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Religion does not keep people from doing wrong, in fact religious beliefs make otherwise good people do wrong. I do not have any official statistics to show the suicide bomber demographics, but I think it's safe to assume that atheists are vastly underrepresented, just as they are in US prisons. True, there are less atheists than theists in the world, but it's not even close to proportionate.
When one does not believe in an afterlife, heaven, hell, or reincarnation, it generally makes them less willing to throw their life away when someone tells them to do so.
I always laugh at those who have "found god" in jail. I saw "dead man walking" and even Eileen Wuornos found god, what's that god doing in jail? someone best bust him loose!!!
I always laugh at those who have "found god" in jail. I saw "dead man walking" and even Eileen Wuornos found god, what's that god doing in jail? someone best bust him loose!!!
I agree with you on that Maggie, I can't stand after someone gets caught doing wrong, then they find Jesus. I just see it as someone trying to get early parole.
I would say that, unless you are unusually intellectually creative, your ideas about God have come from some previously established and organized body of thought, a 'religion'.
there is a world of difference between "religion" and "spirituality" and yes they are often mutually exclusive for many people. Religion can be a starting point, but many people outgrow or chafe at the confines and restrictions of one religion or another, while still maintaining and expanding their own spiritual life and activities.
and there are plenty of models for god that don't come from religion: in 12-step programs for instance a higher power can come from a number of areas that are not church or religion; reading great poets like Rumi or Hafiz give a person inspiration; hearing great artists describe the source of their inspiration, like Mozart or Beethoven or Matisse, speaks to accessing god in that way; i can't be the only one who looked at Ansel Adams photographs of cliffs and rocks and felt moved beyond anything i'd felt before.
as far as proving the non-existence of god, one can choose to not recognize the divinity of all life. But to prove it would be like saying, hey let's prove that people don't have emotions. What's the point? Someone can deny their emotions, suppress their emotions, say they have otgrown their emotions, say that emotions are useless and unnecessary, say they 'don't do emotions,' but human emotions still exist. Just that person's view is incomplete.
No it is not. Not for me anyway. I am a very practical person. Until I got and saw very concrete, practical results in my own life, and yes, results that were able to be replicated over and over, with success, and to my satisfaction, i did not and DO NOT take anything on faith. So basically Creator had to prove their existence to me, and Creator did, and now we have a good working relationship.
No it is not. Not for me anyway. I am a very practical person. Until I got and saw very concrete, practical results in my own life, and yes, results that were able to be replicated over and over, with success, and to my satisfaction, i did not and DO NOT take anything on faith. So basically Creator had to prove their existence to me, and Creator did, and now we have a good working relationship.
If something can't exist, without a creator, then you can't exclude your God. He has to be subjected to rule of requiring a creator too. If the universe needs a creator, then so does your God.
You accept things on faith just like any other believer.
If something can't exist, without a creator, then you can't exclude your God. He has to be subjected to rule of requiring a creator too. If the universe needs a creator, then so does your God.
You accept things on faith just like any other believer.
i have no idea what this post is saying.
Creator is the sponsoring thought and action behind everything in the universe. If you're asking, then who made Creator or where did Creator come from? I don't have an answer and I could care less. As I said, I am interested in practical results in my daily life, not wasting my life force on an exhausting spinning of mental wheels that gets me nowhere.
I take nothing on faith. Period. I have to see results for myself in my own life in my own experience. The ONLY THING that carries weight with me is practical results in my own daily life. Period. And I do not define myself as a believer of anything, so keep your labels to yourself, thank you very much. I define who and what I am, not you.
i have no idea what this post is saying.
Creator is the sponsoring thought and action behind everything in the universe. If you're asking, then who made Creator or where did Creator come from? I don't have an answer and I don't need an answer because I could care less. As I said, I am interested in practical results in my daily life, not wasting my life force on an exhausting spinning of mental wheels that gets me nowhere.
I take nothing on faith. Period. And I do not define myself as a believer of anything, so keep your labels to yourself, thank you very much. I define who and what I am, not you.
I didn't put a label on you. I put an ACCURATE label on your belief, which is based on faith.
No it is not. Not for me anyway. I am a very practical person. Until I got and saw very concrete, practical results in my own life, and yes, results that were able to be replicated over and over, with success, and to my satisfaction, i did not and DO NOT take anything on faith. So basically Creator had to prove their existence to me, and Creator did, and now we have a good working relationship.
Well I'm not sure that I would consider individual results proof.
Certainly it is proof in your life and that's great for you but for others I would say that what you are describing, regardless of how you arrived at the conclusion, is faith.
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