SuperFerret
King of the Urban Jungle
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It's okay though, atheists will just use other justifications for war.
Not necessarily.
One of my friends is against gay marriage. I asked him about gay rights and he just told me, "Don't they have enough rights already?" That gets me steamed. Not only is it ignorant and stupid, but what a contradiction. Not only did he address them as "They" but it's like he's above them or think they should only have limited rights. For people who love this country and support the rights of everybody as stated by our Founding Fathers, this just is like talking about blacks. We are living in a free nation where everybody has equal rights. So just because you're homosexual, you should have less rights? What happened to believing in America and its rights that straight white men believe in and celebrate every Fourth of July? The people in our government who are against it as well. It's the same thing. Those who believe so strongly in our government and what we set over two hundred years ago are against someone's rights? We are living in the 21st century where everybody deserves to be free with equal rights. I can't believe gay marriage is even an issue.
Which leads to religion. Apparantly God loves everybody. If God was so good and true, wouldn't he love homosexuals as well? So I guess God loves blacks now after years of slavery and lack of rights? This doesn't make any sense to me. If people say God doesn't love homosexuals, I guess he isn't so good after all.
I hate it when religious people create their own beliefs and use religion to justify them. It doesn't do their religion any favors. The worst part is, religion does get in the way of belief in gay marriage within government. Which is why this is still an issue. Which is why religion and politics do not mix. What happened to separation of church and state?
What are the religions don't have a problem with homosexuality?
Being religious, its my belief that homosexuality is a sin. But a sin no worse than any other sin that everyone in the world is guilty of. The argument that "i was born gay so its God who made me gay!" is a falsehood and an inaccurate statement on many levels (IMO):
1 - I believe that while God has his hand in many things, he would not "make" gay babies anymore than he would purposefully "make" an autistic child. The outcomes of reproduction is a roll of the dice, and I think people clamoring to put a "God's Will!" spin on every aspect of life is a flawed way of living...and 9 times out of 10, is only done to justify one's own prerogative.
2 - In some instances, yes, I do believe being gay (or should I say conducting oneself in a homosexual way) is a choice - (as a very shallow example, think of the two stereotypical college chicks who get drunk and make out/experiment for the hell of it). However, when it comes to legitimately gay people, while i personally am not a scientist who studies this, I haven't seen any proof that validates the idea that we can be "born gay" in the sense that being gay is a specifically genetic occurrence (note - if any one can refute that with studies, I'd be interested in learning more). How do you know if you're "born gay"? Are there tests? Are people claiming that sexual identity and attraction is existent in infants to prove this? My view on it is that its an incalculable amount of things - social conditioning, physiological differences, etc that is typically beyond conscious control (but again, I'm not holding this idea as fact, so please correct me with studies if you find this notion to be incorrect).
3 - God doesn't hate gays. God doesn't hate liars. God doesn't hate atheists. Technically, God should have "no" emotions since he is not human. When we say "God loves us" (or any other emotion), it is OUR way of expressing logic behind his words/actions in a way we as humans can understand and sympathize with. That being said, the bible says that "God is Love", and Jesus' whole message was to love one another regardless of who they were or what they did. So anyone who claims that God hates (insert any demographic here) is a moron and has not a shred of understanding of the faith they claim to have. (sorry, this misconception is something i'm very passionate about)
4 - Ill end with this: I believe that gays should have the same rights as heterosexuals and should not be condemned for their way of living anymore than any one else. No one should be persecuted or have their liberties limited based on who they are or how they choose to live their lives, so long as the sanctity of life is not infringed upon. I don't judge gay people (I've even got a few gay friends, myself) anymore than I would judge anyone else on this globe (and I do my best to live a "judge-free" life).
There are more people in those other religions combined than there are Jews, Christians, and Muslims combined.
People in the Hype's religions threads and this thread only ever talk about Christianity, Islam, and Judaism because those are the most prominent religions in the Western world (where most of us come from), not necessarily the whole world.
Well, I believe it takes more faith to believe in no God than it does to believe in God.
If you're talking about what people do not believe in, in the case of atheists, God, there is no faith. Thats what it means not to believe, to not have faith.
Now if you're talking about the ideals and things that people DO believe in then I can understand where you're coming from. Otherwise you lost me.
I think Joss Whedon (of all people, lol) put it best durring his acceptance speech for the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism from the Harvard Humanist Society back in 09, in fact its one of my favorite quotes of all time.
"The enemy of humanism is not faith; the enemy of humanism is hate, is fear, is ignorance, is the darker part of man that is in every humanist, every person, in the world. That is the thing we have to fight. Faith is something we have to embrace. Faith in God is believing absolutely in something with no proof whatsoever. Faith in humanity means believing absolutely in something with a huge amount of proof to the contrary."
Now if you're talking about Humanism or anyother set of beliefs then yes faith is involved almost by definition. But atheism is simply the lack of belief. Nothing else can be inferred.
Atheism is only a lack of "faith" in the third sense of the word. It takes faith (definition 1 and 2) to be an atheist, since one is confident in their belief that god does not exist, despite any actual proof to substantiate that belief,
This is complete nonsense; how does it take more faith to say "I see no reason to believe in any of this" than it does to say "Not only does my God exist, but by necessary consequence all other religions are wrong"?Batman4ever said:Well, I believe it takes more faith to believe in no God than it does to believe in God.
If God punishes people for failing to worship him, then he is evil and not deserving of my worship anyway."If your right and when we die nothing happens that's fine. I will have lived a very moral life on belifes that others are greater than myself. But, if I'm right and Jesus is who he says he is your screwed."