Will religion eventually collapse?

[CurtSibling]

Yeah, being filled with Muslim immigrants .

And no muslims exist in the USA...
(break out the reality pills!)

And there is a thing called 'cultural assimilation'...
You'll remember that from Star Trek, CivGeneral!

 

[Newbunkle]

I think Scientology proves that people will always find something to believe in, so it will always exist in one form or another. I don't think that there's any guarantee that individual religions won't rise and fall. If existing religions fail to adapt to a changing world they may eventually be overtaken by new ones.

 

[fishjie]

Correlate in what way?

correlate as in the higher the religiosity of a place, the more the crime. interpret it however you want. i just throw that out there whenever religious people claim they are more moral than non religious people. judging from your reaction, it ruffled some feathers. i think a lot of christians are good people, so i don't put that much stock into those studies, but i also think the more fundie they are, the more hypocritical and evil they are. so i would not be surprised at all if increased religiosity makes you a bad person. ted haggard anyone?

 

[uat2d]

i wish religion never was 'invented'...

 

[classical_hero]

Everyone needs to believe in something.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Either you believe the universe just popped into existence by itself "naturally" or you believe there's some "unfathomable" power behind it all, beyond our natural laws.

Why couldn't both be true?

And both are constructs of man's mind.

if you think gravity is a construct of man's mind, try jumping off a building and let me know how that goes

Ah... the human-centered universe, where human consciousness is the arbitrator of all things. The atoms and molecules that keep you alive and thinking do not care one whit if you jump off a building. Nor do the quarks and leptons.

Fishjie, why do you separate 'life' from those things that make it possible and raise it to a higher level? Is there something inherently more important about living things than non living things?

 

[Perfection]

Everyone needs to believe in something.

But they don't need to believe in the manner Christians do about their faith.

 

[Huayna Capac357]

Science has debunked exactly 0% of my beliefs. I do not rely on a "God of the gaps," I rely on a God who is supported by and created science. God, who has always existed, created an evolving universe 14 billion years ago. He gave one creature, man, a soul and a Moral Law and saved him by His son (and Him through the power of the Trinity) Jesus, who was crucified and rose from the dead. After all, in John 1:1 it says "In the beginning was the Logos (which is commonly translated as "Word" but could be "Reason," "Science," or even "Ratio")."

EDIT: Don't paint theistic evolutionists and YECs with the same broad brush. Jesus came to take away our sins, not our minds.

 

[Globex]

Science has debunked exactly 0% of my beliefs. I do not rely on a "God of the gaps," I rely on a God who is supported by and created science. God, who has always existed, created an evolving universe 14 billion years ago. He gave one creature, man, a soul and a Moral Law and saved him by His son (and Him through the power of the Trinity) Jesus, who was crucified and rose from the dead. After all, in John 1:1 it says "In the beginning was the Logos (which is commonly translated as "Word" but could be "Reason," "Science," or even "Ratio")."

EDIT: Don't paint theistic evolutionists and YECs with the same broad brush. Jesus came to take away our sins, not our minds.

So you are altering your religious beliefs so that they are compatible with science (i.e. you choose to believe in parts of the Christian doctrine that is in agreement with science and choose to exclude/change your interpretation of the parts that are not in agreement with science)

 

[Huayna Capac357]

Yes. If it disagrees with logic, it is wrong. Christianity does not disagree with logic.

 

[CurtSibling]

Not sure about that claim - There are many illogical aspects in the mythos of Christianity.

Take miracles, for instance...

...

 

[kulade]

All religions can be "rational" when you shave of most of the asserted and characteristic claims, but what kind of religion would that be?

Then again any mythology could be rational, but than doesn't mean any are true. Obviously a faith would make sense to its believers; that means nothing.

Truth is most ascertainable when one removes his emotional attachment to unbacked claims and investigates them objectively, not when he makes assumptions and rationalizes backward to make them sensible to himself...

 

[Huayna Capac357]

Not believing in Jesus' miracles (which a large portion of Christians don't) doesn't mean you should turn your back on Christianity as a whole. If you take away the miracles, the basic message of Christianity still stands up.

 

[kulade]

And what is this basic message of Christianity?

Don't give us any "just being nice to people" BS; how is your religion different from any other?

 

[CurtSibling]

Not believing in Jesus' miracles (which a large portion of Christians don't) doesn't mean you should turn your back on Christianity as a whole.

It's a bit late for that in my case.

Even without the miracles, all the silly, wafer-thin answers to
universal questions sort of lost my vote when I was about 10.

If you take away the miracles, the basic message of Christianity still stands up.

Indeed! And it is: "Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!"

Or was that the Daleks?

 

[Huayna Capac357]

What wafer-thin answers? Ask me a question!

 

[CurtSibling]

What wafer-thin answers? Ask me a question!

Very well.

What does your god look like?

...

 

[Huayna Capac357]

He doesn't "look like" anything. He is outside of matter and time and place and thus looks like whatever He feels like.

 

[PeteAtoms]

He doesn't "look like" anything. He is outside of matter and time and place and thus looks like whatever He feels like.

Explain the logic behind something existing "outside" of time and space? I hear this all the time, and it doesn't make sense (to me). So explain it to me please?

 

[Perfection]

So Huayna, how did you come to believe that God exists?