Why YOU should believe...

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....something--I don't care what (as long as you don't blow people up or screw with biology class).


http://www.npr.org/2011/12/20/144026606 ... -spiritual

In my journey from Baptist to atheist to deist and student of Stoic ethics, I can say I've always been happier believing in something.

People do need religion but theism is ridiculously problematic in the modern world: Look at the Danes vs. the Afghans. Many religions are atheistic or easily accommodate atheism: Buddhism, Communism, Confucianism and Jainism spring to mind. Indeed, I believe an official atheistic state religion is preferable to the traditional separation of church and state: I see the endurance of Confucian Imperial China and the progress of the USSR under Communism as supporting my point. Of course, bad states can come from atheistic religions, just look at Communist North Korea, but do not forget about the peaceful and intriguingly progressive Buddhist Bhutan as well.

Theism does conflict with science, and the comparison of Shakespeare, a piece of art, and microwave ovens, which are a piece of technology, is a poor one: A reasonable comparison would have been Charles Darwin's "The Origin of Species" and Cao Xueqin's "the Dream of the Red Chamber", for example, among many equally valid comparisons. With that Said, the Bible, the Quran and the Torah all contradict "the Origin of Species" in that their, closely related, creation myths contradict all scientific evidence on Darwinian Evolution and Abiogenesis, for example.

I think Greek Mythology is cool. If there was a religion based on it I'd join up right now.

The popular ones today, I dislike, because people take that s**t far too seriously, and the stories aren't fun enough. Plato's stuff makes more sense than the Bible anyway (we were all spheres people!)

So, interesting article, but it's not gonna convert me (unless someone can literally link me to a Greek Mythology based religion )

@abgal64

Theism does not conflict with science, fundamentalist zealotry conflicts with science.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tin_TDkaheY&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL[/youtube]

See, these Greek gods don't f**k around. They will turn your ass into a spider if you piss them off. The best the Christian god can do is kick people out of a garden over a tree

As long as they aren't too fundamental about their religion, I'm generally more respectful of people that believe than those that don't. Atheism, to me, has a common thread with nihilism, and I can't get behind that.

a) It is all averages. And they don't mean much.
b) Should people really be happy? I think that too much happiness holds you back and stops you from improving your life. Do being happy is a need? Does happiness even exist? The concept of happiness is quite a modern invention and it seems that although everyone talks of recipes and products to get it, few people can really claim with a straight face that they are happy.
c) Are the religious people that answered those surveys really happier than the areligious people? Maybe they just think they are happier. Maybe the atheists just understand there is a lot of place for improvement and thus they grade their current happiness lower whilst the theists believe they can't do better than they are now because that's god's will.

d) Could it be the other way around? That people that are less prone to "happiness" end up not believing in a god? It could even make sense. If your life is all flowers and happiness and you never dealt with being a raped son of a mother that died of cancer when you were 12 you are less likely to doubt god's existence.

d) Is this really a reason to believe in something? If I told you that there are studies that say atheists have better sex than theists (and there are) would that be a reason for theists to convert to atheism?

Obviously you're entitled to your opinion, and I'm not going to try to convert you....

However, there are two glaring mistakes in your post I cannot resist commenting on.

First, your assertion that happiness is a modern concept is just plain wrong... Socrates talked about it, and Plato wrote about Socrates talking about it a LONG time ago.

and

B), e comes after d not another d.

A person without religion is like a fish without a bicycle.

Our current concept of happiness is drastically different to what Socrates would say.

A person who is deeply interested in scientific discovery through a study of one aspect of science may conclude God does not exist. Is this fair to say God does not exist based on their limited research in one particular field of science? I don't think so. If a scientist were to combine their scientific knowledge with biblical knowledge they would find both are compatible.

For example the bible states the earth was created in six days. Through scientific research humans have learned that the the earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old. If the bible states the earth was created in "six days" how can this be compatible with scientific fact? As the November 2011 Awake points out:

Both Psalms 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8 state that one day with Jehovah is like a thousand years to us. Think of the lifespan of a may fly. They're born, grown up, find a mate, procreate, and die all in a day. Compared with a may fly we lives thousands of their ages, but to us 80 years seems short. Like that may fly Jehovah God is eternal and so his perception of time is not the same as it is for you and I. Each "day" in the creation account could have lasted for a billion years or more... we don't know, but what we do know is that Jehovah's "day" was whatever time was required to accomplished a certain task. So in this way the bible and science co-exist peacefully.

What about astronomy? While many hinted the world was round it wasn't until the last hundred years astronauts were able to actually show that the earth is in fact a sphere in space. What does the bible say about this? Over 2,600 years ago in simple words Isaiah writes, "There is One who is dwelling above the circle of the earth." (40:22) And even further back God tells Job that he is, "Hanging the earth upon nothing." (Job 26:7) In this way again the bible and science co-exist peacefully.

It seems as people are "enlightened" they move further away from God, as if having a knowledge of science and astronomy somehow negates God's existence. I would think having knowledge of science and astronomy would actually reinforce their belief in God.

For example if you look at the universe as a whole and compare it with our world what do you find? Order and precision. And not at the atomic level, but you find it at the cosmic level. For example at this Nova video http://video.pbs.org/video/2163057527 Brian Greene states that scientists believe that 75% of what they think is empty space is actually called dark energy, and that this dark energy is responsible for pushing the universe apart... not constricting it. Surprisingly enough the percentage of dark matter is identical to amount of water on the earth. Coincidence?

Atoms - those building blocks that make up virtually everything in the universe - look like microscopic solar systems made up "stars" called electrons surrounded by orbiting "planets" called protons. This same orbital signature appears in millions of solar systems and even the makeup of galaxies. Even our beautiful moon orbits our world in a orbital pattern... just like the electron and protons in atoms. Could all these orbital patterns of motion be random chances or does it indicate precision and order by design? Does the bible agree with what science and astronomy has discovered about celestial bodies? The apostle Paul was divinely inspired to write this comparison about the order and diversity of the universe. "And there are heavenly bodies, and earthly bodies; but the glory of the heavenly bodies is one sort, and that of the earthly bodies is a different sort. 41 The glory of the sun is one sort, and the glory of the moon is another, and the glory of the stars is another; in fact, star differs from star in glory." (1 Corinthians 15:40,41)

This is why I believe in the bible. Although it was written by human hands it is divinely inspired as 2 Timothy 3:16 states. No human back then could know these things unless it was inspired by a supreme being. That supreme being identifies himself numerous times in his word the bible as Jehovah God... or Yahweh Elohim (if you're Jewish). :)

Last edited by kxmode on 21 Dec 2011, 3:37 am, edited 3 times in total.

Really?

Because I was reading a dialog with Axiochus in which he asserts that most men would consider having wealth, health, beauty and good birth the basis of happiness. That seems pretty modern to me...

so now its howe your born that determines happiness,

can you make up your mind??


all of these surveys are seriously v´biased from the second they tried making them, thus i think i will call into question the very survey and its reliability itsaelf.
also the understanding of oneself varies hugely fropm person to person as we can plainly see on ppr, i wouldnt trust that the people that answwered actually knew excactly what they were answeruing, humans are stupid that way.

This capacity to "let go and believe" is entirely foreign to me but it has it's appeal. I, too, would like to willingly put my life in the hands of a universal, powerfull and guiding force, but I dislike gravity in some ways.

I announce for my sister IdahoRose publically that I love her. She is younger than me, perfect. She is only 20 ... Without hesitation. I want to marry her. If she only talk to me. Talk to me!