<p>I completely understand. Evolution is merely a theory like gravity after all.</p>
<p>"Or…” at my private Christian school, they make us pray and take Bible classes. They’re forcing religion on us!!!” Well…. duh. You are going to a CHRISTIAN school."</p>
<p>Most of the times it is the parents who choose schools for their children. They are entitled to complain.</p>
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nobody has ever witnessed evolution
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Fossil record? Ongoing natural selection? 240 years of documented, overwhelming evidence?</p>
<p>Regarding disproving god(s) - lack of disproving evidence doesn't lean it towards the 'god exists' side. After all there's no real evidence disproving the Tooth Fairy, provided you say she and her tooth castle are invisible and undetectable. All this saying that god is undisprovable seems kind of pointless - it doesn't make it any more likely that god exists.</p>
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Also, since this point always comes up in debates like this- any Christians/Catholics/Jewish(?): Why did God allow the Holocaust to occur? Why would he allow the deaths of so many? Doesn't he love those who believe in him? Why would he allow poor, helpless, innocent children and women to die?
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<p>Free will. People have the ability to choose between good and evil. The situation a person is in is always the result of decisions by themself or someone else. God doesn't go about always changing the decisions others make because of free will.</p>
<p>I only proved that God's existence is unprovable because stone_cutter stated that the evidence pointed to God's nonexistence, which also happens to contradict his statement prior to it. </p>
<p>It was a correction of his argument. I don't care about his personal religious (or non religious) beliefs. But everyone should be able to compose a legitimate argument before we can consider that the opposing group can accept it. Which is why I debate(d).</p>
<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>So you're okay knowing that you're living a lie and that you could be living life independently without wasting time on religion, instead using your time for the betterment of mankind, developing and discovering your own morals instead of having them forced down your throats by religious bigots?</p>
<p>I could never live under a lie. I refuse to waste my time going to Church and praying when I could be helping senior citizens, or helping save local ecological problems. </p>
<p>Believers in faith such as you say "Why do you hate religion so much? How does it do bad in the world?". I'll answer that. First off, maybe YOU are different, but the majority of believers can be infected with religion. Excluding Christianity, virtually every religion promotes anarchy and assimilation in negative aspects. Even when looking at Christianity, SOME people think in the frames of mind that life doesn't matter anymore and that the only life that matters is the afterlife, an extreme blemish on the progression of society. And that few amount of people is enough reason to eliminate Christianity. Even people who don't view their faith through that specific viewpoint waste time, energy and resources (money, etc.) towards Church, when instead of praying to a god who doesn't exist or holding mass/communion, etc., they could be out helping better their community. </p>
<p>If I had my way, I'd outlaw Church and religion, but I would not destroy them. Instead, I'd transform them into houses where people of a community gather each Sunday morning to discuss how to fix the community and then do so, go out on activities all over the town. If every Church were to do this society would improve so much more. </p>
<p>Religion poisons everything.</p>
<p>Deist here. I was about to become agnostic because I didn't believe in the Bible, then I found Deism.</p>
<p>OMG! I ran away from the Yahoo Answers Religion and Spirituality section because of **** like this. CC used to be my haven when the atheist VS theist debate got too hot/stupid. And then this thread came up. There are even a few creationists here! Even when I was a Christian I wasn't a creationist</p>
<p>When your parents told you that Santa existed, did you believe them? I know I did.
Did it matter that you have never seen one yourself? Did you bother to check the facts? No, because you were a four year old. Words from your parents and seeing him in books and television were sufficient "evidence." </p>
<p>Regardless of these boring, and sometimes depressing, facts, it was fun to believe that there was a Santa, but yes, it was a mere fantasy outside of reality.</p>
<p>"Free will. People have the ability to choose between good and evil. The situation a person is in is always the result of decisions by themself or someone else. God doesn't go about always changing the decisions others make because of free will."</p>
<p>But when anything good happens, it is a miracle from God? Praise the Lord.</p>
<p>"Thank God" is hardly a religious expression nowadays. I have parents that think both good and bad things happen for a reason and that it's all the work of God. I think their thinking is flawed but at least they're not creationists or fundamentalists.</p>
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But when anything good happens, it is a miracle from God? Praise the Lord.
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<p>Did I say that? I would tell you not to generalize, but then you'd have nothing to say.</p>
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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.
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<p>So, God created the universe, but since he's super modest and didn't want his friends to be jealous of his awesome powers, he covered his tracks really well to make it impossible for anyone to figure out what he did. Sounds believable.</p>
<p>Or maybe the idea of God is a simple way to give people meaning in their lives, a comforting way to come to terms with mortality, and an easy way to explain things we don't understand. Since there is no proof for the existence of god, "faith" in the existence of god is, by definition, a baseless assumption. I think that it's probably "common sense" to not believe that. Sure, it's impossible to prove a negative existential. I can't prove that unicorns don't exist. I can't prove that invisible fairies aren't following me around. But I bet most of the world would think I'm crazy if I actually believed in invisible fairies. So what makes God so special that makes faith in him socially acceptable? I'm gonna guess that it's because he gives meaning to people's lives. So, faith is nothing but wishful thinking, and organized religion is just a lot of people sharing the same wishful thoughts.</p>
<p>@Bothwings: Could you explain what Deism is to me? I don't really understand it and have never been exposed to it.</p>
<p>@urmomgoes2college: I agree with most of the thing you say, though I must admit I'm not as "good" as you. In fact, I guess I'm sort of selfish -shame-. But I don't agree that religion poisons everything. I'm a firm believer that it's never all or none ( I guess what I just said is a paradox) Religion does provide hope and other stuff to people...</p>
<p>Deism is the belief that God created the universe but isn't really active.</p>
<p>Actually I already ranted plenty of times that are not based on generalizations.</p>
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Fossil record? Ongoing natural selection? 240 years of documented, overwhelming evidence?
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That still does not change the fact that no one has actually seen it. I think what the previous poster was trying to say is that it takes some amount of faith to believe in something that no one has seen with their actual eyes (such as evolution and God) and that you can't call someone stupid because they refuse to have faith in the same thing you do. </p>
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So you're okay knowing that you're living a lie and that you could be living life independently without wasting time on religion, instead using your time for the betterment of mankind, developing and discovering your own morals instead of having them forced down your throats by religious bigots?
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Actually, seeing as most churches does things to help the community I don't see how being in a religion is wasting time. Besides, for the most part if one was not involved in religion they would not use that extra time for the betterment of mankind. Instead they would most likely do nothing with the time and just watch TV or do something else to entertain themselves. </p>
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Religion poisons everything.
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I think that statement is a little extreme (I'm not sure if that is the right word for it). The truth is that while a lot of people on this site may not see it, religion is necessary. Man needs something to believe in and to have hope in when all else goes wrong. Man needs to feel that in the end the good are rewarded and the bad are punished. Religion is what keeps many people from going the easy way out and committing suicide or going on a murderous rampage when everything in life seems to not go their way. Religion does do a lot to help, however the reason it does not seem that way is because people tend to focus on the negative aspects of something instead of the positive.</p>
<p>@mulberrypie Deism is the belief in God mixed with God given reason. I won't be too formal here, so I'll put in my own words. I believe that God was once with us, he created the physical universe and put some reason into our brains, but he does not interact with this world and is probably basking in heaven's version of the Bahamas right now (Hey he deserves it doesn't he?). I don't believe in miracles, I don't believe in any holy texts (Bible, Torah, Qu'ran, Bhagavad Gita etc.), and I don't believe in revelation or prophets that speak for God such as Jesus Christ or Muhammad. Also, I don't pray because I believe God created this world and it'll run the way it'll run and only we can change the world. </p>
<p>Yes I reject organized religion but that's not saying i'm an antitheist. I strongly disagree when people say whoever believes in God is an idiot. I've seen for myself how some Christians/Muslims/Buddhists/Jews etc. can still be intelligent.</p>
<p>However some Christian principles are still stuck on to me. The most significant one is my view on abortion (pro-life/anti-choice), which will never change even if I become an antitheist/atheist down the road.</p>
<p>Many organisms have very short lifespans, and they allow scientists to actually witness microevolution.</p>
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So, God created the universe, but since he's super modest and didn't want his friends to be jealous of his awesome powers, he covered his tracks really well to make it impossible for anyone to figure out what he did. Sounds believable.
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I didn't mean for it to sound that way, I was merely given an example of the quote that "Absence of evidence does not mean evidence of absence." I wasn't saying God covered his tracks, I was just saying that just because their is no evidence that something does not exist does not mean it is not there. Another example of what I mean is how before there was no evidence of evolution, but because there was no evidence at the time does not mean it did not exist.</p>
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Since there is no proof for the existence of god, "faith" in the existence of god is, by definition, a baseless assumption. I think that it's probably "common sense" to not believe that.
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Everyone has faith in something and I really don't see why having faith in religion is any different, except that it is a much stronger faith than believing in something like science. It takes faith to believe in the different theories created. Sure there is a lot of evidence pointing to things such as evolution, but it still takes faith to believe that all of that evidence points to evolution and not some other unknown process.</p>
<p>@bothwings: So do you believe that there is heaven and hell (Afterlife)? And what about the morals/lessons holy texts teach? What religion is Deism a faction of? </p>
<p>I think I may just change my religious views XD</p>