God

[IsmAvatar]

I believe in Science because of a thing called "the Prefrontal Cortex" which holds up your thoughts and morals and keeps you strong to them.
Faith and bible thumping and fire-and-brimstone threats have led to nothing but mass ignorance, stupidity, and murder, and if the Crusades aren't recent enough for your approval, allow me to point out the more recent Muslim Terrorists. Religion's functional purpose has been expired, and new, better ways of achieving the same functionality without most if not all of the negative consequences is already perfectly available. We are approaching a new, brighter age - the End of Faith. All are welcome, just please, set down your fictional books and stop stoning people to death. Oust your sacrificial fires, and return the controls of the plane to the pilot. Get off your knees and stop shouting "Halelouja" (sp), it is not in the least very constructive, but if it makes you feel better do feel free to do what you will in your own time - and no, whilst flying a passenger jet is not "your own time", the controls can't steer themselves no matter how hard you try and pray.
In the year 2004, there were 27,000 active religions. What makes yours any less delusional than all the rest? Most if not all of them were incompatable, meaning that your chances of picking the right one are .00... let me put it this way, expect to go to hell, your chances are that bad.

Afraid of death and the neverending nothingness? Well aren't we all. Fairy tales don't help at all, you're just wasting a life that you could be living up - a nutcase untouchable by the mental institutions. We don't need a manual of how to live our lives. Be creative. Let logic be your guide - it's already built into your brain. Pave your own path - even the bible says that the common path is the devil's path; the meek shall inherit the earth. If you get lost, we have sages and wisemen here who can lend you a helping hand and get you back in the right general direction again; you don't need to consult an imaginary friend and expect to get the answer via the voices inside your head - that's called Schitzophrenia, and every time you listen to the voices, God kills another kitten.

By the way, I read in the paper not long ago that Christianity is on the decline in England, and India and Pakistan are at each other's throats ready to throw in the Nuke. If you would like to see any hope for mankind whatsoever right now, a mass conversion over there will only make things worse. What they need is a mass deconversion to bring them to their senses again and realise that fighting over whose imaginary friend is bigger is quite rediculous.


P.S., I'm not a devil worshipper, because I don't believe in the devil, and I certainly don't pay any heed.

It's a pleasure to see you too, darahbi, and I hope that you keep on making games. You have the least risk of spreading your delusions to others by staying in this field.

Wow, I didn't know that I was capable of writing with such power. I should become an agnostic missionary, heh.

Oh, and for those of you who still think the bible is the complete truth because it says so, I recommend this other fictional work known as the Koran. It seems to state the exact same thing. I hope you don't get too split down the middle. I'd hate to have to deconvert you to agnosticism while you're in the middle of strapping an explosive to your back.

My warmest and most friendly greetings.
IsmAvatar.
And no, I don't hate you, I've just grown distasteful of faith.

m º¿º m
Kilroy was here

[Direwolf]

i sort of belive in god... like i dont think he created us but like there is somthing up there in the afterlife. also i think that god has a mom liek us as we are an image of it(girls are an image if him too) and i think that the bible it just a story book like how did god drain away all the water in the times of noahs ark? i think it was just a flood in 1 particular area. also the bib;le dosnt explain evoloutian and howcome god used to do miricales all the time but now he dosnt. also howcome god smite lots of people in the old testament and not the old testament. and when jesus died the sky went dark, that was because at that time there was an eclipse, its happend before in the medievil times when they executed people(problay onley once). i myself am baptised as an anglican though but i never go to church and i go to a catholic school so ive growen up with christian belifes but i pnt belive in the bible at all, i shunned of the idea like 5 years ago... the best way to describe god is"god is the imaginary friend of adults"
and what makes the christian belife right but not the budist belife and the jewish belife and the hindu belife and the muslim belife .

[cdm319]

look, I realise that I will probably be shot down here, but I would like to make a few points. I myself completely believe in God.

1. C. C. Colton once said "People will wrangle for religion; write for it;fight for it;die for it;anything but live for it". This seems to be true today, and has led to a number of the points made by different people on this topic.

2. Charles Darwin, who discovered the theory of evolution, stated on his deathbed that "all my theories have one fatal flaw, there has to be a beginning of everything, beginning with one, supreme God." (that quotation may be slightly different, it's from memory)

3. Blaise Pascal said this "Those who live as if there is no afterlife will gain nothing if they are proved to be right and will lose everything if they are proved to be wrong. Those who live as if the present influences the next world, have lost nothing if they are proved to be wrong and will have gained everything if they are to be proved right."

Just my two cents worth.

[IsmAvatar]

I'm not familiar with C.C. Colton, but it only boosts my arguments.

Charles Darwin was originally studying to become a priest. He then took a trip to a foreign country to convert people, and started learning things about the culture and biology there instead. This soon led him to be one of the most prominent biologists in human history. He quickly realized that his work directly contradicted many of the teachings of creationists.

Blaise Pascal was a great mathematician who focused on probability. His last mathematical contribution was Pascal's Wager (basically what you just quoted - please read up on it - after this last contribution, he became a Christian Nutcase who ceased contributing to humanity) arguing that the infinite goodness that is heaven trumps all else, thus giving us reason to believe. He failed to account for a number of variables, such as the fact that there are multiple religions, each promising eternal damnation for believing the wrong religion. Using the same probability laws that Pascal used, we can then show that Infinite goodness and Infinite damnation counteract each other, so no more trumping, it all comes down to a chance of 1 in 43,000 active religions as of the year 2005, plus the finite experiences you have here on earth (positive for the more liberal religions, like Atheism, Agnosticism, Lutheranism - negative for a vast majority of the rest of them, including the basic teachings of Christianity in most of its sects). The basic argument here, then is enjoy life while it lasts, because you have a 99.997% chance of winding up in hell for picking the wrong religion, and another chance of practicing it incorrectly (no statistics on that one yet).

Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, considered to be two of the smartest people in history, were both Pantheist (a branch of Atheism stating that the laws of nature overrule all, and if you are to name anything God, it should be the laws of nature themselves - with no mention of "afterlife" or "soul" aside from the recycling of atoms, which one could argue is "reincarnation"). I too have somewhat recently "converted" to Pantheism.

Personally, I wouldn't mind going to hell, because you get to meet Hitler and other guys like that, and get constant entertainment from the devil trying to figure out what to do with the Sadists and Masochists.

By the way, every time you kill a kitten, God Masturbates (funny twist on the old quote)

And finally, since you like quotes so much:
"The tragedy is that every brain cell devoted to belief in the supernatural is a brain cell one cannot use to make life richer or easier or happier" -Kay Nolte Smith

[cdm319]

i respect your views (where have we heard that one before )
my personal belief (cliche #2) contradicts the last quote of yours, for every brain cell I use to believe in the supernatural, it makes me happier, because although it does not make me richer or my life easier, I know that there's a reward at the end, and that's what makes life truly happy, for me anyway.

by the way, I'm glad that Ism can have a civilised conversation, without referring to the "haha your stupid" remarks of any other person who starts a debate like this

[IsmAvatar]

I delete any unruly comments like that. There is a pinned topic stating that you must keep any discussion in here civil, and unruly posts will not be tolerated.

So you disagree with one of my quotes when I disagreed with two of yours. I do encourage you to state your opinions on each of my counterpoints - after all, what good is holding an opinion if you're not ready to argue it?

And yes, I respect your views as well, and will fight to the death for your right to hold them, no matter how delusional they are.

Two more quotes that I think you'll agree with:

• "Listening to both sides of the story will convince you that there is more to a story than both sides." -Frank Tyger (christian guy who makes quotes)
  
• "We're constantly searching for innocence, and yet the most innocent place in the world is the asylum. The perfection of innocence is, indeed, madness." -Arthur Miller

And two that you might not:

• "I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours." -Stephen Roberts
  
• "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish" -anonymous

And since you mentioned Blaise Pascal before and I talked a little about him, here's one of his quotes

• "Men never commit evil so fully and joyfully as when they do it for religious convictions" -Blaise Pascal