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Reasons for following a religion
Hello everyone. I am, currently, a strong agnostic. However, I am always interested in improving what I know, do and believe in order that I might adopt the most reasonable philosophy possible. Therefore, I ask you if you have a really good reason why I might reconsider what I believe. I would love to hear reasons for changing my mind - it is something that, perversely, I take much pleasure in doing!
To help you along, here are my current beliefs summarised (but badly!):
1. I am a materialist. That is, I do not believe that there is anything other than the material world. I do not believe in the supernatural or the spiritual, nor in gods, magic or souls.
2. My ethics are broadly utilitarian. That is, I judge my actions according to the level of harm and benefit derived from performing them. I also use (and I think the idea was first put forward formally by Kant) the principle that I call "if everyone did it". When we perform some actions, the harm done is so minor that it does not really matter if one person does it (so utilitarianism fails to stop you doing it), but "if everyone did it" then the world would be harmed very greatly. So I do not perform such actions as littering, shoplifting, wasting water etc. My ethics are also partly informed by the sense of morality hammered into me by parents, teachers, and (IMO) the rigours and necessities of survival (ie evolution).
3. Because I am a materialist (see #1), I accept the latest scientific theories as the best possible explanations for the way the world works and its origins. Questions unanswered (or unanswerable) by science I either answer with pure reason or mark as "unknowable". Note that I do not "believe" scientific theories, but am merely *convinced* by them.
4. My general philosophy as regards other people's behaviour is, "live and let live"; ie I am a libertarian. So long as no-one is harmed by your actions and you are capable of making rational decisions, you should be free to do as you wish. It would be nice if everyone were as morally upright as me (see #2), but human nature seems to dictate that most people will not think so hard about their ethics as I do.
And those are all the salient points as regard my belief system. I now make a request of you when you proselytise for your various beliefs:
If you are an evangelical, Protestant, fundamentalist Christian, please think your answers through VERY carefully. I have been arguing with fundamentalists for a very long time on the Internet and am well versed in (and indifferent to) most of the standard arguments from that group. I am quite tired of people trashing evolution because "it is just a theory", or telling me that Christianity is ONLY about having a personal relationship with Jesus, and everything else that is promulgated by poorly-educated and immature Christian fundamentalist debaters. Everyone should think their answers through carefully, of course, and be sure that they are well-structured and properly written, but this group IN PARTICULAR should take care.
Thankyou for your time. Please respond!
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Want to answer more questions in the Miscellaneous category?
Maybe give some free advice about: Spirituality?
If you are a true materialist then you would not mind If I killed you. Because why waste our time living if we are just going to die like a leaf fallen from a tree. But even the tree knows there is a God. Everything that is known is known from cause and effect. If you see a new born calf you would know it has a mother right? Right. See creation is an effect. You and me are here because of some previouse cause adn they just go back and back and back one effect and cause to another. But answer me this. How can something come from nothing. How can a universe be created if there is nobody to create it. I have all of your answers I am not a feel good hippy, I am a catholic. I REAL catholic not these people you see who know nothing but rules and regulations those people are sheep. I have my degree in Theology. theo=God ology=logic God logic. I know stuff that will make you cry tears of joy. Email me at baseball@stthom.edu if you are interested. We are not just some accident. Do you look at a building and think that all that design came about by accident. Hear are some of my best arguments and you can listen to them I have them online. [Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
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Hi, Im a christian! oh by the way i didnt read all your little doo-dads, doesnt really matter. Okay i dont know if you like movies or not but i'd like for you to go rent/buy it if you please the movies called "Left Behind" theres 1 and 2. It talks about Jesus coming back and families being left behind, hense the name. But i cant force you to believe that being a christian is the best thing. But my opinion is , it is. And i mean Jesus died for you! Read the Bible its there. Most people who dont believe it, dont hardly know that much about it. Theres proof - you just have to know where too look and what to look for. But if you dont realize it sooner or later that God is real. And Heaven and Hell is real then -- when you die you'll certainly see it. Your life on Earth is to prepare you for Heaven. If you dont except being a christian then you dont have really anything to live for, except for the fires of Hell. Being a christian your here to figure out what part you have in the Christian Body. Every Christian is a certain part of Jesus Christ. For Example, somebody whos good at speaking is maybe the mouth. Ya know what i mean? And also your life on Earth is a test to see you have the faith to believe in God. "Believing isnt always seeing" I mean like for example say somebody says your boyfriend is cheating on you. Do you believe your friend or do you not believe them just because you didnt see? Would your friend lie to you? If they would they're not a true friend. But Jesus Died for you, Just because you werent around when it happened is just God's plan for you. Me leaving you this advice is part of God's plan for you. Now wether you consider his plan or not is on you. But i think you know that there is more to life then whatever you believe in. Oh and maybe you might wanna read this book.. its called "the purpose driven life" it explains alot about why your here. But im gonna give you a verse from the bible think about it and i hope you'll just pray and maybe ask God to give you a sign... and ill do the same for you right after i finish typing all this to you...
this something Jesus directly said to his people..
" I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. Now get to your feet! For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant and witness. You are to tell the world what you have seen and what I will show you in the future. And I will rescue you from both your own people and the Gentiles. Yes, I am sending you to the Gentiles to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Then they will recieve forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God's people, who are set apart by faith in me." - Acts 27: 15-18
just think about that and what it means to you
ill pray for you!! JESUS LOVES YOU!
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Hey, what's up. I'm a pagan (not wiccan, just pagan). I think that a person would have a very hard time changing your mind, since you understand your beliefs so well, and since your rationalism is so well thought out.
I disagree with you on one point only. I believe in spiritual experiences, a god, and possibly other spiritual beings. But my god is not the Christian God, because I do not feel that the Christian God is possible. Simplified, the Christian beliefs turn on four principals: 1) God is all-good (or god is love), 2) God is all seeing, 3) God is all powerful, 4) Evil exists. These four prinicpas CANNOT exist at the same time. An all-good, all-seeing, all-knowing God could not allow all of the evil that exists in the world today. It would hurt him too much to see so much undeserved suffering. I also find it hard for an all-good god to say that suffering is deserved because of a sin in a garden thousands of years ago.
Someone cannot say that evil does not exists, because its presence is so obvious in so many ways. Therefore, one of the principals of god must be untrue. I choose to believe that god is not all-powerful, which makes me a very bad Christian, indeed...Which is why I'm not one.
Can you see that there is even a slim possibilty that an all-good, all-knowing, but not all-powerful God might exist? Have you ever researched the Zoroastrian god? Because it was when I researched Zoroastrianism for a school paper that I acutally completely gave up my Christianity (after years of questioning why it didn't make sense).
I won't try to change your beliefs, and I don't want to, because it's against what I believe. However, if you really want to challenge your beliefs, think on those four things with an open mind. With how well your understand your beliefs though, I doubt that you will find any more truth in what I've said. But it is interesting to think about, isn't it?
...Other than that, I can find no argument for your other three listed beliefs. I hope that was at least mildly interesting to read, lol.
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