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Originally Posted by sellouteater
thanx for the cookie see you in hell
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where???
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about the debate that seemingly ensued:
i hope i did not offend anyone with my public statement of religious disbelief. i was only trying to point out to sellout eater, who apparently was high while writing all his rants, that it's a bit absurd to be an atheist who believes in satan. (if that is in fact what he did-- frankly i could not understand his post.)
now, i am sure if someone came out in public & said "i just found god and my life is so much better for it", people would come out of the woodwork to congratulate them and express their support. so i don't see why we can't do the same when someone finds "there is no god." same deal, goes both ways.
just a couple of points to bring up for general discussion:
i was raised catholic, and later rejected christianity in general, i have to say i'm ambivalent about the role of religion in human life. i also went to school to study science (and left it for other pastures but likes to keep current on the subject).
from this my own perspective, i am very ambivalent about the role of religion; i probably lean towards the negative perspective, and here is why:
i agree with racehorse that there is a religious instinct. is it a function of the cognitive system to deal with the unknown, or with information overload? is it some kind of organ/function that responds to the existence of something real like the eye evolved as a response to light? i have no idea, and though i lean towards the former, some other days i consider the latter as a possibility.
like all instincts, i respect mine, and i have to say there is a "spiritual" dimension to my life, as there is to all human lives, because we all have the religious instinct. i have mine but i don't like to discuss it in public.
however necessary or beneficial the religious instinct, it can certainly be misused, exploited, as perverted, just like other instincts-- sex, hunger, the need to belong to a group, whatever. and just like our hunger instinct has transformed the world into a giant fast-food factory, i fear that our religious instinct has been exploited for milennia by charlatans, social manipulators, fanatics, extremists, and sociopaths.
another thing i have to say: humans are also the bearers of a moral instinct. this moral instinct is conflated with the religious instinct, but do not for a second think that without religion we'd descend to the realm of beasts. we can be beasts with or without religion, often we become beasts with the help of religion-- the more rigid and authoritarian the sytem, the greatest its capacity for atrocities.
in general, what i detest about religion is the social control aspect (some would say it's a good, "civilizing" force), and the authoritarian aspect that accompanies it, which makes people prone to atrocities and barbarity "in the name of god". and beyond that, the rigidity of repressive religious moral codes that are fundamentally against life and nature and cause more pain than they are meant to relieve. i think that religion can be a very negative force also that keeps people from adapting to the future. and as we know, adaptation is esssential for our survival.
there are some aspects of some religions that i like, but currently i can't find one thatallows me to agree wholeheartely with it.
these are just some general outlines that i'd be happy to discuss in greater detail later.