(March 23, 2018 at 4:42 pm)Khemikal Wrote: It's not exactly unheard of for a priest not to believe in god, lol....especially a catholic priest.
Not that it matters what a persons religious beliefs are, when it comes to doing scientific research, as has already been pointed out.
I agree. There are Jews who like the ceremony and like to call it a race, but no, it is still ultimately a religion. My Catholic mother was a "just in case" believer, but never attended church on a consistent basis. She'd take the communion very rarely and only go to church on major holidays. I attended a Unitarian Church in central Virginia which had every religion you could imagine and a handful of atheists too. I liked the ceremony and companionship but that was about it. I was always skeptical of what the theists there said, and we even had a skeptic as a minister/pastor, whatever Unitarians call them for that sect. But when he got too skeptical he got transferred out to another location because the Christians in our "flock" in truth, were worried he was getting too close to the truth.
Just like if a Jew or Muslim eats pork, it does not make them not what they claim. It merely means they like some parts of their traditions and not others.
Richard Dawkins has if I am correct called himself a "cultural Christian".
It is possible for ANYONE of ANY label to cherry pick the parts of what they are involved in and ignore the parts they don't like.
I am an "atheist" but that is not my skin tone or my nationality. I am an "atheist" but I hate Ayn Rand, Stalin and Castro. If my mom were still alive and I had to choose spending a Sunday at Church vs spending time with Ayn Rand, Stalin or Castro, whom do you think I would pick? It still would not mean even if I went to Church with her, that I believe in a real deity. It would just mean I want to spend time with an awesome person, and not monsters.
I think most holy people of every religion worldwide, not talking about megga church cons, but most holy people be they Christian or Muslim or Jews or Hindus or Buddhist truly believe the product they sell. But yea, I am sure quite a few humans take that role because they like the power and attention, but don't believe the crap they sell.
