Gymnotide
8377 | Scorpaeniform
- 3,596
- Posts
- 17
- Years
- Age 32
- New York City
- Seen May 22, 2016
ITT: If someone could enlighten me, I'd be grateful.
I used to be agnostic, but I'm leaning more toward the atheist side nowadays.
IMPORTANT. PLEASE READ:
This is probably the most risque thread I have ever made, so if you are easily offended, I would prefer it if you left yourself out of this discussion.
First off, I'd like to state my views. Also note that what I say is not intended to change the views of others in any way, nor do I view my argument as the great truth. In addition, what I say about religion does not embody the entire spirit, nor the norm of religious people. Finally, I am not singling out any single religion, though it seems that Christianity / Catholicism finds itself on the top of the roster because of how undeniably influential it is, as well as how "outspoken" its followers tend to be; a lot of my points apply to other religions too.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I used to be agnostic, but I'm leaning more toward the atheist side nowadays.
IMPORTANT. PLEASE READ:
This is probably the most risque thread I have ever made, so if you are easily offended, I would prefer it if you left yourself out of this discussion.
First off, I'd like to state my views. Also note that what I say is not intended to change the views of others in any way, nor do I view my argument as the great truth. In addition, what I say about religion does not embody the entire spirit, nor the norm of religious people. Finally, I am not singling out any single religion, though it seems that Christianity / Catholicism finds itself on the top of the roster because of how undeniably influential it is, as well as how "outspoken" its followers tend to be; a lot of my points apply to other religions too.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- Religion causes problems. Just having religion exist causes problems because it makes people have conflicting views. I understand that people may believe what they will, but in many cases, it causes a rift between religious groups, other religious groups, and non-religious groups. Even in olden times it caused many struggles and birth many discriminatory sentiments within nations. I wouldn't be an atheist if religion didn't exist.
- It's simpler without religion. This picture embodies my views perfectly: https://www.myconfinedspace.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/occams-razor-on-religion-500x379.jpg
- Religion was great back in the day... Not so much now. Back when people were confused and separated, they found a means to both explain the world and unite it. Nowadays, there isn't much point to it as far as I can tell. Now, we have a better understanding of the world and we have much larger societies.
- Religious fallacies aren't unheard of. There are a lot of things that are wrong in religious scriptures. Incorrect assumptions are made here and there, so how do people know that their religion is absolute in respect to other things?
- Why don't gods "speak" to us now? If gods can speak to prophets / oracles, etc., why don't they speak to people nowadays? What proof do we have that anything written down is the truth?
- Religious people can do bad things too. It's true. The concept of "salvation" is flawed if even people who believe can still commit atrocities.
- Militant religious individuals are disruptive. I understand that there are also militant atheists, protesters, and the like. However, it's really unnerving to have a line of people in your train station with stern faces, staring into your soul, telling you to convert or else you will die on a supposed "judgment day." Yes, this happened to me. One of them even had the nerve to hand out one of their fanatical flyers to a small child too. Again, I'm not saying all religious people are like this, but it's hell annoying. In addition, religion tends to force itself on to the next generation. If the next generation doesn't comply, then the parent generation will sometimes scorn the children, which makes no sense to me anyway.
- Religion impedes human development. A lot of religious ideas revolve around tradition, not merely in a familial sense, but in a societal sense. A lot of things imply the need to stay the same and halt all developments, such as in superficial debates like marriage, and things with more gravitas, such as biological research. Often, religion brings back ideas from the dark ages too, such as xenophobia towards those who don't share your views. This point is disadvantageous to everyone.
- Religion is a form of self-denial. Religion relinquishes oneself to a "higher power" that is not even known to exist 100%. I don't get it. From what I understand, religion is merely a way to cope with the fear of the world, just like it was in more archaic religions, such as in Ancient Greece or Egypt.
- You can have morals and hope without religion. I don't think this point needs much explaining. Sure, religion has compelled many to pursue "better" paths, according to societal standards, but people could have easily been well-doers without religion.
- A "spiritual" world probably doesn't exist. What I mean here is that we do not know there is a "higher plane" that embodies more than what we can perceive with our eyes alone. From what we know, there is a physical world, but we aren't sure there's a spiritual world. Why do people believe in it?
- "God" is manmade. From all we know, some guy had a thought and wrote down some random stories, and other people believed him. I understand the idea that "God" can also be a sentiment, rather than an actual being and that is basically the only idea I can respect without questioning it. However, what if someone came up to you and said "I am God"? Do you believe him? What if he came up to you with a dozen followers, who all agree that he is God? Does he have to prove himself? I feel that this is exactly how Christianity and the like work -- people who do not believe ask "Who is God?" and they get the response "An omnipotent being who we owe our lives to." which leads to "How do we know he exists? Can he prove that he exists?" which leads to "He doesn't need to prove himself. All we know is that he exists." This idea makes very little sense to me.
- What about older religions, such as the belief in the Greek Pantheon or the Norse Mythos? They carry many ideas that are completely and 100% true, as well as ideas that convey a general sense of "goodness." Why are they wrong? We owe a lot to Greek philosophers, even if we now know that some of their ideas were wrong. If you think of their beliefs in a similar way to that of other religions (of deities as "concepts," rather than actual beings), then a lot of it isn't very far-fetched. Yes, Aphrodite is married to Ares because love and beauty ARE related to war (look at the Trojans!).
- A lot is based on over-analyzing. A prime example is numerology. Just because you can go from one number to another and that number has a manmade significance doesn't mean there's a connection. A lot of talk in religion is based on over-analyzing texts and skewing them to make meaning -- just like a lot of tyrannical regimes in the past, but let's not name them.
Last edited: