Religious Beliefs - Fact or Fiction

[웃 910]

The bottom line is whether Christian, Muslim, or Jew, or any other CULT, if you believe in a Deity you lack common sense. It is very elementary to realize that God was created by man. If you do not realize this then you have been brainwashed so thoroughly that there is a 99.9% chance you will never figure out the truth.

Who created God? He was here forever? That doesn't even make sense. The answer is man did. If you do not realize this then a part of your brain is shut off to logical reason when it comes to religion

Edited August 4, 2010 by Lord Infamous

[one...two...tree 2,762]

The bottom line is whether Christian, Muslim, or Jew, or any other CULT, if you believe in a Deity you lack common sense. It is very elementary to realize that God was created by man. If you do not realize this then you have been brainwashed so thoroughly that there is a 99.9% chance you will never figure out the truth.

Who created God? He was here forever? That doesn't even make sense. The answer is man did. If you do not realize this then a part of your brain is shut off to logical reason when it comes to religion

[Kathryn41 3,205]

I've split these posts off from their original thread as they introduce a totally different topic of discussion than the one in which they were posted. Continue this discussion here rather than derail the other thread.

[Atencio 43]

The bottom line is whether Christian, Muslim, or Jew, or any other CULT, if you believe in a Deity you lack common sense. It is very elementary to realize that God was created by man. If you do not realize this then you have been brainwashed so thoroughly that there is a 99.9% chance you will never figure out the truth.

Who created God? He was here forever? That doesn't even make sense. The answer is man did. If you do not realize this then a part of your brain is shut off to logical reason when it comes to religion

I am glad you have proof that what you say is true. But in the end it is your loss.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Jason, FYI on Nietzsche. (My philosophy professor, Sande Cohen, was a big Nietzsche fan. Nietzsche is one of the most misunderstood philosophers of our time).

Have you heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place, and cried incessantly, "I seek God! I seek God!" As many of those who do not believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter...

Whither is God," he cried. "I shall tell you.

We have killed him

- you and I. All of us are murderers.... God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him...

Friedrich Nietzsche.

The Gay Science

(1882), section 126 <

full text, German & English

>

The first thing to be clear about here is what should be an obvious fact: Nietzsche did not say "God is dead." Just like Shakespeare did not say "To be, or not to be," but instead merely put them in the mouth of Hamlet, a character he created.

Yes, Nietzsche certainly wrote the words "God is dead," but he also just as certainly put them in the mouth of a character - a madman, no less. Readers must always be careful about distinguishing between what an author thinks and what characters are made to say.

Unfortunately, many people aren't so careful, and thus it has become part of popular culture to think that Nietzsche said "God is dead." It has even become the butt of jokes, with some people imagining themselves clever by putting into the mouth of their god the words "Nietzsche is dead."

But what does Nietzsche's madman really mean? He can't merely mean to say that there are atheists in the world - that's nothing new. He can't mean to say that God has literally died because that wouldn't make any sense. If God were really dead, then God must have been alive at one point - but if the God of orthodox European Christianity were alive then it would be eternal and could never die.

So apparently, this madman can't be talking about the literal God believed in by so many theists. Instead, he's talking about what this god represented for European culture, the shared cultural belief in God which had once been its defining and uniting characteristic.

Europe Without God

1887, in the second edition of The Gay Science, Nietzsche added Book Five to the original, which begins with Section 343 and the statement: "The greatest recent event—that God is dead, that the belief in the Christian God has become unbelievable..."

As translator and eminent Nietzsche scholar Walter Kaufmann points out: "This clause is clearly offered as an explanation of 'God is dead.'" In The Antichrist (1888), Nietzsche is more specific:

The Christian conception of God... is one of the most corrupt conceptions of God arrived at on earth..." And, when he was already close to insanity, he called himself "the Anti-Christ.

We may now pause here and think. Nietzsche obviously means that the Christian notion of God is dead, that this notion has become unbelievable. At the time of Nietzsche's writing in the latter half of the nineteenth century, this shared belief was waning. Science, art, and politics were all moving beyond the religiosity of the past.

Why had most intellectuals and writers in Europe abandoned traditional Christianity by the end of the nineteenth century? Was it a result of industrial and scientific progress? Was it Charles Darwin and his insightful writing on evolution? As A.N. Wilson writes in his book *God's Funeral, the sources of this skepticism and disbelief were many and varied.

Where God had once stood alone - at the center of knowledge, meaning and life - a cacophony of voices was now being heard and God was being pushed aside. For many, particularly those who might be counted among the cultural and intellectual elite, God was gone entirely.

http://atheism.about...y/aa042600a.htm

Edited August 4, 2010 by El Buscador

[TBoneTX 43,013]

"God is dead." -- Nietzsche

"Nietzsche is dead." -- God

[Obama 2012 1,714]

I would say it's completely foolish to not believe in something greater than ourselves.

However, I would say it's equally foolish to lay one's entire faith into one set of beliefs.

[mawilson 2,133]

The bottom line is whether Christian, Muslim, or Jew, or any other CULT, if you believe in a Deity you lack common sense. It is very elementary to realize that God was created by man. If you do not realize this then you have been brainwashed so thoroughly that there is a 99.9% chance you will never figure out the truth.

Who created God? He was here forever? That doesn't even make sense. The answer is man did. If you do not realize this then a part of your brain is shut off to logical reason when it comes to religion

[DEDixon 39]

i don't really care if god exists or not. either way, i know religion on earth is important even if god was created by man. some people are so poor, god is their only hope even if god does nothing for them god is still their only hope. i know praying comforts people who deeply feel that they have no where else to turn so believing can be a good thing.

i have a friend who doesn't believe. religious folks upset him to the Nth degree. my friend wasn't raised in a religious home so he is as much a product of his upbringing as religious folks are of theirs. i think he should cut them a break.

[Ban Hammer 12,829]

The bottom line is whether Christian, Muslim, or Jew, or any other CULT, if you believe in a Deity you lack common sense. It is very elementary to realize that God was created by man. If you do not realize this then you have been brainwashed so thoroughly that there is a 99.9% chance you will never figure out the truth.

Who created God? He was here forever? That doesn't even make sense. The answer is man did. If you do not realize this then a part of your brain is shut off to logical reason when it comes to religion

i see someone failed their sensitivity training.

[웃 910]

i don't really care if god a large alien exists or not. either way, i know religion on earth is important even if god that large alien we are supposed to worship was created by man. some people are so poor, god an extraterrestrial alien that has never been seen, heard from, or proven real is their only hope even if god this never before seen alien does nothing for them god the alien is still their only hope. i know praying comforts people who deeply feel that they have no where else to turn so believing can be a good thing.

i have a friend who doesn't believe. religious folks upset him to the Nth degree. my friend wasn't raised in a religious home so he is as much a product of his upbringing as religious folks are of theirs. i think he should cut them a break.

fixxored

I was raised Christian, was forced to go to church at a young age. My mom used to go into her closet and "speak in tongues", she used to read the bible all the time, countless devotional books, probably at least tithed $70,000 throughout her life. Entire family are Christians, my uncle owns a church about 10 minutes from where I live. Not a lot of people attend but he is a pastor. So I don't have that bias that your friend has.

[chri'stina 190]

If this is the worst thing to happen, as you said in the first post: "If you do not realize this then a part of your brain is shut off to logical reason when it comes to religion", then I am ok with your view that it's only affecting my logical reasoning when it comes to religion. At least I know I can still live a successful life, as have many God believers throughout history. Some of them being very intelligent. The fact is that I am a Christian, and grew up in Christianity, but I do reevaluate what I believe often. I study from my chosen belief system's holy book, I think about why I believe what I do and think about whether it's right or not, and so far I still believe it's true. Now to be nerdy and quote from one of my favorite book series since I was a kid (Chronicles of Narnia), which symbolically shows how I feel:

"I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it.

I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia."

— C.S. Lewis (The Silver Chair)

If my only supposed loss is one of logical reasoning when it comes to religion, then I'd much rather continue on my way with what I believe. Even if you think I have no logical reasoning skills at all, which would be absurd since I have made some logical decisions in life that I am sure you would even agree with, I also don't care.

Edited August 4, 2010 by chri'stina

[The_Dude 1,142]

There is no logic in religion. If there were, they would acknowledge the various falacies. I however subscribe to Pascal's challenge which essentially states that there may or may not be a god, in which case, there may or may not be a heaven. Why not passively accept god, and reap the benefits in the afterlife rather than actively deny god and potentially suffer. It takes a lot more effort to actively deny the existence of a higher being than it does to passively accept.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

There is no logic in religion. If there were, they would acknowledge the various falacies. I however subscribe to Pascal's challenge which essentially states that there may or may not be a god, in which case, there may or may not be a heaven. Why not passively accept god, and reap the benefits in the afterlife rather than actively deny god and potentially suffer. It takes a lot more effort to actively deny the existence of a higher being than it does to passively accept.

Many of the greatest philosophers of our time believed in God. These were men who spent their lives thinking about such questions.

Kant, Hegel, Descartes, Fichte, Leibniz, Rousseau, Kiekergaard, Maritain, Wittgenstein, Weil all believed in God.

[The_Dude 1,142]

Many of the greatest philosophers of our time believed in God. These were men who spent their lives thinking about such questions.

Kant, Hegel, Descartes, Fichte, Leibniz, Rousseau, Kiekergaard, Maritain, Wittgenstein, Weil all believed in God.

Oh wow, I didn't realize that smart people believe in God Steven. Now I will go out and read my bible.