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[amar212]

In my honest opinion there are no benefits with being religious, so I don't see how it's "awesome".

All regilius organisations would strongly disagree with you, just check their income balance, especially on executive level.

Religion is serious business with many, many benefits.

 

[Ferrio]

Ok I agree with you there (and I wasn't denying that from the start), but at the same time I do feel it causes more harm than good, especially when people become so clouded by beliefs that they can't accept any contradicting evidence.

Well here's my other point.

Religion unites people. You could argue that people that normally wouldn't get along only due so because of religion since religion gives them a common base to come together on. Ya sure these groups do go at each others throats too, but who knows if it'd be worse without religion.

I do think this has become a less important factor as humanity matures, there's more things than just religion now that can unite people.

 

[RevenantKioku]

I hope you don't try to defend blanket statements there

To an extent, yes.
Most people don't fully believe those blanket statements. They're just lazy.

 

[truly101]

Well, you gotta look at blanket statements in context. They tend to be easier to just say and be done with it.

So we can excuse ignorance for efficiency? Ok got it. Its been my experience, however, that those statements are typically accepted at face value based on the replies they generate. When I see someone post something to the effect "Christians are idiots" because of something that Fred Phelps and his gang of loonies did, I don't get the notion that the poster really cares to distinguish between the extreme and the moderate nor do I think its intrinsically understood to anyone who reads it.

 

[Xun]

Well here's my other point.

Religion unites people. You could argue that people that normally wouldn't get along only due so because of religion since religion gives them a common base to come together on. Ya sure these groups do go at each others throats too, but who knows if it'd be worse without religion.

I do think this has become a less important factor as humanity matures, there's more things than just religion now that can unite people.

Again I agree, but I just wish religious people in general were far more open to contradicting evidence (which some are I must admit).

 

[RevenantKioku]

So we can excuse ignorance for efficiency? Ok got it. Its been my experience, however, that those statements are typically accepted at face value based on the replies they generate. When I see someone post something to the effect "Christians are idiots" because of something that Fred Phelps and his gang of loonies did, I don't get the notion that the poster really cares to distinguish between the extreme and the moderate nor do I think its intrinsically understood to anyone who reads it.

Because there's no reason to distinguish. Cover the whole group and let the ones who are worth a damn defend themselves. Or something. I don't know. Just don't believe everything you read and definitely don't believe everyone believes everything they say.

 

[FoxSpirit]

Because there's no reason to distinguish. Cover the whole group and let the ones who are worth a damn defend themselves. Or something. I don't know. Just don't believe everything you read and definitely don't believe everyone believes everything they say.

Oh, believe me, if they recite it long enough, they do believe it.
Sure, people joke and jest and stuff but when people tell you this when they do not... you better take that serious.

Oh, and nice one. Tell me how the "people worth a damn" are supposed to get major screen time when all the other group has to do is blowing up some 15 people to be the talk of the news for 1 week.

Simplification leads to simple minds. We can't afford that.

 

[Vaandaviii]

And religion came about because humans desired to seek that knowledge, of how the universe was created, how man separated from the animals, and what man's purpose is in this world. Science and philosophy came about in the same way as well.

Of course religion was born as a way to find those answers! Thing is that it's been several centuries since most of those questions got answered already. The problem appears when people deny those facts because those they haven't been written down in an old book called X. That DO affect the others, and harms the paceful coexistence between the believers and the ones who understand how the stuff works.

I don't care if somebody goes every week to the church in order to get a better life once he dies. He is wrong, he's gonna die, and there's no heaven. But hey, he's harmful... unless he starts hating the islam for being the islam, or the neighbour for being agnostic. THATs the problem with religion. It tends to be extremely intolerant with the others.

 

[POWERSPHERE]

1. How this is dangerous or unsuitable for kids, I don't know...
2. Discussing religion on the internet... Oh help me Linda Ronstadt...

 

[jakonovski]

Oops.

 

[Kittonwy]

Of course religion was born as a way to find those answers! Thing is that it's been several centuries since most of those questions got answered already. The problem appears when people deny those facts because those they haven't been written down in an old book called X. That DO affect the others, and harms the paceful coexistence between the believers and the ones who understand how the stuff works.

I don't care if somebody goes every week to the church in order to get a better life once he dies. He is wrong, he's gonna die, and there's no heaven. But hey, he's harmful... unless he starts hating the islam for being the islam, or the neighbour for being agnostic. THATs the problem with religion. It tends to be extremely intolerant with the others.

What do you mean there's no heaven?

 

[grandjedi6]

German guy prays for Islam on Talk show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41VoEKfRm9Y&feature=related


:-/ :-/ :-/

Uh, that's nice. Why you apparently care I do not know.

Of course religion was born as a way to find those answers! Thing is that it's been several centuries since most of those questions got answered already. The problem appears when people deny those facts because those they haven't been written down in an old book called X. That DO affect the others, and harms the paceful coexistence between the believers and the ones who understand how the stuff works.

I don't care if somebody goes every week to the church in order to get a better life once he dies. He is wrong, he's gonna die, and there's no heaven. But hey, he's harmful... unless he starts hating the islam for being the islam, or the neighbour for being agnostic. THATs the problem with religion. It tends to be extremely intolerant with the others.

Intolerance doesn't come from religion though. Just look at all the religion haters in the world who are intolerant on any religion. The sad truth of the matter is that intolerance seems to be a trait among humanity.

 

[Slavik81]

Ultimately there's no harm in having a faith.

That depends entirely on what you have faith in.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2009/20090202.jpg

Penny Arcade wins again.

 

[Loxley]

smh

non-Americans, is your broadcast journalism as bad as ours?

Even though I'm a Yank, it's safe to say non-American journalism is strikingly similar to bullshit we have stateside. Look up Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe S4E3P1 on Youtube, you'll get you're answer.

**Edit. Ah fuck it, I'll just link all three parts:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

 

[rSpooky]

very late on this topic, but I think PA head the nail on the head it is just incoherent babble but once you hear it you cant really unhear it and the mom is hearing the same verse everywhere...once she tells you "it says this or that" your brain makes you hear it.
Recently I heard these clips where a dutch radio station would find dutch text in foreign songs and once they said what the text was I could hear is also. It is just your brain playing tricks on you .
here is the radio clip where they find hidden messages in a foreign song ( it is in dutch tho , but you'll get the picture)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USzBd9XNWWk&feature=related

 

[TheGreatDave]

That depends entirely on what you have faith in.

Well yeah. Following the words of Hitler may cause problems. But you know what I mean. Believing in your God is fine, hating those that don't = problem.

 

[truly101]

Of course religion was born as a way to find those answers! Thing is that it's been several centuries since most of those questions got answered already. The problem appears when people deny those facts because those they haven't been written down in an old book called X. That DO affect the others, and harms the paceful coexistence between the believers and the ones who understand how the stuff works.

I don't care if somebody goes every week to the church in order to get a better life once he dies. He is wrong, he's gonna die, and there's no heaven. But hey, he's harmful... unless he starts hating the islam for being the islam, or the neighbour for being agnostic. THATs the problem with religion. It tends to be extremely intolerant with the others.

So by that logic, its the same problem with government, ethnicity, social status, humankind in general. Those who want to find a reason to be devisive with their fellow man won't have to search far. If you want to cite the Crusades or the inquisition as ultimate examples of religeous intolerence, you can say the same thing for the Bolshevik, French and Chinese revolutions, the Viet-Nam war, the ethnic cleansings that happened in fomer Yugoslavia and still happen in Africa. Religion had nothing to do with those.

 

[FoxSpirit]

So by that logic, its the same problem with government, ethnicity, social status, humankind in general. Those who want to find a reason to be devisive with their fellow man won't have to search far. If you want to cite the Crusades or the inquisition as ultimate examples of religeous intolerence, you can say the same thing for the Bolshevik, French and Chinese revolutions, the Viet-Nam war, the ethnic cleansings that happened in fomer Yugoslavia and still happen in Africa. Religion had nothing to do with those.

.

Uh, that's nice. Why you apparently care I do not know.

:lol :lol :lol

Spoiler

He's actually talking in German, but it's so jumbled noone understood anything he said... and he's a German!!

 

[Totobeni]

P-A and their first classic comic since mid 2007 , nice :lol

You do realize that something like this in the Middle East - only reversed, say: "Jesus Christ is the light" - would cause violent mass protests with public burnings of the products?
The hate/disgust is not exclusive to Christians. It can go both ways.

uh ..why ? Muslims do believe that Jesus will return to earth from heaven to rescue and save them from the Impostor Messiah , and then he will rule them for years , it's even highly forbidden for Muslims to mock , draw or talk bad about him since they don't believe he is a god but they believe he is a prophet of the god .

maybe if it's like "Christianity is the light" and in something other than games then yeah sure RAGE and Bombs will be all over poor middle east .

 

[Torquill]

Of course religion was born as a way to find those answers! Thing is that it's been several centuries since most of those questions got answered already.

Have they?

 

[truly101]

Have they?

Sure, some scientists came up with a formula that says exactly what each person's purpose in life is without fail. Its amazing.

 

[rpmurphy]

Of course religion was born as a way to find those answers! Thing is that it's been several centuries since most of those questions got answered already. The problem appears when people deny those facts because those they haven't been written down in an old book called X. That DO affect the others, and harms the paceful coexistence between the believers and the ones who understand how the stuff works.

I don't care if somebody goes every week to the church in order to get a better life once he dies. He is wrong, he's gonna die, and there's no heaven. But hey, he's harmful... unless he starts hating the islam for being the islam, or the neighbour for being agnostic. THATs the problem with religion. It tends to be extremely intolerant with the others.

I think your concern then is to a minority of the religious population, because religions that deal with understanding of the physical world have and continue to adapt to modern-day scientific knowledge of the universe (and for religions or part of religions that just deal with the abstract, hardly anybody has beef with them).

 

[pgtl_10]

I wonder what would happen if Christian subliminal messages were found in children's entertainment in an Islamic country.

In recent times, I've noticed a lot of Arabic movies using Christians and Christian imagery so maybe it is not as bad people think.

 

[pgtl_10]

P-A and their first classic comic since mid 2007 , nice :lol



uh ..why ? Muslims do believe that Jesus will return to earth from heaven to rescue and save them from the Impostor Messiah , and then he will rule them for years , it's even highly forbidden for Muslims to mock , draw or talk bad about him since they don't believe he is a god but they believe he is a prophet of the god .

maybe if it's like "Christianity is the light" and in something other than games then yeah sure RAGE and Bombs will be all over poor middle east .

In other words nothing will happen.

 

[FiRez]

Not saying that the mother is a bigot or not, but if the phrase indeed being said was "Islam is the light", it has no place in the game (nor does any other sort of pro-religious statement).

Exactly. I was like WTF? when I read the posts defending this shit.

btw religion is awesome in the same way that being drunk is awesome

 

[Firestorm]

Benny Lava is still the best interpretation.

 

[Battersea Power Station]

So why hasn't the company stated what the doll is actually saying yet?

 

[Ferrio]

So why hasn't the company stated what the doll is actually saying yet?

They have, was somewhere in the thread. It was just a prerecorded sound of some baby babbling.

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

I'm kind of relieved that if ,in Spain, some neurotic mother calls a news channel about a video game, with babies babling something that resemblence "The Islam is the light" they probably will laugh at her.

At least for now, the quality of our television programming is quickly degrading to the category of ubershit.

 

[rpmurphy]

They have, was somewhere in the thread. It was just a prerecorded sound of some baby babbling.

But the baby could have been coached.

Like commonly people would try to get their baby to say "daddy" or "mommy", I wonder if they tried to get the baby to say "Islam is the light"? :lol

 

[FiRez]

Defending what? Read the P-A comic, it totally nails it.

nevermind, I only read the 1st page

 

[FightyF]

Because there's no reason to distinguish. Cover the whole group and let the ones who are worth a damn defend themselves. Or something. I don't know. Just don't believe everything you read and definitely don't believe everyone believes everything they say.

I think this post demonstrates that it's not religion (or the lack thereof) that's the cause of the World's problems. It's the oversimplification of the World, done by individual human beings, regardless of their faith, that is the issue.

It all boils down to a political agenda. Religion could be used as a political tool to divide, (ie. Them vs. Us scenario), and so could nationalism. So could race. So could tribal factions (Hutus vs. Tutsis). And so could athiesm (dividing between religious and non-religious).

 

[Shin Johnpv]

Actually I don't think it would

Actually I think it would create a bigger reaction than what where seeing here with this. Granted again it is a minority of the people in the Islamic community who react such way, but there are ones that still do. I mean shit look at the riots caused by that Danish artist's cartoon of Muhammad. I mean shit 45 people ended up dead cause of a drawing. Then you had that incident in Nigeria, where it was rumored some Christian's had drawn a comic of Muhammad. A few overly reactionary people took it upon themselves to burn churches, and the homes and business of Christians. It resulted in something like 9 people dead.

You can't deny that there are a few very loud groups in the Islamic community who riot and cause such huge outburts over little things. I do think that if something similar happened, with a game or a toy being released with a hidden message of Christianity is the light, there would be more than just 1 lady bitching about it on some local news channel.

It's a shame that a few people can ruin the image of a greater group. Just like the extremist right wing freaks like the Phelps group, or similar ones who paint a horrible fucking picture of Christians over all. There are a few extremists in the Islam community whose actions cause people to look negatively at the greater community.

 

[Slavik81]

Benny Lava is still the best interpretation.

I'd love to see you pee on us tonight?

 

[Cow Mengde]

I'd love to see you pee on us tonight?

Have you been high today?

 

[Burai]

Sure, some scientists came up with a formula that says exactly what each person's purpose in life is without fail. Its amazing.

IF person = born THEN purpose = reproduction

That is everyone's purpose. Because we're all organisms and that's what organisms do.

 

[truly101]

IF person = born THEN purpose = reproduction

That is everyone's purpose. Because we're all organisms and that's what organisms do.

I'm not sure how well a biological imperative fits in to the whole realm of purpose. If living means to simply reproduce, we have lots of people who choose not to reproduce at all and those who engage in sex without the intent or purpose of mating or reproducing. To them, what say you?

 

[Caj814]

Have you been high today?

You would think so without context :lol

Take a look at the link he quoted.

 

[Firestorm]

You would think so without context :lol

Take a look at the link he quoted.

It's part of the song too =p

 

[Burai]

I'm not sure how well a biological imperative fits in to the whole realm of purpose. If living means to simply reproduce, we have lots of people who choose not to reproduce at all and those who engage in sex without the intent or purpose of mating or reproducing. To them, what say you?

That's just survival of the fittest at work. Every single thing we do is linked to a biological urge present in all mammals.

Just because we're clever, it doesn't mean we're special.

 

[TheCardPlayer]

Benny Lava is still the best interpretation.

:lol :lol

 

[Deft Beck]

Sure, some scientists came up with a formula that says exactly what each person's purpose in life is without fail. Its amazing.

wat

 

[D4Danger]

They have, was somewhere in the thread. It was just a prerecorded sound of some terrorist baby babbling.

amirite?

 

[FoxSpirit]

That's just survival of the fittest at work. Every single thing we do is linked to a biological urge present in all mammals.

Just because we're clever, it doesn't mean we're special.

I'd be glad we are... because ethics are definitely not something that comes natural to people and has to be trained.
A few select mammal species can exhibit a degree of altruism but humans... man, we can really swing both ways.

Oh, and survival of the fittest... the pop culture statement, I see. You could read the wiki entry for starters:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_of_the_fittest

"Evolutionary biologists criticize how the term is used by non-scientists and the connotations that have grown around the term in popular culture. The phrase also does not help in conveying the complex nature of natural selection and modern biologists prefer and almost exclusively use the term natural selection. Indeed, in modern biology, the term fitness measures reproductive success and is not explicit about the specific ways in which organisms can be "fit" as in "having phenotypic characteristics which enhance survival and reproduction" (which was the meaning that Spencer had in mind)."

One interesting example is that Alpha males are often not the most successfull in survival because the constant defense of the position takes up a lot of energy, even reducing the life-span. Middle management is very often a far greater hit in terms of aging and with the ladies in the wild ;-)

 

[kamorra]

One interesting example is that Alpha males are often not the most successfull in survival because the constant defense of the position takes up a lot of energy, even reducing the life-span. Middle management is very often a far greater hit in terms of aging and with the ladies in the wild ;-)

So, it's still survival of the fittest? The Alpha male may be big and strong but is probably not the smartest and because of that not the fittest?

 

[Azih]

All regilius organisations would strongly disagree with you, just check their income balance, especially on executive level.

You don't know the religious organisations I've hung out with. Poorly funded, getting by on volunteer effort. Certainly not making any sort of a profit.

 

[Grimm Fandango]

Whatever, her kids are ugly.

 

[Version 3.0]

Believing in your God is fine, hating those that don't = problem.

You know what's so mind-bendingly frustrating about "Christians" and "Muslims" who hate people of other religions? Both religions very specifically state not to do this. Hence the quotes around the names, because saying you're a Christian or a Muslim does not make you one. You have to at least try to act like Jesus/Mohammed.