Re: Free trial...
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:22 am
Yes it's true that religion gives people hope that there is more to their lives than an average 80 years (insignificant compared to the life of the universe).Omnio(from OA) wrote:Religion is used by people who want to believe that there is something more than just their own insignificant spec of nothingness in the universe.
People need to accept that when they die, you no longer exist.
But that is where religion takes over and makes people feel secure.
If people praise the "afterlife" so much, why doesn't everyone kill themselves now and go to that "better" place.
I would like to read what you have to say about religion from these "medieval" times as well as other times when nations fought in the name of "God".
Religion has caused death and destruction, holocausts, torture. What good is religion if all these negatives outway the positives you are talking about?
It's human nature to remember the worst and not the best.
I used to be catholic, but i've realized how ridulous religion is.
According to the Bible our life on Earth is a test to see how well we can handle what God has given us so that we may be rewarded in the afterlife.
I understand that everyone has their own opinion, but you can't just state something you believe is a fact, but can't be proven. There is no way to prove there is no afterlife until you die. I wish people would be more considerate of this before they open their mouths. Unless you can prove there is no God, there is no way to say that He does not exist. Science can only explain so much before something else has to be used to explain it. For instance, if the universe was created in one microscopic second and we're all here now because of it, where did such concepts as physics, or gravity, and other such things come from? Were they just 'there?' I would like to hear someone fully explain how physics came to be. Or maybe this: where did emotions come from? I highly doubt concepts as complex as love and hate simply evolved over time. Where did 'human instinct' come from? Where did our desire to multiply and fill the earth come from? Why does no other animal feel the need to control the earth? All of these things cannot simply be explained by math equations or 'just because.' Although I saw some chick on one of G4Tech TV's show that apparently came up with an equation for love, it was just an equation for finding the compatibility of two people. Therefore, a load of crap.
Also, physics has taught me something very important. You can NEVER assume anything because according to physics nothing is always the same.
Unfortunately those people who fight in the name of the Christian God are not following it the way they should. Jesus was a man of peace, but the human race is not a race of peace, but of bloodshed. Unless we all converted ourselves into robots there will always be bloodshed whether people stop believing in God or not.
About the positives and negatives. Theoretically the human race would have been much better off if we had remained a hunter-gatherer society that we were over 30,000 years ago. Unfortunately we gradually invented agriculture and that doomed us all. From agriculture came susceptibility to disease, monarchies, the need to explore and infest this planet with our race, and now 30,000 years later we have the ability to destroy any country from any location with the push of a button. If we had remained hunter-gatherers however, we would not have such luxuries has individual housing, modern transportation, public education, colleges, and so on because we would have been on the move all the time and there would be no reason to create such structures if we were going to abandon them every 6 months. This may seem like a far stretch, but it's kind of hard to squeeze in 30,000 years of history into a paragraph.
That was more over an alternate history that still would have contained religion, so here's one of the positives and negatives of religion. It's true that because that so much blood is shed because of religion, but the main 'war' that goes on is between the Jews and Muslims of Islam. Originally the Islam religion was one of peace because Muhammad (the founder) did not believe in violence. And actually if you look at the similarities between Islam, Judaism and Christianity there are many, many similarities. Muslims used to consider Christians and Jews very good friends. In fact the Old Testament for all three religions is exactly the same book and all three religions worship the same God, just each has their own name (i.e. Allah). But since there were no major differences in their religions people started to look at the minor ones for something to argue about. This eventually led to the bloodshed today: stupid minor differences. Another reason for the bloodshed is the ongoing conflict between the Shi 'ites and the Sunni's. The Shi 'ites believe that Ali had the right of succession to the Islam religion when Muhammad died while the Sunni's believed the community as a whole deserved the right of succession. So because of this there is also much bloodshed within the religion. But the fact that religion was the driving force to invent so many technologies that save labor is a big positive. Also, religion gives hope to those who have none and something to look forward to after this life. Hope is one of the most important human concepts that I doubt just evolved over millions of years. Hope is also a major driving force for the human race. Because of hope we always expect to see a light at the end of any dark tunnel, even as you believe there is no light, hope gives this light to unfortunate people. This is why religion is so important to people. I am guessing that you are not living in a third world country where hope is all people have along with their $50 a year salary and a thatched hut. This is why missionaries of all religions go to these countries: to give hope to people who have none.
If I didn't answer a question please ask so I can clarify. I kind of got lost while writing so if I forgot something please tell me.
I Prefer my keys that way but you have to take it into consideration that not everyone played or plays counter-strike and probably use the arrow keys to move in every game that they play and have been doing that since mmorpgs were first introduced.