Religion thread
 

Let's discuss religion and "spirituality" here.

Starting off, I think it's a totally random universe. No good, no evil behind things, I think both of these are human attributes/'splainations for things we do not understand or are skeerd of..

I believe in Superman, but I understand that Superman almost certainly does not exist and has never existed. I would never try to make anyone believe that Superman does exist, because not even I believe this definitively; rather, I stubbornly hope he does, and I consider that hope to be a form of belief.

I understand that I am making a choice to believe in something that I have no logical reason to believe in. I apply the inverse of the falsifiability principle to my spiritual beliefs, and I maintain that in order for something to be truly knowable, it must be testable and subject to negative proof. Humans do not, at this juncture, possess the information to falsify Superman, so staunchly denying Superman’s existence would be anti-scientific.

I am open to all new information, and I hope someday someone has enough information to definitively say that Superman does or does not exist.

In short, I am an optimistic agnostic. Or Kryptonian Orthodox. Whatevs.

For more, check out my tirades in the Trump thread. :cool:

been staring from the outside waiting for a shitstorm but nothing.

anyway, ex-catholic here. buddhist sympathizer-- not in the religious sense but in the "philosophical" sense not in the western "philosophy" sense but yeah plenty of well developed ideas. i don't "believe" in it but rather find myself in agreement with a lot.

found this little chart the other day.



clearly i'm not ready to practice the whole of it but some of it just makes so much sense and notice how there is no santa claus there, except maybe the "cessation of suffering" which is a great concept that gets to the real meat of the problem.

reasonable stuff there for the most part, mostly practical. hocus-pocus not required.

My Superman thing requires no hocus-pocus. It’s basically like having an imaginary friend that you hope, somehow, might someday not be imaginary. Mine involves Kuhn, so... pretty practical.

Anyway, I have respect for Buddhist philosophies. But I’d never be a Buddhist, because it — like being anything — requires that you insist to know the unknowable.

I’m an ex-catholic too. But I honestly don’t see why anyone needs religion. Keep your beliefs in your mind and that should be good. It’s good enough for me anyway. I don’t see any need to gather with people that “believe” (don’t not believe) the same thing. Just another unnecessary division between human beings.

"Buddhism? Ha! Who worships a statue of some fat guy in a chinese restaurant? Retards."

-Richard Dawkins

jk

A 15 member team of LDS helped muck out my stepdads flood damaged home a few weeks ago. They were so efficient in how they worked, everyone had a role and did their jobs well.

The entire time, I kept thinking about their "magical underwear" that blocks lustfull thoughts and wondered if it worked the same as lead blocking the effects of kryptonite?


The Curse Of The Black Skin

This reminds me of something that's been keeping me awake at night (sorry if it's already been discussed on the movies thread or the comic books thread) — in Batman v Superman, Gotham and Metropolis are just the width of a river apart. We know Gotham is New York, SO... Metropolis is Joizy?

I feel organized religion is the last great superstition of humanity, keeping us all separate, and maintaining the beliefs/deluded fucking idiocy/dogma that "WE WHO BELIEVE CORRECTLY" are special and "THEY WHO DO NOT" are NOT, and as soon as we are rid of it forever and ever we will arise and evolve into a true humanity.

If we do not, we will destroy ourselves, and hopefully not take the rest of the biosphere with us.

My motto when it comes to all this bullshit is,

YOUR BELIEFS DO NOT APPLY TO ANYONE BUT YOU

Actually, according to a (really stupid and unrealistic) map made by DC, Gotham is actually in New Jersey, and Metropolis is in Connecticut. Oh, and Metropolis only has 77,000 people in it.... so, it’s the population of a moderately sized college town, and categorically NOT a metropolis. Same map says Gotham has like 700,000 people, which makes no sense either.

Anyway, they are supposed to be close to each other, and the geography in the comics has changed, but Gotham isn’t *actually* New York. It’s a New York, uhh, proxy. And at first it didn’t even exist and Batman WAS located in New York, but now it exists in a universe where it’s a monstrous city and it exists alongside New York. Metropolis should be somewhere around Philadelphia. But really, both cities are “New York” for all intents and purposes. Y’dig?

Don’t pay attention to BvS for your DC/Superman/Batman mythology.

Well this is just perverse.

Metropolis and Gotham are stand ins for NYC. Those names were created back in the 30's when using actual locations in the real world was not something you did regularly in comics. DC has a history of making up stupid city names for their heroes. The Flash lives in Capital City fr instance.
When Spiderman was created in the 60's Marvel was dedicated to being more realistic, so they set the teenage spiderman as being a New Yorker through and through.

The Flash does not live in “Capital City.” What?
Central City! Blargh!

Also, you’re wrong because Batman was originally written as living in “New York City.” Also, see locations of the Shadow and other pre-Superman heroes. If anything, DC’s use of stand-ins was unique.

And it’s Spider-Man. Not “Spiderman.” He’s not a dentist. Sooo... yeah.

Just pretend Rob didn’t post and read my post instead. And consult me about dumb comic book stuff because I am clearly the guy who knows the most dumb ass shit. :cool:

you quoting 1930's hahaha

I don’t get this but I assume it’s a dig, so all I have to say is: it’s “1930s” not “1930’s.”

so what year was superman born after all?

and how long did the fucking trip from krypton take?

if you’re gonna have a religion around it you gotta set up a calendar and all that

Wow, this is actually pretty good, productive feedback on Kryptonian Orthodox. I’ll have to review some “historical” documents and run some numbers, but I’m determined to get an answer for this. And I’m not even kind of kidding.

:D

don’t forget the high holidays

The Feast of Tabernacles was observed earlier this month......pretty sure it ended on the full moon.

The Gospel According To Marvel

I like that the religion thread wound up being more about the equally real Comic Book universe.
Nicely done!

Right. I mean, it’s all just ideas, right? Scientifically, there is no more evidence in favor of God’s existence than there is of Superman’s. And both are equally non-falsifiable, so it makes sense to me to lump them together.

I choose to hope that Superman is real because I actually like Superman and Superman doesn’t make me feel shitty about myself or have questionable opinions on gays. Superman doesn’t condemn (well, except to the Phantom Zone, but is that really “condemning?”) and he represents what I would like a savior to look like. So, fuckit.

kal-el celebrates sukkot— on the moon!

I will continue to stay far far away from that thread. But I really appreciate this post.

Thanks friend!

angels!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...UFO-fears.html

I'll be looking for this...

Similarities between Biblical "god" and Donald Trump

Both claim infallibility, but are still exceedingly upset when someone does not believe in them.

Both are petulant, angry, selfish assholes. the Bible god has his "chosen few" go kill anyone who is not "chosen." Trumpo also does not give a fuck about brown people, only his precious rich whites, and sends rich whites to murder the brown people worldwide.

Both are infantile, immature fucks. The Biblical "god" banishes a whole branch of humanity because it offered the wrong sacrifice.(it likes DEATH and BLOOD, not plants.) It plays life and death gmes with whole countries, because of the whim of one of it's special chosen followers. Trump fires anyone who remotely disagrees with him, event though that is the best way to understand things. a CHILD. He also relishes revenge on those that somehow "fail him" just like the stupid made-up judeochristian god.

the biblical god is a dumb piece of shit that chooses to torture his most devout follower purely because of a bet with the Devil, who the fucking stupid blblical god created.

fuck I hate any and all religion, any and all deities, any and all assholes who try to shove this shit down children's brains until they become as stupid and nonthinking and servile as the adult devout are.

clap, clap, clap!

and, don't forget, both are misogynist assholes

yes, both Trump and the bible "god" punish women for being women.

one would date his own daughter. the other impregnated his own daughter behind her husband’s back. the latter’s deed is the former’s wet dream.

Im fascinated by it as a kind of social disease.

And there’s nothing wrong with hoping for good things.

By yeah, when it gets judgy and forced down people’s throats it’s terrible.

Some wretched motherfucker yelling "Allahu Akbar" (coulda been "Yahweh Shreds" or "Jesus Poontang" for all I care) just killed eight people in NYC. Religion is just fucking GLAMOROUS. :mad:

That’s not religion, that’s some fool’s interpretation of religion, and a bunch of other idiots following.

Religion is fun as an academic and philosophical endeavor, but I think it goes without saying that if you cling to any of it or treat it as gospel (lol) then you’re a fucking nutbag.

Why can’t people just keep their spirituality internal? Like me with my Kryptonian Orthoox nonsense. Prayer is fine. Proselytizing need not be a part of ANY of it. “Missions” need not be a part of it. Why must it be ceremonial and invasive?

Cuz yeah, only shit comes from that. War, violence, death, dirty pilotics, genocide.

It’s ok to hope Superman is real, and even “pray” (note: Working on Kryptonian Orthodox equivalent of prayer — probably just yelling “save us, Superman!”), but thinkng Superman is the only true thing is fucked. Dressing up like Superman and punching people you think he’d want you to punch is fucked.

Speaking semi-metaphorically here, of course.

i like the idea of religion. i like the whole religare root, rejoining, that which is broken— us, the universe. we’re split off from the universe. it causes interminable pain. we crave reunion. religion offers to patch that up.

problem is, i like the idea but not the practice. cults of personality, oaths, demands... worse, dogma. fuck all that noise. all religions are cults.

in a way i admire the protestants with the idea of an individual connection to “god.” problem (again) is/was: every fucking individual becomes their own little protestant cult. my way or the highway.

cults. fuckem.

all religion stems from the LIE that humans are separate from creation, and need either guidance to get them back to this "god/divinity", OR, that because of that separation we are interminably corrupt and sinful and the only "salvation" is listening to other even more interminably corrupt and sinful people tell you how you should live.

I long for the day when ALL religion is treated with the same contempt and ridicule as the Greek Myth tales are (in terms of divine gospel). the stories that religions use to p[rop themselves up have great wisdom in them, but that wisdom is rarely, if ever, discussed in churches. Churches just want you to follow endless cycles of meaningless ritual, tying up your brain and heart and "soul" (if you believe in such mumbo-jumbo) in paradoxical knots it will never untangle, all the while saying "Wait for it....wait for it....All that hard prayin and sacrifice and tithing and sunday school and bible study will pay off AFTER YOU ARE DEAD!!!!" (when no one can verify anything your religion has claimed for your whole fucking life.)

this needs to be unpacked before your statement of wishes

yeah we’re not “separate”— except in our heads. our heads get in the way.

not all religions claim we’re interminably corrupt and sinful

feels like you’re equating all religions with the texan brand of christianity you’re familiar with

i think it’s more varied and interesting than that. at the same time i think the problem of figuring out how to live hasn’t been “solved”, as it were. whether it’s a problem or not it’s up to you— but it is for me. and the problem of suffering is central to my experience so a key to that question.

if you claim to have an answer for that— you’re a religion :D

I did not say that. There was an "OR" in that previous statement. the religions that do not claim we are corrupted or sinful fit the first part of my statement.

there is no problem of "how" to live that needs religion or a "god" to be answered. That is my point.

"suffering" is a value judgement. Mother Teresa, that fucking false asshole, still believed in the 13th century Catholic orthodoxy that only suffering can cleanse the soul from its sins and that is why that fucking nun and her convent would not provide painkillers, even tylenol or aspirin, to the thousands of indigent sick she :cared for" in India. That bitch would collect hundreds of millions in donations and send it all to Rome and keep the "heathens" laying on mast in the floor of rat infested "hospitals."

IT IS ALL A LIE.

Life is EVERYTHING. It includes joy AND pain, food AND starvation. It does not need a deity to function, nor do humans need a deity to ensure the world doesn't fall apart.

someone who has been brainwashed into the belief that a god created the great and wonderful and perfect and all holy Earth for great, and wonderful and perfect humans created in that "god's" own image will see pain, suffering, hurt, and sorrow (all results of nervous and hormonal functions within our neurological system) as a "problem" that needs a supernatural solution to make sense.

pain is our nerves telling us we are suffering trauma of some sort. Fear is our brain telling us that something does not feel right, based on past experience and innate knowledge. Sorrow is our brain telling us that something or someone we loved is no longer there to love. These things are shared by all animals in some form or another, and frankly, are probaly shared by plants and trees, even though they have no nervous systems.

plants can tell when the sun is moving, when fellow plants are being attacked. they follow cycles we are unaware of, and share symbiotic relationships with fungi, animals, and other plants. They do not need a religion to tell them why they suffer.