What makes religion okay?

V

visceral_instinct

Monkey see, monkey denigrate
Valued Senior Member
I'm not the first person to ask this. But anyway.

If I believed that the world was ruled by 2 giant scorpions, was open about the fact that I believed in them and prayed to them, used expressions like 'Scorpion Gods only know...' etc. most people would at best take that as a joke, at worst ask me if I'd been taking some kind of narcotic.

But what makes my Scorpion Gods different from God, Allah, Yahweh or whoever?

Nothing more than the fact that many people believe in them, therefore it is considered normal.

Discuss?
 
Believe in what ever you want. Just don't go around berating people and telling them that they're going to hell if they don't believe the same as you...
 
visceral_instinct said:
I'm not the first person to ask this. But anyway.

If I believed that the world was ruled by 2 giant scorpions, was open about the fact that I believed in them and prayed to them, used expressions like 'Scorpion Gods only know...' etc. most people would at best take that as a joke, at worst ask me if I'd been taking some kind of narcotic.

But what makes my Scorpion Gods different from God, Allah, Yahweh or whoever?

Nothing more than the fact that many people believe in them, therefore it is considered normal.

Discuss?
Click to expand...
that's an argument?

First you would have to examine people who claim the universe is ruled by two giant scorpions (which seems to be very few people) and then make a comparison with persons who claim the universe is ruled by god.

Then you could compare to see what enduring social, moral and philosophical systems they produced.

Otherwise one could use your argument to argue


If I believed that justice involved shooting people for absolutely no reason, was open about the fact that I believed in it , and used expressions like 'it was justice' etc, after deeming it ok to kill people for absolutely no reason, most people would at best take that as a joke, at worst ask me if I'd been taking some kind of narcotic or escaped from a mental hospital.

But what makes my justice different from any existing social system of laws?

Nothing more than the fact that many people believe in them, therefore it is considered normal.

:shrug:
 
Your post makes no sense. There are obvious moral and ethical reasons for not killing people. The hypothetical person who believes in the Scorpion Gods and the real people who believe in God are just as irrational as each other, so what makes one right and one wrong?
 
visceral_instinct said:
Your post makes no sense. There are obvious moral and ethical reasons for not killing people. The hypothetical person who believes in the Scorpion Gods and the real people who believe in God are just as irrational as each other, so what makes one right and one wrong?
Click to expand...
There are also obvious reasons why people worship god.

If you don't believe me just examine what enduring social, moral and philosophical systems they produce.

If you don't want to examine that, then you are simply offering an argument that has no requirement to examine obvious social, moral and philosophical reasoning (and as indicated it has somewhat hazardous implications)
 
No religious belief has any basis in fact and while such fantasies are equally foolish as omni giant scorpians and flying spagetti monsters, it is not these representations that people choose to believe.

The gods represented in mainsteam religions have predominantly human-like characteristics or are otherwise neutral or faceless. Giant scorpians are not something people could relate to as being things that would be sympathetic to the human condition.

The key underlying characteristic of any religion is the promise of life beyond death and the acceptance of that idea would only result from perceiving something that is not so obviously idiotic as giant scorpians.
 
Essentially people will only accept some form of anthropomorphized object as their deity.
 
lg,

do you want to stand by that absolute statement or retreat into the philosophical safer realm of weak atheism/agnosticism?
Click to expand...
If you believe me wrong then quote a fact that demonstrates a god exists.
 
First you would have to examine people who claim the universe is ruled by two giant scorpions (which seems to be very few people) and then make a comparison with persons who claim the universe is ruled by god.
Click to expand...

It is important to note at this point that 'truth' is not established by majority vote.

Then you could compare to see what enduring social, moral and philosophical systems they produced.
Click to expand...

It is important to note at this point that 'truth' is not established because of how nice or respectful any governing systems of belief are. The man who worships giant scorpions might be a mass murderer. His murder spree does not in any way, shape or form negate the possible existence of those giant scorpions.

Try harder next time.
 
SnakeLord said:
It is important to note at this point that 'truth' is not established by majority vote.



It is important to note at this point that 'truth' is not established because of how nice or respectful any governing systems of belief are. The man who worships giant scorpions might be a mass murderer. His murder spree does not in any way, shape or form negate the possible existence of those giant scorpions.

Try harder next time.
Click to expand...
Its important to note at this point, the question in issue is "But what makes my Scorpion Gods different from God, Allah, Yahweh or whoever?"

:p
 
Cris said:
lg,

If you believe me wrong then quote a fact that demonstrates a god exists.
Click to expand...
No need

If you believe you are right, you have to demonstrate how you have all the facts of all religions.

A more correct statement (of the weak atheism variety) would be something like "If a religion is based on facts, I am not aware of it"

(absolute negatives and atheism are a poor marriage)
 
Its important to note at this point, the question in issue is "But what makes my Scorpion Gods different from God, Allah, Yahweh or whoever?"
Click to expand...

Then I think it's important to note that you've misunderstood what he's asking.. He points it out again in his second post.

It's very doubtful that he really needed, (or asked), for you to tell him that allah has more worshippers/believers than scorpion man lol.

Try harder.
 
lg,

If you believe you are right, you have to demonstrate how you have all the facts of all religions.
Click to expand...
Total nonsense. Religions are so keen to assert they are right that if any of them ever had any facts they'd be stuffing them down our throats without hesitation.

Instead they go out of their way to stress their beliefs are based on FAITH. Which is specifically belief in the ABSENCE of facts.

Any reasonable person should have no doubt that there is no religion that has a factual basis. And until at least one of them can show a single fact then my assertion that none of them have any is completely justifiable.
 
visceral_instinct said:
I'm not the first person to ask this. But anyway.

If I believed that the world was ruled by 2 giant scorpions, was open about the fact that I believed in them and prayed to them, used expressions like 'Scorpion Gods only know...' etc. most people would at best take that as a joke, at worst ask me if I'd been taking some kind of narcotic.

But what makes my Scorpion Gods different from God, Allah, Yahweh or whoever?

Nothing more than the fact that many people believe in them, therefore it is considered normal.

Discuss?
Click to expand...
We don't place a image in front of God, like a scorpion or whatever, no one knows what He looks like, we know that we are created in His image, but does that reffer to our physical body or rather the love and spiritual things that we share with Him? I would rather think the latter, but it is not unthinkable that He looks like us either.

Rather we think of God (if we look at it fundamentally) as a intelligent being of spiritual nature, which is behind all this and which we are inferior to.

I find it hard that everything that exists doesn't have a meaning, that our life doesn't have a purpouse and that we just stop existing when we die.

I can understand why people think that we don't exist as our body after we die, but can anyone say in which form existance must be? Is it required to have a brain? It is said that it arises from the complexity of the brain, why? What is that complexity similiar to to give rise to the feeling of existance?

We can never know for sure through evidence and so on in the world, but we can feel in our heart that it is true and have faith in it.
 
Cris said:
lg,

Total nonsense. Religions are so keen to assert they are right that if any of them ever had any facts they'd be stuffing them down our throats without hesitation.
Click to expand...
whatever religions may do, you made the statement

No religious belief has any basis in fact

this is an absolute statement
It is also a negative statement
hence, absolute negative

once again, if you believe you are right, you have to demonstrate how you have all the facts of all religions and how they have no basis.

Anything less and you are making a fallacious statement



Instead they go out of their way to stress their beliefs are based on FAITH. Which is specifically belief in the ABSENCE of facts.

Any reasonable person should have no doubt that there is no religion that has a factual basis. And until at least one of them can show a single fact then my assertion that none of them have any is completely justifiable.
Click to expand...
hence a more accurate statement would be something like, "If a religion is based on facts, I am not aware of it"
 
there's also the small issue of enduring social, moral and philosophical systems they produced.
Click to expand...

The question is about the belief itself. Why would you ridicule, (the word will suffice for the example), a man that claims he believes in and worships a giant scorpion being but not expect ridicule for your own beliefs which are ultimately equal in their level of irrationality?

Saying you have morals would prove pointless, or that your system of beliefs has assigned moral values.. That in itself does not negate the irrationality of the belief, the faith.

Here is his second post statement for you:

"The hypothetical person who believes in the Scorpion Gods and the real people who believe in God are just as irrational as each other, so what makes one right and one wrong?"

Both beliefs are worthy of equal ridicule but you would espouse that yours isn't because...?

Remember lg, the belief - not side issues like morality given that the scorpion worshipper could be equally or more moral but that does not give the belief any merit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top