No your point was not missed at all. A group that understands that something is a fact and agrees on it is not intrinsically a religion.Originally Posted by Lee
I doubt that you would classify those who consider the earth round as belonging to a religion for sharing that common belief.
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I see a common thread here...we are all using the word belief and it's variations...the fact of the Earth's spherical shape points out to a big difference between atheists and religious groups...atheists reject a concept based on a lack of empirical evidence and/or a lack of logical arguments proving the existence of a deity or deities, which is not tantamount to a belief system like that present in religions.
I love this discussion, and i don't think it's at all mean-spirited or bickering...
Having said that..........common belief=religion? So, everyone who believes the Easter Bunny doesn't exist is part of a religion? Obviously i could go on with groups of people who share a common belief that isn't considered a religion. Religion is a commonly shared belief system with rites and rituals and all that. All that stuff atheists don't have. Sorry to say Lee, and I'm not being nasty, but I have a B.A. in Religion Studies.... soooo..... yr prolly not gonna win this one. sry mate......
So Catholicism isnt a religion? :eek:
Roman Catholics beleive that God exists... As a fact... Hence why Bush was such a nutjob, he beleived as FACT that God spoke to him, was present at all of his WH briefings, helped him make important decisions, etc, etc.
Makes no sense to me that one group who beleives in something as a fact isnt a religion yet another is.
Regards,
Lee
I think of religion as an artform, a type of performance art that produces altered states of consciousness, some of which are pleasant and bueatiful and even inspiring.
The problem is all those folks infected with religion as a memetic virus, that tricks them into hating folks that aren't infected with the same virus as they have.
Then tricks them into going out and killing (imprisoning, torturing, harrasssing, scapegoating, etc) the folks with either no memetic virus, a different memetic virus, or, when they are feeling particularly "religious", each other, for not being true to their virus.
Religion is a relatively ancient mental adpatation to the problem of mind and language and geography.
Like many ancient technologies, like technology in general, it causes new problems even as it solves old ones.
I think eventually more and more people will also view religion as an artform. And will not see the imagery of dominant gods as anything other than a metaphor.
According to the Merriam Webster dictionary...
(I checked several other dictionary definitions of the word 'religion' and they all mention similar entries).a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith
Yes.
Regards,
Lee
Read a novel a couple of years ago(can't recall the title off the top of my head and I had borrowed it so I can't run home and check my bookshelves) that really got into that topic, go so far as to say that some people through language could program other human beings deliberately like malware.
almost time for me to split, gentleman. I'll TTYL
one last before I go: by the line of reasoning you define atheists as a religious group, we could then define all non-Muslims, or all non-Catholics, or whatever as a religious group as they believe that Religion X, whatever it may be, is not the "true faith".
yeah i checked those too, and they're wrong.... don't believe everything u read....
according to those definitions, groups of people who share any common belief are a religion. My Easter Bunny model still stands to prove that's wrong. So unless yr willing to say that everyone who doesn't believe in the Easter Bunny is part of the same religious group, yr argument falls right apart...... :-/
Just to touch on this lightly...
In the 17th and 18th century when many in the world did beleive the world was flat.. Guess who the biggest supporters of that belief were?
Yup, the Christians
Regards,
Lee
Dont believe the dictionary? :eek:
Whatever next
Regards,
Lee
nope. i don't believe everything in the dictionary like I don't believe everything in the Bible... both are written by humans who are just as fallible as anyone, including myself..... and yes I'm fallible, but I'm also entitled to my own opinions...Dont believe the dictionary? :eek:
Whatever next
Regards,
Lee
next what?
I'm religious and I'm a Christian.
hmm
maybe peddling porn might have something to do with it
from what I've read, many who work in porn, actors in perticular
are from deeply religious families...
that said
atheism is hardly a shining example for good of the world
case in point:
I grew up during a time when church and going to church was banned officially. If you were seen entering a church or having church materials you could be ratted out and the party gave perks to the whistleblower.
The party was religion. There was no god but our great leader and our great party.
The churches were there, but many of the priests were tied with the KGB, (and many still are to this day)
Church going was mostly reserved to the old ladies who grew up back in the day.
Fear, murder and intimidation was used to gain and hold power for over 40 years. And all from staunchly atheist, anti-religious people who painted portraits and hung pictures of Lenin, Stalin which were actually kind of worshipped in a way along with their ideas.
Life under communism was just as bad as life under a converted, self-proclaimed man of god. Equally opressive, equally bloody.
Same shit, different story as they say.
Religions are created by man for man and used by man to advance his goals.
Humanity as a whole is just rotten we've always been that way. We pretty much would use anything in any way to get power. Happens every day and has happened trough time. Money, the banking system, politics selling people's lives away for votes ...
From personal observation, I've found that agnostics tend to be very laid back when it comes to religious debates. It's like they don't have such a hardon, as atheists seem to do, for converting anything that walks that there is in fact no god because they have not ever seen or heard him/it and _______ reasons.
And I think it should be pointed out that Atheists also use the same religious dogma started by and propagated from the early church to retain power and control people. Not to mention the hyper literal reading of the Bible.
That dogma/religious rules was voted for and approved during the first church council.
Many christians actually don't believe in this dogma. Look up gnostic christians. And read up especially on pre-catholic church gnostics.
Religion has always been the biggest scam going.
It's used to control people and scare them into being "good".
It's also used to take money from people who are too dumb to notice they are being scammed.
Throughout history the Bible has been rewritten to fit the needs of the "religious" leaders of the time.
Religious differences have been the cause of most of the wars on earth.
:humble: On That Note: HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE
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