8th March 2003, 9:44 PM
Ack... long posts defending religion... hard to read all of without thinking "that is so dumb" all the time...
Sorry, its true...
As for church itsself, as I've said, I have no problem with church... as I've said here before, I went to church (Unitarian Universalist... :) ) until I graduated from highschool. Perfect religion for a atheist because you don't have to believe in anything spiritual...
Most of religion seems to be in how you grew up. If you grew up in a really religous family chances are you will eventually end up religious yourself... and same for the other way around. The views in my family were pretty much the opposite of yours (LL, DJ, Weltall, etc) so I am the way I am and you're like that...
Belief is exactly that -- belief. It usually doesn't include proof... or it includes "proof" that isn't. Religion has a whole lot of both.
One interesting thing is how as technology advances necessarially retreats -- like how over time beliefs change and doctrine slowly accepts "heretical" ideas... teh world isn't the center of the universe? Absurd! God doesn't live on the clouds? Silly! There aren't caverns under the earth literally filled with the burning people in Hell? Hah! And that's just the really old ones... once they were sure that Jerusalem was in the center of the (flat) world too...
Now of course the issues are evolution and the creation of the world... and many religous types have admitted the scientific evidence in favor of those things are so strong that they'll have to (or have) retreat/retreated there too...
Now of course its "well God created the matter that then exploded to form the universe because who knows how the universe was in whatever it was before the Big Bang happened? Well that (or any position I just mentioned) is just silly. We don't know now how that happened... but we may eventually and you can be sure that it won't be a "miracle". There is always a better scientific explanation that actually is sane.
Its called SCIENCE. It explains things. Is it perfect? Obviously not. But its always getting better... and we're in a time where we can see scientific progress yearly. While that hasn't made religion obsolete (unfortunately), it has helped to make it at least pretend to try to deal with the real world in some way... they can (and do) fight it kicking and screaming, but in the end it'll be forced to change.
Just like it always has in the past. Religion is by its very nature close minded... and not all of that will ever go away. But at least over time it'll be forced to slowly open up... but still religon continues to be a haven for the unsure and the people who need to believe in something intangible to be able to function in the confusing world.
In short its a security blanket... and provides about as much (lack of) protection to the person when truly exposed to the truthipped away... though the usual result is ignoring the point.
Its the only way for religious people to survive as religous... because if you really listened to sense and the real world it'd be impossible to be that way...
Sorry, its true...
As for church itsself, as I've said, I have no problem with church... as I've said here before, I went to church (Unitarian Universalist... :) ) until I graduated from highschool. Perfect religion for a atheist because you don't have to believe in anything spiritual...
Most of religion seems to be in how you grew up. If you grew up in a really religous family chances are you will eventually end up religious yourself... and same for the other way around. The views in my family were pretty much the opposite of yours (LL, DJ, Weltall, etc) so I am the way I am and you're like that...
Belief is exactly that -- belief. It usually doesn't include proof... or it includes "proof" that isn't. Religion has a whole lot of both.
One interesting thing is how as technology advances necessarially retreats -- like how over time beliefs change and doctrine slowly accepts "heretical" ideas... teh world isn't the center of the universe? Absurd! God doesn't live on the clouds? Silly! There aren't caverns under the earth literally filled with the burning people in Hell? Hah! And that's just the really old ones... once they were sure that Jerusalem was in the center of the (flat) world too...
Now of course the issues are evolution and the creation of the world... and many religous types have admitted the scientific evidence in favor of those things are so strong that they'll have to (or have) retreat/retreated there too...
Now of course its "well God created the matter that then exploded to form the universe because who knows how the universe was in whatever it was before the Big Bang happened? Well that (or any position I just mentioned) is just silly. We don't know now how that happened... but we may eventually and you can be sure that it won't be a "miracle". There is always a better scientific explanation that actually is sane.
Its called SCIENCE. It explains things. Is it perfect? Obviously not. But its always getting better... and we're in a time where we can see scientific progress yearly. While that hasn't made religion obsolete (unfortunately), it has helped to make it at least pretend to try to deal with the real world in some way... they can (and do) fight it kicking and screaming, but in the end it'll be forced to change.
Just like it always has in the past. Religion is by its very nature close minded... and not all of that will ever go away. But at least over time it'll be forced to slowly open up... but still religon continues to be a haven for the unsure and the people who need to believe in something intangible to be able to function in the confusing world.
In short its a security blanket... and provides about as much (lack of) protection to the person when truly exposed to the truthipped away... though the usual result is ignoring the point.
Its the only way for religious people to survive as religous... because if you really listened to sense and the real world it'd be impossible to be that way...
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