I agree that that all religions (or at least more) should be taught in Schools nowadays. Back when I was in School, I loved R.E (Religious Education) and even though I had no interest in joining any of the Religions, I was truly fascinated by some of them and there rituals. It's just a shame that the amount that we got taught was not a lot, and that pretty much every kid in my class apart from a hand full, thought R.E was stupid and pointless.

I really do love learning about religions though. I have a Jewish friend, and I love it when he tells me about Jewish stories from the past and there rituals. Thankfully, he does not force his views upon other people, and knows that I'm an atheist and is also fascinated by my views on why I think a God does not exist. As said above, the people who try to force there views upon you are extremely annoying and do nothing to change your mind. Instead, they put a negative image upon themselves, which then results in there whole Religion being tarred with the same brush in most cases.

I remember walking through a little fairground setup in my local town for a few days, and there were a whole bunch of Scientologists (sp?) there telling people there views. At first, I didn't have a problem with this until one of them seemed to take offense to me saying no. He tried to shove a load of leaflets and what not in my face, so I gave him a gentle smile and said "No thank you." and he went off like a bomb! He started following me and my girlfriend, cursing at us both saying "You will regret the day you turned your back on Scientology!". I thought it was appalling behavior to be honest, and all he succeeded in doing was making his religion look bad.

Quote from amp88 :

So...the dictionaries are in a conspiracy now? They got together and decided to just create a new definition for a word as a bit of fun? You accuse me of sounding like Intrepid, but I reckon you should take a look in the mirror with that one. Languages evolve.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspeak

Quote from Nathan_French_14 :

It's just a shame that the amount that we got taught was not a lot, and that pretty much every kid in my class apart from a hand full, thought R.E was stupid and pointless.

I remember that I didn't really know what to make of RE when it was being taught to us. Back then I had an older friend who I looked up to for moral guidance, who for some reason had kept all of his RE magazines from his own classes. When I looked through them I saw he had drawn arrows through the heads of all the photographs. I thought it was hilarious.

I got pretty good at drawing arrows through peoples heads in RE.

Quote from Nathan_French_14 :

and that pretty much every kid in my class apart from a hand full, thought R.E was stupid and pointless.

But that's what it is.

It should be voluntary, IMO. Fine if you like it but I don't want to be forced to sit through 100 minutes or more of it per week.

I actually enjoyed my R.E. lessons. Well, the last year of it was good.

It wasnt just about god and how he is the best or something. It was more focused on our lives and being in different, sometimes difficult situations. Human rights, racism, sex, abortions, homosexuals etc.

Gays brought up a raging discussion I remember. One of the best lessons I ever had.

I believe that there is someone who created this Universe but it stands above all the religions which we created to govern our lives.

voted agnostic...i dont really believe in god, i hope there is a god, and afterlife for that matter, but the only proof of anything is the night my grandmother died (she was in the hospitol for a few months) i had a dream about her, and i was saying goodbye or something

not quite a god thing, but it does have to do with the subject...kinda..

Quote from JJ72 :

But have you consider the option that "god" intentionally made up these stories to fool you on purpose, that it is all a deliberate scam to separate those who seeks the truth, and those who simply follows?

Like Last Thursdayism, you mean? I can't take that seriously. It violates Occam's Razor, and it sounds like a stopgap hypothesis to protect a cherished religious view from nasty facts. I'll admit that it can't be disproved. But it also means the end of our search for knowledge, because any puzzling observation can be explained away by assuming that this treacherous deity is messing with our minds again.

Quote :

Disproving the existence of a human definition of god does not disprove the existence of god

True, but disproving all observable effects does mean that the question of god's existence has become irrelevant for us.

Quote from Nathan_French_14 :

I personally do believe in Karma, and that if you continue to do bad things, they will eventually catch up to you and bite you in the ass, figuratively speaking.

Would Josef Mengele be a valid counterexample?

Quote from Nathan_French_14 :

Back when I was in School, I loved R.E (Religious Education) and even though I had no interest in joining any of the Religions, I was truly fascinated by some of them and there rituals.

same here
also in the latter years of school re took a turn to teaching philosophy psychology theology (as in the fundamental philosopical concepts of deity proofs for the existance of god(s) etc) and that sort of stuff
which made it interesting enough to me to actually have re as my "soft" science abitur class

Quote from zeugnimod :

But that's what it is.

It should be voluntary, IMO. Fine if you like it but I don't want to be forced to sit through 100 minutes or more of it per week.

Well, I suppose that is your opinion and your entitled to it.

As for the voluntary comment...With the way younger kids are now, once one kid chooses not to do R.E if it ever became voluntary, then everyone would do the same for other lessons. Soon enough, you would have kids everywhere saying they don't want to do P.E, or Maths. I didn't want to do French or Spanish because I found it boring. I still done it though.

Quote from DevilDare :

I actually enjoyed my R.E. lessons. Well, the last year of it was good.

Gays brought up a raging discussion I remember. One of the best lessons I ever had.

Funny, but Gays also brought up a terrible argument every time they were mentioned in my School. There was one gay guy in my R.E class every week, and he would naturally defend himself when people would make jokes or call him names. I just found it Amazing how people could be so negative about something so trivial. To me, I just see it as nothing other than normal. They obviously find more comfort in Men then Women, so why not just leave them to it?

Quote from wsinda :

Would Josef Mengele be a valid counterexample?

I did not know who he was, so I've just finished reading the Wiki Article online, and it's certainly interesting. I can't quite see what you mean by counter example though. I'm pretty sure that most of the people he murdered would of been innocent honest people, just like almost everyone else taken to Nazi Camps during that time.

Quote from Chrisuu01 :

Hahahaha that was great Although you flamed me XD

Quote from logitekg25 :

voted agnostic...i dont really believe in god, i hope there is a god, and afterlife for that matter, but the only proof of anything is the night my grandmother died (she was in the hospitol for a few months) i had a dream about her, and i was saying goodbye or something

not quite a god thing, but it does have to do with the subject...kinda..

I'm not quite sure how a dream about a subject heavily on your mind makes you believe in the existence of a God?



On topic - used to be a staunched athiest but now I don't care. There may or may not be a god, but it's of no concern to me, I live my life by my own moral compass.

yeah...i get ya jakg, but how would my body know anything about my grand mother dieing that night of all nights. that made me think there must be something spiritual that gave me that dream...weather its god, her ghost, even though i think i had it a little before she died...one of those questions that will remain un answered

First of all, sorry to hear about your Grandmother. But, one of the reasons for the dream could of been your mind doing it for you. The mind is a very powerful thing, and some people do not realize just what it can do. Perhaps that due to your Grandmother passing away that day, and then you constantly thinking about her death over that day (like everyone would) has lead to have having that dream. The best way to explain it is like so...

Lets just say, that your mind is a computer. I'm sure you've heard of De-Fragmenting a computers Hard Drive, and that we occasionally have to do it to our computers, right? Well, the same applys to your mind. When you dream, it's your minds way of De-Fragmentating all your thoughts you have had lately. It filters through them and disperses others that aren't important like your minds memory of doing the dishes yesterday for example. Have you ever noticed how something that you may of been thinking of for the whole day, happens in your dreams? Well, maybe that's why you had the dream about your Grandmother. I've had the same thing happen to me before. Try this next time you go to sleep. About an hour before, think of something specific, like a car, or a person. Sometimes it will work, but it can happen in your dream. I've tried it before and like I said, sometimes it will work and others it will not, but it's still awesome being able to think of a dream, and it then happening.

Either way, I'm not trying to dissuade you from thinking it was God. If that's what you believe then that's great! I'm just saying how I see it.

yeah that might have been it..but she had been in the hospitol for like 6 months in about the same condition the whole time, so im not too sure. i use that as my link to believing somewhat in god even though it doesnt have much to do with god himself...it is just my one link that might prove something.

Quote from Nathan_French_14 :

I did not know who he was, so I've just finished reading the Wiki Article online, and it's certainly interesting. I can't quite see what you mean by counter example though. I'm pretty sure that most of the people he murdered would of been innocent honest people, just like almost everyone else taken to Nazi Camps during that time.

Mengele is the prototype of someone who did evil deeds, got away with it and lived happily ever after. That is hard to rhyme with the notion of Karma, which says that you will eventually be punished for the bad things you've done. (Well, unless you also believe in reincarnation. Then you get your punishment in the next life, and it becomes a bit hard to track down whether justice has been done.)

God is in yourself, your spirit is God. Does that also have a name?

I think it's going to be
Polytheist/Henotheist (many gods)

then