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Identity
October 1, 2011 at 11:40 am
(This post was last modified: October 1, 2011 at 11:43 am by medviation.)
I have conversations sometimes with my friends who are religious and we talk about evidence, logic, reason, universe, etc. And usually we agree that the Bible and other religious text have obvious mistakes in logic and science uncovered evidence that negates the context of the Bible. So I end up asking them why still hold on to your faith when you know that it is flawed.
One answer I got is it is part of their identity that for a Christian country I live in, it is part of culture and tradition to follow the footsteps of Christ. I stopped arguing with them for a while. Hmmm... that's a good point at first. It is important for a person to identify one's self.
Then later, my thought was that not all the ways people identify themselves are good. In one case a person is required to commit a crime to be identified as part of part a gang. And if more and more of your neighbors join this gang, you'd be pressured to do the same in order to have a sense of safety. For me, in the same sense this is what happened to people becoming religious. What about your thoughts?
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RE: Identity
October 1, 2011 at 11:53 am
Most people are simply born into a religion, have it shoved down their throats ( or, up their asses in the case of catholics ) at a young age and really never give it any thought thereafter.
They will come up with all sorts of rationalizations after that but most of them are clueless.
They just know that they don't like people who believe in a different invisibile man in the sky.
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RE: Identity
October 1, 2011 at 12:10 pm
Good point also. I see some of these people have all the ingredients for a change of mind but they don't know how to "cook" or never bothered "cooking" for this change of mind.
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RE: Identity
October 1, 2011 at 12:22 pm
Religious idiocy is indeed pervasive. In fact the dominant position is becoming more widespread with improved communication.
Does that mean those who take time to actually reason their position have it easier or harder? I think easier.
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RE: Identity
October 1, 2011 at 4:31 pm
Tradition can suck my balls.
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RE: Identity
October 1, 2011 at 5:23 pm
I think people who need to 'identify themselves' are weak minded fools.
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RE: Identity
October 1, 2011 at 8:24 pm
I think it comes down to fear and irrationality. The more deeply religious the less critical thinking skills the individual possesses. Exactly why there are many different religions and differing levels within each religion.
The fundies are the worst as no amount of evidence will ever convince them they are wrong. I imagine that many people are religious due to disingenuousness. They know they are wrong but are willing to ignore it for the infinitesimal chance in their mind that there is a hellfire they could burn in for eternity though we know the impossibility of that for various reasons.
These are simply my conclusions after pondering your question. I'm fairly new to this religion thing so I'm sure there's more to it than what I've outlined and others can add them if they wish.
Theists changing my derision of religion is equivilent to pissing into the wind and expecting not to get wet.
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RE: Identity
October 1, 2011 at 9:27 pm
Thats the single worst reason for anything I have ever heard.
Rephrased: "Well...Everyone else is jumping off that cliff..."
