What religion do you beleive in?

[Norgus]

well im a stron atheist. It would probably take MORE than god talking to me in person to make me believe.

[Xaenn]

I think people put a bit too much faith in science. Given it can explain many things very well and allows us to do a lot of things that we wouldn't know how to otherwise...it's not the know all end all. I believe any good scientist accepts that science has limitations.

If you start talking about religion, then you're leaving the realm of what science can explain. I haven't seen any divine actions on this earth, but supposedly (christianity) God leaves us to choose our own path in life, and make our own choices. And to anyone who says why didn't God make us perfect or end all of our suffering. To me I look at it like this. If God created us perfect, what would be the point of creating us? In order to make us perfect he would've had to make us without free will. If there was divine intervention then our actions would be meaningless as God would always correct them.

That said I have a Christian faith but I haven't witnessed any acts of God. That's the faith part. I don't necessarily believe all the stories in the Bible to be true, but it's the message that is important. My brother used to study theology, and it's pretty much a known thing that religious texts (or atleast the bible) weren't meant to be interpreted literally. Also one must discern what is God's message, and what is the message of man at that time. All of that said I think it's very foolish to blindly follow a religious text, but I think it is foolish as well to completely disregard it and miss out on a wealth of knowledge.

[Soeru]

Science does have its limitations, i.e: you can't do very much to help someone suffering from cancer/aids/other diseases as of now. But someone will eventually discover a cure, like who the hell would've thought at first that a heart transplant would be possible. I don't think there's anything impossible in existance(as long as it's reasonable, an ant will never lift a star for example). In science there will always be something new to discover, which is what makes it so cool.
I'd much rather prove something myself than read about it, but there are some things I can't experiment on cuz of lack of materials, equipment, knowledge, etc., so for now, I'll stick with what I learn from textbooks, teachers, and my own/others' experiments.

[Norgus]

well put Soeru.

and science isnt about faith, people who put too much faith in anything are fools in my opinion. The whole point in science is to proove things and find things out and disprove slightly flawed conclusions.

[Soeru]

Or completely flawed conclusions.
Ptolomy(Tolomeo in Spanish, lol, "todo lo meo") said that everything revolved around the Earth. He did use a simplified version of the scientific method, but conclusions aren't really solid unless they have been experimented on countless times. You can't really experiment on stuff like universal gravitation(cept with satellites and stuff), because you obviously cant use such huge masses in a lab. But we know its true, cuz if you take a ride to outer space you'll see it for yourself. Sadly, only a few individuals have enough money for a trip to space.
/me looks for a female millionaire to marry so he can hitch a ride to the ISS.
Edit: Oh yeah, and thank you for your praise, Norgus.

[Ziegfried]

Oh right, forgot to mention this... In Swedish class in school, we're supposed to do these "argumentation" things... Like, someone stood in front of the rest of the students in the class, held a short speech-like thing about capital punishment being bad, and then let the rest of the people debate on the subject. Now, I'm going to talk about religion, as in believing in some higher, invisible being for whatever reason, and christianity in particular, since that's the religion I know the most about, and I'm going to take a critical or negative stance in the question. Doesn't really concern you people too much, just rambling...

[Soeru]

You could print out this thread and use it as a source for your project, just a silly idea of mine.

[Ziegfried]

Ah, nothing's been said that I didn't know of before... I randomly found a good book on the subject at the local library anyway, "When Religion Becomes Evil" I think it was. My teacher's a christian, it'll be fun to pwn him.

[Soeru]

/me remembers arguing with his close-minded Religion class teacher... when he was 8... in a Catholic school.
If I'd known more/had more to discuss, I would've owned that puritan piece o... j/k. No offense to anyone.

[KnightofNachos]

Pfft, as a character in a mmorpg was once named: "Godisafk"
Religion inspires more hate than anything else, and I want nothing to do with it.

[Isostealer]

I'm a strong Muslim/believe in Islam.

[Xaenn]

Originally posted by Soeru
Science does have its limitations, i.e: you can't do very much to help someone suffering from cancer/aids/other diseases as of now. But someone will eventually discover a cure, like who the hell would've thought at first that a heart transplant would be possible. I don't think there's anything impossible in existance(as long as it's reasonable, an ant will never lift a star for example). In science there will always be something new to discover, which is what makes it so cool.
I'd much rather prove something myself than read about it, but there are some things I can't experiment on cuz of lack of materials, equipment, knowledge, etc., so for now, I'll stick with what I learn from textbooks, teachers, and my own/others' experiments.

Science can discover things through experiementation. They can't be proven as fact, but they can be treated so without any reasonable doubt. Now if you want to go into scientific theories such as big bang, (treating them as fact) you're going out of the realm of what science can explain.

[KnightofNachos]

Originally posted by Xaenn
Science can discover things through experiementation. They can't be proven as fact, but they can be treated so without any reasonable doubt. Now if you want to go into scientific theories such as big bang, (treating them as fact) you're going out of the realm of what science can explain.

Agreed. Nothing in this universe can be proven. Prove to me that the sky is blue. You can't. Everything is based on assumptions, but science gets ideas manifested into as close as "fact" as things ever will be.

[Kosmo Yagkoto]

the sky is really clear, but it appears blue because blue light travels longer than any other color of light so thats why the sky is blue as well as the ocean. I am a christian and if you don't agree with me thats fine, but if you don't then tell me, who on the earth was a better person than Jesus. If you give me an answer than that is great. The bible has been used in Science for many years as well. Who else could raise someone from the dead, Lazurus that is, by just touching him. Nobody I know of except Jesus.

[Soeru]

Of course it can be proven, even the existance of a God. Wether or not you choose to accept it/beleive it is a different story. Science is based on assumptions of other theories that have been proved repeatedly(gravity, universal gravitation, Newton's principles(basically all macroscopic physics), intermolecular forces, theory of relativity(you cant get your hands on a linear accelerator though)and so on).
If you think that the law of gravity is a load of garbage, you can always jump off a building to test it. It's just as real as "the sky is blue" the last time I checked.
I met a closed-minded bloke that wouldnt accept the existence of atoms since its not something directly visible. I then asked him how could he possibly accept that there were other continents besides Europe, if their not visible. He kind of soiled his pants.
This has turned into a fraggin' science debate, but I was kind of wishing for that to happen.