If religion got it all right... (hell, myth, church, atheist)

[ShepsMom]

..then why bother with science? Why research, explore, investigate, etc if religion has it "all right" and god knows it all, and you should rely on him to guide you through life without questions. Why be afraid, ridiculed, prosecuted, burned, and so on?

You'd think we would be in a cave till this day, looking for a mammoth?
I hope you all enjoy your computers, phones, cars, planes, TVs, IPods, and diapers.

[krudmonk]

Don't worry. Cancer will heal itself soon. It was designed intelligently.

[SuSuSushi]

Don't worry. Soon we'll start spontaneously regrowing damaged spinal cords, regenerating lost limbs, et cetera. We were designed intelligently, after all.

[soonerguy]

Originally Posted by ShepsMom

..then why bother with science? Why research, explore, investigate, etc if religion has it "all right" and god knows it all, and you should rely on him to guide you through life without questions. Why be afraid, ridiculed, prosecuted, burned, and so on?

What is it that everyone seems to think Christians fear?

[ShepsMom]

Originally Posted by soonerguy

What is it that everyone seems to think Christians fear?

You are misreading my post. I'm speaking of scientists, such as Copernicus, Bruno, Galileo, Descartes, Newton, Halley, Darwin, Hubble, etc...
Why would they bother to explore, study, discover, and subject themselves to the ridicule of the church? Would it be just easier to go with what church and god says?
We are as humans, longing to learn about ourselves and our universe, we are progressing by discovering and using scientific evidence of our earth and everything around it. What Christians fear is to lose their "god" and the very thought of nothingness after death is very much frightening, isn't it?
Tell me this isn't so.

[sanspeur]

Originally Posted by soonerguy

What is it that everyone seems to think Christians fear?

Some fear that if evolution has it right, and in my opinion it does, then you will have to admit that you have been lied to all these years. Many fear death, and if heaven is a myth you will have to face up to your mortality.

Darn...Beat to the post by ShepsMom again!

[soonerguy]

Humans have an innate drive to understand and explain their environment, to have all the answers. People fear what they can't understand or explain and I seem to detect a lot of fear on these threads coming from non-Christians. Christians have faith that all will be explained/revealed in God's time. We are promised that.

And I don't see what there is to be afraid about your "nothingness."

[ShepsMom]

Originally Posted by soonerguy

Humans have an innate drive to understand and explain their environment, to have all the answers. People fear what they can't understand or explain

That is where religion comes in. I don't know what you know about religion's origin??

and I seem to detect a lot of fear on these threads coming from non-Christians.

What about other religions? What do they fear?

What type of fear would atheist have? Spiders? Snakes? Santa not bringing presents? What?

And I don't see what there is to be afraid about your "nothingness."

Nothingness itself.

[soonerguy]

Originally Posted by ShepsMom

That is where religion comes in. I don't know what you know about religion's origin??

Originally Posted by ShepsMom

What about other religions? What do they fear?

I don't know, you'll have to ask them.

Originally Posted by ShepsMom

What type of fear would atheist have? Spiders? Snakes? Santa not bringing presents? What?

Probably.

Originally Posted by ShepsMom

Nothingness itself.

I still don't see what there is to be afraid of "nothing."

[SuSuSushi]

Originally Posted by soonerguy

Humans have an innate drive to understand and explain their environment, to have all the answers. People fear what they can't understand or explain and I seem to detect a lot of fear on these threads coming from non-Christians. Christians have faith that all will be explained/revealed in God's time. We are promised that.

And I don't see what there is to be afraid about your "nothingness."

In regard to the bolded portion of your post...where is the fear? I haven't seen "fear" from us. Personally I don't fear much, in the sense that you're talking about. Oh sure, I have small fears such as "what if my truck breaks down this year" or "I should really get more homeowner's insurance". But I don't think that's what you're talking about.

Fear of death, fear of punishment in an afterlife, fear of never going to heaven or going to hell -- I don't fear these at all. Even though there is no afterlife, and this existence is the only one I'm going to have, I don't fear death. In fact, I could die tomorrow and not be afraid about it -- well, unless there was a lot of pain involved or it was a particularly gruesome death, but then it's fear of pain, not the fear of being dead.

Death holds no fear for me. It will be the culmination of a life in which I have tried to do my best, and in which I hope to have made a difference in some small way for my friends and my family. Everybody dies, so what is there to fear? Nothing at all.

The people expressing fear on these forums seem to me to generally be the religious ones. Babbling about whether or not someone is the antichrist, talking about armageddon and how bad the world is, and how the abominable gays are a threat to their way of life...It's not the non-believers who are full of fear, it is you. And interestingly enough, you fear "us" enough that you attempt to make us comply to your religious beliefs. How fearful is that? Plenty!