Game Over

[HobbeBrain]

The main reason for my viewpoint is that I actually died 3 times

Yeah well I actually died 1,436,607,774 times. Painful s**t huh bro?

Anyway, can I ask do you believe in any religion beyond what you described?

 

[Monrizzo]

Catholicism mainly, though I try to respect other's views and not try to force my views upon them.

 

[Tsuyu]

The world was made in seven days? More like over billions of years + scientifically proven.

I'm gonna play Devil's Advocate here and say that seven days for a being of divine power is probably vastly different than our own perception of seven days. You only have to go to our nearest interstellar neighbor and the day/night cycles are vastly different, so we can also assume that at whatever plane of existence "God" is on, seven days might be over a billion of years. Yeah I don't believe in it either, but it is fun to speculate.

Oh yeah, I'm also gonna be a smartass and correct you: the world was made in six day according to Christianity; on the seventh day the ol' all-mighty rested!

 

[Avarael]

When I die I do not expect there to be anything. I don't believe that my soul is an entity merely using my body as a casing. Therefore I don't see my mind existing separately after I die.

And those darned believers. Had they not told me about God I'd have been allowed to go to Heaven. Thanks guys. Now stay out of my classroom. QQ

 

[Braindeer]

It's very easy to make fun of Bible passages when they are taken out of context...the meaning may change if you actually read the rest of the chapter. Just wanted to point that out.

I have no fixed ideas on religion or the afterlife, but I do know I find it pretty disrespectful to make fun of someone else's beliefs. And it does seem that Christianity (rather unfairly) gets the brunt of it most of the time. If you have issues with religion, open it up to all religions, not just the one. They stand for similar ideals, and have all been used as a means of persecution (Buddhism aside, perhaps!) so I find it hard to see how you can take issue with one, but not the others.

 

[Tsuyu]

If Buddhism had pushed the scientific community back a thousand years and generally caused as much misery in Europe as Christianity did, then your point would be valid. It hasn't, however. Criticism of Christianity is not unwarranted or unfair. However, had you said Islam I would've agreed with you. Most of Christianity's misdoings are in the past(stuff like Creationism and other modern idiocy aside). Islam, however, still holds countries(and people outside of those countries) gripped in medieval barbarity.

 

[Braindeer]

"If Buddhism had pushed the scientific community back a thousand years and generally caused as much misery in Europe as Christianity did, then your point would be valid. It hasn't, however."

Hence the part where I said "Buddhism aside" in my original post.

As to your second point - I can't agree with you there. Yes, some interpretations of the Islamic faith and some extremists (who are a MINORITY) are keeping people "gripped in medieval barbarity" as you say. However, many other Muslims are living day to day much the same as you, me, and anyone else you care to name. Ditto the majority of Christians, again, bar some nutcase extremists, who sadly go hand in hand with religion, no matter where you go. My point is that it's unfair to label the whole religion as being bad, wrong or just stupid purely because you don't believe in it, and it's equally unfair to single out one religion over another.

If you're not religious, that's fine - but there's no need to deride those who do hold religious beliefs. Calling them stupid or wrong because they believe is just as bad as the persecution many people faced in the past for NOT believing.

 

[Tsuyu]

I've never once called anyone stupid for their religious beliefs. I think religion as a concept is stupid, which is a wholly different matter, and I should be allowed to believe that just as much as people are allowed to believe I deserve to burn in hell in everlasting agony.

In face of that I'd say I'm less deserving of being called disrespectful.

 

[cheezMcNASTY]

i can see where Tsuyu is coming from. use of religion to fuel politics and justify military action is a major problem that bothers me to no end. i want to hold it against the lot of them most of the time, and it's difficult to not keep in mind that if religion wasn't being used to fuel all those things, then something else would be. a tyrant with an army is a tyrant with an army when it comes down to it. just like someone who would vote according to how the church instructed would do the same in its absence.

the realization i've come to is that people who are religious idiots wouldn't stop being idiots if they stopped being religious. that goes for atheists, democrats, republicans, christians, everyone. the facts as i've come to accept them is that 90% of the world is occupied by short-sighted morons who would be morons for other reasons if absent a religion.

example: plenty of democrats (my own party) can't back up what they believe without regurgitating the reasons they were told. they use about as much independent thought as a wood plank, and the only reason they feel justified is because they can identify the idiots of the opposition and vice-versa.

 

[Sean]

These are all very interesting and intriguing opinions.