People being vehement (or straight up angry) about someone believing in something they don't believe.

Would you agree that those are pretty silly things to believe in?

Being religious in mass media is nearly unheard of these days. Yeah, most Americans might identify themselves as being religious or believers, but the portrayal of our society, and the acceptance of that in our society, is not comparable to those numbers.

This simply isn't true.

Religion and science do not operate in the same way.

 

Not saying they are. But when people talk about "my hypothesis is X and here's why" there's an understanding that others might have differing theories and that yours might not be correct.

This simply isn't true.

 

Oh really? When's the last time you heard a postive story about what a religious organization is doing? You don't. You hear nothing but negative.

 

When's the last time religious was even a minor part of a TV or movie? Decades. Religion/religious people are made fun of constantly.

Oh really? When's the last time you heard a postive story about what a religious organization is doing? You don't. You hear nothing but negative.

 

When's the last time religious was even a minor part of a TV or movie? Decades. Religion/religious people are made fun of constantly.

This simply isn't true.

Would you agree that those are pretty silly things to believe in?

 

I think it's pretty silly that you believe various elements just existed in space prior to the Big Bang. I'll just start calling you a dummy from now on if that's the acceptable way to behave when talking about these issues.

I think it's pretty silly that you believe various elements just existed in space prior to the Big Bang. I'll just start calling you a dummy from now on if that's the acceptable way to behave when talking about these issues.

Wait, this was said somewhere and I missed it?

What do you think the chances of an openly non-christian president being elected are?

Oh really? When's the last time you heard a postive story about what a religious organization is doing? You don't. You hear nothing but negative.

You ought to try living in the South. I get at least one "a church is doing this good thing" story on the news per night.

What do you think the chances of an openly non-christian president being elected are?

 

Yeah, because he flaunts that s*** daily. There's never a fight over anything religious when it comes to the public - be it currency, statues, whatever. You're right man, religious people totally rule the world based solely on their beliefs.

 

When a guy like Rick Perry talks about praying for God's intervention the country totally accepted that. The media didn't attack him for saying something so stupid.

 

GMAFB.

You ought to try living in the South. I get at least one "a church is doing this good thing" story on the news per night.

 

In Chicago it's rarely, if ever, a story. You hear about religion when there's a scandal.

I think it's pretty silly that you believe various elements just existed in space prior to the Big Bang. I'll just start calling you a dummy from now on if that's the acceptable way to behave when talking about these issues.

I don't believe that. I don't believe that the initial state of the universe is well known or understood. You have made this mistake before. Absolute knowledge of how everything started isn't claimed.

 

However, we know more than enough to know that young earth creationism is simply wrong. That isn't calling anyone a dummy.

I don't believe that. I don't believe that the initial state of the universe is well known or understood. You have made this mistake before. Absolute knowledge of how everything started isn't claimed.

 

However, we know more than enough to know that young earth creationism is simply wrong. That isn't calling anyone a dummy.

 

Well i'm sorry, you have no facts, so creationism and evolutionary thought are apparently on equal footing. No facts = no belief. Right Soxbadger?

In Chicago it's rarely, if ever, a story. You hear about religion when there's a scandal.

One difference probably is that there's simply more to report on in Chicago. The nightly christian update and the nightly meth lab seizure can be replaced by some double-homicide or something like that.

 

Would be nice if things like Amendment 1 were treated like scandals more generally though.

Well i'm sorry, you have no facts, so creationism and evolutionary thought are apparently on equal footing. No facts = no belief. Right Soxbadger?

 

 

When it comes to the creation of the universe, science and faith are on equal footing as no one can explain scientifically how something is created from nothing.

 

Y2hh and I discussed this a little bit about how the creation of the Universe by a "god" etc is different than the actual belief that there is a god intervening in our daily affairs.

 

It is well within reason that there was some force that created the universe and if you want to call that force "God", that would be fine by me.

 

But that is different from the omniscient and omnipotent god found in Jewish based religions.

Yeah, because he flaunts that s*** daily. There's never a fight over anything religious when it comes to the public - be it currency, statues, whatever. You're right man, religious people totally rule the world based solely on their beliefs.

 

When a guy like Rick Perry talks about praying for God's intervention the country totally accepted that. The media didn't attack him for saying something so stupid.

 

GMAFB.

not being openly in-your-face religious about everything isn't the same as being anti-religious. Christians enjoy a huge majority in this country and this is built into our culture everywhere.

 

Could an openly non-christian person be elected president?

When it comes to the creation of the universe, science and faith are on equal footing as no one can explain scientifically how something is created from nothing.

Yet.

 

We do have ideas. We just don't have the technology for how to test them all yet. However, M theory provides some tantalizing hints that something resembling the big bang could be caused by the collision of 2 separate but distinct membranes in 12 dimensional space.

Yet.

 

We do have ideas. We just don't have the technology for how to test them all yet. However, M theory provides some tantalizing hints that something resembling the big bang could be caused by the collision of 2 separate but distinct membranes in 12 dimensional space.

 

Still the problem of, what created those 2 distinct membranes.

Exhibit A.

 

Was there anything inaccurate in my post?

Still the problem of, what created those 2 distinct membranes.

Without going into too many details, let me just respond by saying that if your entire belief system is built upon the idea that science hasn't established all of the details surrounding some aspect of the universe yet...then you have a very weak set of belief systems, because it's just waiting on the right experiment to knock it down.

 

If your belief system, for example, requires that the Earth is at the center of the universe, and that turns out to be untrue, then does your belief system crumble or not?

 

75 years ago there was no concept of the big bang and no concept of parallel universes, dimensions outside of the main 4, etc. If your belief system would crumble if it turned out that physics provided an explanation for how the universe came into existence, then now would be the time to reevaluate your belief system, not after the paper gets published.

not being openly in-your-face religious about everything isn't the same as being anti-religious. Christians enjoy a huge majority in this country and this is built into our culture everywhere.

 

Could an openly non-christian person be elected president?

 

I think a candidate could run a campaign of being agnostic and win yes. It's becoming less and less important for voters under the age of probably 40.

 

Edit: and you do know that polling shows a mormon beating a christian right now right? I mean, mormons are more ridiculous than athiests, amiright?

Edited May 9, 201213 yr by Jenksismybitch

People being vehement (or straight up angry) about someone believing in something they don't believe.

 

I think my post made it pretty clear that my problem is with the EFFECTS of the beliefs, like on laws or education. I couldn't care less if Joe Schmoe personally believes; I care about how those beliefs affect society.

 

 

Balta,

 

I dont have any belief system regarding it, I dont know what happened.

 

What I do wonder about is how something can be created from nothing. In my opinion there are 2 answers, 1) some outside force created something from nothing or 2) we are not advanced enough to understand the question and therefore while there is an answer, it escapes us at this point.

 

Either way, someone who says "I think a god like being created the universe" is a lot different than Christianity, which specifically believes that a god existed on Earth.

Edited May 9, 201213 yr by Soxbadger

Was there anything inaccurate in my post?

 

It's not the right or wrong of it, it's coming off as smarmy that gets annoying and frankly I just don't get the need for it. All it does is get the right to be even more stringent in their position and doesn't advance the ball at all.

Balta,

 

I dont have any belief system regarding it, I dont know what happened.

 

What I do wonder about is how something can be created from nothing. In my opinion there are 2 answers, 1) some outside force created something from nothing or 2) we are not advanced enough to understand the question and therefore while there is an answer, it escapes us at this point.

 

Either way, someone who says "I think a god like being created the universe" is a lot different than Christianity, which specifically believes that a god existed on Earth.

It doesn't have to be "out of nothing" because "nothing" is only defined within the space of the dimensions of the universe, so until that collision happened, it wasn't nothing, it just was what it was. It's difficult to put into words what the concept of a 12 dimensional membrane where time doesn't really exist actually represents, but it's at least a fascinating set of math and I'm looking forward to where it goes in the next decade. We might well have some evidence for it based on the wMAP analysis.