RE: My views have somewhat changed
February 10, 2017 at 6:54 am
(This post was last modified: February 10, 2017 at 8:54 am by Homeless Nutter.)
(February 10, 2017 at 3:15 am)Mirek-Polska Wrote: [...]Now, I realized there are many things I do think that kind of oppose religion such as:
I don't believe the earth is only 6000 years old
I believe in evolution
I don't believe the creation story, or genesis
To be fair - "Young Earth" creationists are considered dim-wits even among most christian denominations. Even the catholic pope officially accepts evolution as a fact - be it with some caveats. The thing about religion is, that - as a fantasy - it doesn't have to be consistent with anything, not with history, not with scientific facts, not even with itself. With enough mental gymnastics, accompanied by some hand-waving, you can fit anything into a religious world-view. Just as long as you really, really want that sky-cake...
(February 10, 2017 at 3:15 am)Mirek-Polska Wrote: I am not even sure I believe Jesus came back from the dead
Neither do the Jews and muslims. Nor any of the thousands other religions, that are not based on christianity. Sure, since you grew up with your particular faith, those other religions seem wacky and wrong, but of course - that's exactly how your beliefs appear to people outside of your church.
Religion is a good racket - whatever preconceived notions you may have, there's a sect out there more than happy to tell you exactly what you want to hear. Which is the first thing that should clue you in to the fact, that it's a scam.
Anyway - as an agnostic, you're practically an atheist. If you don't know whether or not there are gods - then you clearly don't believe in them. You may hope, or wish for them to exist, you may accept it as a possibility and take precautions, in case it turns out to be the actual state of things - but that's not what believing in something means.
I mean - of course you don't know, nobody does, but a theist, despite not knowing, when asked if there is a god will say "yes". And if you can't honestly give that answer - congratulations, you're an atheist. Welcome to the club... Of course - "agnostic" sounds better, when talking to religious people, because it makes you look - to them - like an undecided, or an uninformed person, rather than like someone telling them their beliefs are false, so I guess living in a country like Poland, it's probably wise to stick to that label, if any.
We're all technically agnostic, when it comes to the veracity of un-falsifiable, un-testable claims. We can never know for sure, that there isn't a tea-pot orbiting the Sun out there, or that Santa Claus doesn't deliver gifts to children. But in the absence of evidence - and considering all the evidence suggesting, that religions are created and ran by dangerous lunatics and cynical frauds - it seems logical to disregard such ideas, for the time being and act as if our lives depend on us and the physical reality we live in - not whims of some bronze-age barbarians' imaginary friends.
"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one." - George Bernard Shaw