me"

In my mind its not really about whether something exist or not.....my take on it is I feel its not right to give such a difficult subject matter to a young child that isnt old enough to comprehend it. I mean if you believe in santa ( sorry to those of you that do lol ) you probably should not deal with a concept such as this. Does that make sense??

I guess this could apply to other subjects as well......like death for example. I realize that what im saying.......if applied to death means that we shouldnt explain it cause a child isnt old enough to understand death. This goes for other difficult subjects as well. But I think religon is a special topic on its own.....cause no one is right......no one is wrong...and no one knows the truth...which is much more complex then any other subject I can think of.....

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Sorry...deleted my post. It might have not been appropriate for the subject matter. Just keeping it Adult :-)

If all else fails, start your own religion. Believe in what you want to believe is true, probably then you'd be able to see the world defined in YOUR rules, not someone elses. Oh,what a ego-booster that would be.

Going back to the discussion with modern organized religions, I can't help but think that one day in the future, people will be studying the God(s) of our faiths we have now as we do with the Greek and Roman gods. I mean, those god(esse)s were to be eternal, yet they have no power when no one believes in them. In my opinion, man's insecurity and desire to become omniscient fuels the power and influence a God possesses, not that a God was or is the omnipotent being throughout all of time.

By having faith in one arbitrary "being," so to speak, man can come together and unite as a brotherhood, or clash in a violent manner due to contradictions. Religion really isn't about devoting all your beliefs to a being that may or may not exist; it is a tool which helps us to come to an understanding with ourselves or others psychologically. I'm not saying you must be a believer in a God to achieve enlightenment, some people have the talent to do so without a religon, without a faith; it's just that I view religion as an optional stepping ladder which enables one to propel forward in all fields.

And besides, without religion we probably would lead a boring life; believers and non-believers alike. No demons, no angels, no supernatural beings, no daedra, etc. Hell, we'd lose a hefty portion of our swearing vocabulary. The Arts would probably be different as well. However, my previous statement would probably be wrong. If we lived on the basis of science fiction, NASA would probably have that moon base already instead of thinking about how the hell to keep a ship in orbit and bring it back down.