God Help Me.

[Malthus]

I foil Pascal's Wager by believing in various different pantheons on a rotational basis, just to be sure. This week, I believe in Osiris and company.

[Slargos]

Why must we burn?

Because you are all sinners by your own admission, obviously. 

IE you're all going to your fictional hell.

The "everyone goes where they believe they will go" theory would be hilarious, because it would indeed mean all you catholic  fucktards who secretly know that whatever you do there is no way you can go without sin will burn in perpetuity. 

[Neil]

By 'create' do you mean 'imagine' or do you believe that human belief can produce independent entities?

I believe that individuals can imagine a god, which then creates - for them - an independent entity.

And by 'for them' you mean that they have a delusion?

I don't think it's a delusion at all. I think it's very real.

But that's incorrect.  Only certain things are true.  Other things are untrue.

[Grey Fox]

One only needs to ask for forgiveness to receive it & be allowed to enter the kingdom of God.

[C.C.R.]

But that's incorrect.  Only certain things are true.  Other things are untrue.

Truth is goofy - too subjective.  Fact is much more betterer...

[Eddie Teach]

The "everyone goes where they believe they will go" theory would be hilarious, because it would indeed mean all you catholic  fucktards who secretly know that whatever you do there is no way you can go without sin will burn in perpetuity. 

Hell is even funnier than dead babies.

[Tamas]

Slarg said "evil" is just a name for things we dont understand.

No. God(s) is the name for things we dont understand.

As science moved onward, it always reduced the reign of religion. Thunders, earthquakes, shape of the world, Earth's position in it, evolution, etc.

So, "God" "Gods" "magic" was always the stuff we couldn't figure out.

I have zero reason to believe that we have reached the peak, ie. we know everything there is to know about the world and any other gray area is God. That is the exact same position as people had when they thought a lightning storm was domestic violence up on Mount Olympos.

[Barrister]

Makes more sense than some man pigeon-holed in the sky, forever watching us all, judging and smiting at will.

Good thing that's not how almost all religions view God then.

I choose to believe in Jesus Christ.

[Berkut]

I choose to believe in Jesus Christ.

Is belief really a choice though?

I could not, for example, "choose" to believe in something I do not believe in - it isn't really a matter of choice.

Could you choose to believe in Santa Clause? if you really, really, REALLY wanted to?

[Barrister]

I choose to believe in Jesus Christ.

Is belief really a choice though?

I could not, for example, "choose" to believe in something I do not believe in - it isn't really a matter of choice.

Could you choose to believe in Santa Clause? if you really, really, REALLY wanted to?

Well, yes, plenty of people make themselves believe in patently false things, so I imagine a person could choose to believe in Santa Claus (perhaps a poor example though, in the "yes Virginia" kind of reasoning".

Jesus is not someone who is patently a,d obviously untrue.  It's ambiguous.  So I think choosing to believe is the appropriate way to describe my faith.

[Berkut]

WEll, I assume you mean "believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ" as opposed to believing IN Jesus Christ.

And of course, I would argue that believing in the super-natural powers of Jesus Christ is no more or less patently and obviously untrue than any other super-natural phenomenon, pretty much by definition.

I could not force myself to believe in Santa Clause, no matter how much I liked the idea of free gifts, and I cannot force myself to believe in a supernatural Christ no matter how much I like the idea of him, whether that be based on the idea of salvation or simply the comfort of the believing what my culture expects me to believe.

I realize, of course, that other people are not so constrained - but I don't really understand it.

[Zeus]

Playin Devil's advocate for the religious folk here, but how can you people look at the human body, the precise machine of survivability and adaptability that it is, and not believe that something made it in It's image. The body has countless systems of such precision and finesse that if one thin went wrong it would die, but yet it continues to strive for life. Seems to me that it we would have to pretty lucky for our bodies to have just evolved by themselves.

I don't, of course, believe in that argument, but it's a good point.

[Malthus]

WEll, I assume you mean "believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ" as opposed to believing IN Jesus Christ.

And of course, I would argue that believing in the super-natural powers of Jesus Christ is no more or less patently and obviously untrue than any other super-natural phenomenon, pretty much by definition.

I could not force myself to believe in Santa Clause, no matter how much I liked the idea of free gifts, and I cannot force myself to believe in a supernatural Christ no matter how much I like the idea of him, whether that be based on the idea of salvation or simply the comfort of the believing what my culture expects me to believe.

I realize, of course, that other people are not so constrained - but I don't really understand it.

Heh, leave the man alone - if I can believe in Osiris, he can believe in Jesus. Fair is fair.

[Berkut]

Playin Devil's advocate for the religious folk here, but how can you people look at the human body, the precise machine of survivability and adaptability that it is, and not believe that something made it in It's image. The body has countless systems of such precision and finesse that if one thin went wrong it would die, but yet it continues to strive for life. Seems to me that it we would have to pretty lucky for our bodies to have just evolved by themselves.

I don't, of course, believe in that argument, but it's a good point.

Well, no, actually it isn't a good point. Which is why you don't believe in it, I imagine.

[Zeus]

Explain?