God

you want to see something EVIL that comes out of the christian church. Go look up the malleus malificarum (witches hammer), it was written by 2 christian monks it started the burning times. Its pretty sick stuff

You know, there's a great deal of religion out there setting Christianity aside. Hell... Christianity doesn't even have nearly the most followers.

That's incorrect, red. Of all relegions, Christianity has the highest amount of followers.

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Originally posted by MinorThreat@14 Hours Ago
That's incorrect, red.* Of all relegions, Christianity has the highest amount of followers.

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Hm, seems you're right... I remember hearing that Islam was the largest by far some years ago, but who knows. I guess if China decided to have an official religion, whatever it was would instantly become the largest :lol:.

My point still stands though. You guys are targeting Christanity while there are many other religions out there with still a vast number of followers.

Well i have an A star in my science GCSE's so i personally think its impossible. Oh and if the scientists are right that means i also know how the worlds gonna end. Okay time to get all sciency. IF the universe was created by the 'Big bang' then that means the universe is still expanding right now because of the force of the exposion. BUT eventually like all things it life it is going to slow down and maybe even stop, this will then cause the Big Bangs's explosive force to retract therefore the universe will start to decrease in size until its gone. Now of course these sciency people dont know this for sure but they have done some calculations and stuff to try to back it up. Also i dont believe in god because i do not want to put all of my faith into something where there is no CONCRETE evidence of its existence.

sounds like some pretty cheesey crap i read in my science book like 2 years ago ... and aced it in the test... but that doesn't prove there is no god..i don't believe in him.. but your point still doesn't prove..

I've heard that theory too SgtSwabs. But does anyone know how the universe was formed eh??????. How did the big bang happen?

SgtSwabs... did i dream this, or Can 'Matter' appear out of no where?

I dont know. But i believe that more than a book that we dont even know who wrote it.

I am currently an atheist. And just to clear this little misconception to avoid future mishaps, in my view, atheism is not a religion, it is rather a lack of.

Now, I completely agree with religion being a crutch embraced by civilization (whoever said that, nice way of putting it :D). It has helped us so far, so I see no problem with carrying on with this charade (no offence intended).

What I am worried about though, is that misconceptions of one's religion can cause the exact opposite of its primary intention. When people read their religion's holy book (only refering to abrahamic religions for now), their interpretation could either help them in life or destroy it. These misconceptions breed extremists, and being the humans we are, most of the time, we tend to focus on these extremists. Now when one becomes an extremist, chances are one of the opposite religion might do so too. This causes a chain reaction, and produces events such as The Crusades, and others I can't think of at the moment (brain fart).

Now i'm sure you realize my point in this, but there is one more thing I should point out. Some of you might think "hey, hes right, religion also causes problems, so wtf?", but remember, these problems are actually well thought out (even made me believe in god a little, considering its brilliance...only a little though :P).

When wars strike out, and genocides tear through races, people believe things like this should never happen, but little do they realize it helps the entire human population. As you most probably know, this planet is getting filled up pretty quickly, and we are due for a pandemic. Now if it weren't for The Holocaust, The Crusades, The World Wars, etc., most likely this world would be overpopulated by humans, and produce major problems. Without death, we have no space for new life. Now, i'm not completely sure if this would be true, but for all you faithfuls, it might reinforce your belief in the almighty: These tragedies may have been strategically planned out by god (whom I still do not believe in mind you) so as we could have space for the newborns who otherwise, may have overcrowded the world.

Now if you wish to know my stand on religions, well, here it is. I do not believe they should not exist, I do not believe they are wrong in any way, I just believe they are not for me...well, maybe the buddhist denominations with very little worship and belief in Buddha (confucianism for example).

Confucianism has nothing to do with Buddhism... and the World Wars were not caused by religion ;)

To sum it up, you said: Religion is to be tolerated because it causes problems that indirectly benefit the human race.

Why then, did you say are you worried about people misinterpreting the religious sources?

But you bring up an interesting point, when monotheistic religions clash, it often ends in bloodshed. But take note, there has been no violent struggles in history between polytheistic religions or philosophical systems.

You will not find any result of a war caused by the clashing of Confucianism (if I dare say it is a religion) and Tao (Yin-Yang is symbolic of the relationship b/w Confucianism and Tao even if they are diametrically opposed in idealology) or even between Greco-Roman religion and Egyptian religion.

There are many struggles in monotheistic faith in history, it is most likely because that there is simply no other alternative. To some believers one monotheistic faith has to be the true one, there cannot be another variation of it.