What religion/faith are you?

[Discofan]

thanks for the tip! I thought I had read every Heinlein but this one must somehow have escaped me.
Yes, religion is an excellent vehicle to manipulate people. The hundreds of "holy wars" led by all sorts of religions are a sadly accurate proof of that point

My personal favorite is "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress."
It was refreshing: An A.I. that makes everything right instead of trying to destroy mankind!!!

 

[Delta Vega]

I loved when Peter Griffin started the "Church of the Fonz"
Now that was cool
AAAAAYYYYYY !!

 

[Delta Geminorum]

You may be an atheist, but when you hit bottom, do you pray? If not, then what?

 

[Discofan]

You may be an atheist, but when you hit bottom, do you pray? If not, then what?

To me, it's a ridiculous question. It's similar to asking: "Do you dance on one foot while hitting repeatedly your forehead with the palm of your left hand while chewing on rubber bands..." or anything else of the kind.

How would doing something that serves no purpose help me in any way?

 

[Tosk]

Slight sidestep, and would like to hear opinions in the matter,
A number of books I've read, and maybe to a point star trek.. That have the opinion that as a civilization grows and evolves to a space faring society that the belief in God steadly goes away because science has explained most things etc.

Some shows like Babylon 5 still have pretty much every religion and was in front on alot of episodes. Even a made up religion called foundationism that dr Franklin had.
So just wondering any opinions

Will religion ever go away (assuming we last long enough)? Who knows...but the ever increasing numbers of atheists does say maybe.

You may be an atheist, but when you hit bottom, do you pray? If not, then what?

I don't pray, and I don't replace it with anything.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

You may be an atheist, but when you hit bottom, do you pray? If not, then what?

Depends on which kind of bottom I hit.

Is it something that's up to me? Well, I better get my shit together and do something about it.

Is it something I can't do anything about, but somebody I know can help? I ask for help.

Is it something I have no influence over? I hope for the best, while bracing myself for the worst.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

^I'm 99% with Kai here. The last percent is that in addition to bracing myself for the worst I also make a plan B and C for all possible developments I can think of.

In Germany, we have a proverb: help yourself, then god helps you. It's - propably deliberately - unclear
a) whether there is a god who will only help you if you are willing to take action or
b) whether there is no god and therefore you must help yourself, thus replacing him (or her/it/other/all - why should all-powerful beings be of the male persuasion?) and taking full control over a situation.
Personally, I prefer the second interpretation. An atheist is his/her own god when it comes to helping in an emergency. And you'd be surprised at what miracles we sometimes work when the incentive is big enough

 

[Doom Shepherd]

How people are supposed to treat their fellow man is one thing, what people can demand from God is another.

Oh, so that whole “ask, and it shall be given unto you” was a lie, then. It wouldn’t be His first.

Careful, you’re a few ill-chosen phrases away from describing your god as a narcissistic sociopath.

 

[Tosk]

Careful, you’re a few ill-chosen phrases away from describing your god as a narcissistic sociopath.

Didn't the bible already do that?

 

[rhubarbodendron]

Well, the bible is a rather versatile epos. Apart from sex and crime, lovesongs and a collection of legends from the whole Near East it also contains a few rather good philosophical and ethical ideas, like the 10 commandments of which the last 7 are basic human rights.
I think, as is the case with Homer's works, the problem with the bible is that it had a gazillion of authors over the span of several centuries. Inevitably there had to be contradictionary bits. And that's without counting mistranslations or plain misunderstandings. Just remember how millions of children were forced to eat spinach until someone realised that the high iron content was simply a wrong decimal point.
The main difference between religious books and scientific books is that incorrect information in the latter is easier to change while errors in the further are cemented into place by customs and rites.
On the other hand: the US cut themselves free from an Empire, 200 years ago but still use imperial measures while the rest of the world - including said empire - uses metric. So maybe my thesis about scientific errors being less persistent than religious ones is not as solid as I had at first presumed.

 

[Discofan]

Words of wisdom:

Spoiler: spoily spoiler spoilerson --- Disco Season 2 --- Be warned there's a spoiler there!!!

Faith is not a strategy.

 

[Tosk]

the 10 commandments of which the last 7 are basic human rights.

The last three are "don't lie" and two kinds of "don't covet"...what do those have to do with human rights?

In my opinion, at least half of them are completely useless. The first three are just about making sure you give God props, four is respect your parents (fair enough I guess, but important enough for a commandment?), six is no adultery, eight is don't lie, and 9 and 10 are both about not wishing you had stuff that other people have.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

You may be an atheist, but when you hit bottom, do you pray? If not, then what?

I rely on my friends and family for support, assess what got me to rock bottom, what I need to change, and take steps to climb back out.

Whether religion will survive in a space faring civilization. I think so. Technology and science don’t change people’s fundamental need to be part of something that makes sense of a chaotic, demanding universe.

Religion is a mirror. What you believe God wants of you is an expression of who you really are. If you believe you’re better than people not like you, God will confirm that you are. If you feel empathy and care for other people, God will direct you to do so.

 

[DonIago]

When it comes to matters of faith, my favorite is still what "God" (possibly a massive supercomputer) said to Bender after he'd played God (badly) to a small civilization: When you do things right, people won't be sure you did anything at all.

 

[Discofan]

When it comes to matters of faith, my favorite is still what "God" (possibly a massive supercomputer) said to Bender after he'd played God (badly) to a small civilization: When you do things right, people won't be sure you did anything at all.

What???

 

[Discofan]

The last three are "don't lie" and two kinds of "don't covet"...what do those have to do with human rights?

In my opinion, at least half of them are completely useless. The first three are just about making sure you give God props, four is respect your parents (fair enough I guess, but important enough for a commandment?), six is no adultery, eight is don't lie, and 9 and 10 are both about not wishing you had stuff that other people have.

There are like a dozen variations of the ten commandments and I am pretty sure that it's just the main ones, main variations I mean. They can't even agree on their order.

 

[Butters]

I rely on my friends and family for support, assess what got me to rock bottom, what I need to change, and take steps to climb back out.

If you’ve got friends, family, and potentially steps back out, you haven’t hit rock bottom. You’re still a long way up, you can’t even see the bottom from there.

 

[Discofan]

If you’ve got friends, family, and potentially steps back out, you haven’t hit rock bottom. You’re still a long way up, you can’t even see the bottom from there.

I am so far up rock bottom that I don't even dare to look down there, lest I would get vertigo.

 

[Kor]

What???

It's from an American satirical animated sci-fi television series called Futurama, by Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons.

The scene in question:

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Kor

 

[Discofan]

It's from an American satirical animated sci-fi television series called Futurama, by Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons.

The scene in question:

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Kor

I see. Thanks for the info.