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[Raist]

Including God.

So why does the majority of earth's population still believes in god, in some way or another?

Well there's the model of the atom, but that's not really major... certainly other things I can't think of right now.

Well that's not a major revision yeah. Plus we do know it's wrong, but kinda "good enough" A bit like Newton's theory or the idea that the earth is revolving the sun with a perfect circle orbit.

 

[MotionBlue]

So why does the majority of earth's population still believes in god, in some way or another?

[citation needed]

 

[njean777]

Technically, this is bullshit.

Think he means that people blindly follow what scientists say disregarding the scientists own biases and never look at the data to see if that scientist is telling the truth.

 

[Raist]

[citation needed]

Christianity and Islam alone account for over half the world's population. (2 + 1.6bln).

 

[TheChocolateWar]

Christianity and Islam alone account for over half the world's population. (2 + 1.6bln).

Linkage? You've piqued my curiosity.

 

[KtSlime]

Law (Old Testament) vs Grace (New Testament)

Many believe that only the teachings of Jesus are meant to be taken for the modern days. The Old Testament laws were for a different age, to say the least.

Every jot and tittle!

 

[Raist]

Linkage? You've piqued my curiosity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_religious_groups

 

[Mahonay]

It will be really interesting to see how much of the world remains staunchly religious once this generation hits the 40-50 year mark.

It may not really change at all, it could also be the beginning of the end for fundamentalism in modern societies.

 

[TheChocolateWar]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_religious_groups

Any others? The book the wikipedia page uses as a citation for this figure isn't available online so I can't check the original source.

 

[rdrr gnr]

She watches Stargate with you? Marry her.

 

[gwarm01]

I once had a girlfriend that believed Satan put dinosaur fossils into the Earth to test our faith or something like that. At least your girl actually believes dinosaurs were real.

 

[SuperEpicMan]

This might sound hard to believe lol but I know someone who thinks the moon and the sun are two sides of the same thing.

 

[Izayoi]

This might sound hard to believe lol but I know someone who thinks the moon and the sun are two sides of the same thing.

How, though?

How does someone keep a straight face while telling you that?

I don't understand.

 

[marrec]

She watches Stargate with you? Marry her.

You guys both watch Stargate? Ewwwww.

Alternatively

You watch Stargate? No wonder you're tolerant of crap.

 

[Orayn]

I'm sorry but this is incorrect. The world hasn't been created yet. We're merely the product of a quantum particle's dreams. This particle is currently hanging around in singularity, pre-big bang.

Prove me wrong.

I can't. It's a non-falsifiable hypothesis! :O

This might sound hard to believe lol but I know someone who thinks the moon and the sun are two sides of the same thing.

...This can be falsified by looking up at the sky at 9:00 AM or so.

EDIT:

DO NOT BLASPHEME IN THIS THREAD

It is my completely dogmatic and faith-based opinion that Stargate sucks.

 

[rdrr gnr]

You guys both watch Stargate? Ewwwww.

DO NOT BLASPHEME IN THIS THREAD

 

[Mahonay]

I did have a girlfriend at a conservative high school I went to that was a huge Catholic and supported George Bush. The words "I love George Bush" actually came out of her mouth. It only last about a month after that came up.

Ironically enough when I talked to her a couple years ago she had since turned liberal and was a sexual freak. I have truly awful timing.

 

[Raist]

Any others? The book the wikipedia page uses as a citation for this figure isn't available online so I can't check the original source.

Ugh. I don't think you'll find any free, open source data on the internet that don't cite any books or articles that won't be so easy to track down.

There's also this, which apparently is based on stats collected from many sources and gives similar figures, for what it's worth.

 

[krypt0nian]

Get the fuck away from her before you father a child and fuck his/her life up.

 

[crazy monkey]

This might sound hard to believe lol but I know someone who thinks the moon and the sun are two sides of the same thing.

It is philosophical thinking I heard in poetry long time ago. Kind of like two side of coin thinking and how moon need sun to be bright.

 

[triplestation]

DUMP HER RIGHT AWAY OMG THE EARTH IS SO NOT JUST 6000 YEARS OLD WHAT KIND OF WOMAN IS SHE????????

 

[rdrr gnr]

EDIT:


It is my completely dogmatic and faith-based opinion that Stargate sucks.

Alternatively

You watch Stargate? No wonder you're tolerant of crap.

HALLOWED ARE THE ORI

 

[Apeopleman]

Only problem is the only drugs she lets me take is weed/alcohol... meh all relationships have there downfalls..

you're kidding right? She's looking out for you man. That's a good girlfriend. I wouldn't want a loved one to try anything other than the two you mentioned.

 

[Orayn]

DUMP HER RIGHT AWAY OMG THE EARTH IS SO NOT JUST 6000 YEARS OLD WHAT KIND OF WOMAN IS SHE????????

It's okay not to be happy with people who are out of touch with reality.

 

[Tawpgun]

Anyone look at this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umFnrvcS6AQ

I was kinda freaked from stuff a professor talked about my environmental science class a few years ago about population, but god damn.

I at this rate something amazing is going to be invented to save us all. Or some massive war or virus ( controlled by someone not accidental ) will kill us all. We are going to start enforcing some laws on population FOR REAL this time. Or we continue to ignore everything till shit hits the fan.


I am for all of these, but something is going to happen. I think people just don't like to think about problems they are going to inevitably face. Most people who are in control of the current world powers are a bunch of old people who are going to be dead soon xD ( take that anyway you want it. )

We don't need some plague to wipe out a chunk of our population. We need to get developing countries up to speed.

If you look at population growth of developed nations you see that they're either growing very slowly or they have negative population growth.

If you look at population growth of developing countries, its insanely high.

Don't resort to shit like a controlled genocide when we can fix this problem AND make the world a better place.

As for your girlfriend OP, I'm going to give you the straightest best answer. It won't help much, but you should think about it.

You need to weigh how much you love this woman with what she believes. If you don't think you can live with this girl because her beliefs are a little out there... then tell her. See if she'll listen to reason (probably not)

If you really love her, if her good outweighs the bad, then stick with it.

I'll also say, the goal of any meaningful relationship is to start a family (traditionally anyway). If that's your plan for the future, think about your kids. How will you decide what to teach them?

Before you break up, talk to her about it. Maybe it will change both of your minds one way or another.

 

[Vermillion]

So why does the majority of earth's population still believes in god, in some way or another?



Well that's not a major revision yeah. Plus we do know it's wrong, but kinda "good enough" A bit like Newton's theory or the idea that the earth is revolving the sun with a perfect circle orbit.

I do not know, really.

(And yeah, people who are non-religious are less than 16% of the world IIRC)

Mm.

 

[VistraNorrez]

So who came up with the whole dinosaur bones are a scheme by the Devil anyway? There has to be a source for it.

 

[JGS]

So who came up with the whole dinosaur bones are a scheme by the Devil anyway? There has to be a source for it.

Atheists?

 

[Orayn]

So who came up with the whole dinosaur bones are a scheme by the Devil anyway? There has to be a source for it.

It's mostly a mockery of the early idea that the Earth "knew" how to make animal shapes and would sometimes just excrete bones made of stone from deep underground. Realizing that they were actual bones was kind of a big finding.

The alternative is omphalism, which would be an inversion in that it has God making dinosaur bones, but not dinosaurs.

 

[Foliorum Viridum]

Break up with her and hope she doesn't procreate with anyone else.

Ridiculous beliefs like that need to die.

 

[out0v0rder]

Get the fuck away from her before you father a child and fuck his/her life up.

seth green all grown up

 

[njean777]

Get the fuck away from her before you father a child and fuck his/her life up.

The debate he used this in he got showed up pretty hard. Not to mention his rebuttal made no sense to the question at hand that this quote came from. Its a decent quote when applied to nature, but there are some things humans will never understand. In this certain topic the quote does make since, but for religion/belief/morals it makes little sense.

 

[rdrr gnr]

seth green all grown up

What? You mean Ben Stiller, right?

The debate he used this in he got showed up pretty hard. Not to mention his rebuttal made no sense to the question at hand that this quote came from. Its a decent quote when applied to nature, but there are some things humans will never understand. In this certain topic the quote does make since, but for religion/belief/morals it makes little sense.

Wrong. That's the entire point of his book, ya know?

 

[njean777]

What? You mean Ben Stiller right?


Wrong.

Please do tell where morals come from, how the universe was created, and if there is a god or not. Because if you can tell me all these things in a proven way I will be more then gladly to accept your statement. Until then, keep an open mind and dont let your biases control your statements.

Not saying that god did all this, just would like to see you prove to me how these things came to be. Not to mention without religion in the past I dont really doubt that our ancestors would have lived as long as they did. Religion has done horrible things to many people, but in the long run it has done more good then bad (morally). There is no denying the reason we have most of the laws we have today are due to religious influences on the laws of the United States. Now you could turn that argument on me and say what about the middle east? Well like I said it has and still is doing a lot of bad, but it also has done much good. If one can not see that, then they are putting on blinders and refusing to see reason.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

It's mostly a mockery of the early idea that the Earth "knew" how to make animal shapes and would sometimes just excrete bones made of stone from deep underground.

The hell....?

 

[Orayn]

The hell....?

I know, right? In their defense, the bones looked unlike any living things that currently existed, but it still took a disturbingly long time to put two and two together.

 

[rdrr gnr]

Please do tell where morals come from, how the universe was created, and if there is a god or not. Because if you can tell me all these things in a proven way I will be more then gladly to accept your statement. Until then keep an open mind and dont let your biases control your statements.

A sense of morality or the sociological need for morality is evolved; morals themselves are relativistic (ignore the philosophical nuances that I do not take into account). Your two follow up questions are irrelevant to my disagreement. Harris' crusade for the last few years has been the notion that we can conceive of an objective morality grounded in science.

 

[Raist]

there are some things humans will never understand.

Such as?

 

[HocusPocus]

Why do you care about her faith? If it brings her peace that's all that matters. As long as she doesn't pressure you about it then what's the big deal. Understand though that she will raise her children the way she was raised, as all women normally do. If you don't like that thought then don't have kids with her.

 

[krypt0nian]

The debate he used this in he got showed up pretty hard. Not to mention his rebuttal made no sense to the question at hand that this quote came from. Its a decent quote when applied to nature, but there are some things humans will never understand. In this certain topic the quote does make since, but for religion/belief/morals it makes little sense.

Ridiculous statement. It's when it applies the most. Religion is not above rational thought, no matter how many times people make that claim.

 

[Emitan]

This might sound hard to believe lol but I know someone who thinks the moon and the sun are two sides of the same thing.

Are they blind? Or do they think it can exist in two places at once?

 

[njean777]

Such as?

if there is a god or not, is there a heaven or hell, what happens when we die, how the universe was created and what happened before it?, etc.

Ridiculous statement. It's when it applies the most. Religion is not above rational thought, no matter how many times people make that claim.

No religion is not above rational thought never claimed it was, just that this is a weak argument against it. You can not apply logic to every single thing, because somethings we will never find out until we die. Like the age old question, is there a god or not?

A sense of morality or the sociological need for morality is evolved; morals themselves are relativistic (ignore the philosophical nuances that I do not take into account). Your two follow up questions are irrelevant to my disagreement. Harris' crusade for the last few years has been the notion that we can conceive of an objective morality grounded in science.

ok, now how did one forms these morals? Because I am sure religion had a huge influence on morals of the past. Our morals are all influenced from religion, not evolution. We are here due to evolution but we didnt get our morals from it. Nor did we get them from society.

 

[jump_button]

unless this come up all the time (eg its your job) I wouldn't worry and never talk about it

 

[Emitan]

unless this come up all the time (eg its your job) I wouldn't worry and never talk about it

What if she thought the neighbor's dog was an alien from space who had come to Earth to spread enlightenment?

"Well you can just move to another neighborhood and stop worrying about it!"

 

[Orayn]

if there is a god or not, is there a heaven or hell, what happens when we die, how the universe was created and what happened before it?, etc.

We understand a great deal about those things, you just choose not to accept the answers because they make you uncomfortable...

ok, now how did one forms these morals? Because I am sure religion had a huge influence on morals of the past. Our morals are all influenced from religion, not evolution. We are here due to evolution but we didnt get our morals from it. Nor did we get them from society.

Why didn't we get our morals from evolution? Doing moral things can be advantageous from an evolutionary perspective, so it makes sense that some elements of morality are traits that are selected for.

You're putting the cart before the horse: Religious morality is a reflection of human nature.

 

[Lafiel]

Religion is closer to a by-product of morality and human nature, then the origin of the former.

 

[KtSlime]

if there is a god or not, is there a heaven or hell, what happens when we die, how the universe was created and what happened before it?, etc.

Why is "we don't know yet, we may never know, but right now we don't even know if we can know" not an acceptable answer for the time being? Certainly it's better than "goddunnit" right? With answers like that we don't even have bother figuring out the Universe, it's already been answered.

 

[Emitan]

Do people who think morals come from religion believe atheists have no morals?

 

[Raist]

if there is a god or not, is there a heaven or hell,

This has nothing to do with understanding or not. You can similarly ask a million questions that don't have any answers. That doesn't make them relevant.

what happens when we die

Life carries on.

how the universe was created

We have a pretty good idea how that happened.

and what happened before it?, etc.

This question does not make sense, so yeah, we're not going to answer it anytime soon.

ok, now how did one forms these morals? Because I am sure religion had a huge influence on morals of the past. Our morals are all influenced from religion, not evolution. We are here due to evolution but we didnt get our morals from it. Nor did we get them from society.

For "basic" morals (the ones which would be closer to the "objective" ones) this has nothing to do with religion. Just look at any social species. The rest is just purely subjective.

 

[njean777]

We understand a great deal about those things, you just choose not to accept the answers because they make you uncomfortable...



Why didn't we get our morals from evolution? Doing moral things can be advantageous from an evolutionary perspective, so it makes sense that some elements of morality are traits that are selected for.

We dont understand a lot about any of the things listed. We have theories, but not much factual data. I am not uncomfortable, as my beliefs are not the same as christianity or Islam.

They can be advantageous, but it is hard for me to give it to humanity to form these morals on their own without religion there to scare them into behaving.

This has nothing to do with understanding or not. You can similarly ask a million questions that don't have any answers. That doesn't make them relevant.



Life carries on.



We have a pretty good idea how that happened.



This question does not make sense, so yeah, we're not going to answer it anytime soon.




For "basic" morals (the ones which would be closer to the "objective" ones) this has nothing to do with religion. Just look at any social species. The rest is just purely subjective.

So pretty much all cop-outs great reply.

Do people who think morals come from religion believe atheists have no morals?

I believe they have morals, but most of them are based off religious morals whether they like to admit it or not. It is how our society is based.