(November 24, 2016 at 8:55 pm)Balaco Wrote: if you guys have anything to contribute, that'd be cool.

I see religion as a veil that protects the individual from a harsh reality.

It is always easier to escape into a comfortable area rather than face reality, and comfort is precisely what religion offers.

I do not see that kind of comfort as a virtue, but rather as a major detriment to reason.

On another quick note, why do you guys suppose Christianity has grown so complex? I've been sent dozens of videos that have to total to at least 12 hours, and I'm sure there's countless more across the Internet.

One of these is a 2.5 hour video on how magicians prove the existence of demons. Haven't looked too much into it but it seems like all the tricks it showed have explanations over the Internet.

(November 24, 2016 at 9:23 pm)Balaco Wrote: On another quick note, why do you guys suppose Christianity has grown so complex?

Because you can't plug that many holes with only ten fingers.

dude died, woke up, and flew away?

to believe that means you dispensed with common sense or are emotionally tied to your belief.

To answer the question in the title of the thread, it isn't a matter of "why should you leave being a Catholic" but "what good reason do you have to hold any religion in the world".

Our species is 200,000 years old, much older than any written religion or borders.  Our planet is 4 billion years old making us a mere fraction of the time of the planet's existence.  A planet in which the time of evolution starting has had 5 mass extinctions of which 99% of life in that time has gone extinct.

Our sun is only 1 of billions of suns in our galaxy alone. It is a galaxy so big it takes 1 ray of light 100,000 years to cross. That is only 1 galaxy of 100s of billions of galaxies in our observable universe that is 13.8 billion years old. Now if you are going to ask me if I think all that was put here for us, I will answer rightfully, NO. Now if you are going to ask me if humans make religions and god claims up because it gives them a false sense of comfort, again, I will rightfully answer yes.

It makes sense that humans made those bad guesses in antiquity when they didn't know any better, but we have much better  tools to measure nature and the universe now.

So again, and this goes for any religion past or present, other than someone sold it to you, or you like it, why do you feel the need to have one at all?

(November 24, 2016 at 3:20 pm)The Joker Wrote: It depends on what you mean by "troll", the word troll is highly subjective in this forum. I usually am encountered with the word troll, whenever an atheist cannot stand up to my irrefutable facts, they use it to run away from me like your doing. You better find a way to stop me or I will just keep crushing every argument from every atheist I can get hold of, depending on my time.

lol, you've got no facts, nor arguments irrefutable. You should probably practice humility, but just as probably lack the insight to do so. Pity you ... but hey, it's your hubris leading you to your dead-end; I refuse to get emotionally invested in your delusions, either about your god or yourself.

I don't think you're a troll. I do, however, think you're inconsiderate and not terribly thoughtful. I also think you overrate your own intellectual gravitas.

I wish you all the best on your quest for knowledge

Please come back to us with any questions.

My single biggest piece of advice is to try and become comfortable with the phrase, "I don't know". For example, science has not determined exactly where our reality came from, whether it was created or whether it is eternal. In other words, I don't know. Some people are so uncomfortable or unsatisfifed with this answer that they'd rather seek any answer at all, even if it's just a magical story. Accepting prepackaged simple answers based on no evidence can be comforting, but it's also dangerous because you stop searching for a real answer. Science may never be able to answer certain questions, but that doesn't make it any more valid to try and guess. There are several working hypotheses of course, all of which are at least based on observations and are all much more credible than anything religion has ever produced.

The other question I'd ask is why you'd want to be a part of a religion. For me, even if I knew for certain "God" exists, whatever that means, I'd still want nothing to do with any religion. If I could form some sort of sensible relationship with it, I'd do so, but I don't need groups of people telling me how to do it. If there's a problem with communication, and there clearly is, then I think the supposedly superpowered all knowing being is much better suited to address it than me, a relatively powerless talking ape stuck to a rock. If it's a test, it's a really stupid one and I'm not interested in celestial hide and seek. A test to see if I'll believe what my parents told me despite there being no evidence of it?

My YouTube channel is robvalue, I have loads of videos on there about many aspects of religion, science, atheism and scepticism, if you'd like to check it out. As well as some dumb comedy Here's one for starters.

(November 24, 2016 at 10:00 pm)Brian37 Wrote: To answer the question in the title of the thread, it isn't a matter of "why should you leave being a Catholic" but "what good reason do you have to hold any religion in the world".

Our species is 200,000 years old, much older than any written religion or borders.  Our planet is 4 billion years old making us a mere fraction of the time of the planet's existence.  A planet in which the time of evolution starting has had 5 mass extinctions of which 99% of life in that time has gone extinct.

Our sun is only 1 of billions of suns in our galaxy alone. It is a galaxy so big it takes 1 ray of light 100,000 years to cross. That is only 1 galaxy of 100s of billions of galaxies in our observable universe that is 13.8 billion years old. Now if you are going to ask me if I think all that was put here for us, I will answer rightfully, NO. Now if you are going to ask me if humans make religions and god claims up because it gives them a false sense of comfort, again, I will rightfully answer yes.

It makes sense that humans made those bad guesses in antiquity when they didn't know any better, but we have much better  tools to measure nature and the universe now.

So again, and this goes for any religion past or present, other than someone sold it to you, or you like it, why do you feel the need to have one at all?

You inspired me.

(November 24, 2016 at 9:23 pm)Balaco Wrote: On another quick note, why do you guys suppose Christianity has grown so complex? I've been sent dozens of videos that have to total to at least 12 hours, and I'm sure there's countless more across the Internet.

One of these is a 2.5 hour video on how magicians prove the existence of demons. Haven't looked too much into it but it seems like all the tricks it showed have explanations over the Internet.

Christianity is so complex because it is a political beast. For a long time it was both a major european state (in the guise of the papal states), and a tool used by other major states to pacify populations and quell discontent among their populaces (one of the main reasons why France and Germany were so willing to allow so many of their men off despite it weakening their military base so much was because most of that military power was used in a way which hurt the central government).

It's also had to be extremely "flexible" to allow for people to be nice and less bigoted, contrary to the texts. So it's had to pretend to be one thing, while also being the other.