I think alot of people grow up around religion and feel pressured into it as I was. My grandfather was a high school science teacher for 25 years and he never had to go to church. But we did? I defied my parents and grandparents on the subject and started reading more about astronomy and astrophysics.

Eventually I learned how destructive religion has been over the centuries.. Not just because of religious idealism but because of man's faults. When people put faith before all, any idealism they believe in trumps any common sense and they are then willing to believe more and more of the hocus pocus religious stuff they talk about in church.

When you put all the faith-based B.S. aside and objectively learn about the truth of world history closely, I think anyone can see how lame religion is from the ground up and how evil the minds of men can be as a result of blindly believing they are right and others are wrong. I have always believed and said time after time here on ATS that religion is a man-made creation and is, therefore, also prone to the same faults of man. That's why we have all these different religions, religious sects, and faith-based idaeologies which are all different yet clash philosphically.

It doesn't make sense to blindly follow a faith-based ideaology after you have learned through years of learning how flawed and blind they all are.

-ChriS

Originally posted by BlasteR
I think alot of people grow up around religion and feel pressured into it as I was.

It works both ways, BlasteR.

You can be pressured into Academic studies just as easily as you can be pressured into Religious studies.

Originally posted by acewilliams

now the man who has intelligents would say that god must not exsist because of these facts, but a man with faith and intelligents mite say god willed it, and i wish to take the point of the philosipher and say how long is a day for god

The man with both faith and intelligence would not rule out the possibility, true.

I'll also point out that things like 'days' a terrestrial by nature, and as such God probably doesn't have 'days', if he does indeed exist in some capacity or the other.

Hopefully this isn't a surprise to anyone.

Only a fool could be led to believe there is a giant invisible man in the sky who controls everything, and only a bigger fool could actually believe that giant invisible man wants puny little humans to go to church and fork over some cash.

If god created everything, why do churches need money to pay the bills? One would think the almighty would provide for those who seek to spread his word.

I have thought about why people fall on faith as a means to justify existence. Intelligence cannot be pointed out as a significant factor since people in general, together in a group, whether a rock concert, political rally or religious ceremony all tune to mass hypnosis of the focus. That focus could be the lead singer, the political appointee or god.

I think its the thrill of a mass movement with people singing, clapping and glorifying.

Originally posted by slackerwire

If god created everything, why do churches need money to pay the bills? One would think the almighty would provide for those who seek to spread his word.

Actually, that has more to do with the goings-on of feudal europe than paying the bills.

It may well be the case that Christianity is infact susceptible to far less blame than it has received in recent years.

Did the possibility ever occur to you that what we see now as christianity may be a direct result of feudal lords placing far too much emphasis on obeying the church?

Perhaps the Church itself has been manipulated at one point...

Okay, I'm somewhat vindicated, in that the sub-link routes back to the primary page.

I personally don't see any conflict between spirituality and science. Call me a wingnut. Go ahead, you'll feel better. Different languages, similar phenomena.

Isn't this psychologist the same one who was intent on making a correlation between intelligence and race? Name seem familiar. Not that that negates his study, but seems an extrodinarily difficult thing to study. His control group must've been OUT of CONTROL. ha

Originally posted by Maxmars

Professor Lynn, who has provoked controversy in the past with research linking intelligence to race and sex, said university academics were less likely to believe in God than almost anyone else.

The grain of salt.


Sorry people, this sounds like wishful thinking.

True faith may be amongst the highest expression of intelligence, after love of course.

No apologies, you don't have to agree, it comes from my gut.

[edit on 12-6-2008 by Maxmars]

And as other things which originate from ones gut, there is no indication of validity.

Originally posted by Peepers
I have thought about why people fall on faith as a means to justify existence. Intelligence cannot be pointed out as a significant factor since people in general, together in a group, whether a rock concert, political rally or religious ceremony all tune to mass hypnosis of the focus. That focus could be the lead singer, the political appointee or god.

I think its the thrill of a mass movement with people singing, clapping and glorifying.

The most fundamental reason for faith is actually due to logic. For example, when we are in a really tight situation, let's just say we are oh I dunno, being crucified. In those situations, the mental faculty will need a reason to go on functioning, or else snap under the strain. Without a "faith" that either "this is for a purpose" or that "A higher power will save me", the mental faculty breaks down.

Of course I used an extreme situation, but we see this in 12 step programs all the time. An addict is twice as likely to recover if they believe in a higher power who can help them. The fact that there is or isn't a higher power doesn't really mean anything, what means something is that the mind has something to chew on, so as to continue without breaking under the strain of a nihilistic future.


Faith has the same reason for being as does ego, survival. Think about the "death bed" conversions we hear about so much. When do people start believing in God the most? When they feel they are about to meet their end, and all other avenues of logic point to an end. The mind has a *real* hard time accepting it's own demise, because it is made of genetic code which is programed with one priority "continue". So, people start getting religion right before they die, quite often. Not all, but the vast majority.

Survival is the ultimate reason for everything that is an attribute of life.

It would also seem that there are quite a few intelligent people making money off of religion. So, in that respect, they believe in it.

I have heard that many intelligent people can sometimes be in such deep thought that they are disconnected or missing their common sense.