@Transhuman, No you're being Naive. Jesus was Jewish. I really can't bother to go further into this than that. If you don't have enough common sense to analyze the Bible, what it says about being a Christian and transpose that on Hitler's life then you're a moron. Plain and Simple.
I don't think it's a stretch to say that being smart makes you more likely to be non-religious. Stupid people don't question things, and you don't break away from beliefs you were raised with if you don't question things. Now obviously, people raised non-religious can be just as stupid and unquestioning in their rejection of religion as the stupid and unquestioning accepters of religion, but atheism is not very prevalent in society and that situation is far rarer. It's like being athletic makes you more likely to climb mountains. You don't have to climb mountains if you're athletic, but you definitely won't climb any if you're bound to a wheelchair.
Your assertions imply that religious people never question their faith. To the contrary without our faith being tested we wouldn't have much faith to begin with. Believe me I have had my fair share of doubts and questions about God throughout my life, it's pulling through those moments that strengthens my faith. So again, there really isn't any way to say that what you believe in has any major impact on your level of intelligence. How intelligent you are is how hard you work at learning to be honest. Yea you have some people who just have that "it" factor (my friend from college who is now in Seminary comes to mind. The kid had a photographic memory and could spit back an entire lecture on bio-chemistry verbatim just from sitting through it...it made me sick) but people are as intelligent as much they apply themselves.
First off, I dont see how ignoring the presence of God is dangerous. Second, I refer to my Ignorance is a step away from Stupidity to the rest of your opinion.
@NeoShadow Regarding your post on page 5, you have some accurate points. There are a hell of a lot of religious people who are ignorant to all hell, and believe themselves practically omniscient. But, on the flipside, there are also scientists who believe themselves so knowledgeable that they think they are akin to Gods. The ignorance flows from all directions, I'm afraid. I myself am a Deist. I believe in God not based on any books or Faith based beliefs, but rather on observations made on my surroundings. I believe that God is what holds this universe together, and is also what created it. I don't know what God is, or how he came to be. I personally believe that God created time, and therefor simply always existed. I Believe that God created all of existence, and will accept many scientific theories of creation, though with my own slight tilt to it. I think that the existence of God is not only a possible idea, but a rather plausible idea. It makes much more sense to me that a being created everything rather than a lump of randomness that exploded into everything, and everything just magically holds itself together, and somehow got initial energy, even though presumably before this explosion, there was none. Yeah, that doesn't seem logical to me.
That is because of your belief system. If your belief system had you believing in a higher power that is perfect and in order for non-perfect beings (aka humans, and we all know we aren't perfect) to commune with said god there are certain things that you need to do (in my case simply believing in Jesus) otherwise you will be separated from them for eternity you would consider not believing in God to be dangerous. I was simply stating my personal beliefs, you don't have to agree with them and you certainly don't need to throw the word "stupidity" into a sentence relating to my opinion.
While I am not a christian, I once was. I believe that under the christian religion, it is understood that your god is an all loving god. Now, you wouldn't send to hell someone you love, would you? That statement always gets the response "but god isn't sending you to hell, he's giving you the option!" Yes, well, Humans by design 'sin' it is not possible for us not to sin. We are basically drunks when it comes to that. Now, would you force your friend to drive drunk? No. Would you let him make that decision for himself? No. It says in the bible that Jesus sacrificed himself so that Humans may go to god without fear. That he faced the ultimate punishment to absolve us of all our sins. Based on that scripture, I don't believe that anyone will go to hell. Yes thats right, flame me for it. I don't believe that Hitler, or Axe Murderers or Child Molesters are in Hell. You can hate me for it for all I care. But Christians call God their 'Father' right? Tell me, in the situation where you are a father to two sons, and you have to sentence one to eternal damnation, and the other to eternal prosper, could you do it? No matter what they did, they would still be your sons. I know I couldn't make that decision. God forgives all because in our human form we are imperfect. Upon transcending to heaven, bodily needs and desires that are unholy are lost, so whats the point of keeping us out of heaven? Again, I'm not actually christian, but applying my own logic to the Christian set of beliefs, if christianity is real, thats how it would work, I think. I could be wrong. Won't know till I die, will I?
Pat, You can't forget the part where Jesus clearly says "the only way to the Father is through me." If you don't accept it, you can't receive it. You are right in that Christians believe that God is a perfect being and that we are imperfect. Therefore the two can't co-exist without some sort of "bridge," if you will. And the reason we can't make the decision you are talking about is simply because we are not God. We can't handle eternal judgement on other people. The reason we are not in heaven is because mankind is full of sin. The whole idea of what Jesus did is that he conquered death so that we don't have to do it ourselves (aka live a perfect life...just not possible). Eventually Jesus will return, kick Satan's ass once and for all and then those in heaven and the believers who were still on Earth will live on without sin. And yes I know some people think "why doesn't he just do that now?" Well think of all the people who are waiting for their opportunity to respond to the Gospel. Mankind is going to have to get pretty messed up before Jesus comes back and lays waste. And as a disclaimer this is just my personal belief so if you disagree let's not have a flame war over it.
I have a strong distaste for organized religion. That does not mean I don't believe in some sort of higher guiding force, but it does mean that I believe that books are written by men to seduce minds incapable of logic and reason. It is also possible that early man, misinterpretted certain events as their knowledge was incapable of identifying anything scientific, therefor it must be "magic". What greater way to gain the obedience of the masses by telling them there is an all powerful being who will punish them? However, if organized religion is wrong, that doesn't mean we do not serve a purpose. We are the creators, we are the only natural force capable of creating the unnatural. This I believe, is our purpose.
I understand perfectly. It's definitely what I believe in. I think that it's possible for the bible to have some basis in truth, but in all honesty, the whole revelations mess just wouldn't be very efficient. In my opinion, A perfect being wouldn't use such a method for rooting out who can and cannot go to heaven. Again, if God is to love every one of us, than he will forgive us all absolutely. Of course, this is just my opinion @Nossirom What can we create?
7 Man-Made Substances that Laugh in the Face of Physics | Cracked.com On Topic: I'm just going to say that I am a Chem-Bio Major half-way through my freshman year, and my entire Bio 155 class has been about evolution. Personally I don't see how the things that have happened happened as fast as they did, and there are just some parts that don't line up right. Now I know we haven't found all of the potential ancestors yet but I still consider that the whole thing was helped along a little. My personal belief is that God created the universe with science so that we could discover it and how it was done, and that by discovering the secrects of the universe we are coming closer to him. I think that God made himself more apparent in the past when people needed him (how else could the unarmed naked cavemen have fended off the hungry lions?) But now as we have learned how to help ourselves he has stood back to let us stand on our own 2 feet and be better not just as people but as a species. Also I think parts of the Bible may be outdated. For instance "don't eat pork" I think that rule was layed out because the cavemen understood that it was a sin better than, "You can't cook it enough and you will get trichinosis and die dumbass." Also, if he had tried to explain the periodic table in the Bible, who would have listened to the guy preaching that? I think it's dumbed down for past generations.
This is basically in line with what I think. I'm a former Christian myself but I'm not so ready to throw out all Christian tenants from my collection of human wisdom I've picked up over the years. I do, however, completely reject the concept of hell, and I think it's completely reasonable to do so without, for example, ruling out an "afterlife". Even for Hitler.
@ R Richard Those things don't actually defy physics...I mean, they have an agreeably odd chemical structure, but nothing that isn't possible...as shown in their existance. Beyond that, we didn't create it. Humans have the power to create one thing, and one thing only: Ideas. we cannot create matter or energy.
Humans are the tools that nature uses to create that in which it cannot create on it's own. The universe operates through trial and error. How many stars must be created before a solar system capable of supporting life is born? Statistically? Billions, if not trillions. How many species inhabited this world before we stepped in? Hundreds of millions of years, and several great extinctions worth. How many random forces of nature were necessary for the creation of human life? That seems far more miraculous than any creation myth I have ever read. Afterall, fact is stranger than fiction.
But...we still don't create anything...Neither does nature actually....I'm not sure if you understand the Law of Conservation of Energy and Matter...
I'm not going to debate the many definitions of the word create. Regardless, we are a necessary stepping stone in the manufacturing of such things. Nature cannot do it without us.
I don't see how this has anything to do with religion aka part of the topic. I don't think anyone will debate that without mankind things we have created would just magically appear.