Religion Pole

chuck said:

BleachedAnusDawg said:

whlinder said:

I could also go with Agnostic, I guess, I mean there is no evidence of a theoretical thing NOT being true...

I appreciate religion. It's interwoven with human history and is the driver of many of the societal norms we accept today. Humans needed something to explain events they could not explain: death, illness, weather, natural disasters. What are those lights in the sky? What's this sun and moon thing? How to explain? God did it! Of course it became abused to benefit certain people. If you don't show up at church and give me 10% of your money you're gonna end up in hell has been a very effective sales pitch.

However, we know shit now, have the ability to communicate globally and share information, have a scientific process and can explain things which were previously unexplainable. Except for death. So it continues to give us something to look forward to after we die. Pick your flavor of ice cream on what you have to do to enjoy whatever awaits in the great beyond.

I was raised a Christian Scientist, married a Catholic, been to Methodist and Lutheran church (other relatives), have a former mormon brother in law, visited mosques in Egypt, been to mass at JP2's church in Krakow, work with plenty of Hindus & Muslims and know plenty of MadSon's chosen ones. It's cool, y'all do you, until you cross the line to evil.

I just don't think any of them are right. The images and data being retrieved by the Webb Telescope has reinforced this with me even more. There is no possible way to contextualize how large and old the universe is. The number of events that have occurred in the universe is beyond our ability to comprehend. And when there are that many events, galaxies forming and dying, matter smashing into other matter, at some point you get the combination of the right shit smashing together and forming our galaxy to get what we have on this planet.

We're just atoms. It's not that fucking complicated.

How were the atoms created?

From things a lot smaller than atoms.

YellowSnow said:

chuck said:

YellowSnow said:

PurpleThrobber said:

MikeDamone said:

YellowSnow said:

MikeDamone said:

YellowSnow said:

MikeDamone said:

YellowSnow said:

MikeDamone said:

YellowSnow said:

My basic elevator speech hasn't changed much since HS...

Earth = 4.5 billion years old

Simple life emerges 600 million years ago

Dinosaurs for like 200 millions years

Early modern homo sapiens don't arrive until 200,000 years ago

Then 2,000 years ago in the most bass akwards part of the world (not Rome or China mind you) amongst a bunch of bronze age goat herders, the most important even in the history of the planet occurs, followed by a Roman Emperor needing a new state religion three centuries later.

I need more evidence guys and can't take on faith. But that's just me, and believing that we're simply worm dirt when we die ain't for everyone.

Mrs. Snow is a confirmed papist, but more of a deist these days. I told her she can take on a new boyfriend in heaven if I don't get in.

ATBSJBS, I'm thankful for the Protestant Reformation and the good that it did in creating the modern world.

Some say it takes more faith not to believe than to believe.

Well, yeah, if I’m wrong, the consequences are dire. Eternal damnation sounds like a real bummer.

The point is, you have faith.

I don’t stress about it much. The burden of proof is not on me after all. I don’t make any metaphysical claims.

I didn’t assert you stressed. Just stated a fact. Yet some would suggest “life emerges” is a metaphysical claim.

Some are wrong. There's no metaphysical claim with "life emerges", rather, we're? just saying we don't know yet (and may never know). But not knowing the answer doesn't equate to evidence of magic or that the laws of physics were suspended this one time.

At the end of the day, I stand by Saint Chris Hitchens point, which is to say that which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.

Yes… it can be. Which is why “life emerges” 600 million years ago requires faith. Because it can be dismissed without evidence.

My bro in law has a PHD in chemistry. From UW in the mid 90s. He runs a big department of about 200 people doing top secret shit. His journey to Christianity was chinteresting (or not). The deeper he got into science and his field, he could no longer ignore that God exists. Until he then accepted Christ. He’s not the only scientist I know who went through this. It doesn’t prove or disprove anything. I just find it compelling when people deep into chemistry, biology, archaeology, astronomy, etc either become Christian’s or their faith deepens.

It takes a whole lot more faith to believe the entirety of the universe came together by a series of unrelated cells, minerals, atoms and events than to accept that perhaps there is some master designer that built it.

How do you figure? That we haven't unraveled the mysteries of the Big Bang doesn't make it more likely that there was/is a master designer than not. And furthermore, it's big leap to get from "the origins of the Universe are complicated" to the Nicaean Creed.

The big bang is virtually a dead theory. The universe was never a single point and some force beyond and explosion caused it to inflate and is still doing so.

You can't prove or disprove the existence of of some higher power through science, and never will.

What we can prove is that the universe is a lot bigger than one would expect if earth and humans were a significant factor in it's
formation and evolution. Someday we may even prove that its not the only one.

Conclusion...there could be a God/s of some sort, but they don't need us and man, they expect the same.

If you see Saint Anne, please tell her thanks a lot.

I knew I could count on you.