The problem of how othwerwise intelligent people are religious has been gnawing at me for decades. I am pretty sure quite a few of the sept 11th fellas are college grads. It also annoys the shit out of me that, for example, Harvard has a divinity school. I dunno how something like this can exist at maybe the worlds most respected university. (It's worth noting that Christianity, if taken literally, is violent like the Koran)
Lots of educated people give lip service to the religions they grew up in. It never hurts to hedge your bets. If you are a believer and it turns out there is no God no harm, no foul. But if you don't believe and there is a God you are screwed.
Yes, we have discussed this many times, that is called Pascal's wager, and it isn't valid, whether you are believing in Jesus divinity or red55's divinity. Also one would Hope that sane people are powerless vs reality, meaning they just accept the world as it is without being able to choose their version of reality. Like you shouldn't be able to Believe in Scientology even if I put a gun to your head. Belief is not volitional. I can't choose to believe blowing myself up on the train gets me the virgins, no matter how bad I want to bang virgins. If you are sane you should be incapable of denying reality. I can't believe in God, it's literally impossible regardless of the reward or punishment. So, even if I am screwed and go to hell, I can't force myself to believe Islam or anything else obviously absurd. It's an argument that should not convince a child to believe anything.
France to Russia: "Hey Putin, you mind helping us kill off these sub-human fucks?" Russia: "I'm already doing just that, let's partner up." France to US: "Hey Barack Hussein Obama, you mind helping us kill off these sub-human fucks? Russia is already on board and with your help we'll definitely eradicate these fuckwads." US: "Nah, we'll just stand here on the sidelines. I'm good, but thanks for asking."
You can be skeptical without rejecting it out of hand. If you put a gun to my head I will tell you I believe in scientology. If you keep the gun to my head I would have to live according to the belief system of scientology if I wanted to stay alive. In time I may even come to believe that my belief in scientology saved my life. I wouldn't be wrong about that. Unless your gun was unloaded and you were playing a bad joke one. Then I would be wrong because my life was never in danger. But I wouldn't know I was wrong unless you told me the gun was not loaded.
We have done this to death. But I will make one more point. Do you think God is tricked by your professed belief with the gun to your head? Doesn't he value sincerity, or does he just reward people on what they say they believe.
This is liberal self hate/importance, this idea that no problem can exist without the United States causing it. If the United States did nothing, Muslims would still manage to be wretched, and problems would stil happen. Like I have said before, the United States is an unprecedented force for good and stability.
Devout believers will tell you that just a shallow belief is not enough and that God only rewards the true believers. But they don't reall know any better than you or I what a deity might really do. I'm hoping the Galactic Overlord section D (GOD) rewards those who pay a little lip service now and then and don't do any really bad stuff. Seems fair to me.
What does this mean exactly? Is religiosity self-defined, implied, recognized, or simply a matter of affiliation? Does a belief in God define a "religious" person or is it a certain set of beliefs and behaviors? Is it regular participation in an organized religion or merely a stated belief in something spiritual? Is a Buddhist a religious person? An atheist? They are certainly fastidious in their non-belief. On that note, is there any other situation where people feel the need to state so strongly what they DON'T believe is true?
