I'm a bit bored and was interested in how many GMC'ers are religous.

Theist - believes in the existence of a God or Gods
Agnostic - isn't sure about the existence of a God or Gods
Atheist - does not believe in the existence of a God or Gods

Atheist.

Agnostic. A lot of things are made up in my opinion but I think there is definitely some truth.

I responded before reading your definitions. I replied Agnostic not so much because I doubt a creator so much as I doubt religion. Plus I build churches. I get to see what goes on behind close doors really made me appalled by these so called "religious leaders" who are the absolute biggest hypocrites I have ever met.

Believer.

Good Friday! I'm a Christian (Believe in God). Religion is a topic everyone has an opinion on and I respect everyone's stance. One question I have is if you don't believe in God how do we explain creation? Take our body's for example, the way our fingers can fly on the fret board and our mind telling them we're to go.

That is why I'm agnostic. I wouldn't like to say what happened. There could well be a god who started it all off. Something had to start creation.

Evolution by natural selection. And i wouldnt use the word "creation"

The argument I don't like is the one about how perfect the conditions in our solar system are for life to exist on earth. I don't believe this was any God, it was just chance. If conditions weren't perfect we wouldn't be here. IF conditions were different we could be on some other planet.

Believer for me. I believe there is only one true God, creator of all things. :-)
That belief is actually my only hope. :-)

same. besides the fact that as mysterious physical reality is to our puny brains, the implications of not believing in some God to who you are answerable are not acceptable.

If one says he is an atheist, well if you can takes someones money and bash in his head, and feel you can get away with it, why not do it? Makes no sense to hold back, if you really can get away with it. You are saying you are a spider, take what you can, if you can get away with it, do it. If you kill a million people, what is the big deal, you are an atheist after all. Nothing to answer for. Only thing you have to ask yourself is, "can I get away with it".

That is why you do not be an atheist, the implications are not acceptable. It does not matter if believing is correct or not, all that matters is that you believe.

I am with you about the conditions that are not perfect.
My explanation to that is sin. :-)

Hmm, if i understood you correct, you mean that atheists cant be moral? And basically atheists can just run around kill and rape people because there isnt any ultimate justice? Just checking if i got it right.

I chose agnostic- and this may well turn into a gigantic thread...religious debate? This could go on for a while...

no, we put them in prison if they do that.

I am saying that a true atheist is totally amoral by definition. it is simple logic.


I am not saying you are amoral. You probably just THINK you are an atheist. Really you are not.

But a true atheist is like Stalin. No problem killing 20 million for political gain. That is true atheism.

What you are saying is pretty much ridiculous. I am an atheist. An atheist is one who does not accept the claim that there is a god. How can that make anyone a bad person? What Stalin, Mao etc. did was not because of atheism. Atheism doesnt motivate anyone to do anything like that. The fact that they were atheist is completely irrelevant to what they did. If they were christian, or muslim, or jewish or whatever, they would still have been as big sick assholes as they were.

Atheism is a position on one single issue: Is there a God? An atheist do not believe so.

I am a member of this fairly new denomination. Check it out:

New Church

I just LOVE spongebob.

I'm Atheist btw

Completely agree on every point. What that other guy was saying was ridiculous. Just because someone doesn't follow a religion, or believe in a God, doesn't mean they don't have any morals, or know the difference between right and wrong.

And I really don't see how you could use Stalin as an example, that is just crazy. It is like me saying God supposably killed everyone on earth apart from some guy and a boat. Is he atheist?

I am a nihlist.. one way or another i just don't care.. but the idea of reality is too mind boggling for the mind to grasp.. it seems pointless to try, for this i want to bring to GMC's attention the construction of the Large Hadron Collider being constructed somewhere in Europe. These divices are used to discover information about the creation of the universe.. it seems odd to me that we have discovered these types of divices in a world "God" created. The creation of the universe is mind boggling.. even the idea the big bang theory still says the universe started as an infinatly dense object.. which leads to the question how did that object get there.. relgion is just an excuse to give the answer what is reality and to answer the thought of.. why are we here.. if we listen to religion then we listen to a control factor.. if i was a christian.. i would probably commit suicide.. for the purpose of my soul rising to heaven.. but nooo suicide is bad.. it just seems pointless.. live your life and don't question reality.. we are here.. you can feel, see, touch, hear, smell.. use those senses and enjoy life.. there is nothing else to it..

I believe that this thread will get pretty huge soon

More people have died in the name of religion than probably anything else in history. Salem Witch trials, the Inquisition, Crusades (both sides there, not faulting Christianity or Muslims entirely, Muslims attacked what they believed to be theirs, Christians retook what they believed to be theirs).

Stalin, Mao, and Hitler (remember, he was doing "God's work") killed so many because they desired power. Claiming moral highground because of faith is silly, as there is no winning as one party will judge who is "right" by their set of beliefs and the other does the same.

What I do find ridiculous though is that a Thiestic Satanist could come here and put "Thiestic" because they do meet the criteria because of the way the poll is set up.

My issue is with religion, not with God, I pray each night.

ultimate justice comes in the fourm of death, when you are in the ground rotting and your mind has quit to register because it is not being fed neutriants. when your brain stops.. your exhistance stops.. I do not believe in a god.. i believe in what we see.. i am an athiest.. my morals go as far as if i kill someone.. the police lock me away for a long time.. if i kill many people.. the police kill me.. earth has all the same judgement systems as a religion does.. which is why i consider the majority of my morals artificial BUT! being a good person because that will make your life more enjoyable may give the illusion of morals but can still allow the person to be an athiest.

I think that even atheists believe in some sort of higher force.
Coincidence,luck,good karma...you name it.
Perhaps we use different names for it and see things in not the same way.

Once more,believing or religion is private thing,totally private.
And I honor every man as long as he's modest,fair,decent,honest etc.

The way I see it: I cannot prove the existance of a God or the non-existance of one. So I'm just going to get on with my life and not worry about it.

I agree. Most buddhists are atheist, but they do believe in reincarnation and other supernatural stuff.
Me personally i dont believe in anything supernatural, unless of course i see evidence to support it. That goes for everything.


Definitely. I support everyones right to believe whatever they want

One theory of life that I find very interesting is simulated reality.

It's the theory that that reality could be simulated—computer simulated—to a degree indistinguishable from 'true' reality. It could contain conscious minds which may or may not know that they are living inside a simulation.

So basically if we created AI (artificial intelligence) in the future, we could create a world inside of a computer which would be exactly like our own (or completely different). We could watch how it evolves and how it creates a society and environment.

If this theory is correct we could be living in one of many 'simulated realities' and that there is only 1 true world where life started which could be completely different to how we live today. There is over a 95% chance that we are in a simulated reality.

I don't actually believe in this theory I just find it very interesting.

Evidence anyone?

Atheist. And think that what fkalich just said was like the most unbelievable and offensive thing I've ever read on this forum... I still think I know whats right and whats wrong even when I don't believe in god... it doesn't change humans moraly.

+1

But there's "use" of religion for own goal,usually hurting many along the.

As I'm muslim,one thing ALWAYS hurts me when I hear it,specially in media,TV etc.

Islamic Terrorism.

Islam (and every other religions) heavily forbidds every type of violence,use of force etc.

Can we use name Christians terrorism for Guantamale prison?
Of course we can't.

But "line" Islamic Terrorism is way to often today,specially in western world.

Those suicide bombers ARE saying that they are doing it for Islam.
And that's veeery stupid thing to say.

But still media uses segments from those statements in news titles.

It might be possible Who knows

And also, this world can also be my imagination. Maybe you guys and everything else here isnt real, maybe im locked in on an insane asylum and imagines all of this Who knows

Of course, it's just a theory and has not be proven so it has very little evidence.



Haha, I often think stuff like that all the time.

God definitely exisits! How do I know?

Because I'm a dork and I have a smokin' hot wife! Who else would give that to me?

Don't take that too hard,
Fkalich and I had misunderstandings even in "in style of lesson" topic,
no worries.

From my point of view,acts are saying a lot more about men.
You don't have to tell me your name,religion,are you atheist or not.
Just be a man,good one.

undecided - mostly theist but sometimes not .... I have doubts but then sometimes things happen and it really shows me there is another level... a spiritual level, but not sure if that is God or not...

Yeah I'm not taking it too personally

Exactly its acts that say what kinda man someone is.

Noo,that's just Fkalich,old one.

What!?! now I'm confused!

Old Fkalich acts the way he acted above.
But there's another side of his personality,newer one,more kindly.

Sadly,you ran into old one.

Tangent @ Muris:
You can't call the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay terrorism because by the very definition of terrorism it does not apply. Terrorism is using an act of terror to deliver a desired reaction from a general population to enact a desired policy change out of fear. The detainees in Guantanamo are prisoners of "war" and regardless of how cruel they may be treated, it does not affect mood of the general population. It would be another matter entirely if the US was picking up people at random and subjecting them to that type of treatment, but so far as I know that is not the case. Meanwhile, self detonating in a public market place could most certainly be construed as an act of terror. I'm not saying what takes place there is necessarily a lesser evil than acts of terrorism, but they are certainly different forms, as one act victimizes innocent randoms and the other victimizes someone who is captured on the "battlefield".


Of course I'm sure there is a disconnect as I am an aforementioned westerner and certainly my perspective is not as accurate as your own.

Either way, I know and work with many Muslims that are of your mindset Muris, and that's great because there's plenty of space in this sandbox we call Earth for everybody

I'm an atheist.
I will not begin to discuss religion here, because nothing good will come out of it.
Just look at some of the things that have been said already...

I respect everyones belief, as long as they respect mine.
Religion does not make a person good or bad, his way of life and his intentions do.
I know just as many religious people that deserve punishment as I do non-religious!

and I agree with Muris on this: "And I honor every man as long as he's modest,fair,decent,honest etc. "

And I thought I was the only one

As far as my beliefs go, I am really undecided as to whether or not there is a god or if we just ended up here by chance somehow. I mean one creator over everything just seems like a story that you'd here in a fairytale book, but on the other hand, I believe that evolution is a load of crap (don't want to start an argument over that, only certain points in evolution are true). I actually live in a religious home right now, but it's never really clicked with me; and I'm begining to REALLY dislike it.

Thats basically what i had in plan to say

People, please be careful.. i've never seen a thread about politics or religion that havent resulted in fights.

I'm agnostic.

I was born and brought up Catholic from an early age but became an atheist in my teens. As I've grown older I've moved more to a position between the two - and not through growing older or wiser as I'm only older but certainly not wiser. In growing older for me I've perhaps accepted a more open field - for me - and now am happy to both wait and hope to be amazed. (I HOPE to be amazed so maybe I'm moving more towards theism...)

Within the scope of moral judgment (which to me is defined by human society, as opposed to ethical - which is given by a divine) - I don't think I'm capable of judging. I certainly can't judge ethics or ethically - that is for a Divine to do (assuming that there is one). I'm flawed in many ways but I do my best - human, all too human - and the best I can offer is to do my best.

What we believe and adjudge sacred or profane though is very personal to us all. And I don't think anyone is having a dig at anyone else so far but as Trond suggests let's keep it that way. Respect each other's beliefs

Cheers,
Tony

Of course,there are some ugly things at Guantanamo but I could have chosen a way better example.
Invasion on Irak maybe,IRA....
Anyhow,I'm glad we understand each other.

I'm Athesist, I believe in natural creation of everything. If you look at everything scientifically, it began with the Big Bang, then hydrogen fuses together to make oxygen, and all the other elements. From the big bang, it was so hot that that was possible. Over millions of years stars and plants formed, then became galexies. Life began to come into play and everything evolved from small bacteria deep in our oceans, then millions of years later creatures evolved to be able to walk upon land. Evolution took on from there and made every species we have today.

Hahaha!

What is the Big Bang?

Me, Well I dont know what to belive either way When I was younger and more troubled, I explored religion/s to comfort myself but it opened more questions than it answered. I could read as many books as I wanted, ask as many questions but it didnt do me any good. As soon as I started relying on myself as an individual, and understood that I was the one that I could rely on my life got pretty good

I do however totally respect any belifes anyone might have, "atheiest", or a "thiest", thats cool by me