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Post by dontom on Jan 23, 2014 0:30:49 GMT -5
Is it a disease to believe in obvious nonsense such as any of the countless religions in this world?
Is it an addiction, escape from reality or what?
And is it the same for other silly superstitions?
Seems so common, but what is the main reason for so many people to have such obvious nonsense beliefs?
"We are born believing. A man bears beliefs, as a tree bears apples." --Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Man can believe the impossible, but can never believe the improbable." --Oscar Wilde
"Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know." --Michel de Montaigne
Here is what I believe:
"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it. " - The Buddha (circa 500 BC)
-Don Quoteman
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Post by Swampy on Jan 23, 2014 1:28:43 GMT -5
I know someone just like you on our FB groups. You two should meet.
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Post by dontom on Jan 23, 2014 3:29:54 GMT -5
I know someone just like you on our FB groups. You two should meet. Nah, that guy won't need to be straightened out by me. You, OTOH, . . . . -Don- SSF, CA
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Post by Swampy on Jan 23, 2014 9:30:36 GMT -5
"Straight" is not a word you can use against me.
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Post by hornet32 on Jan 23, 2014 20:56:17 GMT -5
Religion is a conduct a way to deport one self when dealing with others , law does not necessarily keep me from putting a bullet in my neighbors head but my faith does .
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Post by dontom on Jan 24, 2014 1:22:37 GMT -5
Religion is a conduct a way to deport one self when dealing with others , law does not necessarily keep me from putting a bullet in my neighbors head but my faith does . But such faith usually does NOT work well for Christians because: "A Christian is a man who feels repentance on Sunday for what he did on Saturday and is going to do on Monday." --Thomas Ybarra BTW, law works a lot better to control me than does superstitious nonsense. -Don- SSF, CA
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Post by dontom on Feb 1, 2014 2:41:50 GMT -5
Here are a few more opinions on how religion has been so helpful to humans.
"Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing bad things, but for good people to do bad things, it takes religion." - Steven Weinberg
"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." -Blaise Pascal "To what great evils has religion been able to impel men!" -Lucretius
"What men usually ask for when they pray to God is, that two and two may not make four." --Russian Proverb
However, I must admit that there is some evidence that prayer actually works. All the 9-11-01 terrorists prayed like crazy on the night of 9-10 for a successful mission on 9-11. And their prayers were answered, it seems.
-Don- Reno, NV
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Post by jerryfmcompushaft on Feb 1, 2014 8:57:19 GMT -5
With so many learned men bad mouthing religion for so long, it is a miracle that it has endured..... -- Jerry Rosie 2014
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Post by dontom on Feb 1, 2014 13:31:52 GMT -5
With so many learned men bad mouthing religion for so long, it is a miracle that it has endured..... -- Jerry Rosie 2014 What amazes me is that so many people believe in obvious superstitious nonsense such as any of the countless religions of this world. "Man--The only animal with true religion--many of them!!" -Mark Twain -Don- Reno, NV
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Post by jerryfmcompushaft on Feb 1, 2014 14:28:46 GMT -5
With so many learned men bad mouthing religion for so long, it is a miracle that it has endured..... -- Jerry Rosie 2014 What amazes me is that so many people believe in obvious superstitious nonsense such as any of the countless religions of this world. "Man--The only animal with true religion--many of them!!" -Mark Twain -Don- Reno, NV Yes, it is amazing, isn't it? Maybe there's something to it after all???
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Post by dontom on Feb 1, 2014 23:36:21 GMT -5
Yes, it is amazing, isn't it? Maybe there's something to it after all??? Yes, I find it amazing that so many people strongly believe in such silly, childish, superstitious nonsense as any of the countless religions in this world. And yes, there must be something to it. Something like a very common emotional or mental illness. So common, it almost seems the norm in some areas of the world. Perhaps it is even a contagious disease. -Don- Reno, NV
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Post by hornet32 on Feb 2, 2014 20:30:31 GMT -5
You could on one hand those that believe Don knows what he is talking about even Tom is beginning to wonder .
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Post by dry on Feb 9, 2014 14:22:01 GMT -5
I would like to introduce here that which mathematicians and computer scientists call *autoepistemic logic*.
There, the following symbols (among others) are used:
being X believes the statement P == B(P)
being X knows the statement P == K(P)
With as simple repertoire of math as the above quite interesting points can be said:
B(P) ==> B(B(P)) (if the being X believes P, then he/she/it believes that he believes P)
K(P) ==> B(P) (if X is sensible. But how about Creationists who KNOW that the universe is some 13.7 billion years old, and BELIEVE that it was created some 6000 years ago, on a September Saturday morning......)
B(P) NOT==> K(P) Many individuals make this mistake: if one believes P then it does definitely not follow that he/she/it KNOWS P! Much of religion is based on skillful misuse of this fallacy.......
The Wikipedia contains an article on autoepistemic logic, but I won't recommend it. It is all too technical and full of professional jargon. I would write here an introduction but I do not any more have my student years' papers at hand.
Finally I remark that I wrote about these points to my US acquaintances, and they liked that discussion.
AJY
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Post by hornet32 on Feb 9, 2014 17:31:02 GMT -5
My faith is my approach to God my religion is the avenue to that approach , my faith teaches me tolerance towards the lesser .
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Post by Sir John on Feb 9, 2014 17:46:40 GMT -5
"very profound Prime Minister, very profound"
SJ
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