billhicks wrote: I was christened when I was a baby. My parents aren't religious so I asked my mum why one time. She said "because it's the done thing".



When I was in my teens I wondered if looking at pornography was bad so I looked it up in the bible and read interpretations of it to get an idea of where I stand when I get to the gates. Prior to that I hadn't really thought about it(god, religion etc) much but always assumed there was a god whom would one day judge me. I learnt that the christian faith(and most faiths actually) frown on pornography yet I very much liked it so I had to make a choice…..

I think aside from all the creationist nonsense and fairytales, people who have god or religion in their life for personal guidance/comfort etc are for the most part using it as some kind of third party go between to get the answers from themselves. Everyone has a conscious, a brain and a sense of right and wrong. A lot of the *rational* moral guidance that comes from religion is common sense that any sane person knows themselves already without needing a fear based religion to keep them on the straight and narrow.

I've been an explicit atheist a long time now and haven't yet raped or murdered anyone.

inverse square wrote: Yeah, we all know plastic bags exist.

Farrell wrote: In a way the difference with between religious people and non-religious people is that religious people attribute the unexplained to god, non-religious people attribute it to nothing and are fine with that [no judgement]. Things like life, existance, evolution, sentience, gravity and electomagnetic forces etc are, to me, gods work. To you I guess they are just the mysteries of the universe as yet unexplained.

Farrell wrote: Not in christianity, we were given free will. The X would just be a push along.

Like computer viruses, successful mind viruses will tend to be hard for their victims to detect. If you are the victim of one, the chances are that you won't know it, and may even vigorously deny it.

Farrell wrote: dude just because you quote something doesn't make it right. Use your own words. Can you possibly accept the idea that I'm not brainwashed and intelligent enough to evaluate things myself? Or is my belief now proof beyond anything else that I'm stupid?

Troll in my distilling of christianity I've gotten that the idea is that repentance of sins is the key to heaven. In my opinion that isn't reliant on belief, just the will not to be a cunt all the time and the realisation of a bigger picture (and I don't mean one that has to include god). But I don't know.

I might as well add that dogma isn't my strong suit, I don't know that any strain of religion completely fits with how I feel god.