The Pope

[Artorius]

"It's a set of beliefs that a person holds to be the truth, without proof."

Wrong. Church goers believe there is proof. Atheists certainly belive there is proof.

As for religon being vital to humanity, maybe it is, but only because people are afraid, weather they are afraid of death, or damnation. It's completely based on fear, and that is pathetic. It's far easier to "give in" and belive in a god, and a heaven, and eternal after life, than to embrace the idea that there is nothing after death. (My ex Christian girlfriend even admited this, naturally I was blown away.)

I've been an atheist since I can remember. ^_^

[Aphex]

I just look at it like this.

no one is right. and its silly to think you are.

there will never be a right answer or a right religon. because there just isnt enough proof. But like I said before, if it keeps you numb then go for it. If you dont want to question other possibilities than that's great. whatever keeps you happy and out of my face.

[Darwin]

We were talking about an american pope in one of my classes today, and the brother that was teaching (a brother is not a priest, but similar to one) said that There is very little chance that there will be an american pope because most American catholics are "cafeteria catholics".  They'll have the beef and the brocolli, but dont want the chicken or jello.  We choose what we want to believe in and believe in it.  

Now in my viewing, it isnt too terrible what we do, thats what makes catholicism so appealing.  As for my beliefs, though, most of them do coincide with catholic belief.



My high school has helped set up a couple of schools in the poorer parts of Memphis, and the effect on the neighborhood that the church/school has had on the community is awesome.  Here's one of them:
http://www.cbhs.org/delasalle/schoolprofile.htm
and heres the other:
http://www.holynamesmemphis.org/main_page.htm

After school on days they choose, our students are required to do community service there and in the surrrounding areas.  The kids love to see us (and yeah, we help them with their homework).

[Artorius]

Every public school in Ontario has it's students do community work. 0_o (I think)

[DaveMan]

Oh, and about "crying so much about" losing the char -Triton-,  I never even mentioned that it got blackscreened until Gladio brought it up on these forums. So I guess you're just a retard.

That actually made me laugh quite hard.  
i'd say this is one of the first times i haven't seen something i disagree with that jonah's said.


I'm in agreement with aphex so far on this one for the most part. however it sounds like your agnostic, not atheist aphex. agnostics admit that there is no proof to either side of the arguement so the "godly" concept is plausible. and thats where i differ from you in your arguement. I see there being no plausible cocncept for there to be any gods other than those told in stories to make children and gullible people behave. i believe the bible to have been written as a fictional story based loosely on a real character, Jesus, who was overly kind. The story was written and in order to enforce some morals back in those years they added in some supernatural stories to scare people. I believe the concept of a god was created as a symbol for a person's conscience. that goes for all religions. the bible was then supported by many for its morals and stories. somewhere along the line people began to think it was completely based on true stories and so began the rising legacy of "Christ". some of you are going to be thinking about the fact that catholics began before christ...back when it was just the God concept. and thats where i meant my personal opinion of the god concept began.


and i believe it was kyrie or that other guy that called being an atheist a religion. I wanted to point out that atheist is living your life as it is your own and not believing in any religion. atheists have a belief that there is no god. however a belief is not a religion in itseld. a series of beliefs are not a religion in itself. a religion is specifically "belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe."   or how about "A set of beliefs, values, and practices based on the teachings of a spiritual leader."   none of the definitions laid out for the word seem to fit atheists. that only makes sense being that atheists are people who don't believe in a God or in a religion.

ok, i was sidetracked and lost my train of thought. now this is boring, so i'm just gonna post whatever i wrote.

[Aphex]

actually im wiccan....but thanks for guessing!!

[NFY]

Every public school in Ontario has it's students do community work. 0_o (I think)

The Catholic School Board forces its students to 'volunteer' as well (just a slight irony there).

By the way, I'm still banned from this freaking site! I'm using a stupid college library computer to write this. People of PCRPG, organize the masses for my return!

[Kyrie]

Religion is also described as " A cause, principle, or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion." (devotion being defined as "commitment to some purpose").
Sorry atheists! Even you have a religion!  

[Artorius]

Call it whatever you want to. Personally I wouldn't consider it a religon, we don't go around telling people to be atheists, if a Christian attacks us, we will defend ourselves. I wouldn't consider that zeal. We don't go to any form of 'church' unless you consider science centers a church or something... lol

I don't consider myself commited to the cause, if someone wants to believe in magic, or invisible gods. They can go ahead. I don't tell them what to believe, unlike real religous people.

[Kyrie]

Atheism isn't about the denial of religions. It's a "doctrine that there is no God or gods." Not all religions activly pursue converts. Most will happily oblige any who come asking questions, though. Relgion isn't about churches. It's a set of beliefs that people hold to be true, with or without proof.

[Artorius]

I was just using Church as a comparison, I just don't consider atheism a religon. By your standards, believeing in math is a religon.

[Silvanoshei]

I grew up a Catholic, believing in God. Then in my early teenage years I stopped believing in God because I thought I knew a thing or two about science. Now, in my Bachelor of Science program with a major of physics, I believe in God now more than ever.

[DaveMan]

I have no commitment to being atheist being that i believe in nothing. what are the causes or principles of being atheist other than the disbelief of gods? as for zeal....i could care less about being atheist. its just a fact for some of us, just another title. theres nothing more or less to it.


And sorry aphex, i had thought i read you calling yourself atheist.  my mistake.

[GStricto]

I grew up a Catholic, believing in God. Then in my early teenage years I stopped believing in God because I thought I knew a thing or two about science. Now, in my Bachelor of Science program with a major of physics, I believe in God now more than ever.

I grew up Baptist.  The situation you describe is going on in my head right now.  With a limited understanding of sciences, God is not believable.  Now that I'm in a second year of AP Physics, it becomes more and more apparent to me that science has so many holes and jumps to so many conclusions that it's as hard of a pill to swallow at face value as the idea of religions.  What I do know is this: Every major culture of every part of the world has had a system of beliefs, religion, dieties.  Fundamentally, every culture can agree that there is something driving humans to become better than they currently are.  What I do not "get" about the big bang and such is that all the laws of physics were just "invented" within about 1/10th of a second of the bang.  That doesn't make sense at all.  The more and more you learn of the science, the less and less believeable it is.

In the end, I do think there is a god, but he hasn't had a hand in anything besides creation.  You could also say my ideals are very similar to Hinduism: If god is infinite, then he can be viewed, expressed and worshiped in infinite ways.  This is the only means to explain differences in world cultures of Christianity, Islam, ancient Greek gods, etc.

[Gnight]

I'm not even religous and I'm affected by the popes death.  It's because of his death I won't be seeing a new episode of the simposons this week.