Are We Born to Believe in God?

How do explain the hindu religion ?

Good questions, all.

I think humans are everything you say because we were made to be that way. There can be no other explaination except that we were intended to be so far above any other creature, because of a plan.

Unless, of course, you want to believe we were just really, really, amazingly, unbelievable lucky..........

Then we should all be lotto winners. =P

We can see three primary colors - red, yellow and blue. Colors are determined by electromagnetic wavelengths that are passed down to Earth's surface. Wavelengths that are beyond blue are not allowed to pass. However, wavelengths shorter than red are allowed to pass, and we could have evolved with an eye that would detect a fourth primary color in the infrared. The problem here is that plants reflect infrared light so strongly that it would blind us if we could see it.

That doesn't explain why it's necessary for us to see in color.

Just some evidence that the tailor knew what He was doing.

The post touches on some things that I had been tallying, so I found it interesting... a few notes to add. There are some records that mother chimps and gorillas that use sign language do pass some on to their young.

The rest of the notes have to do with things that are distinctly human. I believe the most fundamental is laughter. No other animal is capable of laughing. Another is the ability to orgasm in both sexes. Then there is an ability to recognize the person in a mirror - the reflection of him or herself.

Actually seeing color is a survival trait when foraging for food . Ever picked berries ? Dug up potatoes ? Tomatoes ? The color determines whether they are ripe or no , which determines digest ability . City kid ?

uh no.

You don't need to know this much color to know a berry from dirt.

Religion is doctrinal belief, faith is a personal relationship, with God (for the atheist, he could apply this to higher thought, that is his god).

That could be said about your people and Bush.

J_Jammer, when you say my 'people', are you being racist, since I Hispanic & you are of Germanic decent, et. al. Saralee, I've learned not to hate the individual, but his actions. His & Congress' attempt to take over large segments of American society are reminiscent of the National Socialist Party (NAZI) of Germany in 1937. You can say that I will do anything in my power to attack his policy 'religiously' so to speak.

(Who do you think you're talking to?)

I wasn't talking to you....I was talking to slarabee.

Slarabee....yes you are defending such a man. His name is Obama. He got to be President on a wing and a prayer, not because he was educated enough to lead anyone.

By the way anything can be twisted to mean anything else. It's best not to pretend you never followed an idiot. Because you never know....you may be doing it now.

Oh wait...did you just state your opinion? Who knew you could do that so quickly? Certainly no one in that Hugo the Heathen thread.

Er, yeah. Brad PItt is sexy and cool, and I don't think that is "idolizing" him. You're really grasping for straws here.

Oh Delia, you are a ham. LOL, you have a sense of humour; typical 20 something year old-making attempts to find out who you are and blur the lines of judgement for your own self-preservation. You've got a lot of growing up to do. By your own admission, you look up to something. Gurlll, you need to come out, OOOkay!

Of course I "look up" to something. I look up to a lot of people and a lot of concepts. Isn't everyone "attempting to find out who they are"? You're not making a whole lot of sense, and considering you barely know me maybe you should tone down the judgments a bit.

Can someone say? "thank you!" All that for an admission.

An admission of what? You claimed I "idolize" Brat Pitt. I don't think I admitted to that anywhere.

Do you know who didn't "hate" Jews but felt sorry for them?

That's who you remind me of.

You can say what you want, his words say other wise.

Nice try defending the hate, but it didn't work.

JJ i did the work for you, here are some quotes concerning jews from the moth of Hitler;
"He is and remains the perpetual parasite, a sponger who like a noxious bacillus keeps spreading as soon as a favorable medium invites him. And the effect of his presence is also like unto that of all spongers: wherever he appears, the host people dies out after a shorter or longer time." "Mein Kampf"

"The Jews are definitely a race, but they are not human"

"If I can send the flower of the German nation into the hell of war without the smallest pity for the shedding of precious German blood, then surely I have the right to remove millions of an inferior race that breeds like vermin"

If that what feeling sorry for someone sounds like to you... then I feel pity those you feel sorry for!!

How is what he said any better than what you quoted?

Just because it sounds WORSE (because they did murder people) doesn't mean that what he said isn't similar in thought.

Try again, but actually try.

what said means this...I wish I could help the people you feel sorry for because if your idea of a man talking about removing...aka killing...millions of people means he feels sorry for them...then that gives us an idea of what you feel is acceptable to do to people you feel sorry for. Don't play dumb, you knew what I meant.

What you meant isn't good enough to defend him.

Wrong. It's natural disasters. War also. Religious disputes? Try again.

Human stupidity is the number one cause of deaths on this planet.

New Orleans is built in the most stupidest manner with the most faulty defenses against the high sea levels. then you have idiots who decide that even though a HUGE hurricane is coming for them, no doubt, that they'll stick around. The hurricane hits. They need to be rescued because they are too stupid to have left on their own so they put other people in danger because they are too freakin' stupid. Lots of stupid people die. Lots of stupid people end up at the stadium and then complain about where they are...well if they left when they should have they wouldn't have had that problem. Stupid.

Then they mayor of stupid does more stupid things and causes more stupid problems with his blame game as does the Governor of Louisiana. So two (just to keep this simple) asinine government officials of this state make stupid decision after stupid decision and then blame the federal government for not helping them out in their poor decision making skills.

So along comes the United States Government riding on turtle. (This is one of many reasons trusting them to do health care is a terrible idea) They have FEMA who is suppose to help these stupid people that didn't leaven when they were suppose to. What does fema do? NOTHING. They have trailers that sit and rot because they are too stupid to do anything right.

So what is the lesson here?

STUPID is the NUMBER one killer of humans. If they actually thought about things millions wouldn't die every single day.

Are you open to the idea that there is no god?

"A truly open minded atheist would be open to the possibility that God exists. "

Most atheists are. It is a common misconception that Atheists are completely closed off to the belief in god- some are, but the majority simply don't believe in god because they haven't been convinced due to a lack of evidence and emotional connection to the concept.

I for one am open to the existence of god; I don't believe in one, but I realize my ideas and beliefs may change and I'm (obviously) happy to talk about the subject and learn as much as I can.

And that is exactly the kind of comment, Delia, that is far better than most comments made by atheist. If it is about informing then it's far better than what some of the comments here have done...stating one is smarter than the other because this atheist person decided to write a paper about it to feel better abut themselves or a religious person misquoting religious text saying who is going to go where and why.

Informing people about what they misunderstand about what you believe is a very good thing to do.

Funny, the most miserable people I know are hypocritical Christians.

To believe a deception might be of some comfort to the weak minded, but it is still a deception.

"The birds singing outside your window are singing about the mighty works of God."
- Birds sing in order to communicate with mates and offspring, to alert others of danger, to alert others of safety, or to distinguish their territory in order to claim it.

"Even our ancestors, dwelling in caves, figured that out."
- Our ancestors living in caves were more primitive forms of the Homo species, mind you. And, they came up with gods and little stories in order to comfort themselves. They needed to find a way to explain fire, the sun, the tremors coming from the earth, and why we seem to "go to sleep" when we die. Our ancestors had their answers. Today, modern science has answered all of the things to be explained, and it makes you resemble a Homo Erectus to believe in your invisible friend as the cause of every natural phenomenon.

"They are lost and have no where to turn for comfort."
- You're speaking of these people as if you know them. All of the millions and millions of Atheists in the world. You must be a pretty popular person.
Please help me to understand how you think of yourself of the status to call millions of people that you do not know, lost and insecure because they aren't just like you?

"...but it is only 'so much rambling'."
- You're not rambling. But you are spewing meaningless blatherings.

"I am so sorry for your unbelief and hope you will seek out the truth before it is too late for you. It must be a lot of work trying to keep convincing yourself that there is no God when He is all around you."
- I am so sorry for your delusion and I hope that you'll snap out of it before it's too late for you. It must be a lot of work trying to keep convincing yourself that there is a God where science, logic, and reason is all around you.

"God took a rib from Adam so woman could be his..."
- It is obvious that you are interpreting the Bible so literally. And, that, I find to be hilarious. You think that a women could be made from...a man's rib? You probably also believe in talking snakes and men living in a whale for three days. Ditch the fairy tales, I assume that you're an adult.

"Submissive DOES NOT mean doormat!"
- Not a doormat? To the Bible, all women are doormats. For example, I'll even give you a verse of scripture, proving this. "Women should be silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but should be submissive, as the law also says." (1 Corinthians 14:34) Anyone dictated not to speak while the men go on is submit to be used as a doormat.

"I am certainly no Biblical scholar and not even a well educated person but I know -that I know- that I know."
- Haha..

bad start Katrina, bad start...

"No child will state...I don't believe in God, not even children of atheist."

How many children - including children of atheists - have you asked to reach your conclusion?

I worked with kids for two years...mainly elementary students and you try explaining to them that the tree in front of the school just came to be by no other than "chance" and then you tell them that God trees and therefore that is why they exist and they'll take, no matter what their parents have said, latch onto the created part because they cannot grasp, with good reason, that a tree just came to be by "chance". Everything, to them, has to have someone that created it. Including them.

That is why children can have fun with anyone no matter who or what color they are....because they don't see that. It's adults and their reasoning ability that totally distorts the world and makes it far more complicated for no reason other than being pretentious.

If you ask leading questions of children of course they're going to answer the way you want them to. If you had asked me when I was a kid, I probably would have said "I don't know" and refused to elaborate beyond that.

You ask a child how did a tree come to be or how did animals come to be they will say created.

Leading isn't necessary and I don't know doesn't exist in a child's mind. They know everything.

I said essentially the same thing in an earlier post, I have had people say to me PROVE that there is no god, well, I can't...but neither can I prove that there isn't a Zeus or a purple unicorn...I'm 99.9% sure they don't exist. but i cannot prove it.
I can't say with any truth that I believe anything that has no evidence to support it. therefore since there is no more evidence of God than of Zeus or Jupiter I don't believe in any of them...I wonder if JJ believes in Jupiter and if not , why not? there is as much factual evidence to support belief in one as the other.

I guess you cannot believe in countries you've never seen with your own two eyes.

Sad reasoning can be used for many sad things.

And Tyr....you didn't use logic therefore your post doesn't exist.

Logic exists only in mathematics, in everything else there is reasoning, and there are very few things that can be proven absolutely. Descartes pretty much covered all of those, leaving us to argue points that can never be proven ever since. I'm agnostic because I'm literally without knowledge. If you want to apply logic you might find that you're agnostic too.

In reality you only find out what you need to know when you really want to find out. Holding doubt leaves room to failure.

I do not believe you .

That's because you can't believe someone you don't like to be more right than you.

Handicapped.

can I get an amen?!

Amen !

Well, if your youngest believed in what you told him, he must be very gullible.

Actually Charlie he is a straight A student. I have read enough to know that the synopsis that I gave him is the essence of Christianity. Now if you chose that particular brand of superstition over science there is nothing that I can or even should do to try and persuade you otherwise, I've had enough Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons knocking on my door to know that to offer reason is futile.

I bet he is a straight a student, destined to be a Cop or politician, with straightforward thinking, no room for freewill thought, or diversity, a judgmental, government, robot. Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons do not follow Christianity, they have a different understanding and follow different teachings. Be proud of your minime, instead of a boy with a open heart and soul enough information to create his own self.

kstein... actually he wants to follow in his older brothers footsteps or his grandfathers, his grandfather was an electrical engineer and my oldest son is in his senior year of college getting a degree in bio chemistry, he wants to take that into medical school, at this point he thinks he would like to be a cardiologist. I have another son who enjoys working with his hands and is a cabinet maker, but with the downturn in housing construction he is doing finish carpentry work, crown moldings, hardwood floor upgrades that sort of thing. I have a daughter who is in school and thinks she would like to be a flight attendant.
So, no cops or politicians or robots, my kids are all over the place in terms of what they have chosen as careers, I support them in whatever they chose to do,as I think that to be happy in ones work is as good as it gets. I am a design artist and have been since I was 22, it's been quite lucrative for me and the best part of it is that I love my work, always changing and challenging at times but almost always rewarding in the end.
I'll leave it to you to convince the Mormons and Jehovah's witnesses what they believe in. There is nothing that gets people more calcitrant than religion.

TYR.

We, my sons and me, loved this and laughed hard and loud. What a great description!

Nothing more funny than someone thinking they are more reasonable because they don't have a "belief"

hahaha...funnier is that they think they don't have a belief. hahaha.

Oh wait...electrical engineer? That's so green.

Thanks pjacobs51 , this is great .

Actually everyone is born a human with open mind. One or the other isn't possible.

Nice BS video.

Yes everyone is born with an open mind, and religions have set up some very sophisticated countermeasers to close that mind as fast as they can.

what closes it faster is prejudice.

Yours shut pretty fast there.

Prejudice? I would call it hypocrisy. In the western world where we have "freedom of choice" we see parents running their kids to Sunday School at age 3, before they even know what choice means. In the Islamic world, I don't think they even have a choice.

The brainwashing starts early and sinks in fast. I believe children should at least reach an age of reason before religion gets shoved down their throats. Let them decide for themselves what they want to believe, and don't just show them one option either.

I for one started my kids on science, and let them work their way down from there. I also gave them the freedom to think for themselves, instead of forcing my beliefs, or any others, upon them.

And no, teaching them things about metamorphic rock or how immense the universe is, is not a religion.

The worst argument for anything is "Let them decide."

Oh really? You let them decide if it's safe to walk out into the middle of the street? Do you let them decide what to watch on TV? Do you let them decide what time to go to bed? Do you let them decide when and if to go to school?

Let them decide is such a joke....pretend reason.

You seem to be getting basic survival skills mixed up with religion, while they have nothing in common.

Knowledge and reason are a necessity for living your life, whereas religion is relying on a higher power to help you through life, like a crippled person needs a crutch, thus separating you from yourself and your surroundings.

"The worst argument for anything "let them decide"?"

I'm sure glad that's not in the Constitution (debatable I know). You seem to be against freedom of choice for some reason. Are you the type that would tell your children "you will go to church and like it."?

And you are the one that says, "You will use reason the way I DEEM reason to be or else...."

Don't act as if what you're stating (as loony as it is) can't circle back around and hit you square in the nuts.

Don't make boomerangs toss them, miss and not expect them to come back and hurt you.

Was that insulting? Annoying? Can't be when someone like you deems it necessary to make religion like a crutch.

You're a human. You are frail. You need to go to the doctor. What is that a crutch? You went to school to learn because you were massively ignorant...is that crutch?

The problem with your 'reasoning' is it's too freakin' general. It really doesn't work.

Children don't get to decide much because that's why the two adults are called the parents. They are king and queen of the child's domain for a really long time. So thinking that the child gets to decide a lot of things based on where they go and why is a joke.

Now when they leave the house and fix their own living then they get to decide...until then they are not really that free as you wish them to be.

I highly doubt you'd be ok with your child picking a religion....and if you are I wouldn't wan to be your child. You're far too condescending when the idea isn't in alignment with yours.

ha..crutch.

I see you're quoting what I did not say, curious that is.

And again you fail to see the difference in what's needed to survive, doctors/schooling, and what is not needed, in my opinion, religion.

What is needed is the golden rule, treat others as you would like to be treated. Practiced, not preached. That went very well with my children.

If you need to know where those "boomerangs" went, here you go . . .
My kids are in their mid 20's now, one is Catholic (kinda), one is Agnostic, and the other is Agnostic but favors the teachings of Buddhism. And I'm good with that. They've found what they were looking for, and will continue looking as they please. They know what I believe, and I know what they believe and we are all cool about it . . ie . . . the golden rule.

My whole argument here is DON"T force your beliefs on your children, no matter what they are. If they ask, tell them, and tell them it was your choice, and give them the same opportunity to choose for themselves.

If you feel you are "the King" of your household, and they must follow your path, be prepared to raise some rebellious kids. Something I avoided entirely, just by allowing them the freedom to choose. And YES, it worked very well, for all of us.

So your children were taught nothing? They just went about doing whatever?

I sincerely hope you're not implying that I'm a slacker dad. Quite the opposite, single father of three children, cooking, laundry, running my business, the whole ball of wax, for them. And no, they weren't out taking drugs or causing mischief either. They saw how hard I worked for them and learned from it. A very important lesson about life, spoiled brats they were not.

One just got his masters in computer science, another is close to his masters in music composition/performance, my daughter is going for her masters in foreign language and thinking about joining the Peace Corps soon. And I'm no rich guy throwing money into their education either, they earned this on their own. Well deserved I must say, and all without any religious affiliation involved.

Basically I taught them this:
They were taught the golden rule, the difference between right and wrong, what should be the very foundation of humanity.

If you think I taught them nothing and let them run around and do whatever. Think again my friend.

That's what religious parents do as well.

You're no different.

But nice try.

Religion is "forced" this was taught, big difference.

No, there isn't.

Just because you state forced doesn't mean that it's true. It's funny how hard you're trying to make them different than you and how you raised your kids. Stinks that it' so close to the same.

Almost makes it seem like you're hating on yourself.

You taught them what you believe and they teach them what they believe.

You just don't like them so it's forced.

Forced is implying I am "King of my household" as you would want to impose on your children. Or, my way or the highway.

Taught is implying, I am equal to my children and share equal values. Discussion involved in both directions.

That means nothing when I just said you're no different.

Cute you continue to fight because there's no way in hell religious parents could teach their kids like that...because you have that market cornered.

"there's no way in hell religious parents could teach their kids like that"

Your right!

Therefor
I rest my case!

proving how poorly your parents taught you....they should have finished teaching your reading comprehension.

Oops.

Or I can now just say they Obamaed you.

I learned from my parent mistakes, it's called evolution. You should try it sometime, it's good.

You're so embittered. Now you're just being silly.

It's ok. I understand you finally got it. Better you get it now than later in life.

I'm not embittered, or even Obamaed. Whatever that means. Is that your last straw, Obamaed? Surely you can do better than that, some sort of political spin that has nothing to do with with this discussion.

And you're calling me silly. lol

Because you started this silliness after you couldn't come up with why you're any different than a religious parent.

You teach your kids what you want them to believe.

They teach what they want them to believe.

You just think you're way is the "rightest" way or if you were to mock them you'd state righteous. OMG so much difference between the two....not really Holier than Thou Poster.

I believe I made the difference quite clear, freedom of choice vs religion forced upon them. I'm sorry you can't see the difference in that.

In their adolescence years, one joined Assemblies of God, one joined a megachurch - Second Baptist, the other delved into New Age spirituality. And I gave them the freedom to do so. I didn't force them to go to church, or force them to not go to church. I don't think a stout religious parent would have that sort of tolerance.

I let them seek the truth, and the truth has set them free.

So you refused them freedom of thought.

Because you taught them the way you wanted them to learn. You didn't allow them to learn how they wanted to.

Did you homeschool them? Or did you force them to go to school?

Did you let them stay up to all hours in the night to go to bed when they decided to? OR did you give them a bed time?

Did you let them go to wherever they wanted to go without your permission? OR did they have to tell you where they were going and you had to ok?

Controlling you are.

Here I'll add some more ridiculous questions to your list:

Did I let them eat broken glass?

Did I let them jump out of airplanes without parachutes?

Controlling? Not at all. A father, yes indeed.

I gave them all the freedom of thought they wanted. Something they didn't realize until they tested some of these religions and found out for themselves how close minded and controlling religion really was. They learned the thought of an egocentric universe is just totally irrational.

They learned to see the universe as it really is, without persisting in delusion, no matter how satisfying and reassuring it may seem.

You taught them that....right there. That's close minded to state that let alone allow them to hear you say that and you have, no doubt.

You're not better. PERIOD.

No parent is BETTER and shouldn't think that. That's a terrible way to be a human let alone a parent.

Perfection you are not.

I taught my kids the beauty and wonder of science. Like the first time we went to the ocean, and I showed them how they could see the actual curvature of the earth. You could not imagine the look of amazement in their eyes seeing that for the first time. That really opened their minds to the boundless possibilities of the universe.

I may be guilty of letting them watch Carl Sagan's Cosmos, and Star Trek. But the rest they picked up on their own.

There's much more joy in teaching and showing your kids the real world, as compared to threatening them with things like hell, damnation and the rapture. Those would be the teachings of a self centered, fear mongering, control freak. And I really feel for those kids being brought up under those conditions, living in fear closes the mind for a very long time, if not forever.

Because that's what all people do who believe in God...THREATEN.

Just like you don't tell your child consequences of their actions.

You know what? I thought your horse couldn't get any higher....you show it can.