The Religion and Philosophy discussion thread!

Should I or should I not remove that gif? That is the question...

Do you eat kittens for breakfast or do you not? That is the question.

Really? So your romantic interest for this one
*future wife*
has already faded or will so soon?

Still no luck on finding her hrug:

Her not existing in the vicinity of myself is a bit of a turn-off, truth to be told.

'sides, look at the personality on her, she looks like the perfect candidate for a totally platonic cuddle

(case in point)

Personally, I don't really believe in soul mates, I have a pretty naturalistic worldview. Obviously there will be people you are more compatible with, but even if there were to be a perfect match for you, this wouldn't be dictated by some universal law except perhaps probability.

In all seriousness though, I like to try and reconcile different worldviews into one. Maybe naturalism is (no pun intended) compatible with theism or some astral world; it all depends on how you define them. Pantheism is a very naturalistic worldview in my opinion because it would equate God to nature.

Besides, it's nice to just believe someone was made for you. This is why I'd have a hard time adopting atheism, because it seems too enticing to believe that there is some sort of redemption after death. Naturally, I still need to remain realistic, but I'd want to adopt the belief that makes me happiest (and I'm not sure what that is at this time being).

But... but... If you don't find her soon, you can't live up to your promise by the time I reach Canada ;___;

I know

She could put some effort in it though :x

I was going to say something OT as well, but it came across as to pretentious dickery.

THAT'S JUST YOUR OPINION :x

Seriously, thanks for not being a pretentious dick

Mhm, I see where you're getting at. I grew up in a Catholic household and was a churchgoer until my apostasy around the age of 16-17 but I've always believed in a creator (and I've started diverging towards deism). Thing is, it all depends on your definition of God. If your definition is the loosest possible one, God exists by definition, and nor theist or atheist can say otherwise.

If 'God' is an absolute (something that has always existed) that allowed for the existence (not necessarily creation) of the universe, whether it be a man with a long white beard (Abrahamic religions), the souls that inhabit it (Buddhism and similar dharmic religions), a quantum subspace in which fluctuations can occur that create matter and time (Atheism/Naturalism) or the universe itself (Pantheism or Atheism), God exists, by definition. The reason people prefer the term 'the absolute' for this sort of thing is because 'God' seems to give more of an anthropomorphic and precise interpretation. The more precise your definition, the more arguments you need to prove your idea of God exists.

As for atheism, there are different ways to embrace it. It all depends on who you are. For example, Camus started absurdism, which is to accept the absurdity of life. This view is nowhere near what would make me happy, but maybe it works for you hrug: Sartre popularized existentialism (Kierkegaard, a Christian, is said to have started it many years before however). To all their own. I'm cool with whatever everyone else believes in (even certain things like Young-Earth Creationism), provided they're not jerks about their beliefs.

I'll just drop in and say that I'm a christian (WELS Lutheran, if you've ever heard of that particular flavor) and a creationist. Come at me bro.

And existentialism is just the philosophy of being depressed.

I have mixed feelings about the whole young earth thing. I'm not a 5-6 thousand year person, but I also don't buy millions and billions of years. That being said I don't really think its important. How old everything is doesn't really affect how I view God. Plus if it was important there would be something about it in the Bible, but there isn't.

My answer to how the world works if it isn't millions and billions of years old is that the world wasn't created as just some molten rock, it could have been created with a geologic history and stuff already.

I have mixed feelings about the whole young earth thing. I'm not a 5-6 thousand year person, but I also don't buy millions and billions of years. That being said I don't really think its important. How old everything is doesn't really affect how I view God. Plus if it was important there would be something about it in the Bible, but there isn't.

My answer to how the world works if it isn't millions and billions of years old is that the world wasn't created as just some molten rock, it could have been created with a geologic history and stuff already.

I thought that they could prove the billion years part with isotope dating of rocks and the fossils from the Precambrian from 600 million years ago.

I thought that they could prove the billion years part with isotope dating of rocks and the fossils from the Precambrian from 600 million years ago.

Like I said, created old. Alternatively you could basically say God is a troll.

I'll just drop in and say that I'm a christian (WELS Lutheran, if you've ever heard of that particular flavor) and a creationist. Come at me bro.

Young-Earth Creationism? I'm an Old-earth Creationist, technically, which means that evolution exists but God used it as a tool. Young-Earth is what Christian and Jewish fundamentalists believe.

Honestly, even though I disagree with it, I don't scoff at it as fast as most other people do because it does have some viable philosophical arguments. Me disagreeing with it doesn't give me the right to be a colossal cunt about it.

And existentialism is just the philosophy of being depressed.

lel like I said, existentialism was started by Soren Kierkegaard, a practicing Christian, who ironically criticized the Bible and Christendom.

Can I ask how the creationism works though - as in the world being created 5ooo years ago, or?

That's Young-Earth Creationism. It's essentially what the story of Genesis says, but interpreted literally. So God actually said "let there be light", created an actual Eden and Adam and Eve and told Noah to put two of every animal on an ark.

My personal definition of god would probably be limited to some sort of entity with traits of a personality. One could probably go broader than that, but then there's probably equally useful words for the same concept, and I'd prefer if god remain with some tangible meaning (lol)

Yeah, because that's the generally accepted definition (a personal God).

I'm mostly an agnostic though, my atheism comes second to my ignorance. As such, I obviously agree with your last point. Your personal believes are just that; personal. When they start making you abuse others, though, I will object.

Yeah, blowing up one car is bad enough, but the moment you blow up two, that's enough, I'm putting my foot down :p

I have mixed feelings about the whole young earth thing. I'm not a 5-6 thousand year person, but I also don't buy millions and billions of years. That being said I don't really think its important. How old everything is doesn't really affect how I view God. Plus if it was important there would be something about it in the Bible, but there isn't. geologic history and stuff already.

Of course, one thing I think is really smart about Buddhism is that creation myth truly is arbitrary and shouldn't affect your beliefs. Besides, literalism isn't seen as a core value in Christianity, so you could believe in evolution or YEC and still be a good Christian.

My answer to how the world works if it isn't millions and billions of years old is that the world wasn't created as just some molten rock, it could have been created with a geologic history and stuff already.

Nobody really knows, and I don't think it really matters, but that's just an opinion hrug:

Yeah, it's not really that important in everyday life. It's just that if that is wrong, then it creates a small crack in the dogma, and for every new fault it becomes harder to maintain the belief: For me, as a person who believes the world is about 15 milliard (>__>) years old and most definitely more than a few thousands, it would be pretty hard to adopt a belief where the world's age as 5ooo years old is considered a definite truth.

A small minority of Christians and Jews follow YEC though. My parents are very modern; they strongly believe in Catholicism but believe in evolution and allegorical interpretation of the Bible (the Vatican recognizes evolution as, and I quote, "virtually certain", and interprets the Bible allegorically).

I've the billion years part with isotope dating of rocks and the fossils from the Precambrian from 600 million years ago.

The argument is that God put them in the ground to challenge the Christian faith.

Some more conspiracy-theory-style argument is that the government is involved. Seriously.

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Like I said, created old. Alternatively you could basically say God is a troll.

Hahaha, actually, that's not a bad argument at all.

I thought that they could prove the billion years part with isotope dating of rocks and the fossils from the Precambrian from 600 million years ago.

Like I said, created old. Alternatively you could basically say God is a troll.

I'd support troll God

I'd support troll God

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_demon

Don't read if existential crises aren't your type of thing.