Just how religious are you?

ExittheLemming wrote: synthguy wrote: mental masturbation (uncountable)    1. (slang) Engaging in intellectually stimulating conversation with little or no practical purpose. That's my theory in a nutshell. I guess that the only flaw in comparing thinking to sexual acts is that the former, by any stretch of the imagination, would not be considered a spectator sport. (and that you are clearly celibate).

...Very nice indeed.
How did you know I was married?

"I'm totally rational, and *only* scientific evidence counts"

I have to say, I do find this option a little narrow minded considering how open minded many atheists claim to be. I consider the existence of God a philosophical matter, not scientific. If God is outside of time/space etc then we little humans are never going to prove his existence. It's all speculation. I personally believe in God because of my faith but I'm not going to try and prove that scientifically.

Science tries to work out the "How" but my faith gives me the "Why".

mental masturbation (uncountable)

   1. (slang) Engaging in intellectually stimulating conversation with little or no practical purpose.

That's my theory in a nutshell.

^ some interesting theories here ... please do elaborate.

Henry Plainview wrote: I voted for the first option just to upset you, Mike. <3

Petrovsk Mizinski wrote: The Pessimist wrote: I believe life is too short to be worrying about these things. Go out there, do good and have a great f**king time while you're doing it, helping the human race along the best you can. People can spend years thinking about this kind of thing, but to me it's just a waste of valuable time, because nobody actually cares. No decent person would think any less of you whether you are Atheist, Theist or believe that humanity was born from custard. Therefore, the only person that REALLY gives a toss about what you believe in is you, and to me, that causes way too much mental stress. Let's all just drink, have sex, laugh and help the needy like we've always done *raises pint glass*. I'd rather die happy and ignorant than die worrying if there is a heaven or not. Seriously, this man speaks the truth. I don't think I could spend hours pondering that sort of things when I have guitars to be played, friends to hang out with, pubs to go to, films to watch, music to listen to, music to write and history to read about.

Aww Mike don't go getting all tolerant on us.  It should sound very familiar to you. You spent 10 pages or so in one of these threads advocating the exact same thing.

What kind of religious views do I have?

I'm not a rationalist, I'm a dialectical materialist, read: militant atheist. Religion needs to be overthrown in the minds of men.

That option wasn't on the poll, but you had violent religious fundamentalist

clarke2001 wrote: Mr ProgFreak wrote: clarke2001 wrote: I realized that asking someone 'is there god or not', 'do you believe in divinity or not' is a WRONG question. It's about semantics. You posted two question ... which one do you think is wrong, and what would be the right question in your opinion? None, or both. It depends on a context. See, everything that surrounds us, the universe is a picture, a silhouette. If you believe in god, you'll see vase. If you don't you'll see two faces. In both cases, it's perception - the picture is exactly the same. Of course, if one does believe in explicit depiction of God - and old man with a beard, an elephant face with eight hands - that's another story. I don't (but I do feel some envy for those with dedication in their life, faith-wise). I'm talking about people who believe into universe as is with all the galaxies etc., but believe in divine intervention vs. people who believe in the universe, Big Bang etc. from purely scientific approach, without god. It's the same thing. Everything surrounding us is so ordinary. Everything surrounding us is a miracle. Both true. Let's say a person (an interviewer) asks me is there god or not. Let's say that person ultimately,blindly believes my statement: among all philosophers, prophets, messiahs and scientists in history, my answer is ultimate, and correct. And I give him/her the answer. The person is trembling with excitement: finally we know the truth!! And he/she asks me a lot of other questions: who, why, where, how?!?!?!? I explain. The person's reaction? Purification, epiphany, excitement, wisdom? No. The face goes down: 'Oh. I see...so that's it. well, I'm not any smarter. Things around me are the same. My perception is the same". Just be, man. It doesn't matter. I thought a lot about the subject, developed my own theories (which are right), even stripped down the very existence to the simple mathematical formula. Now I know. And I'm not any smarter.

I see. Well, I'm a naive realist on the basis of our scientific knowledge. If I see a table in my room then I have faith in that there is actually a table there, and that it doesn't only exist in my imagination ... I can touch it, I can sit at it and eat my meal, for all my intents and purposes it is there, and it is a table.

Another way of putting it is that the laws of physics make sense to me, as they relate to everything that I can see. Once you go to the very small (sub-atomic) and very large (cosmic) the laws get strange and counter-intuitive, but I trust the scientific methods of making testable assumptions.

As far as your questions are concerned:

"is there god or not": I don't think that this question can be answered.
"do you believe in divinity or not": Like you said, it depends on the semantics of the word "divinity". I believe in reason and science, and if you define divinity as the world and its laws, then you could say I believe in it. But this type of divinity is a far cry from the one of the (Mono)theistic religions.

Mr ProgFreak wrote: clarke2001 wrote: I realized that asking someone 'is there god or not', 'do you believe in divinity or not' is a WRONG question. It's about semantics. You posted two question ... which one do you think is wrong, and what would be the right question in your opinion?

None, or both. It depends on a context. See, everything that surrounds us, the universe is a picture, a silhouette. If you believe in god, you'll see vase. If you don't you'll see two faces. In both cases, it's perception - the picture is exactly the same.

Of course, if one does believe in explicit depiction of God - and old man with a beard, an elephant face with eight hands - that's another story. I don't (but I do feel some envy for those with dedication in their life, faith-wise).

I'm talking about people who believe into universe as is with all the galaxies etc., but believe in divine intervention vs. people who believe in the universe, Big Bang etc. from purely scientific approach, without god. It's the same thing.

Everything surrounding us is so ordinary.
Everything surrounding us is a miracle.

Both true.


Let's say a person (an interviewer) asks me is there god or not.

Let's say that person ultimately,blindly believes my statement: among all philosophers, prophets, messiahs and scientists in history, my answer is ultimate, and correct.

And I give him/her the answer.

The person is trembling with excitement: finally we know the truth!! And he/she asks me a lot of other questions: who, why, where, how?!?!?!?

I explain.

The person's reaction? Purification, epiphany, excitement, wisdom? No. The face goes down: 'Oh. I see...so that's it. well, I'm not any smarter. Things around me are the same. My perception is the same".

Just be, man. It doesn't matter. I thought a lot about the subject, developed my own theories (which are right), even stripped down the very existence to the simple mathematical formula. Now I know. And I'm not any smarter.