Atheists anyone?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
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<p>How exactly is Hinduism any more or less bearable or believable than Christianity?</p>

<p>If there is no tangible proof of any god's existence or non-existence, then how is one guess as to what this higher being is, and how to worship it, any more valid than another?</p>

<p>The only reasons I can see for finding one religion more bearable or valid than another are:</p>

<p>1) Devout faith in that one religion (which as an atheist I don't think you have in Christianity)</p>

<p>2) Cultural bias</p>

<p>It's all cultural. If you say there is no god, then the stories of the Bible describing the Christian God are no more or no less logical than the stories of the Hindu Ramayana or Mahabharata, describing the Hindu view on god. </p>

<p>If there is no god, then Hindu customs are no more or no less logical than the customs of Christianity.</p>

<p>If there truly is no god, then all religions are equally illogical – how can one be more logical, in this case, than another?</p>

<p>Oh, and:</p>

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<p>Tell this to the great Renaissance sculptors and painters who carved and painted depictions of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. They aren’t considered God, I know, but tell them that their idols and paintings are just that – idols and paintings. How are those works more bearable than carvings of Hindu gods?</p>

<p>I’m a Hindu, leaning agnostic. I frequently find parts of Hinduism that I cannot believe, and frankly find quite a bit somewhat illogical. I see that you feel somewhat similarly about most religions, as you’re atheist. But isn’t saying that one religion is more bearable than another a little odd, especially if you seem to believe that there is no god?</p>

<p>I guess what I'm asking is, give me a good reason to believe that Christianity is more bearable than Hinduism, besides the fact that Hinduism seems to be pretty foreign to you and you're very familiar with Christianity.</p>

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<p>Diamondbacker FTW!!!</p>

<p>Hirokee all I have to say is that you are a completely ignorant A-hole, I can totally see you running around dressed up in a pointy white hat burning crosses in the near future...I'll just try to help your case a bit:</p>

<p>Hiduism is certainly illogical, Hindus don't go around crusading, converting, massacring, and terrorizing others! Blasphemy! How can it be a real religion? They worship people whose existence can never be verified (coughjesuscough) and pray to "stone idols" (coughjesuscough). The fact that about a 900 million people practice the religion and that it is the oldest religion still prevalent today obviously means nothing. Christianity and Islam are the only real deals...</p>

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<p><a href="http://www.graceheights.org/images/altar.jpg%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.graceheights.org/images/altar.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>^ that looks like a "stone idol" to me</p>

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<p>^ That's not a stone idol, that's a statue that represents the person who is being prayed to. It is the person, not the statue, that people are praying to.</p>

<p>Why is it that whenever religion is mentioned, everyone stops thinking.</p>

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<p>Hinduism is stupid, but it's not more stupid than any other religion. our culture dictates that hinduism is more stupid.</p>

<p>any rational, smart human being knows that all religion is stupid. no one is more stupid than the other because, well, they're all a load of BS</p>

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Hinduism is stupid, but it's not more stupid than any other religion. our culture dictates that hinduism is more stupid.</p>

<p>any rational, smart human being knows that all religion is stupid. no one is more stupid than the other because, well, they're all a load of BS

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<p>:confused: is it just me, or do you seem to contradict yourself about every three words? how can a culture "dictate" the stupidity of a religion?</p>

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<p>And how can "any rational, smart human being know that all religion is stupid"? You're saying that only atheists and agnostics are rational and smart. And I can give you countless examples otherwise.</p>

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<p>I'd assume that there are an abundance of atheists on this board... seeing as posters here are generally smarter than the average human being.</p>

<p>And why would assume that athiests are smarter than a regular Christian?</p>

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I think of Hinduisim when I think of religion coz they have this thing where they worship <em>stone</em> idols. It's so ridiculous. Christainity is almost bearable but Hinduisim is just plain weird with the huge metal and stone idols decked in extravagant clothes to which everyone bows and drops to their knees in worship. I mean, they realize that these stone idols of gods are just carved rocks right?

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<p>I'm not gonna lie, I LOL'ed.</p>

<p>@ king: How is all religion stupid? As I've said, religion is bad when it suppresses thought, when the church/whatever tells you what to think and how. I go to a Catholic school and I'm not Catholic. I don't agree with a lot of what the Catholic Church does or says. But Catholicism and its precepts have promoted a lot of interesting discussion in my classrooms. Again, I'm not Catholic, but exploring the Catholic faith encourages me to examine my own religious beliefs in regards to the world. </p>

<p>And if there's one thing religion is good for, it's bringing people together. Can you honestly say everything about every religion is bad?</p>

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<p>Why?</p>

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<p>The judeo-christian culture that is heavily present in the United States dictates that belief systems outside of its tradition (like Hinduism) are "stupid" because religious systems like Hinduism aren't coherent within the terms and ideas of Christianity (I suppose it's the most popular religion in the US). Cultures are systems of meaning, and Hindu culture conflicts with principles of Christianity on a fundamental level, so it makes some sense to say that the Christian culture "dictates" (to use his wording) that the Other is wrong/dumb/whatever. Many Christians will find Hindus to be crazy, and vice versa. It often has everything to do with the culture the person was born into.</p>

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<p>^ Well, math is too complex to have been a result of chance because math has existed since the beginning of time (that is, after the Big Bang). At least, I'm assuming math has always existed since then, because math doesn't seem like the thing that can be "created"; as long as there is something that it can govern, then it exists, right?</p>

<p>So, as I see it, math is the underlying force that helped shape our universe. Meaning that the universe wasn't created on pure hit-or-miss, but had certain laws that constrained and gave it a road to follow (even if that road wasn't completely straight and even, and deviated unto side roads and the such).</p>

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Growing up I went to church regularly. I wasn't brainwashed by any means, and I didn't actually "get" any of it until I was thirteen, just a couple of years ago. I believe in God. Religion is not about fact, it's about faith.Simple as that. You can't ask for evidence.

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It's extremely difficult to have faith in something so groundless and far-fetched. </p>

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And to be honest, it takes a lot more faith and energy to believe that there isn't a God than it does to believe there is one.

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It also takes a lot more common sense to believe there is no god.</p>

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Show me evidence there isn't a God. Show me. Is it possible? No. So why would you ask the reciprocal?

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Yes, it can't be proven that there is no god, and it can't be proven that there is a god, but all signs point to there being no god. There is enough evidence to suggest there is no god that thinking there actually is a god borders on the insane.</p>

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I just find it incredible that anyone could believe the world, the universe, just ended up here, that there was no driving force or anything.

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<p>Read a book.</p>

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<p>"Growing up I went to church regularly. I wasn't brainwashed by any means, and I didn't actually "get" any of it until I was thirteen, just a couple of years ago. I believe in God. Religion is not about fact, it's about faith.Simple as that. You can't ask for evidence."</p>

<p>Haha religion is great isn't it. I would choose faith in something that may not be true over actual facts any day. I knew this thread would be invaded by theists eventually.</p>

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<p>"Growing up I went to church regularly. I wasn't brainwashed by any means."</p>

<p>Ha! Is it just me or is this a contradiction?</p>

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"Growing up I went to church regularly. I wasn't brainwashed by any means."</p>

<p>Ha! Is it just me or is this a contradiction?

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<p>ROFL sexycani</p>

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<p>stone_cutter, I agree with you word for word.</p>

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<p>sexycani, how is going to church regularly being brainwashed? That's like saying because the law forces kids to go to school they are being brainwashed.</p>

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It also takes a lot more common sense to believe there is no god.

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I don't get it. How is it common sense to believe there is no God since no one on this earth can absolutely be 100% sure whether God does or does not exist?</p>

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Yes, it can't be proven that there is no god, and it can't be proven that there is a god, but all signs point to there being no god. There is enough evidence to suggest there is no god that thinking there actually is a god borders on the insane.

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You just said that there it couldn't be proven that there is no God so how can you then say that there is evidence? The point is no one can know for sure. There may not be evidence to prove whether or not God exists but all that means is that there is no evidence that proves whether or not God exists. Nothing more and nothing less. It reminds me of the quote or forensics teacher made us write on for our do-now. "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." Fore example, let's say Johnny murdered Sarah, but covered his tracks really well. Just because there is no evidence that Johnny was in Sarah's house does not mean he was there. All it simply means is that there is no evidence that Johnny was in Sarah's house. The same can be said about no evidence about God existing.</p>

<p>Btw, to the people who said that Christians are hypocritical, yes some are hypocritical but who in this world is not? As one of the posters said it is funny how some atheists say this because they complain about Christianity's intolerance towards other religions but are intolerance of Christianity (or any other religion) themselves.</p>

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Yes, it can't be proven that there is no god, and it can't be proven that there is a god, but all signs point to there being no god. There is enough evidence to suggest there is no god that thinking there actually is a god borders on the insane.

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<p>There is no evidence suggesting or stating that there is no god. There is evidence suggesting and stating that things thought to have been produced directly and explicitly by divinity have actually been created through now-known processes. There is evidence to how evolution, rain, earthquakes, and the cosmos work. No evidence denies a god's existence.</p>

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<p>To all of you athiests out there I've got to ask, what do you think of the Big Bang Theory? Do you believe that this universe was created all by chance at the center of an object smaller than an atom? Do you believe that we were lucky and species have been evolving only on this planet for millions or even billions of years to for who we are today? Or heck, if your doctor told you today that plaque is building in the arteries of your heart do you take his word for it? Or do you choose not believe that which you can not see? </p>

<p>As others have stated before me, religion is based faith and nothing else. Before you even begin to disprove a religion, you have already failed. There is no evidence that God exsists that of which the Bible tells us. </p>

<p>And to make another point to those who assume athiests are smarter than any religious folk. Lets use evolution as an example. Sure as a Christian I don't believe that us humans originated and evolved from a micro-organism, but why should I be called stupid to reject evolution? For one, nobody has ever witnessed evolution and second I'm thinking for myself, not automatically assuming that every scientist has the answer to life, like many on this board do.</p>

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It annoys me that religion does not encourage people to think for themselves.

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any rational, smart human being knows that all religion is stupid.

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Theists take pride in their absolute faith in something they cannot see or hear. Now this is pretty idiotic.

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<p>I guess we all have to think for ourselves - unless we're not atheist of course.</p>