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Why people who are religious are better and more special
August 16, 2014 at 11:55 am
Unlike many of my other topics which are long and incoherent, this topic gets my point across strongly and is very brief. It explains why I think people who do believe in a God and an afterlife are better and more special people than atheists:
People who think they are special and such apply that perception to life itself and conclude that life itself must also be something special and meant for them. For example, someone who thinks "I am a very helpful and caring special person" might then conclude that this life must then be something special as well and offers a special "higher" reward for who they are as a person (a God and an afterlife). They are not willing to either accept that this is not the case and no longer complain about it, or they still insist on believing that there is a God and an afterlife anyway. I feel that the reason such people believe in such things anyway despite much scientific evidence is because they are just too much of a human being (someone great and special) to, again, possibly stoop so low as to believe or accept otherwise.
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RE: Why people who are religious are better and more special
August 16, 2014 at 12:03 pm
People with big egos are better than other people? Well, they certainly think so.
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RE: Why people who are religious are better and more special
August 16, 2014 at 12:14 pm
(August 16, 2014 at 11:55 am)Mozart Link Wrote: Unlike many of my other topics which are long and incoherent... The length of your post is irrelevant. They're all still the same thing.
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RE: Why people who are religious are better and more special
August 16, 2014 at 12:20 pm
Very trollish behaviour.....
'The more I learn about people the more I like my dog'- Mark Twain
'You can have all the faith you want in spirits, and the afterlife, and heaven and hell, but when it comes to this world, don't be an idiot. Cause you can tell me you put your faith in God to put you through the day, but when it comes time to cross the road, I know you look both ways.' - Dr House
“Young earth creationism is essentially the position that all of modern science, 90% of living scientists and 98% of living biologists, all major university biology departments, every major science journal, the American Academy of Sciences, and every major science organization in the world, are all wrong regarding the origins and development of life….but one particular tribe of uneducated, bronze aged, goat herders got it exactly right.” - Chuck Easttom
"If my good friend Doctor Gasparri speaks badly of my mother, he can expect to get punched.....You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others. There is a limit." - Pope Francis on freedom of speech
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RE: Why people who are religious are better and more special
August 16, 2014 at 12:22 pm
Quote:why I think people who do believe in a God and an afterlife are better and more special people than atheists:
Yeah...special as in riding the short bus to school.
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RE: Why people who are religious are better and more special
August 16, 2014 at 12:34 pm
The fact that people have delusional beliefs that they are special, does not make them so.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
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RE: Why people who are religious are better and more special
August 16, 2014 at 12:57 pm
Religious belief can serve as a way of improving your confidence or self-esteem, though it can also be damaging to that same sense of self. If you use your belief to support the idea that you are capable of success because god wants you to succeed, I think that you can accomplish more than you would otherwise. If you use your belief to support the idea that we're all fallen people who will never achieve our potential until god grants it to us, then you may be inclined to let life pass you by as you wait. A person with a strong religious faith may use it to remain positive in the face of difficult medical treatment, or he may allow his child to die while he prays for a miraculous intervention.
Religion can be used in the same way any other form of self-delusion can-- to push us closer to our potential, or to pull us further from it. I personally think it's better to build yourself without religion because religion imposes rules and limitations and a dependence on people who might drag you down under the belief that they're helping you. In order to set goals and achieve them and succeed at life in your own terms, the only god you need is the one who stares back at you from the mirror. He or she is more powerful than you might imagine, and has the benefit of existing and being easily reachable.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
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RE: Why people who are religious are better and more special
August 16, 2014 at 1:20 pm
Quote:Religious belief can serve as a way of improving your confidence or self-esteem, though it can also be damaging to that same sense of self.
Yeah - in the wise words of H. L. Mencken....
Quote:God is the immemorial refuge of the incompetent, the helpless, the miserable. They find not only sanctuary in His arms, but also a kind of superiority, soothing to their macerated egos: He will set them above their betters.
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RE: Why people who are religious are better and more special
August 16, 2014 at 1:38 pm
(August 16, 2014 at 12:34 pm)Simon Moon Wrote: The fact that people have delusional beliefs that they are special, does not make them so. It is a scientific fact that who you are is your brain and all of your thoughts and emotions. Therefore, if you have the thoughts and feelings that you are all great and special, then it is a scientific fact that this makes you all great and special.
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RE: Why people who are religious are better and more special
August 16, 2014 at 1:56 pm
(August 16, 2014 at 1:38 pm)Mozart Link Wrote: (August 16, 2014 at 12:34 pm)Simon Moon Wrote: The fact that people have delusional beliefs that they are special, does not make them so. It is a scientific fact that who you are is your brain and all of your thoughts and emotions. Therefore, if you have the thoughts and feelings that you are all great and special, then it is a scientific fact that this makes you all great and special.
Oh please!
In my brain I am the King of the Universe, living among the commoners here on Earth.
I am the most great and special being in existence.
Seriously dude.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
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