What do you believe?

“ Really? Its practically impossible to seperate studies of history or culture from religion ”

People are clever. Religion is an early attempt at an explanatory narrative. Still, religion per se is not God.
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I see, so there is a seperation between religion and god

:confused:

Latin religio(n-) obligation, bond, reverence, or alternatively based on Latin religare - connection.

obligation, bond, reverence or connection to what?


“ This heading towards the tautological argument for the existence of god - if all cultures everywhere tend to the personalize the unknown as part of their intrinsic psychological make up as a context, what does it suggest? ”

It suggests that figuring out the motivations of a percieved threat confers a survival benefit.
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but its not clear why the response to such threats (real or apparent) take the form of religion/god uniformly in culture/history
 
Quite so, religion is not God. You are conditioned by western religion to think so.

The reason this reaction of anticipating a personality in an unknown event translates into the commonality of spirit entity(s) is easy to understand if we consider the ultimate scary and unknown thing, especially to early peoples: death.

It is common but not uniform, every culture has a different mythology.
 
spidergoat

Quite so, religion is not God. You are conditioned by western religion to think so.
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to westerners eastern religion generally means buddhism, but even if you examine what buddhism teaches the nature of nirvana and the material world and our relationship with both, it ends up being remarkably similar to other religions ... in other words the reverence, bond connection etc element of religion is still apparent

The reason this reaction of anticipating a personality in an unknown event translates into the commonality of spirit entity(s) is easy to understand if we consider the ultimate scary and unknown thing, especially to early peoples: death.
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you ar estill not escaping the tautological argument - what would personalizing or establishing the forces or nature of an existence after death beyond the purview of culture/geography/history etc indicate since the nature of corporeal existence everywhere is uniform?

What does this intrinsic psychological make up as a context suggest?

It is common but not uniform, every culture has a different mythology.
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uniform enough to share the title "religion" (connection, reverence bond etc)
 
Xelios

I don't believe in God as a creator. Nor in God as is depicted by the majority of main stream religions.

I do believe there's a spiritual side to this universe, and ultimately us. Something outside the physical dimensions that we don't acknowledge and can't explain, but nevertheless plays an integral role in everything. If that sounds vague it's because it is, in truth I have no idea what this 'something' is, but for me it's enough to believe it exists. Something we've overlooked and don't understand. And I'll happily admit I don't understand it, rather than create some backwater explanation and tout it as truth (as most religion does).

I believe that because I've seen and experienced things that can't be explained in a physical sense.
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You haven't made it clear or offerred any reasons why that "something" is definitely not or appears to not be god
 
Godless said:
I've yet to hear, see, or read the news of a proclaimed atheist comiting suicide for some baseless cause, such as religion! ;) Any proof, or just more empty claims? Show the evidence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxA8_NIxQZc

PS it's worth the effort to see the video :cool:
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Have you heard of the Buddhist monk who self immolated to protest against treatment of Buddhists by Roman Catholics in Vietnam?

http://www.geocities.com/tcartz/sacrifice.htm

You might of course argue that Buddhism is not atheism, of course.


And have you also heard of a communist guerilla group called the LTTE?
http://www.spur.asn.au/chronology_of_suicide_bomb_attacks_by_Tamil_Tigers_in_sri_Lanka.htm

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/7752_1740234,004100180006.htm
The LTTE may not have begun suicide bombing, but it certainly has been the single largest and the most systematic user of the grisly technique.

From 1987 on, it has reportedly lost 273 Black Tigers. This indicates 273 bombings, as not a single bomber has been caught alive.

Given the importance of suicide bombing in its arsenal, the LTTE appears to be the only group to have systematized the training and techniques of suicide bombers.

The group is reported to have about 500 trained cadres now. They wear military uniforms and parade about as a regular unit of the LTTE army. No other group in the world does this.
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I doubt either of these would consider their cause baseless, though.
 
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scorpius said:
I believe in me.:p

until some god comes down and PROVES to me that hes god they all remain as fictious as a Santaclaus.

evolution is a fact how it happens is a theory,
here learn something worthwile instead of that religious fantasy
www.talkorigins.org
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I was raised a Methodist, but have not been to church on a regular bases in years. This doesn't mean that I don't believe in God / Jesus. It simply means that I don't attend church. My belief is that I think that God/etc. is a supreme being that created all of what we know of. The earth, the heavens, the planets, what we are calling aliens. and the so called UFO's that are reported. I have never seen one, so how would I know that do or don't exist? I think that God being a person or spirit could have possibly started evolution at the beginning of time and as we progressed into what we know in the Bible as Adam and Eve, that he was pleased at that point and let us progress furthur and we may not have been the first attempt at this. There is probably other worlds out in space that were started thousands or maybe even millions of years before we were and that is where all of these aliens / UFO's are coming from. Now agreed that what I am saying is only a speculation and I don't live by these beliefs, but it is as possible as so many other therories that have been come up with. / The different religions is a product of man. The different aspects of this is from man rewriting the bible so many times and manipulating it to satisfy himself. I was on another site (yahoo answers) and someone asked what the oldest religion was. I am under the impression that was at one time in the past only being one religion, and before that instead of (A) God, there were God's as in the times of the Roman's and earlier, so how could someone answer that question and know that they were right or wrong. Our records of such things only go back so far.
 
falcon22 said:
But I'm curious. What do you guys believe in? Are you Christian, evolutionist, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Wiccan, Satanist, agnostic, athiest but not a believer in evolution, creationist, have your own unique set of beliefs now known yet to the world? What is your religion?
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I would like to ask something, please.

What is an "evolutionist"? :confused:

falcon22 said:
If you're not afraid to come out of the closet on that, this is the thread for that.
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I lack belief in the supernatural.
 
Starduster3 said:
I was raised a Methodist, but have not been to church on a regular bases in years. This doesn't mean that I don't believe in God / Jesus. It simply means that I don't attend church. My belief is that I think that God/etc. is a supreme being that created all of what we know of. The earth, the heavens, the planets, what we are calling aliens. and the so called UFO's that are reported. I have never seen one, so how would I know that do or don't exist? I think that God being a person or spirit could have possibly started evolution at the beginning of time and as we progressed into what we know in the Bible as Adam and Eve, that he was pleased at that point and let us progress furthur and we may not have been the first attempt at this. There is probably other worlds out in space that were started thousands or maybe even millions of years before we were and that is where all of these aliens / UFO's are coming from. Now agreed that what I am saying is only a speculation and I don't live by these beliefs, but it is as possible as so many other therories that have been come up with. / The different religions is a product of man. The different aspects of this is from man rewriting the bible so many times and manipulating it to satisfy himself. I was on another site (yahoo answers) and someone asked what the oldest religion was. I am under the impression that was at one time in the past only being one religion, and before that instead of (A) God, there were God's as in the times of the Roman's and earlier, so how could someone answer that question and know that they were right or wrong. Our records of such things only go back so far.
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*************
M*W: Welcome to sciforums. I have a question. Why do you think any "other worlds" would only be "out in space?" Other universes could be in inner space, or even in our own space but in another dimension. Consider the world of insects to human beings. Do they know we live somewhat in their universe and they in ours? Do they care? Obviously, we do, but we are in control of their universe. Could other worlds live only in our imaginations? I think so. Do these other worlds manifest out of our consciousness? Isn't that how all religion began? BTW, there is no god and no creator. Humans invented religion according to their understanding of their own limitations.
 
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