<p>
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Is there really some invisible man in the sky, always watching everything you do? It's like Santa Claus revisited or some children's tale.
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Did you get that out of George Carlin? x.X</p>
<p>Either way, posts like these were exactly what I have been talking about...have you attempted to learn anything about religion, have taken a theological course, philosophy, and such? From your statement, you don't seem to know anything but a bunch of generalizations and preconceived ,distorted examples.</p>
<p>Oh and not EVERY religion is an "invisible man in the sky who watches everything you do", and since you made an attack on basically theism as a whole, instead of a particular religion, that's pretty ridiculous...lumping all the religions together as one.</p>
<p>I assure you that Carlin was not the first person to ask such a basic question, and will not be the last. I did not reference that with Carlin in mind, although I guess it did come out in the first half of that paragraph.</p>
<p>I have gone to Catholic church my entire life. My parents are serious about it, and I will attend this Sunday in spite of my views. I am not a stranger to religion, and I have taken a theology class as I go to a parochial school. </p>
<p>There is no need for ad hominem arguments. There is no God. Get over it.</p>
<p>For someone who took a theology course and "understand" religion...
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invisible man in the sky who watches everything you do
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...this is pretty hilarious.</p>
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I have gone to Catholic church my entire life. My parents are serious about it, and I will attend this Sunday in spite of my views.
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Doesn't matter. This means nothing.</p>
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There is no need for ad hominem arguments.
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Such as you often make? And this isn't a formalized debate tournament or anything, so I really don't care...it's not as if my post only had blatant insults.</p>
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There is no God. Get over it.
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Someone's bitter...I don't know why you'd label me with a position, or attempt to say something like this that I never claimed, when I simply said that you are generalizing all religions and grouping them all into one category of "invisible man in the sky".</p>
<p>I was never aiming for a religious debate in the first place, either way. I was commenting about what you said. And maybe there is a god, maybe there isn't...go tell that to the priests. I could care less.</p>
<p>I'm not claiming to be an expert in religion, but from what I know of Christianity, the church teaches that there is, in fact, a "man" in the heavens who is "invisible" in the sense that humans can't detect or understand him, and he, being omniscient, is "watching" your every move. So aminhamenina's quote was basically paraphrasing Christian doctrine.</p>
<p>Christianity, though, is not one lump religion. God is often personified as a man in the Old Testament, but he is also described as pure spirit and sometimes even given female characteristics. Most Christian denominations teach that God is beyond human understanding, not that's there's some grey-bearded dude in the sky sitting back and watching us all.</p>
<p>^You'll find that most major religions (Islam, Judaism, etc.) believe in an omniscient, omnipotent deity. I realize it's not all-encompassing, but it applies to a majority of religious people (in the real world, not necessarily in this forum).</p>
<p>
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^You'll find that most major religions (Islam, Judaism, etc.) believe in an omniscient, omnipotent deity. I realize it's not all-encompassing, but it applies to a majority of religious people (in the real world, not necessarily in this forum).
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And that's pretty obvious. It's not all-encompassing at all...an omniscient, omnipotent deity is in no wayreflective of a majority of religious people **in the real world<a href="source/evidence?">/B</a>...if you say Christians (some which don't even believe in those characteristics), I probably will agree. This is all irrelevant though; I understand that the majority of monotheistic religions hold this view, except it was used in a quite pejorative manner...and it was not paraphrasing the Christian doctrine at all, by the words that you yourself have said, it could be paraphrasing of Islam, Judaism, or someone entirely random that has not been evidenced. Of course, his post wasn't serious...that's not that part that I had any concern in the first place.</p>
<p>You guys need to be more tolerant, since obviously you are not going to sway anybody over to your camp on here anyway. Might as well have others share their perspectives on this thing.</p>
<p>^ Meh, it's no use. People are so stubborn and when they argue, instead of coming closer to understanding each other, they become more steadfast that their beliefs are the "right" ones. Lol.</p>
<p>You know, I don't mind it when people have different beliefs, esspecially religion. HOwever, when people say there is no possible way that the other belief can be true, aminhamenina, I get really annoyed. There are two sides to every story, and rejecting that makes you naive and inaccurate.</p>
<p>^Yup. Especially when a lot of Christians (myself included) will acknowledge that it's completely possible that there's no God and it's all just a joke. It's possible. That's why we live by "Faith".</p>
^ Meh, it's no use. People are so stubborn and when they argue, instead of coming closer to understanding each other, they become more steadfast that their beliefs are the "right" ones. Lol.
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</p>
<p>The point of these debates isn't to understand each other, or even to convince other people. Most intelligent people spend a lot of time thinking about these questions, and the internet is just an outlet for some of their thoughts/opinions. So even if we never come to a conclusion (and I firmly believe we won't) this thread won't be a waste.</p>
<p>All I was denouncing was aminhamenina's generalization of something like religion in a very pejorative way. That's it. Tolerance is totally irrelevant...</p>
<p>
[quote]
The point of these debates isn't to understand each other, or even to convince other people. Most intelligent people spend a lot of time thinking about these questions, and the internet is just an outlet for some of their thoughts/opinions. So even if we never come to a conclusion (and I firmly believe we won't) this thread won't be a waste.
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"Tolerance is totally irrelevant..."</p>
<p>By all means then, tear each others' heads off. psh
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you totally took everything I said without context.</p>
<p>Obviously, I meant that tolerance had no relevance to anything i was saying/discussing. It's something to be assumed and expected either way, so it has no bearing on the comments anyways..</p>
<p>Christian, I tolerate atheists, but I find myself amused at funny little atheists running around thinking that they are so smart when they are as bigoted as the most fundamentalist christians.</p>
<p>Christian and into science. I agree with you, NY_Democrat: bigots exist on both sides, religious or not. Religion has nothing to do with the fact that some people are simply intolerant. In fact, I'm not familiar with any religions that don't espouse tolerance.</p>
<p>I think most people just complain about bigots on the "opposing" side since it's a lot easier to notice when someone's attacking your beliefs than when "your group" is attacking other's beliefs. We all deserve to have our beliefs respected.</p>
<p>I was VERY religious (Christian) until last summer, I sat down and read the OLD testament. SICK stuff...and I had not the SLIGHTEST idea before that (I was Pentecostal, so we focused mostly on the new testament and I therefore never bothered to read anything in the old testament for the most part aside for a few verses in Genesis. </p>
<p>Once I read the Old Testament, I was DONE. Absolutely done with all of it. I don't see myself EVER coming back to "God" again. </p>
<p>And I came out of it all a proud Feminist :D Never been happier!</p>