Religion divides people

Best picture EVAR

Religion was the excuse, but not the cause.

the key word is fear l's&g's

Truth is not found by asserting what we wish were true.

Believe it or not, once you accept reality, you can move on. No fears of the unknown - you already know. So go out and live!

It's your only chance.

If you don't believe in god or have any religious beliefs thats cool but don't say people who do are self-centered and stupid thats unnecessary and untrue.

I think it takes more of a leap of faith to not believe in God than to ascribe to a faith, but that's just me. I understand your opinion, how you can think religious people are self-center and stupid, but that's an incredibly broad generalization; you would be calling MLK Jr. self-centered and stupid.

Religion has a lot to do with the subjective. I believe in God because of things I've experienced, maybe if you experienced them you wouldn't see God in it, but to discredit such a large group of people just because something they believe is, with all due respect, very naive and close-minded.

I go on religion bombing raids every now and then. -Try to shake someone up -

Some people, of course are wholly genuine in their religious pursuit. They accepted the particular dogma and engage the ideals of that religion quite honestly.

I probably shouldn't have been so blanket in my assertions.

Religion has it's story - and an honest believer holds their way-path in earnest prayer - and in earnest spirituality.

There are many people who do not go about a religion in that way. Many people want an acceptable story that gives them what they want. Kind of like picking the right country club to join.
They can use a kick in the pants. If for any other reason to get them to get real. Whether they turn to honest, deep belief or turn away - at least let them be real.

Another aspect is the actual truth. This has nothing to do with an individual's beliefs. It is a matter of what is real. What is really real.

Whose notions of God are real - when it is easy to realize everyone's conception of God is different - one from the next?

And we know that the earlier church didn't want science to compete with a strong and very different story.
But as bad and mis-directed as some of the sciences are, observations we now have, the built up view of this place in which we find ourselves, does surpass the cosmology of the various scriptures - just as the church feared.

So that's another quandary for those hoping to know and to not be mislead, not to be utterly on the wrong path.

Hi - Read above. I know there are honest believers. Please forgive my being too overly zealous

It's okay.

That's a perfectly adequate descriptor for all religions and the great majority of their adherents.
It's always about me, me, me - right in the face of a Universe (God) that stretches so far beyond their hopes and dreams for a God that their continued grasping equates to an anti-God belief system.
They demand that GOD be their pitiful little idea. An idea that isn't even theirs! Just a children's story they heard and won't let go of.
And that is anti-God.

Just what is the best way to destroy a troll?

feed it bacon

MMMM Bacon

Well, I believe they are susceptible to acid and fire damage.

well I have fire The acid I will have to get. Umm do you know what kind works best?

You my friend have done lasting damage.

.......tape it to bOObies? pasties?
hmmmmmmmmm,.....marketing brain revving up,....

Fallacy of the means, the idea that the truth lies somewhere between two extreme positions. A common one among issues that are ambiguous and provoke controversy.

Where there can be objective measurement, some people are right and some people are wrong. There's nothing absolutist about that, it's just basic reality.

That needs to be repeated from time to time. "Consensus" is NOT
synonymous with "true". ( Though there is from time to time a bit of cohabitation,....and frequently someone somewhere is getting f-cked in the deal )

when did dreamsenvoy imply that agnosticism lies between two extreme positions? agnosticism is outside all wrongful positions, it is truth. and objective measurement is in the eye of the beholder. even if we assume that some people are right and some people are wrong, what is stopping an argument and a contra-argument from both being wrong? we are all agnostic, and everyone who denies that is simply lying to themselves, that is what happens when one begins to argue about something they know nothing about, or something that exists only as an idea.

Huh?

imagine that....dream defining reality

There is no such thing as "objective measurement" in an infinite universe. Only "subjective."

Works for me. Mind if I use that? Thats a good way to look at it. Life ya Know ?