Why isn't atheism classified as another religion?

[BADecker]

My ''religion'' doesn't teach me what to do, unlike yours.

Yes it does. You did things this week. You avoided certain activities and pursued others. You followed certain behavioral constraints perhaps by habit, joy, or fear of punishment.

When doing all of these things you are operating within a framework of motivations, goals, and desires. At the bottom of that framework the foundation is your core motivations the essence of you aka your religion.

Now you may or may not know what your religion is. Many people never examine their own foundations. Many others pay lip service to an idea while in reality building their life upon an entirely different or even contradictory foundation. The reality is the foundation not the words.

Actually what I'm saying is that your particular religion is bad and doesn't teach morals.

This is a reasonable line of questioning. However, an honest examination requires you not pick out individual verses in religious text you agree or disagree with but to look at the entire arc of human history.

First you have to define morals which in itself is not a trivial matter.

Then you need to examine slavery how and why you can define it as morally wrong and how humanity developed the awareness that has mostly abolished it.

You need to examine the long terms effects of various religions on human societies over time and the true impact these have on health and progress.

You need to closely and honestly look at societies that have changed their religion and replaced it with new religions. I would suggest a look at German, Russian, and Chinese history over the last 100 years as particularly instructive.

Having looked at the world to the best of my limited ability using the above approach I strongly disagree with your quote above but that is mostly irrelevant. You need to decide for yourself.

You remind me of those people that want to have unlimited gender identities. You are basically giving the word religion such a broad meaning that you might as well just not use it.

Are you trying to say that you can't look up the definition of religion? Are you trying to say that you can only find one little part of the definition? The definition is pretty broad. All you need do is look it up in dictionaries and encyclopedias.

[CoinCube]

You remind me of those people that want to have unlimited gender identities. You are basically giving the word religion such a broad meaning that you might as well just not use it.

Are you trying to say that you can't look up the definition of religion? Are you trying to say that you can only find one little part of the definition? The definition is pretty broad. All you need do is look it up in dictionaries and encyclopedias.

We are going through a cultural phase where attempts to redefine language often take priority over a search for truth. I think religion is accurate but you can call it your essence, your core beliefs, your foundation if you prefer.  

Where the arguments against religious faith usually go astray is that they attempt to introduce an arbitrary and illogical division between faith in religion and faith in other things. They then attempt to argue against religion while totally ignoring "other faith".

Humans don't live in a vacuum. We cannot like a computer shut ourselves off and stop. We are all ongoing and actively developing entities. Rejecting a faith is never a simple matter of removing a set of beliefs. It is ALWAYS a replacement of one religion with another or if you prefer a replacement of one set of core beliefs with another. These new beliefs whatever they may be are also ultimately just another faith.

Take the hardcore nihilist. If you push him to define and defend his beliefs you will usually after some digging drill down into something like Nihilism = True or "The entirety of the universe including the creation of the universe is random." They can't prove this they simply take it on faith.  It is the core foundation of nihilism. The rock or soggy sand of nihilism if you will.

As I personally lack the wisdom to disprove nihilism the best I can do is point to the dangers in the faith direction of nihilism and hold up an alternative. Nihilism ultimately is based in apriori faith.

The nihilist are honest in their arguments and I respect them. They reject faith in God while simultaneously outlining and defining the faith they are basing their attacks from and advocating as a replacement. Most of the arguments against religion are far less honest. These illogical or dishonest arguments try to limit the conversation to simple attacks on religion without any attempt to define the belief structure they are using as an alternative. These attacks usually go something like "I just don't believe in your flying spaghetti monster and don't want to talk about what I do believe in."  These types of arguments are childish and logically unsound noise.

Questioning one's faith is ultimately a good thing. We need to be introspective and examine what we really believe in and why. If we don't we will never know if we have structured our faith on something solid or something unsound.

[CoinCube]

You have to redefine what religion is because what you have does not make sense.  Flying horses, virgin conceptions, resurrection, spirits, 6000 year old Earth, creating woman from a rib bone, or man from dirt, talking snakes, etc., etc. All utter nonsense.

Keep re-writing it, eventually you'll get to the truth.  Life is not unique in this or other universes,  humans might not be the surviving lifeform in few thousands/millions of years.  Humans are not special animals, we are like all other monkeys, we are just smarter and can talk.
 

I define religion as anything an individual structures their life around either consciously or unconsciously.

I talked about this more here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1373864.msg35126317#msg35126317

I have seen arguments like your before af_newbie. They are often followed by statements like
Life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. There is no inherent morality, accepted moral values are abstractly contrived. The universe and everything in it is entirely random. Ultimately there is no real point to life.

I am familiar with this "religion" this this type of faith if you will. I find it unpersuasive to say the least.

Many religious texts make a lot more sense then you are giving them credit for. I have found Jordan Peterson's lecture series on that topic to be particularily insightful as he goes through one of them line by line.

Biblical Series I: Introduction to the Idea of God
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-wWBGo6a2w

[af_newbie]

You have to redefine what religion is because what you have does not make sense.  Flying horses, virgin conceptions, resurrection, spirits, 6000 year old Earth, creating woman from a rib bone, or man from dirt, talking snakes, etc., etc. All utter nonsense.

Keep re-writing it, eventually you'll get to the truth.  Life is not unique in this or other universes,  humans might not be the surviving lifeform in few thousands/millions of years.  Humans are not special animals, we are like all other monkeys, we are just smarter and can talk.
 

I define religion as anything an individual structures their life around either consciously or unconsciously.

I talked about this more here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1373864.msg35126317#msg35126317

I have seen arguments like your before af_newbie. They are often followed by statements like
Life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. There is no inherent morality, accepted moral values are abstractly contrived. The universe and everything in it is entirely random. Ultimately there is no real point to life.

I am familiar with this "religion" this this type of faith if you will. I find it unpersuasive to say the least.

Many religious texts make a lot more sense then you are giving them credit for. I have found Jordan Peterson's lecture series on that topic to be particularily insightful as he goes through one of them line by line.

Biblical Series I: Introduction to the Idea of God
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-wWBGo6a2w

The purpose of life is to survive and procreate.  It is a common purpose in all life forms, including humans.

You are over analyzing it.  It is pretty simple.  People fear death and develop self coping mechanism to deal with that fear.

Have you noticed that poor and uneducated people are more religious than educated and independently wealthy.  Why is that?

Poor and uneducated have more to fear and need some hope (any myth will do) to help them cope with their problems and questions.

Saying that some bronze stone texts have any insights is like saying that Pinocchio fairy tale is a good source of engineering knowledge.

People are killing and mistreating people in the name of those religious texts.  Even today.  How can you say that slavery is a good thing?
You know it causes harm.  People who wrote these texts were psychopaths.

[popcorn1]

You have to redefine what religion is because what you have does not make sense.  Flying horses, virgin conceptions, resurrection, spirits, 6000 year old Earth, creating woman from a rib bone, or man from dirt, talking snakes, etc., etc. All utter nonsense.

Keep re-writing it, eventually you'll get to the truth.  Life is not unique in this or other universes,  humans might not be the surviving lifeform in few thousands/millions of years.  Humans are not special animals, we are like all other monkeys, we are just smarter and can talk.
 

I define religion as anything an individual structures their life around either consciously or unconsciously.

I talked about this more here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1373864.msg35126317#msg35126317

I have seen arguments like your before af_newbie. They are often followed by statements like
Life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. There is no inherent morality, accepted moral values are abstractly contrived. The universe and everything in it is entirely random. Ultimately there is no real point to life.

Many religious texts make a lot more sense then you are giving them credit for<COMMON SENSE
I am familiar with this "religion" this this type of faith if you will. I find it unpersuasive to say the least.
. I have found Jordan Peterson's lecture series on that topic to be particularily insightful as he goes through one of them line by line.

Biblical Series I: Introduction to the Idea of God
https://www.y

Many religious texts make a lot more sense then you are giving them credit for ..

The biggest sense in the bible is what?   Thou shall not kill ..Now is this because Moses said right everyone lets not kill and everyone said really good idea that Moses lets not kill each other?  OR was it by chance someone got killed like a family member and the pain made them feel so bad that others seen the effects plus they could of been the family member who as been killed and they also feel the pain?..

MOSES or the PAIN?..

So now we get back to religious text making sense ..

I will give you my Religious text from the one true creator our god the EARTH..

Do not put your hand in the fire..
Don't stick pins in your eyes..
Always bend at the knees when lifting heavy objects up ..
Never stick your head in a blender ..

The word COMMON SENSE means it's happened so many times it becomes common   SO SENSE KICKS IN..

So now you all know the 1 biggest thing that makes sense in the bible is THOU SHALL NOT KILL ..And you all needed scholars to tell you this?..

Then you got parts of the bible that just tricks your brains to keep you busy   so you have deep thought over basically NOTHING ..
Example below ..

In the far winds of the west shall there be four eyes   one with deeds of sin to cast thee into shadows ..

Now i just made that BULLSHIT UP  to get you to now start to think what the saying means WHEN really it's just bullshit to sell you my book..

But some SO CALLED SMART ASS looks to deep into shit      BULLSHIT..  Then he thinks of BULLSHIT then tells the world bullshit..

When really SHOW US THE PROOF   then even i will believe ..

[CoinCube]

The purpose of life is to survive and procreate.  It is a common purpose in all life forms, including humans.

You are over analyzing it.  It is pretty simple.  People fear death and develop self coping mechanism to deal with that fear.

Have you noticed that poor and uneducated people are more religious than educated and independently wealthy.  Why is that?

Poor and uneducated have more to fear and need some hope (any myth will do) to help them cope with their problems and questions.

Saying that some bronze stone texts have any insights is like saying that Pinocchio fairy tale is a good source of engineering knowledge.

People are killing and mistreating people in the name of those religious texts.  Even today.  How can you say that slavery is a good thing?
You know it causes harm.  People who wrote these texts were psychopaths.

Actually I am confident you are underanalyzing it.

If we drilled down into each of your points we would find we disagree on a lot.

We would disagree on the reason the poor and uneducated people are more religious than educated and independently wealthy.

We do disagree on the insights available in religious texts.

We would probably disagree on the nature, source, and definition of evil as well as the root cause of most human suffering.

I don't know where you got the idea I said slavery was a good thing so we would disagree on whatever logic you took to reach that conclusion.

If we debated each of these points to exhaustion and were both honest in our dialogue we could probably in short order trace them back to a difference in basic assumption.

I suspect that at the foundation you have accepted basic premises about the universe such as things are essentially random and that there is no ultimate purpose to life beyond the mechanical act of propagation and reproduction. Such a metaphysical foundation is not something you can prove. It is something you assume apriori your faith if you will. I on the other hand have adopted a very different apriori Truth so we disagree and that is ok.

Once you understand that our primary difference is one of faith you can better understand the pathological hatred of some extremist have on both sides of the division. Not everyone is up to a challenge to their faith. Many of us do not examine it and cannot clearly articulate it. Those most lacking in self reflection deny they have a faith. Disrupt the foundation and the entire edifice of beliefs built upon it becomes unsound. People can and often do lash out rather then face that.

Take popcorn1 for example. He is so riled up that that he is not only swearing but when he quoted my post he took the time to delete part of the link to Jordan Peterson's fantastic lecture series to make it nonfunctional. Some people simply cannot handle challenges to their faith.

Biblical Series I: Introduction to the Idea of God
https://www.y

...
But some SO CALLED SMART ASS looks to deep into shit      BULLSHIT..  Then he thinks of BULLSHIT then tells the world bullshit.
...

[BADecker]

You have to redefine what religion is because what you have does not make sense.  Flying horses, virgin conceptions, resurrection, spirits, 6000 year old Earth, creating woman from a rib bone, or man from dirt, talking snakes, etc., etc. All utter nonsense.

Keep re-writing it, eventually you'll get to the truth.  Life is not unique in this or other universes,  humans might not be the surviving lifeform in few thousands/millions of years.  Humans are not special animals, we are like all other monkeys, we are just smarter and can talk.
 

I define religion as anything an individual structures their life around either consciously or unconsciously.

I talked about this more here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1373864.msg35126317#msg35126317

I have seen arguments like your before af_newbie. They are often followed by statements like
Life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. There is no inherent morality, accepted moral values are abstractly contrived. The universe and everything in it is entirely random. Ultimately there is no real point to life.

Many religious texts make a lot more sense then you are giving them credit for<COMMON SENSE
I am familiar with this "religion" this this type of faith if you will. I find it unpersuasive to say the least.
. I have found Jordan Peterson's lecture series on that topic to be particularily insightful as he goes through one of them line by line.

Biblical Series I: Introduction to the Idea of God
https://www.y

Many religious texts make a lot more sense then you are giving them credit for ..

The biggest sense in the bible is what?   Thou shall not kill ..Now is this because Moses said right everyone lets not kill and everyone said really good idea that Moses lets not kill each other?  OR was it by chance someone got killed like a family member and the pain made them feel so bad that others seen the effects plus they could of been the family member who as been killed and they also feel the pain?..

MOSES or the PAIN?..

So now we get back to religious text making sense ..

I will give you my Religious text from the one true creator our god the EARTH..

Do not put your hand in the fire..
Don't stick pins in your eyes..
Always bend at the knees when lifting heavy objects up ..
Never stick your head in a blender ..

The word COMMON SENSE means it's happened so many times it becomes common   SO SENSE KICKS IN..

So now you all know the 1 biggest thing that makes sense in the bible is THOU SHALL NOT KILL ..And you all needed scholars to tell you this?..

Then you got parts of the bible that just tricks your brains to keep you busy   so you have deep thought over basically NOTHING ..
Example below ..

In the far winds of the west shall there be four eyes   one with deeds of sin to cast thee into shadows ..

Now i just made that BULLSHIT UP  to get you to now start to think what the saying means WHEN really it's just bullshit to sell you my book..

But some SO CALLED SMART ASS looks to deep into shit      BULLSHIT..  Then he thinks of BULLSHIT then tells the world bullshit..

When really SHOW US THE PROOF   then even i will believe ..

Actually, the biggest reason for the Bible is to offer salvation through faith in the crucifixion death of Jesus, and His resurrection. The rest pales in comparison.

[BADecker]

You have to redefine what religion is because what you have does not make sense.  Flying horses, virgin conceptions, resurrection, spirits, 6000 year old Earth, creating woman from a rib bone, or man from dirt, talking snakes, etc., etc. All utter nonsense.

Keep re-writing it, eventually you'll get to the truth.  Life is not unique in this or other universes,  humans might not be the surviving lifeform in few thousands/millions of years.  Humans are not special animals, we are like all other monkeys, we are just smarter and can talk.
 

I define religion as anything an individual structures their life around either consciously or unconsciously.

I talked about this more here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1373864.msg35126317#msg35126317

I have seen arguments like your before af_newbie. They are often followed by statements like
Life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. There is no inherent morality, accepted moral values are abstractly contrived. The universe and everything in it is entirely random. Ultimately there is no real point to life.

I am familiar with this "religion" this this type of faith if you will. I find it unpersuasive to say the least.

Many religious texts make a lot more sense then you are giving them credit for. I have found Jordan Peterson's lecture series on that topic to be particularily insightful as he goes through one of them line by line.

Biblical Series I: Introduction to the Idea of God
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-wWBGo6a2w

The purpose of life is to survive and procreate.  It is a common purpose in all life forms, including humans.

You are over analyzing it.  It is pretty simple.  People fear death and develop self coping mechanism to deal with that fear.

Have you noticed that poor and uneducated people are more religious than educated and independently wealthy.  Why is that?

Poor and uneducated have more to fear and need some hope (any myth will do) to help them cope with their problems and questions.

Saying that some bronze stone texts have any insights is like saying that Pinocchio fairy tale is a good source of engineering knowledge.

People are killing and mistreating people in the name of those religious texts.  Even today.  How can you say that slavery is a good thing?
You know it causes harm.  People who wrote these texts were psychopaths.

You are simply taking things out of context. The laws in Exodus, which are repeated in Deuteronomy, are some of the best laws for living by in the whole world. They couldn't have been put together better.

[CoinCube]

To me if an action causes harm to yourself or other living organisms (humans included) it is immoral.

Ask yourself this:  Why did God not bother to update these books?  They are obviously wrong on so many levels.  Why not update them?

That's not a bad place to start af_newbie not at all. To answer your question maybe they were updated. Not because they were wrong, but because humanity was failing to properly grasp them.

Matthew 22:36-40
"“Master, what are we to consider the Law’s greatest commandment?”

37-40 Jesus answered him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind’. This is the first and great commandment. And there is a second like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’. The whole of the Law and the Prophets depends on these two commandments.”

I will decline your invitation to debate the various religious passages as it does not interest me and would be off topic for this thread. I agree with the premise outlined by the original poster and I have laid out the logic behind that agreement up-thread.

[Astargath]

The purpose of life is to survive and procreate.  It is a common purpose in all life forms, including humans.

You are over analyzing it.  It is pretty simple.  People fear death and develop self coping mechanism to deal with that fear.

Have you noticed that poor and uneducated people are more religious than educated and independently wealthy.  Why is that?

Poor and uneducated have more to fear and need some hope (any myth will do) to help them cope with their problems and questions.

Saying that some bronze stone texts have any insights is like saying that Pinocchio fairy tale is a good source of engineering knowledge.

People are killing and mistreating people in the name of those religious texts.  Even today.  How can you say that slavery is a good thing?
You know it causes harm.  People who wrote these texts were psychopaths.

Actually I am confident you are underanalyzing it.

If we drilled down into each of your points we would find we disagree on a lot.

We would disagree on the reason the poor and uneducated people are more religious than educated and independently wealthy.

We do disagree on the insights available in religious texts.

We would probably disagree on the nature, source, and definition of evil as well as the root cause of most human suffering.

I don't know where you got the idea I said slavery was a good thing so we would disagree on whatever logic you took to reach that conclusion.

If we debated each of these points to exhaustion and were both honest in our dialogue we could probably in short order trace them back to a difference in basic assumption.

I suspect that at the foundation you have accepted basic premises about the universe such as things are essentially random and that there is no ultimate purpose to life beyond the mechanical act of propagation and reproduction. Such a metaphysical foundation is not something you can prove. It is something you assume apriori your faith if you will. I on the other hand have adopted a very different apriori Truth so we disagree and that is ok.

Once you understand that our primary difference is one of faith you can better understand the pathological hatred of some extremist have on both sides of the division. Not everyone is up to a challenge to their faith. Many of us do not examine it and cannot clearly articulate it. Those most lacking in self reflection deny they have a faith. Disrupt the foundation and the entire edifice of beliefs built upon it becomes unsound. People can and often do lash out rather then face that.

Take popcorn1 for example. He is so riled up that that he is not only swearing but when he quoted my post he took the time to delete part of the link to Jordan Peterson's fantastic lecture series to make it nonfunctional. Some people simply cannot handle challenges to their faith.

Biblical Series I: Introduction to the Idea of God
https://www.y

...
But some SO CALLED SMART ASS looks to deep into shit      BULLSHIT..  Then he thinks of BULLSHIT then tells the world bullshit.
...

So what is the reason that uneducated people tend to be more religious than educated people? You and badecker have to say slavery is or at least was a good thing, badecker has said that slavery was the ''best'' thing god could have done at the time.

[BADecker]

You have to redefine what religion is because what you have does not make sense.  Flying horses, virgin conceptions, resurrection, spirits, 6000 year old Earth, creating woman from a rib bone, or man from dirt, talking snakes, etc., etc. All utter nonsense.

Keep re-writing it, eventually you'll get to the truth.  Life is not unique in this or other universes,  humans might not be the surviving lifeform in few thousands/millions of years.  Humans are not special animals, we are like all other monkeys, we are just smarter and can talk.
 

I define religion as anything an individual structures their life around either consciously or unconsciously.

I talked about this more here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1373864.msg35126317#msg35126317

I have seen arguments like your before af_newbie. They are often followed by statements like
Life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. There is no inherent morality, accepted moral values are abstractly contrived. The universe and everything in it is entirely random. Ultimately there is no real point to life.

I am familiar with this "religion" this this type of faith if you will. I find it unpersuasive to say the least.

Many religious texts make a lot more sense then you are giving them credit for. I have found Jordan Peterson's lecture series on that topic to be particularily insightful as he goes through one of them line by line.

Biblical Series I: Introduction to the Idea of God
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-wWBGo6a2w

The purpose of life is to survive and procreate.  It is a common purpose in all life forms, including humans.

You are over analyzing it.  It is pretty simple.  People fear death and develop self coping mechanism to deal with that fear.

Have you noticed that poor and uneducated people are more religious than educated and independently wealthy.  Why is that?

Poor and uneducated have more to fear and need some hope (any myth will do) to help them cope with their problems and questions.

Saying that some bronze stone texts have any insights is like saying that Pinocchio fairy tale is a good source of engineering knowledge.

People are killing and mistreating people in the name of those religious texts.  Even today.  How can you say that slavery is a good thing?
You know it causes harm.  People who wrote these texts were psychopaths.

You are simply taking things out of context. The laws in Exodus, which are repeated in Deuteronomy, are some of the best laws for living by in the whole world. They couldn't have been put together better.

Well, there is where we disagree.  You base your morals on a book. 

To me if an action causes harm to yourself or other living organisms (humans included) it is immoral.
That is what I base my morality, not on some ancient text written by some schmuck in a cave.

I'm telling you guys you got it all wrong.  You are deluding yourself into believing that these ancient texts have any insights.  Those are reflections of bronze age people, talking about life in those times.  There is nothing you can use from these books other than "do not kill".
(Which the texts do not follow from one chapter to the next LOL).

Ask yourself this:  Why did God not bother to update these books?  They are obviously wrong on so many levels.  Why not update them?
Why not post the 'correct' version on this very thread?

Because the "Gods" who wrote the Bible (about 40+ writers) are all dead.  Same thing with Talmud or Quran.  Same 'problem'.

People die because they have degenerated in many ways from the perfection of a little over 6,000 years ago. It could be called devolution.

There isn't any way to upgrade the best.

The correct version is a spiritual thing, existing between the spirit of the man and the Holy Spirit of God. The words of the Bible are only the way that mankind might work with the correct version. Lack of the words of the Bible makes the degeneration of mankind happen faster.

[BADecker]

The purpose of life is to survive and procreate.  It is a common purpose in all life forms, including humans.

You are over analyzing it.  It is pretty simple.  People fear death and develop self coping mechanism to deal with that fear.

Have you noticed that poor and uneducated people are more religious than educated and independently wealthy.  Why is that?

Poor and uneducated have more to fear and need some hope (any myth will do) to help them cope with their problems and questions.

Saying that some bronze stone texts have any insights is like saying that Pinocchio fairy tale is a good source of engineering knowledge.

People are killing and mistreating people in the name of those religious texts.  Even today.  How can you say that slavery is a good thing?
You know it causes harm.  People who wrote these texts were psychopaths.

Actually I am confident you are underanalyzing it.

If we drilled down into each of your points we would find we disagree on a lot.

We would disagree on the reason the poor and uneducated people are more religious than educated and independently wealthy.

We do disagree on the insights available in religious texts.

We would probably disagree on the nature, source, and definition of evil as well as the root cause of most human suffering.

I don't know where you got the idea I said slavery was a good thing so we would disagree on whatever logic you took to reach that conclusion.

If we debated each of these points to exhaustion and were both honest in our dialogue we could probably in short order trace them back to a difference in basic assumption.

I suspect that at the foundation you have accepted basic premises about the universe such as things are essentially random and that there is no ultimate purpose to life beyond the mechanical act of propagation and reproduction. Such a metaphysical foundation is not something you can prove. It is something you assume apriori your faith if you will. I on the other hand have adopted a very different apriori Truth so we disagree and that is ok.

Once you understand that our primary difference is one of faith you can better understand the pathological hatred of some extremist have on both sides of the division. Not everyone is up to a challenge to their faith. Many of us do not examine it and cannot clearly articulate it. Those most lacking in self reflection deny they have a faith. Disrupt the foundation and the entire edifice of beliefs built upon it becomes unsound. People can and often do lash out rather then face that.

Take popcorn1 for example. He is so riled up that that he is not only swearing but when he quoted my post he took the time to delete part of the link to Jordan Peterson's fantastic lecture series to make it nonfunctional. Some people simply cannot handle challenges to their faith.

Biblical Series I: Introduction to the Idea of God
https://www.y

...
But some SO CALLED SMART ASS looks to deep into shit      BULLSHIT..  Then he thinks of BULLSHIT then tells the world bullshit.
...

So what is the reason that uneducated people tend to be more religious than educated people? You and badecker have to say slavery is or at least was a good thing, badecker has said that slavery was the ''best'' thing god could have done at the time.

That which is called "education" is often based in technical things that don't answer the basic needs of people... spiritual needs. The uneducated people listen to Bible readings, or read the bible if they have a little education, and are focused thereby on the things that will give them eternal life.

It's a pride thing in the educated people. Or a thing that makes them think that they are finding out what is important, when the complexity of the universe is way beyond any little education they are receiving. Educated people are often self deluding in this way.

However, the strength of spirit is the only thing that affects "more religious." Why? Because according to the complete definition of the word "religion," all people essentially live by religion, no matter the quantity or quality of their education.

[BADecker]

The purpose of life is to survive and procreate.  It is a common purpose in all life forms, including humans.

You are over analyzing it.  It is pretty simple.  People fear death and develop self coping mechanism to deal with that fear.

Have you noticed that poor and uneducated people are more religious than educated and independently wealthy.  Why is that?

Poor and uneducated have more to fear and need some hope (any myth will do) to help them cope with their problems and questions.

Saying that some bronze stone texts have any insights is like saying that Pinocchio fairy tale is a good source of engineering knowledge.

People are killing and mistreating people in the name of those religious texts.  Even today.  How can you say that slavery is a good thing?
You know it causes harm.  People who wrote these texts were psychopaths.

Actually I am confident you are underanalyzing it.

If we drilled down into each of your points we would find we disagree on a lot.

We would disagree on the reason the poor and uneducated people are more religious than educated and independently wealthy.

We do disagree on the insights available in religious texts.

We would probably disagree on the nature, source, and definition of evil as well as the root cause of most human suffering.

I don't know where you got the idea I said slavery was a good thing so we would disagree on whatever logic you took to reach that conclusion.

If we debated each of these points to exhaustion and were both honest in our dialogue we could probably in short order trace them back to a difference in basic assumption.

I suspect that at the foundation you have accepted basic premises about the universe such as things are essentially random and that there is no ultimate purpose to life beyond the mechanical act of propagation and reproduction. Such a metaphysical foundation is not something you can prove. It is something you assume apriori your faith if you will. I on the other hand have adopted a very different apriori Truth so we disagree and that is ok.

Once you understand that our primary difference is one of faith you can better understand the pathological hatred of some extremist have on both sides of the division. Not everyone is up to a challenge to their faith. Many of us do not examine it and cannot clearly articulate it. Those most lacking in self reflection deny they have a faith. Disrupt the foundation and the entire edifice of beliefs built upon it becomes unsound. People can and often do lash out rather then face that.

Take popcorn1 for example. He is so riled up that that he is not only swearing but when he quoted my post he took the time to delete part of the link to Jordan Peterson's fantastic lecture series to make it nonfunctional. Some people simply cannot handle challenges to their faith.

Biblical Series I: Introduction to the Idea of God
https://www.y

...
But some SO CALLED SMART ASS looks to deep into shit      BULLSHIT..  Then he thinks of BULLSHIT then tells the world bullshit.
...

From the religious texts:

https://www.openbible.info/topics/slavery
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/slavery-in-judaism
http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/quran/says_about/slavery.html

Some wisdom!  You are in denial.  All these "sacred" texts are a bunch of hog wash.  All of them.  There is nothing to discuss.

Killing men, women, babies, gays, atheists, non-believers; are you kidding me?

Fix your moral compass then we can talk. 

Until then anyone following ANY religious ideology is just a closet psychopath killer.  Dreaming of 'ISIS' killing fields.

"We are right, you are wrong, we'll be saved, you'll rot in hell" type of thinking.  "Plucking eyes"??, c'mon Jesus, for a supposedly good
guy there is some inconsistency in your 'peaceful' message LOL.

Religious ideologies should be banned, period.  They are inhumane.  If you don't see it, you did not read any religious texts or are in a major denial.

You are ignoring the overall effect of one major aspect of your killing idea. Consider this simple point. If you have a serial killer, who will not change, but will keep on killing if you allow him to be free, what is the right thing to do? Allow him to be free, and thereby help him in his killing? Or kill him via execution, and stop the killing by killing him.

You seem to want to run around without much deep thinking, yet at the same time you seem to want to use words that suggest you have some deep thinking. You are missing a lot.

[BADecker]

anti-religion is an attitude of opposition to religion. Religion is different from atheism and antiteism, although anti-religious people may embrace atheism or anti-theis. This term can be used to describe organized opposition to religion, or in some cases to illustrate more opposition broad for any form of supernatural or divine faith.

Anti-religion is a religion because it follows the definition of religion is some ways.

Atheism and anti-theism are religions because they follow the definition of religion is some ways.

Organized opposition is a religion, because it has followers who do their anti duties religiously.

See the definition of religion at http://www.dictionary.com/browse/religion?s=t, especially # 6, which shows that all people fall into the classification of religion.

[BADecker]

Athiesm isn't a religion because Athiests don't believe in a deity, it is a system on non-belief. Despite this however on some websites Athiesm is still an option when asking for religion.

There are religions that don't have a deity.

Atheism is a religion that has a deity. Who is the deity? The atheist, himself is the deity. Why and how? Because he is attempting to set himself up with enough knowledge to infer that God doesn't exist on a planet around the star Sirius. So, he is claiming to know this, by knowing more than mortal mankind could know. Only a deity could know this.

Atheism is a system of attempted belief, not a system of non-belief. Atheists attempt to believe that God doesn't exist, when they couldn't possibly know it for a fact.

[Astargath]

The purpose of life is to survive and procreate.  It is a common purpose in all life forms, including humans.

You are over analyzing it.  It is pretty simple.  People fear death and develop self coping mechanism to deal with that fear.

Have you noticed that poor and uneducated people are more religious than educated and independently wealthy.  Why is that?

Poor and uneducated have more to fear and need some hope (any myth will do) to help them cope with their problems and questions.

Saying that some bronze stone texts have any insights is like saying that Pinocchio fairy tale is a good source of engineering knowledge.

People are killing and mistreating people in the name of those religious texts.  Even today.  How can you say that slavery is a good thing?
You know it causes harm.  People who wrote these texts were psychopaths.

Actually I am confident you are underanalyzing it.

If we drilled down into each of your points we would find we disagree on a lot.

We would disagree on the reason the poor and uneducated people are more religious than educated and independently wealthy.

We do disagree on the insights available in religious texts.

We would probably disagree on the nature, source, and definition of evil as well as the root cause of most human suffering.

I don't know where you got the idea I said slavery was a good thing so we would disagree on whatever logic you took to reach that conclusion.

If we debated each of these points to exhaustion and were both honest in our dialogue we could probably in short order trace them back to a difference in basic assumption.

I suspect that at the foundation you have accepted basic premises about the universe such as things are essentially random and that there is no ultimate purpose to life beyond the mechanical act of propagation and reproduction. Such a metaphysical foundation is not something you can prove. It is something you assume apriori your faith if you will. I on the other hand have adopted a very different apriori Truth so we disagree and that is ok.

Once you understand that our primary difference is one of faith you can better understand the pathological hatred of some extremist have on both sides of the division. Not everyone is up to a challenge to their faith. Many of us do not examine it and cannot clearly articulate it. Those most lacking in self reflection deny they have a faith. Disrupt the foundation and the entire edifice of beliefs built upon it becomes unsound. People can and often do lash out rather then face that.

Take popcorn1 for example. He is so riled up that that he is not only swearing but when he quoted my post he took the time to delete part of the link to Jordan Peterson's fantastic lecture series to make it nonfunctional. Some people simply cannot handle challenges to their faith.

Biblical Series I: Introduction to the Idea of God
https://www.y

...
But some SO CALLED SMART ASS looks to deep into shit      BULLSHIT..  Then he thinks of BULLSHIT then tells the world bullshit.
...

So what is the reason that uneducated people tend to be more religious than educated people? You and badecker have to say slavery is or at least was a good thing, badecker has said that slavery was the ''best'' thing god could have done at the time.

That which is called "education" is often based in technical things that don't answer the basic needs of people... spiritual needs. The uneducated people listen to Bible readings, or read the bible if they have a little education, and are focused thereby on the things that will give them eternal life.

It's a pride thing in the educated people. Or a thing that makes them think that they are finding out what is important, when the complexity of the universe is way beyond any little education they are receiving. Educated people are often self deluding in this way.

However, the strength of spirit is the only thing that affects "more religious." Why? Because according to the complete definition of the word "religion," all people essentially live by religion, no matter the quantity or quality of their education.

''The uneducated people listen to Bible readings, or read the bible if they have a little education'' and believe it without any proof because they are not smart enough. That's why people with higher IQ tend to believe less in gods. It's what it is badecker, the more stupid you are the more likely you are to believe in god. Don't be mad.

[BADecker]

The purpose of life is to survive and procreate.  It is a common purpose in all life forms, including humans.

You are over analyzing it.  It is pretty simple.  People fear death and develop self coping mechanism to deal with that fear.

Have you noticed that poor and uneducated people are more religious than educated and independently wealthy.  Why is that?

Poor and uneducated have more to fear and need some hope (any myth will do) to help them cope with their problems and questions.

Saying that some bronze stone texts have any insights is like saying that Pinocchio fairy tale is a good source of engineering knowledge.

People are killing and mistreating people in the name of those religious texts.  Even today.  How can you say that slavery is a good thing?
You know it causes harm.  People who wrote these texts were psychopaths.

Actually I am confident you are underanalyzing it.

If we drilled down into each of your points we would find we disagree on a lot.

We would disagree on the reason the poor and uneducated people are more religious than educated and independently wealthy.

We do disagree on the insights available in religious texts.

We would probably disagree on the nature, source, and definition of evil as well as the root cause of most human suffering.

I don't know where you got the idea I said slavery was a good thing so we would disagree on whatever logic you took to reach that conclusion.

If we debated each of these points to exhaustion and were both honest in our dialogue we could probably in short order trace them back to a difference in basic assumption.

I suspect that at the foundation you have accepted basic premises about the universe such as things are essentially random and that there is no ultimate purpose to life beyond the mechanical act of propagation and reproduction. Such a metaphysical foundation is not something you can prove. It is something you assume apriori your faith if you will. I on the other hand have adopted a very different apriori Truth so we disagree and that is ok.

Once you understand that our primary difference is one of faith you can better understand the pathological hatred of some extremist have on both sides of the division. Not everyone is up to a challenge to their faith. Many of us do not examine it and cannot clearly articulate it. Those most lacking in self reflection deny they have a faith. Disrupt the foundation and the entire edifice of beliefs built upon it becomes unsound. People can and often do lash out rather then face that.

Take popcorn1 for example. He is so riled up that that he is not only swearing but when he quoted my post he took the time to delete part of the link to Jordan Peterson's fantastic lecture series to make it nonfunctional. Some people simply cannot handle challenges to their faith.

Biblical Series I: Introduction to the Idea of God
https://www.y

...
But some SO CALLED SMART ASS looks to deep into shit      BULLSHIT..  Then he thinks of BULLSHIT then tells the world bullshit.
...

So what is the reason that uneducated people tend to be more religious than educated people? You and badecker have to say slavery is or at least was a good thing, badecker has said that slavery was the ''best'' thing god could have done at the time.

That which is called "education" is often based in technical things that don't answer the basic needs of people... spiritual needs. The uneducated people listen to Bible readings, or read the bible if they have a little education, and are focused thereby on the things that will give them eternal life.

It's a pride thing in the educated people. Or a thing that makes them think that they are finding out what is important, when the complexity of the universe is way beyond any little education they are receiving. Educated people are often self deluding in this way.

However, the strength of spirit is the only thing that affects "more religious." Why? Because according to the complete definition of the word "religion," all people essentially live by religion, no matter the quantity or quality of their education.

''The uneducated people listen to Bible readings, or read the bible if they have a little education'' and believe it without any proof because they are not smart enough. That's why people with higher IQ tend to believe less in gods. It's what it is badecker, the more stupid you are the more likely you are to believe in god. Don't be mad.

And the educated atheists are so extremely far from finding enough education, that they think that they are atheists, when the most that they are is atheist hopefuls. In all their education, they can't even see the self-contradictions in the idea of atheism. Is that education? You atheist jokers have a long way to go to find reasonable education.

[Astargath]

The purpose of life is to survive and procreate.  It is a common purpose in all life forms, including humans.

You are over analyzing it.  It is pretty simple.  People fear death and develop self coping mechanism to deal with that fear.

Have you noticed that poor and uneducated people are more religious than educated and independently wealthy.  Why is that?

Poor and uneducated have more to fear and need some hope (any myth will do) to help them cope with their problems and questions.

Saying that some bronze stone texts have any insights is like saying that Pinocchio fairy tale is a good source of engineering knowledge.

People are killing and mistreating people in the name of those religious texts.  Even today.  How can you say that slavery is a good thing?
You know it causes harm.  People who wrote these texts were psychopaths.

Actually I am confident you are underanalyzing it.

If we drilled down into each of your points we would find we disagree on a lot.

We would disagree on the reason the poor and uneducated people are more religious than educated and independently wealthy.

We do disagree on the insights available in religious texts.

We would probably disagree on the nature, source, and definition of evil as well as the root cause of most human suffering.

I don't know where you got the idea I said slavery was a good thing so we would disagree on whatever logic you took to reach that conclusion.

If we debated each of these points to exhaustion and were both honest in our dialogue we could probably in short order trace them back to a difference in basic assumption.

I suspect that at the foundation you have accepted basic premises about the universe such as things are essentially random and that there is no ultimate purpose to life beyond the mechanical act of propagation and reproduction. Such a metaphysical foundation is not something you can prove. It is something you assume apriori your faith if you will. I on the other hand have adopted a very different apriori Truth so we disagree and that is ok.

Once you understand that our primary difference is one of faith you can better understand the pathological hatred of some extremist have on both sides of the division. Not everyone is up to a challenge to their faith. Many of us do not examine it and cannot clearly articulate it. Those most lacking in self reflection deny they have a faith. Disrupt the foundation and the entire edifice of beliefs built upon it becomes unsound. People can and often do lash out rather then face that.

Take popcorn1 for example. He is so riled up that that he is not only swearing but when he quoted my post he took the time to delete part of the link to Jordan Peterson's fantastic lecture series to make it nonfunctional. Some people simply cannot handle challenges to their faith.

Biblical Series I: Introduction to the Idea of God
https://www.y

...
But some SO CALLED SMART ASS looks to deep into shit      BULLSHIT..  Then he thinks of BULLSHIT then tells the world bullshit.
...

So what is the reason that uneducated people tend to be more religious than educated people? You and badecker have to say slavery is or at least was a good thing, badecker has said that slavery was the ''best'' thing god could have done at the time.

That which is called "education" is often based in technical things that don't answer the basic needs of people... spiritual needs. The uneducated people listen to Bible readings, or read the bible if they have a little education, and are focused thereby on the things that will give them eternal life.

It's a pride thing in the educated people. Or a thing that makes them think that they are finding out what is important, when the complexity of the universe is way beyond any little education they are receiving. Educated people are often self deluding in this way.

However, the strength of spirit is the only thing that affects "more religious." Why? Because according to the complete definition of the word "religion," all people essentially live by religion, no matter the quantity or quality of their education.

''The uneducated people listen to Bible readings, or read the bible if they have a little education'' and believe it without any proof because they are not smart enough. That's why people with higher IQ tend to believe less in gods. It's what it is badecker, the more stupid you are the more likely you are to believe in god. Don't be mad.

And the educated atheists are so extremely far from finding enough education, that they think that they are atheists, when the most that they are is atheist hopefuls. In all their education, they can't even see the self-contradictions in the idea of atheism. Is that education? You atheist jokers have a long way to go to find reasonable education.

Forget about education, we are talking about IQ which requires no previous knowledge. Smart people tend to believe less in god, educated or not. I'm sorry but it's the truth, don't be mad it's a fact.

[Sithara007]

Most of the countries classify atheism as a religion in their census. I was looking at the religion-based census tables from countries such as New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom. Some of them have classified the non-religious and atheists in one category, while some others have combined it.

[CoinCube]

''The uneducated people listen to Bible readings, or read the bible if they have a little education'' and believe it without any proof because they are not smart enough. That's why people with higher IQ tend to believe less in gods. It's what it is badecker, the more stupid you are the more likely you are to believe in god. Don't be mad.

Actually that is not entirely accurate.

The distribution of atheist intelligence
https://voxday.blogspot.com/2014/01/mailvox-distribution-of-atheist.html?m=1