Stephen Fry on confronting god after death

Agreed - A school should be there to teach specifically the subjects on the agreed curriculum. I work for a programming firm delivering enterprise software. We don't tend to cross over into knitwear production.

On a side note, I will be bringing my son to church and teaching him about God myself but I can't force him to believe or ram it down his throat - counter to what people say about brainwashing my experience is that kids often turn away from their parents faith if this is done. On the other hand a large chunk of other Christians I know came to 'faith' as adults.

Emersyn Deep Destroyer wrote: »

Your nonsensical posts should be removed from existence to give all our eyes a rest.

Why is it nonsensical to dispute the biggest scam in the history of mankind? Religion is pish, pure and utter fabricated drivel of the highest order. It beggars belief that anyone capable of writing and reading would suggest otherwise.

The reality is that a lot of people like to be led, they have no gumption to lead themselves. How else do you explain successive Government exploiting the people for personal gain year after year.

Emersyn Deep Destroyer wrote: »

The above is nothing but your incorrect and frankly idiotic opinion. You know nothing.

No, I am afraid it is fact. It is not my opinion that religion is man made fiction, it is.

It is embarrassing that you would try and dispute it, I do not wish to get personal because this is a friendly forum and it is good to have a debate, but trying to convince people that there is such a thing as God and that religion is true is the act of a maniac, a delusional maniac that spends their life in a make believe fantasy world. You know people are locked up in psych wards for a lot less than this! Its worth thinking about.

Emersyn Deep Destroyer wrote: »

The above is nothing but your incorrect and frankly idiotic opinion. You know nothing.

He's right. They all began as cults that became religions when they're endorsed by a king/emperor who then make it the state religion. St. Patrick brought Christianity here but if he didn't, we would be worshiping pagan Gods or the Protestant church would have spread across from England.

If Christian Europe lost the battle of Vienna, Europe would be predominantly Muslim. You're only a Catholic/Christian because your parents raised/indoctrinated you to be one - the vast majority of religious people were never given a choice to believe in anything else.

Jesus was no more than a cult leader and hs name wasn't even Jesus because the letter J wasn't invented until the 15th century or thereabouts. The Bible is full of bullshít.

RobertKK wrote: »

Atheists, theists and anyone in between... I mean do they think what they post or say really changes anyone to their viewpoint?
It is usually people on either side just thanking people who share their point of view rather than someone thanking to say 'yeah, that was a convincing argument'.

So if one continues arguing a point, it makes the person irrational as they are just going round in circles arguing the same thing.

I don't think in all my time on the internet have I ever seen a religious debate end up with someone saying " yeah , actually, your right, **** god" or " oh ****, your so right...do you think he'll forgive me and let me in, I really didn't think he was real".

It's the whole substance of faith that get's lost on many. It's a belief system. There is no proof, asking for proof is stupid. Trying to prove it is stupid. I'd argue that if your entire basis for not having faith in a religion is on proof, that you havn't given it much thought, as most of the things you take for granted you cannot explain or even comprehend.

Personally I do not believe in a god of any type. Not because of proof, but the simple fact that I don't like the idea I'm not in control of my life. That any choice I make, somehow a higher being knew it would happen, and even planned it to happen. Choice is the very thing that defines your freedom and existence. And for someone to preach to me that I actually don't really have a choice, that god has a plan, all that stuff. No thanks.

Then again, I tend not to belittle people that have faith or religious belief. My girlfriend was adamant that our child be baptized, so fine, I went to church, our child was baptized. I didn't pray, kneel or stand, just sat there for the ceremony. It's literally no big deal to me. I didn't feel the need to get outraged.

I'm sure like me, who was baptized and went through all the catholic stuff, my daughter will get to an age where she will either decide to continue her faith, or completely drop it, like I did.

But what I find so insufferable is how people have pops at Catholics and various religions as if they know better. When in reality nobody knows anything. It's why it called "faith" and "belief".

Zack Morris wrote: »

He's right. They all began as cults that became religions when they're endorsed by a king/emperor who then make it the state religion.

The history of religion isn't that simple or straight forward. The first religions seem to be intertwined with the beginnings of civilisation and farming. It's quite likely that people meeting at religious sites where the first to realise that they could make a living at farming. Some historians now think it's likely that people meet at religious sites (which appear to be hunter gatherer sites due to the symbolism used), traded seeds, dropped some, came back a year later to see the seeds had germinated which lead to the realisation they could farm these crops. This could lead them to link farming to the gods pretty quickly.

I think religion was a social construct that humanity used to build trust between larger groups. Trust has always been a big issue with humans trading with each other. We have been developing ways of trusting outsiders that probably started with marriage, moved onto religious reasons, then state.

That's why I think religion was a fundamental part of humans development into the people we are today. It did open our minds to the fact there are systems happening in the world, everythings linked somehow and they explained it in the only way they knew how, a very powerful person is in charge and making things happen. It wasn't until science proposed an alternative that people even considered it to be any different.

As a matter of interest.

While I don't believe in god, in any shape or form, I would believe that we are not alone, and that there is other life somewhere.

I can't fathom that in all the galaxies and universes that we know off, never mind the near infinite space we do not know about, that there wouldn't be other living life, somewhere.

I have no basis for this, absolutely no proof or evidence. Nor does anyone else. I'm not a Area51 tinfoil hat wearing freak, I just think the likelyhood is there is something out there. It's a belief, no evidence or basis, just a belief.

I wonder would some of the non-religious people in here and elsewhere, who label religous people as bat **** crazy, and seem to take some enjoyment at planting the "prove it to me" arguement, do the same with me?


Then again probably helps that I don't preach it every Sunday morning, cause that would be weird

TireeTerror wrote: »

Why is it nonsensical to dispute the biggest scam in the history of mankind? Religion is pish, pure and utter fabricated drivel of the highest order. It beggars belief that anyone capable of writing and reading would suggest otherwise.

The reality is that a lot of people like to be led, they have no gumption to lead themselves. How else do you explain successive Government exploiting the people for personal gain year after year.

The thing i find more annoying is, People these days are quite well educated, but they still believe in religion in general. Its pure and utter scutter, something created to keep people in check. I honestly don't think you should be allowed pick your religion until your over an age of consent.

Dan_Solo wrote: »

Ah come on now. If we banned kids from being brainwashed every religion on earth would be ****ed in a generation.

Its funny how kids get gifts (money) for the main occasions when they go to church IE Conformation and Communion, great way to get them hooked. In saying that, the church wouldn't want adults, they don't really fancy them.