The Religion Thread

Dave-Vale

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Thought I would start this as it has been debated in a few other threads.

I was raised in a moderately strict Catholic household. Holy Communion, Confirmation, church on a Sunday, Catholic schools etc.. At quite a young age I knew I wanted nothing to do with it and at 13-14 I refused to attend church or even believe that there is a god (I never allow that word to be capitalised as I was berated for not doing so during school).

I'm interested to know more about the religious backgrounds and beliefs of you lot.

Discuss.
 

Dave-Vale

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I was about to say:

Science disproves religion.
 

The Paranoid Pineapple

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I think my parents had a very healthy attitude towards religion - they're pretty irreligious themselves and were quite content for me and my sister to make up our own minds. They didn't have either of us christened for that reason.

As it happens, I remember deciding that god was a fiction when I was very young - long before I gave up on Father Christmas and Her Tooth Fairyness (sorry kids, probably should have spoilered this bit).
 

The Alex

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I was raised a Catholic much like you Dave, now I'm an atheist, as I'm not a delusional idiot.
 

SALTIRE

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Mother was protestant, father was Catholic (before later switching to Buddhism). They agreed they wouldn't force any of their religion on my sister and I, and despite going to Sunday School for a bit when I was young; I've had no experience thankfully of it. I don't mind what Buddhism teaches, but I can't be arsed bothering with actually practising it.
 

sl1k

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Muslim. Massive part of who I am, but not a great practiser atm i.e. praying five times a day etc.
 

Stevencc

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Muslim. Massive part of who I am, but not a great practiser atm i.e. praying five times a day etc.

Don't forget the booze benders!
 

silkyman

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Macclesfield Town/Manchester City. It's complicated.
Raised in a very non religious household and left to make up my own mind. Through the early years when the school system legally has to tell young kids that God is real, I had as much belief as any youngster. It was just accepted that God was real.

As I grew up, I learned more and more about science and the like and just drew my own conclusions. It was long after developing from the railroaded young Christian that our educational system demands into an out and out atheist that I developed a deep distrust and dislike of organised religion.

But for me it boils down to that 2,000 years ago 'we' as a species used to attribute everything we didn't understand to the gods. The sun and moon, mountains, earthquakes, childbirth, hangovers, rainfall, the harvest, winning or losing in battle... Now we know how all of that shit works.

In the entirety of human knowledge, not once has science come out with 'yeah, it was God'.

Creation and life doesn't need a god. So why would there be one?
 

Aber gas

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I don't have any faith tbh but I see the good, people of faith do, in my life now through working with people who have fuck all and when I was on my arse. I see the bad too, the sanctimonious, moralising, ignorant part of religion that holds back individuals and groups in society.
The only way I can understand it is to realise that there are self serving hypocrites in both secular and religious life.
 
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nousername

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My parents are both fairly stereotypical dour Church of Scotland types, strangely it wasn't enough to put me off religion though, I guess as they had the "let's ignore the bad parts of Bible and be NICE" belief.

I was never particularly in to it, or practicing, but I always accepted it as kinda true, probably up until I was 18-19 or so. Looking back it's a fairly ridiculous belief system to hold - you can't really half heartedly hold a religious belief in my opinion - but it probably fulfilled some sort of function at that age.

Anyway, I got into reading Richard Dawkins, A.C. Grayling etc. when I was about 20 or so, can't remember why - but it really struck a chord with me and forced me off the philosophical fence I was sitting on. I'm 28 now and probably still working out what's the purpose here...

As for religion itself, I think it largely serves a positive purpose in society, particularly in Britain where it has been relegated to a special interest club effectively. They've realised that to stay relevant they have to do a lot of good and generate a positive reaction in what is really a secular country. As soon as it gets to a position of authority it turns sour though - Middle East, much of the Muslim World, anywhere where religion is intertwined with the State really.
 

silkyman

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Macclesfield Town/Manchester City. It's complicated.
Isn't that just your belief though?

Not really, no.

Science can be observed, repeated and proven. Religion is words on a page which cannot be changed.
 

Stagat

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Not really, no.

Science can be observed, repeated and proven. Religion is words on a page which cannot be changed.

But did Dave do any experiments? Or is he getting his information from words on a page?
 

silkyman

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Macclesfield Town/Manchester City. It's complicated.
Words on a page which can be peer reviewed.

Better than words on a page you have to believe despite them being thousands of years old.

When you believe sciences 'words on a page' you are believing words that can, and have been scrutinised, inspected, changed with new research, and methodically pulled apart by people who actively WANT to find things wrong with them.

With religion, it's words that have been scrutinised, inspected, and methodically pulled apart by people who actively WANT to find things wrong with them, but NOT changed and remain (in the case of the bible) a pre civil war interpretation of something that a fisherman might or might not have written 2,000 years ago and which has been through several other translations to get here.
 

Destruction

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Raised in a very non religious household and left to make up my own mind. Through the early years when the school system legally has to tell young kids that God is real, I had as much belief as any youngster. It was just accepted that God was real.

As I grew up, I learned more and more about science and the like and just drew my own conclusions. It was long after developing from the railroaded young Christian that our educational system demands into an out and out atheist that I developed a deep distrust and dislike of organised religion.

But for me it boils down to that 2,000 years ago 'we' as a species used to attribute everything we didn't understand to the gods. The sun and moon, mountains, earthquakes, childbirth, hangovers, rainfall, the harvest, winning or losing in battle... Now we know how all of that shit works.

In the entirety of human knowledge, not once has science come out with 'yeah, it was God'.

Creation and life doesn't need a god. So why would there be one?

Not being funny mate but this has debated for decades, what makes you think you are the one to sum up the disproval of there being a God in under 150 words on a Wednesday night in Macclesfield?

Seems unlikely you would be the one to nail this IMO.
 

Stagat

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Words on a page which can be peer reviewed.

Better than words on a page you have to believe despite them being thousands of years old.

When you believe sciences 'words on a page' you are believing words that can, and have been scrutinised, inspected, changed with new research, and methodically pulled apart by people who actively WANT to find things wrong with them.

With religion, it's words that have been scrutinised, inspected, and methodically pulled apart by people who actively WANT to find things wrong with them, but NOT changed and remain (in the case of the bible) a pre civil war interpretation of something that a fisherman might or might not have written 2,000 years ago and which has been through several other translations to get here.

So it is still a belief formed from words on a page then. And as you say, words that can be changed with new research. So if that's the case, we can't even say these words you believe in are right.

Apologies for having this conversation without Dave-Vale being here but I can't agree with your science disproves religion statement mate when we don't know half of what goes on in the universe, or even on Earth imo.
 

sl1k

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I worship Cthulhu.

Mate I just googled that, and if that's the lord in heaven. I wanna go hell :eek:

On a more serious note, I don't often like going into the finer details of why I believe what I believe cos I've debated and discussed the shit out of it in my thestudentroom days. I'm sorry if that comes across lazy.

But what I will say is, the statement "science disproves God" is false. Our universe is within the confines of time and space, which is accepted to have had a beginning. Our knowledge around this beginning cannot be observed, repeated and hence cannot proven. At this moment, believing any theory as a means of disproving creationism is dogmatic in itself.

This is why the responsibility to prove is thrown back to the faithful.
 

TheMinsterman

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I think my parents had a very healthy attitude towards religion - they're pretty irreligious themselves and were quite content for me and my sister to make up our own minds. They didn't have either of us christened for that reason.

As it happens, I remember deciding that god was a fiction when I was very young - long before I gave up on Father Christmas and Her Tooth Fairyness (sorry kids, probably should have spoilered this bit).

You bastard. I've been offending people to get my teeth kicked in all this time for nothing!?
 
D

Dr Mantis Toboggan

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belief in science required as much faith as belief in religion. science is supposed to be empirical knowledge, but it relies on belief in processes and patterns we don't understand. could you explain how a lighbulb generates light accurately? about how volcanoes, dead dinosaurs and waves are channeled into light? probably not. we trust that they have been explained, without understanding the how. we have faith in what we are told. as everyone does. we don't even challenge this faith oddly. much as we denigrate those who do believe in a higher power we rarely question what is the internet for example. we are just happy enough with this interracial gangbang on our computers. or libertadores bitching about some shite ecuadorian twat. we don't understand how they get to our computer. neither did cavemen understand fire, gift from the gods innit

is it enough to know that someone out there does know the answer to a question of life, matter and the universe? does that make us better than someone who says 'god did it'? none of us are really pioneers here, our parents taught us the supremacy of science and we put implicit faith in it the same way steppe folk put their faith in tengriism or the norse in odin. we all make massive assumptions, science is an assumption. how many times has something been proven then disproven? we're not on some merciless march to absolute objective truth here, we're each on our own journey and belief in a higher power, a spirit, a soul, or something giving the certainty of death a rosy, less apocalyptic tint, doesn't stand in opposition to science
 

Stagat

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It's also pretty much what I was getting at an all.
 
D

Dr Mantis Toboggan

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yeah but i'm a graduate from cambridge u r mansfieldren i said it better
 

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