[quote]Originally posted by Keiyoushi_Naota
Mega X.exe, what are your views on...umm...religion.
Yes, what are your views on religion?
As you already know, I have an essay posted here speaking my mind, but here it is again:
[spoiler]Note:
Prior to reading this essay, please read this disclaimer:
This essay is the philosophy of a very young teenager who has very little tact. If you read this, there is a strong chance that you may be extremely offended by this child’s questioning of a very way of life so instilled in the human mind. He won’t say sorry, because if you read this, you are specifically saying that “I will not be offended by this essay”.
What is God?
What is God? It’s an interesting question that has baffled many philosophers, I’m sure. Personally, I don’t believe in it. A lot of my friends do though. Not to say, that I don’t believe that he can exist. I merely question his existence. For all I know, he may very well exist. It wouldn’t matter to me. But to some, it does. Why? That is a question I still ask myself. What exactly is the big deal? Why should anyone care? Why do they care for that matter? In the Bible (I haven’t actually read it entirely per se, but, I got the gist of it…), it says that God created the world in 5 days, and on the sixth day, God created Man. Then thinking that Man would be lonely, God took a rib from said Man (Adam), and made the Woman (Eve). Now I’ll get into the woman aspect later. But for now, I’ll just dwell on God.
Based on what I’ve heard, God is omnipotent and omniscient too. Meaning, he sees, hears, feels, (tastes?) and (smells?) everything in the universe as it happens. God is aware of everything happening every instant of every place of the Universe, which would take unimaginable processing power. So, even as I type this cynical report about Him/Her (is God male or female? Or maybe neither….oh, later.) God is aware of every time my finger strikes the keyboard. He is aware of my every thought process, and every other reaction going on in my body. Supposedly. Of course, I could delve into how any being could actually process ALL of that, being that there are near infinite things in the universe, but of course, we’re assuming that God is all powerful, all knowing, and basically, SUPER advanced. So of course, God could process this. But how does anyone have any way of knowing?
Who wrote the bible anyway (no, seriously…I don’t know)? Who gave them the right to decide how Mankind and everything else in the world was formed? Nobody. Now, I’m going to assume that God told (them, as in the original writers, whoever they were…) the story of how he did it. Well, first off, how do we know God was telling the truth? How do we know he even talked to them? What if they just made up some elaborate story, and it got passed around too much (yes, I know it’s unlikely…but just consider, ok?)? And even if God actually talked to them…how do we know that he was telling the truth? How do we know that (assuming he’s real and all) he actually is Omnipotent and capable of infinite Miracles? We don’t. And we couldn’t find out either. If there is such thing as Heaven or Hell, then I’m sure we’ll find out eventually…but I doubt those places’ existence.
Of course, all of that is based on certain assumptions I’ve made over the past few years I’ve been thinking about this. I’ve perfectly open to criticism.
(not criticism) Reply by one such named: Joyd:
God? All powerful? Maybe. Our (hence humans) creator? Who knows? The answer ultimately lies in the “afterlife.” If you believe in such a thing. To question what God is and what he (or better so it) did to create humans and life on this earth (or even the earth for that matter), requires an open mind to all sorts of opinions. Thus stated in simple English below:
1. Perhaps god and evolution coincide. By this I mean that it is highly probable that humans came from that infamous puddle of primordial goop some several billion years ago. But before that there was the creation of the Earth. The explanation here is that for some reason, after our galaxy formed, masses accumulated and the Earth was slowly created until viola! There it was. Yet even before that, there was the galaxy’s creation, and then prior to was the creation of the universe. How? The Big Bang. Here lies a theory as bogus and unbelievable as some idea that we suddenly just “were” from the hand of some unknown being. The universe was some tiny mass (beyond which no one has attempted to theorize), and then KABOOM. The universe sprung forth for an unknown reason. So what was needed? Perhaps some touch, some power was needed to set forth this process of creation and our eventual existence. What was this power. Perhaps it was not in the form by which most interpret it, but it simply was:
GOD
2. Maybe God is as fundamental as the hardened religious practicers deem him to be. Everything that was stated in the Bible was (period). There was no question that God was a man, and created man in his image. Woman then came from man, and the all life and planetary (stuff) was created in seven days. There is an interesting argument that has come up in a discussion in one of my various classes, and that was that “What if in the Bible a ‘day’ was equivalent to several thousand (or million years). This would encompass all of evolution in its fashions and time periods (see #1).
3. How do you explain (from the point of view of the fundamentalist i.e. #2) all other religions? If you follow the stories if the bible as non-literal events meant to get across a moral truth (as wonderfully told by a biology teacher), then almost all of the holy books of the religions are the same! All contain some form of a creator. The creator is either 1) Real because he is in all stories OR 2) Not real because humans all require some form of belief to keep any form of psyche in check. Buddha, Allah, God, The Great Spirit, all are examples of a creator that is the backbone of any and all religions.
Fundamentalism is not my belief, I follow with the stories idea. I now find myself questioning whether or not I choose the real or non-real choice. So thus, in the end, religion is a matter of choice. Just like all things. It is choice, which is the one thing that was either bestowed to us by this creator to aid in questioning him (which seems the unwise decision to make if I were a creator). Or is simply because there is NOT a creator, hence GOD.
THE DECISION IS CHOICE.
(Never Criticism) Re: Re: Reply by one such named: Joyd
From: Kei
Theory 1: concerning the Big Bang Theory
Personally, I also believe in the Big Crunch Theory. Which, as the name implies, is the exact opposite of the Big Bang. The Basic principal is that all matter in the universe will at some point expand to much and be dispersed so openly that gravity will begin to move everything together and compact it. Now I’m sure that one such as Joyd is fully aware of the mass of a black hole. Being that absolutely NOTHING escapes from a Black Hole, it is also reasonably to suggest that the size of a black hole, that is to say the volume that it takes up in space would be little than a speck of dust, whereas the initial mass of a black hole would be the size of (depending on size and age of said hole) several solar systems smashed together. Now, the initial ball of matter ascertaining to the Big Bang theory would roughly be the size of a base ball, or perhaps a small kick ball. However, comparing the size to said ball and a speck of dust can justify why such a small ball of energy can have such a massive amount of initial mass. As to the causation of the reaction of this ball becoming the universe, I can only argue that the energy it contained became too volatile, and dispersed in a very rapid method. Since all matter is basically Energy in a different from, I believe that the reason we have any planets and what not is because that tiny little ball of super compressed energy exploded and went through SEVERAL different reactions, changing the energy. Remember the fundamental theory: Matter can neither be created nor Destroyed, only changed.
Theory 1.5 (really 1+2/5 [midpoint formula anyone?]) Concerning fundamentality of God and Religion
Thus, the role of God comes into play. I do not deny the possibility nor the concept. I only deny the existence. For all I know, god probably exists. I deny it, yes, but I’m willing to believe it. And yes, you are right, the answer ultimately lies in what humans have so precariously dubbed: Afterlife, “If you believe in it”. I personally fancy the possibility that after we die, our ‘souls’ (so to speak) leave our bodies and ascend to a higher plain of existence. Of course, just as I deny the existence of God, I deny the existence of such an unreliable theory as this. Not saying of course, that I deny the concept, but rather I don’t personally believe in it myself.
Moving into the Role of god, I cannot deny that God could not be a man himself, or, rather, a much more advance form (hence: Asgard LOL). For all I know, he (does anyone know if it’s even a he?) evolved from a form similar to ours (read my Human Sin thingy). Anyway, do you find it ironic that during gestation, all children are actually female? At least, until the final deciding gene decides which role will the child play. Ultimately, the outcome of said process is decided by which gene is carried by the…well…I won’t get into that, we both know what I’m saying. Anyway…who decides that? Chance? Maybe God is Chance? Of course, like you said in your #3, god could be just some reason….some belief that humans need to have to anchor themselves to reality and to explain all the wonderful going-ons of life. Perhaps that IS God. Certainly, he would need to have a LOT of processing power to be able to dictate who’s a boy and who’s a girl, and what not. Of course, the Time Theory plays into it too. Said theory stating that everything that happens is meant to happen, more easily put, our future, past, and present are all written out. That we’re all following some grand design or something. Once again, ruling out Free Will (I talk about this in my other pieces…maybe I talked about it in this one…lemme check…ok…I didn’t…at least…not in this one). Now, I’m not going to go any further on said matter, Or I’ll lose myself.
As for Each day in the 7 day waiting period of life is actually several million or thousand years…to tell the truth, I’ve never thought of it like that before. Which opens up bold new possibilities about the writing of the bible. Perhaps (assuming that God actually told humans what he did and all), god worded it to be understandable to Humans at the time of the Bible’s publish. Or, maybe humans made it up. I don’t know.
Theory 3 (yes, 3): How do I explain other religions?
In every society, there will always be a series of disbelievers. Such as I for instance. So, a disbeliever such as I would probably either exile him/herself from religion all together, or join a different one. Or, they may go to the ultimate choice, and create their own. Of course, nowadays, that doesn’t happen very often. Let us not forget that Christianity is something of a ‘young-un’ in terms of age compared to it’s counterparts. Now, as for the other religions (greek mythology, norse mythology, and egyptian mythology and what not), I’d say that they were just another means for which Humans may keep their psyche in check, just as Joyd said. Just as christianity may be like that.
Quoted from Joyd
“Fundamentalism is not my belief, I follow with the stories idea. I now find myself questioning whether or not I choose the real or non-real choice. So thus, in the end, religion is a matter of choice. Just like all things. It is choice, which is the one thing that was either bestowed to us by this creator to aid in questioning him (which seems the unwise decision to make if I were a creator). Or is simply because there is NOT a creator, hence GOD. “
My Reply to this is as follows:
I personally have no belief. I personally believe that both sides have large amounts of evidence behind them. I choose no choice, rather, I allow life to justify itself. And if it doesn’t, my unending speculation will come up with SOMETHING to help. And yes, you are right, Religion is a matter of choice. How humans have acquired such an amazing ability is beyond me. I could delve into the intricacies of evolution, and the human brain, but my brain hurts enough as it is, so I’ll leave it at that. Perhaps Chance is the only reason why we walk on two feet, cloth ourselves with various plants and animals, and ingest just about every edible thing around us, killing everything in our path. Of course, Death is inevitable you know…but that will be for another time.
The Conclusion: My final word
I believe that this final conclusion will evaluate my religion as a whole. Up until yesterday, I firmly believed that I was is and forever will be an atheist in every form. This was of course, prior to a friend over the nets, introducing me to a new concept. Agnosticism. Agnosticism is obviously the doctrine of agnostics.
“ag·nos·tic ( P ) Pronunciation Key (g-nstk)
n.
One who believes that it is impossible to know whether there is a God.
One who is skeptical about the existence of God but does not profess true atheism. “
Perhaps I should explain. You see, a friend told me that I am more of an agnostic, rather than the assumed atheism that I had since adopted. Agnosticism is the questioning of the existence of god. However, since I am also open to His/Her existence, this does not make me an atheist, who forsake all forms of religions and gods. While I can not say that I embrace any type of religion (agnosticism is more of a philosophy, rather than a full blown religion and what not)
I do hope that you have thoroughly enjoyed my piece on god. If you’ve been offended, I have little to say. I’m not going to say sorry for something that ISN’T my fault. You have chosen to read this of your own accord. Remember that.
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Those are mine. What are yours? [/quote]
Interesting, I myself believe in God (and Jesus for that matter) I suppose that I'd have a harder time proving the existince of Jesus, but that's another post.
About God...Well, the Big Bang theory, in order for it to have worked out the way it did, it was based upon a random factor, which based on the odds, would have failed. Also, the same random-low chance factors were used several times, with the creation of each Flora, and each Fauna, and the Balance, and setting evoloution (if it happened) into the motion it happened in.
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