Tom Cruise on Scientology

[Thief Silver]

This is a dodge. It may provide comfort to some, but by the same token it might bring extreme pain to others. People will ask themselves "Why did God take away my child? What did *I* do to deserve this?" and now their pain is not only still there but amplified. You can't just make fiat claims that religion makes every situation easier to bear, it may make some easier, but it makes others much harder. Take for example a child who dies at birth and presumably goes to hell from the stain of original sin. Does religion make that easier? Or rather does it make a tragedy even more horrific?

As I said, this more pertains to people who aren't actually effected. You hear people talk about how it's either God's punishment or that the person who does it will be punished in the afterlife as a way of hiding from the truth. That there is a possibility that this person got exactly what he wanted and there's nothing you can do about it. I was merely commenting on people using religion as a route to escape certain feelings that may caused by an event. That doesn't mean it can't have the inverse effect. Everything you said is true, but I'm not arguing anything.

I wasn't arguing about its claims. I was merely combining with Rezo on thoughts as to why religion exists.

[Josh]

Um, both of those contain stories that are physically impossible. A man cannot travel the world putting presents down our chimney, and we all know he doesn't, because the little boys in South America are getting gifts from a magical man on december 25th. You can prove these things false, you cannot prove god false, at least we cannot at this current time.

A man can not pop out of a virgin womb, perform miracles, get nailed to a tree, die a horrible miserable death, and come back to life three days later and ascend directly to some magic place in the clouds.

Santa Claus is easier to believe in than that wacky Jesus shit. At least Santa left presents.

I mean, if there's no afterlife why not just go kill as many people as you can and eventually take your own life.

Because I'm not a fucking crazy asshole.

[Tommy Tallarico]

Don't shoot the messager.

This isn't even a valid argument.

[Wildkat]

A man can not pop out of a virgin womb, perform miracles, get nailed to a tree, die a horrible miserable death, and come back to life three days later and ascend directly to some magic place in the clouds.

Santa Claus is easier to believe in than that wacky Jesus shit. At least Santa left presents.

But he Died for your sins.

I still dont figure that one out. He was killed by romans 2000ish years ago because I stole a ream of paper from the office last week? How the fuck does that work?

[Dyne]

i havent really read through the whole thread but for once i'm actually taking what Kano is spewing out and thinking about it. although i would like to know what he actually believes in if he doesn't believe in a god.

[MarsKitten]

I haven't read the last 6 pages so here's a link to the last time we did this.

[Tommy Tallarico]

i havent really read through the whole thread but for once i'm actually taking what Kano is spewing out and thinking about it. although i would like to know what he actually believes in if he doesn't believe in a god.

Why do you have to believe in anything other than what you see? I live in an awesome, big wide world with trees, animals, oceans, mountains and I don't need to pretend that a man is looking down on me to make that really special and awesome.

To me, the fact that I'm the product of millions of years of growth and change and the fact that I get a chance to be here and see the things I see and do the things I do is infinitely more magical than anything I could imagine.

[Dyne]

Why do you have to believe in anything other than what you see? I live in an awesome, big wide world with trees, animals, oceans, mountains and I don't need to pretend that a man is looking down on me to make that really special and awesome.

To me, the fact that I'm the product of millions of years of growth and change and the fact that I get a chance to be here and see the things I see and do the things I do is infinitely more magical than anything I could imagine.

oh i completely agree with where you're coming from. so you have no inkling or care about what could have made all of this? from what im interpreting you're very grounded and a very (for lack of a better term), live the moment type of person.

[Tommy Tallarico]

oh i completely agree with where you're coming from. so you have no inkling or care about what could have made all of this? from what im interpreting you're very grounded and a very (for lack of a better term), live the moment type of person.

No, I absolutely care to know what made all this, which is exactly why I don't accept mythology. Saying "Hey, this guy out there that we'll never see made all this" is the absolute biggest obstacle in the way of us finding out what we really came from. People that think they have the answers stop looking for them.

[Giga Power]

But he Died for your sins.

I still dont figure that one out. He was killed by romans 2000ish years ago because I stole a ream of paper from the office last week? How the fuck does that work?

Not only that but he died for our sins....when God is the only thing that judges us. Why did he have to come down here and die for that? Couldn't God just assume we'd all fuck everything up with our free will? Why did he have to send his only son here to die for us to appeal to his own judgement?