Religion: What it means to you

Originally Posted by GameInfarcer

You see, Atheism is based around religion, but that does not make it a fucking religion.

What is a religion, really? It's faith, right? A set of assumptions about the way the world functions. Deities factor into this pretty heavily because they're neither provable nor disprovable. If you have a firm belief that something neither provable nor disprovable exists, you have faith in that. You have faith in God.

And if you have a firm belief in the nonexistence of this entity, neither provable nor disprovable? That's also faith. You purport, as does the theist, to know the unknowable: an essentially spiritual behavior.

Now, if you were to argue that agnosticism was not religious that would be accurate.

Your whole series of arguments is like tissue, sir. You seem to be of the opinion that religion is terrible, and then claim it's impossible to define. Exactly what should we be stamping out, then?

Oh, right. Whatever pisses off your Mom and Dad, I expect. THEY CAN'T TELL YOU WHAT TO DO ANYMORE

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Your parents gave you free reign at character creation and you picked "Tedious Douchebag"?

You need to re-roll that shit.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Yeah, the snake isn't being worshiped. If you read the preceding segment (Numbers 21:4), you'll see it's just Yahweh being his usual douchey Old-Testament self.

"COMPLAINTS, EH? FUCK YOU! VENOMOUS SNAKES!"

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I am pretty sure there are many nonchristians who draw strength from their faith, LS. Besides, you're not allowed to use the "I need help from a book in order to get through life" angle. That's our angle. We need it to make fun of you.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by JackyBoy

The problem of agnosticism is that it gives a false idea that the existence of the "thing" in question has an equal 50-50 chance of either existing or not existing, which is, I'm sure you must agree on, an entirely false impression.

How so?

Demonstrate, will you, how the existence or nonexistence of an unknowable omnipotent being can be said to be more or less likely in any fashion whatsoever past your own inherent bias.

Fuckin' clown.

How ya doing, buddy?

The whole Pink Unicorn gambit is so played out, guys, honestly. A pink unicorn is not significantly sillier than any other theoretical entity, I see no particular flaw in a sustained indecision re: pink unicorns. Agnosticism is not a pick-and-choose philosophy, it's a concrete decision to admit that I don't fuckin' know!

Originally Posted by kinkymagic

It's also a possibility that a Nigerian prince really did e-mail me and ask me to help him transfer his money.

Indeed! But statistically we can observe many hundreds of instances of such requests and determine that the likelihood of such requests being valid is very low. This is science! However, we cannot outright deny the existence of any secret princes in Nigeria, we have to way to determine that. To say outright that no Nigerian prince could ever conceivably send email is unprovable and rather unscientific indeed.

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I just want to clarify here that atheism is specifically a rejection of deities, not of any and all supernatural phenomena. One can easily be religious and still be atheistic; Buddhists do it all the time.

FELIPE NO

Everyone except the Chinese government, of course.



Chairman Meow is merciless.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by LordsSword

What is courage in the face of a meaningless existence?

Do you even understand what "courage" means? Courage is about steeling yourself to press forward in spite of great fear and foreboding. Believing firmly that existence is utterly meaningless and still resolving to grind through it is deeply courageous. If you firmly believe that in the end everything will be all right and we'll all get mai-tais in Heaven, you don't need any courage because, for you, there is nothing to fear.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by kinkymagic

the scientific method means that we are getting things wrong less and less.

So you have faith in the scientific method, then

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Thank you. I am glad someone else can do some of the gruntwork of actually reading the dictionary around here. The broad concept of faith is in no way necessarily tied to the absence of proof. It is, more or less, just a concrete assumption.

I have faith that alcohol will make me drunk.

I have faith that my cat won't learn to play basketball.

I have faith that the burgers I am frying up will be delicious.

But can I PROVE that these things will be true? Not in the slightest. They are simply things I assume to be true based on my previous experience.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I expect LS is getting away with being called "smart" for no other reason than that he doesn't lose his temper. You can say some incredibly banal shit, and it'll still sound a little profound if you act like you're handing down wisdom from the mount.

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