@Tenor I'm confident the site is sensible enough to discuss something like religion without it turning into a flamewar, either that or I'm just an optimist but so far this has gone 3 pages with no major flaming yet so one can always believe...
If people have something to be said, why not let them? Just ignoring something doesn't mean it doesn't exist
This is what I used to be, an activist atheist. I stopped spreading the word, just because I gave up on anyone being open minded enough to accept it. Let me just make one point and then I want to go back to love and tolerance. The Theory of Evolution is how and why evolution happened. It's already a fact, there is an insane of evidence for it. The Theory of Evolution is only the questions of how and why? Just like gravity is still not yet 100% explained. but gravity exists, we can observe it. and so do an insane amount of transitional fossils. There are only 2 options that would explain this. 1. The Devil put the transitional fossils there and made carbon dating only seem to read many of millions of years old as a way to trick us. 2. Science is right and Evolution has been a proven fact since the 1800's and has only been proven more by discoveries of a huge amount of fossils since then. which sounds more reasonable. Make your own decision. I did not want to see discussion come up, but since it did I had to have my say.
Eh, kind of a pointless story, isn't it? Seems too confrontational and eurgh for my tastes. As for the topic which it seems to have brought everyone to discuss, may as well throw in my own two cents. I'm a non-denominational Christian, but my beliefs on the matter are pretty complicated and unorthodox. I won't go into much detail, though don't anypony get the idea that I'm silently judging them for anything. I'll remind you all that I'm an open bisexual and point out that that doesn't conflict with my beliefset at all. About as far as I'll go beyond that is to mention the words that, once heard, effectively defined the way I live my faith - "Preach the Word of God at all times. Use words only when necessary."
Religion is related to beliefs. I mean, to have your faith shaken by this discussion just means you were unsure to begin with. My atheist beliefs are fairly strong, but I accept all religions and spiritual views (as in, tolerate, understand, appreciate--not hate or judge). I like this quote... a lot and I feel it pertains to this thread very much. I don't think this discussion is debating religion, just discussing the conversation. I'm a person of science, but I'm not closed minded to religious discussion pertaining to itself. Both sides raise valid viewpoints.
I thought that was interesting, but silly. I've met too many religious scientists or professors to be wholly fooled by the Science/Philosopy vs. Religion debate. If someone believes something, I doubt you or I can stop them or convince them otherwise within reasonable means. That said, science is not faith-based. At least, not more than anything else in life, and if you want to argue that, think: what if everything we know is wrong? If our senses, perceptions, and thought processes were flawed, this would all be moot anyway. To make my stance apparent, I consider myself an atheist in many respects, but anything could happen. I don't believe in god because that's just not the name I give to what I do believe in. I believe in kindness, i.e. love. You call it what you like. Still, in general, science knows whereof it speaks.
This is possibly the first time I've seen religion brought up on the internet without it turning into a war-zone. This is awesome! I'm not entirely sure what exactly I believe in. I can find beauty in both faith and science, and they both have their pros. But in my opinion they both have some serious cons as well, and believing in only one and rejecting the other never seems to work well for me. I prefer to think there's some sort of combination of the two, but I don't like to get specific with what that middle ground may be. I guess I just like to think that there's some sort of force in the universe that connects every living thing, whether it's omnipotent or not. Something a friend of mine said that I thought was just brilliant is: "I think god lives in us all. I don't think god is one entity or that heaven is a place. We all have a piece of god inside of us and when we come together as one and embrace peace, that's heaven." (It's kind of ironic that this is such a peaceful sounding quote typed out, because he was actually screaming when he said it... He was upset at this guy standing in the street holding a "Turn or burn" sign) It's not the most logical thing to believe, and I know that it's very possible I'm wrong, but at the end of the day no one can say they know for a fact that they're right. I think the best outlook to have when it comes to religion is just to believe in what's best for you, and what makes you happy.
