tjpeople said:
My dad's an atheist. I toyed with atheism for a while, but I was 10 and my reasoning behind it wasn't very sound. Besides, my mother told me I was too young to decide - I suppose that's how most parents would react. A few years later, I thought about it again and ended up with agnosticism instead.
The argument that atheists give is that there is no scientific proof behind the existance of a god. But, if you base your decision just on science, the claim that there is no god is equally unproven. So, based on science, you can't really say anything at all aka agnosticism. In the end, atheism has to come from the gut, just as belief in god(s) does. Even with agnosticism, I doubt that anyone decides on it just because it's the scientific response (I know I didn't), but rather just because of the way they feel. Of course you could get into the whole paradox of science is based on the world around us and that might be an illusion blah, but that's too complicated for me (another reason I'm agnostic)...I suppose J. would know something of that.
tjpeople said:
Allways have been, brought up like that but have had if i wished lots of opportunities to find faith if i wished.
Too early in the morning
?
tjpeople said:
For me just about all religion is flawed and is is way more toruble than its worth. You think back to wars? how many of them where a consequence of some religious difference?
I don't believe in religion either. Douglas Adams (who was an atheist - a radical atheist, as he put it) said something about God that is pretty much my view of religion:
"[Religion] used to be one of the best explanations we'd got, and we now have vastly better ones. [Religion] is no longer an explanation of anything, but has become something that requires an insurmountable amount of explaining."
With that in mind, it's hard to condemn religion as a whole because it used to be what science is today - a way to make sense of the world around you. And now its so much a part of culture and in so many differnt ways, that its hard to separate it from other things and again hard to classify it as a whole.
tjpeople said:
But n my view, were just a bunch of cells that grow then die and thats about it.
What about a deist god then
?
tjpeople said:
'Religion is the opium of the masses' Karl Marx
I believe it's usually translated as opiate, not opium. The simpsons used a version of that line in their Catholic school ep...it was something realy goofy.
J. said:
That's how the first split in Christianty came. Greek Orthodox, and Catholism.
Do you know if the reasons behind the split were just political and economical or if there was actually a differance in theology?
J. said:
Then it split again, with Martin Luther, Lutherism, and again with the Prodestants, and then Baptists, and all sorts of different religions, all considered Christianity, but different all the way.
You mean Lutheranism? Wouldn't that be a branch of the Protestant church sice it did 'protest' against Catholocism?
Not that you need it, but I'll add a bit:
Luther split from the church b/c of corruption within the church and ideological differances such as celebacy of priests, which sacraments were legitimate, and biggest of all - Indulgances ie buying your way to heaven.
Next was either Henry VIII (English church - did that turn into Anglican?) or Calvin (Calvinism). Henry split from the church because he wanted an annulment from his wife. Calvin split based on his belief in predestination.
Those are the big ones. Beyond that, I don't think there are that many theological differances.