Things we could do without...

Since I\'m already a huge friggin nerd as it is, there\'s a comic out now that actually deals with this (fuel cell) topic where a corporation invented a battery that lasts forever without recharging.  The battery was adapted for cell phones, cars, cameras, radioes, you name it.  If it uses a battery, these guys invented a cell to make it last forever.  The neat thing was, in the second volume, it was found that the battery, when the combustible fuels in a vehicle ran out, this was a stock car mind you, actually powered the pistons of the engine through some type of charge for 180 miles after the gasoline ran out until the engine literally stopped working from some type of thermal breakdown.

Though these are all interesting and neat ideas, I can\'t help but imagine just how many people would end up homeless and poor when all the fuel providing companies, the middile eastern coalitions, all the battery providing companies were run pretty much into the ground due to the introduction of this vastly superior product.  It makes you wonder about the state of the government or all the inventions that were possibly discovered but quietly tucked away for a later time when the world was actually ready to assimilate such a thing into every day life.  It certianly would explain the slow progression vehicles have taken when it comes to fuel alternatives.

Meh, that\'s probably just too alturistic of a notion because, if you think about it, that would mean the government was looking into the people\'s best interests and that\'s something that just doesn\'t happen often since the cold war.  

Just a quickie.. religion as a whole is more or less a moral guide. It has many facets, such as faith that makes people more confident.. but this is one that I think people overlook the most.

When you vehemently bash religion, you\'re bashing morals too. Of course, some people take it far too seriously and become fascists. Some Christians, but a better example would be Muslims.

Do good, you\'re okay. Do bad, I chop your hand off. You\'re not supposed to commit adultery so I won\'t allow my wife\'s face to be seen so you\'re not tempted. Etc etc..

Originally posted by Blade
Just a quickie.. religion as a whole is more or less a moral guide. It has many facets, such as faith that makes people more confident.. but this is one that I think people overlook the most.

Live by these morals and you are saved, don\'t and you are damned.  I\'m sorry but I\'d like to know where the morals for any given religion came from in the first place and why they should apply to me or anyone else for that matter.  One hot topic right now is marriage...who deemed it morally right that it is between a man and a woman.  What self-righteous jackass had any idea he/she could speak for anyone but themselves?  

confident...of what?  That in the name of God they will be rewarded for their devotion.

When you vehemently bash religion, you\'re bashing morals too.

That\'s right...I\'m questioning why should I be judged by anyone elses\' ideas but my own.

you want morals?  Than I suggest you check out the 4 noble truths and Noble 8 Fold Path, in Buddhism.  Buddha taught these morals, which are the basis of all religions in the 6th century BC.  So saying the bible invented morals is insane.

If god really does exist (and personally i kinda wish he did sometimes) then id laugh my ass off at the people who always say "GOD. What a load of shit. Blah blah blah." Id stand at the gates as they are refused entrance and laugh. And those people that act that hell would be some wonderful place are just ****ing stupid.

Anyway...

I think everyone is entitled to their opinion and a lot of the time im not even thinking about god or anything and im not very religious either but some people get so irked out by religious people that its kinda sad. Religious people arent killing people left and right in America (eventhough they do sometimes). And you are confronted by these kinds of people maybe 3-4 times a month? Who the **** cares. Just bitch them out ignore them, w/e you like doing. Its not like they will shoot you. Take a ****ing chill pill.

Religion actually makes a lot of people happy believe it or not. And those that arent because they live under uber strict rules are not even anybody\'s problem. Eh. It doesnt matter much. Religion is becoming less influential in a time where more and more people believe only themselves and not some higher power. I personally dont care too much. Religious people bother me too sometimes but just because somebody believes in a higher power doesnt make you smarter (Its a fact that most people that dont believe in god think they are smarter than those that do).

Meh.

If god really does exist (and personally i kinda wish he did sometimes) then id laugh my ass off at the people who always say "GOD. What a load of shit. Blah blah blah." Id stand at the gates as they are refused entrance and laugh. And those people that act that hell would be some wonderful place are just ****ing stupid.

Not sure if this was directed at me...if so then you didn\'t really get where I was going.  I wasn\'t ranting about the existence of god, I do believe that there is such a thing.

I\'ll quote Ryu:

Ginko is asking for, basically, religion to take a much more subtle approach in people\'s lives rather then this full blown evangelist crap we see everyday when people use the words of the bible as a sword or a shield rather then as a warm blanket for comfort or a device for knowledge. He certainly won\'t have that this year, and I won\'t get my cold fusion, but hey, we could certianly, as a species, learn to do without fossile fuels and excessive religion.

In addition I don\'t think I\'m better or worse off than any other person here for what I do or don\'t believe.  What irks me more than anything is the church itself and their interpretations of life.

The catholic church is one I really don\'t care for...

Originally posted by Deadpool
It is possible to have morals and not be religious. But, where do you think those morals came from? The Bible. Everything that is good comes from the Bible.

I don\'t hold the door for someone at school because of the bible.  I do this to help the other person.  It\'s all about relationships between two beings, you do things depending on how you want to be viewed by them.  I sure as hell don\'t care what other people think about me because of the bible, I do because it makes me feel good to know I\'m helping someone else.

I was raised Catholic and I feel like so much is forced on me being in a Catholic family.  Luckily, my parents aren\'t very strict, otherwise I\'d go crazy.  They just are appalled sometimes when I speak of not being very religious.  The first thing I hear out of their mouth is but you\'ll go to hell.  I guess being a good person isn\'t enough now a\' days.  This reminds me of something someone I know is going through.  Their grandma is trying to get them baptized late, speaking of how they\'ll go to hell otherwise, while they\'ve already lived a good life for a while.

Originally posted by Ginko
Not sure if this was directed at me...if so then you didn\'t really get where I was going.  I wasn\'t ranting about the existence of god, I do believe that there is such a thing.

I\'ll quote Ryu:


In addition I don\'t think I\'m better or worse off than any other person here for what I do or don\'t believe.  What irks me more than anything is the church itself and their interpretations of life.

The catholic church is one I really don\'t care for...

Well at first it was directed towards you but then it evolved into the mass of people who act the way i suggested. Thanx for explaining. And I agree with you on that. Basically, if the church doesnt do anything to you then why should you care? I mean my dad is catholic and i hate going to church with him and i dont. I enjoy going to the stereotypical black church where we sing all intense and you can hear people shouting "preach!" in the background. Those people wont kill you for not being diehard god. Anyway.... If you have no ties with the catholic church then F it.

Anyway.... If you have no ties with the catholic church then F it.

I do though...my ENTIRE family is catholic.  All of them!

Also, I find it rather funny how there are practically hundreds if not thousands of different (-fractions of-) religions, all claiming to be \'TEH ONE!11\'.

Mankind is flawed. So is everything ever recorded by human beings. People distort things and/or lie. Just think of the game where you whisper one sentence into the ear of the person next to you, and s/he does the same. After only a few people the original sentence is all wrong...

I see some say you don\'t need the Bible to tell you what is good or bad.

I could say alot about that, but,  I will just say,  where do you draw the line?

Without a set standard,  your \'wrong\' will continue to turn to \'OK\',  and what may seem \'wrong\' 20 years ago,  will be right soon.  So where do you draw the line?

Some politician was on the news and was asked "Who decides what should be on TV and what shouldn\'t?"

The politician\'s reply was "The people decide."

So,  who do you think should decide?  You may say "I will decide." But really,  isn\'t it your neighbor who decides?  Over the past 50 years Hollywood and the like has decided.  Popular movements, politicians, and others have decided.

So,  you have 2 choices

A. Let Hollywood, politicians,  and others decide your morals

B. Look for a higher power to decide your morals

Refrain from calling it a higher power when there are people who don\'t even begin to believe in it.  Actually, this is the perfect example of what has been brought up.

well this will always be a complicated subject. White supremacists will say that god made whites the chosen people and they will whole-heartedly tell you that they are right and no matter what argument you bring to the table they will claim that they are right just because they are.

That was a somwhat bland example but you can never really say what is good and what is bad. One might say that according to Darwin that they killed somebody because they were hindering their prosperity and thus it is justified that he killed that person. Survival of the fittest could be an argument and scientists believe in this theory but of course nobody applies it to us as humans.

Its difficult to draw a line and as we evolve as a species we will just have to collectively decide where that line should be. It may destroy us and it may not, but we never know until it happens.

Originally posted by alliswell
I see some say you don\'t need the Bible to tell you what is good or bad.

I could say alot about that, but,  I will just say,  where do you draw the line?

Without a set standard,  your \'wrong\' will continue to turn to \'OK\',  and what may seem \'wrong\' 20 years ago,  will be right soon.  So where do you draw the line?

That\'s just it...a higher power did not dictate what\'s right and wrong.  At some point people decided they are in the know when it comes to living righteously...simply say "God told me so" or "this is the way to heaven" and you suddenly have followers.

Without a set standard,  your \'wrong\' will continue to turn to \'OK\',  and what may seem \'wrong\' 20 years ago,  will be right soon.  So where do you draw the line?

It\'s those standards that I\'m arguing.  To many religions are about living righteously than simply living well.  It\'s almost as if religion has become a scare tactic in order to act a certain way by listing all the "no\'s".  People get hung up on the negatives and in the worst case scenario you get holy wars that have gone on for centuries.

Simply, relgion should be:

Love thyself
Love thy neighbor

Instead we get:

It\'s your world. NO!
It\'s your life. NO!
It\'s your choice. NO!

Originally posted by Ginko
Live by these morals and you are saved, don\'t and you are damned.  I\'m sorry but I\'d like to know where the morals for any given religion came from in the first place and why they should apply to me or anyone else for that matter.  One hot topic right now is marriage...who deemed it morally right that it is between a man and a woman.  What self-righteous jackass had any idea he/she could speak for anyone but themselves?

Seeing as how you said you you used to go to Church every sunday, I think your first question should be obvious. Whether it is the Torah, Tipitaka, Koran, Bible, or Bhagavad Gita those who follow a religion draw their moral codes from the teaching in their respective holy book.

That is why so many christians have come out against gay marriage. In their holy book, it says that homosexuality is an "abomination". It also says that those who work on the Sabbath should be put to death, eating shellfish is ALSO an abomination, and that slavery is legal as long as they are purchased from neighboring nations. So I don\'t know if that is the best place to go for ultimate law.

(On a side note, maybe abomination used to mean "really gross". Like, "Jesus, thou hast stepped in the poop of a horse. The smell is an abomination" or "Did thou hearest what doth transpired betwixt the caananites at Mary\'s pool party after Jesus verily turned the pool to wine?  When it cometh to the chicks it is cool but the dude on dude stuff was an abomination.")