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Religion and faith

How would you describe yourself?

  • Strong theist

    Votes: 15 19.0%
  • De facto theist

    Votes: 7 8.9%
  • Technically agnostic but leaning towards theism

    Votes: 3 3.8%
  • Completely impartial agnostic

    Votes: 3 3.8%
  • Technically agnostic but leaning towards atheism

    Votes: 4 5.1%
  • De facto atheist

    Votes: 25 31.6%
  • Strong atheist

    Votes: 22 27.8%

  • Total voters
    79
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I am an atheist. I do not believe in any god or gods.

When did that happen? Perhaps I'm remembering incorrectly but I thought you were a believer when I first came to this BBS. If I'm wrong, my apologies; no offence meant.
 
People who believe in ghosts and spirits will disagree with you. Ghosts, religions...bof, same level of madness anyway.
I doubt they will claim a spirit is more important than a creator who made it possible for spirits to exist.

The people who believe in ghosts and spirits doesn't really see the necessity of a creator. From what I know (and I know a little too much about that for my own sanity) they believe in something else, in a form of energy and in cycles of life and death. Not in a creator. And yeah, for them, the spirit is everything.
 
Surely we can all agree that the "first cause" is the most fundamental, no matter what we believe. If they have another name for their "first cause", then that's what I mean when I say "god".
 
Surely we can all agree that the "first cause" is the most fundamental, no matter what we believe. If they have another name for their "first cause", then that's what I mean when I say "god".

They don't try to find "a fisrt cause".
 
I'm kind of surprised about your position, TheGodBen since I could swear I remember you complaining about the power of the Catholic Church some time ago in TNZ. Do you think the Catholic Church has done more good or bad in Ireland? Or aren't you catholic?
 
I consider myself #7. I used to be a 6, but I've gotten more skeptical with age.

The difference between 6 & 7 has nothing to do with skepticism.

Perhaps not. But the implication was, I used to be a #6--that is to say I simply "enjoyed life" as you put it, but as I've aged I've become more learned, experienced, and thus more cynical about religious figures and their would-be deities. In turn I've also become a huge religious skeptic and it's pretty much nullified any thought there might be of a God.

This really has a lot more to do with my views on religion itself and the exclusivity of "religious," "faith," "belief," and "God" and would make a lot more sense given the rest of my original post that I omitted after I deemed it more TNZ appropriate.

But to put it perspective, take the common skeptists' position that "There was a Jesus, but all he was really good for was making chairs." To me, the fact that any would-be almighty entity (as defined by the appropriate Christan texts) would allow billions of people to run around thinking otherwise is pretty definitive proof one doesn't exists.
 
I think I'd like to hear from the strong theist person. And watch him get butchered by 7 and 6s.

I am one of those people you are thinking of. If anyone wants to 'butcher' me for what I believe, then they can of course try, but frankly they'd be wasting their time. :shrug:

I know faith is not logical in the strictest sense. And what's more, I don't care. I believe in God because I have faith that He is looking out for me. And that His Son died on the cross for my sins. Does it offend the rest of you people that I've said this? I'm very sorry, that was not my intention. But I can't deny what I believe.

Why do we all have to get mean about it, though? This isn't TNZ, after all...since nobody here is being savaged for being an atheist, why should the reverse happen? :(

Faith may be unscientific and even, in a sense, illogical. Fine. I can see why people might think that. But in the end, the whole point of faith is belief in things that are NOT seen.

And this may not mean anything to any of you but I am still a huge Rush fan even though I am a Christian and thus many of their lyrics run counter to my beliefs. I don't care, I like them anyway. :)
 
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I'm kind of surprised about your position, TheGodBen since I could swear I remember you complaining about the power of the Catholic Church some time ago in TNZ. Do you think the Catholic Church has done more good or bad in Ireland? Or aren't you catholic?

I could be a Protestant. Or a Muslim. Or an atheist that's trying to prove that theism by itself isn't worthy of rancour, it's the theists (and atheists) that act like jerks because of their beliefs (or lack thereof) that deserve our scorn.

I'm a 6.
 
I consider myself #7. I used to be a 6, but I've gotten more skeptical with age.

The difference between 6 & 7 has nothing to do with skepticism.

Perhaps not. But the implication was, I used to be a #6--that is to say I simply "enjoyed life" as you put it, but as I've aged I've become more learned, experienced, and thus more cynical about religious figures and their would-be deities. In turn I've also become a huge religious skeptic and it's pretty much nullified any thought there might be of a God.

This really has a lot more to do with my views on religion itself and the exclusivity of "religious," "faith," "belief," and "God" and would make a lot more sense given the rest of my original post that I omitted after I deemed it more TNZ appropriate.

But to put it perspective, take the common skeptists' position that "There was a Jesus, but all he was really good for was making chairs." To me, the fact that any would-be almighty entity (as defined by the appropriate Christan texts) would allow billions of people to run around thinking otherwise is pretty definitive proof one doesn't exists.

I see what you are saying, but I think the 7 point list is talking about belief in a deity, rather than a belief in any particular religious interpretation of God.

I wasn't even thinking about religion when I assigned myself to it. If the list had been talking about God particularly as understood by Christians, then like you i'd be a hard 7 because as you say the whole notion disproves itself quite easily by constantly contradicting itself. I think that would go for lots of other people who picked 6.

In fact, given the content of the first post, I think it's not particularly appropriate to mention religion in the thread title at all.
 
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