The Word Cloud

7 Comments

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  by Caducean Whisks 2 years ago

  Why are you so angry? What would you do? Burn everyone at the stake who doesn't share your beliefs? Or live and let live? Healthy debate is, er, "healthy". And "debate" implies at least two sides.
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  by Aonghus Fallon 2 years ago

  Interestingly enough my brother - something of a historian - told me that back in the day Zen Buddhists (who don't believe in anything at all) split into different factions that fought and killed one another. These guys were fighting over what they didn't believe in rather than what they did believe in.
  
  Maybe it's not religion or any value system per se. Maybe it's human nature that's at fault. And I'm speaking as a confirmed atheist.
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  by Tony 2 years ago

  Very profound indeed, Aonghus. It's nice to find myself, for once, to be in agreement with a 'confirmed atheist' :-)
  Incidentally, one of my characters claims he, too, would be a confirmed atheist, if only his faith were strong enough.
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  by Aonghus Fallon 2 years ago

  And the irony isn't lost on me, Tony. Far too many people turn atheism into a religion in its own right. Dawkins being a prime example.
  
  A surgeon writing in the Irish times talked about working in a terminal cancer ward early on in his career. They had a a chatty little patient with lung cancer. He was an agnostic, and his behaviour got increasingly erratic as the reality of his situation sank in - alternating from fits of rage to bouts of the blackest despair - until he eventually had to be sedated.
  
  'It's a funny thing,' the head surgeon told the young intern - i.e. the author - 'Good Christians die without a murmur. They know they're going to heaven. So do Atheists - they know they'll simply cease to exist. But Agnostics! They never go quietly.'
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  by Weens 2 years ago

  It's amazing that when the chips are down, people who previously had no religion, turn to religion.
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  by lennich 2 years ago

  Such a great man as Voltaire said "If God did not exist it would be necessary to invent him". He was playing with his audience but the sentiment rings true. After thousands of years it is clear that many people need to believe in God, or a God-like figure or figures.
  
  A couple of things: Is religion a force for good or a force for bad (asking a simplistic binary choice question which is commonly the type people are most comfortable with) ?
  
  If we want to draw up a balance sheet my, ahem, belief is that it would be difficult to decide whether the bad things done in the name of religion out-weighed the good things done in the name of religion.
  
  But, if we subscribe to the view that religion is a bad thing, because, for example, of the many extremely bad things which are done in its name, is it at all likely that were religion not to exist that human beings would all become generous and loving? My answer would be no.
  
  For me a belief in God is a delusion, a need for a surrogate parent, but those things alone are not desperately harmful. We all have delusions and needs.
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  by EzBloke 2 years ago

  I'm similar to you lennich only I have extrapolated further;
  
  In *principle* religion is good; in practice *people* are bad.
  
  In other words religion is indeed a crutch, and a comforting one at that; sadly it is also a highway for exploitation and there are far too many highwaymen for my liking.
  
  Therefore I have *faith* but I walk my own path.
  
  I asked God one day if I could call him Bert. He never said no so since then I have always called Him Bert.
  
  I am a true Gnostic; Bert speaks to me every single day. He doesn't always speak English though. Mostly he speaks flowers, perfume, birdsong, sunshine, rain, rainbows, trees, stars, people (especially EzBird) ad infinitum. His language is far more advanced than ours ever will be. Sometimes, when I'm hung-over, I wish he would shut up but he just laughs and takes the piss. Bert and I have an understanding; I cannot ask a question that Bert does not want me to ask.
  
  Bert even led me to a poem by Epicurus;
  
  Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
  Then he is not omnipotent.
  
  Is he able, but not willing?
  Then he is malevolent.
  
  Is he both able and willing?
  Then whence cometh evil?
  
  Is he neither able nor willing?
  Then why call him God?
  
  Bert says Epicurus was a smart-arse and stoned him to death from the inside. (Bert said He preferred the works of Manicurus; “look after your finger nails and your finger nails will look after you.”)
  
  Sometimes I feel sorry for Bert; people constantly search for Him, and He is right there in front of them all the time, waving and shouting and trying to attract their attention but they just look straight through Him as if He wasn’t there. I asked Bert about this one day and He said “fuck ‘em, they will work it out eventually.”
  
  Do you ever think that sometimes there are things that you just should not share…?
  
  Ez