I find it a little disconcerting, don't you?

Post Reply New Topic

I think it's mostly just down to the type of people this section of the forum attracts. Most of the (very few) interesting religion discussions don't take place in this section. This is where the atheists hang out, and they have no interest in religion except to let everyone know how daft they think it is.

I think the atheist Thomas Nagel, put it best. I respond well to the sort of atheism put forward by Nagel, since he is being quite upfront and honest.

"I am talking about something much deeper–namely, the fear of religion itself. I speak from experience, being strongly subject to this fear myself: I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that.”(”The Last Word” by Thomas Nagel, Oxford University Press: 1997)"

Jabreations, if you read the Bible with an eye to the true meaning of the original Semitic words, you will find that there are no fairies or unicorns. The Greek-Latin to English translation makes it sound like it does. The Old Testament is rather practical in outlook. The only parts that you can criticize is that it is biased in favor of the Hebrews and it requires Faith in a deity. The rest is reasonable in comparison to other ancient literature. Our fairy and unicorn ideas are from European folklore, not religion.
On the other hand, born again Christians who take the English Bible literally are unreasonable. There were and are philosophers in Christianity and Islamic Sufism who believe in reasonable approaches to faith. The question is, do we have faith? I am open minded on faith, though I lack it.
I also am into Nihilism. My lack of faith actually draws me that way.
There's an idea without religion.

Actually... I have to disagree with your take on religion. Religion and philosophy, for most of human history, have been somewhat related. Philosophies have taken religious functions and engaged religious questions.(Heck, Plato's "form of the good" tends to seem like a form of monotheism) Religions have delved into philosophical problems. In fact, in some cases, the lines end up seeming more blurred, as many Eastern religions start off with very strong philosophical tendencies. This is seen most clearly in Confucianism, however, some of these lines also are present in the issues between Hinduism and Buddhism such as Hinduism's tendency to place great emphasis on the soul/self, and Buddhism's great negative emphasis on the soul/self. Even Judaism and Christianity have a philosophical side, as noted with Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament and the question of meaning in a world that does not change, as well as even potentially John 1's reference to "the logos made flesh", as "logos" was very often a philosophical term, and one of great import to Stoicism of the time. Theologian Paul Tillich tends to take "the logos made flesh" as a philosophical reference and an important one for the development of Christian theology.

All that being said, you can dislike religion as much as you want. Just be sure to recognize that it does have something to do with philosophy, and be willing to recognize that it may just be POOR philosophy.

Philologos, you're thinking is probably a bit more tactful than mine. I typically thought that anything that people can't pee-pee joust over gets ignored. When you have a deep or meaningful topic that reaches into the meaningful crevices and seeks the underpinning structure no one cares about it because meaningful conversation is rarely the point, much to the chagrin of the small handful of people who do want deep, meaningful, and boring conversation.