
You admit we don’t know where any of this came from and then somehow conclude with absolute certainty that God isn’t real lol. I’m not religious either, but I believe there’s a God. You’re free not to. Maybe “grow up” means accepting that neither of us actually knows and letting people believe what makes sense to them
I think that in most modern incarnations of religion, they tend to stray away from the original purpose and origin of religion. It’s not just a “coping mechanism”, though I totally agree that a lot of people nowadays use it that way. But, there is something to the idea of seeking knowledge through spiritual practices like meditation and deep thought, and that those practices themselves deserve to be categorized as a sort of science. Plus, there’s no need to patronize people for having faith.
I’m very obviously referring to Abrahamic religions. If you believe in science and critical thinking, than it should be very obvious that they are all bs and just created for power and control. Your right, I don’t know for certainty what the truth is or if God exists, my whole point is that if a God exists it’s absolutely not the ones people believe in the Bible or Quran or anything, those Gods are made up just for power and oppression.
That’s a great question, I think that the answer is found in repeated experiences. Morality is objective, it’s a concept but it’s not fact. For thousands of years we have learned what works and what doesn’t work to build a society. It’s called social contract theory. We’ve learned that murder is wrong because it doesn’t help us sustain. That’s just an example but I guess my answer is that we’ve built patterns of what’s right and wrong through experience, not God.
I agree that experience and social cooperation play a huge role in how morality develops. But I don’t think religion can be completely separated from that history either. People have learned and passed down moral values through religion for thousands of years too. That doesn’t necessarily prove those morals came from God, but religion has absolutely helped shape moral frameworks. Also, wouldn’t your explanation make morality subjective or intersubjective rather than objective?
My original statement yes I opened with “God isn’t real” but I also said we don’t know where it all came from “but that doesn’t automatically mean there’s a sky man that watches us” when I say God isn’t real, that’s to a religious audience, I acknowledge that there could be something else (more of the concept of the universe being alive rather than a God) Sorry that it’s not obvious to you who my audience is. I stand by my statement God isn’t real, that hasn’t changed.
I can agree that religion has shaped morality. Religion is a huge part of human culture and life, but I think the difference is we created religion, religion is a man made thing (opinion) so yes it plays a role in morality, but not becuase of God. And it could be objective or subjective sure. I’m saying the universe has no inherent right or wrong. We have personal morality for our cultures, but it doesn’t dictate anything in the grand scheme of things. Depends on perspective it could both sure.
You kept narrowing your stance every time I challenged it. You went from “God isn’t real” to “I don’t know for certain if God exists” to saying you specifically meant “Abrahamic religions.” And I’m not sure where the audience argument came from because that was never my point. Anyone could come across your post. I was talking about the specificity of your claim. “God isn’t real” does not obviously mean “the conceptions of God within Abrahamic religions aren’t real.” 1/2
Since you asked, I believe there’s a God because the existence and order of the universe, consciousness, and the fact that anything exists at all make a higher intelligence plausible to me. I can’t prove it, and I’ve never claimed I could. That’s why I call it a belief, not a fact
That’s fair, my question to you is do you believe in organized religion? Do you believe in the Bible? I think that all religion is man made. I think it’s more logical to accept the fact that as humans, we give our self more credit than we deserve. The universe is alive and things happen for a reason. But as humans, we aren’t supposed to understand, we just create religion to cope for that fact. I know you say you believe in God, but do you follow religious teachings or are you just spiritual
I actually grew up very religious and eventually realized how much of it felt like indoctrination. I went from religious, to more spiritual, and now I’d probably call myself agnostic. I agree organized religion is man-made, and even prayer can be a way people cope with things they can’t control or understand. I’m not sure what I believe about the Bible anymore, but I still believe there’s a God or something greater than us. I just don’t claim to know what that is. 1/2
That’s also why I brought up morality earlier. I agree experience shapes it, but religion and the values we’re taught through it can shape our moral framework too. I don’t think those things are mutually exclusive. I’m curious though, what ultimately led you to believing there isn’t a God? 2/2
I think we agree with eachother more than we realize, and got caught up in wording. We both don’t believe in an organized religious God, I believe the universe is alive, I don’t believe in one entity or god figure so that’s where I think we disagree. I do not believe in an afterlife, energy cannot be created nor destroyed, so yes I believe when we die, it’s the end of our consciousness. But I find peace in the fact that our energy returns to the universe. That’s my belief
Yeah, I think we agree more than we initially realized too. I honestly don’t know whether I believe in an afterlife either, although I definitely want there to be one. There’s probably some peace in accepting that we just don’t know. Ignorance is bliss sometimes lol. But it’s definitely something I’d love to understand. I guess I’ll find out when I’m gone… or I won’t know at all unfortunately
I can agree with meditation, deep thought and connection to the universe. But unfortunately we live in a world where religion has manipulated people’s minds. People discriminate and oppress others over something that’s not even real. Besides I do not have to respect an organization where it’s people basis belief system is that people like myself, truly innocent people, will burn for eternity. A fucked up system DOES deserve patronizing. And that’s only surface level of what’s messed up
I totally agree with what you’re saying. We should always be critical of any sort of system or organization that’s trying to tell us how to think. But also, there’s other ways to communicate that message without just disrespecting someone’s beliefs and telling them they need to ‘grow up’ because of them. Plus, the problem isn’t religion, it’s society. Our society is fundamentally broken in a multitude of ways, and it’s not the fault of someone who was raised to believe in God.